Messages

Very interesting.   I am not sure if I agree with the conclusions for serious offshore cruising, having thought about making a right turn for the Marquesas.   He recommends:

1) Modification to the companionway - agree
2) Stiffening the hull in different areas - please identify which areas - I've been in big seas and nasty little chops and detected no issues
3) Beef up the rigging - this is standard bluewater BS - I went to my rigger and told him I was going offshore and wanted to go up a size - he just laughed at me and told me the C34 already had upsized rigging - replaced as original
4) Rudder is mentioned - agree, it is better with the new rudder, though one size bigger might have served me well off Mendocino (but I don't blame my misadventures on the rudder) 

He missed giant cockpit with tiny scuppers - I would consider glassing in some giant 6 inch tubes running straight out the back of the cockpit through the transom.   

Front anchor locker needs some work as does the rear lazarette - tiny hardware, big seas, bad combo.   

Personally I wouldn't cross an ocean with the Lewmar ports.   

That is a pretty short list.   Throw in a kickass autopilot, watermaker, SSB, 600 watts of solar and your good to go.   Why I am thinking about a different boat?

And of course one project ends and another begins.   Book completion becomes book promotion...

http://globalnews.ca/video/1837062/ill-shave-my-head-too-by-steve-dolling

This one isn't really boat related.   

But then the C34 purchase was actually part of this larger project.   Some of you know the story.   Now it is in print:

http://www.friesenpress.com/bookstore/title/119734000017868865/Steve-Dolling-I%27ll-Shave-My-Head-Too

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=steve+dolling

Steve,

I have been contemplating cruising during retirement.  What kind of monthly budget do you plan?  I know it depends on how much anchoring out vs marina hopping.  Eating out and entertainment on shore can change thing drastically.  If I am retired I don't want to be on a shoestring but not looking for luxury either.

Would be interested in hearing from others that have done similar types of cruising, ie: Great Lakes to the Intercostal Waterway.

That's a really interesting question.   Tracey swears we cruised Mexico on $800 / month and maybe $1500 / month in California where marina stays were more prevalent.    Never felt like we were suffering although I confess we bought cheap wine in California.  (When you come down from Canada, all California wine is cheap.)

That does not include refit and boat maintenance costs.   I think we spent something like 30K refitting the boat and then sold off the water maker, ICOM 802, liferaft, and drogue after a year of cruising for 6 or 7.     The net would have been an additional 2K per month, but I am still  enjoying the solar panels, upholstery, ground tackle, radar, plotter, new rig etc. today so some of it was a longer term investment.

We plan to live for between 20 to 30K per year on our next leg depending on geography.  This is a bit of a longer term budget and includes a bit of boat maintenance and flight now and then.   

I like the idea of steroids in the bilge.   A C42 would do just fine. 

We are in San Diego right now enjoying a long weekend.   Tracey is not a shopper, but boats are OK.   Saw a terrible Amel Maramu and an absolutely gorgeous condition 10 year old Beneteau 423 with 50 hours on the engine.   The newer Beneteaus don't really work for me. 

Catalinas of course are always Catalinas.  Beneteau lost their way. 

Will you be taking your repowered Dragon again?

Stretching Blackdragon into a 42 to 45 foot centre cockpit is going to be a little bit more of a refit than we are comfortable with.    Nextdragon might be an Amel Santorin or maybe a Beneteau 42 CC.   

Somebody is going to get an awesomely equipped 1988 C34 in the next 2 to 5 years.    But I am not ready to post a classified just yet...

Can I still hang out here when I don't have a C34 any more?

Steve, if you anchor anywhere near Phoenix, AZ. I would be happy to loan you a car.     

Awesome!

Stu, we have found that we arrive in new cities and people just lend us their minivans to drive around in!    It is practically free living the life a sailor.   No cars to pay for.

There are two ways to reach escape velocity:   higher speed or less gravity.       

Felt this feeling once before.    The transition from dreaming to actually doing something.

Today I told the real estate agent to write up an offer.   Going to buy a little townhouse not far from Whistler.    Easy to rent out for the ski season.   Which means we can occupy it during the northern hemisphere hurricane season.   

Then a small matter of launching the boy, selling the bigger house and going sailing.  It will take a few years because Foster still has a year of high school to go.   But it takes a while to fit out a boat and go.

Sailing the C34 in Mexico taught us that we can live like kings on a sailboat for a quarter of the price of what we can live here in the city, with two cars, cell phones, insurance for everything, etc.   So why not check out early and live frugally in the lifestyle we enjoy?

Of course in the southern hemisphere cyclone season, we will have to return home to go skiing, but that's OK.  The turquoise beaches, palm trees and white sand will be appreciated more with a little break now and then.

It's all a race against the ologists.  Need to live life as fully as possible before some ologist, (cardiologist, oncologist, etc.) develops an intimate relationship with us.

(A little freaky how spell check corrects ologist to eulogist)

Dreaming is done.  Now it's on to planning and executing.

If you are using a good sealant, shrinkage shouldn't be a problem.  

Steve I would say that in the area I sail in we have tidal currents to 14 knots+, water temperature can go from 55 degrees to 80 degrees within a few miles, and an indication of water temperature can be navigationally informative.    But such a statement would be BS.    I have water temperature because it came with the triducer and it is just another cool piece of data to see on the plotter.    And I am not getting in when the temp is in the 60s!   

What I do use all the time is the water speed vs. the GPS speed.   We pretty much always have a knot or two of current and it is good to know what it is going on.

I installed one five years and ~7000 miles ago.   Integration was totally seamless as I recall.   It just appeared on the network and produced the data.    It has been reasonably trouble free.   I would recommend it.   

Though last season I had no temperature data.    I have not investigated why.   But perhaps I would need to replace a depth and speed sensor to regain temperature?    That is the downside of the obvious benefit of having fewer holes in the hull and fewer sensors/instruments to integrate.   I think it is probably worth the tradeoff.

Awesome Craig.  Congratulations! 

Funny how retirement can impact your boat ownership.  I have been thinking about it lately.  My thought was to send Foster off to college and sell our C34.  And the house.   And buy a bigger boat in the Med!   

I think I tried this once before, but Tracey wouldn't let me sell the house so we ended up keeping the C34 and sailing to Mexico.  The retirement was an utter failure for lack of funding, but we sure had fun.

For what it is worth guys, an impassioned content-rich exchange like this is fantastic.   It leaves the whole issue well exposed and allows the new owner who joins this site a couple of years from now to be well informed, understand what they have, and be better educated to make the right decisions going forward - no matter which path they take.    It helps people figure out what to pay attention to.   

I think I should start another anchor thread... 

Very nice.  Will that dish rack fit in one of the sinks?  If so, where did you get it.  I can't find one to fit in the sink.

No.   I had a dish rack that fit in the sink and it drove me crazy as it lacked capacity and made it difficult to operate the tap.   This dish rack now has blocks underneath to give it the height and slope for perfect drainage (even while motor sailing on either tack).   The fiddles prevent the dish rack from moving around. 

I have tested this for a week of cruising and absolutely love the new trash location.   All made from recycled bits - some leftover cherry veneer shelves from my kitchen renovation, the old fold out counter ripped in half, fiddles trimmed, and even paint left over from my engine bed.   

The insert pail and dish rack were new at a total cost of about $30.