Sunday, November 22, 2015

Weight Loss`

It is official.  We had two goals with our remodel.

1.  Comfortable and functional salon and galley.

2.  Shed weight, as all multihulls are faster the lighter they are.

You have seen the pictures and # 1 was definitely hit. 

Now after a few weeks of getting things put back to their proper locations, we have seen exactly what we hoped for.  The whole boat has lifted 1.5"-2" out of the water.  Good news is that it is down the whole length.  So, we shed weight without becoming bow or stern heavy.  When you consider everything we added, including a washer/dryer combo, we are very happy.

Based on the lift, and experience of hull lift with the battery replacement, we estimate somewhere between 800 - 1000 lbs. of weight taken out.  The immediate effects are .3 knots faster motoring speed.  I am sure this translates to sailing speed as well, but that is harder to track. 

 Notice the thru-hull.  This is the galley drain, located aft of mid-ships.  It used to be completely submerged.  You can see the old waterline down the whole hull and even where the bottom cleaners used to scrap of barnacles is now above the water.  Charles, a multihull enthusiast here, noticed we were sitting higher the moment we pulled in the harbor.     
  
Back to our amazing sunsets here in Boot Key!

Monday, November 9, 2015

Home

Winter home that is.  For those who don't know, we have made it down to Marathon.  Finally had some sailing with 3 great days of sailing from anchor up to anchor down.

Some oddities of this trip:

The gulf stream seemed to be within a 1/2 mile of shore going from West Palm Beach to Miami.  Thermal imaging confirmed it, although NOAA had it out 11 miles.  The water temps were in the ,mid 80's, so that is another indicator.  Marathon locals said the stream is moving slower than usual and spreading out this year. 

We are just 3 hours shy of the our winter season engine hours.  With the ocean rolling everyday, we  motored most of the way.  Since we got the last end mooring ball, in our favorite spot, it was worth getting here early.  We are just too picky!

 Found a stowaway yesterday.  He dropped down when I opened the rear lazarette and immediately went into this defensive position.  It kept lunging at me like a rattlesnake.  From what I could find out, it is a grey rat snake.  They have the same defensive characteristics as a rattle snake.  Either way, it was only about 20" long and swam away.  Not sure if it is from around here.  It may have been aboard since the flood in Myrtle beach.   
 
From our anchorage in Cocoa Beach.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

New Video Link

Had to upload the video again. 


https://youtu.be/1ZvvKhlHNw4

We made it to West Palm Beach Today.  Wind still looks good for a sail to Miami tomorrow.
Code O reaching on the flat waters of Indian River. 

Monday, November 2, 2015

Long Awaited Remodel Photos

We are on the hook at Ft. Pierce today.  We spent 2 days in Vero Beach waiting for the wind to turn easterly.  It is still blowing on the nose today, but it is supposed to switch and we'll sail from here to Lake Worth tomorrow and then down to Miami the next day.  We had a our usual great sailing on the Indian River. 

While in St. Augustine, we hade our broker friend, from Catamaran Company, come out to the boat.  He was in awe and did an impromptu video to show around at the office.  Everyone liked it so much they want to do an article for Multi-Hull magazine.  We'll let you know if that happens.

The photos will show a before and after of each section. 

We also made our own YouTube video, with proper staging.  The link is:  https://youtu.be/1ZvvKhlHNw4


As of this posting, YouTube was still processing, but it should be up soon.

 OLD
 NEW - Eliminated a never used nav station and added storage with green acrylic doors.  There are also two large storage areas behind the couch.  We actually store our beach chairs there.
 OLD
 NEW - Custom couch designed to be lightweight for boats.  There is storage below the entire thing and we have tables that snap into the drink holders for working on computers and eating.  The tables store in the arms. 
 OLD
 NEW - Fully functional galley with the home sized 33' x22" sink.  Motion sense faucet for water savings. All storage in drawers on full length spring loaded slides.  No locks needed and no more kneeling down to find something in your cabinets.  Under the stove is a discrete 45 qt Engel freezer on the same type of drawer.
 OLD
 NEW - Countertops is a lightweight 1/4" thick granite and coarse composite made by Granite Transformations.  That was epoxied to our lightweight Coosa substrate.  All cabinets are gel-coated Nida Core.  Notice the separate oven and it vents outside.
 OLD
 NEW - Large, 6.3 cu. ft., two drawer refrigerator by Isotherm.
 Wanted to show you a lift feature we added.  This gave us access to space way behind the sink.  Lift is down.

     Lift is up.  We have power added for the coffee maker.  You can also stop it anywhere you want.  There is backlighting inside for when you want to display your party glasses.

Last, but not least, is the new floor.  Solid cherry 3/8" thick, tongue and groove planks.  epoxied down and varnished with 6 coats of Bristol Marine Urethane.