Category Archives: Sailboats

Smelly Cheese Not Included

Posted on by

A fun thing about going to the boat show is getting to look at some ‘previously loved’ sailboats for sale. Used to be there were more of them at the show. Now, I think it must cost the brokers too much to give just any boat that kind of visibility, so the pickings are slim. We got to look at  2005 Malo 45 Classic designed for Nigel Calder (It had a new engine. How appropriate.).  It was a pretty nice boat, and only $599,999. Even at less than 20% of that price, we like Galapagos better. Whew! Close call.

We got a couple of ideas for Galapagos on board the Malo 45 Classic. OK, sure, maybe I like the galley a little better on this boat.

We also got to look at a nifty 1982 Shannon 38 Pilothouse, one of only 9 built. The price tag on that one was only a cool $95,000 so getting a bit closer to our league. Shannons are really good boats, so someone is going to have fun with this one. It was a saucy boat but, again, we like ours better. I do love looking at boats, but it’s good to continue to be happy with what we have.

Some of the lovely, saucy stuff on board that Shannon.

What flipped us totally out was going aboard the 2009 Garcia 76. Oh my good golly Miss Molly! That boat is simply amazing. If this is an example of how ‘the 1 percent’ must live, then I have been born into the wrong life. When this boat goes onto the U.S. market, it will be listed at about $2,500,000.00. That’s a lot of zeros.  This is a number that is so far beyond my reality, it seems like one should be able to buy a small country, complete with serfs for that amount. The amount of pure hedonistic indulgence is the equivalent of a gallon of your favorite ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery. It’s enough to make you completely sick.

Still,  the aluminum hull of this monster called to me from across the docks. I just had to go aboard because I wanted to be able to wrap my head around a boat that big that looked like it was an awesome sailing boat. Yes, I know there a many boats that that big. But I’ve never been aboard them. Mike and I almost raced each other to the swim step to clambor aboard

The 2009 Garcia 76. Oy vey. I couldn’t get far enough away from her to get her entire self in the frame.

I’m so glad the boat’s owner wasn’t aboard to see us gawking and exclaiming about the size of the equipment on this boat. How embarrassing that would have been. We were all kinds of ‘touristy Americans’, exclaiming in wonder as we surveyed the breadth of the mast, the sheer beefiness of the blocks, the world of electric roller furlers. And on this 2+ million dollar boat, someone had wound the foresail so tightly around the furler that it was hurting the sail. I could barely walk away without feeling its pain. Awful.

Look at the space on that deck! It’s like a Mother Ship!

Here you go. A little sailing eye candy:

Pretty! Just real pretty!

Mike noticed their use of soft shackles, pieces of sailing ‘hardware’ that Mike, too, uses liberally. So we’re sort of kind of like the owners of this boat. In a way.

Soft shackle ahoy!

When I look at boats, I always like to spend an appropriate amount of time on deck before going below because it makes me look like I am actually interested in all the sailing stuff going on up there. But of course, I am really dying to go below. You know, true confessions and all.

Can you just say WOW!?

I believe the word ‘stunned’ would be an appropriate description of what we must have looked like upon finding ourselves in the main salon. Just WOW! First, get a load of that settee and dining area. I’ll show you the galley, which goes the entire beam of the boat, in a minute. Mike and I had our mutual jaws hitting the floor about every two seconds just looking around. Then, when the broker heard me say I would be writing about this boat on the blog, he asked if he could give us the tour and show us some of the finer bells and whistles. Are you freaking kidding me? Lead on, friend, lead on!

First, I noticed the flooring which is not at all the traditional sole in a boat. It’s actually an all weather fabric mesh that I have seen used on floors in industrial chic designs. You can buy outdoor rugs made of it. And it makes a dandy surface on the sole of the boat. The color in this boat, a deep graphite, is quite soothing and gives the boat a quiet feeling.

The other side of the salon.

On the other side of the salon there is another white leather settee and matching white leather club chairs. And the thing about those club chairs is that they are attached to the floor with magnets. To move the chair, you just flip a switch and it releases. Pretty darn cool. But wait! There’s more! What’s behind the chair? That would be the electrical and workshop area.

These are so well organized. They seem like they should be bronze or something but what do I know?

With all the tools of your dreams, of course.

Get a load of that panel. Mike’s sighs were deep and long.

So turning back to the salon, we tarry awhile longer admiring the view of the furnishings (a little afraid to touch them, actually, with our plebian hands)  then move to the galley. The galley; that which left me speechless. It’s just not possible to understand how a sailboat can have a galley like this. I mean, I get it that cruise ships have galleys. But this boat is owned by an INDIVIDUAL person. Not a government or a large corporation. I only wish I could have had a gander at that refrigerator. But we were not allowed to open it due to the presence of smelly French cheese, at least that’s what the sign said.

Starboard side galley.

And this:

Port side galley. I love the counters. Just love them.

And let’s discuss storage. No, let’s not bother. Because this boat has so much it may as well be a condo. But of course, it is 75 feet long. Seventy five feet. I wonder. Does this boat spend much time in a marina? Oh, wait. No. No need for a marina when you have a crane on the stern of the boat where your OTHER boat lives. The other boat was missing, but I’m guess that the ‘dinghy’ would have been roughly the size of our previous Cal 34, Moonrise.

Can we get this on Galapagos? Um. No.

What a world we live in.

We move toward the bow of the boat and find an entire new world of berths and cabins, with heads everywhere. I believe the broker said there were 4 heads on this boat and I didn’t take a photo of even one of them. When that happens, you know I am overwhelmed by all the other sights I am seeing. I’m sure they were simply grand. We have enough trouble with two heads on Galapagos, so I can’t imagine doubling that. But I supposed if you can buy this boat, you can pay people to take care of it for you.

More photos because I simply don’t have enough adjectives.

The port galley is on the other side of those pillows.

And another cabin. This boat seems to be layed out like the big sailing yachts of yore;  like S/V Odyssey, the pretty Sparkman Stephens sailboat owned by the Tacoma Sea Scouts. The owner’s cabin is in the stern of the boat, with captain’s quarters up front, along with guests and crew. Here’s another nice cabin.

Who wouldn’t sleep well in this cabin?

And then, far away in the fore peak, the serf quarters. Nothing says ‘this isn’t really your house’ like a toilet in your bedroom. On a normal boat, this cabin would be pretty nice. On this boat, it pretty much pales in comparison to the other cabins.

Less accommodating and really? The servants can’t use the regular heads?

But I’m saving the best for last. The master cabin. Have mercy, this is a lovely cabin.

The master cabin. Why yes, I believe that IS a glass door to the head.

Alert readers will see that this bed is not on the midline of the cabin. But what about when the boat is under sail and she is heeled over nicely? Won’t the owner be irritated by that? Not to worry. This is a FRENCH boat! And the French are all over your comfort at sea. They have a long tradition of building fine boats. They keep these details in mind. Watch this:

Did you see that?

The broker was positively gleeful as he pushed a button and magically the head of the bed began to rise. Starboard tack?  Port tack? No problem. Push the button again. Raise the foot, raise the head, raise whatever you need to raise in order to get a good night’s sleep below. Sweet.

Then, of course, there is the storage behind all those pretty wood panels. Drawers pull out, hanging lockers pull out.

Pull out hanging locker. Clothes are still in it. Whoopsie!

Finally, there is a work station to die for in the master cabin.

Work station in the master suite.

On the way out I took notice of the nav station.

A plush leather navigation station. Wow.

By the time we’d seen the master suite, we were getting the idea that it was time for us to let other people have a turn. People were lined up waiting to board so no time to actually talk about little things like engines or sailing systems, things like that. I’d say we got a bunch of ideas for refitting Galapagos by looking at this boat, but you’d probably think I was exaggerating. And you’d be right. We just have to appreciate this boat for the work of art that it is and be glad we had the luck to be at the show to see it. Plus we have a blog so we got to see the magic bed and all. What a great day! You see? There IS a benefit to writing all this stuff down!Garcia sign

 

Exhaust System is a Go!

Posted on by

Finally, after seven weeks of worry, googling and angst, we have our repaired exhaust riser installed in Galapagos.  Here is what we finally ended up with.

Exhaust riser 3.0. Now with more wiggle. Since this photo was taken, I have added an additional brace in the vertical plane.

You will note an eerie similarity to the first riser we had built in Astoria. The only difference is that we have added an eight inch long 2.5 inch wide flexible coupling as close to the exhuast manifold as was possible. The flexible coupling is a bellows type with a smooth liner inside to protect the bellows from exhaust particulates which hopefully will prolong its life.  I opted for a larger flex coupling in the hopes that it will provide some additional strength to the whole unit.  Sizing the coupling up came at the expense of requiring two stainless cones to fit the coupling to the existing pipe.

New Coupling with cones

New Coupling with cones

All of this is a departure from an earlier design that would have increased the diameter of the exhaust to 2 inches right after the manifold and added a flex coupling horizontally instead of vertically. I still like that idea and may design another system using threaded pipe to allow me to build yet another exhaust riser if this proves unreliable.

The design Steve Hulsizer and I came up with. I like the fact that it is sized up to two inches. The flex coupling would have to be fairly small (4 inches long?) to fit in the space available.

So why didn’t I just have the new riser designed like this? Mostly I was talked out of it by the welders who tended to agree that the existing design was actually quite robust in all areas and the only modification needed was the flex coupling to allow for engine movement without stressing the riser.  The existing system is quite beefy and at this point I can only hope they are right. Still I would like to have a new manifold flange made with a 1.5 inch NPT fitting welded on that would allow me to create my own riser using easily acquired stainless fittings and pipe. Broomfields, the local exhaust experts in the Puget Sound,  has a flex coupling with NPT fittings welded on that would be ideal for such a project.

As you may note, I am not done worrying over this part of our engine. Maybe it will just take some time with this layout to begin to feel that this is a safe and robust system. On Saturday, I added an additional brace to the riser and used what fiber glass heat tape I had left to wrap the majority of the pipe. I ran the engine for an hour at a variety of RPMs and everything looked great. In reality the engine moves very little except at dead idle. At 750 RPM, you can see the coupling moving perhaps a quarter of an inch. Since I know the engine moves most in this range, I tend to bump the speed up a bit as soon as I can and the vibration disappears quickly. Still, boats tend to spend a lot of time at idle, especially during docking maneuvers. When docking, I prefer to worry about crashing into expensive boats and would rather not have to split my time worrying over the engine.

Wrapped, braced and tested. I’m not sure how to wrap the flex coupling or if I even should.

Now that we have a functoning engine again, Let’s hope the weather will allow us to get out on the water a few more times. We are well and fully into fall here but we should have a few days here and there that will allow us enjoy a crisp autumn sail.

 

I Heart Exhaust Elbows

Posted on by

It has been a week and we’ve written nary a word on our exhaust system woes. Lest our regular readers start to worry that we just chucked the whole engine in the dustbin and fitted Galapagos with a Yuloh, worry not! We have our top men working on a solution even as I type.

This is the exhaust riser after our September trip to the San Juans and Gulf Islands

Exhaust Elbow design #3  The weld failed totally as we docked the boat in Tacoma after a two week trip. Total engine hours: 148.

I’ll spare you a comprehensive history of the various exhaust risers we have had on the boat. But new readers may want to catch up by reading Engine Exhaust(ing) Episode 254 and Counting and Exhaust Elbow Blues, Reprise

Fortunately for us, our readership includes more than a few experienced engineers that have generously applied their talents to various projects on the boat. In this case, Steve Hulsizer commented more than once on the problems and issues we have faced with our exhaust riser. Offline, we corresponded and agreed to meet down at Galapagos this past weekend.

The back of Steve’s head as he examines the current riser.

Steve and Elsie Hulsizer are an interesting couple. They are veteran sailors, having cruised the east and west coasts of the U.S. in a variety of boats, most notably, a 32 foot Chesapeake sloop from Boston to Seattle via the Panama Canal. Their current boat is a beautiful Navy 44, Osprey, which they have taken to Alaska five times. Melissa and I were fortunate enough to attend a short rigging class conducted by none other than Brion Toss and held on Osprey a couple of years ago.

In addition to their extensive sailing resume, Elsie is an environmental professional and the author of two books on cruising our Northwest waters. Check out her work on Amazon. And, most important to our present narrative, Steve is a Professional Engineer with over 300,000 sea miles under his keel as a U.S. Naval officer and in the commercial fisheries and Norwegian Merchant Marine Service. He has designed exhaust systems for ferries, submarines and destroyers. Surely, this man can help us figure out a bullet proof, reliable and safe exhaust system for Galapagos.

So, what does Steve have to say about our exhaust system? He is recommending that we install a horizontal expansion joint (or exhaust bellows) as close to the manfold as space will allow. Then a vertical run with another expansion joint up about a foot above the resting waterline before making a 180 degree turn down. At this point we would add the water injection port before running into the rubber exhaust hose and the Vetus water muffler. The actual position of the injection port will probably be dependent on how much we can maneuver the hose and water lift. Steve would also like to see the pipe sized up to two inches in an effort to lower the back pressure on the system.

Steve recommended that I mock up the riser using standard PVC pipe, which I did on Sunday. The hard part was getting the piping stabilized well enough to have some confidence that I could repeat the performance.

Let’s fire her up!

Another shot.

After Marking joints and checking that the horizontal  and vertical sections were level and plumb, I feel like this is a pretty good model of what we need. What I don’t know is whether I can really get that close to the wall on the right hand side after adding insulation. I also have to provide hangers at the elbows to support the structure. This is especially true with the flexible bellows that will be used.

So, we are making progress and it feels good. Melissa and I are both itching to get Galapagos back out for more adventures. The fall weather in the Puget Sound has been spectacular and we are missing it!

Days like this are fading fast!

Days like this are fading fast!