technical

Free Radical

Four Year / 25,000 mile Technical Assessment & Advice

(Just our Opinions)

Cutter rig - both headsails are “Pro Furl” roller furling. If your staysail is hank on, you will have less of a tendency to use it if the furling is only on the “Big” Genoa. Our standard set in the Caribbean was reefed main and staysail, but with both furling we don't hesitate to change the sail set.

Main Sail- We had a new one made for our blue water cruising. It was over roach full battens extending beyond the backstay. We also installed a Harken Bat Car System. We never got the first reef out in the Caribbean, or crossing the Pacific. We needed to double reef most of the way from Samoa to New Zealand. Finally sailing from Darwin Australia to Bali Indonesia and up through Malaysia we have actually shook out all the reefs for light winds. A standard main sail would have been fine. Out here you learn to sail slow, not fast like coastal cruiser.

Head Sails - The ultimate downwind rig is the ‘twins’. Two identical headsails set from the forestay and poled out each side. It cuts down the roll by 90% and since you are not flying a main at all, saves the mainsail and its gooseneck. Many cruisers who go standard wing on wing needed repairs to the gooseneck after the Pacific crossing to New Zealand.

Storm Sails – we have a separate mast track for a storm trysail. And we had our storm jib modified with a hank-on sleeve made of sailcloth which can wrap around the furled staysail. We have not had to use either, and many cruisers out here just opt for a main that can be deeply reefed, and a staysail that can be made very tiny.

Sail hints - Silicone spray on the bat cars makes a huge difference in how well they slide. Get one of those sewing awls for stitching tough stuff by hand. Check the stitching at the clews often since this area is exposed to the sun all the time and the threads there rot out.

Chafe - Some protection at the deck-level shroud turnbuckles, like a piece of PVC pipe, saves chafe on the headsail sheets. We tried baggywrinkles but it didn’t seem to help on our particular setup. But we have put moose hide chafe protection on the aft sides of the spreaders to protect the mainsail. We recently sewed long patches of sailcloth along the mainsail battens where the sail was starting to chafe through.

Davits - can easily haul our dinghy up. We don't have to stick the dinghy on the deck when sailing, and can pull the dinghy out of the water in those crime-prone anchorages. It is important that the Davits are very very strong, bolted through the deck and that there is no lateral movement regardless of the stress they are under. Those little spindly ones that wobble a bit are worse than useless. Because our davits are so strong, and so high off the water, we have made all our ocean passages with the dinghy (without its motor) on the davits, and not stowed on deck. But we are the exception, the vast majority stow the dinghy on deck and some even deflate it and stow it below.

Bottom & Hull: We have used numerous kinds of ablative antifouling paints over the years. All I can say is that they all last longer if you don’t scrub the bottom. You can scrape the barnacles off when necessary but don’t feel you have to take off that little scum all the time. If you do you will scrub off the antifouling. If you are going to do serious long term live aboard cruising then raise the water line at least 6 inches before you take off. We have a nice white waterline, which we like, but we have to clean it a lot. Most opt for a dark waterline or none at all.

Our Awlgrip paint has lasted well, although after 4 years in the tropics it is showing its age. We recently repainted the deck.

Anchors Chain & Windlass: Our boat is 44’ long and we carry four anchors. Our main anchor which we use 98% of the time is a Bruce 22KG. It’s a great anchor.

Our ‘storm’ anchor is a North Hill knock off which is 50 Lbs. stainless steel.

You also need an anchor for the dinghy, either a little Danforth or Fortress type, or a little collapsible grapnel-type.

Instead of the 18 lb Danforth, an Aluminum Fortress would be a good anchor, especially for those occasions when you need to put out 2 anchors in series (on the same rode). Less weight to pull up.

Chain - we bought 200' of 5/16" G4 and wish we had bought 250'. Most of the time in the Caribbean, we put out about 120'. That's ok but when it starts to rust you need to turn it end for end. That means the center section is getting used all the time.

Windlass: We decided to put in a Lewmar windlass that had the gears & motor mounted below the deck. After 3 years it needed a major overhaul due to salt water damage. Keeping the motor on the windlass away from salt water is essential. We understand that this is a common problem in under-the-deck windlasses. Some cruisers stop up the hole with Plasticene; we stuff the hole with plastic bags to minimize the salt water getting in.

Winches – the Lewmar winches have been good, just routine maintenance now and then.

Batteries – 6 Trojan T105 6 Volt wet cell deep cycle golf cart batteries. Many cruisers have these because they are cheap, and readily available all over the world. A Link 10 Battery monitor system is an expensive little luxury but we feel it has helped keep the batteries going because we can always tell what they are at, and what is being taken off them. We always keep them charged up and don’t let them run down below 12.5 V.

Wind Generator - KISS - bought in Trinidad. Quiet, generates lots of power and does exactly what the specs say it should. We had a Rutland 913, but that wind generator had little output compared to the Kiss. People who have AirMarine are pretty happy with their outputs (still not as good as the Kiss) but they are noisy as Hell for you and your neighbors.

Solar panels - now have 260 watts. They are not moveable (i.e. able to tilt with the sun’s direction) and we don’t feel this is a real hardship.

Gasoline Generator – We are on Generator number 2 now. The first one died from our own fault, it got doused with salt water and that killed it. It is a life saver for us because we run so much power with the fridge and computers. It is quiet, uses little gas and does not disturb the neighbors. We can watch TV below and not be disturbed by its sound.

Engine our 50 HP Volvo MD22L was built by Perkins in England and was installed new in 1999. It now has 2500 hours on it. The engine has been excellent, but parts are expensive. We have replaced bearings & seals in the raw water pump twice, had the injectors done once and replaced the timing belt. The instrument panel has acted up since day one and I have not had a satisfying experience getting it resolved thorough the dealer.

We have two 12V cold plate refrigeration systems. The systems work well.... but beyond that every system down here has problems sooner or later. We shut down one system because it simply costs too much in power to keep two running. It is also difficult to maintain a constant temperature in cold plate systems. I would seriously look at an evaporator system if I do it again. They are more efficient now than a few years ago, but people who have them love them.. We have had compressor failures, water cooling problems and leaks in the system.

Many cruisers have engine-driven systems, and they ALL hate them. Imagine being in a marina slip with shore power, and still have to wear out your big expensive main diesel engine or your diesel generator (and heat up the boat and put up with the engine noise) to chill your beer! In addition to that, if they decide to go away from the boat for a few days, they have to empty the fridge of all perishables or get someone to run the engine once or twice a day! Don’t do this to yourself.

Water Systems: I installed a little gizmo from West Marine – a water saver on the galley sink faucet for washing dishes. It probably saves us 30% on our water consumption.

We used to catch rain water on our canvas, and even rigged up a little piece of sailcloth as a rain catcher. The problem with this method is that rain is usually accompanied by wind, and a lot of your rain water blows off your canvas collection system, and its difficult to collect when you are at sea. We have put two deck drains in the deck to catch water. These drains go through filter screens before entering the tanks. It is then filtered coming out of the tanks and being used. A further drinking water filter was installed so we get good drinking water at the sink.

Being able to catch rain water efficiently means we only have to run our water maker occasionally. Good thing too, since it is only a little one – a Pur 40E, which, by the way has been reliable, low-energy use and fairly easily maintained. But it would be nice to have a big watermaker – we are on the low-end of the scale in terms of watermaking ability, and we are always conserving, unlike a lot of them out here!

Heads – speaking of water systems, having reliable head(s) is obviously important. If we were to do it again we would put in Lavac – everyone who has them like them and they are simple and reliable. We just have the cheap Jabsco heads, and they are fine but we think Lavac would be better.

Shower – a separate shower compartment would be nice, but we just pull a shower curtain over the door and the whole head gets a washdown along with us! Some cruisers don’t shower inside their boats, thinking it will wreck things, but our head area is still in perfect shape after 4 years of daily showering. Wood trim and things like that need to be water and rot-proof, that’s all. We insist on the convenience of showering in the privacy of your own boat and not having to go ashore to public showers, or out in the cockpit – or, (perish the thought!) Salt water showers!

Washing Machine – yes, this would be nice but we have not felt we suffered all that much doing most things by bucket and taking big things ashore to Laundromat or laundry services when the cost is reasonable. It would be important to get one with plastic or stainless parts and not mild steel or it will all rust away.

Our instruments are Autohelm Sea Talk. They are NOT waterproof! Water can (and has) gotten in the so-called gaskets and wrecked the wind indicator. We have taped all along the outside with electrical tape but it gets sticky & gummy. Also we cover the instruments now in heavy rain and/or salt spray.

Same thing goes for so-called waterproof marine things like stereo speakers, VHF radios, radar displays, hand held GPS’s and probably binoculars, (though we keep those out of the rain so don’t know for sure!). If its not listed as SUBMERSIBLE, consider it as very fragile and don’t let it get too wet.

Ham Radio – the Icom 706 together with the automatic tuner, long-wire bare copper antenna and ground plane installed when we built the boat’s interior has worked very well.

Pactor III – for Winlink email is a wonderful luxury. We don’t have to get to internet cafes for our email and can communicate anywhere.

VHF – we have 2 separate radios with separate antennas. One inside the boat and one in the cockpit.

Dinghy & Outboard - 10.5 ft AB Aluminum bottom with 15hp Yamaha outboard. We are so happy with this combination. Yamahas are standard issue everywhere. You can get parts & service easily, all over the world. The AB dinghy is great - huge payload possible and nice dry ride. Both are a lot cheaper to buy in the Caribbean than North America.

On the downside, the Yamaha 15 is standard issue for most fishermen all over the world and this means the bad guys want your motor! You need to be aware, and lock it up in suspicious areas.

Galley Stove – Force 10 3 burner propane has had no real problems but some friends had their knobs wear out (the hole in the knob part which pushes onto the male metal part on the stove itself got its edges all rounded off and broken). It was very expensive – over $60.00 - to have these replacement knobs shipped in to Malaysia from Vancouver!

My stove got its poor faceplate all burnt off when I dripped oven cleaner on it and the paint is now all runny and ugly. Don’t get oven cleaner on it!

Also, these same friends claim that when they used butane, which is the only cooking gas available in the French countries, it caused the ceramic burner covers to seize right onto the burner and they have broken them all to pieces trying to get them off!. Remove these ceramic thingies often and clean in there.

Finally, if your stove has a broiler like ours does, there is a very fragile ceramic thing that distributes the flame, and ours has broken all to smithereens through our own fault of storing cooking pans in there. Be careful you don’t hit anything against the top of the oven.

Microwave – we used a microwave a lot on land, but we don’t use it at all on the boat. It is all going rusty and we use it to store coolie cups and the GPS in it (supposed to protect against lightning!)

Pots & Pans – Use stainless pots and if you can get them, stainless pans. Otherwise use aluminum pans, cookie sheets etc . The standard household ‘no stick’ variety go all to rust in no time.

Appliances – We took, but got rid of our toaster, food processor, blender and coffee maker. To make toast, we ‘fry’ it on a dry frying pan. To ‘process’ food we use a knife. For coffee we use an old fashioned percolator, make instant or our latest craze – a coffee ‘press’. I still have my blow dryer (also useful for drying out electronic parts and instruments) and curling iron but don’t use them much.

I have made room for 2 sewing machines since sewing if both my hobby and a necessity for sail and canvas repair. I have a heavy duty Sailrite Sewing machine – Ultrafeed. Bottom of the line model and it has been good. But it is not rustproof and I have to keep it well oiled.

I also have an ordinary White Home Sewing Machine which is used to make and alter clothing and courtesy flags.

Computers: Just about everyone out here uses electronic charts for navigation. The charts are passed around on CD’s and the GPS is hooked up to the computer for accurate navigation. If you plan on this then you need to think in terms of back up. We have 3 GPS’s on the boat. Two for the boat and one in the “Ditch Bag”. All the GPS’s can be linked to our computers. We have a desk top and a Lap Top as well. The desk top is more reliable than a Lap Top and less expensive. The Lap Top is primarily used for navigation. We bought a second hand Lap Top because we didn’t need a fast machine for navigation software or emails. All Lap Tops die out here within 3 years because of the salt air or dropping etc. There for buying a good second hand Lasp Top that was used on shore will last as long as a new one…. Save yourself some money.