ETERNAUT

Choosing a Yacht (2)

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Over the period of many years we had been to a lot of boat shows and visited a few shipyards. I could have never imagined that choosing a yacht was going to be so difficult:

Negotiations with two French catamaran builders about essential equipment had failed. Finally we had found a shipyard building “our” catamaran. The Slyder team proved interested to integrate new technologies and open to listen to their customers. We had visited the shipyard twice, test sailed the Slyder 47 once and planned to sign the contract during our next trip to Europe.

Slyder was a newcomer and had a new design… there’s always a risk as you do not know exactly which problems a new design might develop. But price-performance ratio was unbeatable and it was too tempting to resist. The boat was (is) a stunner!

Unfortunately the company shut it’s doors just before we signed the contract. Good, we were lucky as we hadn’t paid any deposit yet, but it was sad news for us as we really liked that boat.

I received notification that the company started production again, shortly after I had signed a different contract. If you are curious, this is the Slyder website. If I ever were in for a new start today I would have a serious look at it again.

Sail vs Power

Here we were in early 2016 starting our yacht search again. Well, at least it was not a complete new start as we had a huge list of boats we would not consider already.

The sail powered cruiser

Since I had started serious boating I always had been on sailing yachts. There were occasional trips on smaller motor boats. But those were limited to trips on rivers and lakes and mostly to do water skiing or wake boarding. For a circumnavigation or longer offshore passages I had never looked into power boats.

There appears to be a much larger market of offshore capable sailing boats around than motor boats. Also, when talking about motor yachts for offshore passages, people immediately tend to think of these huge private yachts where a helicopter on the platform is the smallest gadget on board.

Advantages of sailing yachts:

The most important advantage is the “free” source of propulsion. Whether you are gently pushed along in the trade winds or a nice run with wind abeam, it feels good when you know it’s for free and environment friendly.

And there is a huge community out there. Sailors help sailors, lot’s of information comes for free with the intend of helping each other. The “cruiserforum” is mostly geared towards the sailing community and is a valuable resource. There is also a “trawlerforum“, but IMHO the first one contains more valuable information and less personal attacks than the latter.

Disadvantages of sailing yachts:

The greatest disadvantage probably is space and/or weight available to load your equipment. Especially mono-hulls tend to have limited space and access to engine is mostly somewhat difficult. Multi-hulls have less space issues but tend to be weight sensitive. Load them up with all the gear you want to take to your circumnavigation and it slows you down considerately.

Further, have you heard of dolldrums and horse latitudes? In a circumnavigation you will have to expect to cross these areas of calm winds at least twice a year. A lot of sailors have to add a couple of jerrycans to extend the range under engine to make it comfortably through some crossings. Most notably this appears to be on the leg Mahé (Maldives) to the Red Sea where you do not want to stick around for too long to wait for favorable winds as you never know how the pirate situation will develop.

Beating into the wind: Last, but not least: What about those (albeit few) legs you have to beat into the wind? Do you remember those days when you thought you didn’t move at all? I recall vividly the leg from Nevis back to Antigua. Coming back to my watch after a two hours break we had been beaten into the wind all the time… the same lights of the villages on the island were still at the same position. And so was the boat. I might give some credit to the inexperienced crew and old worn out sails on the school boat, but beating into the wind is a frustrating occurrence.

LET’S HOIST THE IRON SAIL

SAILING INSTRUCTOR SUGGESTING TO START THE ENGINE

The motor powered cruiser

Somehow, after we could not get the compromise we were looking for in the sailing boat market (see previous post), we had to change tactics. We recapped why we wanted a sail powered cruising craft in the beginning:

1. Running cost
2. Environmentally friendly propulsion
3. Quiet
4. Previous experience
5. The “feel” of the wind driving forward

So, what exactly has stopped us from looking into power driven cruisers:

• Sheer ignorance
• Cost of Fuel
• Dependence of a single engine (missing redundancy – at least for all those single screw propelled crafts)

Wish list of “my” power cruiser:

The market for power cruisers is huge. But when you narrow your search down to cost effective long range cruising options, your search quickly lands you with the same companies.

So I made a list of what I thought is crucial. In order I came up with:

• Range (consider your longest offshore passage plus a 25% safety margin)
• Fuel efficiency
• Emergency propulsion (either sail or wing engine)
• Space

Range and fuel efficiency play hand in hand. A twin screw vessel would be out of question, as well would be a wide and beamy craft.

A lot of trawlers have a wing engine for emergency propulsion. Reading through numerous books and articles I started ruling a wing engine out for a newly built boat: A second, dead – not turning, screw means more drag in the water and a second engines means more maintenance.

A sail for backup propulsion could also be used for stabilization, provided there is wind. But to be honest, do not expect any high speed by sails on a trawler yacht. This is just an emergency propulsion.

Space: Most production trawler yachts are beamy. With the space my wife and I thought we would require, we would have ended up with a stubby and wide boat. Neither fuel efficient nor stable.

A new beginning

There is a magazine called “Passagemaker” which can satisfy initial curiosity, but like the sailing magazines, it appears severely influenced by the different companies sponsoring the issue.

For an introduction it might be worth investing (or borrowing) the book “Voyaging under Power” by Robert P. Beebe. Here you get a hindsight of which models are on the market and how much fuel they burn in average. Probably it was this book where I discovered that a “Diesel Duck” (George Buehler design) could be a viable option. Other close runner ups were the designs of Kasten Marine.

Research started: Where are suitable shipyards which could build such a boat for us. If possible a factory which has experience with the respective.

How to cross oceans without getting wet or going broke

George Buehler

Simultaneously I purchased a book published by George Buehler, “The Troller Yacht Book“. Subtitle: How to cross oceans without getting wet or going broke.

You need a plan!

This is where you might have to invest a bit more than only time. You should get a plan. This involves buying preliminary design plans that you can show to the different shipyards so that they can work out how much money and time it will cost you to have that particular model being built. These plans are not too expensive, but I hesitated as I was not too sure yet. I did not want to purchase any plans while being unsure about the total cost of that particular yacht being built. Also I did know know where to find a reputable builder.

Here is where the George Buehler designed Diesel Ducks scored: A shipyard, which had specialized in those designs, was just around the corner. A mere two hours ferry / taxi ride from Hong Kong where I lived. We visited Seahorse Marine once, twice, thrice. And many times more. We were astonished by the beautiful wood work. Amazed by the available space on those boats when compared to a sailing mono-hull of similar length.

Visiting the shipyard was an adventure: Check out my page which shows the old shipyard. Travel to the yard, the stay in the nearby city of Doumen and the visit to the factory itself was not for the faint-hearted. But for the photographer and open minded traveler in me these visits were worth every minute and dollar spent.

The Diesel Duck line

After having studied George Buehler’s book and having seen the Diesel Duck 462, 462 Sedan, 55 and 78 in the building process my wife and I concluded that the Diesel Swan 55 would suit us most. Similar space as on the Diesel Duck 462, but a slightly narrower hull to achieve a slightly higher cruising speed with slightly less fuel consumption. At least that is (was) the plan. More on this topic later.

With Bill Kimley, the American pro-forma owner, and Lily, the nautical architect of the shipyard, we spent hours designing the interior of the boat. Bill has great ideas. But he is also not the youngest anymore, thus it pays to check: At times his mind, design ideas and technical installations were stuck in the 60s. No, we did not want a bunk bed in the living room area and no, we did not want that stove for gas and electric cooking which looked liked out of the museum. Do you remember those hotplates your grandma used in the 70s?

My discussions with Bill could fill a whole site. I should dedicate a page for that, just for laughter.

But at the end we agreed on purchase price and list of options. Simultaneously I started preparing a table of own supplied goods as most of the standard items SHM installs are just a bit “old fashioned”, to use a friendly term.

So, here I am, still sitting in my “home” office as I write these lines. By today, the boat is overdue by 3 years, 7 months and one week. More about our Diesel Swan in the next post.