After losing our rudder 800nm from land, we were in a siltation where we needed to make some changes to both the boat and our plotted course if the wanted to make it comfortably to St Lucia. In our last post we talked about keeping the crew and boat safe in an emergency situation, now […]
How we sailed our catamaran with one rudder across the Atlantic Ocean. Read More »
What should you do if you lose your catamaran’s rudder while on passage? Rule number One – Don’t panic! Let’s face it, panic is not going to get your rudder back. Neither is it going to get you and your crew safely to shore. What you need is a solid plan that you as the
Losing a rudder in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean Read More »
One daggerboard down and 4th reef as we head towards the Caribbean. Does your catamaran have dagger boards? How do you set yours up for downwind sailing? In this video we talk a little about why we have the one dagger board down for a downwind kite ride across the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean crossing in
Downwind daggerboard and 4th reef setup for 20+ knots Read More »
Paikea is half way into our Atlantic Ocean crossing and we have a sailing lesson for you. We have solid solid trade winds of over 20kts and our mighty Catana catamaran loves the bluewater sailing conditions. The sea state has managed to clam down a little so now we are enjoying the downwind ride towards
Offshore sailing tutorial Read More »
Part 2 of our Atlantic journey. We are mid Atlantic on our modified Crowther catamaran. The ride so far has been fast and sometimes a bit fruity. We discover that the mainsail batten pockets are loading up too much as we placed them too close to the reefing points and have to repair with some
Mid Atlantic on a modified Crowther catamaran Read More »
The first in our Atlantic Ocean crossing series. A light airs start from Las Palmas following the Moroccan coastline proved interesting when we were approached by a Moroccan patrol boat. We suspect they were looking for smugglers (drugs/people) as they asked us to report to them if we saw any suspicious activity. As we are
Atlantic Crossing on a modified Catana42 Read More »
Oh, the joys of old boats. In this episode, we are in the midst of last minute preparations for an Atlantic crossing including replacing the bolts on our chainplates. We had noticed slight movement in the chainplate on the port side since Shayne had put a bead of sika flex around the deck join. We
Concerning chainplates and suspect bulkheads Read More »
Arriving in the Canary Islands after a great sail down from Cadiz. The next instalment in our video diary as we prepare to take our modified Catana42s across the Atlantic Ocean. Our carbon longeron and front beam are fantastic but Shayne is worried about chafing on the navigation lights we have installed inside the bow
Boat preparation in Las Palmas, Canary Islands Read More »
Our carbon fibre longeron. Made from carbon fibre ex-America’s Cup mast sections. We recovered precut sections of carbon mast and replaced our aluminium forestay. The result is a much stronger and stiffer front beam and the addition of a carbon fibre longeron. This beauty has allowed us to change the way we sail our performance
Configuration of our Carbon Longeron Read More »
In our previous video, we looked at the mainsheet track and traveller system used on the Gunboat 68. If you haven’t seen this blog post and video you can find the link here. In our opinion, the mainsheet traveller system on the Gunboat is far superior to an A-Frame system. For starters, it is simple
Why we don’t want an A-Frame mainsheet system on our catamaran Read More »