Hi Steve,

My Linda and I have admired your evolving burly long legged design philosophy for years. We sail out of Marion, MA on Buzzards Bay with trips up and down the New England Coast.

This year our good friend John Herzog has just acquired “Cloud Nine”, a lovely vintage Allied Seabreeze 35′ yawl, which he will be keeping this year on our helix auger mooring in Marion. The Bay is very open to the SW, and notorious for Hurricane surge. NOAA says this will be a very lively summer as you know.
I have suggested before launching John consider fitting a massive cable attachment point in the stem just above the waterline with added heavy blocking in the chain locker to accept a shackled 1/2″ steel cable or chain storm pennant. Length to the mooring top chain would be set to allow appropriate stretch of the two cafe protected 1″ nylon mooring pennants while applying most of the load to the eye at the waterline. John’s mizzen should help to somewhat reduce tacking on the mooring caused by the lovely sheer of the Seabreeze rail.
I have seen people attaching a steel storm cable to a single eyebolt in the stem, and feel that this may be vulnerable to side loading expected in storm surge.
Do you have any thoughts about such a rig? Have you ever seen a commercial fastener that would be a suitable stem shackle attachment point for a storm cable to secure a 13,400 lb designed displacement vessel, or do we need to have something custom made?

Thanks much and safe cruising,

Bill Bowers,
SV “Iteration”

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Dear Linda and Steve,

Could you share the name and source of the non skid product you are using on FPB 64?

Do you know the life span of this product?

Can it be adhered to a steel deck painted with two part epoxy coating like Ameron?

Thank you in advance for your response.

Sincerely,

Remek Czarnecki

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Hello,
I am the recent purchaser of a 1962 P-Class Catamaran. “Mahitabel” is a 28 ft long/ by 12′ Beam Designed by Bud Platten / R&D builder for Hobie Catamarans.
It is to my understanding that boat designers Platten, Eric Witte, Ron Holder were fighting for a 1-man design, I am inquiring to see if Mahitabel is just in fact the Hull #1 that resulted.
She is a fiberglass/ kevlar reinforced hull with steering 3′ forward of AMA’S. Foiled foam Dagger boards forward, and 300 sq ft of sail!
Mahitabel is currently under rebuild in an owner/ repair shop Finleys in Oceanside.
If you could provide any knowledge of this beautiful machine,
It will help give me strength in each sanding stroke!
Mark Pasquale

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Hi Steve,

I’ve got a Sea Brake drogue and am looking at rigging up the lines to tow it…

The manufacturers data sheet that came with it said to use polypropylene …I talked to my rigger and he said “What ? that’s nuts….I think you need 3 strand nylon or polyester to give some stretch and give for the load”

I contacted the Sea Brake folk and they said …no don’t use polyprop, use braided polyester …correct me if I’m wrong but that’s what our jib sheets are and they are low stretch..

So now I’m a bit confused…

BTW the Sea Brake is a canvas-like material which is tapered at each end with gaps in the sides aft of the largest dia and a hole at the aft end…

I’d be interested to know what you think

Best regards to you and Linda

All the best

Alan

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Hello!

Have a question about experience with anchoring on rock bottom.

We are planning to go cruising in Croatia and we have heard that there is mostly rock bottom there, and that this may pose some problems with traditional anchors. We find it a bit strange since Croatia has a fast growing charter fleet and we cannot believe that these boats are equipped with anything else than standard anchors. We have a Rocna 20kg, one fortress kedge anchor and one fortress hurricane anchor, but wonder if we should go for an anchor more suitable for rock.

The boat is a Dehler 37 Cr, waterline length 9m, dry weight 5,6 tonnes, cruising weight probably up to 7 tonnes I am afraid.

Do you think the Rocna will be OK, or do you think we should go for another spare anchor? And in that case what type? Space and weigh will be a problem.. The boat is flat bottomed, no sump.

Have been looking at a fisherman type like the picture below, which I can find to an affordable price .. And then there is the Luke, storm anchor which is very expensive in comparison.

BTW. Hope you liked our country! Saw that you visited Norway in your logs. Did you visit Oslo?

Thanks!

Erik
Norway

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Hi Steve and Linda
I am interested in sailing to Baffin Island, from the UK, and around the Labrador sea area. Could you advise me as to where I can obtain charts and infomation for these areas so I can put together a route plan.
I have enjoyed reading about your journeys and it has inspired me to see for myself.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Many thanks in advance.
Phill

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Hi Steve,

Have appreciated your design philosophy and innovation for some time in terms of getting the best out of the comfort, speed and safety of a yacht.

Was recently looking around at a number of the more innovative french centreboard designs (eg alliage, allures, alubat omni, garcia) and would be interested in your view on their safety as a voyager.

I think Jimmy Cornell has cruised extensively on one – but that obviously doesn’t mean they are safe.

Hard to get any sort of stability numbers on them, which is obviously the first concern. Second concern I had was the ability of the shallow dual rudders to maintain steerage in large seas when running or beating.

Do you have an opinion on these at all?

Cheers

Russel

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Aloha Steve and Linda,
We are building a 65′ Catamaran and trying to get as much of our electricity needs from solar and hydro. We chose a Duogen turbine but so far haven’t found a way to install it in a cat. Then I read that you used a shaft generator in one of your vessels in your cruises around the world. Can you tell us the pros/cons of the system and if it could be installed in a Cat. How much power should we expect from the shaft generator? we are running a 24V system in our boat.
Mahalo for your help and safe sailing.

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Steve and Linda,

You have one of the most useful resources on the internet and I have learned a lot from your websites. I was curious what you currently use as navigation software and what you would recommend for someone looking to do world cruising and why that is the best choice in your very knowledgeable opinion. I did find your recommendation for Coastal Explorer referenced in your Nav section. I am pretty computer savvy if that makes a difference. I have tried to figure it out from the various pictures but (looks like VNS to me or maybe MaxSea) but what is best for you may not necessarily be best for me. I am building a motorsailor if that also makes a difference.

Thank you very much for your input.

Happy and safe voyaging.

Mike

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Hi Steve and Linda,

Hope this finds you well and having fun wherever you are. In all
honesty, I have not been keeping up with you the last 2 1/2 or so years.

In trying to find something in the way of a review for Furuno’s Fax 30, I
see that you installed one going on two years ago. So, I just wondered
if you would have time to say a word or two about how you like
it(couldn’t find such mention on your site). Maybe one of my questions
is whether or not it adequately provides on it’s own the weather fax
function of a ssb radio? I don’t have the transmitter yet, so wondering
whether the 30 might let me put that off for awhile longer, but get me
used to using the faxes. Please refer me to something that I missed that
you have already written if you like.

Roger N. Larson

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Hi, I watched you on TV last night. Wow talk about having a light bulb turn on in your mind. Anyway can you tell me what a good boat would be to start out with would be. I far from being loaded. My idea would be to live on my boat and make my way south. I’m at the very early stages of planning so knowing what boat I should be looking at is a starting point. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can pass on.

Robert West

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Hi there,

We recently purchased a 1995 Sundeer 60 and found the original ‘old’ Sundeer 60 Owner’s Manual on board. Is there any chance we can obtain updates and/or a new manual? E-format would be fine.

Thank you in advance.

Russ & Gwen Hobbs

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I am trying to determine what products are ok to use with

* Marathon 3DL 2004 140% Genoa
* Marathon 3DL 2003 90% Jib
* Ace Dacron Challenger Cloth 2002 Main

for light cleaning, I have been using just mild dishwashing soap and no bleach and rinsing the sails in the fall, but would like to see if one of the following would be ok. I would like to use

* 20 Mule Team Borax Natural Laundry Booster (sodium tetraborate decahydrate)
* Oxi Magic Mullti-purpose stain remover (Chlorine Bleach free) which has Sodium Percarbonate and Sodium Carbonate in it.

Are the two products above okay to use with the above sails?

Also my lines have some green mold/mildew and I’d like to see if I can use one of these on them as well
The lines are basically :

* Braided Nylon sheets and dock lines 1/2″
* StaSet-X halyards 3/8″
* Amsteel soling stay

I have not used any chlorox bleach.
I would like to use

* 20 Mule Team Borax Natural Laundry Booster (sodium tetraborate decahydrate)
* Oxi Magic Mullti-purpose stain remover (Chlorine Bleach free) which has Sodium Percarbonate and Sodium Carbonate in it.

Are the two products above okay to use with the above lines?

I had both Jibs coated with Sailcote Plus about 5 years ago to help with the mildew problem and it seems to be working but this year we had more than usual on one jib and I need to clean it better than mild soap would do.

Thanks,
Rick Gleason

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what are your thoughts on the french OVNI range of cutters produced by builder Alubat?

they have several features – variable draught, all alloy construction, ability to be beached and a reasonable price – which i believe might make them a good starting point fo a long distance crusier.

my main concern, and it stems from having never personally sailed on a large centre-boarder – is their ability to go well to windward when required and their ability to cope with really rough conditions.

your comments?

many thanks

Marcus Petraska
New Zealand

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