Steve and Linda write a regular column for SetSailors from wherever they happen to be. Join in as they cruise the world and discuss topics of interest to sailors everywhere. Here you’ll find their articles dating from 1996 to the present. Check back frequently for new articles posted from aboard their FPB 83 Wind Horse.
And now for something different. We are pleased to report that FPB-1, Avatar, has just finished her first day of testing with the swim platform extension and get-home engine. The lovely clean release above is at eight knots with the little Yanmar pushing her along.
The new Wicked FPB sports some hot angles, not the least of which is the glazing system surrounding the great room. There are numerous advantages to these outwardly angled windows.
Throughout history, the most successful seagoing vessels have shared common attributes. Take, for example, the greatest warriors and travelers of their time, the fiercesome Vikings. When they sallied forth from their northland fjords, they employed high speed, extremely maneuverable, shallow draft designs to help them expand and conquer their world.
If you are a regular visitor to SetSail.com, you know we like fine rear ends. Flat buttock lines in particular arouse our instincts. With most yacht designs, there is a conflict here between comfort and performance (and this varies with different speeds, or more correctly speed-length ratios). Typically, you pick a speed regime and sea state and live with the results.
But if you stretch the waterline, keeping other design aspects constant, good things begin to happen.
Read the rest »
We took the afternoon off, went for a drive, had a gelato, and enjoyed being outside in the harsh winter for which Arizona is known. We’re down to rechecking basic assumptions (again), finalizing deck geometry, and fine tuning the hull shape. This can be a dangerous time in the design cycle.
We are somewhat surprised by the amount of comment induced by the post on the solar array, so we thought we’d update you to the present (things are moving quickly).
When you start to consider powerboat (stinkpot) systems, virtually every decision revolves around air conditioning. Air conditioning holds you hostage. High heat loads from large windows and poor-to-nonexistent shading, coupled with a lack of ventilation, force you to fit large compressors, which means a big genset. Since you cannot do without the genset, you need a second, both of which are too big to just run air conditioning at night, so a small night generator is needed. All other systems decisions flow from this conundrum.
But what if you had good ventilation, even when there was no breeze, and then coupled this with minimized heat loads?
Most of the folks we know in the marine “business” (an oxymoron for sure) play the game for love, or because they simply have no choice, they are pulled to it. The hours are long, the outcome often uncertain, and the risks higher than many economic endeavors.
For years we’ve been wrestling with a way to improve on the FPB 83, Wind Horse. We’ve done smaller, as in the FPB 64: a very efficient, attractively priced, well-mannered yacht. And we’ve worked up a larger version in the guise of the FPB 115, about which we can get excited. But to improve on the Wind Horse combination of comfort, sea-kindliness, heavy weather ability, trans-ocean average speed, systems efficiency, and ease of handling for a couple has yet to happen.
It starts as a hazy vision one sleepless night, an outline, and there is a compulsion to see where it leads, even if it is not on the master plan. When the beast strikes, you have to feed it – there is no other option. Days are long, nights are short, computers whirr overtime and the design spiral fits seamlessly together. Gigabytes criss-cross the internet. Hydrostatics, structure, layout, motion, systems, ventilation, aesthetics – meld wickedly, as if this were meant to be.
Soon it shall be revealed.
Check back daily for updates and scroll down for the latest…
We were working through some design issues last week using a new (beta) version of Rhino 3D, and thought that a quick set of graphics on the FPB 64 structural grid might be of interest. These may help put the construction photos we show into context.
Some years ago we installed a 1000 watt 230 VAC Aqua Signal flood light on the forward mast. It proved useful on occasion for checking sea-state at night, and maybe once or twice a year looking over anchorages in the dark. When Todd Rickard and Mark Fritzer visited IBEX last fall they ran into a company selling high intensity LED spots and floods called Rigid Industries. They were impressed, so we decided to give a set of these a test on the new forward mast on Wind Horse. That’s Chris Martin of Martin Engineering doing the install.
A new year is upon us and we are in catch up mode. We are a month behind in posting FPB 64 photos from the production line, so we shall endeavor to bring you up to date in one huge post.
Between checking off projects on Wind Horse, working on new designs, the holidays, and a myriad of other details, the camera bag has not seen a lot of action the past six weeks. But we can only go so long without a visual fix, and the past few days has seen us dreaming, with the help of our photo files.
In 2003 when we began work on the first FPB, Wind Horse, we briefly considered an enclosed flying bridge. Our good friend, and collaborator, the late Steve Davis, was a strong advocate. He said “one day you will come around.”
Our reasoning was that in conditions warranting enclosure we’d pilot from the great room, and when it was pleasant, from above. A major part of the decision was poor visibility through the plastic windows.
Things have changed.
We are through with phase one of our work list on Wind Horse, and have been out testing the changes. The photo above was taken at dusk today, coming back down the Intra Coastal Waterway to the Jarrette Bay facility where Cory McMahan has his Triton Marine operation. Wind Horse is within two tons of full load, the water depth is 13 feet (four meters) and we are running at 1400 RPM, roughly nine knots.
Considering the slow speed (for us), and the water depth, this is an exceptionally clean wake release off tne new transom extension.
You are looking at a simple, but very effective jig for making angled cuts with a hole saw. This is the brainchild of Cory McMahon of Triton Marine. We were in the process of installing a fresh water pick up for the new air conditioning cooling system when Cory suggested this to Chris Martin.
We are hammering away on the list, literally as you can see above (that is Eric from Bausch American) and figuratively. Although it looks like chaos, we are getting things done. The stern extension is now welded on, with a short list of items to deal with before it is finished.
We’re out of time, which is a good thing since it forces a decision on the solar array, hence this post. What you see in these images is what we’ll be looking at from the dinghy, the view with which we are most concerned.
One of the things which attracted us to the Jarrett Bay Marine Park here in Beaufort was the work we saw at Bausch American. Their specialty is towers for sports fishermen, so they are used to working with aluminum. We came in with a couple of mods in mind, but as we have gotten comfortable with their standard of work and efficiency, our list has grown.
From the crew at SetSail and Dashew Offshore we wish all of you a happy Thanksgiving.
Post script: the soaring machine above is a Cathartes aura, lovely to watch in the air, but we’re not sure how it would go with cranberry sauce and stuffing tomorrow.
Last Sunday we took the afternoon off from Wind Horse and journeyed to the metropolis of Moorehead City. On the way we spied a Lowes, and needing nylon cable ties stopped for a few minutes. There was a tool department near the entrance of course, and as designed, were were drawn to the shiny rows of goodies.
One of the great things about metal yachts is the ease of making structural connections in a totally watertight fashion, by welding. When this takes place on a completed vessel certain cautions need to be observed.
As we were heading down the Chesapeake from Whitehall Creek we noticed a large group of schooners milling about. Turns out this was the day for the annual schooner race. The photos which follow are fun to study, and there are a couple of rig items worth noting. We’ll start with this derivative of the schooner America. Read the rest »
Sometimes an idea that seems great in abstract fails when you get into detailed drawings. Such is the case with our solar roof, now history. But as cool as it might have seemed (to some) we have a much better solution.
An often overlooked benefit of propulsion efficiency and its reduced power demands is a quieter engine system. But as quiet as Wind Horse is under power, 57 dB at eleven knots, one of our goals for this haul out is to reduce the sound level further. Of course when you are at 57dB already, further reduction is not easy. The swim step extension will move the exhaust three feet /90cm further aft, and underwater, which will help – a lot. In addition, we are changing the exhaust system inside the engine room, hoping for major improvements here as well.
The rendering above shows the proportions of a solar roof for the flying bridge (support is not yet shown, but will be required). The efficiency and cost per watt have gotten to the point where this may make sense. In the scheme above there would be eight 250 to 320 watt panels, depending on what we find next week. This is enough to generate a large chunk of our daily power usage at anchor. But is it worth the expense and hit on aesthetics?
From the photo above, taken in the lagoon adjacent to Cape Lookout in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, you can see there is a bit of breeze. In fact, this breeze woke us up at 0400 with the wind shift, meter high waves, and bumping the bottom wih the keel. Coastal cruising, in a country with as much weather data as the USA, there is no excuse for getting caught by weather, We’ll come back to this subject and preparation for adverse situations, later.
Right now we want to chat about a couple of inexpensive IPad Apps that work really well f or local weather.
We’ve been hauled by Jarrette Bay and the first order of business is an inspection of the bottom. We are not displeased with what we see. Starting with the props, painted with “Prop Speed” four months ago, and they look very clean.
Wind Horse now has 5700+ hours on her two little John Deere diesels, over 50,000 nautical miles of cruising the oceans. If you have looked at “experienced” exhaust systems, you will know that an exhaust this clean after almost 6000 hours is the exception rather than the rule.
We were just talking about significant one third highest wave heights and how this compares to what you may encounter. The graphic above and photo below are a partial explanation from Mariner’s Weather Handbook (the link will take you to the table of contents)
“Hi Steve. Speaking of storms and weather patterns what do you think about the low off the east coat. Looked ominous on the surface charts and even more so on the 500 mb charts. Some weather sites are calling it a low pressure “bomb”. I have read your Mariners Weather Handbook a few times through and this system seemed like a good learning opportunity.”
Thanks for the heads up, Mike:
For anyone interested in weather, this is what gets the adrenalin flowing at the Ocean Prediction Center. Right now this is just a hurricane strength storm forecast, bad enough if you are caught in it,
While our usual fair is more extreme weather than this video depicts, there are some lessons for us here as well, not the least of which is the efficiency at work you are about to watch on your computer screen. The video was shot by Brian Rickard on a recent cruise with the Henrys aboard the FPB 64 Sarah Sarah, in British Columbia.
Sarah Sarah has a full payload of the Henry’s gear aboard and half tanks. She weighs around 80,000 pounds / 36,000kg, and is running at nine knots through the water (net of current). This is a speed length ratio of 1.15, on the low side of where the FPB 64s normally operate in smooth water.
Wind Horse has finished her seventh season of cruising, there are 5600 hours on her engines, and more than 50,000 miles have passed under her svelte canoe body. She has traveled from New Zealand to Alaska, through Panama to Greenland, across the North Atlantic to the British Isles, and cruised Norway to Svalbard and the Arctic ice pack to within 600 miles of the North Pole. She has coasted Spain, been with the glitterati in the Balearic Islands, and set a record in the ARC from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean, that could stand for a long time. She made it fom Las Palmas to St. Lucia (across the Atlantic) to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and on to Marathon without stopping for fuel. This year has been less ambitious, with just the East Coast of the US to Maine and back on the itinerary. All of this in comfort, with minimal maintenance, and a very limited list of gremlins.
So, we think Wind Horse is due for a bit of pampering.
We were tied up at the Jarrett Bay boat yard complex yesterday, doing a bit of preliminary planning with Corey McMahon who will be handling our seven year itch list, when a couple of interesting photo ops passed by. There is a pod of dolphins hanging out off the docks and occasionally riding bow waves (it is hard to concentrate on boat project dialog when the pod is playing in the background).
What was interesting is the boats whose bow waves they chose to ride. There appears to be direct correlation between hull efficiency, or lack there of, and the dolphin’s favorites.
Read the rest » 
We’re on our way south, with the crowd. At the beginning of the Intra Coastal Waterway, Great Bridge, near Norfolk, Virginia, things are a bit crowded. But they quickly thin out, and for the most part we’ve been able to find the quiet waterways and anchorages which are to our liking.
Read the rest » “I witnessed first hand how well the boat handles up-swell at various speeds.”
–Bill Parlatore, Passagemaker Magazine
Sitting here at anchor off to the side of of the Intra Coastal Waterway affords the opportunity of studying hull shapes and their wave trains. What we have for you here are several different shapes, each with a unique shape to their disturbance pattern. The boat above is about 35-feet long and is throwing a huge wake, not a sign of efficiency! Read the rest »
Weather that has folks scurrying for cover often holds the most dramatic impact. If you happen to be anchored in a totally protected body of water, with the pick well dug in, you can concentrate on soaking up the view.
Read the rest » 
We love the visually textured finish of bare aluminum. The way light plays on the surface presents an ever changing canvas, never boring, always something a little different, elegant in an understated way. But if you are new to the look it can take a while to fall in love with the appearance (it is much easier to become enamored with the wonderful benefits). Almost everyone likes the shiny new finish. The issue, if there is one, comes as the aluminum goes through a natural aging process, and the shine dulls. The profile view of the FPB 115, above, has its surface finish picked up from a photograph of Wind Horse when she was just launched. We have other versions following with a paint job for comparison.
Read the rest » 
A while ago we wrote up the details on the FPB 64 Iron Lady’s interaction with a Fijian Reef. She is in New Zealand now, hauled out near Circa, and we’ve been studying the photos and talking to her owner, Pete Rossin, to get a better feel for the conditions. What we have learned has caused us to rethink our normal tactics when aground in difficult situations for the FPB 64s.
Read the rest » 
In the spring of 2010 the sail training vessel Concordia was capsized and lost off the coast of Brazil. The crew was rescued and the blame was fixed on an unforeseeable microburst. The Canadian Transport Safety Board has now issued a report covering the incident, which makes for interesting reading.
A couple of points we take away from a quick perusal.
Read the rest » 
One of the things we love about this business is recieving family photos. This series is of a Deerfoot 61, built in fiberglass at Salthouse Brothers in Auckland, under Kelly Archers’s watchful eye. Of historical interest may be the fact that hull shape is the first to be built from lines drawn with the then amazingly powerful HP 6800 work station running George Hazen’s Fast Yacht.
Read the rest »
Cruising is a fulfilling life style. It provides an ever changing mix of people, environment and challenges. When you are new to it there’s a sense of wonder. This comes from a combination of incredulity that it took so long to make the decision to get away, simple pleasure in the achievement, and just being afloat. After a while this new lifestyle becomes the norm; it can even grow a touch stale, and at some point a break is warranted.
Thirty years ago, when we were cruising full time with the kids, we’d move ashore once a year for three to six weeks. This left the boat free for maintenance projects, and gave all of us a chance to delve more deeply into the local milieu. We would come back aboard with a renewed sense of the uniqueness of our lifestyle. In more recent decades, with a home and water base, the change in scenery is, in theory, built in.
But there is a hitch.
Read the rest » Last week, while driving with a friend through Colorado, Montana, and Wyoming, we were asked why our yachts look so different from the norm. That got us into a discussion about beauty, function, and environment (we’ll post some photos from that drive in a few days). 
We have always believed that a yacht should make your heart sing, especially when viewed from the dinghy. And while some forms of art – yachts being included in this category – are an acquired taste, there are certain absolutes. Proportions, flow of lines, detailing commensurate with the overall design, are part of this equation. So to is how the object fits into its environment. Art on land is one thing. But when you take it to sea there are other issues. It is here that as Frank Lloyd Wright said “form follows function”. The more frequently one leaves the marina and the further one travels, the more absolute these seagoing considerations. Read the rest »
Here is a surprising look at some, but not all, of the items on charge or requiring charging transformers on Wind Horse.
Read the rest » 
For our at anchor roll control devices we use a halyard which runs from a block at the end of t he boom, inboard to a rope clutch. The problem is that in bouncy anchorages the halyard sometimes slaps the boom, which is annoying.
Read the rest » 
It is Saturday afternoon, football so far is boring, and having been on land now for almost a week we’ve been talking about some of our favorite anchorages. That lead to the thought that it might be nice to share a few of these with you. We’ll start with Secluded Bay, on the West Coast of Baranof Island, in Southeast Alaska. The arrow above points to the very narrow entrance. This was deep enough for the five toot (1.5m) draft on Wind Horse, but so narrow that the tree branches barely cleared our booms. Read the rest »
We have mentioned in the past that while hurricanes get the press, their area at sea is limited and they are relatively easy to avoid. If the tropical system morphs into an extra tropical configuration, it covers a huge area, and is nearly impossible to get away from. We have a perfect example of this right now.
Read the rest » 
Your humble correspondents are taking a short break from work (which is what cruising while being involved full time in the marine business represents) and heading north toward Yellowstone National Park after a short visit to Arizona. We are looking forward to a week of trees, critters who are either hungry, horney, or just unpleasant in demeanor, and cool weather.
Read the rest »
Cape May, Delaware Bay, and the C and D Canal lie in our wake. Time is short, there is a date on land coming up, and we have only been able to get a sniff of these interesting areas.
The locals are out in numbers, taking a last fling at summer freedom.
Read the rest » 
We’ve known for many years that the best way to cruise is without schedule or preconceived ideas about destinations. Staying flexible, being open to opportunity, and making fewer, in depth stops is the most rewarding of cruising rythms. Our visit to Cumberland Island is a good example of how this is supposed to work.
Read the rest » 
We have put together a high res slide show of some of the photos from Penobscot Bay.
Read the rest »
The air is cool and clear, Oyster Bay is once again filled with birds, and the roar of tropical storm Irene is quickly fading from memory. We have a busy couple of weeks ahead with Wind Horse, and then we return to Arizona for a month. Before the lessons learned fade we thought a few observations might be in order.
Read the rest »
1130, the sun has peaked through the clouds for a few minutes, and the barometer has bottomed out at a relatively high 971mb.
Read the rest »
We’ve had a squally night, filled the water tanks, but no major excitement. Michael Jones took this shot of Steve checking and adjusting the snubbers.
Read the rest » 
We’ve moved a short distance to the east and reset the anchor. Winds so far are east to northeast, at anything from a few to 25 knots. The drawing upper left represents the circulation of a northern hemisphere depression. As you can see, the wind direction we have indicates the track is to our left or west.
Read the rest » 
1300 Saturday – Oyster Bay – we have completed hurricane preparations.
June Jones has reflaked the secondary anchor rode, so it is ready to deploy. Notice the figure eight lay to minimize the risk of fouling.
Read the rest »
We are anchored in Oyster Bay’s West Harbor, on Long Island (west coast), getting ready for Irene’s arrival Sunday.
Read the rest » 
The last few days have seen some shockingly bad, not to mention dangerous, seamanship in crossing or close maneuvering situations. We’ll start with the example above from the narrow channel leading into Nantucket Island’s harbor.
Read the rest » 
We’ve been working our way back from Maine, with family and friends.
Read the rest » 
You are looking at something for which we have been waiting since before Wind Horse was launched, an analog to digital converter so we can display our analog engine gauges on the computer. It is shown above sharing the computer screen with Coastal Explorer.
Read the rest » 
It is a lazy Sunday morning in Maine and having finished our coffees, caught up with a bit of news online, and launched both dinghies for exploration and exercise later on, we thought we’d upload a few photos.
Read the rest » 
You would think with three computer screens we’d have enough “real estate” for the bridge. But that is never the case, so when Carol Parker mentioned an Ipad App called Air Display, which turns the Ipad into a second monitor for your PC or Mac, we decided to give it a try.
Read the rest » 
It has been a lovely day anchored near Brooklin, Maine. From cold rain and the first use of the heater this year, to thick fog this morning, to a warm sunny afternoon we’ve seen an amazing array of weather.
Read the rest » 
The plan for the weekend is to attend the Seven Seas Cruising Association gam in Ilseboro, Maine, and then we hear about the Eggomoggin Reach wooden boat regatta. We anguish, up anchor, and turn left rather than right, heading for Brooklin.
Read the rest » 
In our never ending quest for Internet connectivity we continue to add tools. This is a UBNT high gain directional antenna. It is mounted on our old FollowMeTV single axis tracker. Keith Smith from Towndock.net in Oriental, NC first introduced us to this unit.
Read the rest » 
We have been admirers of the efficiency of fat head (squared top) mainsails for years. The problem in a cruising context was the top batten, When hoisting or lowering it tended to jam, often requiring someone aloft to administer assistance. When furling a fat head the headboard needed to be detached from the mast to allow the upper batten to lie down. There may be an answer.
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Here is a quick look at the last FPB 115 pilot house layout. We think this one is our favorite for short handed cruising.
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We’re with the “in” crowd in Camden, Maine.
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Round Pond has worked it’s magic on us and our stay has extended. Between the sea food, quiet harbor, beautiful surroundings, and friends, if it weren’t for other committments further east, we could sit here for a month.
Read the rest »\
We are about to inform you about a modern miracle. There is an IPad app called Splashtop, which claimed to allow remote control of a computer from the IPad. We were dubious but figured it was worth a try.
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We are in lobstah territory, which means paying close attention to where we are heading and lots of dodging and weaving.
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We are still behind schedule, but as we are underway from Providencetown, MA towards Round Pond, Maine, and well offshore, we are working through the last week’s photos before going back to the drawing board.
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It is Saturday, hot inland, and Long Island Sound beckons those who have the means to enjoy boating. It appears to us as if most of these folks are on our radar screen (shown above on an offset three mile range).
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Here is a concept for dinghies worth pondering, an inboard well for the outboard. There are many advantages.
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