Mother Nature has been sending us a not-so-subtle message. “Enough with the boat testing and fine-tuning” she seems to be saying, “it is time to move on.” Having now completed a vigorous sea trial, and checked things back at the dock, we have a date with US Customs for clearance.
Today, being Sunday, was designated for preparing Wind Horse and ourselves for a short jaunt north. We’ve been securing lashings in the basement, laying out charts, re-checking the weather, and fitting storm covers amongst other things.
And those subtle hints have continued apace.
The light and lightning show has been impressive, and the cloud structure wonderful to behold from a secure anchorage.
Those bolts from the gods have been plentiful of late, and the locals say we haven’t seen anything yet. So, we’ve been working down the list, and are almost finished.
But when the sky turns golden, it is time to drop the chores and observe, record, and marvel at the beauty which is so bountiful in Beaufort.
And now for a few business items:
We’ve been hard at work testing–trying different approaches to a variety of aspects of the FPB concept, as well as giving Wind Horse a thorough examination and a few upgrades. We’ll discuss all of this in much greater detail when we have a few more miles under our belts, but we can already tell that the new enclosed flying bridge, with its duplicate suite of electronics, is going to be a joy to work and play in.
One of our projects has been installing an N2K (NMEA 2000) bus system for data and alarms. We finally came down on the side of Maretron, and have been impressed so far with its ease of use and potential. We are looking forward to learning more about this system as we cruise.
The drive lines, with their subtle issues of noise and vibration, have absorbed a huge amount of effort. We were already very smooth and comparatively quiet. After six weeks of testing, modifying, changing again, and going back to the drawing board, we are satisfied we have made substantial improvements that will find their way into new builds.
Virtually every aspect of Wind Horse has come under scrutiny. Now it is time to put all this work to the final test.
Posted by Steve Dashew (July 22, 2012)
July 23rd, 2012 at 4:42 am
Bon Voyage
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:08 am
Any plans to update the build on the remaining 64’s and the 97 in the near future?
Look forward to posts from Wind Horse as she goes back to sea.
July 23rd, 2012 at 2:11 pm
Yes, and yes, and soon now that we are caught up.
July 23rd, 2012 at 10:30 am
Do you need customs clearance because of foreign flagged vessel? If you were american flagged no need to visit customs?
July 23rd, 2012 at 2:32 pm
Clearance is often required when entering a new country, and not being sure about Canada, covers all the bases.
July 24th, 2012 at 9:22 am
Steve,
Do you have a link to what Customs is inspecting for? You’ve been doing this kind of sailing for your whole life, but this is a kind of stress that a lot of us haven’t experienced practically. As a veteran of many inspections, your input on this would be illuminating.
(My time on big gray boats in the Navy didn’t prepare me for this kind of thing. As long as you weren’t moving narcotics, customs didn’t have time to thoroughly inspect a 4,500 ton frigate that was extensively compartmentalized.)
July 24th, 2012 at 8:57 pm
Nothing in particular, and for the most prt they have been very pleasant to deal with. But you must scrupulously follow their rules, which can vary from district to district, if you fly a foreign flag.
July 27th, 2012 at 9:51 am
Hi Steve,
I’ve been following you guys since before the FPB series and have been very impressed with your creativity, design, systems, and overall cruising philosophy. You guys represent a massive game changer for those chasing the cruising life.
My questions are about the Everclear window system on the fly bridge of Wind Horse and the planned system for the matrix deck on Wicked.
I think I see a panel on the port side of the fly bridge in one of the photos above, and it does indeed look very clear and unobtrusive.
It would be great to see some pictures of the overall system installed on Wind Horse.
Also, I read the comments about Everclear handling big wind loads, and I am familiar with your philosophy on safety and Black Swan scenarios….
So my question is how would the enclosed fly bridge/matrix deck Everclear window system handle loads that could be presented by breaking waves or green water? Would the closed windows present stability issues?
I assume that if conditions are bad enough to warrant it you would plan on piloting from the great room leaving the fly bridge/matrix deck for better weather.
In a black swan scenario would the windows be left open to present less resistance or closed?
Thanks for sharing your journey with this series, looking forward to reading future posts!
Ian
July 30th, 2012 at 3:54 am
We will do a detailed post on the revamped fly bridge (mini Matrix) on Wind Horse in the next few weeks. Regarding loading. We can conceive of no probable scenario where this area would see solid water,based on the 50,000 some miles we have on Wind Horse now, or our (some would say) overly vivid imagination, short of a full knockdown and dragging the Everclear through the ocean a ways. In this case, it would be better to have the windows open.
In terms of wind loads, the sport fish boats that use these systems regularly run at 30+ knots into 25+ knots of wind, and sit out hurricanes with the windows closed. Left open, chafe damage from vibration (wind induced) is a risk.