top of page

Engine & Equipment

Our approach:

  • If you don’t have it you don’t need to look after it and it costs you nothing

  • Keeping it simple to reduce maintenance and cost

  • It is easier to live without something than to lead a life of problem solving 

Anchoring

  • Fit bow roller

  • Make chute for chain drop (in the forepeak)

  • Fit two mooring cleats

  • Mark chain and mooring lines

Windlass

  • Lofrans Tigress windlass - 1500 Watts

Chain

  • 10 mm G4 high test galvanised chain

  • 80 m & 40 m length

Anchor:

  • Plastimo Kobra 2,35 kg

  • Mantus 25 kg

  • Mantus 20 kg

  • Plus some others!

Instruments & Navigation

  • Sextant and appropriate tables, star map

  • Nasa Clipper Echo sounder 

  • Brooks & Gatehouse Vulcan 7 Chartplotter

  • ONWA 7” combined chart plotter and AIS transponder

  • Standard Horizon combined VHF and AIS receiver

  • Nasa Clipper GPS repeater

  • Plastimo Contest Compass

Electrical Installation

  • 2 house batteries: AGM 130 Amph each

  • 1 engine start battery 

  • 1000 Watt inverter

Engine & Tanks

  • Beta 38 HP engine

  • Shaft drive and three bladed feathering propeller - Sea Stream

  • 70 litres tank

Jordan Series Drogue

Fitted series drogue plates: 10mm stainless steel / 7 bolts - 10mm SS bolts - 4mm backing plate - 30cm long.

 

Jordan Series Drogue is an indispensable insurance policy for any ocean cruiser. It appears to be the safest way to survive a severe storm. Can be purchased ready made or it is not difficult to make it yourself. 

https://www.jordanseriesdrogue.com/

Dinghy & Power Fin Sculling

It was important to be light, maintenance-free, reasonable size, and row well. 

After prolonged deliberation, we were offered the use of Chris Rees design 9ft dinghy, fibreglass mould.

  • No gelcoat to keep it lighter

  • 2 layers of 300gsm and 1 layer of 450gsm

  • pigmented polyester resin

  • Built in buoyancy bow and stern. 

  • Two rowing positions plus fin sculling

 

One of the problems with the size of a dinghy that fits on a normal cruising boat is that it is too small to be able to use two people rowing.  Our 9ft/2.7m dinghy is a size bigger than the average 8ft hard dinghy on most boats. Two people rowing in tandem would depress the bow too much to be effective or safe. It would probably need a 10ft/3m or bigger dinghy to accommodate two rowers in tandem. Not only would this be too large to stow on the deck of most boats but also too heavy to be convenient to lift on board or carry up the beach. 

 

Pondering a possible solution Pete toyed with the idea of a Hobie Mirage Drive fitted into the dinghy, however, this was complicated to fit and expensive, almost the cost of an outboard motor.  Pete eventually came across a YouTube video by Atsushi Doi, a Japanese man who had developed a power fin sculling. It looked to be just what we needed. There were no plans available so Pete just designed something that could work.