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. 

What is Power Fin Sculling?

  • It is a vertical, reasonably high aspect ratio rudder hinged vertically on the end of a 6ft pole ( in our case). 

  • The pole has a vertical pin about halfway along its length which fits into a suitable hole on a transom of the dinghy (in our case 12mm stainless steel round bar). 

  • The rudder has a short tiller with a light line going to the pole to limit its travel from side to side. 

 

It works by moving the forward end of the pole backwards and forwards. As the rudder flips from side to side it produces forward motion. On its own, it can be used to propel the dinghy at similar speeds to sculling with an oar over the stern but with the big advantage of being very much simpler to operate. In our experience on its own, it does not give the same power as rowing with a pair of oars in the normal way. However, we can now row with a pair of oars from the forward rowing position.  The other person in the dinghy can work the fin sculling pole. This greatly increases our speed, particularly rowing against strong headwinds, when it is the most needed.  Another advantage is that the fin sculler is facing forward and can steer with that rudder.  It requires no skill to operate (unlike rowing or sailing).

 

The main disadvantage of the sculling, if used on its own, is that the dinghy can’t be stopped and is less manoeuvrable when coming alongside than a pair or oars.  Another disadvantage is that the vertical rudder significantly increases the draught and so is not suitable in very shallow waters but it is very easy to lift the rudder clear of the water. 

​

 

Conclusion

It works very well, we are super happy with it. Linda is now the human outboard - sustainable, reliable, beautiful but high maintenance!  It draws a lot of attention. So we thought it would be good to share it here. The drawing represents the dimensions we used and it works very well on our 9 ft fibreglass dinghy. 

​

The YouTube Link for Japanese video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yMeIsmAV-E&ab_channel=AtsushiDoi

bottom of page