Re: Prepping a C42 for ocean sailing

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: Eric, : Go into a search engine and type "Painkiller" and "Landmann". Landmann is : my last name (I know, helluva name for a boat Captain, but that's how it : came out)and our last boat was a Morgan 45 named Painkiller. Print out the : article from Latitude 38 and you'll see what I went through and what my : shore-based wife went through when we lost our boat. I too am a big : believer in safety at sea and I've become known as an expert on it since the : incident. : By the way, I'm 54 and have been sailing since I was a kid. I started : sailing in Monterey Bay, California and have never stopped. : Our present boat is a C-42, two-cabin, wing keel which we bought in July : 2001 when my wife said we'd been boatless long enough. We're planning on : taking off next Spring and heading North to the Chesapeak then onto Long : Island Sound, New England etc., until the weather cools then reversing : course and heading down the coast. We don't know if we'll go off to the : lesser Antilles or just over to the Bahamas and the Keys - but that's the : beautiful thing about a boat, isn't it - you don't have to stick to a set : plan or schedule. : A little about our boat: The previous owner had big plans and put so much : STUFF on the boat that the boat was floating 4 inches below it's design : water line. It had FIVE anchors, rodes etc., one tender with TWO outboards, : 24 docklines, boxes and cases full of all kinds of good stuff and crap. I : took off over 1000 pounds of stuff and the boat instantly started sailing : like the boat was designed. : Let me tell you a little about what the boat had on it, and what I got rid : of and why: : Roller furling staysail. Nice, but the boat is really too small (the mast : is too far forward to effectively use it) for a proper staysail. : Two bow rollers. I got rid of the CQR and put a 44 lb Claw to replace it. : It has 235' of chain on it. I got rid of a 65 lb MONSTER anchor that they : sometimes use in the Bahamas and it's rode and chain. I kept a 35 pound : Fortress with 20' of chain and 200' of rode. I also kept a small Fortress, : rode and chain that comes in it's own tote bag. That's stowed under the : settee in the dining salon. : I got rid of the 9' RIB and got an 11'2" Caribe RIB. The boat came with : removable davits on the transom and it's an easy way to stow the boat when : on a long passage. For shorter passages, I'd just tow it. I got rid of the : 5hp outboard and had the 9.9 hp outboard tuned to 15 hp. The idea behind : the Caribe is it has the largest tubes of any tender and when you're using : it as your "station wagon" to haul groceries, take laundry to the beach : etc., it becomes more important than you'll ever guess. : We just replaced our working sails: I got a new full-batten main with the : Dutchman system and a 135% genoa from our favorite sail maker in San : Francisco. By the way, if you get Latitude 38, we're supposed to be the : boat in the ad this month for Pineapple Sails. Check it out. We'll get : our copy in about a week. : We also have a symetrical kite and a genniker. I replaced the line-control : Whisker Pole with a regular Spinnaker Pole and saved 25 lbs (I'm getting : older and lazier by the day....) We fly the chute and leave the Genniker at : home. : We have a big ole Maxwell (I believe) windless that makes life real easy. : The boat came with two air conditioning units: a 16,000 BTU unit that cools : the salon, forward stateroom and the forward head. The second unit is 5,000 : btu and cools the aft stateroom only. The AC's are only used at the dock as : the boat didn't come with a genset. : We talked about putting a genset on, and we talked about putting on a wind : generator and solar panels, but I'm trying to keep the boat from owning me, : so we opted for a Honda 2000I portable generator to charge the batteries : with through the inverter. It's a cool set up, and other than having to : carry gas for it, it's safe, clean and easy (think lazy). It fits nicely in : the starboard lazzarette next to the helmsman's seat. : Speaking of which: I designed a helmsman's seat last fall and had a : friend-of-a-friend build it. I gave him the design and the model I'd made : and told him to make it. I didn't ask him how much. $854 later.... i have : a beautiful polished stainless steel helmsman's seat that compares with : none - it shouldn't, as it costs more than most recliners. : Below we took out the watermaker and sold it. We took out the SSB and sold : it. Here's why: Watermakers are the MOST labor intensive item on any boat. : Unless you're going to spend months on the hook, it's not worth it. If you : are going to spend months on the hook and use the watermaker and other : appliances, you'll need some type of genset as using the main engine is very : inefficient. : I've been to very few places in the world where good water isn't available. : Just in case, I added a carbon water filter system inside the boat and : filters all water before it goes to any of the taps, p[lus I have a filter : system that I use when adding water to the tanks. I also carry 4 5-gallong : collapsable water jugs just in case you want to load up before going out on : the hook for a couple of weeks (I still like to shower routinely, and that : takes water). : As for the SSB - SSB don't really work when you need them, such as in : thunder storms. On my last boat we used Inmarsat C and that was fabulous. : Here, doing mainly coastal cruising we're going to use wireless internet : service by Verizon. It's very cheap and there are few better weather web : sites than www.wunderground.com If we make any jumps off shore (500 + mile) : passages, we'll buy a Sat Phone for $500. Right now they call time is about : $1 per minute. : I'm in the process of replacing the stock toilets with Raritan II Hi=boy : heads which are the same height/size as the toilet in your home, but the : pump works on both strokes and it uses less water than Jabsco heads that : come with the boats. : In the Salon I added a shelf above the Nav station and placed a 20" TV : there. There's a cabinet over the starboard settee in the salon and in : there I have an amp, speaker selector switch panel with volume controls, a : VHS machine and a CD/radio. We can run the sound from the TV through the : speakers for stereo. : We have a DC refrigerator on the left side of the stove. On the right is a : true freezer. We have both an AC freezer plate and an engine driven freezer : plate to keep our ice cream icy. When I say it's a cool set up, I mean it's : a cool set up. : There's an oil-change pump attached to the engine so oil changes take less : than 10 minutes. Changing the filter adds another five minutes. I changed : out the stock fuel filter for a big ole Racor 500 which has the drop-in : filter instead of the spin-on type that the boats come with. No fuel spills : when you change the fuel filter! : We bought a bunch of those vacuum bags you see advertised on TV on Sunday : mornings. You put your blankets/towels/sweaters/whatever in them, and : simply role them up and the air gets burped via a one-way valve. We still : need to carry that stuff, this way it justs takes less room. : By the way, We won our Spring Series here in the Golden Isles - Five firsts! : I missed one race due to work, but we still one. We also won the Coastal : Cup overall which is two legs: Fernandina Beach, FL to St Simons Island, GA : (28nm). The next leg is 125 nm, St Simons, GA to Charleston, SC. It was a : real hoot! : I'm sure I'm generating more questions than I've given you answers, so as : you and your wife come up with them, fire away and I'll make up an answer. : By the way, I'm charging 10 cents per word so you're in trouble - just : kidding. I'm glad to be of any help. : Regards, Ron Landmann : "The Usual Suspects" : #301

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