Catamarans at the Annapolis Boat Show

As promised, here is more information and impressions from the boats we saw at the show.  Remember we don't know a lot about buying a boat...so it will be very interesting to see what we think about these comments in a few months or years.  We will likely not buy new, but that's most of what is at the show.  At this point we didn't know if we would prefer a catamaran or mono-hull, so we were looking at both.  Here are the catamarans:

The first catamaran we looked at was a Gemini Legacy 35.

This is a newer variant of the popular Gemini 105MC.  I can see why these boats are popular.  They are a reasonable size at 35' length and with a 14' beam they should be a bit easier to find a slip for than the average cat.  In this small space they have a queen size master berth which is impressive.  This berth is up front where cooling breezes should be easily obtainable at anchor.

 There is a double berth and an option for either a second double berth or a second head.  The boat is a "galley down" which means that the galley is located down in one of the hulls.  It doesn't seem all that separated as the floor in the hull isn't that far below the salon deck.  As with most catamarans, there is a lot of window and light in the salon and since the master berth is in front of the salon it shares the same features.  The boat does have some items that feel a bit cheap...such as a number of hatches that explicitly state "no step"...wonder if that would be a concern if stumbling about on a rolling deck trying to correct a fouled sail or line.  Overall, this floor plan would work nicely for us.  The difference between the 105MC and the Legacy appears that the Legacy now has two diesel engines and has replaced the centerboards with shoal draft keels.

Other than the Fountaine Pajot 41 we were able to sail on during the take the wheel course, we also looked at the Mahe 36.

This boat was a "galley up" design with a smaller galley space than the Gemini located in the main salon area on the bridge deck.  Again light and airy as one would expect on a cat.  The model we saw was the two stateroom version, but I understand that it comes with a three stateroom version that looses one of the heads.  Going from the salon down into either hull you found a cabin with a tapered near queen size berth in the rear of the hull and a head in the forward part.

Unlike the Gemini, you were pretty isolated when down in one of the hulls...a good thing since they are basically the bedrooms.  Outside we found it easier to get from cockpit to the fore-deck as the walkway widths were wider than the Gemini.  The view at the helm was better too, although I'm not sure if a bimini or dodger is available for the helm station (and I imagine it would suck to be baking in the sun or drenched when manning the wheel).

We also saw another small catamaran we hadn't heard of prior to the show called a Tomcat 9.7.  The layout was fairly similar to the Gemini, with a couple of quirky exceptions.  The master cabin was open to the salon area and the access to the master cabin was through the head.  The boat did have a trampoline on the fore-deck while the Gemini had a hard deck.  It also had two outboard gasoline engines instead of the inboard diesel(s) of the Gemini  and Fountaine Pajot models.  The quirks are just not something we felt we could live with, so we didn't look at this boat very long.

The final cat we took a reasonably serious look at was the Lagoon 380.

The largest of the cats we would consider (without winning the lottery anyway).  The one at the show was the 4 stateroom version with the two smaller heads.  This is also a galley-up design.  The space in the salon is nice and the galley was a bit larger than the Fountain Pajot, but I'm not sure it was larger counter space wise than the Gemini.  The berths were all contained in the two hulls.  The aft berths were larger, but I think they were shy of queen size.  The forward berths were closer to v-berths.  Overall, for the increased size of this boat, it seemed that the space was not very efficiently used.

Of the catamarans, I think our favorites that would be within our budget (at least used) would be the Gemini and the Fountaine Pajot.  The master stateroom, overall size, and galley space are the big winners for the Gemini while the deck space and guest room space were the winners for the Fountaine Pajot.  I'm wondering how important having the master berth be at the front of the boat where it can take advantage of any breeze at anchor will be.  In the tropics I assume this will be important.

Next time I'll go through the mono-hulls we looked at as well as our favorite boat overall.

If you want to see a sailboat

It's no secret that we really don't know a lot about all the various live-aboard sailboats out there.  So, what do you do when you want to know about sailboats...you go to the largest sailboat show in the world*...the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis.  So, that is what we did this past weekend.

Not of the show itself...but Annapolis is a sailing town

It was quite an experience.  You can look at pictures and floor plans, but until you actually see them in person, walk the decks, stand (or hunch over) in the berths, climb around and generally experience them in person, you really never know.  You can find boats of all sizes and price ranges at the show, but with our limited amount of time we focused on the sizes and makers we thought would likely fit our needs.  On the monohull side, we looked at Beneteau, Catalina, Hunter, Island Packet and Jeanneau.  On the catamaran side, we looked at boats from Fountaine Pajot, Gemini, Lagoon, Tomcat.

Most of our first full day at the show was participating in their "Take The Wheel" workshop. This consisted of breakfast, presentations for new sailors on purchasing your first boat, lunch, taking two boats out for a demonstration sail, and a wine and cheese party.  The presentations contained a fair amount of information we recently learned in class but had some other good information. We got to take a Fountaine Pajot 41 and a Jenneau 379 out for a spin.  The catamaran was having some issues, so we motor-sailed it.  It was fairly maneuverable with the engines, but I don't know how she would be under sail alone.  The Jenneau on the other hand wasn't having problems and we had a real chance to see how it performed.  It was fun to sail and I could easily see sailing it just the two of us.  Despite the issues on the first boat, they were both good experiences and I would highly recommend taking this workshop for anyone new to sailing that would like to experience larger boats.

In my next post, I'll cover more details on the boats we saw at the show, and what we've determined so far about our future boat.  Stay tuned...

*this is a claim that was made at the show...no idea how true it is...but the show is pretty big.

Grades, Practice, and Oops.

We heard back from the sailing school.  I got a 100 and a 95 on the first two tests and my wife got 99 and 91.  Since anything over 80 was passing, I'd say we did rather well.

We've passed our first two classes and are studying for our third but I thought it would be a good idea not to lose those practical skills, so as a last minute idea this past weekend we rented a boat for an afternoon of sailing.

Unlike most of our classes, we again had a reasonable amount of wind.  We did all the usual maneuvers.  At one point I was having some fun doing figure 8's around two of the reservoir center-line buoys.  We even hove-to so we could enjoy our sandwiches for lunch.  It was good to get out and sail again.

Everything went well...until we came in to dock.  Now, I remember in the first class that the instructor said when you get on and off the boat that you have to commit to one or the other.  I was at the helm and my wife was ready with the dock line...but when she stepped onto the dock she was leaning back a bit and fell back so she was half on the boat and half on the dock.  Well, when one doesn't commit to one or the other she found that you are automatically committed...to the water.

It took a bit to secure the boat (an unsecured boat seemed especially dangerous with someone in the water around unforgiving docks) and then get her out of the water.  Docks don't have safety stairs and the easiest option was to use a neighboring boats swim platform (we did try using a line on the winch to create a makeshift ladder stair first).  Other than a bruise, the only damage I think was her pride.  She's a trooper though and all is well.

Overall, other than the unanticipated swim, it was a good day.  So, I guess now it is back to studying for our next class.

Talk Like a Sailor

A few days ago was International Talk Like A Pirate day.  Since we started to learn to sail, it has amazed me how much of our vernacular appears to come from the sailing days of old. While going through some of the sailing blogs I read (I hope this is the one I found it on), I just happened to come across a link to a pretty good list of terms and phrases used today that can trace their origins to sailing.  Many of these you would not even expect came from sailing ("devil to pay"...really?).  When you have a little time, take a look at the list:

The Nautical Origins of Everyday Sayings

Hope you find it as interesting as I did.  And who knows, maybe you did talk like a pirate...or at least a sailor....that day.

We Passed!

Or...at least I think we did.  Today we received our ASA log books in the mail.  No test scores, no notes, no other communication from the school at all, just the two logs in an envelope.  In the logs are entries for each course and the 101 and 103 entries were signed by the owner of the school and each entry states "Provisional certification for (3) months until seal is affixed".

My understanding is that the official seal (read: sticker) for the log is mailed from the ASA after they receive some sort of report from the school (along with the all important fees to join the ASA and take the tests).  Any bets on if the seals arrive before or after the first issue of the complimentary ASA sailing magazine (that comes with the not-so-complimentary ASA membership)?

I'd really like to know how well we did and what, if any, questions we may have missed.  Hopefully I can get the details from the school.  After all the goal for us here is the education, not the sticker.  When we have our own boat, I doubt it will care if we have a log book with a sticker...it will only care that we don't sink it (and we don't want that either).

Now to start reading the textbooks for the 104 (Bareboat Cruising)/114 (Cruising Catamaran) combined course we will be taking soon.  Looking forward to that course!

Taking the ASA 101 and ASA 103 Written Exams

Since we finally decided on a school that is affiliated with the American Sailing Association for our next course, we just completed the ASA 101 (Basic Keelboat) and ASA 103 (Basic Coastal Cruising) written exams with our current school.  Now, it's been a little while since I've taken a test and even longer since my wife has so we weren't quite sure what to expect.  Add in that our last classroom lecture was close to 4 months ago and we were a little nervous.

After work we make the trek across town to take the test.  As we're grabbing a quick bite to eat before we start the test we realize that we left the navigation chart we were supposed to bring at home.  This was not starting so well.

The ASA 101 test was a 100 question, multiple choice test and wasn't very difficult. It contained questions on identifying parts of a boat, right of way, knots, basic sail handling and points of sail.  Nothing too technical.  I breezed through the test fairly quickly, only really questioning my answers on a couple of the questions.

The second test, ASA 103, was another 100 questions and they were a little more technical. Buoys and channel markers, safety requirements and equipment, sound signals and lighting, as well as more boat part identification and more questions on knots.  It had a few questions on basic chart markings, but nothing that I think required us to have the chart.  Overall it was more difficult, but I think we did well enough.

Both tests took about 2 hours.  We don't know how we did yet...but I think we both managed passing grades (80% or better).  Hopefully should know pretty soon.

Update: We did get our grades and I posted them in this entry.

A Decision!

After looking at and talking with a bunch of sailing schools for our 3rd class (ASA 104), and suffering from a little analysis paralysis, we've finally made a decision.  Having spent all of our time thus far sailing on reservoirs in Colorado, our goal was to spend some time on the ocean and living aboard the boat in the process.  The school we chose was the Tracey School of Sailing Instruction.

Most of the schools we found had choices of single courses or "fast track" courses that combined the two classes we had already taken with the course we wanted to take.  While single classes would work for us, the fast track courses seemed like a waste of time and money.

The Tracy option is technically a single course but we believe they will provide us with a more unique opportunity.  The school operates in two locations during different parts of the year and they take their Maine Cat when they move locations.  So twice a year instead of their normal sailing classes, they divide their trip between New Jersey and Bradenton, Florida, into four live-aboard classes.  Yes, we'll actually get to travel some distance in the course of the course.  In addition, instead of just the 104 course, we will also be doing the 114 (Catamaran) course.  We think this should give us a better breadth of experience than the courses that essentially stay in the same location.

The Tracey School appears to be a smaller school.  My wife and I always like to support smaller businesses when we can.  We've found that smaller businesses seem to understand customer service far better than larger ones, so hopefully this will be the case here as well.

We are SOOOOOOOOO looking forward to this trip...we just need to finish planning it.