13 Sunday Jan 2019
Posted in Modifications, Provisioning, Uncategorized, Upgrades, Voyaging
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Water hauling day: 35 gallons or 280 lbs of water. Our 9’ Fatty Knees has been a real work horse for almost 15 years. She’s tough, rows well, and with a 15’ tall mast carries a lot of sail for her size. I can’t imagine trading her for an inflatable.
As part of our “keep it simple” approach to all things sailing we have developed a system for filling the water tanks on the Far Reach. It didn’t happen all at once…it took a little time and some trial and error.
24 Saturday Nov 2018
Posted in Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades
The jalousie window keeps rain from being blown into the cabin when the wind is aft yet helps to maintain ventilation. To install it just swap it out with the center drop board.
During my last voyage to the BVI, and especially on the downwind sail home, it became evident to me that life aboard would be improved if I could prevent rain from being blown into the boat through the companionway from an aft wind while at the same time maintaining airflow in the boat.
18 Sunday Nov 2018
Posted in Modifications, Repairs, Uncategorized
The new hatch lock conceals the bulk of the brass barrel bolt and makes it stronger. It also can’t be reached from the bridge-deck.
One of the things I have not liked about my boat is I have no way to lock the companionway from the inside. It’s an odd thing when you think about it. When I rebuilt the boat, though I made a lot of changes, I kept the basic design of the original companionway intact. This is an important capability when you are sleeping on the boat and you can’t lock the “front door” so to speak. You are therefore vulnerable. I heard about more than just a few boats getting boarded at night when I was sailing in the West Indies.
13 Tuesday Nov 2018
Posted in Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades
Singlehanding home from Sint Maarten to N.C. in May 2016. The lifelines felt too low and I wanted to replace them.
During the six year rebuild of the Far Reach I wanted to replace the original 24” tall lifeline stanchions with taller ones of about 30 inches. But, at that time, taller stanchions were not enough of a priority to make it on to the budget. We made do for the past three years including 3,500nm of off-shore sailing.
10 Saturday Nov 2018
Posted in Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades
The caddy will hold three drinks, travel mugs, or water bottles
Just a little project to to address the need for a way to keep drinks secure in the cockpit when sailing. Some teak, 3/32 silicon bronze, and chrome tanned leather. All scraps or off cuts from other projects. Inspired by an old article written by Lin and Larry Pardey.
23 Tuesday Oct 2018
Posted in Equipment, Maintenance, Modifications, Repairs, Uncategorized, Upgrades
We never had problems with bugs in the West Indies as we always anchored out and there was always a breeze. Nonetheless, I wanted to have a full set of screens for the Far Reach.
With Hurricane Florence behind us, it was time to return to the preparation of the Far Reach for the voyage back to the BVI and the West Indies. At the moment we are working on a few small but important projects. Described below are a few of them.
We completed building the drop-in companionway bug screens. I built the teak frames last winter but got side tracked before installing the screens. I still need to sew up some screens for the foredeck and saloon deck hatches. Gayle sewed a nice padded pouch to protect them when stored under a bunk.
16 Monday Jul 2018
Posted in Equipment, Maintenance, Modifications, Musings, Uncategorized, Upgrades
All of the standing rigging on the Far Reach is spliced to include the 3/8” bob-stay and the 5/16” sprit-shroud stays.
Readers of our rebuild website may remember I hand-spliced the standing rigging for the new mast we built for the Far Reach. It was one of the many projects associated with the six year rebuild. I used a splice called the Liverpool Splice. I learned it by reading Brion Toss’ book The Rigger’s Apprentice.
09 Wednesday May 2018
Posted in Equipment, Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades
Before: The primary winches were on a 2” riser pad and were, by design, very tall winches. They also suffered from aluminum/bronze corrosion—IMO a fundamentally bad design.
After: The new primaries are a little shorter in height plus I removed the riser pad. They are the same model as the smaller stays’l winches we installed last fall. Note the new winch base with bronze plate.
After completing a number of small projects this year, it was time to tackle the last big project for the foreseeable future—installing the new primary winches. The new winches are bronze Lewmar Ocean Series ST 46 two speed winches. The 46s replace the original 1982 era bronze two speed Lewmar 44s. Though they performed satisfactorily, the 44s were a flawed design from the beginning, mixing aluminum with bronze. The aluminum jaws were ate up with galvanic corrosion. For more information on the original installation click here.
28 Saturday Apr 2018
Posted in Equipment, Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades
The removable dinghy step is about 24” long x 9” wide. The sub frame is iroko and the treads are teak.
We have found getting from the dinghy up to the Far Reach is not always so easy. It’s a little over 40” from the waterline to the top of the bulwarks. It’s not just us. I think many cruisers find climbing from the dinghy to the mothership a challenge, especially as we get older. And, the traditional stern on the Far Reach means the best way to embark or debark is along-side vice over the stern. Many modern sailboat designs include the now ubiquitous “sugar-scoop” transom, which greatly simplifies the task of getting from the dinghy to the sailboat. The disadvantage of a sugar-transom is that it makes the boat less secure. It’s easy for an unwanted visitor to get aboard the boat by clandestinely swimming up to the stern and crawling up and over the sugar-scoop. And sugar scoops, generally, detract from the aesthetics of the boat. But I digress.
07 Saturday Apr 2018
Posted in Maintenance, Modifications, Repairs, Techniques, Tactics, Tips
The dorade boxes were in bad shape. Originally, I varnished them but finally painted them white after repeated mysterious varnish failures.
I have known for a long time that I needed to replace the dorade boxes on the Far Reach. During the six year long rebuild I was on a budget so I had to decide how to spend the time and money, where to save the time and money, and when to live to fight another day. So, building new dorades was saved for another day…which, finally, arrived a few weeks ago
Far Reach Voyages 