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.
10 Wednesday Oct 2018
Posted in Local Sailing, Techniques, Tactics, Tips, Uncategorized
The Far Reach about 24 hours before Florence made landfall.
I am very happy to report that the Far Reach survived the trial of her life during Hurricane Florence, which pounded eastern North Carolina from 13-14 Sept 2019.
16 Thursday Aug 2018
Posted in Uncategorized
I selectively and carefully incorporated dyneema and it’s heat treated cousin Dynex Dux into the rebuilt Far Reach. I used Dux for the forestay and later modified it with a quick release pendant. The link to how we made the forestay releaseable can be found here. https://farreachvoyages.wordpress.com/2017/10/23/a-new-forestay-release-device/
We used a 5/16” doubled soft shackle to attach the large low friction ring to the tack fitting on the gammon iron as part of our releasable forestay system.
We also use dyneema for our lifelines and various shackles with and without toggles. The dyneema has performed very well. We continue to find ways to use dyneema in a manner that suits our philosophy of reliability, simplicity, and self sufficiency.
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.
18 Monday Jun 2018
Posted in Local Sailing, Musings, People, Uncategorized, Voyaging
We had hoped to sail to Bermuda this summer but it was just not in the cards. We had too many balls in the air especially with the kids graduating from home high school and the seminar I teach at Camp Lejeune graduating at the end of May. So, we decided to enjoy a more simple to execute, week long cruise out to the Cape Lookout National Seashore. This trip was just for Gayle and me. Because the kids are usually with us, it was the first time Gayle and I have been alone on the Far Reach for more than a night. So we left the newly graduated high school seniors at home with a credit card and the car keys.
The Far Reach all provisioned and ready to go.
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.
26 Thursday Oct 2017
Posted in Uncategorized
We changed the web address of this site. If you made it here then you know the new address is: http://www.farreachvoyages.wordpress.com
We plan to keep our other website on-line as well. It is the original site and is the one that documents the six year rebuild of the Far Reach. You can visit it at www.farreachvoyages.com.
23 Monday Oct 2017
Posted in Equipment, Modifications, Uncategorized, Upgrades
The Far Reach has a headstay and a forestay. Until recently, the forestay was dyneema with a spliced bronze eye connected to a bronze turnbuckle. It was difficult to disconnect the forestay and pull it back out of the way to make short tacking easier.
Cutter rigged boats like the Far Reach have a headstay and a forestay. The forestay is sometimes referred to as the inner-stay but it is correctly called the forestay as it supports the fore stays’l.
A challenge for cutter rigged boats is tacking with both stays rigged. If the slot between the two stays is narrow, and sometimes even if it is not particularly narrow, the jib can get “hung up” on the forestay as it passes through the slot from one tack to the other. When short-tacking (tacking a number of times in rapid succession) up a narrow channel you can get into trouble if your jib fails to pass through the slot between the stays. Occasional tacks should not be a concern and every sailor should be able to tack their cutter reliably with only the occasional hiccup.
