This place is more paradise and it’s not a bad spot to do some maintenance on the boat either! Join us as we go through some of the jobs that we do to keep the boat going and to reduce longterm wear and tear.
Sweet spot mate. Tell ya 2 things, Duralac, I was, in a past life, a shipwright, and that shit was the goods for stainless and alloy. The next thing is that when you get back to Strayla get in contact with me some how, and i have a reasonable amount of Foam glass etc , boat building gear, that will be useful and free. a hangover from me thinking I would go into the catamaran market and compete with Seawind and fusion , Grainger and Lightwave. Didn't happen, now I'm a Happy mussel And oyster farmer. And would like to see it go to you if you could use it. You guys make me happy every time i see something you put up. Been watching you from the very beginning. safe travels.
Thanks for taking us all along on this trip. The daily updates on the crossing made it feel like being onboard. I have a Chris White 42 Catamaran and I have always had a love for his 54 Hammerhead Tri. design. I've been following your adventures on RU-vid since the beginning and your videos are some of the best.
Thanks John 🙏 really love getting these comments. CW certainly has designed some great boats and we’ve been surprised by how many we’ve seen out here in the Pacific. Enjoy your boat and hope to see you out here one day!
Such a lovely spot! Must be an odd feeling to be in the middle of the ocean, yet anchored in a atoll in 3 meters of water, no swells, and nobody around! Suggest adding plastic bushings around the solar panel bolts, and high density plastic washers. Should greatly diminish the electrolysis. I generally don't use silicone on a boat due to resultant painting difficulties, but a non-silicone sealant will help (just not anything very strong, like 5200), Also, high grade 316 stainless helps too. I'm with you on the Tef-Gel. Kind of nasty stuff, but VERY effective on mast fasteners, etc. Fair winds Spirit!
Cheers Marty all good advice and yeah it’s surreal being out here in the middle of nowhere in totally calm waters yet 100m away on the windward side it’s 3m seas crashing onto the atolls out reef edge. Crazy beautiful place!
Yeah it’s a spectacular spot I’ll post some vids soon showing it in more detail. You’re spot on boats are constant maintenance but so is life if you want to live happy and healthy 😁
Another soft tacked trimaran. You're the expert at those repairs. This time you get to do the repairs at home in nice weather instead of under a tarp in New Port RI Fall weather... Love to you.
I recommend a product called Tef-Gel, a teflon based grease which effectively isolates the dissimilar metals. It also prevents galling of similar metal like stainless steel. The base is gear oil which is quite tenacious and lasts a long time. Coat the stainless hardware to attach to the mast to eliminate corrosion.
Thanks 🙏 great tip and we have a massive tube onboard but I don’t like using it as much as corrosion block. I find it far too sticky and it gets everywhere a bit like sikaflex 😁 as we open and close the panels often I like CB as it cleans up a little easier. We do love it though but mainly on bits we’re not having to touch often such as the rigging. 👍
When you were in Thailand you had a video showing the tremendous amount of plastic garbage on the beach and in the water. What is the situation in this atoll in regards to plastic refuse? Thank you for explaining the maintenance required to mitigate corrosion and mildew. In your current location you are the most fortunate couple on the planet. Enjoy!
Thanks Pat we definitely feel lucky out here. The plastic situation isn’t as bad as SE Asia but if you walk on the windward side of all of the atolls there’s plastic. For sure not as extreme as Asia but it is here. The rougher coral coast lines and seas here do tend to break it up into smaller pieces so it’s less obvious.
Just Beautiful Folks & Great Golden Tips & Knowledge 🙏🐬🐬 💫👍🏻 (I can feel the gentle breeze, humidity, ambient sun light, ocean temp with vivid clarity & acute definition - Thank You...👍🏻💫👣)
video. wonderful sailing machine and beautiful anchorage... can't wait to see Trimaran Spirit after she's the way you envision, glad you take us along!
@@bowlinggreenoil Yeah, perhaps. The thin film type can be degraded by walking on them. I've never seen any documentation on that, but have seen panels that had many cracks, were broken or otherwise had micro-fractures throughout. One would think bronze frames, bolts and nuts would be used.
Not sure what you’re meaning there? Is that in reference to the panel surrounds or the mounting brackets? As this system was experimental and installed in Panama (see our earlier videos) we used the easiest material we could find to mount them hence they’re made from aluminium it’s also the same materiel as the panel surrounds so there’s less interaction between them both. The only corrosive elements are the SS bolts and as long as we maintain them they’re not an issue. Once we get back to Australia and after we’ve worked out how much solar we need onboard we’ll come up with a more suitable and longterm solution.
Unfortunately the flexibility solar panels aren’t as efficient as hard panels they also don’t last anywhere near as long. We had them on the old Spirit and they were great but these panels far exceed them in both efficiency and cost.
Hi, I am wondering if you will/could use this boat to do an approximation of the TG design ? If the cockpit floor were dropped to the height of the wheelhouse floor , then a continuation of wheelhouse roof back over the new cockpit ; and the top/roof cut off the rear cabin to form a lift up roof ? the only stumbling block would be the big lump of a diesel....... hmm...diesel gone to be replaced by 2 x outboards... or diesel stay & protruding thru the cockpit floor with a box/cover over it ? ( good for access !) So then I think - hmm which came first ??? was the boat found & then a chat to TG ?? or was the chat first & then a boat found to fit the bill ? All will be revealed over time like a good book ?? Patience grasshopper..... ( i must try - dammit !)
Wow love this, good questions and shows you know us well! 😁 the design/concept we’d been working on with TG was based upon our dream boat if money and time were no issue and it was done a few years ago well before we’d found the new Spirit. I think what’s attracted us to this boat was how similar her layout and design is to that concept. She shares a lot of similarities and it’s definitely been cool to live and sail on her and to see that those ideas work incredibly well. The changes you mention could be implemented but as always there’s compromises of certain things. We’ll keep the boat the way it is but will make changes that open up her spaces more and make them more usable. The passage home and time onboard over the coming years will drive those changes and once we feel comfortable with them we’ll do a refit and implement them. I’d love to remove the internal diesel and to change it out for two electric longtails but we’ll have to wait for battery capacity and solar technology to advance a bit as whatever changes we make need to make the boat lighter, stronger and more efficient. Keep an eye on us and if you’re ever in the same area come say hi. Thanks for your great comment 🙏 and have a great day!
Just curious - if you're using fresh water for jobs like washing off the anchor chain do you have enough supply to stay there for 3 weeks and make it to your next destination?
Good question! Spirit XL carries around 500lts of fresh water which lasts us around two weeks but we have a desalinator/watermaker that uses around 1000 watts of power and produces 70lts of water an hour. We run the watermaker every few days and keep the tanks topped up. It’s also good practice to run the watermaker often as it reduces the chances of growth on the membrane. So we’re lucky as we make our own water never needing to come into the land to fill up 👍😁
