Category: Hemispheres

Came across this the other day in one of my RSS feeds. Nicely done video. Getting the urge to go somewhere far.

Offshore to The Caribbean – Part One: Newport to Bermuda from David Lyman on Vimeo.

From time to time I get that itch for a new or newer boat. Hemispheres is fifteen years old now, and she’s at the point where you make the decision to do major electronics upgrades, change the standing rigging, and new sails. I’ve already had both sails patched, stitched, covered, etc., but the main in definitely blown out and it’s time. I also want to replace the heat-A/C as it’s old, very loud and not as efficient.

But I love the layout, traditional u-shaped galley, full nav station where I work from as I’m a telecommuter, good sized head with a separate shower stall. Many other things too like a very, very nice cockpit with an absurdly large port side lazarette. How large you say? Large enough to put a full sized mountain bike, a rolled up 8’6″ dinghy in the bag, spinnaker in a bag, a bucket full of stuff and a plastic tub stuffed with other crap. The engine only has 1100 hours so she’s fine, already performed major routine maintenance like the water pump. The one thing she doesn’t have is an island berth up front. Would love that instead of the v-berth. I actually stay in the aft berth which in it’s own right is quite large.

Hemispheres is a 36ft boat and I think the ideal size would be a 38ft. She’s a fast boat for a 36 footer with a total displacement at 13,600lbs. One thing, she’s a flat bottom boat with a wing keel so in heavy seas she can pound. My last trip had me wishing I was on an IP380 for a while. Overall, great boat, very easy to sail and very forgiving. When overpowered, she’ll just simply round up and is very easy to heaave-to, well balanced.

One annoying thing is that she has this inner stay, a baby stay. Not for another sail but mainly to reduce the pumping of the mast. So I don’t have enough foredeck space to put a fully inflated dingy on deck.

I’ve looked at the Beneteau 393 which would be a good upgrade but boy oh boy did they screw up the layout. First, no starboard side settee, just cabinets. They decided to cram two heads into the boat instead of a single large head with a separate shower stall. And for all the space forward, ruined by putting head completely forward and a pullman berth for the forward stateroom. There was enough space forward of the salon bulkhead to have an island berth cabin, and room between that and the anchor locker for a sail locker. That could have been the ideal boat as everything else remained. Dedicated Nav station, full u-shapted galley, monster sized lazarette.

Which comes to some boats I really like, like the Tartan 3700 and the Rustler 37. Of course my likings and good taste would lead me to a price range that’s a bit of a stretch, but who knows. The rustler 37 has one heck of a layout for a 37 footer. This boat has a sail locker behind the anchor locker, so the beam of the bulkhead at the head of the bed is quite wide. Essentially a full double bed.

 

Also, she has a keg hung rudder, partial full keel but the draft is 6’3″, not a draft for the U.S. east coast. Also, no stern entry/exit with a sugarscoop transom. But a fine boat indeed.

The Tartan 3700 is a great boat, great lines and is just beautiful down below. But…v-berth. She has a modified U-shaped galley, essentially an L-shaped galley with the sinks detached on an island and a flip up extension to close into a U. The wood work is just something to stare at. Also has a great sized head with a separate shower stall. But she’s also a flat bottom boat so I can imagine she will pound just the same.

Which then brings me to the boat of boats? The IP370. Full keel, protected rudder and prop. Crazy absurd internal storage and is fully a bluewater boat. In the real sense of things, so are all the others listed here, all of them can cross the Atlantic and Pacific properly equipped and with a good captain.

She has the island berth I want. Good sized head with a dedicated shower stall, u-shaped galley and even a dedicated nav station, if not in an awkward location. I would still have to tow the dinghy or add davits because of the boom on the inner stay, no room on deck. Also, I’m used to my cockpit on Hemispheres and the IP370 cockpit seems a bit cramped. But it’s not like I’ve ever spent time in it, just going on what I see in the pictures.

Well, the ideal boat?

• A 30 to 40ft length
• island or full double berth forward
• anchor locker and sail locker
• dedicated nav station and full u-shaped galley
• single, large head with a dedicated shower stall
• single, large wheel, don’t want dual helm.
• space on deck for carrying a dinghy
• skeg hung rudder for protection and if not a full keel, partial keel
• in the cockpit, a binnacle that doesn’t have the chart plotter in your face
• and a bunch of other stuff that will come up.

So anyone know of a config like this?

So this year’s Annapolis boatshow will be special (although I say this every year). It’s either I settle on a new boat,  or a slighty used boat (near new), or throw some major boat bucks into hemispheres and keep her another ten years.

Well, got a lot of stuff done this weekend in prepping for a summer filled with cruising. Still thinking about the Chesapeake. First, changed the carburetor on the Tohatsu outboard. Special thanks to Wade for watching over my shoulder and pointing things out. My first time ever doing that and was done in about ten minutes. Rather simple now that I look back on it. The motor consistently starts on the first or second pull and runs smoothly now.

Also got a couple of fans replaced throughout the boat. Bought a pair of Calfrano fans, one for the main cabin and the second for the aft main berth. I replaced them from the ones I put in a couple of years ago. Found a “special” on Amazon for $18 each. They work but are just too noisy and don’t move much air. These are leaps and bounds better (they shoould at 4X the cost). They’re three speed fans, moves air and are relatively quiet.

Next up, got an asym spinnaker today. Hoisted it, raised the sock and POOF!!, filled right up. Did I mention we did this at the dock? Yup. It was a stretch testing it in ~12kt winds. Got the sock back down and all is good. Can’t wait to try her out on the water, hopefully next weekend.

Now on to the stern transom shower covers. They were weathered out and were broken off when the boat yard was doing some other work on the boat. They ordered replacements and were supposed to install them, they never got around to it so I just picked them up and decided to do them myself. Well, they ordered the wrong type or size, existing holes don’t line up and I’m not drilling new holes. So need to call Bene direct and order the correct ones.

So with all that, a little baseball then it was time for a nice dinner at The Silos. A sirloin drenched in lobster sauce, topped with grilled shrimp over a bed of cajun potatoes. And to go with it? A recommendation of Malibu Rum and lemonade. Nice.

I typically go through this every year, thinking about davits or to continue towing the dinghy. I actually have two dinghys. A Zodiac Zoom 8’6″ for when I’m by myself and a Mercury Aerodeck 10’2″ for that rare of rare occasions when the family comes along (over a year now, for a different blog post). Both are fully inflatable and I can actually store either of them in the lazarette. But that’s a pain, inflating and deflating so I just tow them.

Last month when going to Ocracoke in head-on winds over 20kts, I happened to look back and noticed the Zodiac was in the air for a moment, completely our of the water, about a foot high. I cringed expecting the worst but it settled back down. So now I’m thinking of davits again. I really don’t want to ruin the aesthetics of the boat and like the ability to cleanly enter and debark from the transom, those are my main concerns.

But I learned of Kato Marine, and they actually have a set of davits already made for the Beneteau 361, so I’m thinking about it seriously this time. If I do get the davits, that just means I need to get a hard bottom dinghy, preferably with an aluminum floor. One concern I have is that I may have to move my custom motor mount and add stainless tubes on the inside of cockpit. I saw this photo on Kato’s site of a B361 with their davits.
If you know of anyone that has the Kato Marine Island Davits on a B361, send them here.