From the photo above, taken in the lagoon adjacent to Cape Lookout in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, you can see there is a bit of breeze. In fact, this breeze woke us up at 0400 with the wind shift, meter high waves, and bumping the bottom wih the keel. Coastal cruising, in a country with […]
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A Bottom Paint That Works, and Ready To Start “The List”
We’ve been hauled by Jarrette Bay and the first order of business is an inspection of the bottom. We are not displeased with what we see. Starting with the props, painted with “Prop Speed” four months ago, and they look very clean. The hull zincs look good as well. These are the originals, now 6.5 […]
What A Good Running Engine Exhaust Looks Like after 50,000+ Miles
Wind Horse now has 5700+ hours on her two little John Deere diesels, over 50,000 nautical miles of cruising the oceans. If you have looked at “experienced” exhaust systems, you will know that an exhaust this clean after almost 6000 hours is the exception rather than the rule. The first photo is one of the […]
Wave Size Probability
We were just talking about significant one third highest wave heights and how this compares to what you may encounter. The graphic above and photo below are a partial explanation from Mariner’s Weather Handbook (the link will take you to the table of contents) The bottom line is that the very highest waves can be twice […]
Meteorological Bomb Coming?
“Hi Steve. Speaking of storms and weather patterns what do you think about the low off the east coat. Looked ominous on the surface charts and even more so on the 500 mb charts. Some weather sites are calling it a low pressure “bomb”. I have read your Mariners Weather Handbook a few times through […]
FPB 64 – Going Smoothly
While our usual fair is more extreme weather than this video depicts, there are some lessons for us here as well, not the least of which is the efficiency at work you are about to watch your computer screen. The video was shot by Brian Rickard on a recent cruise with the Henrys aboard the […]
Wind Horse – Time For Some Pampering
Wind Horse has finished her seventh season of cruising, there are 5600 hours on her engines, and more than 50,000 miles have passed under her svelte canoe body. She has traveled from New Zealand to Alaska, through Panama to Greenland, across the North Atlantic to the British Isles, and cruised Norway to Svalbard and the […]
Fiji To New Zealand – FPB 64-1 Avatar Picks Up Some Valuable Force Nine Data
The passage from the tropical South Pacific island nation of Fiji, south to New Zealand, is one of the more difficult you will find. There is a high risk of heavy weather, sometimes extreme, that every year catches a few yachts. Obviously it is best to avoid this form of unpleasantness. The key is boat […]
FPB 115 – A New Paradigm
Our work flow on a new design goes through several phases the first of which we call the gestation period. There is a design target, often moving, and we try various combinations to see how the concept boat feels to us. With something totally different, like Beowulf, or Wind Horse, gestation can take years. At […]
Hull Efficiency And Dolphins
We were tied up at the Jarrett Bay boat yard complex yesterday, doing a bit of preliminary planning with Corey McMahon who will be handling our seven year itch list, when a couple of interesting photo ops passed by. There is a pod of dolphins hanging out off the docks and occasionally riding bow waves […]
