Sailing to The Paradise of the Pacific Ocean with my own boat has been my dream. The first big question was, what would be the right time for the adventure, do I want to take a break or retire early?
Since our daughter was born in 2009 and our son in 2011, early retirement was obviously the most productive option, when young children were old enough to enjoy and travel, but not so much as to lose vital years of school. Young people age 7 to 11 seemed perfect, so we set the date for 2018.
Having chartered yachts all over the world, with one exception to all monohulls, the time of the inquiry was which boat to buy? My wife, Dina, was transparent about the area she was looking for for over a year. We were looking for boats from 70 to 80 feet, however we temporarily learned that this length would mean having a professional crew on board. Speaking to friends who had done similar jobs, we thought of multihulls.
A catamaran would offer the same living space, being more compact and shorter than a monohcast, I also sought reinforcements for key systems, and a catamaran comes with two engines, two propellers, two rudders, plus, with two helmets and short, soft Quillas, catamarans are virtually unsinkable and can cross much shallower moorings.
After a year of evaluations, we opted for a Fountaine Pajot Saba 50, which would provide us with the right balance between weight, surface and functionality for long bluewater crossings.
Our explanation of why opting for the Saba 50 of the wide diversity of other catamarans its weight – the other brands can be between 10 and 30% heavier. We felt that editing four cabins would give us space to sail with family, but I would leave the option of having friends with the young people on board.
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Did that idea make you shudder or deny with your head?Conventional guides for many long-range cruise ships.
For many, the opportunity to exchange a brick and mortar by categories on the bridge or on the beach is . . .
Some other brands are offering more options, especially in colors and internal materials, but for us, at this stage, we are still 100 percent committed to a non-easy professional life, this is not what we are looking for to dedicate time to you.
However, we would have liked some of Fountaine Pajot’s features in the domain of “facilitating navigation” for a small crew. We have added a series of tacos and blocks, for the installation of the reefs or the assembly of the elevator from the bar station. than the mast.
In terms of safety, the initial emergency rudder only allowed it to drive in the engine compartment with the locker open, and it took many paints to make it suitable to Bluewater’s needs. Another replaces the original 25 kg anchor, which we replaced with an Ultra of forty-five kg and doubled the chain life.
To the redundancy of all key long-crossing devices, we added a moment autopilot and an additional hydraulic pump to the helm at the moment. Then a stop camera that allows us to see blind spots on the other side of the bar while operating on ports, SSB radio, satellite communication and a global TV receiver ended our electronics.
All this added to the whole set of extras that would be had in the yard and completed what we thought was essential for our planned trip. One option we do not present are the additional bumpers attached to the fascits. Allow water to enter the engine compartments even after it has been repaired once. In the end, we eliminated them.
We commissioned the boat with the beaupré option for a gennaker, which turned out to be a sail, we also had more accessories made for a Wingaker, a vented Parasailor type spi, absolutely necessary for Atlantic and Pacific crossings with its long passes to the bearing.
For the look, we added a lot more teca on the deck and inflexible steel doors than hard-to-close cables on the back panel. As we had planned to dive alone than to look at the local dive instructors, and in many excellent places there are none. We also added a dive compressor to our team, which we never regret.
Other families of smaller monoheds have also made such a journey, however, the fact that the RAID has a bit of the Party Boat of the World ARC fleet has shown us that area and many other amenities such as an adult ice device or a giant television. because children’s movie nights were an advantage.
The RAID was delivered in June 2018 and we passed the first component of our crossing through the Mediterranean, an in-depth sea test that allowed us to get to know the largest ship and the entire ship’s apparatus in a family setting. In the direction of the Canary Islands, we “met” Hurricane Leslie, the most violent typhoon ever reached in Portugal. After zigzagging across the Atlantic, figueira da Foz hit in 95 knot winds while we waited in Cadiz.
Leaving the typhoon tail might not have been the most productive resolution: we paid with a strong swell and volatile winds of 30 knots against. We joined the ARC, which crosses from Gran Canaria to Santa Lucia through Cape Verde, and discovered the strangely simple passage with stable industrial winds. We were crossed in thirteen days, reaching third place in the multihed ARC division.
For children, we plan to go to school at home on days without veils and take textbooks in all their subjects (mathematics, geometry and German) to stick to the program. We had discussed the issue with their teachers before we left and they had been very positive about the party to come. We had planned a percentage of the training between the two, being very strict with a daily regimen of 2-3 hours unless on special days with tours or sailing in heavier weather.
But actually, we found it difficult to cope with the good looks of the options we visited. It is vital to perceive the richness of learning that young people can do without formal schooling. It’s not just about living the journey through other cultures, it’s also about interacting with all the other families of navigators.
In addition, our two young men master English after only six months. English is the primary language for all families to interact with other sailors. The key skills our next generation desires are social skills, creativity, understanding other cultures and our planet. and independent thinking.
All this can be learned on a one-year sailing holiday by gathering other young sailing youth, young people from the region, visiting other countries and cultures (some still very archaic) or spending 24 hours camping on a desert island with young people from some other boat. .
For two months, we also had a marine biologist on board, who taught the young people about the sea and its creatures. No wonder the attention span in those categories longer than in the German categories! Learning to kitesurf or dive is also a smart choice for school sports.
In retrospect, the greatest vital things young people learned came not here from textbooks, but from the school itself. We achieved schooling, in the sense that they were able to return from our first year and aim for the same elegance as their peers. without falling behind and retraining to school life without problems.
In mid-January, we set off from the Caribbean islands to sail to Panama with the World ARC, highlighting the San Blas or Guna Islands, as local indians call them, this chain of more commonly uninhabited islands is at the point of fact fantastic and would be worth a much longer stay. In Panama, we had a memorable stop at the Embera Indians in their village. It was glorious to see how our young men without delay started playing with their little ones.
Crossing the Panama Canal was an unforgettable dance in a very small space, with some of the largest ships on the planet. So it was like we were being opened up with a new e-book. The Pacific was much more exciting and interesting. People are much closer to nature, very friendly and value visitors than just seeing them as a source of income.
Galapagos with its incredible wildlife – wow! The only unexpected thing is the amount of tourism and the area that humans have already taken, in stark contrast to the places we visited later, the highlights were the Marquesas Archipelago, with its highest mountains, or the Tuamotu Islands, which they stretch for more than 1,000 miles. , with 78 celestial atolls where, at most, you would never see a soul.
The Tuamotu definitely deserved a longer scale with its magnificent dive sites, swimming with lots of sharks as we did in Fakarava and kite points.
Everyone has heard of Tahiti, Moorea or Bora Bora, but have you ever heard of Suwarrow, Niue or the organization of the Ha’apai Islands in Tonga?Here, a yacht is the only genuine way to move and explore the beauty of the unspoiled nature, whether on land or at sea with an abundance of corals and colorful fish, including whales.
You have to respect the way of life of the Pacific islanders, so in Fiji, for example, you stop at the village chief and give him a gift (we gave Cava). Once this is done, they treat you like one of their own. with the right to swim, fish, land, stop at home or move to school (what our young people have been doing for a week). Coconuts are owned by the local landowner and not one is picked up – this would be considered a robbery.
The maps are not very exact and the accesses to the islands can be dangerous, especially those that are surrounded by reefs, such as the Tuamotu. Make sure to enter with the sun on your back around noon and be aware of the tide, as the currents can be much faster than the engines on your yacht.
The scariest moment for us was a six-hour storm between Tuamotu and French Polynesia with winds well above 60 knots, which broke our Raymarine wind indicator. That said, the RAID has felt safe and we’ve continued to sail with as many reefs as possible. .
In total, we spent seven months in the Pacific, returning to Europe from Fiji, where we left the ship. We were making plans to return to Fiji in May because we thought we were looking to spend more time there, but the coronavirus. The pandemic blocked it. Finally, we will continue towards Vanuatu, Tanna and Australia. We have to send the boat back to the Mediterranean after that, so it can be our holiday home in Turkey and the Greek islands.
For portions, I think first of all of the portions of a desailing plant capable of generating a moderate amount of water. Not having water especially reduces the quality of life on board. Our Aquabase produces up to 180 liters per hour, but failed 3 times, obviously this happens in the worst places, in our case in the San Blas and Tuamotu Islands, the low pressure pump broke twice and the high pressure pump once.
Another important replacement component is Volvo’s engine-attached black box (MDI). Our D2-75 suddenly produced all kinds of un invited diets and may not stop at the helm. No one knew what it could be, and only an Internet blog search showed that this is a well-known problem.
Fortunately, Volvo sent a replacement, but I don’t understand why they don’t return all those MDSs. Getting a replacement is pretty fast in Europe, but it took us weeks in Colombia!
Bring additional rope and enough fabric to fix the candles, at least one major drisse replacement. A challenge for us the major drisse with a Karver hook that had too much friction, so we needed an additional line on the head of our candle for In addition, one of the plastic pulleys of the mast head was rubbed.
Therefore, we had to climb the mast to cut the sail. Since then, we have had to update the major drisse twice where it grazes opposite the pendulum. Additional improved coverage in the drisse’s most sensitive 50 cm helped the problem. .
Ralf Schlaepfer is a serial entrepreneur whose first business at the age of 16 created and sold his own consulting company and is now CEO of the plastic recycling company Tubis Group. He is also the mayor of his hometown of Schluein, in eastern Switzerland. He married Dina in 2007 and they have two children, Alexander and Ivy. Ralf received his skipper’s license 30 years ago and has chartered yachts several times on vacation since then.
First in the September 2020 factor of Yachting World.
The October 2020 edition of Yachting World takes a look at the stunning Superyacht Spirit 111, and our boat reviewers express their tips for locating the best yacht. News with the crew . . .