| S/V Tethys Mentor, Consultant, Sister Ship… We are voyaging across the Pacific with Captain Nancy Erley and Tethys (www.tethysoffshore.com). Nancy has inspired, consulted, mentored, listened and encouraged Ace, Leslie, Jude and this voyage from the start. She is a great teacher, a good friend and a huge supporter of women’s sailing! |
| S/V Fraid Knot 1980 Yorktown 39 aft cockpit sloop: LOA: 39’ Beam: 11’9” Disp: 20,000 lb Engine: 1998 Yanmar 3HMF 30 hp diesel. Cruising Keel, Wheel steering. |
| Offshore improvements made to the boat in the past year: -Radar installed, new Garmin color chart GPS installed, masthead tricolor lights added, complete upgrade of the electrical system – 4 new gel house batteries, 1 isolated gel start battery; new smart charger, new sine wave inverter, new battery switch, new 75 amp alternator, new regulator. All thanks to Glenn Hoffman – (and son Kurt) - electrician, mechanic, finder of obscure parts and all around great advisor! |
| -Cutter rigging installed (auxillary inner forestay with 54 square ft. 10 ounce storm staysail), new forestay and backstay, all new running rigging (sheets, halyards, mainsheet blocks and self tailing mainsheet winch, new boom, new rigid boom vang, replaced the mainsail with 8 ounce triple reinforced sail with 2 reef points, new reef lines and reefing winch at the mast, added jacklines, lazyjacks, rope clutches, and a preventer. Thanks to Scott McBeath (rigger) for his countless hours of work and willingness to discuss, explain and invent solutions! There's Scott now, making everything just right!! All sails inspected and reinforced/repaired by Axel and Frank of Schattauer Sails, who were great consultants. In addition to the main and staysail, also carrying 90% and 120% roller furling headsails, and an asymmetrical spinnaker. |
| -Self Steering Sailomat 601x Windvane installed. This is a mechanical self steering system that uses the wind and the motion of the water to correct the boat’s course. Therefore, we can sail without hand steering or using the autopilot, which requires power. Leslie demonstrates the "look Ma, no hands" position!! |
| -Installed SGC 2000 Single side band HF radio with STCIIe modem for receiving weather forecasts and sailmail, got a new laptop and spare handheld VHF radio. We also installed a Watch Commander, which is basically a failsafe alarm so no one can fall asleep on watch. -Reinforced/doublestiched the dodger and bimini, made weather cloths for the cockpit and lee cloths for the berths. Thanks to Sue Joerger for her sewing project management, and for doing all the new stuff for Fraid Knot (which looks fabulous!) |
| -Hauled out in November, inspected all through hulls, replaced one. Replaced 3 gate valves with ball valves. Painted bottom with 3 coats ablative paint. Replaced head. -Safety: We will be carrying plenty of food, water and fuel. We have a six-person offshore life raft and a 406 EPIRB beacon w/ GPS in case of extreme emergency. Navigation equipment includes paper, electronic (Seaclear II NOAA) and GPS charts; radar, several handheld GPS units, 2 compasses and a sextant (for fun!) FCC Ships Radio station license and beacon registration complete. Callsign WDD2486 -Jeanette decided to organize my storage spaces and created wonderful netting and storage solutions!! |
Gearing up the Boat
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Gearing Up
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