far venture

STEEL SCHOONER

Length
15 m/50 ft

monohull

sail

Description

Ideal vessel for high latitude sailing. She's a 50 ft steel flush deck pilot house steel 50 ft schooner with an ocean style keel and attached skeg rudder . This is sort of a modern design---80ties or so---something like the famous Ocean Bound-a Sparkman Stevens-world record breaker that broke all around the world solo records sailed by Cowper in the late 70ties. She features an attractive pilot hoouse flush deck-mentioned above- with equal mast height two Bermuda main sails- fore and aft.. She'd be more correctly called a cutter schooner as her fore sails occupy over half the lenght of the vessel. the 100 % genoa for example has a foot of about 27 ftlong. . Now schooners are not --close haled that is. as efficient goiong to windward as a slopo or cutter design. This vessel should do well thoogh as these main sails--idential in size are rather high aspect sails-4.5 to 1 tha is the luff is 4.5 times the legth of the boom. . Sure some back winding would occur close hauled but the advantages for world cruising of double masted vessels such as a ketch or a schooner far out weigh the ability to go to windward close haled that is. . Just isn't a thing to do if can be avoided on world cruising and after 4 wprld trip I agree!! Here one has a wide range of sails to easily use for a wide range of wind strengths. As with a ketch she heaves too easily under reefed main (aft main) and performs very well sailed as a cutter with Fore main and some head sail coombination---either stay sail or a larger head sail--yankee cut or genoa. Now of courswe for head sail selection these are not roller furled/reefed sails with their inherent disadvantages such as lose of strength and almlost immossible to change to storm sails when the need arises among other factors. surer for apearance and ease???of handling they are fine.--Thehyh are not a viable solution for offshore world crising cruising. Here one simply lowers the sail uses another that is rerady to hoist or simply hank on one ---the head sail has a down haul too and comes down in secoonds rather than miinutes required to wind something up!. In atagonia or other racha or katabatic situation that is critical to get that sail off. So nice and eashy done when reduciing sail area for storm conditionsleaving the boat with no large sil rolled p causing all sorts of trouble if anchoring or heaving too in bad conditions. Yes, she has a trysail and 4 heavy weather head sails--storm sails -- as well as a unique dobl head sail of light material for down wind sailing. and others ---evenn one that makes her a stahy sail schooner! though her usual rig would be a poled ouot Genoa/yakee usuallyi. and the fore main with the aft main furled on its boom.. Reefing is by slab reefs and very deep they are too as easier for the short hand sailor to simply drop a sail so to meet changing wind conditons. Yes, with exception of close hauled windward ability ketchs and schooners are ideal crising designs especially in legths over say 50 ft. and this boat with her large fore deck--i.e., large head sail or combo--- and other sail selection is one of the best. Now to hull and interor design keel configuration is a cut-away design about 17 feet long ---not a full keel but with a skeg mounted rudder. She also has a Sailmat Swedish design pendulum self steering device that is ideal as this design has its own rudder. Simply get the vessel sailing with a balanced helm by the maini ruddeer and lock that in place as the boat then is easily steered by the aux. rudder with the wind vane ---a horiz. axis one doing the work. No lines like the popular Aires are rerquired. all in one unit. Steel of course for strength , especially for high latitude passages like the NWP or this trip to the Antartica - it is the material of cnoice. She'd easily take a grounding as the keel is sloped. like a toboggan . Displacement is about 50,000 lbs with around 6 tons of lead. Draws about 7 feet when loaded for crisiing and with her fluish deck and a 4.5 meter beam she is very spacious inside. Features berths for oh 10 or so with lots of storage beather. For cruising storage is the key adn safetyh of crew issue too have been solved with poles offering secureurithy when moveing below and a seat for galley affairs for the cook. The galley is quite unique thoough as it is quite spacious with the stove on one side and the sinks on the other. Not the best idea but works well. Forward is a tool room and sail storage with the galley folowing aft then a very attractive main cabin that is served from the galley trhough a serving port. Here is one of the control stations (2)---used for motoring or keeping watch--insdie the heated main cabin. with good visibility out the low pilot house windows. This space --near the center of the boat -are the fuel and waters tanks. she carries soomething like 1200 liters of water and 800 liters of fuel though she has over 100 gals more in deck-7 gals plastic jerry cans. A recently rebuilt 80 HP Renault diesel suplies the power. Engione room well insulated (thermslsnd acoustic- and has a port for directing an extingisher into the enclosed space. Engine is near the center of the boat beath a center cockpit ---basically an unused design feature-- and esily worked on. Along one wide are two pilot berhts for crew and the other side is the head with shower. Aft are two double staterooms with a foldable partition between. Aft is a spacious lazarette . rudder is controled by cables and sproket with emergincy sytem easily moounted. the aft steering station with its small enclosed structure aft offers full weather protectiono when controlling the vessel under sail or motor. there are two orts that enter here that can be used by crew to pass hot drinks or leave open for some heat. Aft enclosure features large windows hard top with the two solar panels--100watt each moonted. a 300 watt wind generator is pole mounted aft. other elctronics like radar , VHF, SSB , epth, AIS Iridiium ---to be purchased GPS(4 or 5) chart plotter and other elctroonics are mounted in the main cabin nav. region. For ease of navigation and sail conotrol the aft steering location is used while under power inside is more comfortable.. Deck winches are used for head sail and stay sail sheeting as well as halyard winches for sail hoisting. 5 anchors are aboard with 100 meters of 19 mm nyhlon and 150 feet of chain on the main anchor. that is a large 110 lb Bruce though not the 2nd gerationo anchor like a rocna or SPADE they do well when this heavy. Others are older CQR, (2--60 and a 45 lb). as well as several Danforth style-50 lbs or so. . All useful but depends on bottom conditions to employ tandem center ivot oh so manhy comb. so nice to have all the wieght they do provide . or in the south shore ties are the norm. She has 220 meters of 20 mm a filament style poly line for shore ties---especially useful in Patagonia where one always ties to shore if at all possible. Yes an exhaustive look at a vessel that is after all responsible for the well being of you as a crew. Hope this gives you an idea that the boat is properly equipped for the trip describled below. thanks Warren.

Additional details

We nmeed people who have a sense of adventure of without an agenda minum of three month commitment , able to pay for plane tickets and payh 20 dollars a dahy for expenses. I may be necessary for hyou to have to work on the boat before departure. Sense of humor a must---not a 5 star hotel! Expedt to rough it and forget about hour cithy life style. Expect to learn and adapt to world cruising and its ups and downs!