The Dinghy ate my baby...

Ah, the great dinghy debate, hard vs soft.  We currently own a great Zodiac 280 with an Evinrude 9hp outboard for Monkey's Orphan.  This was a good choice at the time as we had room to place it on deck.  Deflated we stored it just behind the main mast, inflated it fit nicely on the foredeck.  The motor was brought aboard easily using the mizzen boom as the hoist to a bracket on the stern rail.  The Exploration 45 provided a little more challenging, as the 270 degree view from the navstation would be obstructed with a dinghy on deck.  So again we debated the pros and cons of a ridged dinghy vs an inflatable.  Without going through the whole argument again, two things tilted us in favor of a hybrid ridged inflatable.

1. The kids are having a great time sailing their Opti, so ideally we'd like a sail-able dinghy.  
2. We have room under the arch for hoisting and storing a hard dinghy.  

The product we finally settled on is the Walker Bay 10.  We'll probably use the performance sail kit.  This looks to be the best of all worlds, for us.  Sailing, inflatable and able to handle a Lehr 5.0hp propane motor.  We decided on the Lehr engines because of the fuel,  After looking at the various electric options and going with conventional gas, I went with the propane powered Lehr.  While the electric options are getting much better, a couple of things still bother me. The battery capacity/run time is still pretty light, I don't want to get caught in a big wind/waves with a flat battery.  Charging is also an issue without a generator on board.  We might have enough solar and wind to charge but would probably have to run the main engine to charge which doesn't make economical sense.  The other thing that's always bothered me is having gasoline aboard, 'nuff said.  I talked to the engineers at Lehr and they have blessed the Arctic conditions we'll be in.  Propane is plentiful in most ports and the Exploration 45 has a great place to store it, in the aft outside lockers, without being able to leak into the main cabins.  Propane is also a lot more environmentally friendly.

Here's a video of how the Lehr outboard works.

Lehr Video

Predict Wind

Weather

As for my selection for weather, I've gone with the Predict Wind / Iridium GO! / Expedition solution.  This seems like the best combination of data, communications and software for our setup.  The standard package from Predict Wind will get us the first step of the way for data.  This package should be upgraded to the Professional package as soon as we start sailing as it contains higher resolution gribs and the tides and currents data.  Predict wind also offers the option of having the data emailed to you so that it can be picked up via SSB/Pactor.  The Iridium GO! package we went for includes unlimited data and SMS for $125/month.  In my opinion, that's a real game changer for safety at sea as a lot more people will be able to afford to get timely weather and routing information.  As I start to play with the Predict Wind web application, their iOS app and their Windows PC Application, I'll report here on the results.  So far I'm impressed with the functionality of the Windows PC application.  It allows a direct connection to the GO! unit to download the gribs, satellite images and other data,  The data can then be viewed with the PredictWind app or imported into Expedition for additional what if scenarios.  Here are the links to the various pieces:

Predict Wind
Expedition Marine
Iridium GO!


Notes:
You can order the Iridium GO! through Predict Wind or purchase separately.
If you purchase the Expedition software through NorthU, you get to watch Peter Islers webinar class on how to use the software for FREE.
The Iridium GO! package looks like it winds its way to this company for service.  Atlantic Radio Telephone, SatPhoneStore.com

P.S. I did purchase an extra battery for the Iridium GO! unit, just in case...

We're back...

I haven't been keeping up with my blog posting for a long time.  Sorry about that but...

The latest scoop, our boat is finished and currently on display at the Paris Boat Show.  The Garcia Yachts Exploration 45 won Cruising World 2015 Best Boat Full-Size Cruisers Under 50 Feet.  We're obviously thrilled and having sailed 1,200 miles on her sister ship Aventura IV, I can attest to the judges conclusion!

Garcia Exploration 45

Here are some shots of the interior.

and one last shot of the cockpit area.

Garcia Exploration 45 AVENTURA IV, Newfoundland to Newport

I had the exceptional opportunity to sail with Ryan Helling and Jimmy Cornell aboard his yacht Aventura IV from Newfoundland to Newport in early September.  Here's a great video by Ryan of Swiftsure Yachts documenting the trip down.

Navigation

As I mentioned in an earlier post, navigation is one of the topics I've been doing research into.  I've looked at a lot of the new systems on the market and keep coming back to my old favorite, B&G, or Brooks and Gatehouse as it was known in my day.  Zetty and I had a chance to go to the Strictly Sail Show in Chicago last weekend and saw the new Zeus squared line.  Very nice!  It has all the features one needs, chartplotting, AIS, radar, autopilot, weather, depth, wind, sailing strategies all one one display.  I'm a big fan of the B&G instruments as we've used them on all out boats so far.  We sailed 60,000+ miles on the last B&G autopilot with only having to replace the electric motor brushes once.  It held a great course in some of THE nastiest weather mother nature could throw at us.  A good autopilot is also a safety issue for me as its a much better helm than I am and can stay awake with inexperienced crew!  Another great safety feature is the combination of GRIB files and the sailing strategies for planning around rough weather.  Avoidance is a great way to stay out of a pickle.  Last but not least, I know the software is good because one of our best friends writes a lot of the code for B&G, thanks Matt.

LJ