Man, that’s a long time in planes! I’m back in Maine, briefly, and experimenting with Google Earth to scrap book my trip. Here’s the full screen image, but it would be far better to open Google Earth and zoom around with me. 1 marks the touristy V&A waterfront, said to be the most visited spot in all Africa, and still worth visiting. Naturally that’s the hang out of the hot daysailing cats—Fuji and GQ—as well as visiting yachts. If you zoom in close you can see the canal that leads to the big hall (2) where the Boat Show was held and I met the Whisper builders. Pan further west to the commissioning docks (3), where the Magnum 32’ was parked. You’ll also see a line of cats getting ready for their long delivery trips. It’s said that in the wee hours of almost every night another big multihull is trailered through the streets of Cape Town. Finally, just for fun, the 4’s show where an elevated highway was once going to bypass down town, but one property owner held out, and now it will never be finished. “This is Africa!” my hosts explained. Speaking of GE, MacENC can now neatly export tracks, waypoints and routes to it, as shown below and bigger here. And recall that Vessel Tracker can plot live AIS targets on it, and Just Magic has created all sorts of interesting mashups. Now we just need a reasonable way to get broadband underway. That’s the sort of surprise I’m hoping for at NMEA (Thursday) or Ft. Lauderdale.
This is the helm of a Robertson and Caine Leopard 46, sometimes thought of as the Moorings Leopard 46 since this huge charter company is the builder’s main client. R&C is the biggest boat shop in South Africa, 14 hulls under construction when I toured the other day, one being launched every six days (the pressure was palpable). The boat above was just commissioned and may already have left on a 7,000 mile delivery to a Moorings base in the Caribbean. The electronics surprised me in two ways: * The plotter is the same damn Raymarine RC425 I was disappointed to find on an older Moorings Leopard 42 last winter. I didn’t even think this unit was still available. I guess its presence speaks to how easy it is to navigate where this boat charters, and how unwilling the actual owner is to put better gear in the hands of charterers. * But that doesn’t explain the TackTick wireless and solar powered instruments (bigger helm shot here). Apparently the Moorings has specified these on all new boats, and no one could tell me why. I think TackTick gear is very cool, but am really surprised that the Moorings would want to deal with another supplier, and more expensive gear at that. Anyone know the story? Long distance deliveries, by the way, are part of South Africa’s boatbuilding success. The young man on the bow above has logged 35,000 miles already this year, and the hand on the wheel belongs to R&C’s delivery manager who’s talking daily via Iridium to at least two vessels bound to the Caribbean, West coast of Mexico, Med, Australia, somewhere. It’s quite possible for owners to join these trips. In fact, Admiral Yachts, which specializes in cruising cats for Americans, includes with every boat sale a pair of plane tickets to Cape Town, two weeks in seaside apartment while your boat gets launched, and then the services of a pro delivery captain/instructor to get you to the Caribbean. That’s the story in the photograph below, bigger here, as Harlin and Brenda Allen watch their Admiralty 38 Banana Split leave the factory. Look for them in Trinidad in about six weeks. It was a pleasure meeting them, and we all enjoyed the South African expression for “wide load”. Aren’t all boats Abnormal Loads?
I must admit I drooled a bit over this nav station/office on board a St Francis 50 cruising cat. Wouldn’t that be the spot to test electronics and write Panbo? Of course I’d do a few things a little differently. For instance, while using the VGA-out function of the helm’s Raymarine E-80 to repeat its image on the PC monitor (more visible in the bigger picture here ) is helpful, and would be even more so with a remote Raymarine keyboard, I’d prefer RayTech 6.0 with an Ethernet relationship to the E so I could work fairly independently of the helmsman and also check alternative charts. I’d also put the switch panel elsewhere and fit the vertical surfaces of this station with easily replaced black panels. I may be a bit peculiar in terms of changing electronics, but I think every nav station should be built for easy upgrading. At any rate, the St Francis 50 was impressive for many well thought out cruising details, but the Crazy Frenchman and I declined a test sail, probably quite tame, in favor of a sunset blast on a red hot Safari 50 (perhaps the one and only) that’s gone into the Cape Town daysailing trade. The picture below isn’t great, but it tells some of the story. Even weighted down with over 25 people—not regular charterers, but guests of boat sponsor Peroni beer—the damn thing still went 19+ knots in the 20+ Southeasterly they love here. And who wouldn’t; the seas were so flat that bottles and even stem ware is staying put. And note that this is another all Raymarine catamaran. Actually what you laddies might be noticing is: fast boat, lots of good beer, and a lightly clad hostess. Indeed, check out GQ Cruises next time you’re in South Africa.
Notice the two throttle/shifts (bigger shot here); one controls a small Vetus diesel, the other an electric motor, both turning the same shaft. I didn’t get all the technical details or the performance numbers—this area outside the Cape Town Boat Show was noisy with cars and water taxis—but I did get the sweet story behind the boat. The gentleman shown, who spoke much more quietly than your average salesman, is in fact an instructor at the Whisper Boat Building Academy, which was recently started to teach deaf youngsters the skills need to join the region’s very active boat building industry. So the hybrid launch is a project boat, whose sales help finance the school, and the two young men below are two of its proud builders.
It is famously hard to photograph rough seas, and this (bigger here) is a good example. Only a bit of spray and Mark Delaney’s two-handed grip on the grab rails suggests that his Two Oceans Magnum 32’ sport fishing cat is slamming along at 20 knots across steep and confused five footers piling up just outside Cape Town Harbor. That crazy Frenchman is my new good buddy Laurent Fournier, the only other writer on this press tour, and it was his idea to test this boat in less than smooth conditions. We got way more than we bargained on, but it certainly confirmed the contention that South Africans tend to build serious boats because they boat in serious waters. Elsewhere in the world this test would likely have been postponed but Mark had no qualms about subjecting his boat to some real pain. In the process he proved beyond doubt that the hull he and his father Rod developed leans nicely into fast curves—unlike many power cats, which lean unnervingly outward—and also has enough reserve bouyancy forward to resist burying its bows even while surfing in extremis. The Delaneys favor Furuno electronics, both here and aboard a crackerjack Two Oceans cruising cat I toured. The latter even has a Furuno autopilot, the first I’ve seen on a sailboat (excellent preformance reports Rod). The Magnum also had the all-in-one DVD player below, from a Australian company called Majestic I’d never heard of. Mark says they hold up, and that’s saying something. It turns out that further up the African coast, where tuna are plentiful but harbors are not, Magnums and similarly tough boats are beach launched through surf using big wheeled tractors and special trailers. Serious about fishing too!
Well, I’d figured that posting might suffer, but I had no idea how long a two day plane trip and a miserable hotel WiFi voucher card system could knock me off line (why is it so easy to serve Internet via WiFi, so hard to charge for it?). If you’re reading this, then I’ve figured a way to update Panbo via the hotel’s “business center”, and we’re back in business. Which starts with my first boat ride in the southern hemisphere. While the electronics—Raymarine ST60 wind, depth, speed and a JRC 1500 radar—weren’t exotic in the least, the boat was. Fuji Cat is a Scape Yachts 39’ multihull purpose built for day sail chartering. Hence the “bug eye” hard dodger—odd looking, but very effective off Cape Town where the ocean is wide open and cold, and the weather changes fast—plus the on-center helm with all sheets led to it under the platform, and thus out of finger pinch range. The hulls are fairly narrow, construction fairly light, and Fuji acclerated quite nicely even with about dozen bodies on board. There’s a “sport cruiser” model that’s clocked runs in the high 20’s, and can fly a hull if you’re up to it. Meanwhile I’ve been to the Cape Town Boat Show, and am getting a feel for how vigorous the boat building business is here. In more general sense, things are sometimes oddly familiar, other times a bit different. I just heard “Sweet Home Alabama” playing on an FM station, but that plate on Fuji’s snack bar features “South African sushi”—the local joke name for beef (I think) jerky.
When I wrote about lightning a few years ago, I interviewed Dr. Ewen Thomson, then an associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of Florida and more-or-less the go-to guy when it came to this scary and mysterious phenomenon. Thomson was impressive, and I’ve been looking forward to the protection system he was working on as a side line to his teaching and research. Well, the time has come. Marine Lightning Protection Inc. is up and running and will be showing a complete system aboard the Mirage Great Harbour 47 at Powerboat Show in Annapolis.
The system works by creating, in effect, a "Faraday cage" around the boat and its occupants (illustrated below). It is named after inventor Michael Faraday who in 1836 discovered that an enclosure of conducting materials shielded its contents from electrical effects, and could be used to ptotect against lightning.
Thomson’s “Siedarcs” have also been installed on two sail boats— the mighty Maximus and the prototype of a Radford performance cruiser: “If lightning can be thought of as having a preference,” Thomson said, “that preference is to escape from a vessel at or near the waterline. By yielding to lightning's natural tendencies, our system can minimize dangerous sideflashes. The development of the Siedarc is one of the revolutionary features of our system."
Dear readers, it’s time for another entry (also here and here) on the state of Panbo:
* If you’ve been accessing this blog with an RSS reader, instead of going directly to the site, you may be annoyed because I recently changed the feed from full on to just summaries. I’m sorry about that, but it’s part of a transition meant to generate some income for improving the site, and also for the efforts of yours truly (direct contributions are also welcome).
* In that regard, Panbo will soon have a major sponsor (whose identity will be no surprise), as well as some small banner space for “Friends of Panbo” sub sponsors. Please e-mail me if your organization is interested, and hasn’t already been in touch. No worries, though, Panbo will not get plastered with ads; and, hopefully, you’ll see improvements like full length reviews and forums in due time.
* Finally, I’m just about to embark on a rigorous travel schedule—a press tour of Cape Town, South Africa, boatbuilders and boat show; the NMEA Conference in Naples, Florida; the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show (aka FLIBS); and METS in Amsterdam. Posting will necessarily be choppy, but, by golly, I should get a good look at what’s new in electronics, not mention some insight into how they’re used on the other side of the planet.
PS. Please note that using a feed reader will still keep you informed about the when and what of new entries; you’ll just have to click over to www.Panbo.com to read the whole thing.
PPS. I hauled my boats last week, and turned on the house heat today. Ralph, is now serviced and sitting on a refurbished trailer ready for another happy owner (major electronics shown below excepted).
