Don't forget to check out the "Files" section of the Yahoo Microcruising forum. There are lots of pictures of Matt's boats which don't appear on this site as well as neat discussions on cruising in little boats.
09-08-06
We recently bought a 50 yard roll of 4 oz E glass on Ebay for $35
(buy-it-now), item#170024129043 . This weight cloth is excellent for
handling complex structures like the toe rails. Normally this type of
glass runs for up to $5 a yard if it is perfect, but of course the Ebay
roll is not. There are some minor flaws that very occasionally pop up
across the width of the fabric, and there is a slightly elevated thread
that courses the whole length of our roll. Nonetheless, we've found the
glass to be fine for making our own tapes and for covering smaller
projects like a hatch. In fact, if you were careful, it might even be
possible to cover the topside of a micro-cruiser in the 6 oz weight
cloth that is also sold inexpensively. Lastly, we have no affiliation
with the seller; though, we do have a webpage showing how
we used the cloth recently.
09-07-06
Thanks to the contributions of our readers, we've updated our Famoussmallboats webpage to include a few more notable sailors like Robin Lee Graham and Margaret and Frank Dye. However, to see these changes you will need to access the page here since we're having trouble updating our old site at the moment . In addition, we've also updated our links page to remove any dead links and to add a few more sites.
09-01-06
If you're looking for some nice articles to read about small boat sailing then you need not go any further than this month's (Sept/Oct) issue of Small Craft Advisor. I have to say that each issue gets better and better; and if you don't already have a subscription to this neat little magazine, then you should get one right away. There's a nice story about Jim Brown's visit to the 2006 Cedar Key boat meet, a tale about a short cruise on the Columbia River, the second part of a much longer cruise by two boats around Florida, an interview with Harley Harlson and his planned around-the-world trip in his 8 foot boat and much, much more.08-05-06
Take a glimpse at our new page on our latest Led lighting aboard LITTLE CRUISER.
07-25-06
Work has resumed in earnest on SWAMP THING, and you can see the updated
pictures at here.
In addition, we welcome you to listen to our 2 part interview with Noel
and Christy at http://www.furledsails.com/
. While you're there don't forget to check out Kristofer Harlson's
excellent discussion on all his careful preparations to get SEA BISCUIT
ready for her epic voyage.
05-27-06
Now that we've been home for a little while, we've had time to catch up
on many of our non boat related projects like spring cleaning and yard
care. Therefore, hopefully we'll soon be able to get back to rebuilding
SWAMP THING.
One important thing we'd like to mention is that Kristofer Harlson is
planning to sail around the world non stop in his 8 foot micro-cruiser,
SEABISCUIT. We've know about this project for quite some time, but
Kristopher asked us to keep quiet about it until he got closer to
completion. Now that his boat is farther along, he has released more
photographs of his design and he has written a nice article
for Duckworks magazine about his plans. Moreover, Kristopher has
been busy fielding all kinds of questions about his unique boat and his
trip on the Microcruising
forum.
05-3-06
After a long refit, we finally got around to taking another trip in our 15 foot sailboat "Little Cruiser". We had hoped to go to the Bahamas again, but we ran out of vacation time. Therefore, Mindy and I decided to take a shorter cruise to the Outer Banks (OBX), which is in our own home state of North Carolina. You can read about our latest trip at http://www.microcruising.com/2006obx.htm .
03-3-06
Don't forget to keep your eye on the Everglades Challenge this year. Matt will be in his new 12 foot boat, ENIGMA, and he also plans to complete the Ultimate Challenge, which is an extension of the EC that involves circumnavigating the whole of Florida. Of course there will be a 40 mile portage connecting the St. Mary's river to the Swannee River. You can read more about Matt's experiences in this adventure at http://blogs.tcpalm.com/tcpalm/challenge/ .
Also check out Sebastian Naslund's site on his incredible trip across the Atlantic and back in his 14' boat, ARRANDIR. Last of all, take a look at the really cool folding dinghy called ORIGAMI at http://www.woodenwidget.com/. The video footage of it planning along at high speed with a tiny outboard is amazing!
02-01-06
Wow! Three months have gone by since our last update, and we are now finally about ready to leave for this year's trip. The refit project took much longer than we expected, but at least we are very happy with the results. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to make a new sail; therefore, the old one will have to do until we get back.. Hopefully, we'll have time to post a few pictures of Little Cruiser before we leave.
11-20-05
We apologize for not updating the website earlier, but we've been very busy with both work and our boat refit projects. At the moment we are still hoping to head South for the winter, but we still have a fair bit of things to do to complete LITTLE CRUISER. Thank goodness the boat is completely fiberglassed and faired. Now all we have to do is paint the hull and install all the hardware and the windows. Unfortunately, the weather has turned quite cold after a very mild Fall, so we're now struggling to keep the temperatures warm enough in the boat house to complete our project. To overcome the cold, we've added an inner wall made of plastic wall, and we're planning to cover the building with a thermal blanket made of ply-foil (1/4" thick bubble wrap with aluminum foil) at night. Hopefully, these modifications along with a gas heater will give us the edge we need to get done in time. Finally, we've added a new Refit Page which shows the progress we have made on LITTLE CRUISER.
08-21-05
More pictures of LITTLE CRUISER have been added as we approach the end of the fiberglassing phase of our refit. Also we've updated our page on making boat cushions with more detailed construction photographs and updated build information.
07-31-05
Progress on LITTLE CRUISER has been moving along well this summer, and now we are ready to glass the bottom and the sides. Then we will fair the hull and do the paint. By the way, we've finally updated our LITTLE CRUISER REFIT page to show all these new changes .
05-30-05
We just got an email from the son of Charles Stock informing us about the website he recently created about his dad and his wonderful gaff rigged sailboat, "Shoal Waters." Check it out at here.
05-25-05
While we were searching on the Web for other trips made by small boats, we bumped into this interesting trip to the Bahamas made by the West Wight Potter 19, Ursa Minor.
05-19-05
It looks like Matt Layden was busy this winter building a new boat that looks similar to SWAMP THING, but which some are simply referring to as the "mini Paradox." You can see a picture of this craft at http://members.ij.net/wctss/wctss/cedar2.htm . There is also a page detailing its construction at http://physics.bgsu.edu/~layden/FunStuff/Boats/Matt_Boat/matts_boat2005.htm and there are some more pictures taken by Glen Maxwell at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paradoxbuilders2/files/Mini%20Paradox/ . Ironically, I remember talking to Matt this past Fall about the benefits of having a small cruiser which could be used for shorter trips or even in races like the Everglades Challenge. I guess he had similar ideas, and he built himself a light weight cruiser. Of course Mindy had to point out the fact that in the time that I have been piddling around with our two boat projects, Matt managed to whip out an entirely new design. Oh well, I'd better get cracking if I want to salvage a little bit of my male pride. Last of all, here is a link to an article written by Matt about his Rob Roy canoe and his adventures in it during the 2005 Everglades challenge. Dave
04-24-05
Since quite a few people have been interested in making a removable rear window for their Paradox micro-cruiser, we decided to post a webpage, http://www.microcruising.com/lcwindow.htm , on Little Cruiser's multi-position rear window. However, it is important to remember that the rear window in Paradox is an integral part of the cabin structure and that it makes the boat much more watertight in the event of a severe knockdown or a complete roll over. Make these changes at your own risk.
1-31-05
Bill Serjeant of (http://www.smallsailboats.co.uk/homepage.htm)
has just informed us that he will be receiving the first Paradox CNC
kit from http://www.jordanboats.co.uk/
. When it arrives, Bill plans on posting some pictures on his website;
however, it may take a while before he has time to begin construction.
For those living in the U.K. or Europe, this may be a good route to go
as it will certainly speed up the building process.
01-25-05 Microcruiser
Refit pages added!
For those of you who have been waiting for pictures of Swamp Thing's
interior, we have posted some nice shots on our third "Microcruiser
Refit" page. Despite the cold weather, we've been steadily working
on this little boat which was in pretty poor condition when we first
got her. Hopefully by Spring we should be in a position to begin
fiberglassing the hull, and by summer time sailing trials and a short
trip should be in order. Incidentally, there are also pictures of
Little Cruiser's refit on the same refit pages.
01-21-05 A talk with Matt
A couple of weeks ago I had a talk with Matt Layden, the designer and
builder of our boats, about the possibility of drawing up plans for
some of his older micro-cruisers (Swamp Thing and Little Cruiser ) as
well as for introducing a few new boats to his lineup. At the time he
seemed excited about the possibility of working on a really nice
car-top cruiser as well as a bigger boat in the 17-18 foot range that
would be more suitable for two. Unfortunately, he wasn't too keen on
reworking any of his older classic designs because he felt that he
could create something better today. I was really hoping that he would
jump at the opportunity to release these older designs since they have
proven themselves to be quite good micro-cruisers over the years.
However, despite my persuasive arguments, his mind remained unchanged.
At the time he also brought to my attention his growing concerns about
the risk of liability that his unique designs posed to everyone
involved in their distribution.
Nonetheless, Matt was gracious enough to give us permission to share
the sketches that he made for building Little Cruiser just as long as
we made it clear to all that these were just for historical
documentation and that they were not intended for any new builds. He
also said that we could release our own drawings for Swamp Thing with
the same understood limitations. For those of you interested in looking
at the Little Cruiser sketches, they can be seen at http://www.microcruising.com/lc2.htm
.
On a more positive note, Matt talked to me about his newest boat, a
rudderless Rob Roy style canoe (14' x 28"), which he steers by shifting
his weight. He told me that he can cook and sleep aboard this car- top
cruiser, and that he plans to use it once more in this years upcoming Everglades
Watertrible Challenge . When I asked him why he took the "scenic
route" last year, he told me that he wasn't overly concerned about his
arrival time since he had already won it the year before. Therefore, he
made the decision to take a different and longer route through the
Everglades which cost him 2 days in the end. Though he didn't tell me
any more about his aspirations for 2005, I suspect that he will be a
little more competitive.
And finally, I'd like to point out to people who live in the U.K. that
Jordan boats (http://www.jordanboats.co.uk/)
is considering kitting Matt's Paradox for an estimated cost of about
GBP1000. Bill Serjeant of (http://www.smallsailboats.co.uk/homepage.htm)
approached Alec Jordan about doing a CNC kit, and later Matt and I were
contacted by Alec. Matt told me that he is interested in seeing this
project go ahead, so I would guess this kit may soon become available.
It certainly will provide a quicker route for those interested in
building this great little boat.
Dave
12-16-04
Well, we were really looking forward to leaving this winter for the
Bahamas, but unfortunately we just couldn't get LITTLE CRUISER ready in
time. It seems that our boat repairs always seem to take much longer
than we anticipate, and this project definitely is going to require a
lot more time to get done properly. Therefore, we'll have to sit this
winter out at home, and we'll continue our fiberglassing project when
the weather warms up again in the Spring. In the meantime, we plan to
post some pictures of LITTLE CRUISER and SWAMP THING in the next day or
two to show the work we have done so far.
09-28-04
A lot has happened since our last entry. First, we decided to sheath "Little
Cruiser " in fiberglass. This turned out to be quite a project in
itself. We removed all the hardware including everything that was beded
in 3M 5200. This required the use of a blow torch at times! Then we
removed the interior and all the lead ballast. Next we spent several
weeks stripping off years of accumalated paint. The deck was the
hardest by far because it had a sand additive in the paint, and it took
as many as 5 coats of chemical stripper to cut through this tough
coating. Afterwards, all the putty that covered the hundreds of
fasterners was removed using a dremel tool. The copper ground plate was
also removed at this time, and then all the holes and gouges were
filled with epoxy and microballoons. Now we are at the point of
covering the whole boat in
4 to 6 ounce fiberglass. By the way, the big wooden "wheel" in the
picture allows just one person to roll the boat into any position that
is needed.
In addition, our good friend David Gatan kindly gave us "Swamp Thing " to restore. She has had a tough life in the Florida Keys, having sunk once at the dock. Before Hurricane Frances arrived, we went down to Key Largo to rescue her and to help David load his new boat, a beautiful Rob Roy 23, onto his trailer. Both boats were trailered back to our house in North Carolina, where David waited out this hurricane along with hurricane Ivan before returning back to the Keys. Now the little boat sits in our back yard, happily awaiting her rebuild.
08-05-04
Chris Morejohn's wonderful 32 foot sharpie, Hogfish, was recently sold.
For those of you interested in seeing some pictures of the boat, they
can be seen here.
07-26-04
After our old boat shelter was damaged beyond repair last summer, we
finally got around to replacing it with a new bow-roof shed. You can
read about it's construction here. We know this
new building will certainly come in handy as we plan to take Little
Cruiser back to the Bahamas this winter and we'll need a place to get
her ready.
07-20-04
Well it's been quite some time since we last updated this site so we
thought we'd bring people up to date a bit. Over the last few months we
finally found the time to build a new boat shed for Little Cruiser
since the last one was destroyed during the passage of a hurricane
about a year ago. The building is a bowroof shed (by Stimson
Marine), and we should have a webpage up about it's constuction
soon. It is 14' wide x 20 long x 11' high, and we plan to put down a
temporary floor later this year so that we can make a new sail inside.
At the moment it is covered with a heavy duty poly grey tarp; but when
it gets colder it will be covered in 6 mil clear greenhouse plastic.
Incidentally, for those of you who have a subscription to "Small Craft
Advisor" there is an article in the July/August issue about this year's
300 mile Everglades challenge. As many of you already know, Matt Layden
won it in 2003 in Paradox, but this year the title was claimed by Doug
Cameron and Michael Collins in a Krueger Cruiser canoe with Balogh BOSS
rig. The article, which is titled "Two Grandpas Win The Everglades
Challenge ," is written by one of the winners, Doug Cameron, and it
chronicles their record breaking ride. He credits their win to a
combination of factors. The first being a well tested boat and rig, and
the second being favorable weather conditions throughout the race. He
notes that in the beginning they were fortunate enough to have light
winds which allowed them to paddle away from the sailboat competition,
and then later on they had strong cold fronts to drive them South
towards the Keys. All in all, the seven page article is a good read,
and I enjoyed looking at the pictures of their unique sailing canoe.
04-14-04
Today I was clearing out a bunch of crap from my bookshelves so that I could make room for more stuff, and in the process I bumped into this little book called "P.S. I Love You- When Mom wrote she always saved the best for last" by H. Jackson Brown, Jr. I don't know who gave it to me, but it was probably my own mother. Anyway, I cracked open the cover out of curiosity and I found this interesting quote inside which I thought many of you would appreciate.
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
Therefore, I encourage all of you to go out and live your dreams, no
matter how large or small they may be. And remember, the best boat for
the journey is the one you already own. Best wishes, Dave.
In my mind I always
thought of a micro-cruiser as a small boat whose primary purpose was
for cruising. I believe its design should provide shelter for its crew
from the elements, and it should be capable of carrying sufficient
stores to complete its intended journey. In fact, it should mimic the
function of a larger cruising vessel, but it should do it on a much
smaller budget and on a much smaller scale. I think it would be safe to
say that most micro-cruisers are probably less than 18 feet in length;
though, some might call the larger boats “pocket cruisers”. If I was
trying to explain to a non sailor about micro-cruisers, I would
probably just show them Little Cruiser. I believe that most people
would be shocked to see how tiny our boat appears from the outside for
a design that is intended to cruise for months at a time. However, once
they went aboard, they might realize that there was in fact sufficient
room for two to sleep, eat and maybe even live for awhile. Of course,
they would be shown all the compartments where fresh water, canned
food, ground tackle, medical supplies, nautical charts, dry clothes,
sealed batteries, spare parts and the many other provisions are
carefully stored. If they inquired about cooking, they would be shown
the one burner stove aft along with a tiny pressure cooker and a non
stick pan. I think they would be impressed with how everything was
carefully organized and with how much our tiny boat could carry. Still,
I don’t believe most people would consider a long trip likes ours in
such a tiny craft, but they might consider a weekend or even a weeklong
adventure. If they asked me what micro-cruisers were available, I would
tell them about several boats that I am familiar with like the
Montgomery 15, the Compact 16, the West Wright Potter 15, Matt Layden’s
Paradox, Bolger’s Micro and the Peep Hen, just to name a few. Of
course, I would also mention that once they got their new boat, they
would probably want to customize it to make it as comfortable as
possible. Then, I would suggest that they read as much as they could
about seamanship and water safety, or they could even take a course on
these subjects. When they felt ready, they could tow their boat behind
their family car to some protected body of water for a shakedown
cruise. If all worked out well, longer and more adventurous trips could
be planned. In the end, only their own skill level and their desire for
adventure should limit how far and where they should go. So what is a
micro-cruiser? It’s a small affordable boat that let’s the average
person like you and me go cruising.
Finally, we recently got to try out a Yamaha 2.5 hp 4 stroke engine.
You can read about are impressions of this fine little engine on our review2 page
.
02-11-04
Before we got into taking long trips in little sailboats, Mindy and
I used to sea kayak a fair bit. We began paddling around 1985 in New
York, where we lived at the time, and then we enjoyed some fine trips
down South when we moved to North Carolina in 1988. In 1992 we modified
two Wilderness Systems Tchaika's to be take-aparts, and we had a
wonderful 2 week trip
to Belize with our friend Steve. However, when the microcruising
bug bit us hard in 1993, our paddling was put on the back burner so
that we could concentrate on our longer Bahama cruises. Now that we're
stuck at home this winter, we've been enjoying some paddling once more.
Usually we paddle on our local lake (when it's not frozen) to stay in
shape, and then we plan to take some more trips to the coast when it
gets a little warmer.
Of course, our kayaks like our sailboat are now all "old"; but they
still work just fine. I guess a good designs is always a good design.
Nonetheless, some things have changed in the last 12 years since we
last bought a kayak. The hatches are larger and simpler to secure, and
there are adjustable skegs and sturdy rudders to make tracking easier.
Nylon spray skirts are mostly seam sealed to keep leakage to a minimum,
and some of the deckbags even have waterproof zippers like the ones you
used to only find on expensive drysuits. Therefore, today I decided to
upgrade my equipment with a new waterproof deckbag to carry my camera
and a VHF radio. After looking at several different brands at my local
paddling store, GET
OUTDOORS , I settled on a Voyageur "Mini
Quickdraw." Generally, I go by the motto: "Never buy something you
can make cheaper, and never make anything you can buy cheaper". In this
case, I think I could have made a useable bag with a funky rolled
closure for around $10, but the waterproof zipper on the $69 Mini
Quickdraw is so quick and easy to use that I decided to give it a try
despite it's high cost. Now, after playing around with the new deckbag
for a while, I can see that I will have little trouble getting to my
delicate gear even when my kayak is bobbing around wildly in the ocean.
Come to think of it, I think the new bag will also be perfect for use
in our micro folding
dinghy next winter .
01-30-04
For those people interested in building their very own Paradox
microcruiser, we suggest that you look at Alastair Law's wonderful
website at http://www.asjg.clara.co.uk/little_jim/little_jim.htm
. There are lots of pictures which detail the whole building process
from start to finish. In addition, Alastair has written articles about
his four major trips in Little Jim .
Well, as anyone who has been watching the weather in the Eastern United
States, we've been having lots of snow. Last Saturday we got 5 inches
in North Carolina, which is a lot for us. Oh I wish Mindy and I had
head for the Bahamas this year. When I last checked www.weatherunderground.com,
it was in the 70's F in the Bahamas. Well, here is what Little Cruiser
looks like now! Poor Mindy...
01-29-04 We've included another review to our favorite cruising gear page so check it out. Also Paul L. from Washington State sent us a picture if his folding dinghy. He next plans to build a Paradox microcruiser. An original sketch of Swamp Thing has been posted to this page , and a picture of Little Western was added to the Famous Small Boat Page.
01-10-04
We have added a review of some of our favorite cruising gear on this page. As time goes on we hope to add more to this page. For those people interested in how we wired our white LED's on Little Cruiser, we have posted some pictures at http://www.microcruising.com/LED.htm . These LED's can be purchase cheaply for $1 a piece from http://www.whitelightled.com/ .
01-09-04
We hope everyone had a nice holiday and that the New Year will provide much happiness and some adventure! Unfortunately, there won't be too much adventure for us this winter since we are staying home to save up for our next trip. There are also quite a few home repair projects that need completing, and Little Cruiser could really use a new sail. We'll probably use heavier weight 5 ounce sail cloth to make the new sail since we did notice some unwanted stretching in the 3.9 ounce original.
By the way, Roberta Pearce made an enlarged
version of the "Micro Folding Dinghy" which turned out very
nicely. Roberta told us that:
"I worked out a scale that I increased the length, width & height
& luckily it seemed to work well without compromising the shape of
the boat, as I had a couple of sheets of ply to use that were just
under 8ft. When I put the seats in, it was very unstable until I put
them much lower in the boat. I left the 'keel' bits (longer bits at the
back) quite long, as I reckoned it would be easier to shorten them if
needed, rather than lengthen them if cut too short! I just wish I had
taken more trouble to fibreglass the whole thing before putting it
together as the ply was not in the best of condition to start off with
& I didn't really expect it to be as good as it turned out! 'Oh ye
of little faith!' I hear you say! Anyway, I had a lot of fun making it
& even if nieces & nephews get some fun out of it before it
de-laminates, it was worth it. "
Over the past year, the micro-cruising community has grown a wee bit larger with the addition of several new Paradox boats that were built in England, Australia and New Zealand . You can see more pictures of these little boats at the Paradox Builder's Group. Another Paradox builder, Ernst Palmer, sent us an inspirational watercolor that he painted that vividly shows the joys of sailing small boats.
11-10-03
We have FINALLY posted our pictures from our 2003 trips here. We decided
to use thumbnails this time so that we could include more photographs
at a higher resolution. We should have the article up soon...
9-25-03
Added pictures of Matt's radio control models.
9-16-03
More Paradox pictures can be seen here. We've also added a few new poems with pictures which can be viewed here.
9-03-03
For those of you lucky enough to have a subscription to SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR, there is a nice article by Ron Hoddinott called the "Cedar Key Small Boat Meet" which dedicates quite a lot of copy space to talk about the two Paradox boats he saw at the meet. These boats, of course, were Glen Maxwell's Zoe and David Beard's Whisper. Ron speaks very highly of these little fourteen footers, and at one point even comments, "Zoe appeared to be sailing to windward higher and faster than my Sea Pearl with it's leeboard down!" In addition to listing many of Paradox' unique characteristics, he also mentions seeing Matt Layden, "the reclusive designer," at the get together. To go along with the story there are four nice pictures of Zoe and Whisper as well as many other fine photographs of other boats that were at the meet.
In addition to this article, there are several other nice ones in this Sept/Oct 2003 issue including one by Hugh Horton about the great "Two Continent Canoe Expedition" by Valerie and Verlen Kruger. In the beginning of this episode (part II), the Krueger's are struggling to cross theGulf Stream to get to the Bahamas from Florida. I've just started reading and it looks so good that I think I'll have to stop typing to see what happens next... Dave...
My dreams have a strong connection with whatever I'm doing during my waking hours. If we are getting the boat ready in our back yard for our upcoming winter trip, I dream of beautiful deserted islands and crystal clear waters. Later, when we are in Florida and Mindy and I are getting ready to make our Gulf Stream crossing, the pleasant dreams often turn into nightmares. I usually toss and turn the whole night before thinking about being run down by huge freighters or being overwhelmed by monster rogue waves. However, when I wake in the morning I realize that most of my fears are unfounded. Once we've settled into our new routine (like a week into the trip), my sleep is more settled and I have pleasant dreams. Oddly enough, Mindy seems to follow the same general sleep pattern. Fortunately, as our confidence in the boat and our own skills improve, we are more relaxed at night. However, if a big storm is brewing, we return temporarily to our fitful sleep pattern. We wake up easily with the smallest changes in the boat's motion, and we both get up to check the anchor frequently.
Interestingly enough, it isn't just our dreams that change while we are afloat. The rest of our senses become more acute to the natural world around us. As our trip progresses, we become more conscious of the weather. Changes in the temperature and the humidity tell us more precisely than the "weather channel" that rain is on the way. The types of clouds overhead clue us into the next day's forecast, and subtle changes in the boat's motion tell us that the tide has changed. I think that as we become more in tune with the environment, we also tend to rely more on our own gut feelings than anything else. I can't tell you the number of times that we have made decisions based on these insights. I remember one instance in particular where we were crossing over to the Bahamas from Florida, and we turned around after only 10 miles because things just didn't look right. The winds had been forecast to be out of the South at 20 knots, which should had given us a nice ride to Bimini. However, once we got offshore, the conditions seemed a lot rougher than expected and the skies overhead were changing quickly. The winds at that time were around 20-25 knots, but conditions began deteriorating as we headed back to shore. By late afternoon, the winds were blowing steadily at 30-35 knots with gusts to 40 knots. Thank goodness we turned around; otherwise, we would have been caught by that fast moving cold front.
8-18-03
Little Cruiser made the cover of the Summer 2003 issue of SCUTTLEBUTT , which is the newsletter for the Waterway Radio and Cruising Club, a club that we have been members of for several years. One of the services that the WRCC supports is a morning net that helps to provide important information to and from voyaging sailors who are ham radio operators. During most of our trips to the Bahamas, we have benefitted greatly from the weather reports which are relayed each morning on 7.268 Mhz. In addition, position reports are taken , float plans are recorded and emergency calls are forwarded. If you are interested in becoming a member and enjoying the comaraderie of this group then just click on this link for more information.
7-02-03
Well, as usual,the July/August Small Craft Advisor had some
excellent articles, one of which was the second part of the interview
with Sven Lundin/Yrvind. Here he tells the reader about his battles
with the oil company who stored oil under his house, the events that
led up to his breakup with his wife Olga, and the details about his
latest boat XLX (Experimental Light Cruiser). XLX is a narrow ketch,
5.4 meters long by 1.09 meter wide. The boat is sprit rigged like his
earlier designs, and it uses lightweight carbon fiber masts. Auxliary
propulsion will be the yuloh. In addition, XLX is self righting to 130
degrees and it's intended purpose is to cross the Atlantic and the
Pacific! The whole interview is quite revealing, and I would encourage
anyone who is interested in small boats to read it.
5-19-03
PRINCETON TEC is simply the best when it comes to backing up their products with their Lifetime Warranty. For those of you who aren't familiar with this company, they make all types of flashlights for both land and sea use. We use their products exclusively on board Little Cruiser because they make a good light and they aren't afraid to back it up 100%. For this reason we own two Tec 400 halogen dive lights and two of their LED headlamps, a Matrix and an Aurora. To illustrate our point, David's Matrix headlamp developed a crack in the battery case during this year's Bahama trip. The headlamp was several years old and it had seen steady use on the boat and at home. Since we were on our trip this time we simply patched the crack with a little fiberglass tape and some CA glue. Then, when we got home we sent it to Princeton Tec. Within a week we had a new one including a fresh set of batteries sitting on our door step. We're pretty sure this is typical of their warranty work since we had to return our Tec 400 lights after several years of hard use due to faulty switches. Just as quickly, we were sent out two new lights with redesigned and improved switches, which now have operated flawless for several years. What can we say? Princeton Tec stands behind what they make. We wish more companies were like them...
5-10-03
Don Elliott gives an excellent account of why Matt won the 2003 Everglades Challenge on the Smallboats Forum . I also added my own comment which read:
Don's analysis of why the Paradox design won the 2003 Everglades Challenge was quite perceptive and accurate; but then he owns his own Paradox and he knows what it can do. I certainly agree that this micro-cruiser’s all weather accommodations and easy handling helped Matt continue to sail when everyone else had to stop and rest. But I’d also like to emphasize that it was the boat’s excellent sea keeping qualities that allowed Matt to sail farther offshore and to beat triumphantly to windward when the conditions deteriorated, leaving the rest of the fleet far behind. The only other thing that needs mentioning is that the vast experience Matt had over his competitors in sailing his home-made sharpies was paramount in his victory. I would venture to guess that Matt probably has more sea miles in his little boats than all the combined miles of his rivals. This is due to the fact that he spent close to ten years sailing up and down the Eastern seaboard and out to the Bahamas. During that decade, he sailed in every weather condition imaginable; further testing his craft and himself. In the end, it was that immense body of experience and the tested reliability of his sharpies which earned him the well deserved honor of arriving first.
Well one of my favorite up-and-coming boating magazines, Small Craft Advisor, has just printed a multi-part interview with Sven Yrvind in the latest May/June issue. In this segment, Sven talks about his early experiences aboard his first sail boats, including his various adventures sailing across theAtlantic as well as around Cape Horn. Then, he goes on to tell about his more recent trip in which he and his ex-wife Olga sailed to Canada from Sweden. However, upon arrival their boat was seized by the authorities for being too small. Fortunately, Sven managed to smuggle his beloved BRIS to "the Land of Freedom," the United States, in the back of a U-haul, and that is where this part of the interview ends.
The other boating magazine I got in the mail today was Messing About in Boats. ( May 1, 2003) In this issue I happened to notice that Bolger “updated” his 30'x8'x1'6" ROMP design with a newer and more sturdy YONDER design, 30' x 10'4" x 2'1". I always thought the Romp design would make a great live aboard world cruiser, as did many others who sailed this boat all over the place. Apparently, one client, Rollin Piaz, suggested some improvements which resulted in this new design. These changes included increasing the sail area, putting the masts in tabernacles, adding an inboard engine, increasing the interior space, and beefing up the overall design. Of course, now you have a completely new boat, which to my eye isn't quite a pretty as the original. Still I have to admit that the "improvements" do make the boat more practical when going under bridges, which is what the new owner will need to do a lot of whilst traveling the canals in Europe. Also, the thick 2" plate on the box keel will improve the ability to take groundings on top of hull piercing rocks. The retractible bowsprit and boomkin are nice touches as is the end plated rudder with cutout, which presumably can serve as a boarding ladder. For more pictures and details take a look at pages 27 through 30.
We've done a minimal
amount of cold weather sailing aboard Little Cruiser; however, we have
spent a fair bit of time aboard her when it was quite cold outside
while preparing for the next cruise. What we've usually noticed is that
the sun alone shinning in through the windows and our own body heat is
sufficient to keep the inside temperatures tolerable; but there are
times when it is so darn cold outside that we do eventually resort to
using heat. So far the safest method we've used while still on land was
a ceramic heater, but we have also used our gas cooking stove set on
low when out sailing. In this case, we simply turned on the stove for a
few minutes every-so-often, and then the cabin heated up very nicely.
Of course don't forget to leave the hatch open a bit to avoid carbon
monoxide poisoning.
Now when it comes to serious cold weather cruising aboard little boats,
we must say that Matt Layden is the expert again. He once spent a whole
winter aboard Little Cruiser in Cape Cod, and he even froze the boat in
a salt water pond like an artic ship of yesteryear. If you look at this picture ,which Matt was kind
enough to give us, you will see LC frozen in her winter berth. We
learned of this adventure only after we stripped the paint off the hull
and happen to inquire about the bow wave shaped gouges up forward. It
appears that Matt eventually tired of his winter entombment and sailed
through some ice to head South.
Finally, one of the things that should make winter cruising more
comfortable is the addition of foam in the windows. You can see in the
picture that Matt did this aboard LC. We happen to also like using foam
in the windows because it makes the boat cooler when it is hot and
warmer when it is cold. It also reduces condensation dramatically.
Finally, warm clothing and a winter sleeping bag will make your trip
more pleasant.
