Greetings from the other side of the pond.
I am soon to embark on another crazy cat trip, this time I will be going around the UK and Ireland single handed. I will complete the trip in as few stops as possible and aim for the quickest time possible. I am currently at the stage of designing some additions to a chosen boat to make the long hours at sea more bearable.
Firstly and most importantly I will need racks. given the fact that Hobie 18's/21's are not easy to come buy in the UK I was considering having some made for another type of boat, say a Dart 18. Has anybody ever done this? Any advice is more than welcome.
I also plan to run a cable up the mast for a VHF ariel to increase the range, design some self inflating buoyancy for the top of the mast (not a fan of the big bulky Hobie wind vein style ones) I will also be putting reefing points in the main.
Has anyone got any experience of righting different vessels on their own? I was thinking of taking a big 50l waterproof rucksack and filling it with water to get the extra weight I need to right the boat when i need it? Anyone with any better ideas?
Thanks for reading and I will update with progress as it happens.
what is your sailing experience?
what is your catamaran sailing experience?
what is your sailing experience in the north sea?
I applaud your sense of adventure. I think a righting pole would give you more sense of security along with the righting bag. You probably want a block and tackle on the righting bag as well. I am sure you will get a lot
of great advice from those with more experience.
So since you say as few stops as possible are you going to do several days at a stretch? Small boats in general dont seem to like the helm being unattended so you need to figure out a good self steering device for the boat. I'm sure one of the new auto inflating PFDs could be modified to be a mast float. Plan on spending lots of time on the radio making sure the big boats can see you. I was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and damn near got run over by a big ass freighter - I was on a steel hulled 50ft boat and was not seen on radar.
Well, seems that we have the same goal, making long trips in a Beachcat, but I will do it in South America.
You can maybe give a look a this page, from a Brazilian guy who made ocean crossing trip. The site is in Portuguese, but there is a lot of photos and videos about, and with Google traducer, you can read and understand the text.
http://www.betopandiani.com.br/blog/
An other guy, Yvan Bourgnon, who made the first crossing of the Cape Horn last year in a beachcat, and now is planning to make the first around the world in a beachcat. His web page is in french....
http://yvan-bourgnon.fr/
Also good videos and photos.
I use them to plan the modification of my cat. You can maybe mail them.....
Good luck and congratulations. Without adventure, there is no life.