Sorry about the audio quality folks. The CZcams robot has messed with what sounded good and clear before uploading. It sounds best on mobile devices. @ 3:40 - plug the Ethernet cable into the Cerbo's VE.Can port, rather than the Ethernet port. Regards, Rick. 🙂
Hi Valentin. Thanks for your nice words. It would be nice to sail with Tom on Snow Owl as we call her sometimes, and he has offered. The scene with us sailing Snow Gum is from 2021, sailing between Fishguard and Milford Haven, off the coast of Wales. It was a bit lumpy. I dare say you’ve seen it before in an earlier video. Sorry for the confusion. I actually mentioned this in a rehearsal of the voiceover, but forgot in the take I used. Oh well … 🙂 Regards, Rick.
Hello Arnaud. To answer your question, the reason we sold an almost brand new Garcia Exploration 45 is because it was almost brand new! 🙂 Let me explain. We ordered our boat at the start of November 2019, about a month before Covid 19 started. Lockdowns and social distancing in 2020 made building boats far more difficult than usual. We were glad to see that Garcia stayed open, kept working and delivered our boat, though it took three months longer than planned; not a problem to us. It was a difficult time, as I'm sure you recall. Our original plan was to sail our boat for three years, part time; about six months on the boat and six months off, back home in Australia with our children. After three years we would either sell it, or keep going. Because of Covid we could not fly backwards and forwards between Europe and Australia, so we ended up living on the boat for 18 months in one hit. This was as much time on the boat as we'd planned to do and it was only a year and a half old instead of three years old. We knew it would be very easy to sell. Garcia had worked closely with us to iron out a number of technical problems, typical with new boats, but possibly a few more than usual because of Covid. Once Volvo had done a good job of rebuilding the engine, the boat was in very good shape. It really was the perfect time to either keep it, or sell it. On top of these factors, Carolyn and I were having some health problems, some of which were related to the design of the boat and the sail plan. It's a boat that needs quite a bit of manual physicality to sail. Carolyn broke her ribs several times, from being thrown against the cockpit coaming while winching. Not fun. I was getting severe sciatica from pulling hard on the foresail and Code 0 furling lines, amongst others. Carolyn was getting seasick more than we hoped for and was losing far too much weight, noting that she didn't have a lot to start with. After 18 months we had achieved what we wanted to do and had a boat that was almost new. We weighed everything up and decided, 'Now is the time to sell it.' One of our reasons for buying this boat was that we knew it would be popular and easy to sell. We feel good about having got that right. 🙂 If you are thinking about ordering a Garcia, send me an email and I can talk with you about the technical aspects of the boat and whether it might suit your sailing plans. The address is in our About information. Regards, Rick.
@@SailingSnowGum Thank's Rick for your swift and exhaustive answer. I'm not looking to buy a boat right now and your testimony confirm that a push button type of sailing (HR or Amel) is more suitable if you are not in your 30's anymore and short handed. I really hope that your health problems are behind you and that your sailing career is not over. Regards.
You’ve understood my point about the design and sail plan correctly. We wanted to learn to sail in a boat that had all the lines and was manual in its operation. We achieved that. But it was tough on our bodies. When the wind picks up and it takes time to deal with a manually operated sail handling system, you can soon be in a situation where you both have to use all your strength while furling, reefing, winching, trimming, etc. A push-button electrically powered system is so quick that the sails can be reefed or put away without delay, before the wind becomes a problem. We watched skippers doing this on their own when coming in to anchor near us. They sailed right into a bay, faster and closer than boats with manual furling and slab-reefing, then put their sails away without any fuss. Wow! Manual systems are great for expedition boats and ours worked well, but we’re looking at push-button systems now. We’re fit for our age, but not young anymore. As you’ve mentioned, HR is a good example of a boat with electrically powered push-button sailing. Amel is another. Regards, Rick.
@@SailingSnowGum Agreed (am 47), the perfect boat would be a Garcia with in-mast furling and push buttons operations, OR a beachable HR with aluminium hull and retractable keel.... You can't have it all (unless loaded with money and patience to design your own boat). Fair wind to the both of you and thank you for all your videos.
Well, this will interest you. There was an HR44 named Castella, owned by a Swiss gentleman. I’d seen photos of it participating in the HR Rally at Ellös. A couple of years later when we were in Cherbourg with Snow Gum I was walking along the dock and saw a new Allures (from the same yard as Garcia, 51 foot IIRC) also called Castella, with the same unique font that was used on the HR44. It was the first Allures with in-mast furling. And it was the same owner; he’d sold his HR within a year or two of delivery. I was told by Allures/Garcia people that he hadn’t been entirely happy with his HR and asked for an aluminium boat, with a lifting centreboard, that could be beached and with the addition of in-mast furling. The naval architects needed to adjust the design to cater for the weight and balance changes. So this is close to your description of the ideal boat; a production boat at that! Or, look at what KMY in the Netherlands have built with the new boat Canada/MicMac. It’s a lot like a Dutch built Garcia. Bring money!!
Hi Renato. That's very nice of you. Well, we are doing some boat shopping and we think it would be fun to use the name 'Snow Gum' again. Time will tell. :-) Regards, Rick.
Sorry about the audio quality folks. The CZcams robot has messed with what sounded good and clear before uploading. It sounds best on mobile devices.
@ 3:40 - plug the Ethernet cable into the Cerbo's VE.Can port, rather than the Ethernet port.
Regards, Rick. 🙂
Nice to see you again with no major problem and the smile of Carolyn, with the garcia still sailing so efficiently
Thank you Phil. I get to see Carolyn's smile every day. Lucky man. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
Buenos días 🌅
Hola. Buenas noches a ti Paul.
Nice to hear you again.
Hi Mike. Thanks. It's nice to have a good story to tell about Snow Owl, or Night Gum, as Tom and I tend to call the boat. Regards, Rick.
Hey Rick, glad to see you still helping out with Snow Owl :) How's your search for your holy grale going? HR or still something else?
Hi Rick and Carolyn, nice to see you again!
I'm surprised you are still on Snow Gum/Night Owl after selling it. How come?
Hi Valentin. Thanks for your nice words. It would be nice to sail with Tom on Snow Owl as we call her sometimes, and he has offered. The scene with us sailing Snow Gum is from 2021, sailing between Fishguard and Milford Haven, off the coast of Wales. It was a bit lumpy. I dare say you’ve seen it before in an earlier video. Sorry for the confusion. I actually mentioned this in a rehearsal of the voiceover, but forgot in the take I used. Oh well … 🙂 Regards, Rick.
Hello, might I ask what are the reasons you sold a (almost) brand new Garcia Explorer 45 ?
Hello Arnaud. To answer your question, the reason we sold an almost brand new Garcia Exploration 45 is because it was almost brand new! 🙂 Let me explain.
We ordered our boat at the start of November 2019, about a month before Covid 19 started. Lockdowns and social distancing in 2020 made building boats far more difficult than usual. We were glad to see that Garcia stayed open, kept working and delivered our boat, though it took three months longer than planned; not a problem to us. It was a difficult time, as I'm sure you recall.
Our original plan was to sail our boat for three years, part time; about six months on the boat and six months off, back home in Australia with our children. After three years we would either sell it, or keep going. Because of Covid we could not fly backwards and forwards between Europe and Australia, so we ended up living on the boat for 18 months in one hit. This was as much time on the boat as we'd planned to do and it was only a year and a half old instead of three years old. We knew it would be very easy to sell.
Garcia had worked closely with us to iron out a number of technical problems, typical with new boats, but possibly a few more than usual because of Covid. Once Volvo had done a good job of rebuilding the engine, the boat was in very good shape. It really was the perfect time to either keep it, or sell it.
On top of these factors, Carolyn and I were having some health problems, some of which were related to the design of the boat and the sail plan. It's a boat that needs quite a bit of manual physicality to sail. Carolyn broke her ribs several times, from being thrown against the cockpit coaming while winching. Not fun. I was getting severe sciatica from pulling hard on the foresail and Code 0 furling lines, amongst others. Carolyn was getting seasick more than we hoped for and was losing far too much weight, noting that she didn't have a lot to start with.
After 18 months we had achieved what we wanted to do and had a boat that was almost new. We weighed everything up and decided, 'Now is the time to sell it.' One of our reasons for buying this boat was that we knew it would be popular and easy to sell. We feel good about having got that right. 🙂
If you are thinking about ordering a Garcia, send me an email and I can talk with you about the technical aspects of the boat and whether it might suit your sailing plans. The address is in our About information. Regards, Rick.
@@SailingSnowGum Thank's Rick for your swift and exhaustive answer. I'm not looking to buy a boat right now and your testimony confirm that a push button type of sailing (HR or Amel) is more suitable if you are not in your 30's anymore and short handed. I really hope that your health problems are behind you and that your sailing career is not over. Regards.
You’ve understood my point about the design and sail plan correctly. We wanted to learn to sail in a boat that had all the lines and was manual in its operation. We achieved that. But it was tough on our bodies. When the wind picks up and it takes time to deal with a manually operated sail handling system, you can soon be in a situation where you both have to use all your strength while furling, reefing, winching, trimming, etc. A push-button electrically powered system is so quick that the sails can be reefed or put away without delay, before the wind becomes a problem. We watched skippers doing this on their own when coming in to anchor near us. They sailed right into a bay, faster and closer than boats with manual furling and slab-reefing, then put their sails away without any fuss. Wow! Manual systems are great for expedition boats and ours worked well, but we’re looking at push-button systems now. We’re fit for our age, but not young anymore. As you’ve mentioned, HR is a good example of a boat with electrically powered push-button sailing. Amel is another. Regards, Rick.
@@SailingSnowGum Agreed (am 47), the perfect boat would be a Garcia with in-mast furling and push buttons operations, OR a beachable HR with aluminium hull and retractable keel.... You can't have it all (unless loaded with money and patience to design your own boat). Fair wind to the both of you and thank you for all your videos.
Well, this will interest you. There was an HR44 named Castella, owned by a Swiss gentleman. I’d seen photos of it participating in the HR Rally at Ellös. A couple of years later when we were in Cherbourg with Snow Gum I was walking along the dock and saw a new Allures (from the same yard as Garcia, 51 foot IIRC) also called Castella, with the same unique font that was used on the HR44. It was the first Allures with in-mast furling. And it was the same owner; he’d sold his HR within a year or two of delivery. I was told by Allures/Garcia people that he hadn’t been entirely happy with his HR and asked for an aluminium boat, with a lifting centreboard, that could be beached and with the addition of in-mast furling. The naval architects needed to adjust the design to cater for the weight and balance changes. So this is close to your description of the ideal boat; a production boat at that! Or, look at what KMY in the Netherlands have built with the new boat Canada/MicMac. It’s a lot like a Dutch built Garcia. Bring money!!
tell me you'll be back
hugs and good winds
Hi Renato. That's very nice of you. Well, we are doing some boat shopping and we think it would be fun to use the name 'Snow Gum' again. Time will tell. :-) Regards, Rick.
Hello
Hello Robson. 🙂