My policy with anodes is, if they are 50 percent gone they are replaced. The rate of loss is not linear. The last half goes much faster than the first. At least that was my experience as a 10 year solo livaboard sailer. Cheers from Anacortes…
The allure and Garcia sailboats are so unique. Anyone with cruising experience would recognize the potential survivability these boats have as an advantage too tucking in deep into mangroves where no other sailboats can access besides great features. Nice demonstration of drying out. Thanks
Hi Peter. The lifting centreboard certainly allows for accessing shallow places, which can be very handy. Shallow anchorages in protected coral reefs are a good example, as is the mangrove creek shelter from storms as you’ve suggested. For the drying out method shown in this video we simply drove onto the beach a couple of hours after high tide. The other method is to anchor and wait for the water to recede - best used when the bottom is flat. Regards, Rick.
Hello! We were in Cherbourg this week to visit @SailLife and we admired your beautiful boat while at dock. Thank you for sharing your sailing adventures!
Both are good choices. I like the Sirius boats; solidly built for a GRP hull. I talked about one with the owner in St Helier Marina, Jersey. Let me know if you would like to compare the features and design concepts.
Very cool video. Thanks for that. May I ask, in brought strokes, why did you choose the Garcia 45 over something like the HR 44 or other comparable boats? Me and my Family are looking at boats like these and I‘d like to know your opinion. Keep up the cool and interesting videos.
Hi Valentin and family. Perhaps Carolyn and I should make a video on the yachts that were on our shortlist. The HR 44 was in the last three. Our reasons for passing over it were largely based on practicality. It’s a gorgeous design and a beautiful boat to sail but not such a good cruising boat to live in. It has insufficient storage spaces and not enough designed in safety for crossing oceans, IMHO. The rudders are vulnerable, the prop is exposed, it has no watertight bulkheads or through hulls. It’s sail plan is all about convenience and ease of use rather than reliability and flexibility. It has no arch for solar panels and a tender. Look beyond the beautiful and spacious interior and fast, easy sailing and think about practical and safe living on board. Happy to discuss. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
Another (somewhat renown) owner gives a rather convincing inventory of the boat's live-aboard and cruising capabilities. czcams.com/video/5_hyr4CUSLs/video.html
Hi Rick, Hi Carolyn. Thanks for all the videos! Quick question. Are these the only anodes in the Exploration45? Also, how do you prevent corrosion in marinas and specially when hooked to shore power?
Hi João. In this video we show all of the anodes except for the one on the centreboard. As shown, I replaced the small anode on the tip of the propeller. The two larger anodes on the propeller shaft were still protecting the propeller. These two were still working after 12 months, at which time they were replaced when we lifted the boat for an annual check. The new, small anode on the propeller tip was still OK, so we left it there. The two large hull anodes and the centreboard anode were all OK for another year. With new boats, anodes wear out quickly at first but then settle and last longer. So, our Victron Galvanic Isolator hull protection system is working well. 🙂 In this first 13 months of living on board we have spent 9 & 1/2 months in marinas and 3 & 1/2 months sailing and anchoring. Of the time in marinas, we were using shore power for a total of around 7 months. We haven’t had any problems with electrolysis or corrosion. Our protection system has a test panel which we use twice a day; it’s always been OK, but some owners have had emerging problems that need to be hunted down and fixed. This can happen with any boat, however Garcias have good protection and diagnosis systems. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
Very cool so see how it looks when beached! I thought the rudders would touch the sand and help with the balance, which they obviously are not doing! So, how is the boat balanced? Is the hull just flat enough and wide enough to keep the boat securely balanced when it is beached?
The boat has a flat panel of aluminium along the centreline of the hull, which makes beaching it relatively easy. We had perfect winds. A gentle breeze helped us beach in the morning by blowing us on. In the afternoon a gentle breeze blew us off once we re-floated. Perfect!
Hi! What do you know about the antifouling? The copper and aluminum are not good friends. Your boat seen perfect. Have you got a plan to clean it? Which kind of job you do? Thanks!
Hi Sergio. I don't know what make the anti-foul is, but it was an expensive option. I agree with you - the bottom of the hull was quite clean. Up near the waterline, where there is more sunshine, there was more green weed there, but not much. The owners of Idril, Exploration 45 no 25 use SonicHull and it works really well. Re my job - I was a scientist but now I'm a boat cleaner and food critic in a floating restaurant with 3 Michelin stars. 🙂
@@SailingSnowGum Garcia should give the magic potion of his anti-foul. Sonic Hull seems a nice option to keep clean, but you still to paint the boat, does it correct?
@@sergiosanchezgarcia9284 I believe you are correct Sergio - even with SonicHull it is still necessary to have antifoul paint. It does seems to be working quite well, better than I thought it was before beaching the boat. The green weed likes the sunlight, which it gets near the waterline and on the outer edges of the rudders. Regards, Rick.
Only if they are aluminium deficient! A friend with a Garcia Exploration 45 was visited by the Finistere orcas. They played with his boat for a while, but no damage done.
I’ve never seen a prop that folds AND reverses like a feathering prop. What brand is that? I’m waiting on a boreal 47.2 and can’t wait to do that with mine!
Hi Michael. It’s a Gori folding propellor, the single pitch version. They also make an overdrive version, which in overdrive mode is like fifth gear in a five speed gearbox - overdrive, though I’m a bit wary of those due to the extra load they put on the engine. Why not talk with Jean-Francois about installing one of these Gori propellers as a new part on your Boreal? They’re very good.
@@SailingSnowGum I think I will, thanks! I assume it has decent power in reverse? And I’ll be in Maine most of the time and feathering props are right out due the the lines.
It works just fine in reverse. Very well in fact. Because it folds so well, to a streamlined shape, ropes will slide neatly over it. A rope cutter can be added for ropes caught when the prop is being used.
@@SailingSnowGum yes, on my current boat I changed from feathering to folding, and the performance improved as much as the line shedding! Does your reference to JF mean you looked at a boreal?
@@michaellambert8606 Yes, I looked at a Boreal. I also looked closely at a Hallberg-Rassy 44, Bestevaer Pure 45, Amel 50, Najad 395 and X-Yachts 4.6 & 4.9. In preparation for crossing oceans I decided I needed a hull that wouldn’t crack due to impact with a whale or a log and that also had full height watertight bulkheads. The three aluminium boats mentioned satisfy these criteria.
Thanks Dave! I have been waiting for a review of this C-Cat for a while. Some thoughts.: 1. In my opinion, this cat makes it very difficult to justify paying almost a million more for a Kinetic, despite its nice technology features. 2. The more I've been looking into cats the more I'm becoming a monohull heretic. IF the goal is to spend most time sailing rather than at anchor, I think you get better bang for the buck with a monohull in terms of durability, quality of interior, handling weather and upwind sailing and places you can go. For 2.5 mill I would also go for the used oyster 625 or (most likely) a new Garcia exploration 60 and try to cross from my bucket list a northwest passage. Amel 50, Allures 51.9 (aluminum) cost far less and they are remarkable boats one can pass on to their kids. And for the prices of the Kinetic and HH55 how can you beat the interior and craftsmanship of a new Oyster 595? 3. Many of the new monohulls have centerboards and drafts between 1 and 2 meters, and increasingly large cockpits. You can beach the Garcia exploratiin and it offers great weather protection in the cockpit. So that's no longer solely a cat feature.
Hi Constantine. It's Rick here, from the Sailing Snow Gum Channel. Um, ... did you post your comment to the right channel? I don't know who Dave is, but he might not see your thoughts on this subject if this is the only place you've posted them. Regards, Rick.
Thanks Rick! Your video must have started after the one I was trying to comment on and my comments got misplaced. I had watched your video when checking out aluminum boats and found it very informative. Thank you for your channel and for being so polite and letting me know!
@@constantinealexandrakis Hi Constantine. It's always a pleasure to talk with people who watch our videos. I'm glad you got some value from this one and perhaps some of the others. We enjoyed making them. Regards, Rick. 🙂
Hi Donald. Re anchor balls - we've given ours a try and it was not a good experiment. The infernal thing spins in one direction, then back in the other direction, pumping a drubbing vibration noise through the hull, 24/7. It would make a good electricity generator, if it could be tapped into. On top of wearing out our ears and nerves, it was wearing out the spinnaker pole topping lift. We need to find a better way to rig it. Our Australian friends on a neighbouring boat had theirs held by four lines, to stop the spin. Something to try. Re sailing plans, well, every evening we see Odin's Breath catching on the hills all around. One of Odin's friends, the god Covid, has been laughing at our sailing plans. And not just ours I gather, from speaking with other yachties. We were heading for the top of Norway this summer, but that plan came unstuck when Norway did not unstick its borders. The UK is dark red on Norway's Covid chart. We'll try again next summer. So we might be looking for a perfect bay to anchor in for the next nine months. Somewhere with a nearby and excellent cafe, friendly locals and a lovely town within riding distance would be nice. Any suggestions? Or we might head south for some boat work, to end up in southern Spain, Portugal or the Canaries for winter. I believe they have cafes there, too. 🙂
@@SailingSnowGum Hi. Scotland very dark and wet over the winter, and whilst reasonable weather in summer with some of the best sailing in the world not my first choice to over winter. We take boats ashore normally September or October, your mention of southern ports seem sound. If you need run round the island to see it would gladly willing give you a lift and tell you a little about it
Hi Matthew. I asked the beachgoers if they had a wire brush I could borrow but none did. People are not prepared like they used to be! So there’s one on my list now.
The stoppers are made of nylon so they can break away if the line is too thick or too strong. You'd rather that part break and need to dive or beach to sort out whatever's tangled, than something in the motor/engine breaking. Awesome engineering
They could have build in those keel anodes a bit better. Plenty of drag and cavitation for the prop there!! Flat disk anode screwed into a recess would have been much better
Cool. Nice to see the beaching works in practise and not just in theory. Although you still need to get off again (I'll await that video 😉) I wonder how much damage it does to the anti-foul though - touching the sand and also having the sand and wave action on it for some time. Is this something you plan to do regularly or was it just a dry run in good conditions for when you really need it?
Good point Eco. Actually, getting off worked like a charm. We’d stowed the front anchor and were chatting with interested passers-by when Snow Gum quietly relaunched herself. I was aware that the gentle breeze had switched to offshore; I was contemplating simply drifting back out to our anchoring position. Out of courtesy to the other boat owners who were watching I started the engine but we really did just drift to a good spot, at minimum depth for our draught with centreboard up. Which reminds me, the sand pushed the centreboard up when we beached and it was a bit stubborn when we tried to lower it a little, once anchored again. However, as soon as we made some way while raising the anchor a couple of days later, the centreboard released and was back in the game. I was happy about that; better than having to swim under and give it a jiggle to loosen it. That was the backup plan and Carolyn was all revved up to be the hero!
@@SailingSnowGum I'm laughing hard that you would have delgated the diving job... you probably had some sand in the centre board mechanism which washed out under way. Maybe a slightly more gravel/pebble beach would be better for the boat...
@@SailingSnowGum but I absolutely love that you have the option to beach this boat. This would be so useful for bluewater sailing when you want to scrub the bottom, let it dry out or repair something below the water line. I'm in love with the Garcia Exploration.
@@ecoworrier I once read that the skipper should not be in the water. Wise words! But somehow, while I’m confident that Carolyn would have completed the centreboard shaking task with aplomb, it would actually have been undertaken by another member of the team. 😉
@@ecoworrier What’s really cool is the prospect of winching the boat high and dry, using the capstan winch and rolling logs under the hull, in Madagascar or some such place. Amazing capability is built in to this design.
Hi John. Prices have increased since we placed our order in late 2019, due to general inflation and labour cost increases but also aluminium has gone up. A boat configured like Snow Gum would now be at least 800,000 Euros; probably more. You’ll need to call the sales staff at Garcia to get a better figure. Enjoy your shopping. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
I thought the rudders were to stop it from falling over on the hard - like a tripod. But nope. It somehow doesn't need them. must be really flat bottom bulled.
Hi Coleen. No, the rudders do not contact the 'ground' when drying out. You might be thinking of a Bestavaer Pure 45, with the centreboard option, where the twin rudders are part of the tripod that takes the ground. But if the mud is really soft, one of them can spear down into it, putting the boat on an angle. With the Garcias and Boreals, the underside of the fore and central part of the hull is flat and supports the boat well, on sand or mud. As you can see in the video, we chose a beach with a nice slope, so the deck and sole inside would be flat after driving onto the beach. That was fun and I wish I'd had the drone in the air to film the approach. We planned it meticulously, but it was really easy and low stress in the end. Getting off the beach was super easy. We didn't even need the engine. The tide lifted the boat off the sand imperceptibly, then a gentle wind blew us out to an ideal spot to drop the anchor. It was a great day. And a funny one. Every person on the beach stopped by for a chat, not knowing that every person before them had done the same. I started giving them scrapers to help clean the hull. Some of the kids thought nothing of being boat slaves for a few minutes. 🙂
Hi Brett. It sounds like we could chat about simulators and latency induced motion sickness. Thanks for the tip. My Dad chimed in with the same suggestion, from his army days. 🙂
@@SailingSnowGum I’m ex-regular army too…..yep, climb from the side. Motion sickness in full motion sims common when we’re ‘taxiing’. In the ‘air’ not so bad.
Well, Patrick, clearly you shouldn’t have retired! You’re needed as a high-price consultant to the aluminium ship building yards in France. Watch out though - they might contrive to pay you in croissants, which is all I ever got in return for the helpful advice I provided regarding continuous improvement. Very nice croissants though. Let me ask, did you work in aluminium welding in a production facility like a boatyard? I’m guessing that in such a workplace, some welds are done with much greater care, time, attention and inspection than others. Some matter more than others. What I saw on the Garcia was exactly this. The important welds were good. Most of them were important and so most were good. It’s a strong boat. There’s some very hefty welding done around the centreboard box and main bilge areas and lots of other places, including what you’ve noticed - around the prop shaft tube. Not necessarily elegant, but strong. :-)
@@SailingSnowGum Look I`m only saying this as an observation , any professional welder would have noticed this immediately, the massive undercut of the top weld and sloppy welds on the bottom shows it was done in position by an untrained welder. Undercut by itself takes away a huge amount of strength from the fabrication, and I`m now 71 and happily retired.
@@patrickcoleman3 Thanks for this extra information Patrick. I’ll have a look and see if I can spot the features you’re describing. Rick. Edit: are you commenting on the welds where the prop shaft tube meets the stub keel? Yeah, they’re not what I’d call neat. There’s plenty of filler added, to ensure there’s no micro channels that could cause leaks.
@@patrickcoleman3 Patrick you are correct. My guess is the laborers are hired cheap and promoted to supervisor without needed experience. Over the years I have seen more than one professional in sailing/welding state the same thing about Garcia's welds. I have also read more than one owner imply the same thing as Snow Gum, that the owners concerns are not taken seriously. My guess is that since Garcia is not semi custom owners are not listened to. Of coarse having a contract for the welds to be checked(xray) and certified is an option but it adds to the cost. I even wonder if Garcia allows this as an option. On the other hand, full custom builders will listen to an owner tell them to grind the weld out and redo it. Today is all about profit and not quality. Very strange times we live in.
My policy with anodes is, if they are 50 percent gone they are replaced. The rate of loss is not linear. The last half goes much faster than the first. At least that was my experience as a 10 year solo livaboard sailer.
Cheers from Anacortes…
What kind of hull was that Ray?
The allure and Garcia sailboats are so unique. Anyone with cruising experience would recognize the potential survivability these boats have as an advantage too tucking in deep into mangroves where no other sailboats can access besides great features. Nice demonstration of drying out. Thanks
Hi Peter. The lifting centreboard certainly allows for accessing shallow places, which can be very handy. Shallow anchorages in protected coral reefs are a good example, as is the mangrove creek shelter from storms as you’ve suggested. For the drying out method shown in this video we simply drove onto the beach a couple of hours after high tide. The other method is to anchor and wait for the water to recede - best used when the bottom is flat. Regards, Rick.
Hello! We were in Cherbourg this week to visit @SailLife and we admired your beautiful boat while at dock. Thank you for sharing your sailing adventures!
You are most welcome bootsy. 🙂 We have enjoyed making these little movies and meeting people along the way.
Great Video...That is the first time I have seen an up close of how the Garcia beaches. I have it narrowed down to a Garcia 45 or a Sirius DS 40.
Both are good choices. I like the Sirius boats; solidly built for a GRP hull. I talked about one with the owner in St Helier Marina, Jersey. Let me know if you would like to compare the features and design concepts.
I am highly interested in a Garcia 45 / Sirius DS40 comparison! Yes, please! 😃
Me too! I'd love to hear the pros and cons between these two
It's interesting that you'd have the durability of a steel hull but the vulnerability of rudders that are not protected by skegs.
Another great video Rick.
Question:
1. Are there anodes on the two rudders?
2. And where are they bonded?
Hi Simon. Sorry - I missed this question. Nope, there's no anodes on the rudders. Regards, Rick.
Hello folks, just checking in to see if there's any clarity around your post-sale plans? I hope you're both well.
Very cool video. Thanks for that.
May I ask, in brought strokes, why did you choose the Garcia 45 over something like the HR 44 or other comparable boats?
Me and my Family are looking at boats like these and I‘d like to know your opinion.
Keep up the cool and interesting videos.
Hi Valentin and family. Perhaps Carolyn and I should make a video on the yachts that were on our shortlist. The HR 44 was in the last three. Our reasons for passing over it were largely based on practicality. It’s a gorgeous design and a beautiful boat to sail but not such a good cruising boat to live in. It has insufficient storage spaces and not enough designed in safety for crossing oceans, IMHO. The rudders are vulnerable, the prop is exposed, it has no watertight bulkheads or through hulls. It’s sail plan is all about convenience and ease of use rather than reliability and flexibility. It has no arch for solar panels and a tender. Look beyond the beautiful and spacious interior and fast, easy sailing and think about practical and safe living on board. Happy to discuss. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
Another (somewhat renown) owner gives a rather convincing inventory of the boat's live-aboard and cruising capabilities. czcams.com/video/5_hyr4CUSLs/video.html
Hi Rick, Hi Carolyn. Thanks for all the videos! Quick question. Are these the only anodes in the Exploration45? Also, how do you prevent corrosion in marinas and specially when hooked to shore power?
Hi João. In this video we show all of the anodes except for the one on the centreboard. As shown, I replaced the small anode on the tip of the propeller. The two larger anodes on the propeller shaft were still protecting the propeller. These two were still working after 12 months, at which time they were replaced when we lifted the boat for an annual check. The new, small anode on the propeller tip was still OK, so we left it there. The two large hull anodes and the centreboard anode were all OK for another year. With new boats, anodes wear out quickly at first but then settle and last longer. So, our Victron Galvanic Isolator hull protection system is working well. 🙂 In this first 13 months of living on board we have spent 9 & 1/2 months in marinas and 3 & 1/2 months sailing and anchoring. Of the time in marinas, we were using shore power for a total of around 7 months. We haven’t had any problems with electrolysis or corrosion. Our protection system has a test panel which we use twice a day; it’s always been OK, but some owners have had emerging problems that need to be hunted down and fixed. This can happen with any boat, however Garcias have good protection and diagnosis systems. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
@@SailingSnowGum Great to learn all of that. Looking forward to your next videos!
Just one tipp for using the emergency ladder. Do not use it parallel. Use it sideways and place your feet in front different side
Hi Stonley. We will be sure to give your technique a try next time we use it. It has to be easier than what we were doing!
Very cool so see how it looks when beached! I thought the rudders would touch the sand and help with the balance, which they obviously are not doing! So, how is the boat balanced? Is the hull just flat enough and wide enough to keep the boat securely balanced when it is beached?
The boat has a flat panel of aluminium along the centreline of the hull, which makes beaching it relatively easy. We had perfect winds. A gentle breeze helped us beach in the morning by blowing us on. In the afternoon a gentle breeze blew us off once we re-floated. Perfect!
Thank you for the information 👍
Was wondering the same thing.
Hi! What do you know about the antifouling? The copper and aluminum are not good friends. Your boat seen perfect. Have you got a plan to clean it? Which kind of job you do? Thanks!
Hi Sergio. I don't know what make the anti-foul is, but it was an expensive option. I agree with you - the bottom of the hull was quite clean. Up near the waterline, where there is more sunshine, there was more green weed there, but not much. The owners of Idril, Exploration 45 no 25 use SonicHull and it works really well. Re my job - I was a scientist but now I'm a boat cleaner and food critic in a floating restaurant with 3 Michelin stars. 🙂
@@SailingSnowGum Garcia should give the magic potion of his anti-foul. Sonic Hull seems a nice option to keep clean, but you still to paint the boat, does it correct?
@@sergiosanchezgarcia9284 I believe you are correct Sergio - even with SonicHull it is still necessary to have antifoul paint. It does seems to be working quite well, better than I thought it was before beaching the boat. The green weed likes the sunlight, which it gets near the waterline and on the outer edges of the rudders. Regards, Rick.
@@SailingSnowGum I think that in the lowest latitude, you probably have more incidence with the green weed. Regard!
Those rudders look solid. I do not suppose orcas could chew those, like they have been actively doing to some sail yachts in Portugal and Spain?...
Only if they are aluminium deficient! A friend with a Garcia Exploration 45 was visited by the Finistere orcas. They played with his boat for a while, but no damage done.
How old is this yacht?
The aluminum looks in good shape
Hi Andre. The answer lies in Snow Gum’s launch video. 🙂 czcams.com/video/c1MIFI-O6wc/video.html
I’ve never seen a prop that folds AND reverses like a feathering prop. What brand is that? I’m waiting on a boreal 47.2 and can’t wait to do that with mine!
Hi Michael. It’s a Gori folding propellor, the single pitch version. They also make an overdrive version, which in overdrive mode is like fifth gear in a five speed gearbox - overdrive, though I’m a bit wary of those due to the extra load they put on the engine. Why not talk with Jean-Francois about installing one of these Gori propellers as a new part on your Boreal? They’re very good.
@@SailingSnowGum I think I will, thanks! I assume it has decent power in reverse? And I’ll be in Maine most of the time and feathering props are right out due the the lines.
It works just fine in reverse. Very well in fact. Because it folds so well, to a streamlined shape, ropes will slide neatly over it. A rope cutter can be added for ropes caught when the prop is being used.
@@SailingSnowGum yes, on my current boat I changed from feathering to folding, and the performance improved as much as the line shedding! Does your reference to JF mean you looked at a boreal?
@@michaellambert8606 Yes, I looked at a Boreal. I also looked closely at a Hallberg-Rassy 44, Bestevaer Pure 45, Amel 50, Najad 395 and X-Yachts 4.6 & 4.9. In preparation for crossing oceans I decided I needed a hull that wouldn’t crack due to impact with a whale or a log and that also had full height watertight bulkheads. The three aluminium boats mentioned satisfy these criteria.
Thanks Dave! I have been waiting for a review of this C-Cat for a while. Some thoughts.:
1. In my opinion, this cat makes it very difficult to justify paying almost a million more for a Kinetic, despite its nice technology features.
2. The more I've been looking into cats the more I'm becoming a monohull heretic. IF the goal is to spend most time sailing rather than at anchor, I think you get better bang for the buck with a monohull in terms of durability, quality of interior, handling weather and upwind sailing and places you can go. For 2.5 mill I would also go for the used oyster 625 or (most likely) a new Garcia exploration 60 and try to cross from my bucket list a northwest passage. Amel 50, Allures 51.9 (aluminum) cost far less and they are remarkable boats one can pass on to their kids. And for the prices of the Kinetic and HH55 how can you beat the interior and craftsmanship of a new Oyster 595?
3. Many of the new monohulls have centerboards and drafts between 1 and 2 meters, and increasingly large cockpits. You can beach the Garcia exploratiin and it offers great weather protection in the cockpit. So that's no longer solely a cat feature.
Hi Constantine. It's Rick here, from the Sailing Snow Gum Channel. Um, ... did you post your comment to the right channel? I don't know who Dave is, but he might not see your thoughts on this subject if this is the only place you've posted them. Regards, Rick.
Thanks Rick! Your video must have started after the one I was trying to comment on and my comments got misplaced. I had watched your video when checking out aluminum boats and found it very informative. Thank you for your channel and for being so polite and letting me know!
@@constantinealexandrakis Hi Constantine. It's always a pleasure to talk with people who watch our videos. I'm glad you got some value from this one and perhaps some of the others. We enjoyed making them. Regards, Rick. 🙂
I see you are still at anchor in Vatersay Bay. Are you still heading north.
What's the thought regarding anchor ball?
Donald.
Hi Donald. Re anchor balls - we've given ours a try and it was not a good experiment. The infernal thing spins in one direction, then back in the other direction, pumping a drubbing vibration noise through the hull, 24/7. It would make a good electricity generator, if it could be tapped into. On top of wearing out our ears and nerves, it was wearing out the spinnaker pole topping lift. We need to find a better way to rig it. Our Australian friends on a neighbouring boat had theirs held by four lines, to stop the spin. Something to try.
Re sailing plans, well, every evening we see Odin's Breath catching on the hills all around. One of Odin's friends, the god Covid, has been laughing at our sailing plans. And not just ours I gather, from speaking with other yachties. We were heading for the top of Norway this summer, but that plan came unstuck when Norway did not unstick its borders. The UK is dark red on Norway's Covid chart. We'll try again next summer. So we might be looking for a perfect bay to anchor in for the next nine months. Somewhere with a nearby and excellent cafe, friendly locals and a lovely town within riding distance would be nice. Any suggestions? Or we might head south for some boat work, to end up in southern Spain, Portugal or the Canaries for winter. I believe they have cafes there, too. 🙂
@@SailingSnowGum Hi.
Scotland very dark and wet over the winter, and whilst reasonable weather in summer with some of the best sailing in the world not my first choice to over winter. We take boats ashore normally September or October, your mention of southern ports seem sound.
If you need run round the island to see it would gladly willing give you a lift and tell you a little about it
👍
Nice to see her beached. You should clean the prop, you'll go faster!
Hi Matthew. I asked the beachgoers if they had a wire brush I could borrow but none did. People are not prepared like they used to be! So there’s one on my list now.
The rope cutter probably moves to buffer the shock to the drive train in case you get something thicker than a fishing line wrapped around your prop.
The stoppers are made of nylon so they can break away if the line is too thick or too strong. You'd rather that part break and need to dive or beach to sort out whatever's tangled, than something in the motor/engine breaking. Awesome engineering
They could have build in those keel anodes a bit better. Plenty of drag and cavitation for the prop there!! Flat disk anode screwed into a recess would have been much better
Cool. Nice to see the beaching works in practise and not just in theory. Although you still need to get off again (I'll await that video 😉)
I wonder how much damage it does to the anti-foul though - touching the sand and also having the sand and wave action on it for some time. Is this something you plan to do regularly or was it just a dry run in good conditions for when you really need it?
Good point Eco. Actually, getting off worked like a charm. We’d stowed the front anchor and were chatting with interested passers-by when Snow Gum quietly relaunched herself. I was aware that the gentle breeze had switched to offshore; I was contemplating simply drifting back out to our anchoring position. Out of courtesy to the other boat owners who were watching I started the engine but we really did just drift to a good spot, at minimum depth for our draught with centreboard up. Which reminds me, the sand pushed the centreboard up when we beached and it was a bit stubborn when we tried to lower it a little, once anchored again. However, as soon as we made some way while raising the anchor a couple of days later, the centreboard released and was back in the game. I was happy about that; better than having to swim under and give it a jiggle to loosen it. That was the backup plan and Carolyn was all revved up to be the hero!
@@SailingSnowGum I'm laughing hard that you would have delgated the diving job... you probably had some sand in the centre board mechanism which washed out under way. Maybe a slightly more gravel/pebble beach would be better for the boat...
@@SailingSnowGum but I absolutely love that you have the option to beach this boat. This would be so useful for bluewater sailing when you want to scrub the bottom, let it dry out or repair something below the water line. I'm in love with the Garcia Exploration.
@@ecoworrier I once read that the skipper should not be in the water. Wise words! But somehow, while I’m confident that Carolyn would have completed the centreboard shaking task with aplomb, it would actually have been undertaken by another member of the team. 😉
@@ecoworrier What’s really cool is the prospect of winching the boat high and dry, using the capstan winch and rolling logs under the hull, in Madagascar or some such place. Amazing capability is built in to this design.
Just wondering....how much does a 45Garcia go for ....??? ...im awestruck, when watching a CZcams Video Tour....
Hi John. Prices have increased since we placed our order in late 2019, due to general inflation and labour cost increases but also aluminium has gone up. A boat configured like Snow Gum would now be at least 800,000 Euros; probably more. You’ll need to call the sales staff at Garcia to get a better figure. Enjoy your shopping. 🙂 Regards, Rick.
I thought the rudders were to stop it from falling over on the hard - like a tripod. But nope. It somehow doesn't need them. must be really flat bottom bulled.
Hi Coleen. No, the rudders do not contact the 'ground' when drying out. You might be thinking of a Bestavaer Pure 45, with the centreboard option, where the twin rudders are part of the tripod that takes the ground. But if the mud is really soft, one of them can spear down into it, putting the boat on an angle. With the Garcias and Boreals, the underside of the fore and central part of the hull is flat and supports the boat well, on sand or mud. As you can see in the video, we chose a beach with a nice slope, so the deck and sole inside would be flat after driving onto the beach. That was fun and I wish I'd had the drone in the air to film the approach. We planned it meticulously, but it was really easy and low stress in the end. Getting off the beach was super easy. We didn't even need the engine. The tide lifted the boat off the sand imperceptibly, then a gentle wind blew us out to an ideal spot to drop the anchor. It was a great day. And a funny one. Every person on the beach stopped by for a chat, not knowing that every person before them had done the same. I started giving them scrapers to help clean the hull. Some of the kids thought nothing of being boat slaves for a few minutes. 🙂
Climb the ladder side on…….aircraft simulator emergency ladder tip.
Hi Brett. It sounds like we could chat about simulators and latency induced motion sickness. Thanks for the tip. My Dad chimed in with the same suggestion, from his army days. 🙂
@@SailingSnowGum I’m ex-regular army too…..yep, climb from the side. Motion sickness in full motion sims common when we’re ‘taxiing’. In the ‘air’ not so bad.
As a retired professional welder I must say some of the welding is pretty crappy on the propeller housing.
Well, Patrick, clearly you shouldn’t have retired! You’re needed as a high-price consultant to the aluminium ship building yards in France. Watch out though - they might contrive to pay you in croissants, which is all I ever got in return for the helpful advice I provided regarding continuous improvement. Very nice croissants though. Let me ask, did you work in aluminium welding in a production facility like a boatyard? I’m guessing that in such a workplace, some welds are done with much greater care, time, attention and inspection than others. Some matter more than others. What I saw on the Garcia was exactly this. The important welds were good. Most of them were important and so most were good. It’s a strong boat. There’s some very hefty welding done around the centreboard box and main bilge areas and lots of other places, including what you’ve noticed - around the prop shaft tube. Not necessarily elegant, but strong. :-)
@@SailingSnowGum Look I`m only saying this as an observation , any professional welder would have noticed this immediately, the massive undercut of the top weld and sloppy welds on the bottom shows it was done in position by an untrained welder. Undercut by itself takes away a huge amount of strength from the fabrication, and I`m now 71 and happily retired.
@@patrickcoleman3 Thanks for this extra information Patrick. I’ll have a look and see if I can spot the features you’re describing. Rick. Edit: are you commenting on the welds where the prop shaft tube meets the stub keel? Yeah, they’re not what I’d call neat. There’s plenty of filler added, to ensure there’s no micro channels that could cause leaks.
@@patrickcoleman3 Patrick you are correct. My guess is the laborers are hired cheap and promoted to supervisor without needed experience. Over the years I have seen more than one professional in sailing/welding state the same thing about Garcia's welds. I have also read more than one owner imply the same thing as Snow Gum, that the owners concerns are not taken seriously. My guess is that since Garcia is not semi custom owners are not listened to. Of coarse having a contract for the welds to be checked(xray) and certified is an option but it adds to the cost. I even wonder if Garcia allows this as an option. On the other hand, full custom builders will listen to an owner tell them to grind the weld out and redo it. Today is all about profit and not quality. Very strange times we live in.
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