Home / Logs / 2006 / December 31, 2006
New Year, New Boat
December 31, 2006
It's the morning of New Years Eve (12/31/2006) and we have just gotten off the phone with Graham Bowes who called us from Xiamen China with some questions about Makara. We usually handle our interactions with Graham by email, but with the recent earthquake activity near Taiwan, Graham is still without an internet connection and we scheduled a call for this morning (it was almost New Years in Xiamen – Graham is a hardworking guy). It has been a while since the last update on Makara and it was wonderful to hear the status of the boat first hand. Not unexpectedly it was a question regarding the electrical system. This time it was about wire length runs for the start batteries which were originally planned to be toward the bow of the boat. While the forward placement may seem odd, usually Passports have bow thrusters. Being purists, Makara does not. The factory engineers noticed this and the issue was easily resolved with a more practical solution that removed over 100 feet of low gauge wire…we moved the batteries aft.
The work on Makara in China is nearly complete, only finish work and a small amount of equipment installation remains undone. Next week the decks will be painted with non-skid, final teak varnishing will follow, and somewhere in between the Webasto heater will be installed. The boatworks plans on finishing Makara on or around the 20th of January. Graham will then put her in the water for a thorough test of key systems (one concern is the sound proofing of the DC Generator) and to insure everything is right before it ships to the States.
Graham says Makara is “a real sailing boat” as she has an aft cockpit design that has been customized with open ocean sailing in mind. Understanding this, the team in Xiamen is taking special care to ensure Makara is “the best boat we have ever built”. When Graham tells us stuff like this, we know he is sincere.
For example, Makara is being fully assembled prior to shipping, including all the stainless steel parts that will later be shipped separately. An example of the fine stainless work being done on Makara is the custom bow roller assembly shown to the left. Note the additional vertical rollers to provide fair leads to the forward cleats.
By assembling everything ahead of time the factory can fully assure everything fits and works the way it is supposed to, and any problems can be addressed before it is shipped to the US. When they are satisfied with the results they will carefully prep the hull for shipment and find a berth on a cargo ship for the journey to Annapolis.
If all goes according to plan Makara will be put on a container ship sometime around February 10th, and should arrive on the east coast of the US around a month later. That means with a little luck we should see Makara, in person, for the first time about a month later (Woo Hoo!). We will be able to start the US based commissioning of the boat (rigging, canvas work, sail construction and electronics among other things) just as things begin to thaw in Annapolis. Actually for anyone in the Annapolis area, you may have noticed that it has not gotten all that cold yet. I bet there were many diehard sailors out on the Chesapeake Christmas day this year, and we hope to join you next year. If all goes according to plan we should be able to christen Makara in late May and have pretty much a full summer season to begin shaking down the boat.
Now that Makara is becoming a reality (I wrote the first check to cover the international letter of credit, so believe me she feels real), Judy and I have spent a great deal of time considering how we are going to approach mastering Makara. Although we have been reluctant landlubbers for a while, Judy and I have enough sea salt left in us to not be concerned about just sailing Makara, or any boat for that matter, but we are concerned about how we go about becoming one with her. If a boat is truly loved, and respected, if you take care of her and know her, she will in turn take care of you when you really need it.
Makara is a much more complex than any boat we have sailed in the past (and there have been a litany of them from the tiny Moore 24 to the big dual wheel Benateaus). Makara has many systems and design features that we have encountered before, but never in harmony on the same boat. We will need to learn how to properly deal with Makara’s turbo charged diesel engine, DC generator, Webasto heating system, radar, multiple fuel tanks, watermaker, dual headstays, dual compressor refrigeration system, and Genneker to name a few. In addition, in order to feel comfortable, we want to know every inch of the boat and Makara has roughly three times the interior volume of our beloved Perigail. To truly feel competent sailing her, we must practice with all sail combinations, on all points of sail in varying wind conditions, including high winds. We must assess how we handle her, and practice to smooth over the rough spots. To us sailing is a skill that becomes more enjoyable the better honed we are. Our small crew must be put to the whetstone and fashioned to a sharp edge that is worthy of Makara and the worlds oceans.
The need to master the boat, learn all these new systems, and the incumbent effort of gathering the spares and tools to repair them, has impacted our thinking about time. Judy and I thought we had lots of time before we set sail, but the reality is that we may well be pressed given our current schedule. I guess there is no surprise there. It is essential to us that we are prepared before we shove off and as it stands right now, we may find that leaving in the fall of 2008 is not practical. No matter, spring 2009 is only a few months down the timeline and might make for a very nice summer jaunt up into New England. Perhaps a good opportunity for visiting relatives in Freeport Maine!