Recent content by shamrock

we went north for the summer - left Virgin Islands in May to Bermuda then Boston and off into Maine. Maine was awesome. Fabulous cruising grounds, great people, first world (well, almost) stores and services. We'd really recommend the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, and it's easy for family to...

Twin poles were the best investment I made on our boat No spinnaker so we pole out one whenever the wind goes aft of 120. On a deep reach the jib won't stay goosewinged without a pole and the speed increase is significant. Have carried this full sail up to about 18-20 knots apparent. Only...

Recent discussion: http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232256

Wimp? No at all. I've built up to s/h sailing bit by bit and now the toughest part is getting my wife to say 'OK'. I've actually used the boat to go on business trips e.g across to Vancouver (we live on Vancouver Island) so I have my personal hotel when I get there. It's a 5-6 hour trip each...

Members of the earth's earliest known civilization, the Sumerians, looked on in shock and confusion some 6,000 years ago as God, the Lord Almighty, created Heaven and Earth. http://www.theonion.com/articles/sumerians-look-on-in-confusion-as-god-creates-worl,2879/ Sadly I can't lay claim to...

I just whack 'em round the head with a winch handle every time they stand up. Most don't do it more than once. ;)

Glad we're not the only ones. We scared the heck out of ourselves on the way in from Antigua at that kink in the channel, I swear the buoy was not there (Jan 2008) and we had 20 knots behind us. Thankfully we'd dropped sail and were motoring in so when I went 'uh huh, this doesn't feel right'...

I forgot about that trick - it works great. One of the main benefits of having the poles is that we pole out to windward and can head up almost 30 degrees from the run, adds a lot to the boat speed. In light airs, we've had the yankee poled out to windward and the lightweight 150% genoa flying...

Well, yes, but it takes me an hour to set up the twins and not sure whether the OP is referring to passage making.... on passage - twins short hops, good breeze - stow the main light winds - goose wing with a poled out big jib (the OP only has a self tacking jib though) Thought about the...

to give you a picture on engineering... in 2 years live aboard our 'unexpected' maint. costs amounted to one new alternator ($350), reseating of the injector valves ($150) and replacing a halyard winch ($150 used). Everything else was small stuff or planned e.g. antifoul, anodes etc. Varnish...

We have a Young Sun 43 we lived aboard for 2 years incl. about 15k ocean miles. Similar vintage and construction although canoe stern. Echo other posters comments about space / speed, you would certainly get more of both from other designs. People with Vagabonds generally love them and they...

I've heard tell that stingo's yazoo is quite the sight....

Hey, Zefender, that's great - I think I'll drop the new owners an email and see if they know about our little part of their boat's history... thanks again. Nick

Bit deep to anchor so we rafted up.... we were a hundred miles north of the Cape Verde islands, wind had been zero for the past 24 hours. We overhaul a catamaran motoring slowly, and they call us up asking if we know the weather forecast. We tell him what we know from the forecasts and grib...

Only the once, in the lagoon in St Maarten, one of my least favourite places. It was overcast and blowing 25kt when we set the anchor so we couldn't make out the patches of sand and weed. Dropped and set with strong reverse, all OK. About an hour later, wind up to 30 gusting 35 and we start...