Abracadabra in San Francisco
Canadian Sailcraft 36T
Builder: CS Yachts, Ltd., Brampton, Ontario, Canada
Year Built: 1985
Model: sloop
Beam: 11' 6"
LOA: 36' 6" LWL: 29' 3"
Draft: 6' 3" / fin keel
Displacement: 15,500 lbs. +/-17,000 lbs. for trip
Ballast: 6,500 lbs.
Sail Area: 640 sq ft
Clearance: 52.8 feet
PHRF rating: 120 - 125 D/L: 276 SA/D: 16.5
Engine: original 4 cylinder, 33 hp Westerbeke diesel ngine (no turbocharging; basically a Mitsubishi pickup truck engine marinized by Westerbeke); Norscott dripless shaft bearing
Prop: VariProfile VP-64 3 bladed feathering
Autopilot: Ratheon ST6000+
Sails: Isomatic in-mast furling mainsail (no battens); 80% Pineapple working jib; 140% genoa; Bamar furling spinnaker
Navigation: 1999 Raytheon RL70 monochrome radar/chartplotter with cockpit repeater screen and differential GPS antenna; Standard Horizon CPV350 color plotter and VHF radio combo
Power: 400 amp hours at 12 volts from dual 4D AGM house batteries ; Group 24 AGM starting battery ; two 100 watt Aurinco solar panels and Blue Sky MPPT (maximum power point tracking) controller; 2000 watt Xantrex Prosine inverter/100 amp charger; Electromaax 80 amp alternator
Lighting: 100% LED lighting (a big reduction in energy consumption)
Communications: no HF single sidband or HAM; 2 VHF radios; cell phones; EPIRB; Fusion MS-IP600 stereo
Galley: Hillerange propane 3-burner w/ oven; Frigoboat 12v refrigeration with keel cooler plate (we have icecubes!)
Tanks: fuel, 40 gal.; water, two 48 gal.; holding, 35 gal.
Water maker: Katadyn 160 (6.7 US gal per hour)
Liferaft: 6 person Viking Rescyou and ditch bag
Tender: West Marine Compact 310 rib with 6 hp Suzuki 4 stroke engine; homemade dinghy hoist made with Lewmar blocks
Ground tackle: 33 lb Bruce plough anchor on160 feet 5/16" chain and 200 ft of 5/8" rode; 25 lb Danforth anchor on 40 ft of chain and 200 ft of rode; 48" drogue on 300 ft of 5/8" line hopefully never used
Recent Additions / Changes:
Running Rigging: Several of the older halyards and sheets have been
replaced over the last two seasons.
- Halyards: New 7/16” New England double braid main and jib halyard. Gone are the rope/wire halyards. A new spinnaker halyard is coming next time we are in La Cruz. We will keep the old spinnaker halyard installed and use it as a dedicated line to attach the dinghy hoist block and tackle assembly.
- Sheets: We had new 5/8” jib sheets when we left for our travels, and we purchased a set of light air sheets (3/8” Marlow double braid) in January of 2013. The heavier sheets are probably overkill – 1/2" would be easier to handle and still plenty strong. The 3/8” are used a lot now and will be the sheets we are most likely to use as we sail in lighter and lighter average winds as we continue south.
- Blocks: We have upgraded all 5 blocks controlling the main sheet to Lewmar 72mm Syncro blocks. This upgrade has minimized the effort required to adjust the mainsail – one of the keep success factors for anyone forced to gybe single-handed in the middle of the night! At the end of the 2011-12 sailing season we lost the roller out of one of the deck fairleads (aka "genoa cars"). [Background: these cars control and shape the jib or genoa and can be moved along the side of the deck near the railings to improve sail performance.] A new car costs about $400 US so, instead, we bought a new Schaeffer roller and had it modified with a custom-made bronze bushing by a La Paz craftsman. In total we paid about a quarter of the cost of a new car.
Standing Rigging: Abracadabra's standing rigging (the stationary cables that hold up
the mast) is 10 years old now. We have
had everything above the deck inspected each year by Peter Vargas, a well-respected rigger in La Cruz. So far so good, with no need for repair or
replacement. On our next trip through La Cruz we plan to have Pete replace Abracadabra's lifelines (the small cables that run around the deck that look
and act like a fence to keep people on the boat) because they are pretty frail looking.
Electrical Improvements:
Abracadabra has 100% LED lighting now. Lots of light, little heat, no worries – a
great improvement over fluorescent or incandescent.
We will be adding another Aurinco 50
watt solar panel on top of the bimini (beside the existing panels) as soon as we can lug it down from LA. With this addition we will have a total of 250
watts of power.
Our best electrical
upgrade is a pricey new Blue
Sky-brand MPPT (maximum power point tracking) solar charge controller to replace the low-cost (and low end!) controller we started out with. What a difference! The batteries charge from solar more fully
and much more quickly now. Instead of
having to consider running the engine after 48 hours of being under sail (using
auto pilot, electronics, radios, and making water), we now can go at least 72
hours. This is still not good enough to
cross any oceans but plenty good for most of our jumps up and down the Latin
American coast. While at anchor we can
make water and power the lights and radios several days without starting the
engine. This is a big improvement and
moves us a lot closer to self-sufficiency while away from marinas. It remains to be seen just how
self-sufficient we will be in cloudy rainy Central America but we will deal
with that when it comes. Wind generator
anyone? Small gas generator?
Dinghy Hoist: We also built a block and tackle out of slightly smaller and less expensive Lewmar blocks which we use to raise and lower the dinghy. That is now an easy one person job instead of a two person struggle.
