offshore passage

Newsgroups Archive Prior to 2025
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Thought people might be interested to know that we will be taking Nonsuch from Lake Ontario to the Eastern Caribbean this fall with home base to be Grenada. The Nonsuch is not a great offshore boat (our previous Bristol 45.5 was) but with good preparation and careful management at sea it should be fine. In the past I did two Nonsuch round trips from NYC to Bermuda including dealing with a tropical storm. I also have done about 45,000nm offshore so am confident in my abilities.

I don’t want to spend too much money, especially for things like vane steering, that will not be used beyond on this trip. I think I will have four people onboard for steering in case the new Raymarine pilot croaks - which certainly could happen. My wife and I once had to handsteer for four days from southern French Polynesia to Tahiti (winds were fluky and we couldn’t get the boat to balance itself). It wasn’t fun.

Lots of work done and being done since purchase two years ago including:

  • new seacocks

  • separate engine water intake. Existing sail drive leg has been sealed and barrier coated to protect aluminum

  • adding a third reef

  • overhauling the clew fitting on the wishbone - there were by actual count seven holes on the inside face of the wishbone where bolts had torn out. Some PO had added an aluminum box on the aft face of the wishbone so that sheet would attach further aft. I am having a substantial stainless, U-shaped fitting made so that the clew pad eye will be bolted to the SS fitting and the fitting will be bolted (6 bolts) to the sides of the padeye. I am also putting a pad eye over each side of the U-shaped fitting that the sheet attaches to.

  • Nonsuch does not have the hexagonal (octagonal?) mast base that the production boats have. Instead the mast sits on a sort of lazy Susan - a huge washer-like thing sitting on a cone. I am adding two mini-stays horizontally, like the standard vertical one, to stop the mast from turning

  • Additional battery capacity and a large solar panel.

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This sounds like quite the adventure, I can’t wait to hear stories of the trip. Can you post a photo or a diagram of the clew outhaul fitting that you described? Do you do anything special to keep the wishbone from bouncing around in confused waves and swell motion?

Tim in STL
White O’morn NS26U #216
Harbor Point Yacht Club

West Alton, MO

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Should get the clew fitting in about two weeks. her fabricator said no job too small. This may test that..

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Hi Bruce and June. Should be a short hop for you two :slight_smile: Which route, Hudson or St Lawrence? How’s the anchor winch working?
For others’ info, Bruce and June bought Corvus’ manual anchor winch and 10mm chain because we replaced it with an electric winch and 8mm chain. The 10mm was great in itself but I virtually singlehand so manual winch was risky in certain conditions.
Alan & Tracy, “Corvus” NS30C #216, BPYC Toronto