Hello Drake, I recently discovered your channel and I love it so far. You should do a really in-depth cabin tour of Paragon, if you haven't done so already. I'm fascinated by the way people utilize their cabins. Southern Cross was incredible.
I'm really glad you guys are posting videos again, love them. Really looking forward to some more Paragon tours as well as some at sea videos on board Paragon. Thanks, keep having fun. Be safe.
My stepdad had a westsail 42 he sold a few years ago before he died. It was always moored near Haleiwa or in Honolulu (it was there when I visited). While he wasn't much of a bluewater skipper, he enjoyed island-hopping, and got me interested in sailing. Now as I near retirement, I'm learning all I can to at least attempt the kind of lifestyle you guys enjoy, so thanks for all the free education. I'd love to see you guys hit the south pacific, because that's my dream cruising right there. Keep it up, and I'll keep watching! Thanks!
fantastic video !!! Since I was not able to follow my dream of fulltime sailing (wife said no) now at 73 years old, I do my sailing with you. Thank you for a great series. Look forward to many more.
Thanks Kamau, If there's enough interest I was thinking that it would be really wonderful to occasionally have open tours of Paragon in the places that we visit... I think we might do this in Iceland and if we do then I'd also make an episode out of it.
Thank you for sharing. We love that you are able to live a dream. We are counting the yrs until we can join you out there. For now we are stuck boating on the cold great lakes. BTW we have a cnc laser we use in our business. We cut a lot of stainless. If you ever need anything cut just let us know. For you we'd do it for free. Shipping might be a issue though. Be safe and we can't wait to see more videos.
Btw shes beautiful now and you've done a marvelous job of refitting and taking great care in making everything right! Shes come a long way from that day of the tow! You wanna come do mine next?! Haha fair winds!
DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life ....Love the videos...very informative. I like the way you try to show good times on the water without hiding some of the challenges. Most videos try too hard to pretend they're having a "care free" time. I'm considering buying a sailboat and learning to sail. Starting small...like Catalina 25 then working my way up from there. Dream Boat is the Amel 64....but $2.8 million is long way away! LOL....thanks for sharing!
Jon David Croel Thanks for sailing with us! You'll see in many of our upcoming offshore voyaging episodes that things are far from "care free" - heavy weather, icebergs, fog, freezing cold, snapping the spinnaker pole in two under sail, severe seasickness, breaking our steering cables offshore, getting the boat badly bashed up against a cement wall in a storm at the weather station in Greenland... umm ya... just off the top of my head. A Catalina 25 sounds like so much fun to use to learn to sail!
DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life Can't wait to see them...are they up now? Saw this West sail for sale...wow what a boat...hope the link comes through. www.yachtworld.com/boats/1983/Westsail-43-2729597/Bayfield/WI/United-States#.VRf13Y54ox4 What a fantastic interior.
Nice to see you get her back in shape Drake was wondering what had broke when you were towing that s/v to Bermuda. I've enjoyed your videos thanks for sharing them with us. I hope to sail myself when my last daughter is gone off to college still 7 years though lol. Fair winds and favorable seas.
OK i am now looking for a west sail 42 thanks to you Drake. the one thing that held me back on the west sail is not having a full queen size master bed but i guess i can live with that or do a little wood work and have a filler cushion made. ether way i like your boat Drake and will be looking for one for me and my girl friend Michelle. I cant wait to see what you have done on the inside of Paragon
Hi Lee, I installed a plywood platform to connecting the two separate berths in the aft cabin. Then I put a full size tempurpedic mattress on top of that and we sleep with head on starboard, feet on port. pros: a great mattress and wonderful night's sleep. cons: not usable as a sea berth, with 2 people the aft person sleeping on the aft side needs to climb over the forward person. If I were to do it again I think I would try to design a way to put a removable cushion in the middle to convert it to a big bed, but in a way so that I could remove it and use the side berths as good sea berths offshore. I also rebuilt both the starboard and port settees and cushions so that they can flip out to make double berths. The westsail owners group website and discussion forum has a lot of great info on it too.
Hey Drake! Great video. Just dropped in from the post of S02E28. Loved it and loved the hull tour. If you haven't already done a topside tour (I'm still finding my way 'round) I'll definitely watch if you do. She's a beautiful boat.
Keith MacDonald Hi Keith! Thank you and welcome aboard! We haven't had the opportunity to do a deck or cabin tour of Paragon, but we certainly do show all parts of the boat in the episodes of Season 1 and 2 and onwards. We do have a bunch of really in depth tours of boats in our playlist: "Sailboat Tours/Visiting Friends (22 videos)" @ ua-cam.com/play/PL030D43571D8D391F.html which include another Westsail 42 like Paragon, called Fiona. Eric Forsyth has sailed Fiona over 450,000 nautical miles by now. Another highly recommended offshore boat tour in the playlist is the "Southern Cross" series starting at ua-cam.com/video/NeU3odMcSF8/v-deo.html We hope you enjoy them and would love to hear what you think! Happy sailing, Drake
Hi Drake and Monique, Apologies if you already answered this question. I did not see on the Hull tour if you had decided to change the shape of your rudder. Can you recap what you decided to do on that front? Really enjoy your vids. I like to think I won't be a youtube skipper for ever. But I learn a lot from your posts keep up the good work. T
Hey Drake, I see you use a SSB radio. Ever looked into Ham Radio? It's a neat hobby, and certainly useful. You can pump more power into your antenna for rough days, or making distant contacts, have access to more frequencies and generally learn a lot about radio, and a nice sailboat certainly would benefit from one. I would often use my 2m/70cm rig on my Pearson 26 to work repeaters up and down the Chesapeake bay. It was a nice side-hobby to do while out on the water.
bill bye Thanks! I had the bowsprit made by Westsailparts.com in California and then trucked all the way across the country to me in North Carolina. Just after the bowsprit had been delivered to me in the boat yard we had a hurricane go over us. There was so much flooding that many cars were submerged and boats in the yard actually floated off of their jackstands. The bowsprit was completely submerged and things floating around we hitting it. I kept thinking "No, not again!!!" But I'm glad to say that it only got a few small scratches which I sanded out and then I polished the whole thing.
Drake, you are an inspiration as I wrap up the refit of my Gulf 29. Kudos to you for getting rid of the generator. I am curious about your air conditioner works at sea, though.
Hi Christopher, honestly I have often wondered what I was thinking when I spent all of that time and energy installing two big air conditioners just before sailing to colder Greenland and Iceland! =8O I could have put that locker space to much better use. They can only run when plugged into 110vAC shore power.
Christopher Young Absolutely. But it will be some years before we go back home to Oriental... In the meantime, our goal is Svalbard to see the polar bears and walruses.
I'm looking forward to catching up to the videos of your time in Iceland. I was worried that you'd get cabin fever, but it sounds like you're enjoying yourself.
DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life Once again great video's as usual. In getting rid of the generator ( I know you have gone to a plethora of solar panels), but have you ever run short of energy in gale or overcast situations? You must have one heck of a battery bank. Once full under normal usage, what is the duration of tour battery reserve?
Drake- so thankful for your videos! Home sick today and spent the ENTIRE afternoon on the couch, watching the refit of your boat! In the process, I learned a lot. Is your 6 month voyage going to be posted on you Tube?
Hi Gary, thank you! Welcome aboard. We're trying to publish new videos every Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday we're publishing episodes that tell the story of our voyage from North Carolina to Iceland, and Thursdays we publishing interviews, presentations, boat tours and more. Hope you feel better soon! Thanks for sailing with us.
The bowsprit and dolphin striker assembly appears to be longer than factory. Is my guess on the money? I enjoyed your pieces on Southern Cross, a Dickerson 41 with a shorter bowsprit according to scale.
Hi. I bought that bowsprit from Westsail parts.com in California and had it trucked to me in North Carolina where I installed it. As far as I know it’s the original factory design. I did replace the wire bobstay with chain.
Hi thatsmethistime, the grounding plate came with the boat.. I noticed that on Southern Cross (The Dickerson 41) their called their grounding plate a 'Dynaplate'
DrakeParagon's The Real Cruising Life That looks like a Dynaplate too. Is that your SSB ground? Did you use SSB much at sea and how well did you think it worked? I've heard Dynaplates aren't the best but SSB grounds are a lot like anchors and guns aboard, always a hot topic.
Eric S. Hi Eric, yes, when I bought the boat it came with an ICOM SSB that was grounded to that plate. I've used SSB on many voyages to get weather routing from Herb Hilgenberg (Southbound II coastal) and I will always be enormously grateful for his enormous help he has given me and thousands of other offshore vessels. Now that Herb's not doing his net anymore, I'm just using the SSB to download weather fax charts. SSB was always great when it worked, but there were also many times when I just couldn't hear Herb or he couldn't hear me. I'd like to get a satellite phone for many reasons including being able to talk with a weather routing service.
Hey Drake. Just a question... I'm sorry if you have answered this before, but why didn't you uppgrade your propeller to a three bladed folding one? It would give you a knot maybe 2 in good wind. Best thing I have ever bought on my Mamba 311. I use a two bladed Flex-O-Fold tough. :-P I got a smaler boat :-D Cheers and great videos!!!
Downeasters and Westsails are so similar, especially below the waterline. You have the exact same anchor set up that I want to have. Just installed a windlass last year and bought an Manson boss (like the new gen anchors but without a roll bar) to replace my current CQR. I really like how you got the Ronca installed under the bowsprit. Was that a custom anchor roller you had made or a stock part? Does the anchor rode on the Fortress anchor work well with windlass? Finally, do you remember which model Fortress that is? Thanks as always!
Hi Eric, the roller came with the bowsprit made by Bud Taplin from the westsailparts company in Costa Mesa, CA. We have a Lighthouse windlass which has a side for chain and another for just rode - it works great for both. The Fortress is an FX-37 - and it was mostly destroyed in that collision (Bermuda Nightmare). I was amazed that the Fortress company was happy to send me replacement parts and only charged me shipping. Great warranty!
DrakeParagon's The Real Cruising Life Thanks for the info. My windlass (Lofrans Tigress) also has a drum on the port side so I'm happy to know that works well for you. I have never seen a roll-bar anchor below a bowsprit like that, it looks good. I was always cruious as to how much the 'cross-bar' on a fortress would stick out if I got one proper sized for my boat (DE38). Your FX-37 looks like it belongs there so that's probably what I'll get.
Eric S. I did need to make a custom starboard brace that I used to keep the Fortress anchor in place. It's my own design and I don't think anyone else has ever done it that way. I think other people instead have just lashed it down with line really tight. Another nice thing about the Fortress is that it can be disassembled with wrenches and stowed in a small bag.
I enjoy your videos so much. Love your boat and her condition is outstanding. You have done a wonderful job of preparing her for your voyage. How is the Styrofoam brace working on the new anchor?
Thank you so much! The Starboard brace worked great. I made two of them, one for the 73 lb Rocna anchor and another for the light weight Fortress anchor and they both held in place without any movement during all conditions at sea. They were also very easy to remove to deploy the anchor and to reinsert after raising anchor and getting underway, as we'll show soon in an upcoming episode. Thanks for sailing with us truebluetopkat!
Just looking back at youre re rigging video as i am a fan for years and remember you doing this series . i am re doing mine again after 12 years since last replacing everything incuding chain plates . i had my bow sprit bob stay explode at the swage fitting at the top near the sprit in a 30 knot squall .my bow sprit held the mast up but with damage. i almost lost the mast. i have a tayana 37. any way now re doing with sta lok no more swedge fittings for me. 6,000 usd here and thats with me doing all the work here in thailand not counting turn buckles or chain plates .crap. any way i jurry rigged with chain to get me 100 miles to phuket. my friend here at the rigging shop 70 year old english and very professional experienced rigger told me a chain bob stay is not a safe solution. any way just saw yours and thought i would mention this bit . I just took his word for it as he has 50 years experience. thanks for the great videos relived again. and very informative. s
consumedbynature Thanks, yes, a lot of thru hulls.. I think it's so important to know exactly where each one is, to know exactly how each one is plumbed, and to make sure each one is lubed and easy to open and close.
Edward Hamilton From what I've heard from many people that have them, composting heads seem to have some really great advantages. I'd like to replace one of Paragon's heads with a composting one if I could just figure out how to make it fit. I think it would require a some demolition to clear up enough room. In my boat tour series aboard Ben Stookey's Nonsuch sailboat 'Swallow' he shows his composting head.
Hi Drake, I just wanted to comment on the composting head. I took the idea of putting one on my Bayfield 29 from the interview you did with Ben. It has been the best up grade to date. I started to live on my Boat this winter on lake Ontario and it is nice not to have to depend on pumpouts since I hade a small holding tank. It has also cleared up a lot of space for me and my son to use for clothes/ all his xbox games lol. Cheers Nick
So is all the work finished now? What is the Jordon series Droge (not sure of spelling) for and what does it do? She is a beautiful old boat and she has many more years to go with the way you take care of her.
An observation. Your skeg is not ideal one. The base of the rudder should not be at same level of bottom of keel. Should be rised a few inches up so that when you hit a reef backwards, say dragging anchor, you could have a chance to not rudder first into reef. So the support pivot should be made to sustain first hit and be AZ be to take load and support boat till you get out of reef or give a chance without damaging rudder . Best luck and happy cruising. Catching up with your videos , thank you. Great work.
Great observation. Yes, some Westsail owners have even modified their rudders by cutting a triangle shape out of the bottom. Maybe someday we will too.
Hi Kamau, Previously the waterline was a bit lower, but I think I raised the waterline up by inches because I added so much weight to Paragon (especially with the extra batteries.) So the original design placement of the exhaust thru hull was a bit higher. It's very important that you can see that water is coming out of the exhaust when you look over the side to confirm that it's working, but too high out of the water and I think it might become a noise issue. The wet exhaust comes out on Paragon with enough force that when I look over the side I can see that it's exhausting water. The optimal placement for it I think would be a good question for the west sail owners group forum.. I should know the diameter of the 3 blade fixed prop off the top of my head, but I'd have to do some digging to find that info.. Maybe another good question for the west sail owners forum? I'm looking forward to seeing the plans for the boat you're designing. :)
DrakeParagon's The Real Cruising Life I know the standard is to have sea water exhaust just above the waterline so I was surprised when Paragon's wasn't. But I understand you cant predict future weight 38 years out (1976 build) lol. What about the propeller, what size. It looks like 13" or 15".
Yes, we spent 6 months sailing over 6000 nautical miles from North Carolina to Iceland via Canada and Greenland and amassed over 7 terabytes of video. Now we're editing all of that footage to tell the story. We are also at this time preparing for our next 6 months of voyaging and filming and plan to sail the north coast of Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway where we will wait for Spring to sail to Svalbard.
Hi Oliver, Thanks for the feedback on the music. We're always trying really hard to find the best music for our videos. If you know of any royalty free music tracks that you think would work better in this video, or have any recommendations on royalty free music then we'd love to hear your selections! Fair winds,
Is there anything more beautiful than a full-keeled boat.
I like your solid SS handrails, your mods are very well thought out...keep the vids coming! Fair Winds Paragon
Hello Drake, I recently discovered your channel and I love it so far. You should do a really in-depth cabin tour of Paragon, if you haven't done so already. I'm fascinated by the way people utilize their cabins. Southern Cross was incredible.
I'm really glad you guys are posting videos again, love them. Really looking forward to some more Paragon tours as well as some at sea videos on board Paragon. Thanks, keep having fun. Be safe.
Thanks TIZ - we finally push off from North Carolina in this Tuesday's episode. Happy sailing,
My stepdad had a westsail 42 he sold a few years ago before he died. It was always moored near Haleiwa or in Honolulu (it was there when I visited). While he wasn't much of a bluewater skipper, he enjoyed island-hopping, and got me interested in sailing. Now as I near retirement, I'm learning all I can to at least attempt the kind of lifestyle you guys enjoy, so thanks for all the free education. I'd love to see you guys hit the south pacific, because that's my dream cruising right there. Keep it up, and I'll keep watching! Thanks!
Nicely done! I like the pleasant soundtrack as well.
Thanks, we spent a lot of time searching for the music for this one.. I found the first song and Monique found the second one.
fantastic video !!! Since I was not able to follow my dream of fulltime sailing (wife said no) now at 73 years old, I do my sailing with you.
Thank you for a great series. Look forward to many more.
Easy solution......get a new wife.....lol
You must be relieved shes back in thr water. Good sailing and wishing lots of new great videos!
Great videos and editing. I think you found your calling, sailing and sharing it with the world effectively. Stay safe and enjoy.
Mark Benson Thanks Mark. Will do. Thanks for sailing with us. :)
Great video, Look forward to seeing many more. Good job on the boat.
Awesome !! can't wait for the tour of the inside very well done drake !!
Man she is beautiful. The Paragon is awesome. I'm going to fly to Iceland to see you off for the season. GREAT JOB!
Thanks Kamau, If there's enough interest I was thinking that it would be really wonderful to occasionally have open tours of Paragon in the places that we visit... I think we might do this in Iceland and if we do then I'd also make an episode out of it.
Thanks so much for all the filming at Sailcraft's Service Yard --- I learned an incredible amount from it !!!
thanks again! definately like the "full keel" on your boat or any boat for that matter.
Thank you for sharing. We love that you are able to live a dream. We are counting the yrs until we can join you out there. For now we are stuck boating on the cold great lakes. BTW we have a cnc laser we use in our business. We cut a lot of stainless. If you ever need anything cut just let us know. For you we'd do it for free. Shipping might be a issue though.
Be safe and we can't wait to see more videos.
awesome tour!
Btw shes beautiful now and you've done a marvelous job of refitting and taking great care in making everything right! Shes come a long way from that day of the tow! You wanna come do mine next?! Haha fair winds!
nice video as always! good job on the boat :)
DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life ....Love the videos...very informative. I like the way you try to show good times on the water without hiding some of the challenges. Most videos try too hard to pretend they're having a "care free" time. I'm considering buying a sailboat and learning to sail. Starting small...like Catalina 25 then working my way up from there. Dream Boat is the Amel 64....but $2.8 million is long way away! LOL....thanks for sharing!
Jon David Croel Thanks for sailing with us! You'll see in many of our upcoming offshore voyaging episodes that things are far from "care free" - heavy weather, icebergs, fog, freezing cold, snapping the spinnaker pole in two under sail, severe seasickness, breaking our steering cables offshore, getting the boat badly bashed up against a cement wall in a storm at the weather station in Greenland... umm ya... just off the top of my head. A Catalina 25 sounds like so much fun to use to learn to sail!
DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life Can't wait to see them...are they up now? Saw this West sail for sale...wow what a boat...hope the link comes through. www.yachtworld.com/boats/1983/Westsail-43-2729597/Bayfield/WI/United-States#.VRf13Y54ox4 What a fantastic interior.
Nice to see you get her back in shape Drake was wondering what had broke when you were towing that s/v to Bermuda. I've enjoyed your videos thanks for sharing them with us. I hope to sail myself when my last daughter is gone off to college still 7 years though lol. Fair winds and favorable seas.
Beautiful WestSail
OK i am now looking for a west sail 42 thanks to you Drake. the one thing that held me back on the west sail is not having a full queen size master bed but i guess i can live with that or do a little wood work and have a filler cushion made. ether way i like your boat Drake and will be looking for one for me and my girl friend Michelle. I cant wait to see what you have done on the inside of Paragon
Hi Lee, I installed a plywood platform to connecting the two separate berths in the aft cabin. Then I put a full size tempurpedic mattress on top of that and we sleep with head on starboard, feet on port. pros: a great mattress and wonderful night's sleep. cons: not usable as a sea berth, with 2 people the aft person sleeping on the aft side needs to climb over the forward person. If I were to do it again I think I would try to design a way to put a removable cushion in the middle to convert it to a big bed, but in a way so that I could remove it and use the side berths as good sea berths offshore. I also rebuilt both the starboard and port settees and cushions so that they can flip out to make double berths. The westsail owners group website and discussion forum has a lot of great info on it too.
Hey Drake! Great video. Just dropped in from the post of S02E28. Loved it and loved the hull tour. If you haven't already done a topside tour (I'm still finding my way 'round) I'll definitely watch if you do. She's a beautiful boat.
Keith MacDonald Hi Keith! Thank you and welcome aboard! We haven't had the opportunity to do a deck or cabin tour of Paragon, but we certainly do show all parts of the boat in the episodes of Season 1 and 2 and onwards. We do have a bunch of really in depth tours of boats in our playlist: "Sailboat Tours/Visiting Friends (22 videos)" @ ua-cam.com/play/PL030D43571D8D391F.html which include another Westsail 42 like Paragon, called Fiona. Eric Forsyth has sailed Fiona over 450,000 nautical miles by now. Another highly recommended offshore boat tour in the playlist is the "Southern Cross" series starting at ua-cam.com/video/NeU3odMcSF8/v-deo.html We hope you enjoy them and would love to hear what you think! Happy sailing, Drake
Hi Drake and Monique,
Apologies if you already answered this question. I did not see on the Hull tour if you had decided to change the shape of your rudder. Can you recap what you decided to do on that front?
Really enjoy your vids. I like to think I won't be a youtube skipper for ever. But I learn a lot from your posts keep up the good work.
T
Awesome!
Hey Drake, I see you use a SSB radio. Ever looked into Ham Radio? It's a neat hobby, and certainly useful. You can pump more power into your antenna for rough days, or making distant contacts, have access to more frequencies and generally learn a lot about radio, and a nice sailboat certainly would benefit from one. I would often use my 2m/70cm rig on my Pearson 26 to work repeaters up and down the Chesapeake bay. It was a nice side-hobby to do while out on the water.
Hi Kyle, it's on the list.
the new bow sprite looks great especially after the towing damage from the tow to Bermuda of the sv cha cha.
bill bye Thanks! I had the bowsprit made by Westsailparts.com in California and then trucked all the way across the country to me in North Carolina. Just after the bowsprit had been delivered to me in the boat yard we had a hurricane go over us. There was so much flooding that many cars were submerged and boats in the yard actually floated off of their jackstands. The bowsprit was completely submerged and things floating around we hitting it. I kept thinking "No, not again!!!" But I'm glad to say that it only got a few small scratches which I sanded out and then I polished the whole thing.
Drake, you are an inspiration as I wrap up the refit of my Gulf 29. Kudos to you for getting rid of the generator. I am curious about your air conditioner works at sea, though.
Hi Christopher, honestly I have often wondered what I was thinking when I spent all of that time and energy installing two big air conditioners just before sailing to colder Greenland and Iceland! =8O I could have put that locker space to much better use. They can only run when plugged into 110vAC shore power.
I don't think you regret having the AC when you're at the dock in North Carolina in the summer.
Christopher Young Absolutely. But it will be some years before we go back home to Oriental... In the meantime, our goal is Svalbard to see the polar bears and walruses.
I'm looking forward to catching up to the videos of your time in Iceland. I was worried that you'd get cabin fever, but it sounds like you're enjoying yourself.
DrakeParagon's Real Cruising Life Once again great video's as usual. In getting rid of the generator ( I know you have gone to a plethora of solar panels), but have you ever run short of energy in gale or overcast situations? You must have one heck of a battery bank. Once full under normal usage, what is the duration of tour battery reserve?
Drake- so thankful for your videos! Home sick today and spent the ENTIRE afternoon on the couch, watching the refit of your boat! In the process, I learned a lot. Is your 6 month voyage going to be posted on you Tube?
Hi Gary, thank you! Welcome aboard. We're trying to publish new videos every Tuesday and Thursday. On Tuesday we're publishing episodes that tell the story of our voyage from North Carolina to Iceland, and Thursdays we publishing interviews, presentations, boat tours and more. Hope you feel better soon! Thanks for sailing with us.
Eric Forsyth says get your asses moving and to do the NW passage! :D
The bowsprit and dolphin striker assembly appears to be longer than factory. Is my guess on the money? I enjoyed your pieces on Southern Cross, a Dickerson 41 with a shorter bowsprit according to scale.
Hi. I bought that bowsprit from Westsail parts.com in California and had it trucked to me in North Carolina where I installed it. As far as I know it’s the original factory design. I did replace the wire bobstay with chain.
I am interesting in the ground plate. Where to buy, or did you make one yourself?
About the rudder you are right, it has to be hinged at the bottem.
Hi thatsmethistime, the grounding plate came with the boat.. I noticed that on Southern Cross (The Dickerson 41) their called their grounding plate a 'Dynaplate'
DrakeParagon's The Real Cruising Life That looks like a Dynaplate too. Is that your SSB ground? Did you use SSB much at sea and how well did you think it worked? I've heard Dynaplates aren't the best but SSB grounds are a lot like anchors and guns aboard, always a hot topic.
Eric S. Hi Eric, yes, when I bought the boat it came with an ICOM SSB that was grounded to that plate. I've used SSB on many voyages to get weather routing from Herb Hilgenberg (Southbound II coastal) and I will always be enormously grateful for his enormous help he has given me and thousands of other offshore vessels. Now that Herb's not doing his net anymore, I'm just using the SSB to download weather fax charts. SSB was always great when it worked, but there were also many times when I just couldn't hear Herb or he couldn't hear me. I'd like to get a satellite phone for many reasons including being able to talk with a weather routing service.
Hey Drake. Just a question... I'm sorry if you have answered this before, but why didn't you uppgrade your propeller to a three bladed folding one? It would give you a knot maybe 2 in good wind. Best thing I have ever bought on my Mamba 311. I use a two bladed Flex-O-Fold tough. :-P I got a smaler boat :-D Cheers and great videos!!!
You can't go wrong with a Bill Crealock or Bob Perry design for long-term offshore cruising. Check out all the old ones still around.
Time for a new tour with all the improvements you have made???
Downeasters and Westsails are so similar, especially below the waterline. You have the exact same anchor set up that I want to have. Just installed a windlass last year and bought an Manson boss (like the new gen anchors but without a roll bar) to replace my current CQR. I really like how you got the Ronca installed under the bowsprit. Was that a custom anchor roller you had made or a stock part? Does the anchor rode on the Fortress anchor work well with windlass? Finally, do you remember which model Fortress that is? Thanks as always!
Hi Eric, the roller came with the bowsprit made by Bud Taplin from the westsailparts company in Costa Mesa, CA. We have a Lighthouse windlass which has a side for chain and another for just rode - it works great for both. The Fortress is an FX-37 - and it was mostly destroyed in that collision (Bermuda Nightmare). I was amazed that the Fortress company was happy to send me replacement parts and only charged me shipping. Great warranty!
DrakeParagon's The Real Cruising Life
Thanks for the info. My windlass (Lofrans Tigress) also has a drum on the port side so I'm happy to know that works well for you. I have never seen a roll-bar anchor below a bowsprit like that, it looks good. I was always cruious as to how much the 'cross-bar' on a fortress would stick out if I got one proper sized for my boat (DE38). Your FX-37 looks like it belongs there so that's probably what I'll get.
Eric S. I did need to make a custom starboard brace that I used to keep the Fortress anchor in place. It's my own design and I don't think anyone else has ever done it that way. I think other people instead have just lashed it down with line really tight. Another nice thing about the Fortress is that it can be disassembled with wrenches and stowed in a small bag.
I enjoy your videos so much. Love your boat and her condition is outstanding. You have done a wonderful job of preparing her for your voyage. How is the Styrofoam brace working on the new anchor?
Thank you so much! The Starboard brace worked great. I made two of them, one for the 73 lb Rocna anchor and another for the light weight Fortress anchor and they both held in place without any movement during all conditions at sea. They were also very easy to remove to deploy the anchor and to reinsert after raising anchor and getting underway, as we'll show soon in an upcoming episode. Thanks for sailing with us truebluetopkat!
Just looking back at youre re rigging video as i am a fan for years and remember you doing this series . i am re doing mine again after 12 years since last replacing everything incuding chain plates . i had my bow sprit bob stay explode at the swage fitting at the top near the sprit in a 30 knot squall .my bow sprit held the mast up but with damage. i almost lost the mast. i have a tayana 37. any way now re doing with sta lok no more swedge fittings for me. 6,000 usd here and thats with me doing all the work here in thailand not counting turn buckles or chain plates .crap. any way i jurry rigged with chain to get me 100 miles to phuket. my friend here at the rigging shop 70 year old english and very professional experienced rigger told me a chain bob stay is not a safe solution.
any way just saw yours and thought i would mention this bit . I just took his word for it as he has 50 years experience.
thanks for the great videos relived again. and very informative. s
Fantastic video Drake and the music at the beginning really suits. You've done so much great work to the boat. She's got a lot of through hulls!
consumedbynature Thanks, yes, a lot of thru hulls.. I think it's so important to know exactly where each one is, to know exactly how each one is plumbed, and to make sure each one is lubed and easy to open and close.
Edward Hamilton From what I've heard from many people that have them, composting heads seem to have some really great advantages. I'd like to replace one of Paragon's heads with a composting one if I could just figure out how to make it fit. I think it would require a some demolition to clear up enough room. In my boat tour series aboard Ben Stookey's Nonsuch sailboat 'Swallow' he shows his composting head.
Hi Drake, I just wanted to comment on the composting head. I took the idea of putting one on my Bayfield 29 from the interview you did with Ben. It has been the best up grade to date. I started to live on my Boat this winter on lake Ontario and it is nice not to have to depend on pumpouts since I hade a small holding tank. It has also cleared up a lot of space for me and my son to use for clothes/ all his xbox games lol.
Cheers Nick
So is all the work finished now?
What is the Jordon series Droge (not sure of spelling) for and what does it do?
She is a beautiful old boat and she has many more years to go with the way you take care of her.
An observation. Your skeg is not ideal one. The base of the rudder should not be at same level of bottom of keel. Should be rised a few inches up so that when you hit a reef backwards, say dragging anchor, you could have a chance to not rudder first into reef. So the support pivot should be made to sustain first hit and be AZ be to take load and support boat till you get out of reef or give a chance without damaging rudder . Best luck and happy cruising. Catching up with your videos , thank you. Great work.
Great observation. Yes, some Westsail owners have even modified their rudders by cutting a triangle shape out of the bottom. Maybe someday we will too.
Drake what size prop do you use and why did you choose to place your engin exhaust below the waterline?
Hi Kamau, Previously the waterline was a bit lower, but I think I raised the waterline up by inches because I added so much weight to Paragon (especially with the extra batteries.) So the original design placement of the exhaust thru hull was a bit higher. It's very important that you can see that water is coming out of the exhaust when you look over the side to confirm that it's working, but too high out of the water and I think it might become a noise issue. The wet exhaust comes out on Paragon with enough force that when I look over the side I can see that it's exhausting water. The optimal placement for it I think would be a good question for the west sail owners group forum.. I should know the diameter of the 3 blade fixed prop off the top of my head, but I'd have to do some digging to find that info.. Maybe another good question for the west sail owners forum? I'm looking forward to seeing the plans for the boat you're designing. :)
DrakeParagon's The Real Cruising Life I know the standard is to have sea water exhaust just above the waterline so I was surprised when Paragon's wasn't. But I understand you cant predict future weight 38 years out (1976 build) lol. What about the propeller, what size. It looks like 13" or 15".
Wow thats like 7000 lbs more than the boats specs listed the weight. Must be all the rum on board
You must be proud of the work you've don. Nothing like becoming an expert by doing it yourself (with the necessary help), is there?
How you make money to live sailing?
How much was he refit. I`d love to know because im interested in a similar boat.
2012?!
Yes, we spent 6 months sailing over 6000 nautical miles from North Carolina to Iceland via Canada and Greenland and amassed over 7 terabytes of video. Now we're editing all of that footage to tell the story. We are also at this time preparing for our next 6 months of voyaging and filming and plan to sail the north coast of Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway where we will wait for Spring to sail to Svalbard.
Oh, i see.
Best wishes :)
Nice video except the bg music is too loud.... hard forr me to understand you.
She's a big girl but she's a beauty. :-)
~Daniel
repetitive music is incredibly annoying otherwise I like your videos
Hi Oliver, Thanks for the feedback on the music. We're always trying really hard to find the best music for our videos. If you know of any royalty free music tracks that you think would work better in this video, or have any recommendations on royalty free music then we'd love to hear your selections! Fair winds,
@@drakeParagon when you're talking, shut the music off - nerve-wracking music is never a good thing!
"North for the winter"
Ugh! That phrase sounds just horrible.