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Yacht
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ADAMS 44'Centreboard Sloop, Cutter Rigged Designed by: Adams Yacht Design, Sydney Australia.
What we wantedWhen looking into the idea of sailing home from Singapore to the Netherlands, one of the first things that came to our mind was “What kind of boat?”. Looking at the route across the Indian Ocean and two Atlantic crossings and our budget we realised we needed something fast, safe and affordable. These three factors make a very complex equation as more of one automatically goes at the cost of one of the others. Size While people have circumnavigated in boats as small as 20 foot, we reckoned we would need at least a 38 foot yacht and go bigger if budget allowed as long as we could handle the boat with the two of us without using hydraulics or electrical equipment for the running rig. Unless you are some kind of gorilla, that means you want to stay under 48 foot. In general, a larger yacht is faster, safer, more comfortable and has more storage space, all the things cruisers are looking for. The only drawback is cost, not only the initial investment goes up, so does the cost of spares and additional equipment. A tiller autopilot costs a fraction of its heavy below deck’s brother, lines need to be thicker, blocks heavier, etc. Hull When enhancing our understanding of cruising yachts, the book ‘Desirable and undesirable characteristics of offshore yachts’ was a tremendous help in shaping up our demands. To achieve a suitable compromise between speed and seaworthiness, we decided for a moderate displacement yacht with a tall rig for light wind performance and a hull shape that would allow for good boat speed in moderate conditions. Ballast (keel weight) should at least be 40% of total displacement (total weight) and she should not be too beamy. Both factors affect the upright momentum (expressed in positive range of stability) that dictates the chances of a knock-down or worse, a complete roll-over in extreme weather. Goodies She should have a compact saloon that provides good handgrips to
manoeuvre safely when tossed around by the waves. The galley should
have a stove with 3 burners, oven, fridge and two deep sinks. Furthermore,
a shower, good sea berths and plenty of storage space. Sailing instruments,
GPS, radar, EPIRB, electrical autopilot, VHF & HF radio, liferaft
and dinghy would all be necessary. Whatever would not come with
the boat should be bought separately. The same would apply to the
sails, they should be able to hold all the way to the Netherlands.
A diesel generator and dive compressor would be nice-to-haves since
we also planned to do a lot of diving when exploring the beautiful
atolls we were to visit. A water maker closed our long wish list.
Good luck! What we foundAll of the above, minus the water maker and some of the smaller equipment. We fell in love right away and if we ever were going to abandon the whole idea, this beauty made it for good impossible to forget about it. Espiritu, an Adams 44, had it all, and she looked very sturdy and fast. The ratios were promising and when I asked an Australian builder for his experience with the Adams 44, his answer was quite simple: “I can build any boat I like for myself and yet, I have had this one for 9 years…” He boasted of doing Sydney – Auckland in less than 6 days, which works out to a daily average of 165 miles. OK, he got me locked in. And best of all, she fitted our budget! Thanks to a combination of the soft Asia boating market and an owner who was very keen to sell. We will spare you the bureaucratic hurdles but after 3 months, we finally flew up to Hong Kong to pick up our baby. By the way, we bought her unseen because we couldn’t fly to Hong Kong because of SARS at the time that we had to do the deal. There is nothing wrong with taking some risk...
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