A friend of mine that has owned a "Willard Nine Ton" (Crealock design, cutter, 30' on deck) for many years passed along this article by an owner of a sister ship. They have a small owners' discussion group on a Yahoo list.
I thought that the information was interesting and potentially useful.
I doubt that we will ever get further than Hawaii (in one of our slightly more realistic dreams) but it is always good to hear from sailors with actual ocean experience. Solutions and priorities are sometimes different than what one reads about in the coffee table sailing magazines.
We here are very fortunate to have several Ericson owners who are experienced blue water cruisers, and I have learned a lot from their comments over the years. I hope that no one is offended by opinions (second hand published, at that) from another class of sailboat. Some of these unedited comments are obviously specific to the layout of the Willard, FWIW.
Regards,
Loren
___________________
Subject: [WillardBoatOwners] 9 yrs of ownership and 5 years cruising outside of USA
I hope to relay some info that might be handy for those setting up
their Willard for extended cruising.
I doubt there is a single piece of new or original info contained.
However these are ideas/axioms from owning a Willard for 9 years and
cruising it outside USA for 5 years and before that crewing on a
NordicTug 32 up the inside passage. Much applies to the sail and
motor sail Willards but I think much applies to the motorvessel
Willards as well.
PART ONE The Hardest Part:
A)Leaving the dock, cutting the docklines.
Many(including me) have anxiety over the soundness of the vessel.
First, remember you have a fiberglass boat with an alum stick/mast
and SS wire and that you have a diesel. So you wont pop a seam like
the old boats. There wont be hidden rot in your spars and you wont
blow up from a gasoline tank.
Second, set a date,and leave. Period.
Third, do a few 1 week trips a few months before you leave. You will
be suprised what is needed.
B)Don't overstock on food. They do eat in Mexico and Central America.
Often you will find costco or similar stores and even Walmart in
these countries. Consider purchasing sails from Lee Sails from
Hong Kong and keep the old ones as spares.
C)Do Not worry about:
a)fridge(we dont run one; although we would consider a 12v Engels
unit for catching fish or when we get frozen Arkansas chickens(even
in Tonga);
b)going crazy with electronics(nice but can get very pricey and get
zapped by lightning). Focus on priorities.
PART TWO
reparations
The big difference between my boat and a standard used 8ton Willard
is the new rigging, windvane,and a fully thought-out anchoring setup
with an interior setup for a knockdown. The rest is solar panels and
spares and ease of use. For example, my wife is able to set the
staysail(furled in)as our storm sail and instead of trying to tuck in
a third reef,we use the trysail which is always hanked on its own
track and pull it up when we think a third reef is necessary.
I will start on some axioms/priorities we have found.
1) Pull and rebuild the standing rigging. Go over EVERYTHING.(we had
spreader tip corrosion under the spreader boots). When you do pull the
rig, put/install steps and a LED lite(on passage-making, a nl
tricolor eats 1/2 of your daily power needs. Consider using
mechanical fitting. Carry 2 spare mechanical fittings on board.
2)Purchase and install the biggest baddest anchoring SYSTEM your
wallet and bow can afford. We have 330ft 3/8 chain attached to 300ft
of 1/2 rode;with a 35 lb cqr (wish we had bigger but wife cant
lift.); lofrans tigres windless powered via 4/0 wiring and bolted to
the deck with a 1/4 inch alum backing plate under the whole bow deck
to handle the load. The second bow anchor is a 33lb bruce on 35ft
chain and 250 ft rode.That second anchor rode and chain is on a reel
attached to the mast pulpit(sissybar).
(An aside, i have perfered the
bruce over than danforth on second anchor-it is easier/lessdangerous
in a dingy). On the stern, i have a 22lb danforth with 80 chain and
200ft of line and a 33 lb bruce with 30 chain and 300 ft of dblbraid
3/4 inch rode .Eachstern anchor has rollers on the aft caprail. Each
stern anchor rode is stored in separate compartments in the aft laz.
All cleats and chocks have backing plates.
We wish we had 400ft chain but maybe when we refit in a year.
Purchase lots of northamerican shackles and chain connectors.and BIG
1 inch swivel.
3) Reliable autopilot. Under sail nothing beats a windvane attached to
our tiller. It is like the energizer bunny. We use a fleming brand,
however, friends with cape horn brand have been happy. Old reliable
aries still work.. When we are under power, we use a tp10 tiller pilot
(we have 2 spares).
4)Secure EVERTHING down below!!!!presume you will have a knock down
or get bounced around. wW have 1 inch webbing strapped across all
cabinets. We have spare hatch boards. We have a holddown system for
the 50lb sewing machine .We have found that seizing wire attached to
pot handles on the stove work better than fids.
5)CLIP in. Period. I have been flung out of the cabin and onto the
side deck 2 seconds after i just clipped in prior BEFORE going
outside.
6)PAPERCHARTS.(photocopies,copies are fine).elctronics can and do and
will fail.so carry a spare handheld gps and vhf.
7)clean fuel,new batteries,spare parts.
7a)fuel-we had tank polished,;new lines;dual racor system;a ballvalve
under fuel deck plate to keep sea water out.;moved vent to cockpit
from hull side;a case of filters..ONE GAL clean diesel in small jerry
can for racor fills..
7b)batteries-we installed four 6V agm and a gp 27 agm for engine
bank. LOTS of solar panels,alpin glow lites, davis anchor lite and
now, yippie!, a led bulb for the tricolor.(we also have a
windgenerator-but in retrospect wish we spend that money on
moresolar panels).What helps is not running the fridge.
7c) spares-LOTS-special wrench i made to fit the fuel injector and
remove the lift pump,spare injector parts,raw pump,alt,starter,old
heat eaxchanger,belts,5 gallons of SAE30 oil,1 gallon transmission
fluid, packing,spare prop.and the list goes on.....
8)BIG PUMPS!!!!we have had to use TWICE the 1 gallon stroke edson
emergency pump.
9)dont enter unknown or new anchorage at night. PERIOD .We have lost
track of number of times that has saved the day.
10)watermaker? we needed one for the pacific crossing. the pur 35(400
$second hand) .It served our needs(2 gal/day) and was reassuring it
had a manual mode. I then rebuilt the entire unit in the australs
over 3 days.Was not needed except for the pacific passage.
11)electronics.if you need a radar, spend the money on a furuno or
ratheon. We have a jrc(ok it cost 400$)but we are unhappy with it.
Our gps is a 10 year old garmin 75.we have a fish finder and and a
probe fwd sonar.
We have a icom 706(with diode clipped) as our ssb and ham. We think
in retrospect instead of pactor modem we should bought a secondhand
iridium instaed. (particularly for the pacific passage).Laptops will
die. I think these new netbooks with windows xp and solid state hard
drives might survive better that the old laptops. We have a 1200 watt
inverter( from pepboys) I wish I had a second idenical inverter
shrink wrapped.
12)1/2 gal spash zone epoxy and 2 gal reg epoxy and microballoons. We
used it on a sailboat that got beached and needed repairs before
being refloated.
PART THREE: performance offshore.
We never felt scared.Period.
Exhausted,frustrated,wet,hot,cold,surprised-YES.
Sail:In lite winds she needs a spinaker (or a drifter) without a
mainsail. In heavy winds, yankee and staysail and 3rd reefed main or
trysail. To balance , many times we needed to reef the main more than
we wanted to. Storm setup was staysail and partial yankee. Hove to
was staysail rolled 1/3 in and helm hard over.
Motor:with a 40 gal tank and 3 jerry cans in starboard laz and .6-.7
gal/hr, our range was limited.We used the TP 10 tillerpilot on the
tiller.
Worst passage: Raratonga to Nuie. For 36 hrs we had hard winds where
we were doing 7 knots downwind under staysail alone! The waves were
green coming from all directions filling the cockpit
consistently .The cockpit was a bathtub/jacuzzi during this period.
(an Ingrid 38 had a knockdown in these same conditions and a south
african boat was reasdy to put their boat on a container ship )
after this same leg, some lessons learned:
a)need to seal the laz lids with a zipper devise like a wetsuit. when
the cockpit filled up every 40 seconds,2 gallons would enter around
the laz lids.(since they were under water).
b)the engine guages and ignition key should be moved out of the
bottom well of the cockpit to a higher location.(or even inside)
c)have BIG Manual bilge pumps ready.our batteies were too low to run
the elec pumps;the main manual pump broke a main 1/4 inch SS pin from
all the use. We had to quickly pull out the edson pump to handle the
water until the smaller pump could be rebuilt.
D) consider moving electronics(ham radio,modem) to port closet
location(drier)
Well I hope this helps.
Boris Polman
SV Entelecheia; Willard 8ton
On a hurricane mooring in Tonga
I thought that the information was interesting and potentially useful.
I doubt that we will ever get further than Hawaii (in one of our slightly more realistic dreams) but it is always good to hear from sailors with actual ocean experience. Solutions and priorities are sometimes different than what one reads about in the coffee table sailing magazines.
We here are very fortunate to have several Ericson owners who are experienced blue water cruisers, and I have learned a lot from their comments over the years. I hope that no one is offended by opinions (second hand published, at that) from another class of sailboat. Some of these unedited comments are obviously specific to the layout of the Willard, FWIW.
Regards,
Loren
___________________
Subject: [WillardBoatOwners] 9 yrs of ownership and 5 years cruising outside of USA
I hope to relay some info that might be handy for those setting up
their Willard for extended cruising.
I doubt there is a single piece of new or original info contained.
However these are ideas/axioms from owning a Willard for 9 years and
cruising it outside USA for 5 years and before that crewing on a
NordicTug 32 up the inside passage. Much applies to the sail and
motor sail Willards but I think much applies to the motorvessel
Willards as well.
PART ONE The Hardest Part:
A)Leaving the dock, cutting the docklines.
Many(including me) have anxiety over the soundness of the vessel.
First, remember you have a fiberglass boat with an alum stick/mast
and SS wire and that you have a diesel. So you wont pop a seam like
the old boats. There wont be hidden rot in your spars and you wont
blow up from a gasoline tank.
Second, set a date,and leave. Period.
Third, do a few 1 week trips a few months before you leave. You will
be suprised what is needed.
B)Don't overstock on food. They do eat in Mexico and Central America.
Often you will find costco or similar stores and even Walmart in
these countries. Consider purchasing sails from Lee Sails from
Hong Kong and keep the old ones as spares.
C)Do Not worry about:
a)fridge(we dont run one; although we would consider a 12v Engels
unit for catching fish or when we get frozen Arkansas chickens(even
in Tonga);
b)going crazy with electronics(nice but can get very pricey and get
zapped by lightning). Focus on priorities.
PART TWO
reparationsThe big difference between my boat and a standard used 8ton Willard
is the new rigging, windvane,and a fully thought-out anchoring setup
with an interior setup for a knockdown. The rest is solar panels and
spares and ease of use. For example, my wife is able to set the
staysail(furled in)as our storm sail and instead of trying to tuck in
a third reef,we use the trysail which is always hanked on its own
track and pull it up when we think a third reef is necessary.
I will start on some axioms/priorities we have found.
1) Pull and rebuild the standing rigging. Go over EVERYTHING.(we had
spreader tip corrosion under the spreader boots). When you do pull the
rig, put/install steps and a LED lite(on passage-making, a nl
tricolor eats 1/2 of your daily power needs. Consider using
mechanical fitting. Carry 2 spare mechanical fittings on board.
2)Purchase and install the biggest baddest anchoring SYSTEM your
wallet and bow can afford. We have 330ft 3/8 chain attached to 300ft
of 1/2 rode;with a 35 lb cqr (wish we had bigger but wife cant
lift.); lofrans tigres windless powered via 4/0 wiring and bolted to
the deck with a 1/4 inch alum backing plate under the whole bow deck
to handle the load. The second bow anchor is a 33lb bruce on 35ft
chain and 250 ft rode.That second anchor rode and chain is on a reel
attached to the mast pulpit(sissybar).
(An aside, i have perfered the
bruce over than danforth on second anchor-it is easier/lessdangerous
in a dingy). On the stern, i have a 22lb danforth with 80 chain and
200ft of line and a 33 lb bruce with 30 chain and 300 ft of dblbraid
3/4 inch rode .Eachstern anchor has rollers on the aft caprail. Each
stern anchor rode is stored in separate compartments in the aft laz.
All cleats and chocks have backing plates.
We wish we had 400ft chain but maybe when we refit in a year.
Purchase lots of northamerican shackles and chain connectors.and BIG
1 inch swivel.
3) Reliable autopilot. Under sail nothing beats a windvane attached to
our tiller. It is like the energizer bunny. We use a fleming brand,
however, friends with cape horn brand have been happy. Old reliable
aries still work.. When we are under power, we use a tp10 tiller pilot
(we have 2 spares).
4)Secure EVERTHING down below!!!!presume you will have a knock down
or get bounced around. wW have 1 inch webbing strapped across all
cabinets. We have spare hatch boards. We have a holddown system for
the 50lb sewing machine .We have found that seizing wire attached to
pot handles on the stove work better than fids.
5)CLIP in. Period. I have been flung out of the cabin and onto the
side deck 2 seconds after i just clipped in prior BEFORE going
outside.
6)PAPERCHARTS.(photocopies,copies are fine).elctronics can and do and
will fail.so carry a spare handheld gps and vhf.
7)clean fuel,new batteries,spare parts.
7a)fuel-we had tank polished,;new lines;dual racor system;a ballvalve
under fuel deck plate to keep sea water out.;moved vent to cockpit
from hull side;a case of filters..ONE GAL clean diesel in small jerry
can for racor fills..
7b)batteries-we installed four 6V agm and a gp 27 agm for engine
bank. LOTS of solar panels,alpin glow lites, davis anchor lite and
now, yippie!, a led bulb for the tricolor.(we also have a
windgenerator-but in retrospect wish we spend that money on
moresolar panels).What helps is not running the fridge.
7c) spares-LOTS-special wrench i made to fit the fuel injector and
remove the lift pump,spare injector parts,raw pump,alt,starter,old
heat eaxchanger,belts,5 gallons of SAE30 oil,1 gallon transmission
fluid, packing,spare prop.and the list goes on.....
8)BIG PUMPS!!!!we have had to use TWICE the 1 gallon stroke edson
emergency pump.
9)dont enter unknown or new anchorage at night. PERIOD .We have lost
track of number of times that has saved the day.
10)watermaker? we needed one for the pacific crossing. the pur 35(400
$second hand) .It served our needs(2 gal/day) and was reassuring it
had a manual mode. I then rebuilt the entire unit in the australs
over 3 days.Was not needed except for the pacific passage.
11)electronics.if you need a radar, spend the money on a furuno or
ratheon. We have a jrc(ok it cost 400$)but we are unhappy with it.
Our gps is a 10 year old garmin 75.we have a fish finder and and a
probe fwd sonar.
We have a icom 706(with diode clipped) as our ssb and ham. We think
in retrospect instead of pactor modem we should bought a secondhand
iridium instaed. (particularly for the pacific passage).Laptops will
die. I think these new netbooks with windows xp and solid state hard
drives might survive better that the old laptops. We have a 1200 watt
inverter( from pepboys) I wish I had a second idenical inverter
shrink wrapped.
12)1/2 gal spash zone epoxy and 2 gal reg epoxy and microballoons. We
used it on a sailboat that got beached and needed repairs before
being refloated.
PART THREE: performance offshore.
We never felt scared.Period.
Exhausted,frustrated,wet,hot,cold,surprised-YES.
Sail:In lite winds she needs a spinaker (or a drifter) without a
mainsail. In heavy winds, yankee and staysail and 3rd reefed main or
trysail. To balance , many times we needed to reef the main more than
we wanted to. Storm setup was staysail and partial yankee. Hove to
was staysail rolled 1/3 in and helm hard over.
Motor:with a 40 gal tank and 3 jerry cans in starboard laz and .6-.7
gal/hr, our range was limited.We used the TP 10 tillerpilot on the
tiller.
Worst passage: Raratonga to Nuie. For 36 hrs we had hard winds where
we were doing 7 knots downwind under staysail alone! The waves were
green coming from all directions filling the cockpit
consistently .The cockpit was a bathtub/jacuzzi during this period.
(an Ingrid 38 had a knockdown in these same conditions and a south
african boat was reasdy to put their boat on a container ship )
after this same leg, some lessons learned:
a)need to seal the laz lids with a zipper devise like a wetsuit. when
the cockpit filled up every 40 seconds,2 gallons would enter around
the laz lids.(since they were under water).
b)the engine guages and ignition key should be moved out of the
bottom well of the cockpit to a higher location.(or even inside)
c)have BIG Manual bilge pumps ready.our batteies were too low to run
the elec pumps;the main manual pump broke a main 1/4 inch SS pin from
all the use. We had to quickly pull out the edson pump to handle the
water until the smaller pump could be rebuilt.
D) consider moving electronics(ham radio,modem) to port closet
location(drier)
Well I hope this helps.
Boris Polman
SV Entelecheia; Willard 8ton
On a hurricane mooring in Tonga