you put a smile on my dial, traveling the sandy straits, nice to see your view of a unique place and the largest sand island in the world. I've traveled the straits many times, lovely to see it still there.
Hi seailive - awesome ! Well this was our first time and I must say we enjoyed the scenery. It reminded me of a place in South Africa called Langebaan in many respects, but this was Langebaan on steroids. I was very surprised at the warning of crocs so far south. I must admit that apart for the dolphins we did not see much other wild life though - would have loved to see a dingo. Perhaps on our north bound trip we will explore Fraser Island ... inland. Cheers
Each time watching one of your videos is an escape from my office. Love it!!! Fraser Island has the most crystal clear sweat water I have ever seen! A fantastic place to be!
Hi Christian - pleased to hear we can bring a little bit of paradise into your office space :) Fraser Island is beautiful - not sure though these are the most crystal clear waters ... but yes, lovely sailing grounds for sure ... Thanks for commenting ... much appreciated
Hey Steve - thanks mate :) We like to share tracks and show spots also because we have some sailors following in our wake and they like to get a visual on where we are sailing so it enhances their enjoyment of the area as a quick reference. I sometimes get frustrated when I am watching a fantastic documentary and then they don't show exactly where it is, so I guess I am trying to avoid that frustration for the folks who take the time to check out our vids. Cheers my friend and thank you for the great comment
Catamaran Impi hey guys if you want the most current navigation information for south east Qld have a look at the beacon to beacon guide as it is published by maritime Qld and is available for download on there site.. Stu- Catamaran Lahara 2
Hey Alan - must say we would love to do the inland tour which we aim to do when going north again. We believe it is a beaut with lakes and wild life and beauty, so hopefully we get o do that too! Cheers for now ... Brent
Hi again Moz - yes, apparently one can sail in there but lots of rules and dedicated moorings. Some of the locals say even in a storm they would not allow one to enter without a booked mooring (not sure I can believe that - international law and mariners in distress, but apparently they are that serious about it?). So much to see - so little time
I see Nice refinements in your rigging and the boat in general....Always enjoy your Adventures...Looks like you two have become very comfortable with your beautiful boat.....Mark S.F. Ca... ;-)
Thank you Mark ... pleased to share the adventures with you :) Yes, we have done a lot of work to Impi and she is a nice home for us on the oceans ... cheers for now ... Brent
Awe thanks Sea Journey ... wish I could share so much more technical stuff here ... I keep meaning to do this but time seems to escape me ! If I had crew I am sure I could do a lot of these vids ...
Thank you Mike - and wow - how cool is that! The folks were telling us they are nearly extinct so we (you and me) are lucky to see these amazing creatures. Nice to hear from you again ... cheers fro now Brent
Awesome video again. Hard sailing but the look of it. your genoa looked reefed tight!! And those bloody flies reminds me of OZ for sure. Thanks for sharing Brent again a very nice video. Looking forward to your new batteries video plus what ever else you did on Impi. Ana ta robe noir te va très bien 😊 sorry Brent 😉 bisous à vous deux et à bientôt. Best from Hong Kong
Hey Laurent - never need to apologise to me for speaking French my friend ... Ana loves that she needs to interpret for me :) Yes, both the genoa and the mainsail were reefed in hard ... a little slack on the mainsheet as we did not want to 'screw to windward' that close we were sailing ... but hey ... so nice to feel the thrill of the water and the wind ... LOVED it and Impi is always happy in these conditions. As for the batteries - yes my friend - we are filming the installation - man - learning so much about lithiums - awesome technology :)
What a wonderful video; as always, I truly enjoy them. Thank you for taking the time in your adventures to Share them with the rest of the world 🌎. With regards, Robert. P.S. I hope that the Mrs. Is doing well? Please send my regards..
Hello Robert - thank you so much! It is always a pleasure to share these things while people still enjoy them. We will keep trying to get footage out until we feel folks are getting bored and hiving off to better channels and when our kids tell us we are becoming an embarrassment - lol Ana is doing very well - I think she will feel even better once the lithium batteries are operational. She really wanted for us to be in Tasmania already, but boat upgrades slowing all that down. Cheers my friend and thanks for showing the care ...
Hi Brent and Ana, Very good video and we can discover things very interesting about Australia. it still a great moment of shared life. Too cool the dance of the fly with the dance of the crab there may be ways to do something ... LOL See you soon friends. To the pleasure of seeing your next videos. "Petits pains au chocolat" with your coffee. It's delicious.
LOL Passion Voile - we love you man ! I must say my friend Tierry does a much better dance with the crab than my dance with the fly !!! In Australia they make a joke of the flies by calling it the Australian Wave ... when we arrived I thought everyone was waving at us, 'Look', I would say to Ana, 'Everyone is so friendly waving to us', and then we realise they are just waving flies away from their face - lol. The Australians are very relaxed people - I love the way they can make jokes at themselves and some things in their country all the time ... for some countries the people are too proud for this - lol! Of course being South African we always have to laugh at our country, at ourselves and our government so we feel to fit right in here with the people ... as we do in French territories. Ahhhh pain au chocolate ... how I mess this from the French territories :) Cheers my friend ... Brent
Hey Sam always a pleasure - sorry for the delay - had a bit of a health issue which set me back for a while but getting ontop of it thank goodness. Cheers my friend
I am really pleased that as a non sailor you enjoy our sailing vids. My mum was on the phone with me today - she is really afraid of the sea and thinks I am crazy, but today for the first time she said she really understands why I love to be on the sea and to feel free ... she said the videos were making her understand this and she wishes she was doing it without fear. The truth is that there is always some fear out there ... it's a great feeling of being alive ... to feel slightly afraid in some situations and yet so free at the same time :)
Bula, Brent what an adventure you guys are having....thanks for an interesting infor by the way, we are planning to buy a catamaran and try to follow your path as well. We were watching all your videos for the last couple of months now, and started to catch some ups and downs of sailing across the globe. Have are nice one South Africans we will be meeting in all sevens rugby finals...hahahahahaha...Moce mada...LB.. Suva
Hey Lui - BULA VINAKA !!! Yes - having some awesome adventures my friend and never forgetting our wonderful time in Fiji. I am happy to hear you are looking to take to the water ... awesome and please send us a message when you do so we can follow your travels. LOL - I get nervous when the South African rugby players head for the sevens against Fiji - remember watching the sevens int he pub at Savusavu and was the only person in the crowd not from Fiji. I was shouting for South Africa to play better and everyone was quiet. Of course Fiji beat us good and solid and when I asked everyone why they were not looking excited and shouting ... they said ... ' we are sorry for your loss and do not want to disrespect you' ... wow ... what beautiful people. I told the bar tender a round for everyone was on me and left promptly so the Fijians could celebrate ... you guys are wonderful people mate !!!
Thank you for yet Another Beautiful clip. Good work on it.I just watced a clip with Sailing miss Lone Star - what an utter crap..... I should just stay around with you guys and Ran Sailing and I be happy.Keep up the good work, I dont miss any of your videos.Love to see you go and explore Cook Islands when the season allows (end of March or early April is when Cyclone season is out). Check out Aitutaki, Palmerston Atoll, Manihiki, Rakahanga, Suwarrow.
Hi Marlene - always a pleasure and thanks for the compliment. I guess we all have our 'journey in life' and for us we enjoy sharing it as we feel it and especially if it means something to people! I realise we are not getting younger and a day will come when people scream for us to 'get off the tube' - lol - but in the meanwhile we will continue sharing in the hope that people can get 'lost' off some remote island with us somewhere - even if only for a moment we hope it serves as an escape and to encourage dreams. We thought to sail back to the Cooks and actually had to ditch entering Suwarrow due to a storm as we passed it ... we felt tempted but in the end kept going. Another couple who went in during this period actually lost their vessel there due to the storm as their anchor let go and washed them onto the reef. We were devastated for them! A number of boats who left with us decided to sail south to the Cooks and due to our weather predictions we decided to rather sail to the north of the fleet for Samoa - it was a good choice with the fleet being hammered ... broken booms and equipment and with everyone turning back where we had a relatively pleasant sail. This is why we never made it down there actually ... but yes ... perhaps on our 2nd lap we will do different places and the Cooks are on that list. We are familiar with those islands ... we had planned he routes and done the research - the weather caused us to split from the fleet and head find new destinations :) Cheers for now Brent and Ana ps. I really want to get back in the Tuamotu Archipelago - one of our all time favourite cruising grounds in the world ...
Kudos to you for having sailed the Southern, Atlantic, and Pacific. In a Lagoon, with the upper helm station to boot. I heard the Lagoons are notoriously slow. Obviously you did great on that cat. Btw, how's the dog, Moose doing? Thanks for sharing your adventures. I enjoyed them immensely. Greetings from Vancouver Island.
Hi Jaxon ... thanks buddy - yeah - the boat has done exceptionally well with the bridge being our favourite feature on the cat. As for notoriously slow - lol - not sure where that comes from and probably the folks crossing oceans on their boats with us would have a different view on this ... but I do get, that with the standard sails it's a no go! By the way - our previous catamaran was a Catana 471 - we get very similar performance on the 440, if not better to wind! We had sails designed for Impi which have added terrific power to the boat and for a weighted boat she sure has a good performance reputation. Our sail form New Caledonia to Australia (our last passage) was in 4 days with ease - i.e. she sailed over 200nm per day for 4 days. That is not slow for a loaded cruising boat. Moose is terrific - we are getting such awesome feedback and will sail back to check him out later in the year. Ana is very busy with an 'animal care program' for New Caledonia so we will hopefully be able to assist them to get this into momentum before sailing west again. It is always a pleasure for us to share the adventures and thank you for engaging. Cheers for now ... Brent
Thank you Richard - appreciate you keeping me motivated ! I must admit with the tax year ending in South Africa and some other business back home together with Lithium installations in Pittwater I was struggling to feel motivated to put this one out ... but I love that so many folks enjoy the sharing and will try keep it up as much as possible ... cheers my friend
Hey Brent, Thank you for a great job in describing your adventures as well as the planning and technical aspects of your decision making. I am considering looking into a cat for doing exactly what you guys are doing. Your channel is helping me in my decision as to what type of hull ( mono or Catamaran ) to decide on. Cheers mate:).....Tom in Seattle
Hey Tom - always a pleasure for us, and whatever hull shape, whatever boat you choose ... may it bring you the dreams of your lifetime ... go for it mate ... go for it ! Cheers ... Brent
Today hopefully South Jersey - been installing lithiums which takes time along with other projects and with 'not so great health' this month it was a struggle - but I will deliver today :) Cheers my friend
Thanks for replying to my previous comment. Congats on the lithiums. BTW I just watched "gone with the wynns" channel about why (in detail) lithiums are their only choice for their cat.
Bravo you 2 youtubers youtubing for us. Cant wait to see and hear about your Lithium upgrade. It's what I'll be installing too. Hopefully you get a great price on them since Australia is in a Lithium booming phase. I'm guessing you guys will do about 600 amp hours? That should give you close to 500 working amps? I'm just playing with numbers out loud to see if I have an understanding of this wonderful technology ha ha. As a wise fellow cruiser once said! "Cheers to being on the positive side of neutral".
Hi again Mike .... awesome comment as usual! Mike we realise we are in a 'price boom' for lithium, but as lithium (lifepo4) goes we have a reasonable price at AU$7000 for 800 AH capacity, and we have redundancy which is great. To do this we installed two BCU BCM's (Battery management systems) so if one pack goes down the other takes over. In addition to this I am putting in 3 Carbon Foam Firefly technology batteries as a final back up if all else drops out. This was we have massive redundancy which will pull us through. Carbon Foam batteries are awesome and very close to Lithium style - called the 'poor mans lithium' but the technology really impresses me ... I very well nearly went this way. Actually I was toying with Lead Crystal 1000AH 2v cells in series but the weight was still a factor and the price way too close to lithium not to go lithium. The Carbon Foam Oasis Fireflies are lighter but still heavier than lithium - but yeah man ... awesome technology in there - I think we are on the brink of a MAJOR CHANGE in battery technology. .... lol ... and yes, best to be on the positive side of neutral and keep accelerating on that trend :) Cheers my friend
Thanx again for a happy and informative video, Brent! And again, your videos are not good for that big beast called "restlessness" in me, so that's a good sign, haha! :-) Greetingz, Wim
Hi again Wim ... LOL ... yes ... I know what you mean by that restlessness within ... that means you are still on the positive side of neutral in terms of your zest for life and living it - so that's great !!! Cheers my friend
Another great video Brent with lots of sailing! As for that leg over to Fraser Island, it would appear that you only had your Genoa up and it was reefed in pretty tight. What kind of speed do you get in those conditions, especially when beating into the wind and close hauled? Very rough ride for sure. I was surprised to see that there are "sea cows" or manatee's down under. As for the mosquito's, yikes! Hate them so much but hey love me too much as well. I must have tasty blood! Fair seas.
Hi Edward, Thank you. Actually we had the genoa and main up - both were reefed. I do not remember the exact speeds we had on the boat as we usually sail for comfort on the boat and rig not speed, but we were probably upwards of 10 -12 knots, and then again the conditions were erratic so speed would not be consistent. To be honest, we were actually headed for the bay opposite and not for the Straits however the winds were shining so much so that we decided to go where it took us, except back of course, so we tacked as hard and close to the wind as possible and ended up comfortably at the opening to the straits - Impi loves sailing 'close hauled'. The conditions are rough for a close hauled sail but had we had them aft of the beam it would have been beautiful conditions which is why we place a catamaran stern to the seas and winds in a storm - never bow to. Yes, the manatees was also something we found interesting - I always thought Australia had some up on the north west coast. LOL - Mosquitos or 'no see ups' are the worst :) Cheers and thank you for the comment Brent
Once again terrific video. The Aussies take sailing really seriously which is a pleasant surprise. You guys are my inspiration. I get my new 450F April 11. I am always impressed by your depth of knowledge and how you process each situation. You make it very safe for all concerned. I have a question if you wouldn't mind answering. I am replacing all my sails with custom sails that should last quite a long time. I look through your videos and you sometimes use a very big and strong Genoa for high winds on one of your stern quarters. I want to get some sort of storm sail made before I shove off. Suggestions? In bad weather I don't want to leave the helm to walk anywhere so would rather do it all with the headsail. Thanks.
HI SPK and sorry for the delay in response - very busy with the lithium installations and now new alternators and so on ... I love that we are able to share information that has meaning for people who watch - thank you. Sails ... great idea to replace the sails with custom sails - we also had ours custom designed for want of a better word ... and it has enhanced the performance of Impi to be sure :) As for sailing in strong winds with the genoa and storm sails. We carry a storm sail on the boat - and to be honest with you we have never felt it to benefit us. By the time the conditions become that bad I would rather not be fighting at the bow of the boat to get the storm sail raised... it can be dangerous in fact, unless of course one has read the conditions well ahead of time and sorted it out early enough, but in reality when one has been sailing year in and year out we tend to leave things be and then it is too late to be wrestling a storm sail into position. We have used the genoa as our storm sail in many really nasty conditions, and very successfully - but it does require some consideration. The tension on the main sheet is all important as this kinda acts as your 'back stay' keeping the mast in place and one wants tension on the forestay. In severe conditions, a sloppy mainsheet tension will result in curvature of the forestay and the roller-furler tubes struggle with this. Add to this - furling the genoa in or out whilst the forestay is curved and the joints between the roller-furler tubes become damaged, the bolts work loose and that can be an issue in strong winds - well - if the tubes separate to the extent that the female end of the tube slides out of the male side of the tube - well - one won't be able to furl the genoa and one won't be able to drop it either. So - tensioning the mainsheet is a MUST do in strong winds. Another thing that happens with a genoa being reefed for storms, is that as it is furled, the centre of 'effort' or force moves upward along the forestay and roller furler which will cause 'deflection' ... so one needs to keep this in mind and keep an eye on things, but generally if one is aware of this, it is not a problem to use the genoa as a storm sail - in fact it is exactly what we do and have done in storms. Another thing to watch is the furling line . We replace this line periodically to make sure it is in great condition and has not lost strength due to UV, washing and scrubbing the decks and by default the furling line too. One does not want this line to let go in a storm where the entire genoa would then be released to the fury of the elements. I realise these are basic principles, but well worth keeping an eye on if using the genoa as ones storm sail. So - on Impi - because the genoa cars are on the coach roof (Which is FANTASTIC for close hauled sailing - and of course the two shorter spreaders which allows the genoa leech to come in closer) we find that off the wind it is difficult to set the sail for great performance. For this reason you probably have seen in our videos, we sail off a 'barber hauler style set up' from the horns cleat, and we control the sail between the genoa sheets and the barber hauler sheets. This works well on the 440. Something we do in extreme storm scenarios is to place the cat stern to the weather system, unlike on mono's which go bow to the weather system ... and then ride it out with the genoa furled comfortably for those conditions. In every scenario this has worked well as it keeps the boat alive in the ocean and prevents the genoa from flogging when coming up into the wind ... one does not want a sail flogging in these conditions of course. I really encourage newbie sailors to catamarans to get used to this ... a cat does not perform well facing into the elements in big seas and is actually dangerous to do. The control is obviously the amount of drag one provides through trailing warps ... one wants to break the surface tension on the water to collapse the waves so we carry a huge amount of spare rope for this reason ... in effect I want to slow the boat down and create enough disturbance behind the boat to reduce the wave energy at that position. Using ONLY the genoa (never the mainsail) is terrific in this scenario as it keeps a controlled power on the boat, and of course if the bows feel to be breaking off in a certain direction off waves, we can 'correct his trend' by lengthening or shortening warps to either side of the boat. I guess I have been too long in my reply - the short answer is that the genoa (well built with strong material like Hydranet or better) is a great sail or storms, easy to control from the helm and provide drive on the boat, but it does come with some consideration. Cheers
Brent, Safety is very important so thank you so much for taking the time to fully explain especially with a full plate. It has helped me fill in the pieces for a more thorough understanding. I have the utmost respect for you and am impressed by your thought process which leads to your in depth knowledge. I see it in many videos. Despite a Cats stability, I absolutely don't want to be on deck during a storm. I didn't opt for the Lithium batteries and may regret it. I hope all goes well with the install. Warmest regards, Seton
Seton -always a pleasure for us and do not fret about not having gone with lithiums - it is good to become accustomed first with the general behaviour of ordinary style batteries and to understand the logic behind this with batteries that are more forgiving and safer in this phase of getting used to cruising than to get into something more complicated and with less tolerance ... in fact ... this is a safer bet for first time cruising sailors. I would encourage you to look into the new Carbon Foam technology - Oasis Firefly style batteries ... they are as close as one can get to lithium performance without going lithium that I have seen and would not require changing the wiring in the boat ... only adjusting the charge parameters of the various devises to suit those batteries. They are heavier than lithium but hey, they come pretty damn close and at a good price. I also quite liked Lead Crystal battery performance, but I think the Carbon Foams are taking my attention more ... cheers my friend Brent
Hi Kevin - always a pleasure for us :) The reason for the Lagoon 440 ... well ... probably the same reason one guy chooses a Toyata and the other a Mini ... but yes ... a number of reasons ... but mostly because it represented for us a safe, well built boat that is a home, has the performance we want in a home on the water and also has huge volume in living space for its size. We like the fact that the stern is 'closed' to the elements - not a flat floor running to the ocean and in a way represents the safety of a monohull cockpit turned sideways, has a solid coach roof and an additional living space with the bridge ... sails close to the wind and exceptionally well under an asymmetric or spinnaker sail. I could do a video on this soon - not to promote Lagoon but rather to show the things we enjoy about a boat ... Our Catana 471 was a bigger boat with less living space and when we decided to go cruising, the 440 ticked the boxes we personally wanted for a life at sea. Then again, on almost every boat we step onto, there is a feature or some idea one wishes to incorporate ... most boats today have something unique about them and it comes down to personal choice. What we do not like - is a boat where the fibreglass flexes under ones feet .. no go ... and also a boat which cannot be loaded up with the comforts of a home without becoming unsafe due to the weight factor / or looses huge performance due to the weight factor. The 440 is pretty resilient in this ... it is the Toyota of the seas. Another boat we are looking closely at ... Privilege Catamarans. Cheers for now Brent
Thanks Flatcap007 - lol - need to upgrade batteries but first need the boat ... keep at it .. I am sure your day will come. We don't have the same Lithiums as The Wynns ... I think they did their upgrades through Kent (my cousin at Just Catamarans) and he is keen on Relion Batteries which are great but not available in Australia. We opted for the EV Product Batteries which are cells assembled into packs (ours are 2 x packs of 400AH each so 800AH) and we set these up as separate units working together and with 2 separate BCU / BMS for redundancy. This means if a cell fails in one pack, the thing about lithium is that the BMS will shut down the entire pack immediately and we then have the second pack to take over. Furthermore we are wanting to install Carbon Foam Oasis Firefly batteries (maybe just two or three) as a 3rd back up so if the reason for both the Lithiums shutting down due to an external issue (like an issue with a charger that is faulty), then in that case we can switch to those batteries which will not shut down. Cheers my friend and hope you get that boat soon :)
I follow their adventure like a true couch potato, they stripped the batteries/panels off their camper van. Got a spark to fit them at the dock in Florida, they know their kit them Wynns.
Thank you Bob - nice of you to say so. My only wish is the boat came complete with a lazy boy :) The pools at KingFisher Resort are fresh water - they seem to have plenty of it. Cheers for now Brent
Great Phillip - will share as much as possible around that. I have done most of the wiring, sorting out the chargers and a ton of research. Our electrician dropped us badly which delayed our departure to Tasmania by 3 weeks - so - hopefully Sam the new electrician arrives Monday and Tuesday - he said he was ok with me filming him doing the checks so perhaps we can all learn something there. I need him to advise me on one or two gadgets I am thinking to install for management of the systems and also to approve the installation for safety first, insurance and warranty reasons.
From the looks of the breaking waves coming over the bows, maybe you have to much weight forward in the boat? She sure looks bow heavy to me. It is a common issue with cats. All that great storage up front in the unused staterooms and the huge forward storage area in the bows. Almost everybody loads them to heavy up front.
Hi again Grandpa's Farm ... yes, I must say 'well spotted' and certainly the Lagoon 440 comes out of the factory with a weighted bow. By the way - this is how we want it when sailing to weather. Catamarans generally dig in when sailing on a close point of sail ... and thank goodness for that otherwise as with our previous make of catamaran the boat would tend to become airborne off the wave tops ... that is NOT good when fully powered ... actually, mates of ours capsized in South Africa for exactly that reason ... heavy winds and too much power in the sails ... as they rode up a wave the bow became airborne, did not drop quick enough with he result the boat became airborne and the wind simply flipped them over. Luckily they were rescued by the NSRI - many years ago now but that is what happened. What we do is to load the bows by filling the 900 liter water tanks when going to weather, and we drop the water again when sailing off the weather ... this way we keep the boat in the water .... Well spotted
Hi cool vid Iv not seen any vids since before Xmas dunno if I missed them Iv been to involved in watching my local football team Liverpool best team in the world well to me they are 😁😁
Great video. How many stops did you have sailing from Bundaberg to Sydney? how long did it take? Wil you be heading to the whitsundays on your way back up?
Hi Tsandu - interesting question - I would have to go to the logbook. We actually did more stops than we showed in the video going down the straits in the first instance ... anchored off inskip which is interesting (some amazing sink holes happening there which maybe I should have shared, but we can't share it all) ... crossed Wide Bay Bar which was nice in the setting sun and then overnight down to I believe Morton Island (Tangalooma and so on) ... beautiful spot but very busy for the same reason I guess ... across to Brisbane and anchored in the city for a while - a massive storm - then off to Peel Island - 1 day sail (another storm and a yacht nearby actually was struck - scary stuff) ... down through the passages between the mainland and North Stradbroke stopping here and there - Jumping Pin comes to mind (I THINK northern part of South Stradbroke), a terrific place (all in day light and anchoring before dark) ... then down to Southport area Believe (too many stop overs in the canals / coarse ways to mention ... I think 'Wavebreak Island' comes to mind ... many more ... and then I think we took the leap down to Sydney ... can't remember if that was one or two nights ? I will post that in our upcoming movies - it was a pleasant sail though! Yes, we should do the Whitsundays since that is where our dream started when we chartered a cat from Whitsunday Escapes some 10 or 11 years ago and cruised those islands - would love to introduce Impi to the Whitsundays. At the moment we are sorting out Lithium batteries and been let down by the electricians in Pittwater, so depending on when that is done we will hopefully have time to get down to Tasmania before the westerlies pick up and move northward, so we need to move it. This may mean we do less of the north coast which means we may come back next year after New Caledonia ... but if we are too late for Tasmania we should do the northbound trip slowly and in more detail ... but Whitsundays ... yes ... it is part of our Australian celebration and where our dreams were formed :)
Hi BobbieG - thanks for the comment and for the thoughts but no, she is not currently in hospital - that was some years ago in SA - we just wanted to be safe since we know she does not fare well with being in a mosquito infested environment ... thanks for the kind thoughts buddy
Hi Sam - yes, we get this question a lot! For us - there is no 'country tie' when buying a catamaran - it is about the boat and what we will live on for the years to come - things / features that appeal to what we as a couple want or prefer for ourselves . Boats are VERY PERSONAL CHOICES As we know, many boats are made for the charter market including the Lagoon 440. Whilst we really liked the Leopards such as the 46, we personally are not keen on the amount of 'glass' up front in rough seas for ocean crossings on the newer models (TERRIFIC for the islands), but then again we have come across some sailors who have erected vertical screens (similar to the trampoline material) to reduce the punch by what they claim to be 40% of the force exerted by the ocean. I have discussed this with the folks at Leopard ... leopard have now put 3 handles into the front door as opposed to 2, but I personally would like to see a stronger frame around the door and a more rounded edge to the sides to allow the sea to escape from it. This is my personal opinion though and I still think Leopards are built by great people. Worth while noting of course, is that many of these boats are sailed all over the world to their destinations without incident although lately they are trending toward loading the cats onto ships as a form of transportation. I am not sure if this follows the capsized leopard in the storm en-route Asia along with some other incidents of a door taking a blow from the oceans or if it is purely economical. The Lagoon also has vertical windows but no 'wings' extending forward 'to trap' the water ... the rounded windows dispels the water immediately to the side and away from the boat ... we have been in some severe storms with Impi and never felt the windows to be something we worry about, whereas on the same passage friends have said this concerned them on the Leopard which later they managed to overcome by erecting vertical screens which are taken down once they reach their destination. Having said all this, I must say the Leopard 46 in my opinion, is a TERRIFIC cruising catamaran which at the time had a higher price tag than the 440 which was also one factor when we considering our options. Why the 440 - the 440 ticked a lot of boxes for us - it is a 'boat' which we feel lends itself to be a great home on the seas, very safely built, a good performer (We have sailed alongside many boats like Leopards, Amels, FP's and other makes of cats and monos) sailing as well as any other boat in it's class and weight, and certainly we have yet to find a cat that gets as close to the wind ... well ... interestingly enough ... many mono's too. Our previous catamaran, the Catana 471 also performed well with it's dagger boards, but I would hesitate to say we sail closer to the wind on the 440. Well ... perhaps we have just become better at it ... I would not say I was experienced enough at the time to make fair comment on this ... it certainly helps when sailing 24/7 year in and year out to develop technique. Anyway, this is not about 'boat bashing' since we do not do that ... we love many different makes and styles of catamarans ... the best features we love usually being in a price bracket that is pitched above our level of affordability ... and then again some very expensive catamarans we cannot understand being so expensive ... the lagoon is the 'Toyota of the seas' ... The 440 does have an 'older feel to the interior design' than some other similar brands and I do believe Lagoon could have put a bit more effort into this. By changing some features we have managed to improve on this ... Modern design - this of course can be good and bad ... for the future ... modern designs can age quite quickly whilst a more classic design will be 'acceptable' for the long haul. In addition to all of this - the 440 in it's class and size has an incredible amount of room (by many sailors comments) and also a number of 'get away spaces' such as the separate 'seating area to the front', the area up on the bridge, and a very solid and sturdy Coach roof above the main patio area which on many cats is unused space ... well ... Ana uses this for her Yoga studio sometimes :) Another feature we enjoy is the safety aspect of the patio area with it's high back to the sea ... it's kind of like a mono hull cockpit turned sideways and is terrific in a building sea. As you know, unlike with mono's, catamarans place stern to the elements in heavy seas - not the bow - so the waves start pounding from behind and the boat needs to be slowed down (Warps out the back) when dropping off wave faces ... we do not want these same waves smashing through the back of the boat and into the door. Well this has been amazing on the 440 - where we have sailed with some boats claiming they feared their patio door was going to be smashed in. This is a worst case scenario ... many sailors will not experience these conditions but all it takes is one unexpected storm to pass through ... all it takes is 1 hour of the worst kind of weather, and then again conditions could be so bad the boat has no chance anyhow. Our hope is then that it 'floats well' and we have not tried this out yet :) An interesting question and one we can never answer in a short space of time - and really, the answer is that boat designs and features comes down to PERSONAL CHOICE.
Hey Richard - I feel guilty sometimes - but we slaved our butts off to get here ... and then we struggled to break free and do it - it actually took a lot of guts although it would not appear so :) We would love to see people reaching their dreams ... we really try to encourage folks to ... cheers for now and thanks for commenting here My best Brent
Man - that is tough !!! Total respect for you my friend ... I struggle with those early mornings :) - Hope you are having a great weekend then ... cheers for now
Shock Chord ! When the boat is in neutral conditions i.e. no wind = equal forces to the shrouds - the shrouds are tensioned evenly. Under sail the windward shroud takes up the load while the leeward shroud slacks off. In certain conditions and especially where there are waves one is topping, the wind shift off the wave / swell can cause a de-powering of the windward shroud (due to boat movement) and the momentum carried over the wave causes the mast to shift and temporarily place a 'jolt load' to the leeward shroud which is bad for the chainplates holding the shrouds to the deck, and also for the individuals strands on the cables. With time individual strands can start to crack - of course we don't want this, so we place shock chords across the two shrouds with a tension that 'keeps tension on the shrouds' just enough to allow them to slack off entirely and this is like a shock absorber. Many yachts do not worry about this, but we figure it's a great way to save the shrouds. This also works in those light bobbing seas where one experiences boom slap .. shroud tension helps a little in these conditions too.
Yes H6ksa1 - it should be a standard fit. Usually on mono hulls we would tension the rigging enough so the shrouds are tight and since the monohull heels quicker in the water this phenomenon is not as pronounced. However, on catamarans, one does not want to over tension the shrouds as this can compress the boat ... it is like a force pulling the mast down into the middle of the boat and the shrouds pulling up the sides - you can easily 'banana' the boat, so we want to keep those shrouds tensioned just enough for sailing purposes but not enough for damaging the boat form. Therefore on a catamaran the shrouds will be a little more slack and this is why we SHOULD have some form of shock absorber on the shrouds ... I hope this makes sense
Thank you We are looking to move to a boat (live aboard and travel the world) and are very impress with your boat and how you handle it. I was wondering how the boat handled weather, load, etc, on long distance. How many issues (and what type) did you have and what would you do different / or equips different the boat Many thanks
Hi ogalili1 - sorry for the delay - have not been well the past while ... I guess when one is sailing 24/7 we should have a handle on the boat, sailing it and maintaining it too ... it's kinda what we do all the time now. The boat has handled rough weather passages extremely well - it feels to be a very safe boat in some wild conditions at sea and we like that it has the ability to sail as close to the wind as do most monohulls which is usually considered a negative in catamarans actually is not so on this model. We attribute this to the short spreader bars which allow the leech of the genoa to come in closer together with the sheet tracks which sit on the coach roof - one can bring that genoa in really close and personal :) Our particular Lagoon is loaded to the hilt - we are on the limit since we sail with all the comforts of home - Full size washing machine, Dive compressors and a list too long to mention, but yes, we have often had the 'wow' comment from sailors on how much kit we can load onto the boat. Some makes are not designed for these loads and in the end it depends on what you personally wish to get out of the experience. For us ... it is home and we want all the creature comforts of home, speed is second to comfort and of course safety above all else. Having said all this, we are not slow for a loaded production cat ... actually, Impi performs fairly well, but to get the performance level up we invested in a new design main sail built of good quality materials which has added significantly to the performance. The trick is to reef earlier than later and I do this by observing the speed for the wind and how much resistance to the water the boat feels for those winds. If the boat moves easily and all feels to be light on the rig, we go for it. If I feel the boat is working hard to power its way through the seas, we reduce sail to a comfortable level. We do not simply sail according to the manufacturers handbook - one sails according to the stresses exerted or felt on the boat. We found that by doing this, we add to the speed ... more sail does not always equal more speed .. conditions permitting ... to the contrary in fact. On long distance the noise levels can be a bit a off-putting - Ana cannot sleep down below and always sleeps on the couch as a result. I think the guys could have put more thought into getting the boat to quieten down inside but one also gets used to this. The only major issues we have had on the boat to date has been the Yanmar Sail drives (SD 50's) which we replaced under 1000 hrs. We replaced these with SD 60's. Yammer have not been great sail drive manufacturers ... in fact their SD 50's are shocking - can't believe there was not a factory recall. As for equipment changes ... right now and to be very honest - I would not change a thing except that I want a boat with a lazy boy :) We lOVE the bridge - an awesome feature on the boat ... but also, regarding equipment and set up, we have changed a lot of things along the way. I think one should view a boat you like with that in mind ... buy a base boat and modify it to make life more comfortable and functional as a 'touring vessel'. Cheers my friend ... all the best with your dreams to move onto a boat ... it's an awesome life if you set it up right .. it can be misery if you don't. Cheers for now Brent
Lol canada752 ... You seriously can not have seen many of our video's ... Purchased the boat in 2009 ... you can see the distances sailed on the globe in the video and our hour meter still on the original engines is approaching 800hrs. IN 7,5 years of old sailing 800 hrs is ok I think, but ultimately we use the engines whenever we need to which is why they are there, and probably the easiest time for us to do movies. I smile at folks who think its a sin to use engines ... if the wind is down, the boat is bobbing around - and your budget allows ... use the motors mate ... we are in 21st century - lol!
you put a smile on my dial, traveling the sandy straits, nice to see your view of a unique place and the largest sand island in the world. I've traveled the straits many times, lovely to see it still there.
Hi seailive - awesome ! Well this was our first time and I must say we enjoyed the scenery. It reminded me of a place in South Africa called Langebaan in many respects, but this was Langebaan on steroids. I was very surprised at the warning of crocs so far south. I must admit that apart for the dolphins we did not see much other wild life though - would have loved to see a dingo. Perhaps on our north bound trip we will explore Fraser Island ... inland. Cheers
Each time watching one of your videos is an escape from my office. Love it!!!
Fraser Island has the most crystal clear sweat water I have ever seen!
A fantastic place to be!
Hi Christian - pleased to hear we can bring a little bit of paradise into your office space :)
Fraser Island is beautiful - not sure though these are the most crystal clear waters ... but yes, lovely sailing grounds for sure ...
Thanks for commenting ... much appreciated
WOW...as always...Thank you both
Hey kK - always a pleasure :)
Hey Brent. another great video. showing the map and track you guys use is fantastic.
thanks for the video. you guys are awesome.
Hey Steve - thanks mate :)
We like to share tracks and show spots also because we have some sailors following in our wake and they like to get a visual on where we are sailing so it enhances their enjoyment of the area as a quick reference. I sometimes get frustrated when I am watching a fantastic documentary and then they don't show exactly where it is, so I guess I am trying to avoid that frustration for the folks who take the time to check out our vids. Cheers my friend and thank you for the great comment
Catamaran Impi hey guys if you want the most current navigation information for south east Qld have a look at the beacon to beacon guide as it is published by maritime Qld and is available for download on there site..
Stu- Catamaran Lahara 2
I can't get enough of your great videos. Always fantastic. Really appreciate all the effort you put into them. Many thanks.
Thank you very much Bill - appreciate the comment and keeps us motivated to keep sharing .. cheers my friend
Another great vid. Thanks! Waiting for that maintenance clip about batery replacement! Safe winds!
All good then Alexandre - let's see what we can do about that video then :) ... I post bits n pieces on Facebook as we move along ... cheers my friend
Thanks. Nice to see Fraser Island from the water.
Hey Alan - must say we would love to do the inland tour which we aim to do when going north again. We believe it is a beaut with lakes and wild life and beauty, so hopefully we get o do that too! Cheers for now ... Brent
Excellent again guys, just love your videos.
Thank you Mark - appreciate you keeping us motivated as mentioned to Richard Dackas below - thanks !
always a real pleasure viewing your vlogs brent, very best as ever to you both
Hey Moz - always the kindest words from you - such a great person you are ... cheers my friend and hope you are having a great weekend :)
thanks so much brent - any update on news from the locals as to whether you can sail lord howe island or balls pyramid ?
Hi again Moz - yes, apparently one can sail in there but lots of rules and dedicated moorings. Some of the locals say even in a storm they would not allow one to enter without a booked mooring (not sure I can believe that - international law and mariners in distress, but apparently they are that serious about it?). So much to see - so little time
I see Nice refinements in your rigging and the boat in general....Always enjoy your Adventures...Looks like you two have become very comfortable with your beautiful boat.....Mark S.F. Ca... ;-)
Thank you Mark ... pleased to share the adventures with you :) Yes, we have done a lot of work to Impi and she is a nice home for us on the oceans ... cheers for now ... Brent
Fastest 27 minutes on TH-cam Impi. As always what a great video.
Ahhh - thanks for the great comment ... appreciate that !!! Cheers buddy - hope you having an awesome weekend
I love your videos...great mix of sailing tips and tricks with anchorage info
Awe thanks Sea Journey ... wish I could share so much more technical stuff here ... I keep meaning to do this but time seems to escape me ! If I had crew I am sure I could do a lot of these vids ...
Nice video guys. I have recently also seen humpback dolphins at inhaca island. Never knew they existed.
Thank you Mike - and wow - how cool is that! The folks were telling us they are nearly extinct so we (you and me) are lucky to see these amazing creatures. Nice to hear from you again ... cheers fro now
Brent
Thoroughly enjoyed good job!
Hi James - good one and thanks mate !!!
Awesome video again. Hard sailing but the look of it. your genoa looked reefed tight!! And those bloody flies reminds me of OZ for sure. Thanks for sharing Brent again a very nice video. Looking forward to your new batteries video plus what ever else you did on Impi. Ana ta robe noir te va très bien 😊 sorry Brent 😉 bisous à vous deux et à bientôt. Best from Hong Kong
Hey Laurent - never need to apologise to me for speaking French my friend ... Ana loves that she needs to interpret for me :)
Yes, both the genoa and the mainsail were reefed in hard ... a little slack on the mainsheet as we did not want to 'screw to windward' that close we were sailing ... but hey ... so nice to feel the thrill of the water and the wind ... LOVED it and Impi is always happy in these conditions.
As for the batteries - yes my friend - we are filming the installation - man - learning so much about lithiums - awesome technology :)
What a wonderful video; as always, I truly enjoy them. Thank you for taking the time in your adventures to Share them with the rest of the world 🌎. With regards, Robert. P.S. I hope that the Mrs. Is doing well? Please send my regards..
Hello Robert - thank you so much! It is always a pleasure to share these things while people still enjoy them. We will keep trying to get footage out until we feel folks are getting bored and hiving off to better channels and when our kids tell us we are becoming an embarrassment - lol
Ana is doing very well - I think she will feel even better once the lithium batteries are operational. She really wanted for us to be in Tasmania already, but boat upgrades slowing all that down. Cheers my friend and thanks for showing the care ...
Hi Brent and Ana,
Very good video and we can discover things very interesting about Australia.
it still a great moment of shared life.
Too cool the dance of the fly with the dance of the crab there may be ways to do something ... LOL
See you soon friends.
To the pleasure of seeing your next videos.
"Petits pains au chocolat" with your coffee. It's delicious.
LOL Passion Voile - we love you man !
I must say my friend Tierry does a much better dance with the crab than my dance with the fly !!!
In Australia they make a joke of the flies by calling it the Australian Wave ... when we arrived I thought everyone was waving at us, 'Look', I would say to Ana, 'Everyone is so friendly waving to us', and then we realise they are just waving flies away from their face - lol. The Australians are very relaxed people - I love the way they can make jokes at themselves and some things in their country all the time ... for some countries the people are too proud for this - lol!
Of course being South African we always have to laugh at our country, at ourselves and our government so we feel to fit right in here with the people ... as we do in French territories.
Ahhhh pain au chocolate ... how I mess this from the French territories :) Cheers my friend ... Brent
Hi Brett, thanks for your detailed reply.I don't know how you have the time.I agree about the new Leopards.keep up the good work.
Hey Sam always a pleasure - sorry for the delay - had a bit of a health issue which set me back for a while but getting ontop of it thank goodness. Cheers my friend
Fantastic video. I'm not a sailor, but I just love this stuff!
I am really pleased that as a non sailor you enjoy our sailing vids. My mum was on the phone with me today - she is really afraid of the sea and thinks I am crazy, but today for the first time she said she really understands why I love to be on the sea and to feel free ... she said the videos were making her understand this and she wishes she was doing it without fear. The truth is that there is always some fear out there ... it's a great feeling of being alive ... to feel slightly afraid in some situations and yet so free at the same time :)
Bula, Brent what an adventure you guys are having....thanks for an interesting infor by the way, we are planning to buy a catamaran and try to follow your path as well. We were watching all your videos for the last couple of months now, and started to catch some ups and downs of sailing across the globe. Have are nice one South Africans we will be meeting in all sevens rugby finals...hahahahahaha...Moce mada...LB.. Suva
Hey Lui - BULA VINAKA !!! Yes - having some awesome adventures my friend and never forgetting our wonderful time in Fiji. I am happy to hear you are looking to take to the water ... awesome and please send us a message when you do so we can follow your travels.
LOL - I get nervous when the South African rugby players head for the sevens against Fiji - remember watching the sevens int he pub at Savusavu and was the only person in the crowd not from Fiji. I was shouting for South Africa to play better and everyone was quiet. Of course Fiji beat us good and solid and when I asked everyone why they were not looking excited and shouting ... they said ... ' we are sorry for your loss and do not want to disrespect you' ... wow ... what beautiful people. I told the bar tender a round for everyone was on me and left promptly so the Fijians could celebrate ... you guys are wonderful people mate !!!
thanks Brent, I enjoyed the vid, great job,. ;-)! ☕☕🍩🍩
Ahh Ted - our pleasure ! Thank you
Thank you for yet Another Beautiful clip. Good work on it.I just watced a clip with Sailing miss Lone Star - what an utter crap..... I should just stay around with you guys and Ran Sailing and I be happy.Keep up the good work, I dont miss any of your videos.Love to see you go and explore Cook Islands when the season allows (end of March or early April is when Cyclone season is out). Check out Aitutaki, Palmerston Atoll, Manihiki, Rakahanga, Suwarrow.
Hi Marlene - always a pleasure and thanks for the compliment. I guess we all have our 'journey in life' and for us we enjoy sharing it as we feel it and especially if it means something to people! I realise we are not getting younger and a day will come when people scream for us to 'get off the tube' - lol - but in the meanwhile we will continue sharing in the hope that people can get 'lost' off some remote island with us somewhere - even if only for a moment we hope it serves as an escape and to encourage dreams.
We thought to sail back to the Cooks and actually had to ditch entering Suwarrow due to a storm as we passed it ... we felt tempted but in the end kept going. Another couple who went in during this period actually lost their vessel there due to the storm as their anchor let go and washed them onto the reef. We were devastated for them!
A number of boats who left with us decided to sail south to the Cooks and due to our weather predictions we decided to rather sail to the north of the fleet for Samoa - it was a good choice with the fleet being hammered ... broken booms and equipment and with everyone turning back where we had a relatively pleasant sail. This is why we never made it down there actually ... but yes ... perhaps on our 2nd lap we will do different places and the Cooks are on that list. We are familiar with those islands ... we had planned he routes and done the research - the weather caused us to split from the fleet and head find new destinations :)
Cheers for now
Brent and Ana
ps. I really want to get back in the Tuamotu Archipelago - one of our all time favourite cruising grounds in the world ...
Very good!👍🏼😃
Thank you Anselmo
Loved it Mate! I just love you guys! May God bless you and keep you safe and full of joy. I Jesus' name....
Thank you Truth Matters - thanks for the inspiration :)
Kudos to you for having sailed the Southern, Atlantic, and Pacific. In a Lagoon, with the upper helm station to boot. I heard the Lagoons are notoriously slow. Obviously you did great on that cat. Btw, how's the dog, Moose doing? Thanks for sharing your adventures. I enjoyed them immensely. Greetings from Vancouver Island.
Hi Jaxon ... thanks buddy - yeah - the boat has done exceptionally well with the bridge being our favourite feature on the cat. As for notoriously slow - lol - not sure where that comes from and probably the folks crossing oceans on their boats with us would have a different view on this ... but I do get, that with the standard sails it's a no go! By the way - our previous catamaran was a Catana 471 - we get very similar performance on the 440, if not better to wind! We had sails designed for Impi which have added terrific power to the boat and for a weighted boat she sure has a good performance reputation. Our sail form New Caledonia to Australia (our last passage) was in 4 days with ease - i.e. she sailed over 200nm per day for 4 days. That is not slow for a loaded cruising boat.
Moose is terrific - we are getting such awesome feedback and will sail back to check him out later in the year. Ana is very busy with an 'animal care program' for New Caledonia so we will hopefully be able to assist them to get this into momentum before sailing west again.
It is always a pleasure for us to share the adventures and thank you for engaging. Cheers for now ... Brent
nice vlog thank you for taking the time
Always a pleasure Tom and thank you !
Love you work
Thank you Richard - appreciate you keeping me motivated ! I must admit with the tax year ending in South Africa and some other business back home together with Lithium installations in Pittwater I was struggling to feel motivated to put this one out ... but I love that so many folks enjoy the sharing and will try keep it up as much as possible ... cheers my friend
Hey Brent, Thank you for a great job in describing your adventures as well as the planning and technical aspects of your decision making. I am considering looking into a cat for doing exactly what you guys are doing. Your channel is helping me in my decision as to what type of hull ( mono or Catamaran ) to decide on. Cheers mate:).....Tom in Seattle
Hey Tom - always a pleasure for us, and whatever hull shape, whatever boat you choose ... may it bring you the dreams of your lifetime ... go for it mate ... go for it ! Cheers ... Brent
Cant wait for your next video.
Today hopefully South Jersey - been installing lithiums which takes time along with other projects and with 'not so great health' this month it was a struggle - but I will deliver today :)
Cheers my friend
Thanks for replying to my previous comment. Congats on the lithiums. BTW I just watched "gone with the wynns" channel about why (in detail) lithiums are their only choice for their cat.
Another great video. Did I understand you correctly that Ana was hospitalized recently for mosquito bites?
Hi IMPI, your friends from Florida! 🤗😁
Hey friends from Florida - and a big 'Hi' right back at you :)
Bravo you 2 youtubers youtubing for us. Cant wait to see and hear about your Lithium upgrade. It's what I'll be installing too. Hopefully you get a great price on them since Australia is in a Lithium booming phase. I'm guessing you guys will do about 600 amp hours? That should give you close to 500 working amps? I'm just playing with numbers out loud to see if I have an understanding of this wonderful technology ha ha.
As a wise fellow cruiser once said! "Cheers to being on the positive side of neutral".
Hi again Mike .... awesome comment as usual! Mike we realise we are in a 'price boom' for lithium, but as lithium (lifepo4) goes we have a reasonable price at AU$7000 for 800 AH capacity, and we have redundancy which is great. To do this we installed two BCU BCM's (Battery management systems) so if one pack goes down the other takes over. In addition to this I am putting in 3 Carbon Foam Firefly technology batteries as a final back up if all else drops out. This was we have massive redundancy which will pull us through. Carbon Foam batteries are awesome and very close to Lithium style - called the 'poor mans lithium' but the technology really impresses me ... I very well nearly went this way. Actually I was toying with Lead Crystal 1000AH 2v cells in series but the weight was still a factor and the price way too close to lithium not to go lithium. The Carbon Foam Oasis Fireflies are lighter but still heavier than lithium - but yeah man ... awesome technology in there - I think we are on the brink of a MAJOR CHANGE in battery technology.
.... lol ... and yes, best to be on the positive side of neutral and keep accelerating on that trend :) Cheers my friend
Thanx again for a happy and informative video, Brent! And again, your videos are not good for that big beast called "restlessness" in me, so that's a good sign, haha! :-)
Greetingz,
Wim
Hi again Wim ... LOL ... yes ... I know what you mean by that restlessness within ... that means you are still on the positive side of neutral in terms of your zest for life and living it - so that's great !!! Cheers my friend
Another great video Brent with lots of sailing! As for that leg over to Fraser Island, it would appear that you only had your Genoa up and it was reefed in pretty tight. What kind of speed do you get in those conditions, especially when beating into the wind and close hauled? Very rough ride for sure. I was surprised to see that there are "sea cows" or manatee's down under. As for the mosquito's, yikes! Hate them so much but hey love me too much as well. I must have tasty blood! Fair seas.
Hi Edward, Thank you.
Actually we had the genoa and main up - both were reefed. I do not remember the exact speeds we had on the boat as we usually sail for comfort on the boat and rig not speed, but we were probably upwards of 10 -12 knots, and then again the conditions were erratic so speed would not be consistent. To be honest, we were actually headed for the bay opposite and not for the Straits however the winds were shining so much so that we decided to go where it took us, except back of course, so we tacked as hard and close to the wind as possible and ended up comfortably at the opening to the straits - Impi loves sailing 'close hauled'.
The conditions are rough for a close hauled sail but had we had them aft of the beam it would have been beautiful conditions which is why we place a catamaran stern to the seas and winds in a storm - never bow to.
Yes, the manatees was also something we found interesting - I always thought Australia had some up on the north west coast.
LOL - Mosquitos or 'no see ups' are the worst :)
Cheers and thank you for the comment
Brent
Once again terrific video. The Aussies take sailing really seriously which is a pleasant surprise.
You guys are my inspiration. I get my new 450F April 11. I am always impressed by your depth of knowledge and how you process each situation. You make it very safe for all concerned.
I have a question if you wouldn't mind answering. I am replacing all my sails with custom sails that should last quite a long time. I look through your videos and you sometimes use a very big and strong Genoa for high winds on one of your stern quarters. I want to get some sort of storm sail made before I shove off. Suggestions? In bad weather I don't want to leave the helm to walk anywhere so would rather do it all with the headsail. Thanks.
HI SPK and sorry for the delay in response - very busy with the lithium installations and now new alternators and so on ...
I love that we are able to share information that has meaning for people who watch - thank you.
Sails ... great idea to replace the sails with custom sails - we also had ours custom designed for want of a better word ... and it has enhanced the performance of Impi to be sure :)
As for sailing in strong winds with the genoa and storm sails.
We carry a storm sail on the boat - and to be honest with you we have never felt it to benefit us. By the time the conditions become that bad I would rather not be fighting at the bow of the boat to get the storm sail raised... it can be dangerous in fact, unless of course one has read the conditions well ahead of time and sorted it out early enough, but in reality when one has been sailing year in and year out we tend to leave things be and then it is too late to be wrestling a storm sail into position.
We have used the genoa as our storm sail in many really nasty conditions, and very successfully - but it does require some consideration.
The tension on the main sheet is all important as this kinda acts as your 'back stay' keeping the mast in place and one wants tension on the forestay. In severe conditions, a sloppy mainsheet tension will result in curvature of the forestay and the roller-furler tubes struggle with this. Add to this - furling the genoa in or out whilst the forestay is curved and the joints between the roller-furler tubes become damaged, the bolts work loose and that can be an issue in strong winds - well - if the tubes separate to the extent that the female end of the tube slides out of the male side of the tube - well - one won't be able to furl the genoa and one won't be able to drop it either.
So - tensioning the mainsheet is a MUST do in strong winds.
Another thing that happens with a genoa being reefed for storms, is that as it is furled, the centre of 'effort' or force moves upward along the forestay and roller furler which will cause 'deflection' ... so one needs to keep this in mind and keep an eye on things, but generally if one is aware of this, it is not a problem to use the genoa as a storm sail - in fact it is exactly what we do and have done in storms.
Another thing to watch is the furling line . We replace this line periodically to make sure it is in great condition and has not lost strength due to UV, washing and scrubbing the decks and by default the furling line too. One does not want this line to let go in a storm where the entire genoa would then be released to the fury of the elements. I realise these are basic principles, but well worth keeping an eye on if using the genoa as ones storm sail.
So - on Impi - because the genoa cars are on the coach roof (Which is FANTASTIC for close hauled sailing - and of course the two shorter spreaders which allows the genoa leech to come in closer) we find that off the wind it is difficult to set the sail for great performance. For this reason you probably have seen in our videos, we sail off a 'barber hauler style set up' from the horns cleat, and we control the sail between the genoa sheets and the barber hauler sheets. This works well on the 440.
Something we do in extreme storm scenarios is to place the cat stern to the weather system, unlike on mono's which go bow to the weather system ... and then ride it out with the genoa furled comfortably for those conditions. In every scenario this has worked well as it keeps the boat alive in the ocean and prevents the genoa from flogging when coming up into the wind ... one does not want a sail flogging in these conditions of course. I really encourage newbie sailors to catamarans to get used to this ... a cat does not perform well facing into the elements in big seas and is actually dangerous to do. The control is obviously the amount of drag one provides through trailing warps ... one wants to break the surface tension on the water to collapse the waves so we carry a huge amount of spare rope for this reason ... in effect I want to slow the boat down and create enough disturbance behind the boat to reduce the wave energy at that position. Using ONLY the genoa (never the mainsail) is terrific in this scenario as it keeps a controlled power on the boat, and of course if the bows feel to be breaking off in a certain direction off waves, we can 'correct his trend' by lengthening or shortening warps to either side of the boat.
I guess I have been too long in my reply - the short answer is that the genoa (well built with strong material like Hydranet or better) is a great sail or storms, easy to control from the helm and provide drive on the boat, but it does come with some consideration.
Cheers
Brent,
Safety is very important so thank you so much for taking the time to fully explain especially with a full plate. It has helped me fill in the pieces for a more thorough understanding. I have the utmost respect for you and am impressed by your thought process which leads to your in depth knowledge. I see it in many videos.
Despite a Cats stability, I absolutely don't want to be on deck during a storm.
I didn't opt for the Lithium batteries and may regret it.
I hope all goes well with the install.
Warmest regards, Seton
Seton -always a pleasure for us and do not fret about not having gone with lithiums - it is good to become accustomed first with the general behaviour of ordinary style batteries and to understand the logic behind this with batteries that are more forgiving and safer in this phase of getting used to cruising than to get into something more complicated and with less tolerance ... in fact ... this is a safer bet for first time cruising sailors. I would encourage you to look into the new Carbon Foam technology - Oasis Firefly style batteries ... they are as close as one can get to lithium performance without going lithium that I have seen and would not require changing the wiring in the boat ... only adjusting the charge parameters of the various devises to suit those batteries. They are heavier than lithium but hey, they come pretty damn close and at a good price. I also quite liked Lead Crystal battery performance, but I think the Carbon Foams are taking my attention more ... cheers my friend
Brent
Hi Brent and Ana, thanks for a another awesome video. You guys rock. I apologise if I missed this explanation. Why did you choose a lagoon 440 ?
Hi Kevin - always a pleasure for us :)
The reason for the Lagoon 440 ... well ... probably the same reason one guy chooses a Toyata and the other a Mini ... but yes ... a number of reasons ... but mostly because it represented for us a safe, well built boat that is a home, has the performance we want in a home on the water and also has huge volume in living space for its size. We like the fact that the stern is 'closed' to the elements - not a flat floor running to the ocean and in a way represents the safety of a monohull cockpit turned sideways, has a solid coach roof and an additional living space with the bridge ... sails close to the wind and exceptionally well under an asymmetric or spinnaker sail. I could do a video on this soon - not to promote Lagoon but rather to show the things we enjoy about a boat ...
Our Catana 471 was a bigger boat with less living space and when we decided to go cruising, the 440 ticked the boxes we personally wanted for a life at sea. Then again, on almost every boat we step onto, there is a feature or some idea one wishes to incorporate ... most boats today have something unique about them and it comes down to personal choice.
What we do not like - is a boat where the fibreglass flexes under ones feet .. no go ... and also a boat which cannot be loaded up with the comforts of a home without becoming unsafe due to the weight factor / or looses huge performance due to the weight factor. The 440 is pretty resilient in this ... it is the Toyota of the seas. Another boat we are looking closely at ... Privilege Catamarans.
Cheers for now
Brent
Thank you Brent. Impi is a beauty !
love u guys
Thank you Piney Power - we love you guys back ... share the love man :)
Great look forward to your Vlogs, did you upgrade the batteries similar to The Wynn's ? wish I had could upgrade, need a boat first dam!!!
Thanks Flatcap007 - lol - need to upgrade batteries but first need the boat ... keep at it .. I am sure your day will come.
We don't have the same Lithiums as The Wynns ... I think they did their upgrades through Kent (my cousin at Just Catamarans) and he is keen on Relion Batteries which are great but not available in Australia. We opted for the EV Product Batteries which are cells assembled into packs (ours are 2 x packs of 400AH each so 800AH) and we set these up as separate units working together and with 2 separate BCU / BMS for redundancy. This means if a cell fails in one pack, the thing about lithium is that the BMS will shut down the entire pack immediately and we then have the second pack to take over. Furthermore we are wanting to install Carbon Foam Oasis Firefly batteries (maybe just two or three) as a 3rd back up so if the reason for both the Lithiums shutting down due to an external issue (like an issue with a charger that is faulty), then in that case we can switch to those batteries which will not shut down. Cheers my friend and hope you get that boat soon :)
I follow their adventure like a true couch potato, they stripped the batteries/panels off their camper van. Got a spark to fit them at the dock in Florida, they know their kit them Wynns.
Yep - they sure do - we know the sparky well too :) Great guy
Hi Ana & Brent
Your boat is beautiful inside . Are the pools at the King Fisher resort fresh water or salt water ?
Thank you Bob - nice of you to say so. My only wish is the boat came complete with a lazy boy :)
The pools at KingFisher Resort are fresh water - they seem to have plenty of it.
Cheers for now
Brent
Im looking forward to the Lithium Battery episode
Great Phillip - will share as much as possible around that. I have done most of the wiring, sorting out the chargers and a ton of research. Our electrician dropped us badly which delayed our departure to Tasmania by 3 weeks - so - hopefully Sam the new electrician arrives Monday and Tuesday - he said he was ok with me filming him doing the checks so perhaps we can all learn something there. I need him to advise me on one or two gadgets I am thinking to install for management of the systems and also to approve the installation for safety first, insurance and warranty reasons.
From the looks of the breaking waves coming over the bows, maybe you have to much weight forward in the boat? She sure looks bow heavy to me. It is a common issue with cats. All that great storage up front in the unused staterooms and the huge forward storage area in the bows. Almost everybody loads them to heavy up front.
Hi again Grandpa's Farm ... yes, I must say 'well spotted' and certainly the Lagoon 440 comes out of the factory with a weighted bow. By the way - this is how we want it when sailing to weather. Catamarans generally dig in when sailing on a close point of sail ... and thank goodness for that otherwise as with our previous make of catamaran the boat would tend to become airborne off the wave tops ... that is NOT good when fully powered ... actually, mates of ours capsized in South Africa for exactly that reason ... heavy winds and too much power in the sails ... as they rode up a wave the bow became airborne, did not drop quick enough with he result the boat became airborne and the wind simply flipped them over. Luckily they were rescued by the NSRI - many years ago now but that is what happened. What we do is to load the bows by filling the 900 liter water tanks when going to weather, and we drop the water again when sailing off the weather ... this way we keep the boat in the water ....
Well spotted
good to know thanks
You been around boats a long time ... great observation by you there :)
Hi cool vid Iv not seen any vids since before Xmas dunno if I missed them Iv been to involved in watching my local football team Liverpool best team in the world well to me they are 😁😁
Well done LIVERPOOL ! I remember in South Africa as a youngster having to choose a UK team to cheer on in the day - Liverpool was my team - lol!
.....Lovely....as usual..........;--),,,,,,,,,,,,
Thank you Billy ... appreciated mate !
Great video. How many stops did you have sailing from Bundaberg to Sydney? how long did it take? Wil you be heading to the whitsundays on your way back up?
Hi Tsandu - interesting question - I would have to go to the logbook. We actually did more stops than we showed in the video going down the straits in the first instance ... anchored off inskip which is interesting (some amazing sink holes happening there which maybe I should have shared, but we can't share it all) ... crossed Wide Bay Bar which was nice in the setting sun and then overnight down to I believe Morton Island (Tangalooma and so on) ... beautiful spot but very busy for the same reason I guess ... across to Brisbane and anchored in the city for a while - a massive storm - then off to Peel Island - 1 day sail (another storm and a yacht nearby actually was struck - scary stuff) ... down through the passages between the mainland and North Stradbroke stopping here and there - Jumping Pin comes to mind (I THINK northern part of South Stradbroke), a terrific place (all in day light and anchoring before dark) ... then down to Southport area Believe (too many stop overs in the canals / coarse ways to mention ... I think 'Wavebreak Island' comes to mind ... many more ... and then I think we took the leap down to Sydney ... can't remember if that was one or two nights ? I will post that in our upcoming movies - it was a pleasant sail though!
Yes, we should do the Whitsundays since that is where our dream started when we chartered a cat from Whitsunday Escapes some 10 or 11 years ago and cruised those islands - would love to introduce Impi to the Whitsundays.
At the moment we are sorting out Lithium batteries and been let down by the electricians in Pittwater, so depending on when that is done we will hopefully have time to get down to Tasmania before the westerlies pick up and move northward, so we need to move it. This may mean we do less of the north coast which means we may come back next year after New Caledonia ... but if we are too late for Tasmania we should do the northbound trip slowly and in more detail ... but Whitsundays ... yes ... it is part of our Australian celebration and where our dreams were formed :)
Did I hear you write that Anna is in hospital in South Africa from mosquito related illness? Hope she is recovering well. Any details?
Hi BobbieG - thanks for the comment and for the thoughts but no, she is not currently in hospital - that was some years ago in SA - we just wanted to be safe since we know she does not fare well with being in a mosquito infested environment ... thanks for the kind thoughts buddy
Obviously Impi has served you well on your voyages, but why did you choose a Lagoon over any of the boats made in your native S.Africa.
Hi Sam - yes, we get this question a lot! For us - there is no 'country tie' when buying a catamaran - it is about the boat and what we will live on for the years to come - things / features that appeal to what we as a couple want or prefer for ourselves . Boats are VERY PERSONAL CHOICES
As we know, many boats are made for the charter market including the Lagoon 440.
Whilst we really liked the Leopards such as the 46, we personally are not keen on the amount of 'glass' up front in rough seas for ocean crossings on the newer models (TERRIFIC for the islands), but then again we have come across some sailors who have erected vertical screens (similar to the trampoline material) to reduce the punch by what they claim to be 40% of the force exerted by the ocean. I have discussed this with the folks at Leopard ... leopard have now put 3 handles into the front door as opposed to 2, but I personally would like to see a stronger frame around the door and a more rounded edge to the sides to allow the sea to escape from it. This is my personal opinion though and I still think Leopards are built by great people.
Worth while noting of course, is that many of these boats are sailed all over the world to their destinations without incident although lately they are trending toward loading the cats onto ships as a form of transportation. I am not sure if this follows the capsized leopard in the storm en-route Asia along with some other incidents of a door taking a blow from the oceans or if it is purely economical.
The Lagoon also has vertical windows but no 'wings' extending forward 'to trap' the water ... the rounded windows dispels the water immediately to the side and away from the boat ... we have been in some severe storms with Impi and never felt the windows to be something we worry about, whereas on the same passage friends have said this concerned them on the Leopard which later they managed to overcome by erecting vertical screens which are taken down once they reach their destination.
Having said all this, I must say the Leopard 46 in my opinion, is a TERRIFIC cruising catamaran which at the time had a higher price tag than the 440 which was also one factor when we considering our options.
Why the 440 - the 440 ticked a lot of boxes for us - it is a 'boat' which we feel lends itself to be a great home on the seas, very safely built, a good performer (We have sailed alongside many boats like Leopards, Amels, FP's and other makes of cats and monos) sailing as well as any other boat in it's class and weight, and certainly we have yet to find a cat that gets as close to the wind ... well ... interestingly enough ... many mono's too. Our previous catamaran, the Catana 471 also performed well with it's dagger boards, but I would hesitate to say we sail closer to the wind on the 440. Well ... perhaps we have just become better at it ... I would not say I was experienced enough at the time to make fair comment on this ... it certainly helps when sailing 24/7 year in and year out to develop technique.
Anyway, this is not about 'boat bashing' since we do not do that ... we love many different makes and styles of catamarans ... the best features we love usually being in a price bracket that is pitched above our level of affordability ... and then again some very expensive catamarans we cannot understand being so expensive ... the lagoon is the 'Toyota of the seas' ...
The 440 does have an 'older feel to the interior design' than some other similar brands and I do believe Lagoon could have put a bit more effort into this. By changing some features we have managed to improve on this ...
Modern design - this of course can be good and bad ... for the future ... modern designs can age quite quickly whilst a more classic design will be 'acceptable' for the long haul. In addition to all of this - the 440 in it's class and size has an incredible amount of room (by many sailors comments) and also a number of 'get away spaces' such as the separate 'seating area to the front', the area up on the bridge, and a very solid and sturdy Coach roof above the main patio area which on many cats is unused space ... well ... Ana uses this for her Yoga studio sometimes :)
Another feature we enjoy is the safety aspect of the patio area with it's high back to the sea ... it's kind of like a mono hull cockpit turned sideways and is terrific in a building sea. As you know, unlike with mono's, catamarans place stern to the elements in heavy seas - not the bow - so the waves start pounding from behind and the boat needs to be slowed down (Warps out the back) when dropping off wave faces ... we do not want these same waves smashing through the back of the boat and into the door. Well this has been amazing on the 440 - where we have sailed with some boats claiming they feared their patio door was going to be smashed in. This is a worst case scenario ... many sailors will not experience these conditions but all it takes is one unexpected storm to pass through ... all it takes is 1 hour of the worst kind of weather, and then again conditions could be so bad the boat has no chance anyhow. Our hope is then that it 'floats well' and we have not tried this out yet :)
An interesting question and one we can never answer in a short space of time - and really, the answer is that boat designs and features comes down to PERSONAL CHOICE.
What a life?
Hey Richard - I feel guilty sometimes - but we slaved our butts off to get here ... and then we struggled to break free and do it - it actually took a lot of guts although it would not appear so :)
We would love to see people reaching their dreams ... we really try to encourage folks to ...
cheers for now and thanks for commenting here
My best
Brent
i get up at 430 .a.m for work im a cleaner i just do it 3 day a week .
Man - that is tough !!! Total respect for you my friend ... I struggle with those early mornings :) - Hope you are having a great weekend then ... cheers for now
i am not doing a lot too day just looking at the one that i like on you Tube .
Is Impi a lagoon 440?
yes!
I keep forgetting to ask, why do you lash your shrouds together?
Shock Chord ! When the boat is in neutral conditions i.e. no wind = equal forces to the shrouds - the shrouds are tensioned evenly.
Under sail the windward shroud takes up the load while the leeward shroud slacks off. In certain conditions and especially where there are waves one is topping, the wind shift off the wave / swell can cause a de-powering of the windward shroud (due to boat movement) and the momentum carried over the wave causes the mast to shift and temporarily place a 'jolt load' to the leeward shroud which is bad for the chainplates holding the shrouds to the deck, and also for the individuals strands on the cables.
With time individual strands can start to crack - of course we don't want this, so we place shock chords across the two shrouds with a tension that 'keeps tension on the shrouds' just enough to allow them to slack off entirely and this is like a shock absorber. Many yachts do not worry about this, but we figure it's a great way to save the shrouds. This also works in those light bobbing seas where one experiences boom slap .. shroud tension helps a little in these conditions too.
I would think this design feature would be installed at the shipyard, so simple yet efficient. thanks for the information.
Catamaran Impi great info!!!
Yes H6ksa1 - it should be a standard fit. Usually on mono hulls we would tension the rigging enough so the shrouds are tight and since the monohull heels quicker in the water this phenomenon is not as pronounced. However, on catamarans, one does not want to over tension the shrouds as this can compress the boat ... it is like a force pulling the mast down into the middle of the boat and the shrouds pulling up the sides - you can easily 'banana' the boat, so we want to keep those shrouds tensioned just enough for sailing purposes but not enough for damaging the boat form. Therefore on a catamaran the shrouds will be a little more slack and this is why we SHOULD have some form of shock absorber on the shrouds ... I hope this makes sense
Steve - learn and share - we try ! Cheers mate
I don't know why people don't take motor scooters on their yatch????
What type of boat is Impi?
Hi - it is a Lagoon 440 catamaran
Thank you
We are looking to move to a boat (live aboard and travel the world) and are very impress with your boat and how you handle it.
I was wondering how the boat handled weather, load, etc, on long distance.
How many issues (and what type) did you have and what would you do different / or equips different the boat
Many thanks
Hi ogalili1 - sorry for the delay - have not been well the past while ...
I guess when one is sailing 24/7 we should have a handle on the boat, sailing it and maintaining it too ... it's kinda what we do all the time now. The boat has handled rough weather passages extremely well - it feels to be a very safe boat in some wild conditions at sea and we like that it has the ability to sail as close to the wind as do most monohulls which is usually considered a negative in catamarans actually is not so on this model. We attribute this to the short spreader bars which allow the leech of the genoa to come in closer together with the sheet tracks which sit on the coach roof - one can bring that genoa in really close and personal :)
Our particular Lagoon is loaded to the hilt - we are on the limit since we sail with all the comforts of home - Full size washing machine, Dive compressors and a list too long to mention, but yes, we have often had the 'wow' comment from sailors on how much kit we can load onto the boat. Some makes are not designed for these loads and in the end it depends on what you personally wish to get out of the experience. For us ... it is home and we want all the creature comforts of home, speed is second to comfort and of course safety above all else. Having said all this, we are not slow for a loaded production cat ... actually, Impi performs fairly well, but to get the performance level up we invested in a new design main sail built of good quality materials which has added significantly to the performance. The trick is to reef earlier than later and I do this by observing the speed for the wind and how much resistance to the water the boat feels for those winds. If the boat moves easily and all feels to be light on the rig, we go for it. If I feel the boat is working hard to power its way through the seas, we reduce sail to a comfortable level. We do not simply sail according to the manufacturers handbook - one sails according to the stresses exerted or felt on the boat. We found that by doing this, we add to the speed ... more sail does not always equal more speed .. conditions permitting ... to the contrary in fact.
On long distance the noise levels can be a bit a off-putting - Ana cannot sleep down below and always sleeps on the couch as a result. I think the guys could have put more thought into getting the boat to quieten down inside but one also gets used to this. The only major issues we have had on the boat to date has been the Yanmar Sail drives (SD 50's) which we replaced under 1000 hrs. We replaced these with SD 60's. Yammer have not been great sail drive manufacturers ... in fact their SD 50's are shocking - can't believe there was not a factory recall.
As for equipment changes ... right now and to be very honest - I would not change a thing except that I want a boat with a lazy boy :)
We lOVE the bridge - an awesome feature on the boat ... but also, regarding equipment and set up, we have changed a lot of things along the way. I think one should view a boat you like with that in mind ... buy a base boat and modify it to make life more comfortable and functional as a 'touring vessel'. Cheers my friend ... all the best with your dreams to move onto a boat ... it's an awesome life if you set it up right .. it can be misery if you don't.
Cheers for now
Brent
first time i'v seen a sail up at all all you seem to do is moter
Lol canada752 ... You seriously can not have seen many of our video's ... Purchased the boat in 2009 ... you can see the distances sailed on the globe in the video and our hour meter still on the original engines is approaching 800hrs.
IN 7,5 years of old sailing 800 hrs is ok I think, but ultimately we use the engines whenever we need to which is why they are there, and probably the easiest time for us to do movies.
I smile at folks who think its a sin to use engines ... if the wind is down, the boat is bobbing around - and your budget allows ... use the motors mate ... we are in 21st century - lol!