What a magnificent trip! So many future memories to share John with family and friends. I’m so happy it will soon be over because I have worried about everyone on board. The Leopard has sure proved it’s a fine blue water selling vessel. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge about the trade winds. I never would have guessed how much the correct current can push a boat! I now how a greater sense of the difficulty pushing into the wind as opposed to letting it push you. Fascinating information. Thank you! The Portofino illustrations of the helm position only solidify my belief why I love this Catamaran. Safety, functionality, and beauty are above every other production vessel. You both really did your homework when choosing the Portofino. ☺️ Two thumbs up 👍👍 from this couch sailer!
Gosh, I really enjoy learning via your travelogue, Id say it’s the most down to earth, or across the sea vlog and informativ…How exciting to be able to integrate your years of sailing knowledge into the new 52….I might have to get me one…
Glad you like them, Henry! Yes our past experience was really valuable when starting to get into specific design features in the cat esp because we built one ourselves that went really well!
Great to witness your experience sailing in a cat in all weather. I noticed the glass drink sitting on the cockpit couch never spilled. The FLIR was a surprising disappointment, radar screen vision was helpful. I never used Windy for currents, many thanks for the menu tutorial, I will check it out. I'm a mono sailor, still it would be remiss of me not to admire your new boat's livability, the reality is 85% of one is in the harbor or at anchor and 15% sailing. Best navigational experiences. SV Skoiern IV.
HI again John and you are absolutely right in all those factors. I think the liveability on cats is more appreciated by the women as they are traditionally the ones that spend more time below decks. If they are not happy, they will not come with the man who is usually happy to be in rough water, heeling at 45* and getting splashed with water every few minutes.... The monohull sailors have to develop a few special techniques for cooking at 30-45* (and that's both men and women - before I get labelled nasty things!) There are benefits for both and we all have to make our choices and "pay the price".
@@barefootdoctorssailing8567 Re mono and Cat, Both camps have their strong points, which is why there are two or should say 3 camps if you count in tri's as well. Fair winds, smooth seas for all sailors.
Great coverage and advice throughout the Atlantic crossing, congrats on another 6000 miles under your belt and still learning (& sharing). P52 is sexy 😍
Hi Ian and thanks for your comments again. Yes it went fairly well to plan, delayed departure due to storms off Cape Town but after that we worked through the various challenges that were the lack of wind to St Helena and the squalls through the tropics...
Thanks Bruce - yes I have heard about that one but never sailed in it.... That is a particularly brutal section of sea and when the gales blow against that current, it creates really bad seas and lots of ships sink there.... Not sure if I will sail there but who knows.
Steering station looks good, what goes on with the sides & aft side in cold inclement conditions???... are you plannig to adventiure sail up above arctic circle etc?
Hi Lincoln, we will have plastic clears and sunshade drop downs to completely enclose the ham when necessary. As for the Arctic, Eli was brought up in the tropics of Australia so anything under 12*C is too cold! So it is unlikely that we will do the Arctic but we may go to the glaciers in Canada and Alaska perhaps - we are keeping our options open and are must less dogmatic about what we are doing since the Leopard 50 fire.... Nothing is ever absolute!
Got it! you could the amazon river, or the nile river(not really passage making but...in summer southern Alaskan islands are pretty spectacular,, acroos the is tha Kamchakka peninsula(old ussr... but delicious scallops! hopefully the final shape of dodger will a low windage factor sitting up there above the coach roof. Be Safe!@@barefootdoctorssailing8567
Great sailing John. I'm loving the Portofino renders. What is the standard of glass used by Portofino for the helm/saloon front glass? Is it a safety glass that shatters, or is it even higher grade like a low ballistic grade? Whilst I doubt you'd take a rolling wave that high, I wouldn't want to be sitting there and have the glass shatter into a thousand pieces before smashing into my eyes/face...I'm assuming they have a standard for the saloon front glass? Is it similar to Australian automotive glass? Great video again this week. Did you get to St. Lucia on the weekend? I'm amazed at the partying going on or was it a particular festival, or do those cultures behave like that every night? Fair '💨s and following 🌊's.
Hi Garth. Yes sorry about the vagueness but it is not "glass" but one of those solid plastics, the name of which I am not sure about but will share the correct trade name when I confirm it. But it is not glass so does not shatter... That Art Lucia street party is on 2 or 3 times a week, I think... Certainly not only Fridays and is a popular event that most tourists go to.
Check out Sailing Nahoa's latest episode. They get water in from the back like I've always wondered about .HH44 has solution to this and also side entrance. perfect. ...I think you should check the HH44 also with the control they have. I'm a little skeptical about how you chose. You will get smaller solar panels, for example...I rank your catamaran as the best and the HH44 as number two. So there are a lot of good things about HH44. So I think you should check it out carefully so you get the best of everything.
hh44 cannot beach. It also has a bad visibility. But I agree that it has lots of good features. I also think hh44 would be very hard to repair when you are remote.
@@mtrezaie Yes, I agree with you completely. That said, there are things about the HH44 that are very good at copying. For example, the back doors, so to speak. Yes, not being able to wear it on the beach is very stupid. Like I said, we agree here.
HH designed the closed transom of their 44 in order to increase volume in the stern portion of the hull interior, and to create the illusion of a longer profile to improve its aesthetics. 44 feet is a small boat by HH standards and they wanted to maximize the potential of what they had to work with. This had the added benefit of closing off the transom in undesirable conditions. 99.9% of the catamarans that have been built and under construction don't have this feature, so it's not a common design element by any stretch.
HI Magnus, thanks very much for your kind words and ranking P52 as No 1 and HH44 as number 2! Yes we are close to Ben and Ashley and keep up with their trip and boat plans especially! The water into their cockpit on that day was horrible but made possible because it is a smaller boat, lower bridge deck height and slower so easier to get pooped. IN the Leopard 50 we had some water onto the back walkway but never into the aft cockpit, even in the 6m waves so having the extra height above water, performance from extra length and buoyancy reduces the risk. Having said all that it is certainly something that we have already been considering as the transom door is only one step up the stern with the aft cockpit higher again. The transom door will be a marine standard closing "hatch" and opens outwards so should not be forced in, even with big waves if they poop us... But we will be looking to ensure it is well enough reinforced and maybe have storm boards if we are not happy... In relation to the other issues, thanks to you all for the discussion but clearly we will not have the rear door which does had pros and cons and is now quite common on monos. I don't think the steering position is very nice (my opinion only) with partially obstructed vision and limited space to organise all your lines and halyards - the stairs to the upper steering position works really well to allow the main halyard and main sheet to run out fast in an emergency. This will be difficult in the limited space of the HH44. I would be really keen to actually go onto the HH44 and see how it works for real as it is difficult to judge without being on it...
Hey John, just curious about the new cat and the stairs to the helm station - do you have hand rails/grab rails/support poles to grab on to whilst traversing the stairs? It looks like a long way down to deck level if you’re in an aquatic rodeo situation haha
Nice to hear from you Scotty! Nice of you to think about that sort of details! Yes, there will be hand holds bu they are not finalised yet - the steps leading to the saloon roof may be close enough to that edge to act as one set and the seat support will be built to have suitable hand hold that side. We will add extra if if needs them...
Love the helm station. I dislike the trend among new cat designs to put the helm low and aft - giving the helms person the unattractive choice of looking through the cabin windows with no view of the sails - or sitting unprotected from sun and weather on the side deck able to see only one side of the boat. It’s hard to believe the designers have spent much time at sea.
Absolutely agree with you on both those points Carl. I do not believe that you can properly see faint lights of ships through those windows at night too and it would mean you have to walk over to each side to scan the horizon properly when on watch..... Not sure where their lines are going to run when wanting a fast drop of the main halyard or mainsheet.
I am shocked that you are still promoting leopard, especially after the young couple on TH-cam has had so many problems getting their warranty work, taken care of .finding a dry, fiberglass in the hull every window leaks on the boat and I’m sure you’re aware of this. There’s no way you couldn’t be. I watched your channel for a very long time and I’m truly disgusted that we would still be promoting these boats and even pointing your friends in this direction.
HI and thanks for your comments. Of course we are aware of the issues that they have had with their boat and we are very sorry for them. However, we looked at ALL the production boats for quality of build and strength over more than 10 years as we chose our retirement boat. I saw the substandard bulkheads on the Lagoons 15 years ago when they were only 1 inch wide holding up the mast when my bullhead was 4 inches wide and I decided then that I would never trust my life to the Lagoons. History confirmed my expectation on that... Leopards remain the strongest and most resilient boats of all the major production brands with metal supports in their bulkheads, better electrical installations that others and in the early days all their boats have sailed from South Africa around the world to get sold, proving they are a good seagoing boat. If I have to put my life in the hands of one of the big production boats, I would choose Leopard every time. So our experiences in life and with the Leopards are different and his experiences are very different from ours so we just share our experience and he shares his. I am sure that there are many reasons that we each have had very different outcomes but my truth and experience remains that the Leopards are a boat would choose if I was going for a big brand cruising boat... I am sorry that you feel "disgusted" but please remember that this is not about being with or against anyone, we are both just sharing our story and they happen to be different stories. It is not that one is right and one is wrong - they are JUST DIFFERENT stories and experiences. I am sure you are aware that we had our own major event with the burning or our Leopard 50 and we dealt with that privately and while that has taken some time (2.5 years), it looks like we are going to get a reasonable outcome.... We could have gone public and denigrated all the players but undoubtedly that would have resulted in lack of trust and support on both sides and we would not have been able to obtain a good outcome. So each of us decides on the approach we take and that affects the outcomes in our lives. We hope they are able to get their issues resolved easily and quickly!
The 52 build is looking awesome... 👌🙏
Thanks 👍 Stephen, we are very excited as well!!!
The more I see of your Portofino 52 and the features it has the more I am growing in love with it. I cannot wait to see it built!
Us too, James! There are also many more features that we have not discussed yet so there are lots of great and unique features to come too.
Great passage! Congratulations! And the Portofino looks amazing!
Thank you very much, again Jero!
What a magnificent trip! So many future memories to share John with family and friends. I’m so happy it will soon be over because I have worried about everyone on board. The Leopard has sure proved it’s a fine blue water selling vessel. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge about the trade winds. I never would have guessed how much the correct current can push a boat! I now how a greater sense of the difficulty pushing into the wind as opposed to letting it push you. Fascinating information. Thank you! The Portofino illustrations of the helm position only solidify my belief why I love this Catamaran. Safety, functionality, and beauty are above every other production vessel. You both really did your homework when choosing the Portofino. ☺️ Two thumbs up 👍👍 from this couch sailer!
Thanks again Mango! Very knot of you.....
Gosh, I really enjoy learning via your travelogue, Id say it’s the most down to earth, or across the sea vlog and informativ…How exciting to be able to integrate your years of sailing knowledge into the new 52….I might have to get me one…
Glad you like them, Henry! Yes our past experience was really valuable when starting to get into specific design features in the cat esp because we built one ourselves that went really well!
Congratulations on completing the crossing. And thanks for sharing parts of it!
Thanks for following along with us, Constantine!
Great to witness your experience sailing in a cat in all weather. I noticed the glass drink sitting on the cockpit couch never spilled. The FLIR was a surprising disappointment, radar screen vision was helpful. I never used Windy for currents, many thanks for the menu tutorial, I will check it out. I'm a mono sailor, still it would be remiss of me not to admire your new boat's livability, the reality is 85% of one is in the harbor or at anchor and 15% sailing. Best navigational experiences. SV Skoiern IV.
HI again John and you are absolutely right in all those factors. I think the liveability on cats is more appreciated by the women as they are traditionally the ones that spend more time below decks. If they are not happy, they will not come with the man who is usually happy to be in rough water, heeling at 45* and getting splashed with water every few minutes.... The monohull sailors have to develop a few special techniques for cooking at 30-45* (and that's both men and women - before I get labelled nasty things!) There are benefits for both and we all have to make our choices and "pay the price".
@@barefootdoctorssailing8567 Re mono and Cat, Both camps have their strong points, which is why there are two or should say 3 camps if you count in tri's as well. Fair winds, smooth seas for all sailors.
Great coverage and advice throughout the Atlantic crossing, congrats on another 6000 miles under your belt and still learning (& sharing). P52 is sexy 😍
Thanks very much for your kind words and we are all learning new things all the time!
Lovely boat design
Many thanks Chris!
Another great episode, so in general the crossing went well and more or less to plan by the look of it
Hi Ian and thanks for your comments again. Yes it went fairly well to plan, delayed departure due to storms off Cape Town but after that we worked through the various challenges that were the lack of wind to St Helena and the squalls through the tropics...
The other great current is the Agulhas current off East and South Africa flowing westward in easily up to 7 knots
Thanks Bruce - yes I have heard about that one but never sailed in it.... That is a particularly brutal section of sea and when the gales blow against that current, it creates really bad seas and lots of ships sink there.... Not sure if I will sail there but who knows.
You guys are just behind sailing nahoa!
Actually Nahoa is behind Seasential 🤣👍
I think this video was recorded quite a while ago.
Thanks Eric but the other guys here are correct in that we were about 3 weeks ahead of Nahoa but I am just a bit further behind with our videos.
@@barefootdoctorssailing8567hey i appreciate your channel! My comment was only that you's are in close(ish) proximity!
About what time are you anticipating your Portofino to be delivered???
Hi 4X4, it will be completed Dec next year, which sounds closer than Jan 2025 which is when we will be sailing it!
Steering station looks good, what goes on with the sides & aft side in cold inclement conditions???... are you plannig to adventiure sail up above arctic circle etc?
Hi Lincoln, we will have plastic clears and sunshade drop downs to completely enclose the ham when necessary. As for the Arctic, Eli was brought up in the tropics of Australia so anything under 12*C is too cold! So it is unlikely that we will do the Arctic but we may go to the glaciers in Canada and Alaska perhaps - we are keeping our options open and are must less dogmatic about what we are doing since the Leopard 50 fire.... Nothing is ever absolute!
Got it! you could the amazon river, or the nile river(not really passage making but...in summer southern Alaskan islands are pretty spectacular,, acroos the is tha Kamchakka peninsula(old ussr... but delicious scallops! hopefully the final shape of dodger will a low windage factor sitting up there above the coach roof. Be Safe!@@barefootdoctorssailing8567
Great sailing John. I'm loving the Portofino renders. What is the standard of glass used by Portofino for the helm/saloon front glass? Is it a safety glass that shatters, or is it even higher grade like a low ballistic grade? Whilst I doubt you'd take a rolling wave that high, I wouldn't want to be sitting there and have the glass shatter into a thousand pieces before smashing into my eyes/face...I'm assuming they have a standard for the saloon front glass? Is it similar to Australian automotive glass?
Great video again this week. Did you get to St. Lucia on the weekend? I'm amazed at the partying going on or was it a particular festival, or do those cultures behave like that every night? Fair '💨s and following 🌊's.
Hi Garth. Yes sorry about the vagueness but it is not "glass" but one of those solid plastics, the name of which I am not sure about but will share the correct trade name when I confirm it. But it is not glass so does not shatter...
That Art Lucia street party is on 2 or 3 times a week, I think... Certainly not only Fridays and is a popular event that most tourists go to.
Hi Guys...can I ask a question, How does your Portofino 52 compare against the Xquisit X5 plus in price..
Hi Omega, I do not know the price of the Xquisit X5 but P52 cost about $1.7m sail away (with the Lithium, 5KW generators and sails etc.)
Check out Sailing Nahoa's latest episode. They get water in from the back like I've always wondered about .HH44 has solution to this and also side entrance. perfect.
...I think you should check the HH44 also with the control they have. I'm a little skeptical about how you chose. You will get smaller solar panels, for example...I rank your catamaran as the best and the HH44 as number two. So there are a lot of good things about HH44. So I think you should check it out carefully so you get the best of everything.
hh44 cannot beach. It also has a bad visibility. But I agree that it has lots of good features. I also think hh44 would be very hard to repair when you are remote.
@@mtrezaie Yes, I agree with you completely. That said, there are things about the HH44 that are very good at copying. For example, the back doors, so to speak. Yes, not being able to wear it on the beach is very stupid. Like I said, we agree here.
HH designed the closed transom of their 44 in order to increase volume in the stern portion of the hull interior, and to create the illusion of a longer profile to improve its aesthetics. 44 feet is a small boat by HH standards and they wanted to maximize the potential of what they had to work with. This had the added benefit of closing off the transom in undesirable conditions. 99.9% of the catamarans that have been built and under construction don't have this feature, so it's not a common design element by any stretch.
@@jamesaron1967 and this one will have it to.99,8%😁
HI Magnus, thanks very much for your kind words and ranking P52 as No 1 and HH44 as number 2! Yes we are close to Ben and Ashley and keep up with their trip and boat plans especially! The water into their cockpit on that day was horrible but made possible because it is a smaller boat, lower bridge deck height and slower so easier to get pooped. IN the Leopard 50 we had some water onto the back walkway but never into the aft cockpit, even in the 6m waves so having the extra height above water, performance from extra length and buoyancy reduces the risk.
Having said all that it is certainly something that we have already been considering as the transom door is only one step up the stern with the aft cockpit higher again. The transom door will be a marine standard closing "hatch" and opens outwards so should not be forced in, even with big waves if they poop us... But we will be looking to ensure it is well enough reinforced and maybe have storm boards if we are not happy...
In relation to the other issues, thanks to you all for the discussion but clearly we will not have the rear door which does had pros and cons and is now quite common on monos.
I don't think the steering position is very nice (my opinion only) with partially obstructed vision and limited space to organise all your lines and halyards - the stairs to the upper steering position works really well to allow the main halyard and main sheet to run out fast in an emergency. This will be difficult in the limited space of the HH44. I would be really keen to actually go onto the HH44 and see how it works for real as it is difficult to judge without being on it...
Hey John, just curious about the new cat and the stairs to the helm station - do you have hand rails/grab rails/support poles to grab on to whilst traversing the stairs? It looks like a long way down to deck level if you’re in an aquatic rodeo situation haha
Nice to hear from you Scotty! Nice of you to think about that sort of details! Yes, there will be hand holds bu they are not finalised yet - the steps leading to the saloon roof may be close enough to that edge to act as one set and the seat support will be built to have suitable hand hold that side. We will add extra if if needs them...
@@barefootdoctorssailing8567 Ah righto fair enough mate, all under control! Have a tin for me on the hook there when she’s done cheers
👍
:) Back on the computer - no emojis!
Doctor, doctor, give me the news about loving you . . .
"We've got a bad case of loving you" too!
Sorry, to many Sauvignon blanc . . hic !
I would reply with "Red, red wine, stay close to me" but it's the wrong colour!
Love the helm station. I dislike the trend among new cat designs to put the helm low and aft - giving the helms person the unattractive choice of looking through the cabin windows with no view of the sails - or sitting unprotected from sun and weather on the side deck able to see only one side of the boat. It’s hard to believe the designers have spent much time at sea.
Absolutely agree with you on both those points Carl. I do not believe that you can properly see faint lights of ships through those windows at night too and it would mean you have to walk over to each side to scan the horizon properly when on watch..... Not sure where their lines are going to run when wanting a fast drop of the main halyard or mainsheet.
I am shocked that you are still promoting leopard, especially after the young couple on TH-cam has had so many problems getting their warranty work, taken care of .finding a dry, fiberglass in the hull every window leaks on the boat and I’m sure you’re aware of this. There’s no way you couldn’t be. I watched your channel for a very long time and I’m truly disgusted that we would still be promoting these boats and even pointing your friends in this direction.
HI and thanks for your comments. Of course we are aware of the issues that they have had with their boat and we are very sorry for them. However, we looked at ALL the production boats for quality of build and strength over more than 10 years as we chose our retirement boat. I saw the substandard bulkheads on the Lagoons 15 years ago when they were only 1 inch wide holding up the mast when my bullhead was 4 inches wide and I decided then that I would never trust my life to the Lagoons. History confirmed my expectation on that...
Leopards remain the strongest and most resilient boats of all the major production brands with metal supports in their bulkheads, better electrical installations that others and in the early days all their boats have sailed from South Africa around the world to get sold, proving they are a good seagoing boat. If I have to put my life in the hands of one of the big production boats, I would choose Leopard every time.
So our experiences in life and with the Leopards are different and his experiences are very different from ours so we just share our experience and he shares his. I am sure that there are many reasons that we each have had very different outcomes but my truth and experience remains that the Leopards are a boat would choose if I was going for a big brand cruising boat...
I am sorry that you feel "disgusted" but please remember that this is not about being with or against anyone, we are both just sharing our story and they happen to be different stories. It is not that one is right and one is wrong - they are JUST DIFFERENT stories and experiences.
I am sure you are aware that we had our own major event with the burning or our Leopard 50 and we dealt with that privately and while that has taken some time (2.5 years), it looks like we are going to get a reasonable outcome.... We could have gone public and denigrated all the players but undoubtedly that would have resulted in lack of trust and support on both sides and we would not have been able to obtain a good outcome. So each of us decides on the approach we take and that affects the outcomes in our lives.
We hope they are able to get their issues resolved easily and quickly!