I'm almost 36 and never sailed in my life - but the pandemic daydreaming and TH-cam watching during the boredom of lockdown life got me hooked on sailing videos and multiple sailing channels, including Sailing Fair Isle. In that time, I came to the conclusion that Oyster were major luxury yachts, like a high end Mercedes Benz or whatever, and decided I wanted to save up for a couple more decades and afford one. But then I stumbled across Kraken Yachts (initially via Sailing Millennial Falcon's TH-cam Channel). And what a total single-minded retirement obsession I now have with saving up, retiring and buying a Kraken Yacht - and ONLY a Kraken Yacht, because it's the only modern yacht that assuages EVERY doubt I had about sailing around the world as a retirement dream. Sure, Oyster might be ultra luxury, but you can always custom-add soft furnishings or interesting mood lighting into a Kraken. You can't retrofit crash bulkheads and protected single rudders into an Oyster!
Just get a sub 40 foot boat and get cruising ASAP. There is absolutely no guarantee you will live to retirement age, nor a guarantee you’ll be able to afford it. Life does what it wants. Cruising isn’t about big fancy multi million dollar boats. It’s about cruising. Go as simple and small as you can, and go now.
The first time I sailed my Tayana 55. I hit mud within 4 minutes leaving the dock . So I got it out of my system, hopefully. . Man what a upgrading with crash bulkheads on the front and back . The dodger area on my boat is lacking in protection . And the solid cockpit covers I’ve seen on Tayana 55s look odd. Cheers to you Dick on innovation from experience .
Great video, would love to see more on this topic. These are great boats but they seem a bit complicated. I would love to see something like this around 40 feet with out all the bells and whistles but the same build quality.
Absolutely perfection the first boat next to Fairisle Steven if I won the lottery I would be down to their office to put in and order. He has thought about Absolutely everything. Perfection 👌 Another brilliant video Steve thank you for bringing out the wee green man in me again lol
Great show! Dick is an amazing fellow. His yachts are the absolute gold standard for offshore cruising. Few of these beautiful vessels will be made……but there are likely a very small number of buyers who possess the skills, motivation and time to devote to the often uncomfortable and difficult rigors of long term passage making and sailing in remote areas the Krakens are designed for. The fact that it takes a seven figure bank account and considerable income stream after purchase may be the biggest limiting factor.
Not sure about your reasoning there. I think there are an ever increasing amount of people wanting to sail the world, it does take money to do it but most people who own a house can switch to living on a boat if they’re willing to sell the house. Wether that going going to be a million dollar Kraken or something more modest is down to individual finances. But I’ve never under stood the people who say allow say 10 or 20% of the purchase price of a boat for ongoing expenses. We had to spend a fair bit on Fair Isle when we bought her & if we used that equation and had bought a new Kraken instead you would be looking at 5 x the running cost, well that’s just mad it would more likely be 5 x less with a new boat.
@@svfairisle I think you may overvalue the numbers who are willing to give up all land based amenities for a pure cruising life. I do agree the number are rising but like most things in life it is a balance. I have seen far too many who have jumped in at self or even high end cruising, much all too soon realize that the full time cruising life style is not all rainbows and sunsets. I am sure you will agree that for the most part it is that 75% is uncomfortable and hard. Then accentuated by the most breath taking moments which wash away all the bad.
Hi, a very interesting and informative video,it is amazing the technical detail that there is in the kraken boat.it was fascinating to watch.thank you very much.cheers Roly 🇬🇧.
My first visit to your channel and was so pleased you've done this report on Kraken Yachts! I already love their design and utility but it is always nice to hear a very well done confirmation. My hope is to own a Kraken but I'm not settled on which one, yet! I am looking forward to watching your other videos.
All great, but "push- button:" sailing can have an even bigger drawback. We were recently supposed to deliver a Koopmans 56, absolutely lovely, electrics for all things domestic and sailing. But when we got there, the batteries were dead. There were a lot of them, and they were big (270ah), so the owner couldn't get new ones in time. Ended up spending several days on a beautiful boat, but with no water, lights, toilet, cooking facilities before being sent home. There are manual overrides for sails and anchor, but it's not easy. For us, the simpler the systems the better :)
Yes me too, we’ve stripped the generator out of Fair Isle we have no high demand system that need it. It’s a down side for me too that the Kracken needs that sort of power but I think we’re in the minority, people want their air-con!
A dream of a boat, no doubt. A shame just that you basically have a decksaloon yacht but cannot look outside because the window is so high. That is what does make me lean more towards a sirius or one of the aluminium exploration boats such as a Garcia.
Yes that’s true. The Kraken is a brilliant boat in many ways, but we were saying the same thing on the Bluewater (evolution of the old Hylas 56) at the boat show, it’s a better layout to live on even if the Kraken beats it for ultimate toughness
Interesting and highly subjective. Myself as a performance cruiser, I have my own minimal requirements. The end all reality for most of us is price point. With an unlimited budget you can check off many items. One thing I have come away with over the years, is performance is paramount and under valued. Of course each boat and crew has limits. I see many cruiser making the tenderfoot mistake of slowly wallowing around under performed. Finding that sweet spot in performance, comfort, sea state and speed are fundamental to safety at sea. Having the capability to skirt around weather rather than potentially subject to it, is a great advantage. A vessel that can comfortably make speed in a seaway is under rated by many when choosing a design and sails. Nothing is more exhilarating than putting in a 200nm plus 24 hour run.
Yes if you’re cruising for the fun of actually sailing then you’re right a yacht with good performance is key as long as that added performance isn’t at the expense of bad handling when you do get caught out. Some designs in my opinion have gone too far towards performance to the extent of making them dangerous in heavy weather. You can’t guarantee out running storms, some fronts come in the are hundreds of miles long, and some just come up completely unforecast as we had in the Bay of Biscay. Fair Isle would not give you the sailing satisfaction you want I’m sure if speed and exhilaration is what you want, but the Kraken would do that for anyone but an out & out racer.
@@bojangles8837 Well i see where you're coming from then, the Swan is a fabulous boat. You might be interested in EP 3 where we interview a lovely couple from Norway we call the 'sailing gods' because they are sailing a Swan as a couple in their 70's that's pretty full on sailing at that age. One thing though, Embla 2 is their second Swan the first one being lost at sea when a delivery crew was bringing her back across the Atlantic and the rudder dropped off! The crew were airlifted off and the boat was never seen again!
@@svfairisle Interesting, I think we have crossed paths with this couple in Tonga. I am on my third Swan the first being an S&S 44 next the venerable Swan 65 and now the Farr 56. Just now in a few days, getting ready for the Newport to Bermuda on a Farr Grand Mistral 80. I plead guilty to manufacture and designer biased. It was important for me to have the skeg hung rudder, but once we went to a balanced spade and it's excellent handling qualities I would never go back. Not sure what happened to them but I myself have had some rudder trepidations. Only 2 years ago we broke off the mooring in a bad Nor'easters, Newport RI. The boat sadly had a hard rudder grounding in which; (as designed) the bottom tip will breakoff rather than shearing the entire rudder and potentially holing at the stem post. As a back up I always sail with a WindPilot SOS rudder. The brackets which are permanently fixed to the transom. Risk management is all apart of the game.
Thanks so much for this "geeky" episode. Myself and my girlfriend are on the verge of purchasing our first boat. The main considerations so far have been budget and livability due to the fact we will live aboards and will be extending our family. I appreciate you bringing the safety concerns and build quality considerations that are necessary when choosing a boat. Unfortunately this beauty isn't within our reach. My question to you is firstly, what is your opinion on the safety and build of a Moody 44 and secondary if you were me with 70k - 100k to spend with a dream of very slowly sailing the world what boat would you consider. I very much value your opinions on how a boat responds to weather, safety and build quality. I don't want to end up with a caravan on the water thats lovely to live on but is shite to safely get me from a to b Thanks Ben and Emma
Well it seems like you’re nicely on track and have the right priorities so I’m sure you’ll choose well. I really like Moodys, a good compromise I think being beamy enough for space, heavily built etc. The 44 is a good size, beware of going too small especially if you’re increasing the size of your family. As I’m sure you know I favour boats with an encapsulated keel & keel hung rudder, which means old boats like Cheoy Lee, Tayana and Hans Christians of course, they made a 41 an 43. The 33 is too small in my opinion. It is like a tardis inside but the short waterline length might bring you average speeds down too much. Remember speed is sometimes good for safety to help avoid storms. There are many other good boats out there that aren’t the full keel type, Hallberg Rassy have made some excellent boats but the name carries a premium, same too with Amels. You can thank Delos for that I think, they are good boats (although I wouldn’t pick a ketch and certainly not one with twin in mast furling, loads of weight aloft!) they have reach cult status now thought so probably overpriced.
Dick makes notes all the time when he see’s things or hears about things that work well on other boats & there were lots of things that came up in our discussions. But you asked what I would change & unfortunately that would be a change that can’t really be made. I would have liked the Kraken to be a cutter & that would mean a whole redesign with the mast further back. Dick is adamant that the Solent rig is the way to go though on a cruising boat in the trades and I have to bow to his greater experience, but the big sails mean power winches and along with the other electrical goodies that means a generator & I’m rather happy without one at the moment!
@@svfairisle Ahhh great to hear that the Kraken was not cracking enough to move you away from your FairIsle love! Guess No one boat can ever possibly suit everyone… the sailing world would be a far more boring place if it did!
Hes right lol. Back in the 70's fiberglass was one material... and they laid it up super thick. My 1973 swanson 42 shows this truth.... shes 14 ton DRY.....
An impressive boat all around. However, I was thinking of Larry and Lyn Pardey that travelled around the world several times in a self-built wooden 32 foot boat - without an engine - or solar panels 🙂Have you read a any of their books or seen their videos? They inspired me to sail many years ago - and I've been using their philosophy of sailing in my formative years as a sailor. Not to say that I would sail without an engine or solar panels - but the boat MUST be able to sail without any of the tech stuff. I feel that Dick is not compromising on these matters as well...
Yes the Pardys are an inspiration and show what can be done, but I have some experience of sailing in a similar way 40 years ago. Would NOT want to go back to that though!
Thanks for the post and commentary! Dick has great ideas and I've learned to appreciate his perspective and where's he's coming from, but there is always more than one way of looking at things. His 7+ ft keel is going to ground hard more often enough that it should be a concern. Take a Garcia Exploration and you don't ground when a Kraken does and when you do ground, as we all do, it's nowhere near as big a concern and danger unless you have a Kraken with a keel sticking down that far. Get a deep keel off the ground with waves crashing into the cockpit and pushing that keel harder and deeper into the ground and about to sink ONLY because of that deep keel....and now you realize that safety is more about perspective than my ideas are better than yours. More sailors will ground hard than will hit a shipping container, so perspective of safety is what we are talking about. I get it that he portrays an almost irritating confidence in his "it's a Kraken", but that's his baby. But, his isn't the only "safe" blue water cruiser out there...compare his to what KM Yachtbuilders or Garcia put out and I would feel much safer in their boats than a Kraken. Not to mention how much heavy following seas will twist and yaw that Kraken all over the sea when a Garicia won't because of the option to pull up the centerboard, no change your ballast or righting and now a Kraken is again not nearly as safe as another yacht. It comes down to perspective...always have, always will.
What is safety?...then I thought about my experiences surviving numerous hurricanes with sailboat in Florida. Imagine this, you secure your Hans Christian or Kraken as close to the mangroves as you can...but usually you gotta be out in much deeper water because of those keels...now you have much more wind and risk aka. "danger" than a you would in a boat you can get virutally up into any tight spot because you don't leave in the fear of long keel owners of running aground. You park you vessel tight in the mangroves, solid on the ground...you are 100% safer than the Kraken 100 yards out in the intracoastal waterway getting tossed around by waves and 125 mph winds. What is safety?
You’re right there are many ways of looking at this. We are trying to set up a zoom with Distant Shores at the moment, looks like they have a similar philosophy to you going down the road of shallow draft boats. It will be interesting to see what their take is in the relative safety aspects as they’ve had a full keeled boat in the past before the two Southerly’s and now a custom built aluminium boat with a lifting keel. I think they chose that option for convenience of getting places others can’t, beaching etc, but we will see. Personally I would not be happy with a boat of that design from a safety at sea aspect, boats like the Southerly from my point of view are bordering on dangerous and I applaud Dicks return to a more traditional an in my opinion much safer design philosophy than most modern yachts.
@@svfairisle Good points! I was kinda disappointed that Distant Shores chose a lifting keel which greatly changes the righting moment and stability of the boat vs Garcia's design where the chain is at the keel, and lifting or not the centerboard maintains the vessel stability in rough conditions. I've seen lots of keel boats aground and screwed up...I just feel that risk is far greater than any risk mitigation a deep integrated keel provides. I would not go with a KMYachts or Garcia though without employing the skeg in front of rudders like the Kraken. I am fully in agreement there...except a Kraken has no redundance with just the one rudder. Skegs don't protect a rudder if you drag anchor back into some rocks. I think most sailors see the "beachable" boat as a convenience, I see it as the most important safety factor that Dick isn't even considering...apparently. Cheers and good work.
I don’t believe having two rudders gives you any redundancy. I’ve personally had to help our two stranded twin rudders boats who just knocked the rudder, one so lightly the skipper hardly felt it, but it jammed the whole system and he had zero steerage. Now that may have been fixable in time, disabling linkages and what not, but by then having hit something close to shore he would have been on the rocks. Truth is have two unprotected spade rudders sticking out at an angle, out of line with the kill is madness in my opinion, it makes me wince every time I see one!
@@svfairisle I totally agree. Only redundancy when it is designed that way...to be set up as individual rudder in emergency. Your channel is really coming along. Glad to see that! Cheers
What a great boat, I’m so glad there are people out there like Dick building boats like this, in the end though there are so many other more modern, high quality, higher performance options out there it makes the Kraken a tough sell in today’s environment. 30 years ago this boat makes a lot more sense, before modern weather routing and the rise of carbon fiber and performance catamarans.
Dick would be able to write you a book on it, we did talk about his choices a lot while we were there. He was put off boom furling by the one he fitted to White Dragon because he found it needed monitoring from the deck as you furled. It was just too easy to get the wrap wrong and damage the sail. Dick likes to singlehand sometimes so this was a show stopper for him. I did ask the question as well about the extra weight aloft with in mast, he said the boat is designed around it with enough righting moment from the zero keel so i'm not sure he would need the benefit of the carbon mast for weight reasons (although its always nice) there would be other considerations too of course, not least cost!
@@svfairisle Thanks, kindly for the feedback. Skip Novak of Vinson of Antarctica chose In-boom/ Carbon so there is room for different solutions. I only seek advice from highly experienced skippers with hundreds of thousands of miles under the keel in varied conditions, … all three of you qualify. 🤗👍
Skip always sails with a full crew, you do have to bear in mind the subtle differences and particular needs of shorthanded and often not so young any more! cruisers.
I think I generally agree with with everything you and Dick say. The elephant in the room is cost. Compared to something like a Beneteau 47, 50 or 53 which are world cruising capable a Hanse 42, and even well equipped PoGo 37 there is simply no comparison on cost or performance. With respect to Dick the "keel dropped off" guff just does not bare scrutiny when you look at the numbers or the circumstances. It's an old wives tail that makes for longer drinking time discussions in the the elite yacht clubs. Or Marketing fluff when trying to justify a £2m build cost too the point of delivery... 😘 Sail Safe Guys, Ant & Cid.
Yes of course cost is an issue & I agree keels dropping off is a rarity, I only personally have seen one. Would like to know if there are figures for it though. Dicks point thought is that more and more of these boats are being used off shore and in remote places, they are also getting older! A hard grounding is going to compromise a boat like that and if you can’t lift it to check because you’re somewhere remote then it’s not ideal! For me the thing I dislike most about modern boat design is twin blade rudders. I do have personally experience of the issues there having personally had to help out 2 disabled boats that banged the rudder and locked the whole steering solid. One was just tapped it on the wooden sill on the bottom of the lock gate going into Chichester marina. He said be barely felt it but he came into the fairway with zero steering, I threw him a rope and pulled him into the hammer head. All good there but imagine if he’d tapped it entering a tricky harbour! Oh and by the way, you have your figures wrong. A Beneteau 54 is $1.2 the Kraken 50 is just under $1 million and comes with many more things as standard! Both out of reach for mere mortals like us I know but surprising none the less.
@@justbeliberty1842 I know they’ve had lots of interest, not sure what the wait list is though (less than for the 50 I’m sure) But they only have the 50 mould at Bodrum so far.
You’ll have no problem with head height in this boat. In fact the saloon felt a bit odd to me with the raised deck & windows being very high, I guess it’s something you get used to but felt strange. I think the bunks are all long as well but I didn’t measure them.
@@svfairisle Love it! Everyone in the family over 6"1, self+ young men 6'4"+... Thanks so much for the attention to finer details/thorough/thoughtful interviews atop the regular content! Love the Channel!
nice boat, if it lasts long enough, perhaps my grandchildren can afford a used 2022 model. This is not too say it is over priced but rather that it is nice there are new boats that will be worth buying when the rest of us can afford them used. I am glad there are people willing and able to buy new boats but for me, the reality is 50 year old boats. I am glad there are some good ones.
Haha, yeah I've thought this too. I'm 36 years old and have never sailed before. I reckon, by the time I retire, I will have gradually done enough learning-how-to-sail AND saved up enough that in 20 years I'll be able to afford a 2022 Kraken Yacht!
@@lenwhatever4187 Awesome? Is that 10k in $dollars or £pounds Stirling? What kind of boat is it and how big? For ocean cruising or costal fun day/weekend trips. Would be interested to know or if there are any links you’d be happy to share
@@AndoCommando1000 That would be in CAD (USD X .75-ish). 9M boat. It is our holiday boat for coastal cruising around Vancouver Island. It is a great step up from our 7M cabin cruiser, I can sit down for an early morning coffee without having to kick a sleepy boy off the table :)
Well I think I need to do a video on the whole subject. And before that I need some get some more experience of a couple of rigs I haven’t tried. I’m a true fan the cutter especially short handed for anything over 40 foot (below that just a sloop) The cutter means you have sails of a size a short handed crew can handle without power winches even on Fair Isle which is 57 foot overall. We also have room for a detachable inner forestay for the storm jib so the rig is very versatile, you can hove too really easily, in storm configuration the sail area is inboard and CofE low. With a high cut Yankee it furls well so reefing the sail keeps better shape than a Genoa, the reefing angle doesn’t change as you fuel so you don’t need to adjust the car etc etc. But I was surprised at how well the Solent rig performed. I always thought it was a stupid idea to have two foil’s together so you can’t tack one of them, but the ‘blade jib’ works really well with is tight sheeting angle and flying both together for dead down wind is very good at least in flat water. But having said that in a folly sea when you’re getting fill & spill you’ll need two poles. Personally I find poling a PITA and it’s certainly easier on Fair Isle at least to run the preventer and just the one pole to deal with but it’s nowhere near as efficient as the two sail ‘butterfly’ configuration. As with everything, nothings perfect!
Oh and what I was trying to get at with the drawing is if you’re going for the high mast - big sails combo you need Power winches on a 50 foot boat, if you don’t want to have power winches then opt for the cutter!
I remember that you did a video sometime ago when you needed to change your dingy. Could you let me know what episode or details of the dinghy you bought.
Yes we bought a TrueKit dinghy, we did a test, it’s here… th-cam.com/video/264eu3FOh9w/w-d-xo.html still very happy with it after 2 years I think it’s the best lightweight dinghy out there.
maybe not the best idea to have the batteries in a deep part of the bilge where any small water ingress will get them! Low is good but not deep bilge, also lithium is a fraction of the weight of the old lead acid monsters!
I cannot quite get my head around the fact that most boats have furled, jibs, genoas, genneckers, code zeros and so on. Why, for the main, are these just not turned on their side to form a roller boom. Weight all in the right place when stored, accessible and all the issues are addressable at deck level. It can't just be cost surely? In-mast is a problem just waiting to happen it seems to me. Why is carbon not used at critical points - for strength not light weight, particularly for those critical bulkheads? I watched Aquaholics on a 70ft Bering looking inside the front lazerette and a dive tank had smashed the bulkhead out! Not applicable here but a small amount of carbon implemented in the right places to spread load would work wonders for strength, surely. The other burning remark is why all new boats are not using Dyneema or one of it's spin offs for the standing rigging - it seems to me to be a no-brainer - 15 times the strength of steel and no corrosion, bingo! I'll let the rigging Doctor say the rest but it does seem to me that the boat market is more interested in interior laminate finishes than design. These are really great videos and you are mistaken if you think they are boring, tedious or simply too long. bring them on!
Thanks Bob & I think the same way about most of those things. But there is some reasoning behind why some things don’t fly quite in the way you expect Dyneema for example as you say great way of getting less weight aloft, stronger than steel and easier to see if it’s compromised. But that lovely roller furling you were talking about earlier… well you won’t be mounting that on dyneema stays! I can say this because I consider Herb and Maddie good friends & they’re lovely people, but you know they’re mad as hatters right? I’m joking but they are willing and happy to cope with slab reefed sails, no engine & share their boat with half a zoo. They are special people! On other matters the strength issue with fiberglass is being boosted with modern fibres, this is not carbon fibre because that’s a whole different thing, but the sort of lay-up you get in a Kraken could not be compared with chop strand mat. The in boom roller furling sounds like a good idea for all the reasons you stated but ends up being a problem keeping the sail on the boom and not gouging itself to death on the goose neck. Not all things are as they seem!
@@svfairisle Thanks, but for me Dyneema is nearly a panacea, I noted it also has the same coefficient of friction as PTFE, and the lack of corrosion, we'll see. I do have slab reefing, which can be a pain hence he comments on roller boom. We nearly had one made, just big cost and potentially a new main to fit it properly made it prohibitive. We had the lazy jacks extended instead! Don't laugh, it helps no end. Surely there is a way to preset the boom angle? Southern Spars and Hall Spars are very keen to sell you one. Two items for the back burner! Great series and I love the tech corner, I just don't like saying snap too often！
Dick has it on White Dragon but doesn’t like it as he finds it’s too easy to destroy a sail if it slips forward when you furl and gets gouged against the goose neck.Maybe there’s versions that stop that happening?
@@svfairisle My boat being much smaller as I wrap the sail around the boom I pull the bolt rope away from the gooeneck but once its locked and the halyard is tenshioned it doesnt move. The newer boom furling systems out now on super yachts in a motorised boom case.
@@svfairisle The moves forward if the boom is too low and the sail will move backwards if the boom is too high, so getting the topping lift right is the key when furling.
Well in almost all cases this is a complete misnomer. You cannot have a ketch with enough fore deck to have a stay sail that.works in conjunction with the yankee upwind. I really don’t think they should be calling a ketch that has squeezed two foresails in a cutter, that’s not what it is.
@@svfairisle Hi sorry I don't understand - any resources you might point me at to save you explaining the space needed to have the stay-sail and yankee work together? Looking at fairIsles foredeck extension could the same not be possible for a ketch? Ketch I'm looking at is just over 60ft - from the main mast forward the two stays (both on furlers) and their spacing look v similar to my inexpert eye to FairIsle albeit no bowsprit - what is stopping it being effective?
On a really big ketch it's possible to have a useful cutter rig but I can't see a 60 foot yacht doing that. Fair Isle has a 57foot overall length which is what matters when is comes to sail plan. We have 9 foot between the yankee and the stayd=sail which is just about enough to have the yankee tack through the gap no problem, what is the distance between the foresails on this boat? The give away will probably be have they gone for a fore sail over 100%. If they have then they probably need ot for the drive forward of the mast and a genoa of this size will not work well in conjunction with a staysail. I can't imagine the main mast is far enough aft to give this space unless the mizzen is getting close to yawl territory. Would be interested to know.
@@svfairisle thanks yes now you say it and look closer its seems more like 3 or 4 feet between the 2 forward stays. Not seen foresail unfurled but looks bulky so guessing +100% - would need mostly furled to tack. I suppose using the inner foresail if short-tacking cant be avoided. It's a project boat Im looking at.
I will say they have a better boat all around. Would I sail your boat? Yes in a minute. you got a great boat. Is it up to par with the boat you are comparing it to? NO they have a better boat all around. A huge wave hits your boat and you have a bath tub which will fill and take much longer to drain. Theirs well is meant to drain fast. They thought of everything and their boat is the one to buy. The engine room to the living quarters is thought out right. Again I would sail your boat but would not buy it now after seeing theirs. I know you see why you should have one. you can get top dollar for your boat and do it before they know better is out their .
Ha! That’s one way of looking at it! It’s certainly not what we think though & we wouldn’t swap Fair Isle for a Kraken even though we think the Kraken is an excellent boat. Is it a BETTER boat? for us certainly not. The swamping problem is not an issue for either as the Kraken has sorted it with excellent drainage and the Hans Christian has a small enough cockpit that even if it got pooped it would not compromise the boat. The big advantage we thing Fair Isle has over the Kracken is lack of complexity. We can operate without a generator, need no electric winches because of the sail plan and hydraulic bow thruster and windlass. The Kraken depends on its genny to function, I would not like that. Also as Dick says, you have to love your boat and that’s a personal thing. Some people will love the modern sleek design of the Kracken but for me it’s the wood, the low freeboard, the canoe stern, the bow sprit etc etc that does it for me, the Kraken is just not to my taste looks wise.
I don’t mind your videos but I now see you have a ‘special’ connection to kraken which has allowed you to trash other boat builders and their yachts…. Disgraceful if you ask me, Kraken and Dick should be ashamed.
Exactly what are you insinuating David? What is this 'special' connection you think we have with Kraken? I happen to think they produce good boats so I requested we visit their yard in Turkey (As we happened to be sailing there) In the same way, as we were attending the Annapolis boat show, I requested a tour of the Oyster they had on show. The fact that Kraken not only put up their Chairman and founder Dick (who by the way had just stepped off the latest Kraken 50 that he had personal sailed 500 miles as a shake down cruise) can only be their credit. Oyster put up a salesman who tried to tell me twin rudders are great because if you bash one you have a spare! I think that says it all.
I'm almost 36 and never sailed in my life - but the pandemic daydreaming and TH-cam watching during the boredom of lockdown life got me hooked on sailing videos and multiple sailing channels, including Sailing Fair Isle.
In that time, I came to the conclusion that Oyster were major luxury yachts, like a high end Mercedes Benz or whatever, and decided I wanted to save up for a couple more decades and afford one. But then I stumbled across Kraken Yachts (initially via Sailing Millennial Falcon's TH-cam Channel). And what a total single-minded retirement obsession I now have with saving up, retiring and buying a Kraken Yacht - and ONLY a Kraken Yacht, because it's the only modern yacht that assuages EVERY doubt I had about sailing around the world as a retirement dream.
Sure, Oyster might be ultra luxury, but you can always custom-add soft furnishings or interesting mood lighting into a Kraken. You can't retrofit crash bulkheads and protected single rudders into an Oyster!
Ditto! 😁
my feelings exactly. Love the thought process and the commitment to sailing of this company.
Life is now. Don't wait and get on the water!
Just get a sub 40 foot boat and get cruising ASAP. There is absolutely no guarantee you will live to retirement age, nor a guarantee you’ll be able to afford it. Life does what it wants. Cruising isn’t about big fancy multi million dollar boats. It’s about cruising.
Go as simple and small as you can, and go now.
Unfortunately, even sub-40 foot boats cost money I don't have. Also, I'm 6'4" tall. Anything under about 45 feet will not have enough headroom@incoat
The first time I sailed my Tayana 55. I hit mud within 4 minutes leaving the dock . So I got it out of my system, hopefully. . Man what a upgrading with crash bulkheads on the front and back . The dodger area on my boat is lacking in protection . And the solid cockpit covers I’ve seen on Tayana 55s look odd. Cheers to you Dick on innovation from experience .
Simply perfection, What an incredibly well designed and manufactured boat. Thankyou for helping me Dream.🇦🇺⛵
Great video, would love to see more on this topic. These are great boats but they seem a bit complicated. I would love to see something like this around 40 feet with out all the bells and whistles but the same build quality.
Love the Kraken, & glad you're Helen Mirren looking mate was with you for that sail.
Absolutely perfection the first boat next to Fairisle Steven if I won the lottery I would be down to their office to put in and order.
He has thought about Absolutely everything. Perfection 👌
Another brilliant video Steve thank you for bringing out the wee green man in me again lol
Great show! Dick is an amazing fellow. His yachts are the absolute gold standard for offshore cruising. Few of these beautiful vessels will be made……but there are likely a very small number of buyers who possess the skills, motivation and time to devote to the often uncomfortable and difficult rigors of long term passage making and sailing in remote areas the Krakens are designed for. The fact that it takes a seven figure bank account and considerable income stream after purchase may be the biggest limiting factor.
Not sure about your reasoning there. I think there are an ever increasing amount of people wanting to sail the world, it does take money to do it but most people who own a house can switch to living on a boat if they’re willing to sell the house. Wether that going going to be a million dollar Kraken or something more modest is down to individual finances. But I’ve never under stood the people who say allow say 10 or 20% of the purchase price of a boat for ongoing expenses. We had to spend a fair bit on Fair Isle when we bought her & if we used that equation and had bought a new Kraken instead you would be looking at 5 x the running cost, well that’s just mad it would more likely be 5 x less with a new boat.
@@svfairisle I think you may overvalue the numbers who are willing to give up all land based amenities for a pure cruising life. I do agree the number are rising but like most things in life it is a balance. I have seen far too many who have jumped in at self or even high end cruising, much all too soon realize that the full time cruising life style is not all rainbows and sunsets. I am sure you will agree that for the most part it is that 75% is uncomfortable and hard. Then accentuated by the most breath taking moments which wash away all the bad.
Hi, a very interesting and informative video,it is amazing the technical detail that there is in the kraken boat.it was fascinating to watch.thank you very much.cheers Roly 🇬🇧.
My first visit to your channel and was so pleased you've done this report on Kraken Yachts!
I already love their design and utility but it is always nice to hear a very well done confirmation.
My hope is to own a Kraken but I'm not settled on which one, yet! I am looking forward to watching your other videos.
Absolutely beautiful boats.
The Hans Christian is a beautiful, fantastic boat. Kraken's are amazing, and most certainly a dream boat, but I would go anywhere in a Hans Cristian.
Very good video and Dick was right on his game.
Fascinating, well done all.
All great, but "push- button:" sailing can have an even bigger drawback. We were recently supposed to deliver a Koopmans 56, absolutely lovely, electrics for all things domestic and sailing. But when we got there, the batteries were dead. There were a lot of them, and they were big (270ah), so the owner couldn't get new ones in time. Ended up spending several days on a beautiful boat, but with no water, lights, toilet, cooking facilities before being sent home. There are manual overrides for sails and anchor, but it's not easy. For us, the simpler the systems the better :)
Yes me too, we’ve stripped the generator out of Fair Isle we have no high demand system that need it. It’s a down side for me too that the Kracken needs that sort of power but I think we’re in the minority, people want their air-con!
A dream of a boat, no doubt. A shame just that you basically have a decksaloon yacht but cannot look outside because the window is so high. That is what does make me lean more towards a sirius or one of the aluminium exploration boats such as a Garcia.
Yes that’s true. The Kraken is a brilliant boat in many ways, but we were saying the same thing on the Bluewater (evolution of the old Hylas 56) at the boat show, it’s a better layout to live on even if the Kraken beats it for ultimate toughness
Thank you Fil and Dick
Interesting and highly subjective. Myself as a performance cruiser, I have my own minimal requirements. The end all reality for most of us is price point. With an unlimited budget you can check off many items. One thing I have come away with over the years, is performance is paramount and under valued. Of course each boat and crew has limits. I see many cruiser making the tenderfoot mistake of slowly wallowing around under performed. Finding that sweet spot in performance, comfort, sea state and speed are fundamental to safety at sea. Having the capability to skirt around weather rather than potentially subject to it, is a great advantage. A vessel that can comfortably make speed in a seaway is under rated by many when choosing a design and sails.
Nothing is more exhilarating than putting in a 200nm plus 24 hour run.
Yes if you’re cruising for the fun of actually sailing then you’re right a yacht with good performance is key as long as that added performance isn’t at the expense of bad handling when you do get caught out. Some designs in my opinion have gone too far towards performance to the extent of making them dangerous in heavy weather. You can’t guarantee out running storms, some fronts come in the are hundreds of miles long, and some just come up completely unforecast as we had in the Bay of Biscay. Fair Isle would not give you the sailing satisfaction you want I’m sure if speed and exhilaration is what you want, but the Kraken would do that for anyone but an out & out racer.
@@svfairisle Agreed; all about balance. From the price of the Kraken, although nice would not be my first choice
@@svfairisle With my own personal evolution, I started seriously cruising in the 70’s on a WestSail 32 and now a Swan 56.
@@bojangles8837 Well i see where you're coming from then, the Swan is a fabulous boat. You might be interested in EP 3 where we interview a lovely couple from Norway we call the 'sailing gods' because they are sailing a Swan as a couple in their 70's that's pretty full on sailing at that age. One thing though, Embla 2 is their second Swan the first one being lost at sea when a delivery crew was bringing her back across the Atlantic and the rudder dropped off! The crew were airlifted off and the boat was never seen again!
@@svfairisle Interesting, I think we have crossed paths with this couple in Tonga. I am on my third Swan the first being an S&S 44 next the venerable Swan 65 and now the Farr 56. Just now in a few days, getting ready for the Newport to Bermuda on a Farr Grand Mistral 80. I plead guilty to manufacture and designer biased. It was important for me to have the skeg hung rudder, but once we went to a balanced spade and it's excellent handling qualities I would never go back. Not sure what happened to them but I myself have had some rudder trepidations. Only 2 years ago we broke off the mooring in a bad Nor'easters, Newport RI. The boat sadly had a hard rudder grounding in which; (as designed) the bottom tip will breakoff rather than shearing the entire rudder and potentially holing at the stem post. As a back up I always sail with a WindPilot SOS rudder. The brackets which are permanently fixed to the transom. Risk management is all apart of the game.
Thanks so much for this "geeky" episode.
Myself and my girlfriend are on the verge of purchasing our first boat. The main considerations so far have been budget and livability due to the fact we will live aboards and will be extending our family. I appreciate you bringing the safety concerns and build quality considerations that are necessary when choosing a boat. Unfortunately this beauty isn't within our reach. My question to you is firstly, what is your opinion on the safety and build of a Moody 44 and secondary if you were me with 70k - 100k to spend with a dream of very slowly sailing the world what boat would you consider.
I very much value your opinions on how a boat responds to weather, safety and build quality. I don't want to end up with a caravan on the water thats lovely to live on but is shite to safely get me from a to b
Thanks
Ben and Emma
Well it seems like you’re nicely on track and have the right priorities so I’m sure you’ll choose well. I really like Moodys, a good compromise I think being beamy enough for space, heavily built etc. The 44 is a good size, beware of going too small especially if you’re increasing the size of your family. As I’m sure you know I favour boats with an encapsulated keel & keel hung rudder, which means old boats like Cheoy Lee, Tayana and Hans Christians of course, they made a 41 an 43. The 33 is too small in my opinion. It is like a tardis inside but the short waterline length might bring you average speeds down too much. Remember speed is sometimes good for safety to help avoid storms. There are many other good boats out there that aren’t the full keel type, Hallberg Rassy have made some excellent boats but the name carries a premium, same too with Amels. You can thank Delos for that I think, they are good boats (although I wouldn’t pick a ketch and certainly not one with twin in mast furling, loads of weight aloft!) they have reach cult status now thought so probably overpriced.
Plenty of Amels to be had for sensible money - despite Delos. Integral watertight bulkhead, encapsulated keel and full skeg rudder etc.
Great in-depth and honest review…. One question what would you change or add to the Kraken if Dick asked you for any advice?
Dick makes notes all the time when he see’s things or hears about things that work well on other boats & there were lots of things that came up in our discussions. But you asked what I would change & unfortunately that would be a change that can’t really be made. I would have liked the Kraken to be a cutter & that would mean a whole redesign with the mast further back. Dick is adamant that the Solent rig is the way to go though on a cruising boat in the trades and I have to bow to his greater experience, but the big sails mean power winches and along with the other electrical goodies that means a generator & I’m rather happy without one at the moment!
@@svfairisle Ahhh great to hear that the Kraken was not cracking enough to move you away from your FairIsle love! Guess No one boat can ever possibly suit everyone… the sailing world would be a far more boring place if it did!
Hes right lol. Back in the 70's fiberglass was one material... and they laid it up super thick. My 1973 swanson 42 shows this truth.... shes 14 ton DRY.....
An impressive boat all around. However, I was thinking of Larry and Lyn Pardey that travelled around the world several times in a self-built wooden 32 foot boat - without an engine - or solar panels 🙂Have you read a any of their books or seen their videos? They inspired me to sail many years ago - and I've been using their philosophy of sailing in my formative years as a sailor. Not to say that I would sail without an engine or solar panels - but the boat MUST be able to sail without any of the tech stuff.
I feel that Dick is not compromising on these matters as well...
Yes the Pardys are an inspiration and show what can be done, but I have some experience of sailing in a similar way 40 years ago. Would NOT want to go back to that though!
Excellent video, just excellent.
Thanks for the post and commentary! Dick has great ideas and I've learned to appreciate his perspective and where's he's coming from, but there is always more than one way of looking at things. His 7+ ft keel is going to ground hard more often enough that it should be a concern. Take a Garcia Exploration and you don't ground when a Kraken does and when you do ground, as we all do, it's nowhere near as big a concern and danger unless you have a Kraken with a keel sticking down that far. Get a deep keel off the ground with waves crashing into the cockpit and pushing that keel harder and deeper into the ground and about to sink ONLY because of that deep keel....and now you realize that safety is more about perspective than my ideas are better than yours. More sailors will ground hard than will hit a shipping container, so perspective of safety is what we are talking about. I get it that he portrays an almost irritating confidence in his "it's a Kraken", but that's his baby. But, his isn't the only "safe" blue water cruiser out there...compare his to what KM Yachtbuilders or Garcia put out and I would feel much safer in their boats than a Kraken. Not to mention how much heavy following seas will twist and yaw that Kraken all over the sea when a Garicia won't because of the option to pull up the centerboard, no change your ballast or righting and now a Kraken is again not nearly as safe as another yacht. It comes down to perspective...always have, always will.
What is safety?...then I thought about my experiences surviving numerous hurricanes with sailboat in Florida. Imagine this, you secure your Hans Christian or Kraken as close to the mangroves as you can...but usually you gotta be out in much deeper water because of those keels...now you have much more wind and risk aka. "danger" than a you would in a boat you can get virutally up into any tight spot because you don't leave in the fear of long keel owners of running aground. You park you vessel tight in the mangroves, solid on the ground...you are 100% safer than the Kraken 100 yards out in the intracoastal waterway getting tossed around by waves and 125 mph winds. What is safety?
You’re right there are many ways of looking at this. We are trying to set up a zoom with Distant Shores at the moment, looks like they have a similar philosophy to you going down the road of shallow draft boats. It will be interesting to see what their take is in the relative safety aspects as they’ve had a full keeled boat in the past before the two Southerly’s and now a custom built aluminium boat with a lifting keel. I think they chose that option for convenience of getting places others can’t, beaching etc, but we will see. Personally I would not be happy with a boat of that design from a safety at sea aspect, boats like the Southerly from my point of view are bordering on dangerous and I applaud Dicks return to a more traditional an in my opinion much safer design philosophy than most modern yachts.
@@svfairisle Good points! I was kinda disappointed that Distant Shores chose a lifting keel which greatly changes the righting moment and stability of the boat vs Garcia's design where the chain is at the keel, and lifting or not the centerboard maintains the vessel stability in rough conditions. I've seen lots of keel boats aground and screwed up...I just feel that risk is far greater than any risk mitigation a deep integrated keel provides. I would not go with a KMYachts or Garcia though without employing the skeg in front of rudders like the Kraken. I am fully in agreement there...except a Kraken has no redundance with just the one rudder. Skegs don't protect a rudder if you drag anchor back into some rocks. I think most sailors see the "beachable" boat as a convenience, I see it as the most important safety factor that Dick isn't even considering...apparently. Cheers and good work.
I don’t believe having two rudders gives you any redundancy. I’ve personally had to help our two stranded twin rudders boats who just knocked the rudder, one so lightly the skipper hardly felt it, but it jammed the whole system and he had zero steerage. Now that may have been fixable in time, disabling linkages and what not, but by then having hit something close to shore he would have been on the rocks. Truth is have two unprotected spade rudders sticking out at an angle, out of line with the kill is madness in my opinion, it makes me wince every time I see one!
@@svfairisle I totally agree. Only redundancy when it is designed that way...to be set up as individual rudder in emergency. Your channel is really coming along. Glad to see that! Cheers
Great video. Thanks 🙏 for sharing…
The perfect boat is one you can offord to run,.,
This was a great podcast
What a great boat, I’m so glad there are people out there like Dick building boats like this, in the end though there are so many other more modern, high quality, higher performance options out there it makes the Kraken a tough sell in today’s environment. 30 years ago this boat makes a lot more sense, before modern weather routing and the rise of carbon fiber and performance catamarans.
I disagree.
There will always be a market for the money is no object, no compromises crowd.
It’s not a large market, but it is a market.
Could Dick explain the decision process between choosing “In-mast” vs “In-boom” furling & Aluminum Mast vs Carbon Mast choices?
Dick would be able to write you a book on it, we did talk about his choices a lot while we were there. He was put off boom furling by the one he fitted to White Dragon because he found it needed monitoring from the deck as you furled. It was just too easy to get the wrap wrong and damage the sail. Dick likes to singlehand sometimes so this was a show stopper for him.
I did ask the question as well about the extra weight aloft with in mast, he said the boat is designed around it with enough righting moment from the zero keel so i'm not sure he would need the benefit of the carbon mast for weight reasons (although its always nice) there would be other considerations too of course, not least cost!
@@svfairisle Thanks, kindly for the feedback. Skip Novak of Vinson of Antarctica chose In-boom/ Carbon so there is room for different solutions. I only seek advice from highly experienced skippers with hundreds of thousands of miles under the keel in varied conditions, … all three of you qualify. 🤗👍
Skip always sails with a full crew, you do have to bear in mind the subtle differences and particular needs of shorthanded and often not so young any more! cruisers.
I think I generally agree with with everything you and Dick say. The elephant in the room is cost. Compared to something like a Beneteau 47, 50 or 53 which are world cruising capable a Hanse 42, and even well equipped PoGo 37 there is simply no comparison on cost or performance. With respect to Dick the "keel dropped off" guff just does not bare scrutiny when you look at the numbers or the circumstances. It's an old wives tail that makes for longer drinking time discussions in the the elite yacht clubs. Or Marketing fluff when trying to justify a £2m build cost too the point of delivery... 😘 Sail Safe Guys, Ant & Cid.
Yes of course cost is an issue & I agree keels dropping off is a rarity, I only personally have seen one. Would like to know if there are figures for it though. Dicks point thought is that more and more of these boats are being used off shore and in remote places, they are also getting older! A hard grounding is going to compromise a boat like that and if you can’t lift it to check because you’re somewhere remote then it’s not ideal! For me the thing I dislike most about modern boat design is twin blade rudders. I do have personally experience of the issues there having personally had to help out 2 disabled boats that banged the rudder and locked the whole steering solid. One was just tapped it on the wooden sill on the bottom of the lock gate going into Chichester marina. He said be barely felt it but he came into the fairway with zero steering, I threw him a rope and pulled him into the hammer head. All good there but imagine if he’d tapped it entering a tricky harbour! Oh and by the way, you have your figures wrong. A Beneteau 54 is $1.2 the Kraken 50 is just under $1 million and comes with many more things as standard! Both out of reach for mere mortals like us I know but surprising none the less.
@@svfairisle Speaking of pricey, did you happen to inquire if there were any Kraken 66 builds slotted?
@@justbeliberty1842 I know they’ve had lots of interest, not sure what the wait list is though (less than for the 50 I’m sure) But they only have the 50 mould at Bodrum so far.
Thank you I always enjoy and learn so much from your deep dive tech videos. Please continue. What is the cost of the Kraken in your video, curious...
Just short of a million dollars
@@svfairisle Thanks. That sort of works out as I'm short of a million dollars myself LOL She is quite a boat if you need that level of build. Best
Thanks for this series!! Great detail. Inspiring me to the Kraken Brand!
Question: How well does it accommodate tall folks? 6'5" people?
You’ll have no problem with head height in this boat. In fact the saloon felt a bit odd to me with the raised deck & windows being very high, I guess it’s something you get used to but felt strange. I think the bunks are all long as well but I didn’t measure them.
@@svfairisle Love it! Everyone in the family over 6"1, self+ young men 6'4"+... Thanks so much for the attention to finer details/thorough/thoughtful interviews atop the regular content! Love the Channel!
nice boat, if it lasts long enough, perhaps my grandchildren can afford a used 2022 model. This is not too say it is over priced but rather that it is nice there are new boats that will be worth buying when the rest of us can afford them used. I am glad there are people willing and able to buy new boats but for me, the reality is 50 year old boats. I am glad there are some good ones.
Yes my feeling exactly
Haha, yeah I've thought this too. I'm 36 years old and have never sailed before. I reckon, by the time I retire, I will have gradually done enough learning-how-to-sail AND saved up enough that in 20 years I'll be able to afford a 2022 Kraken Yacht!
@@AndoCommando1000 full disclosure, I just bought a 1969 sailboat (less than 10k) ;)
@@lenwhatever4187 Awesome? Is that 10k in $dollars or £pounds Stirling?
What kind of boat is it and how big? For ocean cruising or costal fun day/weekend trips. Would be interested to know or if there are any links you’d be happy to share
@@AndoCommando1000 That would be in CAD (USD X .75-ish). 9M boat. It is our holiday boat for coastal cruising around Vancouver Island. It is a great step up from our 7M cabin cruiser, I can sit down for an early morning coffee without having to kick a sleepy boy off the table :)
Comparing the Solent rig with your more traditional cutter rig what are your thoughts on running downwind and appropriate sailplans
Well I think I need to do a video on the whole subject. And before that I need some get some more experience of a couple of rigs I haven’t tried. I’m a true fan the cutter especially short handed for anything over 40 foot (below that just a sloop) The cutter means you have sails of a size a short handed crew can handle without power winches even on Fair Isle which is 57 foot overall. We also have room for a detachable inner forestay for the storm jib so the rig is very versatile, you can hove too really easily, in storm configuration the sail area is inboard and CofE low. With a high cut Yankee it furls well so reefing the sail keeps better shape than a Genoa, the reefing angle doesn’t change as you fuel so you don’t need to adjust the car etc etc. But I was surprised at how well the Solent rig performed. I always thought it was a stupid idea to have two foil’s together so you can’t tack one of them, but the ‘blade jib’ works really well with is tight sheeting angle and flying both together for dead down wind is very good at least in flat water. But having said that in a folly sea when you’re getting fill & spill you’ll need two poles. Personally I find poling a PITA and it’s certainly easier on Fair Isle at least to run the preventer and just the one pole to deal with but it’s nowhere near as efficient as the two sail ‘butterfly’ configuration. As with everything, nothings perfect!
Oh and what I was trying to get at with the drawing is if you’re going for the high mast - big sails combo you need Power winches on a 50 foot boat, if you don’t want to have power winches then opt for the cutter!
0:16 can you use Barkeepers Friend to polish your brass column for your wheel? It’s amazing stuff.
Yes I use it for all the bronze and brass and then finish with 3Ms polish
I remember that you did a video sometime ago when you needed to change your dingy.
Could you let me know what episode or details of the dinghy you bought.
Yes we bought a TrueKit dinghy, we did a test, it’s here… th-cam.com/video/264eu3FOh9w/w-d-xo.html still very happy with it after 2 years I think it’s the best lightweight dinghy out there.
Thank you for the information. I’m in touch with them regarding buying a new dinghy.
Great yachts, but my piggy bank needs review
I want to get one of the Krackens so bad!
Should build the batteries into the keel instead of the lead. Would save a lot of total weight and even allow for a much larger battery.
maybe not the best idea to have the batteries in a deep part of the bilge where any small water ingress will get them! Low is good but not deep bilge, also lithium is a fraction of the weight of the old lead acid monsters!
What about the risk of fire with lithium bateries? Once they catch fire it is impossible to extinguish it.
That’s why you only have LiFePo4 lithium on a boat, they are as safe as Lead acid for fire risk
I cannot quite get my head around the fact that most boats have furled, jibs, genoas, genneckers, code zeros and so on. Why, for the main, are these just not turned on their side to form a roller boom. Weight all in the right place when stored, accessible and all the issues are addressable at deck level. It can't just be cost surely? In-mast is a problem just waiting to happen it seems to me.
Why is carbon not used at critical points - for strength not light weight, particularly for those critical bulkheads? I watched Aquaholics on a 70ft Bering looking inside the front lazerette and a dive tank had smashed the bulkhead out! Not applicable here but a small amount of carbon implemented in the right places to spread load would work wonders for strength, surely. The other burning remark is why all new boats are not using Dyneema or one of it's spin offs for the standing rigging - it seems to me to be a no-brainer - 15 times the strength of steel and no corrosion, bingo! I'll let the rigging Doctor say the rest but it does seem to me that the boat market is more interested in interior laminate finishes than design. These are really great videos and you are mistaken if you think they are boring, tedious or simply too long. bring them on!
Thanks Bob & I think the same way about most of those things. But there is some reasoning behind why some things don’t fly quite in the way you expect Dyneema for example as you say great way of getting less weight aloft, stronger than steel and easier to see if it’s compromised. But that lovely roller furling you were talking about earlier… well you won’t be mounting that on dyneema stays!
I can say this because I consider Herb and Maddie good friends & they’re lovely people, but you know they’re mad as hatters right? I’m joking but they are willing and happy to cope with slab reefed sails, no engine & share their boat with half a zoo. They are special people!
On other matters the strength issue with fiberglass is being boosted with modern fibres, this is not carbon fibre because that’s a whole different thing, but the sort of lay-up you get in a Kraken could not be compared with chop strand mat.
The in boom roller furling sounds like a good idea for all the reasons you stated but ends up being a problem keeping the sail on the boom and not gouging itself to death on the goose neck. Not all things are as they seem!
@@svfairisle Thanks, but for me Dyneema is nearly a panacea, I noted it also has the same coefficient of friction as PTFE, and the lack of corrosion, we'll see. I do have slab reefing, which can be a pain hence he comments on roller boom. We nearly had one made, just big cost and potentially a new main to fit it properly made it prohibitive. We had the lazy jacks extended instead! Don't laugh, it helps no end. Surely there is a way to preset the boom angle? Southern Spars and Hall Spars are very keen to sell you one. Two items for the back burner! Great series and I love the tech corner, I just don't like saying snap too often！
a very interesting video
SV Delos sailed around the world with the AMEL in mast furling, the motor failed but I don't think it ever failed
People sailed around the world on square riggers, doesn't mean it's the best idea!
Why I like roller boom furling mainsail with unlimited reefing points.
Dick has it on White Dragon but doesn’t like it as he finds it’s too easy to destroy a sail if it slips forward when you furl and gets gouged against the goose neck.Maybe there’s versions that stop that happening?
@@svfairisle My boat being much smaller as I wrap the sail around the boom I pull the bolt rope away from the gooeneck but once its locked and the halyard is tenshioned it doesnt move. The newer boom furling systems out now on super yachts in a motorised boom case.
@@svfairisle The moves forward if the boom is too low and the sail will move backwards if the boom is too high, so getting the topping lift right is the key when furling.
water geeks rule !
👍
how about a cutter rigged ketch?
Well in almost all cases this is a complete misnomer. You cannot have a ketch with enough fore deck to have a stay sail that.works in conjunction with the yankee upwind. I really don’t think they should be calling a ketch that has squeezed two foresails in a cutter, that’s not what it is.
@@svfairisle Hi sorry I don't understand - any resources you might point me at to save you explaining the space needed to have the stay-sail and yankee work together? Looking at fairIsles foredeck extension could the same not be possible for a ketch? Ketch I'm looking at is just over 60ft - from the main mast forward the two stays (both on furlers) and their spacing look v similar to my inexpert eye to FairIsle albeit no bowsprit - what is stopping it being effective?
On a really big ketch it's possible to have a useful cutter rig but I can't see a 60 foot yacht doing that. Fair Isle has a 57foot overall length which is what matters when is comes to sail plan. We have 9 foot between the yankee and the stayd=sail which is just about enough to have the yankee tack through the gap no problem, what is the distance between the foresails on this boat? The give away will probably be have they gone for a fore sail over 100%. If they have then they probably need ot for the drive forward of the mast and a genoa of this size will not work well in conjunction with a staysail. I can't imagine the main mast is far enough aft to give this space unless the mizzen is getting close to yawl territory. Would be interested to know.
@@svfairisle thanks yes now you say it and look closer its seems more like 3 or 4 feet between the 2 forward stays. Not seen foresail unfurled but looks bulky so guessing +100% - would need mostly furled to tack. I suppose using the inner foresail if short-tacking cant be avoided. It's a project boat Im looking at.
I've noticed many people pronounce Kraken as "Cracken", when I've always thought it was pronounced "Krayken" anyone know which is correct?
Cracken
Two guys so convinced of that they are know exactly what a superior yacht is………. Nobody reacting….
Lekker man lekker 🇿🇦
I will say they have a better boat all around. Would I sail your boat? Yes in a minute. you got a great boat. Is it up to par with the boat you are comparing it to? NO they have a better boat all around. A huge wave hits your boat and you have a bath tub which will fill and take much longer to drain. Theirs well is meant to drain fast. They thought of everything and their boat is the one to buy. The engine room to the living quarters is thought out right. Again I would sail your boat but would not buy it now after seeing theirs. I know you see why you should have one. you can get top dollar for your boat and do it before they know better is out their
.
Ha! That’s one way of looking at it! It’s certainly not what we think though & we wouldn’t swap Fair Isle for a Kraken even though we think the Kraken is an excellent boat. Is it a BETTER boat? for us certainly not. The swamping problem is not an issue for either as the Kraken has sorted it with excellent drainage and the Hans Christian has a small enough cockpit that even if it got pooped it would not compromise the boat. The big advantage we thing Fair Isle has over the Kracken is lack of complexity. We can operate without a generator, need no electric winches because of the sail plan and hydraulic bow thruster and windlass. The Kraken depends on its genny to function, I would not like that. Also as Dick says, you have to love your boat and that’s a personal thing. Some people will love the modern sleek design of the Kracken but for me it’s the wood, the low freeboard, the canoe stern, the bow sprit etc etc that does it for me, the Kraken is just not to my taste looks wise.
Engineers can do math but have trouble talking.
That’s a bit harsh, I think Filip did a fantastic job, I wish I could speak that well in a second language!
he was probably talking too fast for you to keep up
I don’t mind your videos but I now see you have a ‘special’ connection to kraken which has allowed you to trash other boat builders and their yachts…. Disgraceful if you ask me, Kraken and Dick should be ashamed.
Exactly what are you insinuating David? What is this 'special' connection you think we have with Kraken? I happen to think they produce good boats so I requested we visit their yard in Turkey (As we happened to be sailing there) In the same way, as we were attending the Annapolis boat show, I requested a tour of the Oyster they had on show. The fact that Kraken not only put up their Chairman and founder Dick (who by the way had just stepped off the latest Kraken 50 that he had personal sailed 500 miles as a shake down cruise) can only be their credit. Oyster put up a salesman who tried to tell me twin rudders are great because if you bash one you have a spare! I think that says it all.