Feb 25, 2016 | 2014, Destinations, Getting started, Marina Reviews |
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I’ve mentioned Leon Schultz in several previous posts (here and here). Leon is an RYA Yacht Master Ocean Instructor as well as a boat-refit consultant. We thought it would be a good idea to do a week-long “coaching cruise” with Leon to learn big-boat handling. He often does “getting started as a cruiser” courses for couples who are ready to buy a new or larger boat, but perhaps want to try manoeuvres under the guidance of an experienced instructor.
We had never handled a boat longer than 42 feet, or heavier than 9 tonnes and needed to prepare ourselves for our new boat (55 feet and 23 tonnes). Leon’s boat, Regina Laska, has a hull length of over 48 feet and displaces about 17 tonnes. It has a similar hull structure and keel to our future boat. Perfect!
Arriving on Leon’s Boat, Regina Laska on a chilly May morning.
Day 1
We set off on the 1st of May, a beautiful but chilly day on the island of Orust, Sweden. Our week-long cruise would take us directly over to Norway at around the same latitude. It’s normally not a great idea to start off with a day-long passage on open waters (seasickness!) but we had a weather window that would enable a lovely reach over to our first anchorage on the southern coast of Norway.
Leaving the marina in Ellös, Sweden
We both already knew how to sail, so the coaching didn’t cover that — what we did learn on the first day was how to think like a cruiser instead of a “week-end and holidays sailor”. Things like being kind to your sails and equipment, the virtues of continuous maintenance and checking your equipment every day.
We also had the chance to get to know and use the Furuno constellation of electronics Leon has on his boat. We found his Navnet 14-inch chart plotter was easy to use, and easy to see, even with sunglasses and from an angle.
Passage over to Norway
Arriving on Norway’s southern coast
Leon had integrated a bottom-discriminating sounder. This echo sounder, while not essential, is nice to have when anchoring up, especially in the evening when you just want to get it done without trying 20 different spots. It scans the bottom and tells you if the bottom is sand, mud, rock or gravel. You still have to test if your anchor is holding by backing down on it as you normally would — it’s just nice be be able to pass up the spots where the sounder shows rock or gravel. It certainly came in handy on our first night. We arrived at our anchorage at around 22.00. The skies were not completely dark, but we didn’t have a lot of light. As soon as the bottom discriminator showed us mud instead of rock, we lowered the anchor. And it held, first try! We were hungry so Leon, an excellent cook, got down to preparing dinner for us.
Our anchorage in Gamle Hellesund
Leon is a fantastic cook!
Day 2
The sun greeted us with it’s full force the next day. After a leisurely Swedish breakfast in the saloon (it was still quite cold), we were off for another day of sailing the beautiful south coast of Norway.
Gorgeous, but cold weather and beautiful scenery along the southern coast of Norway.
On our way to the anchorage at Olavssundet.
Our goal for today was to reach the anchorage of Olavsundet (Ny Hellesund) early enough to have a walk on the islands and have a sauna. Yes, Leon has a steam sauna on his boat! You can buy one yourself – Båtsystem in Sweden makes them. You need to install the “steamer” so that that tube comes out in the cockpit, and you hang up the vinyl sauna tent at the helmsman’s end of the cockpit. It got really hot in there, despite the outside temperature of around 6° C.
The steam sauna is the blue tent at the back of the cockpit.
The island of Helgøya at the anchorage provides some breathtaking views of the sea and the anchorage – it’s worth the dingy ride to shore.
Our anchorage (between the islands of Helgøya and Kapelløya) at Ny Hellesund.
Day 3
The sun continued to shine — what fantastic luck we were having as Norway is not famous for entire weeks of sun. Perhaps it’s the microclimate in the south? We weighed anchor with the goal of reaching Farsund – our first stop at a marina and an opportunity to practice big boat handling under motor.
The beautiful weather continues as our third day begins
Leaving for Farsund and the cape of Lidesnes (Norway’s Cape Horn)
The wind had turned to a westerly direction so we had to decide weather we’d motor for awhile or tack down the coast. We were here to sail, so of course we said, “we’ll tack!” The wind speed had increased as well to a steady 25-29 knots with gusts up to 38. It was a sporty and wet voyage with both sails reefed.
At lunchtime, we hove-to, to be able to use the galley in a safer way. We were far enough away from the coast and not near the shipping lanes. As it was quite cold (about 8°C) and very windy we wanted a warm lunch and decided to make some fish soup. Regina Laska heaves-to perfectly and we noticed the famous “slick” the hull and keel makes on the windward side of the boat. After two bowls of hot soup and a cup of coffee, we were really to take on the Cape of Lindesnes.
The Cape of Lindesnes is called the “Norwegian Cape Horn” because in hard weather, it’s a bit of a challenge. There’s a Gulf Stream current that comes up to the north coast of Denmark, hits Sweden and then goes back out west via the south coast of Norway. It was about 3 knots in speed and meeting 25-29 knots of westerly wind to the east of the Cape when we were there.
It’s also where the Skagerrak and North Sea meet, causing strange localised currents. Finally, this part of the coast rises from a depth of about 200 meters to 20-30 meters near the coast, creating the energy to form big waves. The area around Lindesnes, especially the stretch between Lindesnes and Lista, is known as a ships’ graveyard. Sorry there are no photos, but it was far too wet and rough to take out my camera!
Feb 15, 2016 | 2014, Build, Getting started |
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Discovery divides its build process into 3 stages (A, B, and C), depending on when each item needs to go into the boat. By May of 2014, we had made decisions on the “A” items and most of the “B”s as well. Here are some of the decisions we made and the reasons behind them.
Beginning stages of building Freja’s interior.
Interior decisions
Sofa that converts to a berth for the starboard side of the saloon, instead of the pilot berth many people choose on their 55’s. One couple ordered a kind chest of drawers/cabinet there, for charts, drinks bottles and cocktail glasses. Another wanted 2 easy chairs like you sometimes see on the Najads and Hallberg-Rassys. We liked the sofa solution because it gives you somewhere to sit and take off your boots. It also gives more floor space for our dog to lie down. Finally, it makes a nice single berth with the lee cloth up.
Fuel and water tanks going in
Pantry cabinet with sliding stainless steel baskets instead of a wet locker at the end of the galley. These four baskets hold an incredible amount of stuff and we can always hang wet clothes in the showers (a bar for hanging clothes is always provided in both showers.)
The woodworking shop at Discovery
Additional hanging locker in the owners cabin instead of a seat. I don’t know why anyone would need a seat in the aft cabin, when you could just sit on the bed. This additional locker would give both Jacques and I our own hanging lockers for our “off-duty” wardrobe, and we would have equal storage space on both sides of the cabin.
Cherrywood walls going up. On the left, you can see the beginnings of a galley
Deck equipment decisions
Upgraded windlass to Lewmar V5 and modified anchor chain stowage. Because we ordered the 55 kg Spade and 100 meters of chain we upgraded the windlass to handle the increased load. There is also a capstan next to the windlass.
Upgraded to all-stainless Andersen winches. These winches are known for being the kindest to lines (less long-term chafe) and the easiest to maintain. They are also beautiful to look at!
Integral boarding ladders on both sides of the boat. This is something we saw on the Discovery 57, which had recently been launched at the time of our visit. You can see them on the Discovery 57 in this video at 4.09.
Stainless steel bow protector plate. We wanted this after seeing so many boats with their bows nicked and scraped.
Additional mooring cleats. Keeping with the philosophy of “each line its proper cleat”, we requested two additional cleats at the bow and at the stern, giving us a total of 12 on the boat.
The Onan generator is installed
Mechanical decisions
Twin fuel filter with alarm. After witnessing what can happen when you have only one fuel filter, this decision was a no-brainer. (A fellow member of the Swiss cruising club was crossing the English channel with a chartered boat on a windless day, when the engine died in the middle of the shipping channel. After informing the coast guard on both sides of the channel, it took him an hour to change the filter.)
Hot tub plumbing. Well, of course! We’ll be sailing in Scandinavia and northern Europe for the first few years. The bathtub is also a great place for rinsing and washing things like our diving suits and equipment. This is one of the unique features of the Discovery 55.
You can see the two waterproof bulkheads in the bow that will be fiberglassed in – the first contains the chain locker and the second, the sail locker.
Grey water tank. My previous boat did not have one and I always felt embarrassed seeing our washing up water bubbles surrounding the boat. It’s better to keep your grey water in the boat until you get out of the anchorage or marina and into open waters.
Backup Autopilot. Thanks to some great advice from our friend Leon Schultz, we decided to install a fully independent backup autopilot. Leon’s words: “you don’t want to be trying to repair your autopilot in the middle of a stormy ocean. If you can afford it, install a second autopilot to switch to in case the number 1 fails.”
The deck is being built separately
In part two, I’ll go over some more of our equipment decisions and show the continuing build process.
Feb 2, 2016 | 2013, Build, Getting started |
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As we entered into the fall of 2013, we realised it was time to make a final decision. All three boats that we were interested in had combined waiting list and building times of up to 18 months and we wanted a boat for early 2016.
Why we decided on the Discovery 55
All three boats, the Discovery, the Hallberg-Rassy, and the Regina af Vindö fulfilled all of our original requirements. The most important reason for our choice was that the Discovery is a semi-custom build. It was not the most expensive of the three.
End of November 2013
Signing the contract and our first meeting with John Eustace, Discovery’s Owner Care Manager
During our first meeting with the yard as “owners”, we realised that building a Discovery was going to be a lot of work for us. There were a million possibilities in terms of options and customisation.. We had researched and discussed lots of good ideas to steal and bad ideas to avoid on other boats. We wanted to incorporate the good ones into our boat.
For example, we found out that we despise rounded-off, oval-shaped dinettes while sailing the Bavaria 40. Why? Because our favourite activity at the end of the day is putting our feet up with a good book and a cup of tea or a glass of wine. In the cockpit, that’s easy, you lean against the cabin wall and put your legs up on the bench. Inside, if the saloon is oval as they are in most Discoveries and recent Oysters, you can’t lean against anything flat. So we requested a rectangular dinette with perfect 90° angled corners.
At the time of signing the contract, we needed to have decided on four things to begin the design process: the colour of the hull, the hull option, the keel option (regular or shoal) and the choice and size of anchor (because the anchor determines the stem head design).
The only thing that is always the same for each Discovery 55 is the hull form, although there are two options — for either vertical or horizontal windows in the rear cabin. The the vertical ones are larger, we thought the horizontal ones looked more balanced.
You can choose any colour you want and we chose the classic and elegant navy blue that most Discovery owners have chosen. At first we wanted a white hull, thinking that the dark blue would make the interior of the boat hot during a sunny summer day. But after speaking with John and checking with some other owners, we felt assured the insulation was thick enough to prevent this, and we changed our minds.
I had already done tons of research on what anchor was best, and although the is no “one best anchor”, the Spade won out over the Rocna and the Ultra because:
- We did not want stainless steel
- The roll-bar of the Rocna takes up a lot of space for the size of anchor we needed
- The weighed tip of the Spade gave us more confidence of good performance in the sea-weedy anchorages you’ll find in some parts of Scandinavia.
After reading the excellent advice of John Harries over at the Attainable Adventure Cruising website, we specified an oversized 55kg (120 lb) S-200 galvanised Spade. John advises that you should go, if possible, two sizes up from the table specifications. He gives a number of compelling reasons for it. He jokes that if the marina isn’t laughing about the size of your anchor, it’s not big enough.
According the Spade Anchor Selector wizard, for a boat that’s 55 feet, for extended cruising and difficult sea beds, you should chose the 37 kg (lb.) S-160. The next model up is the 44 kg S-180, and then you have the S-200 that we chose.
We wanted the shoal keel to give us more possibilities in the archipelagos of Scandinavia. We were to be the first 55 with a 1.8 metre (5.9 ft) keel.
Discovery now had the answers to this three questions and could officially move our boat into the construction pipeline. The build was to begin in February 2014.
Fast-forward to February 2014
The laminating process begins – and here are the first photos of Freja. We had to decide about everything that has through-holes since the balsa layer needs to be cut out from each of the hole areas.
Gelcoat and epoxy layers finished – first layers of fibreglass go in the mould.
Another view of the fibreglass layers going in
The end-grain balsa wood layer going in. This is the insulation layer.
Kevlar layers are added for extra strength at the front of the hull. The yellow sheets are Kevlar, the white sheets are fibreglass.
Jacques checking out the Kevlar layers
The final fibreglass layers are laid in
