Story by TMC Editor / May 11, 2017
1. When preparing a vessel for the approach of a tropical wave, depression, tropical storm or hurricane, be sure to close all seacocks, except the cockpit scupper seacocks. Leave the cockpit scuppers open to allow rain water and sea spray to drain out of the cockpit.
During one tropical storm, a large sailboat was blown onto soft sand in shoal water and would have suffered minimal damage. However, since the galley and head sink seacocks were left open, seawater flooded the vessel while the yacht was careened on its side. The interior was partially filled with seawater, causing damage to the engine, refrigeration, electrical systems and cabinetry. It was an unnecessary loss.
2. If you have the time when preparing for the arrival of a hurricane or tropical storm, consider removing your vessel’s lifelines and the vertical pieces of your two piece stanchions (base & vertical) from their bases along the gunwale of your sailboat.
If you are ashore in a safe haven, you will not need the lifelines and stanchions to hold on to during the storm. If they are removed that will keep them undamaged and they cannot engage stanchions or lifelines on a neighboring boat and cause unneeded damage.
3. If you are securing your sailboat alongside other sailboats in a rafting or marina setting, stagger the adjacent sailboats so that the mast, spreaders and standing rigging of your boat will not engage the neighboring boats.
During a storm, the wind and waves will hit each boat at a different time and each boat will respond and roll differently. If your masts are adjacent to one another there is a strong chance that they will catch on one another, causing unneeded damage. Move your boat fore or aft to keep the spars and rigging apart.
4. Boat/US has done research showing that polyester (Dacron) dock lines resist chafe much better than nylon. In fact, they have conducted experiments that showed that nylon anchor or dock lines would melt when mounted within rubber hose or tubing chafe gear! Apparently, the friction between the strands of the stretchy nylon line created so much that that the nylon line was able to part.
The recommendation from Boat/US is to use polyester lines at chafe points. Make a short polyester pennant that passes over the bow chock or by the bobstay to use between the bow anchor and the stretching behavior. Use the polyester line at the chafe points.
We had a great purchasing experience with The Multihull Company. Got us into the boat we really wanted, our broker Josie was amazing, she walked us through the entire process, negotiated the deal we wanted and gave us great advice throughout. If you are looking to purchase a boat we can’t recommend them enough.
It’s been a few weeks now and the dust has settled. We had a great experience with the Multihull Company and in particular our broker, Caroline Laviolette. Caroline was happy to share her knowledge of the market and the catamarans we were interested in purchasing. She was patient and thorough as we looked at several boats in SE Florida, helped us narrow our search and eventually purchase a beautiful 2017 Lagoon 42. Many thanks to the team at The Multihull Company!
We had a great experience purchasing our boat with Will Miller as a buyers agent. Purchasing our first large Cat is a daunting experience and Will was able to walk us through the process with ease. Will was very straight forward and constantly gave us honest feedback as well as finding and pointing out details on all the boats that we may not have noticed or thought about.
We had a great experience and would use them again.
I would specifically recommend a buyers agent when purchasing to help weed through a lot of problems and misrepresented boats on the market.
We have had great experiences with the Multihull company. We both sold our old boat through them, and bought our new boat through them. I have to say that Will Miller is top-notch, and Riley was great as our broker for selling our O day 39. when you buy a Salt or Boat through them, I feel like you are not only clients, but you are friends. The lines of communication were always open and we were always informed of everything going on.
Successful relationships cannot exist without it. At The Multihull Company we base every relationship on a firm commitment to earning and retaining our client’s trust.
Advice of any kind is valuable only when grounded in hard-won expertise. It too, must be trustworthy. Trust and expertise define the heart and soul of The Multihull Company. We are a team of skilled professionals who thrive on providing expert, trustworthy advice and service to catamaran and trimaran sailors around the globe.
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