Bavaria 47 Cruiser, 2001, circumnavigation

[UP]

Hello!

I have a Bav47 Cruiser from 2001 and I'm planning on sailing it around the world via the barefeet route East to West. I will be sailing with my kids and wife and hence the pleasant route. Planned duration is 2-3 years. I'm planning on 1:3 ratio of sailing to land-time to keep the family & myself happy, will not push the weather whenever possible, not racing deadlines. The meaning of this post is to ask advice on the boat hardware and/or upgrades. What are the updates I should consider. Some things I already have done or have on the boat:

1) New sails from Hydranet cavnas (supposedly can take a serious beating, UV proof etc);
2) Watermaker;
3) Will change battery bank to LiFePO4, extra sealed-lead battery for starting up engine;
4) Will add (more) solar panels, DuoGen 3 sea/wind generator, Honda 22i petrol generator for backup (will have a soft fuel tank for this to carry extra fuel in odd shaped places);
5) Soda blasted the bottom, new epoxy undercoat and antifoul;
6) Leak-proofed/changed portlights, cabin lights;
7) Will have a removable inner forestay for storm jib, just in case;
8) Will convert one toilet to storage, also building a workshop in the forepeak of the boat;
9) Complete makeover of the original bow thruster;
10) Forepeak is now a waterproof chamber (all through-wall fittings are waterproof);
11) Boat deck-hull seam has been fiberglassed shut, so the sealant issue is out of play;
12) Will replace chainplate tie rods with new ones;
13) Will have radar, EPRIB, liferaft, backup handhelf VHF etc;
14) Have already and will change thru-hulls where needed;
15) Will convert the main cabin table to telescope-feet to convert the large sofa-table to a large bed for longer anchorage stays etc;
16) Standing rigging is from 2018, so I'm not changing that just yet, looks fine;
17) All new clutches by Spinlock (Rutherson lower end product RC75 really is ... bad, sorry @Rutgerson);
18) Will add 50 meters of anchor chain to existing 50 m;
19) Planning on Starlink if budget allows, to have good access to weather reports.

I think that about sums it up of what is planned. So, fire away and thanks!
PS - the boat I have has crossed the Atlantic at least twice, so I know it is seaworthy.

[symphony2]

Seems fine. Hydranet is a good choice but expensive and you might consider Vectran which I believe is cheaper (or it was when I last bought sails of this quality) and my sailmaker friends rate it as better value. I have had 2 sails made with Vectran and both have been excellent. Suggest you look at using Coppercoat on the hull. The material cost is not significantly more than good 2-3 year AF although application time is a bit longer and getting an iron keel clean enough is a bit of a challenge but it really does work and will save money in the long run, plus you will be able to keep the bottom clean more easily as it will just be slime to del with. 100m of chain is really not necessary - and extremely heavy as I assume it is at least 10mm. Current thinking is 50-60m chain then rope and use snubbers. Presumably you have a new generation anchor and a strong windlass. Take care with your lithium installation. As you have no doubt found out there are many different ways of setting up the systems, particularly charging and cable protection. Also you may have to move your bow thruster and windlass away from the house bank (assuming they do not have their own bow batteries) to run from the engine battery and only use when the engine is running.

Good luck with your preparations

[Yngmar]

1. Expensive. Consider that when it gets damaged, nobody will have Hydranet fabric to repair it with, so it'll just get patched up with Dacron anyways. Either bring a roll of fabric or just go with a good, heavy Dacron. That was the advice I got from Peter Sanders and he was completely right.

4. Too many power sources. I'd skip either the wind/tow thing or the petrol generator, unless you're cooking with electricity or something silly like that.

5. Consider Coppercoat, you'll be in warm waters and its easy to keep clean with a brush and you can stay in the water instead of hauling out.

7. We had one. IMHO it's a pointless thing. When a sudden storm hits, you're not going to prance around the foredeck rigging that thing. If the storm is forecast, why would you go out? Barefoot route means you're avoiding the north Atlantic return where such a thing might be actually used.

8. Good idea. Also carry a complete toilet pump to swap over. It WILL break and you WILL miss it when you're shitting into a bucket. The complete pump is a 5 minute swap and then you can fix the broken one later.

9. Well, if it that the wife from running away, whatever it takes

10. Good idea. I was thinking about building a pressure tight safety box around the through-hulls in the forepeak as I didn't trust them much.

11. Excellent.

15. I rigged a net so one side of the main cabin couch can be set up as rough seas berth with the back cushion on one side and the net on the other keeping one from rolling out. I used this on a few rough passages and it was really useful due to less movement, close proximity to the companionway and secure rest.

16. Just inspect it thoroughly before you go.

18. Make sure you use a Vyv Cox approved C-shackle to join them. Friends almost ended up on the rocks as their chandlerly chocolate C-link broke.

19. Or one of those satellite messengers and an experience person ashore to give you weather routing messages? Elon can't turn that off on you mid-voyage


Also make sure you have good sun protection (bimini) and that said protection is usable underway and up to a certain degree of wind strength without having to be wrestled down or becoming a hazard. In tropical climates, ventilation and mosquito netting are essential, too. We got a windscoop and also turned our forward hatch around to face forward.

[SYJetzt]

I would suggest a complete set of spareparts for the autopilot or other means of redundancy

[UP]

Thank you for the input so far!

As for the energy sources. I ran some calculations, sometimes with the help of ChatGPT , read some blog posts and came to the conclusion that I will only add solar panels to the boat, dropping the DuoGen. As I will be going on a sunny path, staying in protected anchorages, then the wind generator is going to be ineffective. Underway, well ... solar will do, as I will beef up my battery bank. Whenever I lack power, which should not be too often, I'll have the Honda 22i to use.

I already have the fancy-material mainsail and will reconsider having my new genua made from this, as it can save a nice bit of money. I'm reading about the foam luff, supposedly helping with keeping sail shape with a partially furled sail.

The boat is presently painted with Wilckens Yacht antifoul, which is an ablative paint. It would be such a pain to do the whole bottom again :,) I'll read into it a bit further. Maybe I can do away with simply sanding the ablative layer down and the doing the coppercoat. However I might just stick with what I have and haul out somehwere. I want to stick to launch schedule next year.

My bow thruster has its batteries in the forepeak.

As for the chain and rope mix ... weight savings do sound good. I'll read into it.

[symphony2]

Either Hydranet or Vectran are good for foresails. A foam luff is a good idea if you intend using the one sail in higher wind speeds, particularly to windward. They were originally developed for older boats that had the IOR inspired masthead rigs with huge (up to 150%) genoas which were then converted to furling which meant the sail would have a poor shape with more than 3 or 4 rolls in it. Less of an issue with fractional rigs and less overlap. You might consider reducing the overlap as well as a foam luff as the original sail area is generous and only of benefit offwind. You don't say whether you will have any dedicated offwind sails, but worth considering as probably most of your sailing will be down wind.

Sounds like you have already had the bottom blasted and painted and if so you have "missed the boat" for Coppercoat as it only works if you start from a newly blasted surface.

How is your bow battery charged? a common way with lithium house bank is to charge the start battery and the bow battery from the alternator using a splitter and the house bank with a DC-DC from the start battery. This requires heavy cables from the splitter to the bow and you may already have these. The alternative if starting from nothing is to use another DC-DC from the start battery which only requires light cables.

With regard to anchors and chain you might find this useful reading
petersmith.net.nz/boat-anchors/catenary.php
Peter designed the Rocna so he has views that reflect his products, but they are representative of a growing trend toward smaller lighter anchoring equipment on the basis that better anchor design and improved chain/rope means the old "heavy" approach is no longer valid. The other articles listed at the end of the paper provide a pretty good overview of current thinking on the subject.

Hope you find this useful 

[Yngmar]

We had the foam luff. It sounded like a good idea. The sailmaker was ambivalent about it. I feel like it was probably a waste of money, as the foam compressed when you did a tight furl, which you always got when sailing with a partially furled genoa. After a few years the foam just stayed more or less permanently compressed.

About chain length, we had 75m but rarely used it all and then it's just deadweight in the bow. 50m plus some rope to extend it in those rare situations may be what you want. But two or three of those rare occasions were riding out a storm at anchor and I sure was glad it was all chain (and one piece) and could easily be retrieved and redeployed in a crisis by windlass without mucking about with knots or shackles or whatnot. You cannot leave rope attached to the chain, the permanently wet rope will rust the chain to shit in no time. Going for much lighter high tensile 8mm chain instead of regular 10mm was expensive but I was happy with that. Although now I'd just go for 8mm (10mm in your size boat) regular G40 chain as the loads with a snubber are not so high.

Making a proper snubber with chain retaining hook is another good suggestion by the way. We had a regular one and doubled it up in stormy weather.

Although now that regalvanizing is dying out and chain is becoming a disposable item (sadly), you can just leave the decision until replacement time comes.

[UP]

Quick reply on my bow thruster setup:
I completely removed all factory(?, previous) installments, including heavy cables running into the main cabin. The thruster is now entirety fitted into the waterproof forepeak, this includes: batteries, charger, motor, cables. I have a pretty hefty thruster, 160 kgf 7kW, and it uses 24VDC, so two batteries in series. The charger is a 90-230 VAC charger, which is connected into my AC system. So I'll be charging it with the Honda 22i or via an inverter.

[UP]

Hello again,

It turns out the ablative paint I applied after soda-blasting this year is total shit. And I'm considering re-blasting the bottom for next season. Might as well paint the copper-coat on in preparation for the circumnavigation. She will however still sail for one further season in the Baltic.

Do you have any recommendations for which manufacturer-product to go for? I would not like to copper-coat twice. Thanks!

[symphony2]

Genuine Coppercoat from AMC in Dorset UK. You will also need epoxy on the keel. AMC can sell this as well but you might be better sourcing locally I used Hempel Hempadur. 5 coats immediately after blasting. Job best done in warm dry summer months if outside.

[jeffatoms2]

Just wondering, as far as timeframe goes, lets say your route is 20,000 miles and you average 100 miles in 24 hours (4 knots and hour).  It's rough but that would imply 200 full days on passage.  3:1 might work, or 800 days.  Is that your estimate?  Speaking of time frame, you mentioned the boat has crossed the Atlantic a few times prior to you.  Do you know how that went?  How long have you owned it?  Do you know your boat intimately as in have you done all of the expected sailing, cruising, anchoring, navigating, inspecting, servicing, troubleshooting, repairing, and retesting on it?
Do you have a whisker pole and a mainsail jibe preventer?

How about mast climbing gear?  We have a Switec - a one person, self ascending operation in a pinch.


And spares, spares, and repairs!  Your boat is almost as old as ours and I know that most of our original systems and equipment have expired, failed and been replaced in one way or another. As Yngmar stated the toilet will fail so do you have a spare pump and rebuild kit and a few joker valves?  Speaking of stuff that expires, the diaphragm on most diaphram pumps and bladders in your accumulator are only good for a few years.  Those are a few examples of stuff that will probably fail.  Have SPARES and the skills to do the repairs.  If you have the gear, might I suggest Nigel Calders best seller, Boat Owners Mechanical and Electrical #3 or 4 and the shop manual for your engine with exploded diagrams.

After seven years of ownership we are still heavy coastal cruisers but just about every system on our boat has a live redundancy or a spare ready to go.  Same goes for ground tackle.  I've hauled the ground tackle up manually twice after a fried 20 year old windlass and a failed clutch followed by freefall (all 260 feet!).  Does your windlass allow manual recovery?  Have you tried it, and if not, have you done it from your primaries?

And what about your dinghy and trusty outboard?  If inflatable, is it hypalon?  Is it a RIB?  I.M.E. PVC is junk.  Tropical sun will destroy any dinghy quickly; do you have chaps?  Do you have a means and the abilty to lash it to the deck? We have had good reason to carry spare spark plus and spare carburetors and the right tools (or the more complex rebuild kits).  A patch kit, spare prop and extra air pump are not bad either, especially if you have the correct cotter pin.

Speaking of propulsion, what shape is the auxillary in?  What do you know about major service prior to your ownership? Do you know how to perform all service interval tasks?  Do you have a dual Racor or just the stock single non-visual fuel filter? This will matter when the crud in the 23 year old tank gets mixed into the fuel.  Do you have a couple impellers ( and a puller sure is handy) and a complete spare raw water pump and a thermostat and related gaskets?  How about all varieties of sealant/adhesivesneeded, and speaking of handy how about including butyl tape and a SplashZone kit?

I could go on and on about tools and spares parts, service parts, bulbs and fittings, but I'm certain you have this covered.  A few that one never seems to have enough are anodes (rudder, saildrive/propshaft/prop, water heater/calorifier, outboard, possibly refrigerator, others and PFD repair kits.   Speaking of anodes, I make marine water heaters for a living and you are risking premature failure if you have a watermaker as the source and don't know how to properly maintain it.  I just saw one that failed in under 3 years of seasonal use.

And to leave you with one more random thought, if any of the potential worst case scenarios happens, are you and your partner prepared?  Have you done all the dry runs?  I'm certain the scary stuff is covered but what about a plumbing issue like losing power and not being able to get fresh water out of the tank?

A circumnavigation is serious business. You just can't be too prepared but the key is  to make sure you do it and to have fun and make lifelong memories for everyone.  Be safe and ENJOY!!