Bav 34 yom 2000 - at a cross roads

[Jeff Jones]

Hi All.

I am looking for some insight from your collective minds and Id love to hear your thoughts and opinions' please.

Bit of background
I have owned my Bav34 for nearly 5 years, I bought her for £30k vat paid, which was very reasonable at the time but she had minor issues which have all been sorted. My plan then was to keep her long time for lake sailing and weekending in the UK. But things progress as they do. Currently she is set up for weekending and works well for that.

Now I am looking to my next move, to put her on the sea and to solo / couple sail her weekends. Building up to solo round Britain next year then to possibly further a field solo sailing with my better half joining me at 'where ever' after the passage for extended holidays. For me its the journey more than the destination, my better half is the opposite.

The Bav 34 is rated CAT A offshore and CE Marked for what there is worth.

General spec is
            Shoal Keel (1.5m)
            In Mast furling
            2 cabin layout
            New VP D1-30 engine and sail drive and diaphragm (200 hrs)
            Original sails still ok for lake sailing, no other sails
            Original Raymarine gear still working
            Electrically upgraded 300a/hr Full River AGM batteries with 2x 42watt solar (perfect for weekending)
            Toe rail removed and resealed as well as stanchions no water leaks now
            Sea Cocks all replaced
            Original standing rigging, but checked out by rigger who said it was still in good condition but should be
            replaced because of age
            She is dry

So my questions,

1 Is the Bav34 a compromised for anything more than coastal cruising? I know Bavaria's have crossed seas and oceans but     mainly bigger boats. Speed would not be a major factor for me because of LWL or in mask furling. From research the Bavaria boats are at the lighter end of the cruiser for off shore.

2 Since the basis of the boat is very good - Is it worth investing more in the necessary upgrades into the BAVARIA 34 (the boat I already know well)? or to sell her and get a more traditional offshore cruiser but this is likely to cost more and more risk of finding the skeleton's it maybe hiding. 

If I was to keep and upgrade my Bav 34, Id look to do the following upgrade (open to suggestions)

   Increase water tankage or small RO water maker
   Improve storage
   Solar arch to add 300-400 watts panels + increase house batteries capacity
   Remove the keel and inspect / replace keel bolts etc
   Full marine survey
   Upgrade nav / communications gear
   Replace standing rigging possibly add stay short forestay for a storm sail.
   New sails
   New safety gear

   And most importantly to increase my own level of experience over the next year or so.

I am a 52yo electrical / mechanical engineer so most things are jobs for me, with the exception of rigging, keel and survey.
Before this boat, I had a Jeanneau Fantasia 27' again on the lake.

So to sum it up -
If being conservative with weather planning can a Bavaria 34 made in 2000 make the grade?
If I was to sell and source a more traditional offshore cruiser it will put another 12months on my plans

Cheers Jeff

[Yngmar]

Certainly suitable for sailing round Britain. Your plans all sound good, apart from dropping the keel - I would not do that without good reason (hard grounding at speed). You're not likely to find anything otherwise and won't improve things by doing so - and it's a big job, those funds are better spent elsewhere. Let the surveyor check it out and pull one keel bolt to inspect - that ought to be more than sufficient.

For longer distance cruising I think the boat might be a bit small, although it's been done before. It's mostly about how many supplies, spares and tools you can carry. But depending on where you go, and if with just one person, it might just be big enough.

Adding an AIS transceiver would be very helpful in the busier sections (channel). Skip the watermaker for now, you'll find plenty of taps on your trip. Fit it when you get to areas where it's actually needed, otherwise it'll just cost you money sitting around and wanting to be maintained until then.

[Clivert]

We've had our 2001 34 for seven years.
We sail to France ( when allowed to )and have no problems with shipping without AIS.
We too have roller furling main and furling headsail.
Might advise checking the bearings top and bottom of those.
Add another water tank if you wish but we have found 150 litres plenty ( most harbours have fresh water )
On the helm in heavy weather I tend to have a short safety line attached to the binnacle as the seat behind the helm and the stern rail is quite low.
Happy sailing

[Rampage]

As others have said, the Bavaria 34 is well up to the proposed sailing.  Indeed, I’d be happy taking her on longer trips than that.  If the OP is thinking of doing a transat in the future, then increased water tankage or a water maker would be needed but that’s not needed for round UK trips. 
I’ve fitted a salt water tap at the galley, which saves an incredible amount of fresh water by doing all the washing up in salt water.  It’s also got a spur into the anchor locker for washing decks and the anchor chain.
I wouldn’t bother doing anything to the keel unless there is some indication of a real problem (cracks in the grp, leaks).  It’s a non trivial job and you may wind up doing more damage than you cure....
Fitting a second forestay isn’t worth it for the proposed sailing.  You’re going to be sailing from point to point and with modern forecasting the chances of getting caught in weather bad enough for a storm sail is slight to non existent.  If you’d like to carry a storm sail, look at one of the variety of options for sails that can be rigged round the furled foresail.
Otherwise, go for it.  It all makes admirable sense: do it before something else comes along to keep us locked up at home....

[Symphony]

A Bav 34 is pretty good for what you want to do - the limitation will be you not the boat. Plenty big enough for singlehanding or 2 up (30 years ago would have been considered the height of luxury!).

Your seems to be very well setup already. For coastal (and offshore in the sense of going cross channel, down the Atlantic coast etc) you have more than enough battery and charging capacity already - you have more than double the standard. You only need to think about increasing if you want to spend more time at anchor and be independent of the land. Spend some time and money reducing consumption - LEDs, extra fridge insulation are good starts. Same with water capacity. Typical water usage for drinking/eating/cooking is between 5-10l a day. The big consumer is showers. Typical round Britain and even long term coastal sailing is really a series of day sails with the odd overnight and anywhere between 30-50% under motor. Not sure why you want to increase stowage. A 2 cabin has more than enough for one or 2 people. It might become a problem if you are wanting to provision for 20 days offshore but for what you describe you are never going to be away from shore for more than a few days. Worth reading some of the books and accounts of round Britain to get an idea of how other people manage. For example my sailmaker went round with his wife (and dog) in a Contessa 27 very comfortably in just over 3 months, but others take it slowly over a season or 2. There are almost as may ways of doing it as there are people who do it!

Agree, absolutely no need to drop the keel unless there are clear signs of failure of the keel/hull joint. Equally why do you think you need a survey? For navigation, get a good chartplotter and AIS, mounted at the helm with a backup of a phone or a tablet (and paper charts!). Good autopilot, preferably below decks type rather than wheel. 4 man liferaft and an EPIRB. Get an assessment of your current sails. Talk to a sailmaker for advice, perhaps looking at an upgraded main and jib, probably a bit smaller than the standard and an offwind sail such as cruising chute. For singlehanding the key is simplicity of handling rather than performance. Personally I would not spend that sort of money (could be £8k+) until I had some experience of offshore sailing. The way you describe it your boat is already better set up than the vast majority of similar size and age boats!

Don't be seduced by old heavy "offshore" boats. The sort that you could buy for similar money will be old, knackered, cramped, slow, and nowhere as near well put together as you imagine.

Hope this helps
it is common advice when undertaking the sort of sailing you are planning is to go with the boat you have and know

[Jeff Jones]

Thanks for your responses, that's really good info.

Am considering, at the end of this season moving her to my workshop so over winter where i can do any upgrades, launching next spring at Fleetwood.
I've set my sight on the round Britain as my skills and work allows next year maybe two, after that id like to take longer trips but not thinking about that too much, apart from 'longer trip' upgrades i could carryout whilst in my workshop over winter this year id like to get it done were the labour is cheap i.e. by me.

Keel - i don't have a good reason but I thought it might be prudent, since the keel bolts are about the only thing I haven't checked for myself.
The pre-purchase survey was clear with specifically no signs of grounding, tight / sealed keel joint and no damage /cracks or repairs evident to the internal floor frame. The keel bolt tops and nuts visually are pristine.
The only thing I cant check for is crevice corrosion. But then again if the keel joint is good then they should be good?

I assume they threaded studs, that are screwed into to tapped hole in the cast keel - secured with Loctite?

i ve been putting off the fridge insulation as i don't have the shoulders to get in the cabinet

i'll digest the rest of the info and am sure i'll have a few more questions.. if you don't mind

Thanks again Jeff

[Lyra]

Just to emphasize two points given by Symphony:
Good autopilot - probably will be used a lot while singlehanding. The common wheel mounted are limited, especially if old. At least with Raymarine some old model head units can support the type 1 linear drive which is enough for this size of boat. A rudder feedback sensor improves tracking drastically.
AIS - provides valuable information. Cost is low enough to purchase a transceiver so that others also see you.

[Symphony]

Just a couple of things to add. You did not mention whether you have an anchor windlass - if not should be high on the list plus a new generation anchor such as a Rocna, Manson, Spade or at the very least a Delta plus 50m of 8mm chain and a good nylon snubber. Your 5' draft allows you to get into anchorages that you may reject if you had a deeper keel and anchoring is part of the fun of coastal cruising.

I assume from what you say the boat is currently in fresh water but moving to salt. Make sure you change to a zinc anode on the saildrive. Might be a good time to consider having the bottom cleaned and applying Coppercoat. Not expensive if DIY and long term big savings in haulout and antifoul costs. Worth checking the steering cables and dropping the rudder to check for corrosion in the lower bearing housing. If using conventional antifoul leave a 10cm ring around where the rudder stock enters the hull and use Trilux in this area as the rudder stock and bearing housing are aluminium and do not take kindly to copper based AF, although Coppercoat is OK as the copper is in the resin. Good idea also to coat the saildrive housing and propeller with Velox to minimise fouling in salt water.

On crevice corrosion, most unlikely you would ever see that on keel studs. The keel is glued and bolted onto the hull so the only way water can get to the studs is if there is complete failure of the glued joint. While it is common to see localised degradation of the seal at the edges it rarely goes more than a few mm deep and easily repaired by scraping out and refilling. Can look messy as water gets at the iron keel and bleeds out rust but once cleaned out and treated before sealing does not usually reappear.

As you will be having the mast down, definitely worth replacing the stays. It is a DIY job if you get a rigging shop to make up direct replacements for the old ones. You can get guidance from the Selden website on setting up the rigging when you restep the mast, but you might find it worth paying a couple of hours time for a professional rigger to do this for you. Also a good time to replace the wiring and VHF in the mast and fitting LED nav and deck lights. Remove the running rigging leaving mousing lines. Wash the ropes in the washing machine and replace any that are worn. Buy reels of rope and make your own halyards using Selden halyard knots rather than having splices done.

[Salty]

Regarding rigging wires, I can recommend Jimmy Green as a supplier, but if you take the wire measurements yourself and fill out Jimmy Green’s online order form, remember that the length of a wire is from bearing surface to bearing surface, not overall. So for example on wires attached directly to the mast using a hook arrangement, it is the inside of the hook from where the measurement is taken.  JG were very quick in making up my order, it was done almost by return of post.