The Boat

44 ft Roberts Mauritius, ketch rigged (two masts, centre cockpit).
80hp Perkins diesel inboard engine also installed.
First launched: May 2002.

Choosing the boat
It has for many years been Nigel’s dream to sail around the world. Although his first idea for a sailing yacht was to build one himself in steel, in fact in August 1999 we saw an advert for a fibreglass hull with engine fitted in Falmouth at a very good price which looked very promising. It was the right size and the make, a Roberts Mauritius 44, was good for cruising potentially around the world. The partly-finished hull was an abandoned project.
We went to see it, decided to buy and paid our deposit.

Bringing the boat to Guernsey
We returned the next weekend for a week to prepare the boat for motoring back to Guernsey. It had never been launched and had no cleats to tie it onto anything, and only part of a steering arrangement. Parts of the plywood deck were not yet waterproofed, and there were no navigation lights or safety equipment. So we fixed all that to a minimum level, or actually, Nigel did most of it, and I did some of the painting and kept Nigel fed!
We wanted a friend to accompany us across to Guernsey with his boat in case we got into trouble, but with a good window in the weather we decided to leave midweek with no escort. Luckily all went well and we had a beautifully smooth starlit crossing of 16½ hours back to Guernsey, in our very strange-looking vessel with no rig!

Building the boat
Nigel organised and did most of the work on the boat himself over the next three years, leaving me to bring up the baby. His specialism is metalwork, he enjoys electrics and plumbing as well and will lend his hand to woodwork, although for the fitting out we employed a friend who was skilled at fitting out boats in wood. The hull and deck were painted in numerous layers of epoxy paint, and Boatworks + supervised the fitting of the masts and rigging. Nearly three years after purchase, Spinalonga was launched.
I will ask Nigel to expand this section as he knows the detail of what he did far better than me!
Nigel came up with many home-grown solutions when building the boat. Through his trade he knew many useful people, plus he is very good at fixing broken items, so he also managed to get very good deals on some of the new and second-hand equipment now installed on the boat. Along with a few mistakes!
In all we saved tens of thousands of pounds compared with paying someone to build the boat, and the usual cost of all-new equipment. Some details of equipment installed are in the cruise plan, a separate document.

Equipment
The boat has been designed so that much of the work can take place from the cockpit and be done by one person. Self-steering gear and an autopilot will be installed, to allow hands-off sailing in open water, although we always maintain a watch. We have radar installed which we have found to be very accurate and useful. The gas for cooking is stored in a locker near the aft of the boat and is completely sealed off from the boat interior. We have a series of gas cut-off switches and procedures for their use. In addition we have the recommended numbers and types of fire extinguishers installed in accessible places.
Three separate fuel tanks are installed and are of good capacity.
Water storage is divided into two separate tanks plus extra water storage space which is used for supplies of bottled water.
In addition we may install a water maker, for backup supply.
We have purchased a satellite telephone, which gives almost worldwide coverage over both land and sea and an EPIRB, which sends out emergency signals via satellite for rescue from the boat in an emergency situation.

A considerable medical kit is carried.

Electrical Power is supplied by the following equipment:

• Fischer Panda diesel generator 4kva
• AirX Marine wind generator giving 30 amps max in 25knts wind
• Flexible solar panel giving 2amps in good sunshine
• Sterling 80 amp multi stage charger,with 1500 watt inverter
• 80 amp engine alternator with three-way split charge diode

Some equipment changes implemented during our voyage
Spain, 2004: Air-conditioning unit fitted

South of France, 2004/5: Bathing platform built on the stern, while the boat was afloat.

Tunisia, August 2005: Our flexible solar panel bid us goodbye one night in rough seas approaching Tunisia. We bought 2 x 55W panels in Tunisia which were finally mounted in the rigging of the mizzen mast, an arrangement designed and implemented by Nigel which allows the panels to be adjusted for angle using strings and cleats.

Trinidad, 2006:

• Our Fischer Panda diesel generator finally died after giving lots of trouble, so now we can only produce 240V using our inverter. We then made big changes to our power generation and battery capacity, replacing our 110Ah domestic battery with a dedicated bank of 4 x Trojan 105 6V batteries in pairs, giving 450Ah capacity at 12V. Our solar panels were supplemented with a further 3 x 80W panels, mounted on the rails near the stern. The total solar power is now up to 350W, giving up to 25A. Before we left Trinidad, Nigel also designed and built a 12V DC petrol generator from an old 5hp outboard engine with an alternator fitted to it.
• Watermaker installed
• Teak layer added to cockpit seats to improve grip
• Self-steering gear redesigned by Nigel, now with simple lifting mechanism
• AIS receiver added to Nav station which pre-warns of the approach of commercial ships by collecting the identifying AIS information they regularly broadcast.
• 12V fans installed in all cabins making a big difference in tropical temperatures.

Panama, 2007: Data kit added to Iridium phone, now we can exchange simple email, and order up GRIB weather files at sea!

Fiji, 2007: Cockpit dodger remade with solid top of plywood and epoxy-glass. The three large solar panels moved on top.

New Zealand, 2008: Old canvas cockpit dodger windows replaced with solid windows of polycarbonate mounted in fibreglass panels.