Orana 44: In General

[yeloya]

Hi Henryv,

Glad to hear that you are happy with yr Orana.. As you mentioned the Furuno speedmeter which doesn't work, I'd like to warn possible future Orana buyers.. Since 2007 or 08, FP switched from Raymarine to Furuno, thus, my Orana came with Furuno electronics. I know that it's a great brand, but for some reason we had endless problems with it. Several parts and components have been changed but we couldn't fully fix the problem. When we ordered recently the new Lipari for our fleet, we asked for Raymarine, that has been installed in La Rochelle and the boat is on now the way to Turkey. This operations had quite some extra cost as FP didn't fully reimburse the Furuno that we didn' want + installation in France (damn expensive..)

Hope,it doesn't happen to you.



Rgds

Yeloya

[oscar]

I am 6'1" and have 6" or more headroom throughout the boat and as the floor level is same from cockpit all way through to the transom no problems passing through entry also.

Question (to anyone) : Can a 6 foot person (1.83 m) stand up in the cabin and see the horizon? Or does he/she have to crouch down?

[henryv]

Yeloya - perhaps we are just two unlucky customers but Furuno has been a problem to the point where I now have a mix of Furuno and Raymarine. I wish I had specified Raymarine from the start.

[henryv]

Originally Posted by oscar

Question (to anyone) : Can a 6 foot person (1.83 m) stand up in the cabin and see the horizon? Or does he/she have to crouch down?

In the main salon you can easily see the horizon without crouching down. In the master berth you can see the horizon while lying in bed enjoying the view through the oval side window.

[DtM]

I wonder how difficult it might be to retro fit the existing forward starboard berth and convert it into the new factory configuration with the cupboard etc space in the central area of the hull.

Are all Oranas now fitted out in darker timber or is that an option?

[Gordon]

Hi Daniel,
As far as I know there is no option on the timber colour and with the bathroom I suppose anything is possible with the help of a good shipwright and a talented cabinet maker.

[DtM]

Hi gordon,

Does that mean that all the timber is still the light colour you have on your Orana and we have on our Mahe?

Just I saw a photo that seemed to have darker timber. Maybe it was a photo with bad lighting.

How are you going?

d

[Gordon]

Hi Daniel,

Yes the timber in our Orana is the same as your Mahe, the lighter colour. We have been enjoying quite a bit of time on the boat on the Port H and looking forward to our sail up to Scantuary Cove again for the show in May.From there we plan to sail on to the wrecks at Tangalooma, Mooloolaba, Wide Bay/Frazer Is. then on to Lady Musgrave Is. We will then return with various stops to Sydney as we have our first grandchild arriving and this limits our time away. Will look forward to the full Whitsunday experience in the future.

Regards Gordon

[tehansen]

Hi,

First of all, thanks for a great thread! In my decision making process leading up to the purchase of a 2010 ORANA 44 I was able to follow your trail of experiences all the way back to 2006/7. Good help, and did in fact influenced some of the choices (like the RM vs Furuno) I made.

We are taking delivery a couple of weeks from now, needless to say very excited. Later in the year taking the boat and my family sailing from Europe to Caribbean, joining the ARC 2010 rally.

To my question(s):

As most of you now have spent (some several years) some time with your ORANA - what are your lessons learned?

Which are the issues I need to look out for, are there any technical gotchas which I could - fairly soon - start to plan for or mitigate instead of waiting passively until they occur (potentially mid atlantic). Which of the bits & bobs do you see as consume (parts etc) and should be considered added to the spares inventory?

What should I look out for at delivery/sea-trial??

Additional to STD delivery we have:

VP-D2-40 engines
ONAN 9.5 genset
AC (and heater) integrated
Full RM navigation: E-120W, HD Digital Radar, AP, dual 240 VHF, 300W solar panel (on top of davits), EL winches, Genaker, Helmstation reefing system etc. Its a maestro edition with the stbd fore peak fitted with washer/dryer.

Rgds
Trond

PS! Website under construction

[Gordon]

Hi Trond,
Welcome to the FP Orana family, I am sure you will enjoy your boat as much as we have, a great choice. My wife and I visited the factory in La Rochelle last September and looked over the current build Orana and were delighted to find that the factory have incoporated modifications and additions that we recomended. These were issues that came up as we used the boat over the last two years and we have had corrected by local shipwrights at factory cost. Our support from our local dealer could not have been more helpful and any of our problems were very quickly rectified.
Having said that these were minor problems and not of any design or structual issues. We have found some small gell coat defects, a minor water leak around one of the hatches, so all very easy to fix.
We are looking foward to more Orana owners posting on this forum and being able to share their experiences.

Regards Gordon and Louise.

[henryv]

Congratulations Trond - you have bought yourself a very nice boat.

Our experience with the Orana is still relatively short term so we don't have that much to report. The boat was generally well made and our list of deficiencies were largely related to instruments and a modest list of minor adjustments.

When you check out the boat be sure to verify that the port side cabin doors latch properly when closed. On ours the hinges had to be shimmed before they would stay latched. Also check to see if they have provided something to keep the stbd hull sliding door in the upper guide track - we had to add a bracket to keep it engaged properly.

You should monitor the solar panel output to make sure they charge properly. There is a fairly involved set up procedure and ours had to be reset before they would work properly.

For some reason our electric pump for the sea water rinse at the galley sink was short lived. Suggest you get a spare as your fresh water tanks go down much faster when this is not working.

Make sure the chain guide in the anchor locker is well secured. It is a bit light and was only held in place with a couple small screws that let go too soon.

[DtM]

Congratulations tehansen on your purchase. I am sure you will enjoy your Orana.

It sounds like the Atlantic crossing is in the autumn for you.

Can you tell me what hull number your new boat is please. I am just trying to get a feel for rate of production.

I will try to put together a list of hull #s and owners that are on this forum as we did in the Mahe 36 thread? Seems like there are a fair number (%) of owners who post here.

Again, congratulations.

daniel

[DtM]

Henry,

I think if I have your hull # (and Trond's) then I have these for posters on this site.

Gordon #4
jglauds #21
yeloya #24
henryv # ?
tehansen #61

[tehansen]

Daniel,

My ORANA is hull nr. 61

[tehansen]

daniel,

Yes, we are signed up for ARC 2010, leaving Las Palmas Nov 21'st. Probably spend the last 2-3 weeks there before the crossing. Local sailing etc.

Atb
Trond