Bluewater Bristol 40 ?

[heyyou]

In 2003 I bought my first big boat. My Bristol 40 HopeFloats. She was lightly used mostly as a daysailor, on the Cheasapeak Bay and hauled out of the water each winter and covered. See needed many items to bring her up to coastal/bluewater standards. Which I have done (mostly). I've added an Ideal windless, 100 ft chain/200ft 5/8 rode (Spade anchor), main acnhor system with 2 other backup anchors and rode 1 fortess with chain and rode and a small fortress like lunch hook or keg anchor. Replaced all the standing and running rigging. Added 2 8D batteries with 400 watts solar and a large alternor for the 4-108 diesel. Seafrost coldplate ref. New wiring with new Belmar regular. Removed the aluminium portlights and have installed SS portlights. I've added a Boom furler/ with new full bat. main sail. Added a chartploter and new depth sounder, new icom vhf, icom 802 SSB/ham radio (added the loaded backstay as antenna). Added the safety equipment 406 beacon jacklines harness higher lifelines throwing flots with line. 2 electric and 2 manual bilge pumps and added backing plates to all the thru hulls with through bolts. All LED nav and anchor lights. LED light below. One of the last things I'd like to do is add fuel capactity only 35 gal of d. would like to add 70 more gal. but space is tight I may be able to fit a 50 or 60 gal tank in the bilge behind/aft of the water tanks. but i have heard the bilge is not a good place for a fuel tank however I do see plenty of them installed there. any thoughts? I am thinking of removing my holding tank and marine head and installing a Natureshead composting head? (any thoughts?!) I've not listed all the up grades. but am open to any suggestions to make HopeFloats a safer more effient cruiser. Oh' I forgot I use a Hydorvane selfsteering system with a wheel pilot electronic mostly for motoring. Please forgive my poor spelling. What are your opinions of Bristol 40 open ocean sailing capabilities? I have sailed her from Va. to fl 3x's, round the Delmarva 2x's the Keys Fl to Cheasapeak bay all gulfstream she seemed to really like it out there but I was very careful with the weather and have not had her out in more then 20 kts wind or 8 to 10 ft short cycle waves worst case Long cycle times swell I have a hard time judging there hieght ( they all seem big to me). Again sorry about the spelling and i hope this made some sort of sense?

[roverhi]

Nearly bought a B-39 yawl that had done a circumnavigation of the Pacific as well as the Carribean. Still kicking myself for letting it get away. One big thing they had added was two additional cockpit drains at the aft end. That's a big cockpit to have filled with water and needs to drain real quick.

If you can keep your speed down to 5-5.5 knots you'll only burn a 1/2 gallon an hour or so. You will have decent range with 35 gallons as long as you don't keep your sails rolled up all the time. A few Gerry Jugs in the cockpit or along the rail will give you any reasonable extended range you'll need. You'll need the Gerry Jugs for refueling in out of the way places, in any case.

I would ditch the holding tank and install an LectroSan if you feel you need to treat your sewage. Once outside the US, pump out stations are few and the tank takes up space that could be used for something useful. For one or two people, a composting head may work in warm climates. For more people or cooler climates, composting heads are marginal. One boat that did a transpac with a four man crew chucked their composter as soon as they got to Honolulu. It just didn't have the capacity for four guys even though they added no liquids.

Next time you need batteries, go with 6 volt golf cart batteries in series. They are much friendlier to your back.

[Pblais]

have sailed her from Va. to fl 3x's, round the Delmarva 2x's the Keys Fl to Cheasapeak bay all gulfstream she seemed to really like it out there but I was very careful with the weather and have not had her out in more then 20 kts wind or 8 to 10 ft short cycle waves worst case

I think you''ll find she can take more than that and then some. As a rule the boat can take far more than you ever can. Boats out survive people regualrly. You need to sail some 30 knot winds though. I find 25 to 30 to be quite a bit of fun. I find it does not get to be fearfull til 40 knots even if I'm taking it quite serious at 30. You can tell when the forces are getting far more than ordinary. Your boat should handle a whole lot more. Best to avoid it if you think you can. There can be times you can't.

Adding more fuel storage seems worthwhile and bilges are low center of gravity and a little bit easier to deal with. Our boat never had a holding tank and cruised for 7 years (not by us). They added a Purasan unit later and it still is that way today.

I'm not much for composting heads. Treat it it or don't seems better. Pump outs are not a world wide oppertunity and treating on baord is not that onerous.

I don't like wheel piltos as they only streer when you could have. Hydraulic auto pilots steer when you could never hope to steer. They cost more and it's not a bad thing. If I could steer myslef I would. Hydraulic steering has saved by behind several times. Like going close to the wind gusting to 30 knots with 4 to 6 ft chop on the Chespeake. I needed it to do that for a few hours so I could finish the long channel in after dark. I would have been wasted steering that myslef and no wheel pilot could have done it.

Being very careful of the weather is to your credit. Nothing beats "not being there". Don't ever lose that ability. You can choose to sail in good weather and take the risk that it might go bad but you don't need to go out in bad when it could be worse.

The Bristol 40 should be a sound design but it would need to be maintained. It seems you refitted a lot of things but there could be more needed. There is no minimum set of refits required. Personally, I would want 70 gallons of fuel with a few cans on deck. You might add dinghy fuel on deck too.

I'm more of the opinion that it isn't the design of the boat as much as the skipper. If you have limitations then you should know of them and plan for them. Cruising isn't a race with a prize to get there first so lose that idea soonest.

Have you done enough? I sure don't know but you have done a lot based on something in your head that appears right minded. You may have to accept the idea you know what you are doing and take the responsibility that comes with it. It really isn't about the boat. It's about you. We all can be smarter and if you never lose that idea you could go a very long way.

[heyyou]

Thanks for the input. I used to keep my boat at York River Yacth Haven when I first bought her. I moved over to Mathews With Kieth at Compass Marina. My first trip south was out of YRYH and the next 2 were out of Compass. We may have meet or at least sailed by each other. Thanks for both of your comment and more will be revieled.

[Pblais]

Did you buy the boat from the YRYH Brokerage? I may have looked at it. We live 1/8 mile upstream from YRYH. This has beena good place to sail from.

[heyyou]

I did not buy my boat from YRYH, however I did look at a Westsail 43 there. I just could not get the broker interested in me. I'll just say he would not give me the time of day. I spent 2 weeks trying to get some one there to work with me and finially gave up. Found Hopefloats while looking at an over the hill fixer-upper. The fixer upper fell through but I just could not get that Bristol 40 off my mind. I bought HopeFloat up in Annapolis in late Nov. 2oo2 I took possession of her one very cold day in Dec We had to shovel snow off her decks and cockpit inorder to move her form one marina to another. Oh brother did that ever bring up an old memory. The first sail was Jan. 2003 from Annapolis to York River and it was the coldest I've ever been in my middle aged life. it was snowing when we Pulled into the creek! since then no more cold weather sailing for me no sir. A man has't to know his limitations! However that last statement was a lie. 2 times going south for the winter I got late starts and each time I was cold untill just south of charlston S.C I mean frost on the deck and thin ice on the ICW through Va, and N.C. I was over planning and had to have everything perfect and missed the warmer weather window south. But I'm learning the little none safety issues can be handled on the way.

[Pblais]

Limitations include imperfection. You can't beat your real limitations and you never can get perfection. Perfection becomes the excuse for not making a decision. We all need the space in between. It allows room for all the things you never knew you didn't know as well as room to know when enough is too much and do the things you already know are right. Unknown factors at critical moments are - unknown! There are an unlimited number of things unknown you can occupy yourself with all the time. It's an impedioment to decsion making.

Comfort is a fluid space with room to be just a little bit wrong. You need the ability to sort out what matters from what does not matter. Historically, I think the worst things we do are the things you already knew were wrong. They easily become obvious after you do them wrong. It's most of what doing it the hard way is all about.

Stacking the deck before you take off and being open to opportunity as well as attentive to warnings is a better way to look at it. It's from knowing that good ideas are easy to generate but only the best one will perform well under the current set of circumstances. It's the preconceptions from seeking perfection that distract you from what you already know is correct and could see as the far better choice if attentive at the proper moment. Perfection draws you into thinking there is only one solution yet you can never know all the factors ahead of time. It reduces your alternatives because you constantly throw away alternatives you might really need only because they are not perfect. Perfection assumes you know it all and in reality you never do. An alternative having only one negative quality (the first one you find) is clearly not perfect and so is dismissed. You need doubt to drive your generation of alternatives not perfection!

You just can't know when the moment of a real decision will will come. Preparation is about being ready for the moment of a real decision and noticing it. Perfection just becomes the excuse for no decision. The ultimate perfectionist never gets anything done and clearly knows why. For some reason when around a perfectionist they also know why you can't do anything perfect too. This of course always is what you need to know.