Escape Expeditions 15 March -3 April 2013

Escape Adventure 15 March -3 April 2013

Escape Adventure 15 March -7 April 2013

This is the short story or "log" if you will of an adventure on our sailboat, Escape.  Escape is a 47' Catamaran, designed by Chris White and built by Alwoplast in Valdivia, Chile.  Alex Wopper owns Alwoplast and has built several 57' Catamarans, also designed by Chris White as well as many other custom built boats over the past 25 years.  Here are the stats for the boat:

Name:  Escape

Port:  Jackson Hole, WY

Hull Number:  ALW40011012

Official Number:  1244048

Builder:  Alwoplast, Camino a Niebla S/N, P. O. Box 114, Valdivia, Chile

Designer:  Chris White Designs

Length:  47'

Beam:  24.3'

Draft:  3.5'

Depth:  9.1'

Displacement:  20,000 lbs.

It's taken us a year to work out the details and get Escape built to her current state.  At this point, she's almost finished.  She's in the water, her masts are up, the sails are on, the instruments are all installed and operational, but not yet calibrated.  My son Jay and I came down to Valdivia to oversee the final efforts and to help with the electronics.  Escape is what most people call a cruising catamaran.  She is capable of sailing anywhere in the world because she has adequate navigation gear (radar, GPS, VHF and SSB radios, depth sounders, weather station, wind and water speed indicators, etc. and a water maker that can make 15 gallons per hour of fresh water out of sea water).  She's a very sophisticated boat and the wiring diagram is not for the feint of heart.  

The first week or so was spent making upgrades to the controls for the mast foils.  There are several features that are unique about Escape.  The mast foils is one of them.  Escape has two masts that are in the shape of an airplane wing on its end.  So when you rotate the mast foil (MF) it gets lift just like an airplane wing.  The two masts (foremast and mizzen mast) are supported by three stays (lines to keep them upright) and the forestay (the one in front) supports a large jib.  The benefit of having two jibs instead of a jib and a mainsail, is that in heavy weather, the jibs can just be roller furled at practically any angle to the wind, just by letting the jib out so there is less wind pressure on it and rolling it part way in (i.e., reefed) or all the way.  In very heavy winds we can sail with just the MFs and no sails.  In sea trials, with just the MFs up, we’ve been able to achieve 3 to 5 knots with just 8 to 10 knots of wind.  With all of the sails up, we’ve been able to achieve 8 to 10 knots with 15 to 20 knots of wind.  So, on a good day we could go 190 to 240 nautical miles.  Each MF has a small flap on the back, so if we’re going to stay on a course for quite a while, we set that flap to add a little boost.  If we’re just sailing around tacking and gybing, we just leave the flap in the center position.  The mizzen mast has one additional function.  When anchored, we lock the mizzen mast in the centered position, so even in the slightest breeze, it keeps us heading straight into the wind rather than sailing back and forth at the end of our anchor rode. 

Another unique feature of Escape is that she has a forward cockpit.  All of the sails can be let out or reeled in from that cockpit and the MFs can be turned 360˚ from there as well.  You can steer the boat from there and on a nice day, it’s the place to be because you are forward with a wonderful view of whatever there is to see, not hidden behind the bridge deck.  Another great feature of Escape is that, if the weather is bad, or cold, you can sail the boat from inside the 17’ wide and 11’ front to rear bridge deck in total comfort with the diesel heaters on.  The windows of the bridge deck are huge so you have an excellent view all around.

Escape has three bedrooms (state rooms), two bathrooms, and two showers.  She has a full galley (kitchen) with a two burner propane stove and an awesome oven.  On the 6’ X 16’ back deck, we have a Magnum BBQ grill, so when the weather is good, we can cook the catch of the day outside and since the rear windows in the bridge deck roll down, we can pass food or cold beers back and forth from the back deck to the galley or bridge deck.  We have an 5 ft³ refrigerator and a 4 ft³ freezer.  Both are electric and they draw about 6-7 amps each when they’re on. 

For power, we have four Lithium Iron Manganese Phosphate (LiFeMgPO₄) Valence batteries that provide 540 Amp Hours of useable power.  We also have two 12 Volt starter batteries that are independent of the house batteries so we don’t run down the starter batteries by running the refrigerator, lights, or navigation instruments.  To charge the batteries, we have a 100 Amp alternator on each of the 30 hp Nanni Diesel engines, six 140 Watt solar panels and a 350 Watt wind turbine. 

When we run the port (left) engine, it heats the water in the 40 liter water heater.  If we’re in port and plugged into 120 or 220 V power, the water heater will run on electrical power.  We have two anchors to hold us in place.  One is about an 80 lb spade anchor and the other is a 44 lb spade anchor.  We also have two 300 foot lines we can attach to rear cleats to hold the back of the boat to trees or rocks on shore if we need to do that.  My strategy is to sail in good weather as much as possible and stay at anchor reading technical manuals and writing blogs on bad weather days. 

I’ll post this now to get the blog going and will add pictures as quickly as I can so you can see the boat I’ve described above.  Then, I’ll explain the adventure plan.