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The Logs of SV Unladen Swallow 2 - 2025
Jan 2025
Insurance Resolution
We finally got the bank paid off on the 6th of Jan. Then when we asked about our money we got asked for a payoff letter from the bank (WTFO). So back to the bank we go for yet another piece of documentation. .....
The Search for the New Boat
While waiting for the insurance payoff, we've been busy online and in person looking at boats. We were thinking about getting another mortgage so we could get a bit more modern boat, but because we don't have a physical land based address, it's obvious that we are full-time live-aboards, and the mortgage laws are not advantageous to the lenders so they won't provide financing. So we are going to be looking for a boat we can buy outright with the insurance funds and likely dipping into the retirement funds a bit more.
Let's start with what the old boat was and what it could and could not do
We’ve learned a tremendous amount from owning and operating SV Unladen Swallow. SV Unladen Swallow was a 2002 Beneteau First 47.7. Her hull design was optimized for Blue Water Racing. This made her a racehorse. She was 47’ long and the interior was designed to keep a crew of 9 berthed and fed while racing. Our boat was hull number 220 and she was bought to be the home of a couple who were no strangers to the world of sailing. He was an accomplished J24 racer and wanted a cruising boat that could take him places without waiting around for perfect conditions.
He took delivery of the boat originally called “Wombat of Sydney” in France and then fitted it out there before leaving for the east coast of the US only to rip out everything done by the French Technicians and redo it all himself as he was not satisfied with the quality of the work.
His requirements were to be easily sailed single or short-handed (everything was rigged to the cockpit). He wanted to be able to easily sail upwind, so he constructed the rig to be a Solent. This means she had a second headsail configured as a high aspect ratio Jib. When finished, he had a boat that easily sailed at 30 degrees apparent or less. He also setup a spinnaker pole so he could fly an Asymmetric Spinnaker for downwind work, and he added a Code Zero for light air work ahead of the beam.
He converted one of the 3 water tanks (under the starboard berth) to hold diesel fuel doubling his fuel capacity. He installed a water maker that went through several iterations before settling on a basic high-pressure pump and membrane system foregoing the more technical solutions which had reliability issues in the past.
He put the largest GenSet he could fit in the Lazarette (3KW) along with a 400W wind generator. Along the way, he discovered that the original DC wiring was bare minimal for the loads and had to upgrade several circuits as a result to adequately power the refrigerator and freezer. He also added a solar array of 6 (six) 80W panels to feed a housebank of 8 golf cart 6VDC deep cycle batteries. Between the solar array and the GenSet he was satisfied with his ability to supply his energy needs.
He had a basic set of tools onboard and kept a healthy supply of spares onboard.
Once he got the boat to Australia, he decided he wanted more protection in the cockpit and designed and built a custom hardtop dodger and Bimini that covered the cockpit.
This was the boat we bought after it had circumnavigated. The systems were dated, and the culmination of the electrical work was by no means compliant with current marine electrical standards. The solar was almost 10 years old and most of the electronics were original to when the boat was commissioned.
The Refit section of this website takes you through in detail what we did, and why and finally our results, which were still very much a work in progress.
So, our requirements for our new boat are updated a bit based on what we learned.
Maintain the ability to single/ shorthand her.
Maintain the ability to navigate at more than walking speed
Be self sufficient (or as much as possible)
Sufficient fuel storage for operating the main engine for 5 consecutive days.
Have sufficient reserve buoyancy to easily accommodate tools, spares, dive gear, dive compressor, provisions for 2 for 6 months without significantly impacting performance
“Safe” blue water boat capable of handling weather up to gale force without causing the crew to fear for their safety.
Easy water access for getting on / off the boat while at anchor for both pleasure and getting in and out of a dingy. (or an “inexpensive” path to providing that capability)
Easily accommodate a dinghy of 11 feet - davits for nightly and short hop storage and deck storage for long distance passages.
Easily accommodate 3000-4000 W of solar (mixture of fixed and flexible panels)
A cockpit easily sheltered from weather, but also easily ventilated while at anchor (path to a hard dodger/ Bimini).
Sufficient refrigeration (Refrigerator and Freezer) to store protein to support provisioning described in #5.
Water Maker (Basic technology)
Easy path to a true workbench and ready access to tools necessary for 90% of the maintenance work on the boat.
Accommodations for 4 – 2 berths – one master.
Be Cutter Rigged forward but accommodate light wind sails (Asymmetric and Code Zero)
The Hull must be free of serious osmosis.
The Rigging and sails should be in good condition – if the standing rigging is more than 10 years old – we will replace with Dynema.
Traditional slab reef mainsail - Jiffy Reefing.
Serviceable main engine and GenSet.
When taking all of this into account, we’ve decided we need to be in the 50’ range to easily fit everything without negatively impacting the ship’s performance underway.
We have also learned that we can not get consumer financing for our boat since it is clear we will be living on it full time and the regulations are not in favor of the lending institutions. We are exploring the ability to use commercial financing as an alternative.
We have decided that we can afford up to about $200K as a final purchase price. This will get us an older boat (1980’s) but we are confident that these older boats are well constructed and once they are thoroughly surveyed to ensure the hull and electrical systems are in good working order.
Once we have the boat, we plan to bring it to Stuart, FL where there are ready sources of parts, expertise and labor to bring the new boat up to speed.
Salvaged from the first boat and available for the new boat's retrofit.
We were able to salvage much of the upgrades we made to the original boat and they should help defray the cost of bringing the new boat up to speed.
As a starting point, we salvaged:
All the Victron components for the Electrical system
All the new electronics (mostly Garmin to include the new NMEA 2000 devices)
The 3 new sails we had made (Genny, Asymmetric, and Code Zero)
The 2 headsail roller furlers (one was new)
The water maker components – the high-pressure pump needed to be retired
All the running rigging that was serviceable along with much of the rigging hardware
All the safety gear including our life raft (which needs to be recertified)
The electrical appliances we purchased for our galley conversion
All our Dive related gear
Our Anchor Rode (primary, backup and stern minus the primary chain which we sold before leaving Grenada)
The new electrical Winch
The new electrical Windlass
OK so let's look at what we've learned (mostly from others with far more knowledge than us) about builders and models in our target range.
We've been strongly advised to stay away from the large production line boat builders (e.g. Beneteau, Jeanneau, Bavaria, Catalina, Morgan and Hunter) because of build quality and their design focus being mostly coastal cruising. While there have been many of these boats taken offshore, we have been told that there are far better offshore builders out there. These tend to be much lower production runs and are either much older or much more expensive newer boats. Once we took out the builders listed above and then we started looking at the remaining builders. Many of the older boats were designed to circumvent older racing rules and featured tumble-home hulls and these are designed to heel way over (not comfortable for long distance sailing). We also looked at some of the builders like Irwin and Formosa but were advised that these while being tanks, they sailed like it.
Meeting SV Unladen Swallow 2
So, from here, let’s look at the survey results for our chosen boat:
Hull
Motor
Rigging
Sails
Deck
Optional:
Electronics
Electrical
Plumbing
Refit plan
Path to Cockpit weather protection
Path to short handed/ single handing rigging
Path to Sails Installation and rigging
Path to Water Access on Stern
Path to Solar Installation
Path to Electrical Installation
Path to Electronics installation
Path to internal reconfiguration for storage and use
Path to Galley conversion to electric
Voyages of Unladen Swallow 2
