Ep 163 Back in the Amazing BVIs Again | Full Moon Party Trellis Bay, Foxy's New Year's Eve Party

[@ricksimpson1543]

"...... a bigger maintenance issue...." - too funny! Love the underwater footage.

[@SailingTalisman]

Yep. She's the best though.

[@dancundiff3316]

These underwater video's! Wow!

[@SailingTalisman]

Thanks Dan. Scenes were shot on an older GoPro Hero5 in a plastic case. These cameras get better every year, especially the internal video stabilization features. Pretty much everything we do these days is 4K or higher.

[@Coleen-Love]

Wow... those shot of Talizman starting at 04:47 are very cool. Not sure why but super nice looking. Maybe its the location. But it makes the sailboat jump out.

[@SailingTalisman]

The water and the natural lighting of the Caribbean are what you're seeing. It's pretty much what you see with the eye (sometimes not, but mostly). It's why we love clear blue water so much.

[@Coleen-Love]

@@SailingTalisman ..it would be hard to leave that place as it looks like a dream life. Do you think that you will make it to South East Asia and all those wild islands like Vanuatu and Solomon Islands all the way through Philippians and Indonesia and Thailand etc.? There is a British channel called Sailing Florence that went through there (unfortunately during that recent shut down period) and I think that Talisman would sparkle in that region :)

[@SailingTalisman]

@@Coleen-Love We have loose plans to join a few friends of ours for a charter in Thailand. I think that's as far as we go as as far as the Pacific/circumnavigation go. I think if we were younger it would be more of an option.

[@Coleen-Love]

I can't believe that the new Oyster 495 comes with a "sail drive". No wonder the 485 seems to go up in price every year. By the time you stop sailing, the appreciation on your yacht might cover your expenses LOL...

[@SailingTalisman]

You could probably order it as direct drive from the factory. It has to be an option, and once the 495's start hitting the used market I suspect they'll be seen in both versions. But the way this works is that if the builder chooses Saildrive as the default, the manufacturer of the engine (Yanmar, Volvo Penta, etc.) will cover warranty for the entire assembly. Otherwise, Oyster ends up having to cover the stern gland, alignment, prop, and anything else not part of the engine and transmission. And as for Talisman, appreciation in price since 2017 has almost offset our investments in the boat. And that's a serious number, approaching $175,000. It's one of the key drivers of why I'd almost certainly buy another Oyster if we ever had to repurchase.

[@tomriley5790]

@@SailingTalisman I don't think there's a direct drive option on them - the responsiblity issue as you mention plus the design of the boat being pretty short by Oster standards. You'd have to talk ot Oyster to be sure though.

[@Coleen-Love]

@@SailingTalisman ...for fun I emailed Oyster and they don't offer the direct drive option. That is so weird for Oyster. I know several people simply refuse to purchase that Sail Drive due to all the issues with it. Catamarans are having huge corrosion issues with them and that huge rubber seal has to be changed on every haul out (according to Yanmar's specs). The lower oil changes also require a haul out. ..and then the water leaks and risk of sinking is simply unacceptable on a blue water sailboat. Total nightmare.

[@SailingTalisman]

@@tomriley5790 Thanks Tom. Yes, I spoke off the top of my head, but on thinking about it more, direct drive would change a lot of specs and structure around the stern area.

[@SailingTalisman]

@@Coleen-Love I thought the service interval for the "diaphragm" was ten years (for Volvo Penta). But still, it's a massive job that involves unbolting the outdrive and possibly moving the actual engine forward to make the clearances work for removal of the drive. It's pretty known technology, but I would only do direct drive myself too.

[@Coleen-Love]

Glen, sometimes when you show the hull from the inside (like at 07:30) it looks like we can see sunlight through the hull wall or seems. Is the sun that bright down there that it is visible through fiberglass?

[@SailingTalisman]

Yes, you're quite observant. Areas above the waterline that aren't painted on the inside are somewhat translucent. However, this doesn't translate to light or thin fiberglass. Having drilled through it for seacocks and such, I can report that it's 1/4" thick at minimum, and thicker in the areas of higher stress, like near chainplates and deck transitions. Hull thickness at the angle between the upper hull and keel stub was greatest at over 10cm/4" solid glass when we cored for the refrigeration through-hulls. All boats work this way, with materials being added and subtracted due to required strength. But the semi-custom or bluewater boats are built to be heavier and stronger in this regard.

[@Coleen-Love]

@@SailingTalisman ,,,the 485 appears to be built like a tank. That fellow on Zingaro drilled out a piece and it was more than two inches thick and solid. Wow!

[@svsalserenity4375]

@@SailingTalisman Yeah our Bristol is 3/4 of an inch thick at the least and much more then that in some places.

[@SailingTalisman]

@@Coleen-Love Yeah, that's James. He's stayed with us on Talisman a few times. Talisman is a rockin boat, and I have to say that while her speed tops out at about 9 knots, we keep pace with most other boats. This is because exceeding 9.5 knots or so on most boats gets to feeling like you're abusing things. And so even fast boats tend to run about 9-10 knots max when looking to comfortably cruise. Of course the bigger the boat the longer the waterline, and waterline translates to more speed. So these can go a lot faster. But Talisman holds her own on most days.

[@SailingTalisman]

@@svsalserenity4375 There's always a point of diminishing return (not saying you've reached it). I watched a video once where a guy was talking about how when fiberglass was first introduced, nobody knew how long it would last or if it would lose strength over time. The wooden boat guys joked about cheap plastic boats. As it turned out, the stuff is nearly indestructible, and blistering was the only real problem that needed to be solved. In the intervening years it has turned out that most of the older boats (including Talisman) were way overbuilt. But the heavier displacement led to increased seakindliness, albeit at greater expense. If I had to buy another boat today I'd buy another Oyster 485, perhaps newer (they ran to 2001) or maybe an Oyster 56 (the most popular and numerous of the Oyster line).

[@ameliasr3404]

So what you have done if you were down in Grenada today?

[@SailingTalisman]

Head south to Trinidad. And do so several days in advance so as to be able to sail the 96+/- nautical miles. This because the wind usually dies in the 4-8 hours prior to the system arriving. You'll see big swells coming in for at least a day in advance, then a calm. I saw a screens shot on Facebook of all the AIS signals as boats left literally the morning the storm was predicted to hit. And while there's something to be said for having lots of sea room, the reality of being at sea during a Cat 3 or 4 storm is something people have no real appreciation of. I get asked fairly often if I've ever been in a hurricane, and I answer "no, and if I have any say in the matter I never will".

[@svsalserenity4375]

No solar on your boat ? the genset make all your power ?

[@SailingTalisman]

No, we have 3 flexible SunPower panels on the bimini, putting out an anemic 490W (when new). However, this output, which translates to about 8A-12A @24V during the middle of the day will keep us charged during that period. But we lose power overnight, and will need to do something eventually to recharge. Luckily, the 840Ah of LifePo4 lithium batteries have been a game changer for us, letting us go for 10 days or more on a single full charge. Monohulls like ours don't have the real estate for solar panels like the catamarans have. There are options like stern arches for more solar, but we're happy with a couple hours of generator time.

[@RichardSwinton]

worried about everyone in the caribbean right now. hope u got out of there in time. worried about a couple of other cruisers i follow. hope everyone is ok

[@SailingTalisman]

Hi Richard. Thanks for the kind words but we're far away in Colorado for hurricane season. Talisman is on the hard in Antigua, as has been the way we've done it in the past (our insurance only covers within the Caribbean). But the pics of Carriacou have looked devastating, especially the marina in Terrel Bay. Knowing a lot of cruisers, we have come o realize that a lot either can't find or can't afford full coverage. I suppose it's a risk you take, but still.