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Having now read quite a few other web sites and blogs about people sailing round the world, one thing they all say and have in common is that the tender to the mother ship is a vital piece of equipment and has a large list of duties to perform.
Also they all seem to share the same fate as the journey and time progresses, which is delaminating of the material and the glue dissolves on the joints due to the UV rays from the sun.
We have decided to make a basic ‘rule’ for all of our equipment, which is that anything we buy from a manufacturer, must be capable of being repaired or service parts supplied to us, wherever we are in the world. This is a fair statement, but comes with a very high price tag. Time will only tell if this is a wise policy.
The tender, we have decided to go for the Zodiac Yachtline 310R, which basically is a small RIB and looking at the technical data only weighs 50KG, as against the 310S having inflatable floor with wooden slats weighing in at 42KG.
For us a small RIB will be great for all the usual yachting roles, but it will come into its own for scuba diving and when we are anchored off a reef and do not want to get any closer with the Mahe, but still have the need to drop and pickup divers closer to the chosen dive site.
The picture above is a Bahia, sporting a Zodiac 310R
The Zodiacs come with a 5 year guarantee and have a world wide presence, so that fits our buying ‘rule’.
The outboard, again the most common complaint I am picking up from other yachtsmen is that they always wished they had a bigger and more powerful outboard. The technical data on the Zodiac says the largest engine that should be used with the 310R is 15 horse power.
In the UK, there is a trend with commercial fishermen, who are using small fishing vessels of less than 8 meters in length to use the Honda outboard or a pair of them. I personally know a few of these guys and on having any conversations about outboards they are all unanimous about which one to choose, they all swore by Honda, which for me is the best endorsement any product can get. These people rely on them for a living, that’s good enough for me! 
Today we have been onto the Southampton boat show web site to ‘book online’, which would allow us to get the combi-ticket at a cheaper price than for paying for 2 individual days. We are planning on going on both the Saturday and Sunday with a lot of research to complete.
Should be a relatively simple task to fill in one form for the tickets, it was, but the page just does not accept your payment without a customer ‘URN’ number.
How do you get a ‘URN’ number, you must pay for the tickets via our web site and we will send you your ‘URN’ number with your order, Ah, I see the logic now, of course its me I am stupid.
Whilst I am on the phone, do you accept orders over the phone, yes you do, great, let’s do that then. I am a great believer in keeping it simple.
I am amazed at how many times this happens to me, placing orders over the internet, does no one check their programming anymore. Especially where financial transactions are involved, makes me wonder just how secure paying via a web page which does not work anyway, really is, rant over.
I am trying to get hold of the outside profile technical drawing in CAD format, preferable AutoCAD from Fountain-Pajot. I have currently got a PDF, which shows the standard layout and the optional extras in light blue.
The reason I would like this is so that I can accurately design a transom arch, which I intend to have manufactured in high quality stainless steel, incorporating the standard FP solid centre board.
Hopefully, when I do the factory visit in October I will be able to get my hands on the drawing, otherwise I will be measuring the boat in September at the Southampton boat show and attempt to design from my measurements and photographs.
If anyone would like a copy of the PDF, which allows you to zoom in on the detail, then please drop me an email and I will forward you the file.
Planning for the inevitable heavy weather at sea is great sat inside a house on a nice sunny day, thinking it won’t happen to me, ha ha…..
Having had previous experience of heavy weather at sea, then planning what will be a very real situation before you know it is worth every effort and is time well spent before the going gets tough, which at some point it will.
After reading various forums and no end of articles about planning for heavy weather tactics, I have found a product, which I am happy with, being from an engineering background, I am a firm believer in product development and a tool, which has been designed for a specific purpose.
I am more than impressed with the ‘sea brake’ this is a product, which has been designed for assisting with heavy weather tactics at sea. When the going starts to get tough and the dark clouds are gathering on the horizon and a sense of impending doom is upon you, I don’t want to deploy a ‘builder’s bag’ and hope for the best, knowing that for the sake of half a days pay I can have a product, which is designed for the job.
I don’t mind spending the money on something, hopefully, I will never use, but, and there is always a but, a bit of insurance and planning not to fail, in my mind is a precaution I am prepared to spend some hard earned cash on.
I won’t try and explain the ‘sea brake’, just go to the web site and see for yourself.
http://www.seabrake.com
I think it’s a brilliant piece of kit and it will be part of my planning for a day or days of ‘big’ seas.
This should please our Australian audience as it is a product from down under, we have already at this stage had a couple of Aussie watchers, G’day mate, don’t be shy and drop us an email, hope you like what we are doing and you never know on the way round we could meet up! 
We have now updated the site to allow people to add comments. So please feel free to add comments on what we are writing about.
Plus we have added our sponsored links shortcut. These are people and companies who are interested in what we are doing and are prepared to help us with our adventure.
This weekend we have been researching the sail plan of the boat, as standard the boat comes with the main sail and a genoa. Fountaine Pajot also offers as an additional extra the ‘Spifurl’, which is a new design between them and Incidences, who are the factory supplier of the main and genoa sail.
We have as yet not seen the ‘Spifurl’, but are guessing that it will be some sort of cross between a gennaker and a screecher, this also requires the additional bowsprit and accompanying equipment. The main use of the sail will predominantly be for down wind sailing.
Other options for down wind sailing is the ‘Parasail’, which seems to be growing in popularity being that 20 boats in the 2006 ARC had one fitted.
This seems to be a very useful addition to a sail plan giving that the manufacture states that this can be used from 60 to 180 degrees and has all the features and benefits of a spinnaker and gennaker combined, claiming it to be all-in-one sail.
The accompanying picture shows a cat using the ‘Parasail’, we will be looking up the British distributor and having a chat to them at the Southampton Boat Show. 
As part of our plans for the trip round we are planning to do as much diving as we can, as our intended route takes in many of the top diving spots in the world. We are both rebreather divers but have decided that it isn't going to be possible to dive with these all round the world due to requirement for 100% Oxygen gas and sofnalime which will be a lot of hassle to arrange in remote locations. So we are going to go back to basics and return to single cylinder scuba diving and buy a compressor for the boat giving us unlimited diving wherever we are. Infact Parcelforce came today to pick up Kevin's rebreather to go to it's new owner!
We had a long debate about about the dangers of storing petrol on board and the possibility of using electric powered off the engine. However, we have plumped for the petrol option on the assumption that we will need an petrol outboard engine too for the tender. So it looks like being MCH6/SH - 3.5cfm Honda Petrol Compressor, to hopefully fit in the engine bay. We need to do some measurements during the Southampton Boat Show or our Factory visit to check before we can order.
Meanwhile we both have a week off in two weeks time when we will be planning to sell our house and contents, Kevin's truck, sort out our Pensions, decorate the hall and find somewhere to new to live! We officially have our To Do list now and there is alot to do!
