The Hull
Our steel yacht 'Do It' (there is that phrase again) is our home and transport for the voyage. She is a Valauris Petit Prince 125, designed by Marcel Subrero. Hubert and Monique (a Belgian couple), her original owners, had the hull professionally constructed by the Aliziers yard in Belgium and subsequently fitted her out themselves as a liveaboard home. They kept the vessel deliberately simple and strong with easy maintenance in mind. We have no watermakers, generators, air conditioning or other accoutrements that give credence to the saying that "Cruising consists of boat maintenance in interesting places". You will see many examples of this 'keep it simple' philosophy below. Having read many stories of terminal impacts with rocks, whales, other vessels and floating ISO containers, we decided that a steel or aluminium hull would suit us nicely. Having also read Nigel Calder's books (see the 'Useful Links'), we found that his views on the ideal cruising hull made complete sense for us. We weren't looking to set records or live in luxury. We wanted a safe, secure boat that we could trust to go anywhere, it had to have a medium length keel with an enclosed propellor (having had run-ins with the usual English Channel barely visible fishing marker buoys) and a skeg hung rudder. Pretty wooden decks were to be avoided as expensive and difficult to replace and she should not have excessive amounts of expensive equipment requiring maintenance and replacement.
We searched for months in the classified ads in the UK magazines and on the internet. We travelled fairly extensively as well, around England and Wales, over to Ireland and across to Holland. To no avail, some were nice but too expensive, one was beautifully made, but had a rotating wing mast (something we did not want to experiment with in middle of a storm, and many other were only fit for scrap suffering from terminal rusting and lack of maintenance. We eventually spotted 'Do It' on the Holland Yachting website, the blurry pictures were slightly discouraging and since she was in the Mediterranean, would not have merited much attention had we not spotted other candidates in the same area. Ruth arranged to see all of the possiblities in Majorca during a flying weekend visit courtesy of EasyJet (we have never known them to take off on time) and returned extolling the virtues of 'Do It'. Angus flew out the following weekend, an offer was made and the rest is history. Actually, the purchase was very complicated, involving Hubert and Monique, the original owners sailing her back to Belgium, and to cut a long story short, we took possession in Nieuwpoort, Belgium in June 2004.
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The Rig
'Do It' has a cutter rig with a boomed cutter sail. Although running backstays were originally fitted, they were found to be unnecessary and altered to Hubert's 'non-running running backstays' which are fixed. There are two spinnaker poles to assist with downwind sailing which we haven't used, we have yet to sail her on a light downwind passage for more than half an hour at a time. The original plans we have for the design show a mizzen mast as an option for the rig. There would be plenty of space on the aft deck, but we have generally found the the sail plan is perfectly adequate and more sail aft would probably induce weather helm. The foresail is raised on a Gioit roller furler with twin luff grooves, ideal for downwind sailing - when we eventually find such conditions. The drum is open, as we prefer it, allowing snarls to be easily cleared.
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The Aries wind vane fitted to the stern is of the servo pendulum type steering via lines to the tiller as described above and has a good reputation. The version fitted (a lift-up) is no longer made and some of the major parts are irreplacable so we take a great deal of care of the system, removing all the removable parts when approaching marinas in case of mooring incidents.
The deck crane mounted on the starboard quarter is very useful for lifting heavy objects such as gas cylinders and outboard engines into and out of the inflatable dinghy, avoiding prolapsed discs, loss of sweat and dropping of expensive equipment in the drink...
Much advice that we had read stated that we should expect to run the engine most days to keep the batteries topped up. This was not our plan. Apart from the wear on the engine, the extra servicing, the fuel used and noise and irritation, this approach did not fit with our planned 'low impact' lifestyle. Do It came fitted with a very effective 110 watt Siemens panel fitted to goalposts on the aft deck. This can pump out over 7 amps on a sunny day. This panel should be reinforced by two further 40 watt semi-flexible panels on the aft deck. These do not seem so robust, possibly because they get stepped on. When we purchased the vessel, one of these panels had been removed as it had failed, and further exeperiments with the remaining panel showed that it was producing voltage but no current. We since have purchased a replacement panel and will monitor how long it lasts. We have fitted a Rutland 913 generator, chosen not for its maximum output, which is still quite good, but for its ability to start generating in low wind speeds and its quietness. All of these lovely amp-hours are stored in a bank of four 90 AH gel batteries mounted under the aft cabin berth. The state of the batteries is monitored by an Adverc Battery monitor panel at the chart table.
Of course we have our auxiliary means of propulsion, a solid, reliable Perkins 4108, 50 hp 4 cylinder diesel engine mounted under the cockpit. Access to the engine is excellent with two removable panels on each side giving almost 360 degree access. Should there be a requirement to lift out the engine, the cockpit floor can be unbolted allowing the engine to be easily removed within hours. No maror surgery is required to squeeze it through the companionway as we have seen on other vessels which appear to have been constructed around the engine.....
