The Boat - S/V 'Estrella del Sur'

Estrella del Sur on the hard in October 2015

Estrella del Sur is a Solaris Sunstream 40 catamaran, built in Southampton England in 1994 to Lloyd's 100 A1 unlimited offshore specs. That means she was built to cross oceans, even if we weren't.   While she had already crossed the Atlantic to Miami, then cruised the Bahamas, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean for three years before returning to Canada with the original owners, their three children, a dog and a cat (and Julie thinks we are crowded for space!), she was now in need of a massive....and expensive, 'refit'.  We like to think of her superior quality construction as giving the boat 'good bones'.  However, even with regular maintenance, 20 plus years creates a ton of wear and tear and we refuse to stake our lives on a boat that is less than she could be.    

As a result, we purchased and installed new sails, new running rigging (called lines, rather than ropes), many new blocks (the nautical name for pulleys and we purchased oversized ones that were better than the originals), new thru-hulls and seacocks (get your mind out of the gutter - these are the bronze fittings and valves that control the ingress of water into the boat for the heads - a.k.a.toilets, watermaker, diesels, saltwater galley rinse, etc.).  If one of these fails, the boat can fill with water very quickly!

For the same reason we replaced all hoses for the heads, the holding tank for waste, etc.  Think hose is cheap?  The best marine grade, odour-proof hose for waste costs over $20.00 a foot and we needed 75 feet!  Again, this hose is better than the original.

Of course, once you are replacing hoses you may as well replace the holding tank and the two fresh water tanks with better-than-original tanks from France.  And a new Swedish faucet/ sprayer for the galley sink, as well as a new retractable shower head with touch control shut-off valve (conserve water prior to rinsing!).  Plus, to finish off our plumbing system refit, a new stainless steel marine water heater and a new electric pump for the pressure water system.

Oh, and while we were at it, we replaced all cupboard doors in the shower/tub compartment with gasketed, water-tight doors.  Who wants moisture/mould where you are storing large quantities of toiletries/hair products that are unavailable in the Bahamas and the Caribbean?

Tempered glass fixed windows (called portlights) are strong and safe, but over time the caulking deteriorates and so all were scraped out and re-glazed.  The opening deck hatches and opening ports have plastic lenses which haze and weaken over time.  You guessed it, we removed the originals and after cutting larger holes in the deck (even direct replacement hatches of the same brand and allegedly same exterior dimensions don't fit - argh!), we installed 6 new hatches and 6 new opening ports.  Cost?  The four large deck hatches cost $700.00 USD plus another $300.00 USD for the inside combination blind/screen trim.  Prior to tax and shipping.  Each.

The rudders showed signs of water intrusion and we paid $5,500. plus HST to have them removed, cut open, the stainless frame inspected, new foam core and re-laminating done with epoxy resin, fairing, anti-fouling paint and finally (although as you will hear, yet to be done) re-installation.

The aft deck also showed signs of water intrusion where the davits (large arms with pulleys for raising and storing the dinghy) had bent and flexed, allowing water in through the bolt holes.  The result - the aft deck was cut out, dried out, new core material was installed, the surface re-laminated and faired.  Oh, and to avoid a repeat of the problem, new davit brackets both below and above deck were custom fabricated out of aluminum and stainless steel. The deck still needs to be repainted.

The front aluminum cross beam had received a ding during the previous owner's tenure and a custom, full-width brace was designed and fabricated by an aluminum boat builder.

In case we find ourselves offshore in life-threatening conditions, it is often best to 'run with the storm' while towing a drogue (essentially a parachute dragged behind the boat on a bridle with about 300' of line).   This slows the boat down and keeps her in line with seas in order to avoid pitchpoling - an end over end somersault that can occur if a boat surfs down a particularly large (OK, a huge) wave and buries the bows in the next wave.  The problem is that drogues put incredible loads on the lines/attachment points to the boat.  After all, they have to hold back a 20,000 lb. boat hurtling down a wave.  Even large deck cleats with substantial backing plates can be torn out of the deck.  Solution?  Custom fabricated, stainless steel chainplates installed on the sides of the boat in an area where the hull is the thickest - where the deck overlaps and attaches to the hulls. The specifications for these chainplates were not a guess - they were obtained from the site for the Jordan Series drogue, the design that was determined to be the best in an extensive test conducted by the US Coastguard.

The lifelines surrounding the deck on most boats are thin stainless steel wire with a white plastic coating - think of a better made (and much more expensive) clothesline.  The problem with these is water/moisture can intrude behind the plastic cover, causing invisible corrosion in the stainless steel wire.  If you are ever driven against one in heavy seas, you don't want it to fail.  The solution?  All new stainless steel wire of twice the thickness and without a vinyl covering.  Of course, this also required all new stainless steel eyelets, turnbuckles, gate latches, etc.

A cockpit enclosure with removable side curtains/windows is an important feature for any boat in order to keep you out of the elements and protected from mosquitos - both here and in parts south.  Ours was getting a little worn and so I designed and built a solid bimini (a roof over the cockpit) to allow the installation of more solar panels and to collect rain water.  We then had, at a cost of $7K, a removable canvas (Sunbrella) surround enclosure made with roll-up 'Stratoglass' windows and heavy 'Phifertex' mesh screen that keeps out mosquitos - and 75% of the UV when needed as a sun shade.  

Speaking of solar panels, we have upgraded from 100 watts to about 500 watts and installed a new, 1050 Amp/hr. house battery bank (in addition to the starter batteries for each diesel and the electric anchor windlass, which are also new).  The 'house' batteries alone cost $2500.00 plus HST wholesale (with all the money I was spending, Dave Hinton at Loyalist Cove Marina was kind enough to order parts I needed at cost).  Now we had a house battery bank and charging system sufficient to run our refrigeration, lights, instruments, autopilot, chartplotter, SSB and VHF radios, stereo, microwave, computers, TV and DVD player for up to ten days in sunny weather without being plugged into shore power, or running the diesels.  

Of course, since we want to avoid marinas like the plague (to us they are like trailer parks - crowded and lacking in both privacy and open vistas of the sea), we wanted to be even more self-reliant than that.  Solution?  Two high-output, Balmar marine alternators with smart regulators that have more than twice the charging capacity of the factory ones.  Every time we need to run the diesels to get in or out of an anchorage, or if the wind dies, at least we will be rapidly topping up the batteries in exchange for the added noise/smell of running under power, rather than under sail alone.  The cost?  A little over $2600.00 plus HST.

However, running the diesels solely to charge batteries is wasteful - why put hours on engines that would cost $20K each to replace if you don't need to?  As a result, we also bought a Honda 2000ei generator for just a bit under $2K including tax.  

Wait - we are not done yet.  Although we have a built-in marine inverter/charger of sufficient capacity to allow us to use the microwave (or for Julie to use her hair dryer, on occasion), it produces what is called 'modified', rather than 'pure sine-wave' 120 volt current.  Sure, it is fine for appliances, but computers, smart phones, ipads etc. have been known to fry using anything other than pure sine-wave.  The solution?  We bought a second, smaller capacity pure sine-wave inverter for the computers etc.and installed it in the navigation station.

Great, so we have dramatically improved our electrical charging and storage capacity so that we  can live longer and better off-line while under way and under anchor.  But what about the second part of the equation - reduced energy consumption?   To that end we have purchased various small appliances that will help cut down on both electrical and propane (stove, on-demand water heater and BBQ) demand.  Things like a pressure cooker, a hand operated coffee bean grinder, an insulated, stainless steel french press coffee maker, etc.  However, the instruments, radios, autopilot and the refrigeration/freezer units (we have two small ones) are all about as efficient as you can get.

While we are still considering updating to a new and more efficient  wireless/bluetooth radar system that sends to our ipad/iphone anywhere on the boat, the biggest potential saving in electrical demand is by going to more efficient (and durable) LED lighting.  You guessed it, we spent $2K USD plus tax and shipping on all new marine LED interior and exterior light fixtures.

The twin diesels on a catamaran provide much better maneuverability in tight quarters - we can turn 360 degrees in virtually the length of the boat - but they also provide redundancy for an important system.  Yes, we are a sailboat.  But the wind is not always present, let alone with you.  Of course, engines will fail, if at all, at the most inconvenient time - such as with a storm approaching and a short window in which to make a safe harbour.  Who hasn't heard of 'the calm before the storm'?

The twin engines already provide some redundancy - we can motor at hull speed in calm conditions under one engine alone.  However, parts are hard to get in much of the Caribbean and the Bahamas (not to mention, impossible offshore), so we wanted to ensure that both diesels and saildrives (the transmission, drive unit and props) were in first rate condition.

Please understand, these components have relatively low hours of use - under 4000 hours, which is nothing for a well-maintained marine diesel.   Nevertheless, what typically causes failure in a marine environment is corrosion and bad fuel (very common in the Bahamas, Mexico and the Caribbean).  Therefore, we replaced all electrical and fuel system parts - in fact upgraded them from new, where possible.

In addition to the new and upgraded alternators/voltage regulators already mentioned, we purchased two new direct drive starter motors, keeping a rebuilt original as a spare.  That and new starter batteries are it for the electrical components on a diesel, which has no ignition system or electronic fuel injection. 

We had the sail-drives soda blasted, primed with the best available underwater aluminum primer and then coated with epoxy barrier coat and two coats of anti-fouling paint (which reduces growth on surfaces underwater).  The external seal on the sail-drives have also been replaced.

We had the two fuel tanks flushed, new fuel lines installed where necessary and a new 'Fuel Boss', dual filtration system with pressure gauge installed on both diesels at a cost of over $4K.  We also purchased a 'Baja Filter' - an aluminum funnel with three internal, cleanable filters that removes water and debris before it gets into the tanks.  Now if we get water or debris in the fuel and an engine starts to run rough, we can simply turn a lever to another filter and can keep going until we get a chance to clean the fouled one (which is actually pretty easy).

What about electronics/instruments/navigation equipment, etc.?  We purchased a new impeller/sending unit for the knotmeter/log (keeping the original as a spare).  We purchased one new VHF radio with DSC (automatically repeated distress calling without having to remain at the radio) and another with both DSC and AIS.  The latter displays on a screen the relative position/bearing/identity of all ships in your area (all commercial shipping is now required to carry an AIS transponder).  This is extremely important in avoiding collisions as fibreglass sailboats make a very bad target on ship's radar (and many ships have no one monitoring their radar when offshore).

We purchased a new battery and a spare foot switch for the electric windlass (which raises and lowers the anchor) and have a separate manual windlass that was installed only three seasons ago.

In addition to the new inverter, we had the circuit breaker panel drilled so that all breakers are now held in place by stainless steel machine screws, rather than merely clips.  We have hundreds of feet of various gauges of proper tinned marine wire, as well as connectors etc., should we need to make electrical repairs.

We installed a new control module for the keel-cooled refrigerator/freezer as the old one would occasionally act up. Oh, and did we mention the new stereo and interior speakers?  That's a piece of safety equipment as far as we are concerned - without a good sound system we'd probably kill each other!  The Pioneer deck has a front-mount USB port for our iphone an ipod (allowing use while charging) - so much for having to store hundreds and hundreds of CD's.  And the Boston Acoustic speakers, with separate dome tweeters and crossovers, are vastly superior to our old Blaupunkt speakers.  The Germans build some incredible, state of the art stuff, but over the last 30 years that hasn't included stereo equipment !  Now if we could only find a way to play movies from our laptop/ipad through our 6 year old, marinized 12 V., metal framed, bulkhead mounted 23" LCD TV,  It still works perfectly after all that time in a marine environment, but has no HDMI or USB ports.  

We purchased a complete back-up colour chartplotter, wiring harness and antenna to keep as a spare, as well as a new iPad Air2 with built in GPS and INavX digital charts as a back-up to the back-up.  Of course, we also have paper charts and guide books for virtually everywhere we intend to sail.

If the electronic wind instrument fails, we also installed a new windex, non-electronic wind direction indicator on top of the mast.

We replaced one of the electric bilge pumps and kept another new one, as well as a new switch as spares.  We also purchased rebuild kits for our still functional manual bilge pump and for our heads (not those heads...although Brad's could use rebuilding... the toilets).  Oh and three new 12 V marine interior fans to replace any that were showing signs of bearing noise.

OK, but what about cosmetics - what did we do to spruce up the old darling?  Don't get us started.  After 20 plus years the topside gelcoat had faded, hazed and received numerous scratches and scrapes.  As a result, we had the hull sanded, faired with epoxy where necessary, primed and painted with Awlgrip, a 2-part polyurethane paint.  We did not have the original gelcoat under the bridgedeck painted as it was unmarked and it would have been extremely difficult to spray overhead in such a shallow tunnel!  Since the transoms were being painted, we took the opportunity to have small swim steps laminated onto the bottom step on each hull.

We then had new navy vinyl boot stripes and graphics installed, as well as a navy strip installed surrounding the coachouse windows.  Due to the repairs to the aft deck we will have to do some gelcoat touch-ups on deck, as well as painting new non-skid throughout (in order to match up colour and texture).

We had new cockpit cushions made with closed-cell foam covered with white vinyl, blue piping and 'phifertex' mesh on the underside to allow them to breathe.

Common to catamarans of the era, the interior headliners were glued on vinyl with foam backing and the flooring in the cabins as well as some other panels were covered with carpeting.  In our opinion, there is no place for either material on a boat!  The carpeting will inevitably become mouldy and over time, the foam backing on the headliners rots, leaving unsightly sags. The vinyl covered foam also becomes a breeding ground for mould.  Very unhealthy.

As a result, shortly after purchasing the boat Brad started the long and arduous task of virtually gutting the interior and re-doing it in proper marine materials.  The sole (floor) in the saloon (living room) was covered with 'Plasteak" teak and holly vinyl (vinyl was used here as water often gets tracked in from the cockpit).  Real teak and holly marine plywood was used for the flooring in the staterooms which need not get wet.

Textured fibreglass panels were then installed on the overhead panels and around all windows.  This involved not only grinding off the original glue (solvents damage the polyester resin in fibreglass), but installing trusses to fit the compound curves. Templates had to be made for each piece (and there over 100 of them!) and then after cutting and fitting each piece, they were installed with screws anywhere they might need to be removed in future (for access to wiring/deck hardware, etc.) or a special adhesive where they could be permanent.  Seams were then caulked and teak trim was installed on the edging.  Sound like a lot of work?  It is - and we still have one stateroom to complete!

In the bath tub/shower compartment, we added a storage locker and as mentioned earlier, installed gasketed, waterproof doors on all storage compartments (again, to avoid mould).

We then made and replaced the original smoked plexiglass cupboard doors in the galley, head compartments (washrooms) and staterooms with teak veneer doors, installing all new hinges and latches in the process.  We added a teak vanity cabinet/mirror in our ensuite head, a custom made teak overhead rack for wine glasses and a teak rack in the galley for a large bottle of olive oil and for a bottle each of our two most used 'drink enhancers' - amber rum and vodka.  

We had new berth cushions made with 5" foam covered with blue 'ultrasuede' and again, with phifertex mesh on the bottoms. For the aft staterooms (which feature virtually queen sized berths), we had the cushions made in two pieces so that they would be easier to remove in order to access the diesels.  The cushions for the seats in the aft cabin and for the settee and nav station in the main saloon had already been reupholstered with the same material 5 years ago.

We added some contrasting beige, suede throw cushions for the settee and a beige marine mat for the companionway entrance (from the cockpit) with Estrella del Sur embroidered with navy blue lettering.  Still to come are new curtains and marine grade curtain rods throughout.

OK, have we bored you to tears?  Probably, but we wanted everyone to understand that we are not only totally committed to this undertaking, but also to ensuring that all systems are functioning as well or better than new.  Comfort, peace of mind and safety demand nothing less!

Why didn't we just buy a new boat?  Cost.  A new 40 foot catamaran, equipped like ours, would cost over $750,000. dollars plus HST.  In fact, in September 2015 our surveyor assessed our replacement value as exactly that.  While our refit cost is over $75K and counting, plus literally thousands of hours of labour, we ended up spending about 1/4 the cost of a new boat.  In the process, we have also developed a far better understanding of all our systems - critical when cruising as there are no technicians/electricians/mechanics/plumbers/riggers available if (no, when) you encounter problems offshore!