Bad Latitude Boats

Here are the boats that we have sailed on our travels so far.

Sea Mole

Or 'Sea Mould' as she became affectionately known due to her interesting bouquet. A 34 foot Bermudian rigged sloop Sea Mole was the first yacht Tracy and I have really sailed ourselves. There were up to five us sleeping in this small yacht, it was ok though as most of our time we spent in the Royal Natal Yacht Club, at sea, or in the classroom so it was good enough a place as any to crash after a long day learning to sail. Sea Mole was a really 'wet' boat to sail, take a look at the video archives to get an idea of what she was like close hauled on a rough day off Durban.

Nkwhazi

Compared to Sea Mole Nkwhazi is huge, 50 foot LOA, the beam is 15ft and she has a draft of 2 metres. She is made from GRP and the hull is based on a Robert's design. Nkwhazi is basically the skippers home in fact "this is my home you guys" was one of the skipper's favourite whines as his boat crunched into the jetty or ran aground.

Being so big and being Pete's home she was very comfortable, although once she had been loaded with eight people even a boat this big is way too small. Tracy and I had the fore cabin, Brian and Peter Lau had the starboard bunks. Kim and May suffered the Dining table, Lydia had the saloon berth and the skipper had the stern cabin. Once you have all these people using the same shower/head then things get a little unsavoury especially when the boat heeled as the vacuum pump never seemed to work properly, leading to lots of friction between those on board.

The skipper had a huge array of gadgets that were used to help navigate and make long passages easier on the crew. Navigation wise she boasts a Garmin GPS linked to a pirate copy of C-Map loaded on the laptop. She's also fitted with a new Garmin echo sounder / fishfinder. And I'm pretty certain there was a radar knocking around there somewhere.

The job of helmsman is made non-existant with the Coursemaster autopilot and the Aries Windvane, though the later didn't really work on this boat.

Storage wise Nkwhazi is set up for long distance cruising, the three water tanks hold 2500 litres, and she will hold around 800 litres of diesel. She also stored six months worth of provisions (for around 4-6 people) with no problem.

Nkwhazi is actually for sale, though everyone we met asked if she was cement, and the best comment came from John Lawler who described the boat as "a bit of an old clunker" - nice one! I wish Pete the best of luck selling the boat (especially with that 16 year old rigging).....

There's a load of video of Nkwhazi in the video archive.

Charisma

Ahh, Charisma. What a stunning boat. An early eighties design if I recall correctly, unfortunately I don't know the manufacturer, just a bit of her history. She was made for racing and was originally owned by Jim Lawler for the Sydney Hobart yacht race. Jim was involved in a later race on board the Winston Churchill, which was tragically rolled and sunk during a fierce storm. Unfortunately Jim died and his Yacht Charisma was passed into the hands of his son John Lawler.

John having finished skippering on Mirabella, a 150 foot super yacht, decided to cruise the Barrier Reef in her. That's were we all met, on Lizard Island in fact. She is a cutter rigged 43 foot yacht which has been fastidiously maintained. Of all the yachts we had sailed this was the one I would like to own. Stunning both inside and out Charisma was remarked upon wherever we went.

Unlike Nkwhazi John skippered using his judgment and charts, and he dismissed modern navigation aids such as electronic charts opting to keep things very simple. A log, sounder, and GPS were all that were necessary for cruising the Barrier Reef.

If Charisma had a downside it was her fridge, an electricity guzzler that needed a blast with the generator every now and again. But who cares? I'd drink my beer warm to look at Charisma every day!