Cruising World - May 2016

may 2016

cruisingworld.com

48

Bottom line? I had about $10,000 to spend on my

next boat, not counting refit costs.

So my budget (and my next boat) would be smaller

than I had originally planned. When I flew from

Auckland to San Francisco on St. Patrick’s Day of

2015 with two large dufel bags, a quiver of suroards

and a fat stack of Kiwi currency, I was on a mission to

buy a boat.

F

ortunately, I’d come home to California,

where good, cheap sailboats are readily

available. During my final weeks abroad, I’d

closely monitored Bay Area Craigslist postings and

had already made a few appointments to look at

boats, many of which were Cal yachts designed by

Bill Lapworth. This wasn’t coincidental, as I’ve always

been drawn to Lapworth designs. I’d already owned

two Cals, including Mongo, which had taken me all

the way to New Zealand. By producing good boats

cost-efectively, Jensen Marine, the builder of the Cal

brand, had sold thousands upon thousands of boats

during the fiberglass boatbuilding boom of the 1960s

and 1970s. Cals have stood the test of time, are still

in huge supply, and generally represent good value;

they’re the proverbial dime-a-dozen classic plastic

production cruisers.

Once I was back at my old marina, some dockside

friends pointed me toward a nice little 29 -foot sloop.

Of course, it was a Cal. Within a week of arriving

home, I was the proud owner of a Cal 2-29 called

Sleepy II, hull number 774, hailing port Alameda. For

$6,500, I’d acquired a sweet little cruising boat with

a solid hull, a Bristol interior, a new Universal diesel

and a hard-bottom RIB. I was stoked.

After rolling a mountain bike and two dock carts of

gear down to the boat, I felt like I’d never left town.

The transition from one fine Lapworth-designed

yacht on New Zealand’s North Island to another in

Northern California had been seamless. In a region

of the country that’s experiencing a severe housing

crisis, for just a few grand up front and a low monthly

overhead, I was again a homeowner. As my friend

Jeremy said, “You found your loophole.” The Bay Area

slipped back on like a glove. I was home.

I knew from the moment I laid eyes on the boat

that the steering wheel would go, replaced by a new

rudder with a tiller. Cal masts are simple, rather

agriculturally built aluminum tree trunks — nothing

fancy, but with new standing rigging and an overhaul,

I reckoned mine would be quite solid. The keels are

glassed-in lead (no 40-year-old keel bolts to worry

about), and the hull-to-deck joints were all glassed

over from the factory — simple, burly stuf, and very

much why I like these boats. So from Day One, I had

a solid plan for preventing the keel and/or rudder from

falling of and the rig from coming down. Once those

basics were covered, the rest would be mere details.

Slap on a self-steering windvane, a couple of solar

panels, some ground tackle and a few sails, and she’d

be ready to go places. Grandpa’s weekend condo would

be transformed into an ofshore passagemaker. All she

needed was a new name. Loophole was perfect.

One of my very first goals was to unplug Loophole

from the dock, as dependence on shore power defies

my every notion of a cruising sailboat. With two large

solar panels (90-watt and 85-watt, respectively) wired

into my boat’s bank of two Group 24 batteries, I’d

have plenty of power, provided I played it smart and

used a windvane for self-steering. Also, by installing

a 600-watt Xantrex inverter, I’d have enough juice to

run power tools and conduct virtually the entire refit

while wholly energy-independent, aside from the

work I’d tackle at the boatyard.

Whenever you’re using solar power and living of

the house batteries, proper monitoring is key, so I

added a Victron battery monitor, which I’d had good

luck with in the past. All of this, combined with the

diesel engine’s charging system and all-new LED

lights, would make Loophole fully self-suicient, at sea

or at the dock.

Years ago, on my first boat (a Palmer Johnson

One of the most

important jobs of

the refit was re-

placing the rud-

der with a new

blade from Foss

Foam (center).

With their ver-

tical transoms,

Cals love wind-

vanes. I installed

my secondhand

Navik vane in a

single afternoon

(right).

With lines led

aft to winches

and clutches on

the coachroof,

Loophole is a

simple boat to

sail singlehanded

(below).

ONE OF MY VERY FIRST GOALSWAS TO UNPL

SHORE POWER DEFIES MY EVERY NOTION