Phase-Out: Windward Passage

Phasing Out a Beneteau 443 and the Voyage to Bring Her Back Home
Contributed By: Randy Williamson

Our family boat, the "Windward Passage". has successfully completed her voyage from St. Lucia (Windward Islands in the Caribbean) to the Chesapeake Bay and is safely at rest at North Point marina in Rock Hall, Maryland. Some notes on the phase-out process and the trip North.

1. Phase-Out

1.1. The date that I was to accept delivery of Windward Passage was April 15. I arrived in St. Lucia on April 13 and found that there was much workremaining to be done. The base got into high gear on my arrival and most of the work was completed by April 19 when I accepted her. I had scheduled to leave St. Lucia on April 21 and had to make some additions and modifications plus provisioning, so I felt under some pressure to accept some conditions that I might have rejected if time was not an issue.

Lesson: Make sure that you have several days between your scheduled phase-out day and when you must leave with the boat and do a lot of checking on the progress of phase-out work during the 30 days between when your boat is removed from the fleet and you are due to accept it.

1.2. The boat was in much better shape cosmetically than I had expected but there were several system problems that needed work and some that I did not recognize until I was on my way North.

Lesson: Definitely take the boat for a sea trial (the phase-out manual says you can do this for a maximum of 4 hours) and test everything.

1.3. I continue to be dismayed by the number of electrical failures that are happening. Many of the wires are breaking or displaying bad connections at the crimped ends. This is a problem from the Beneteau™'s production. I do not know what is causing the problems but I do know that on boats all electrical terminal connectors should be both crimped and soldered and this is not done in Beneteau's production. I do not know if other boat manufacturers solder all connections but I suspect that they do not. My plan is to work my way through the entire electrical system of the boat checking and soldering all connectors until I have the entire boat done. This is a time consuming task.

I have talked with Beneteau about the feasibility of completely rewiring the boat and they tell me that this will be extremely difficult as the wires are run in bundles before the headliner is installed and the headliner is bonded in place and, therefore, not removable. I plan to visit the Beneteau factory to see their construction process so that I can make a decision as to how I am going to address the problem.

Lesson: Make sure you have an electrical meter on board and know how to use it to trouble shoot electrical problems!

1.4. Overall, I believe that the phase-out went well and there was some give and take on items that were to be done. In my opinion, Windward Passage was in better shape than most five-year old, owners-maintained sailboats that I have been on.

2. The Trip North: St. Lucia to Chesapeake Bay

2.1. Schedule: I planned to take about four weeks sailing up island with a couple of crew changes along the way. This worked great! We had lots of time to visit the various islands for a last time and all of the connections worked without a hitch. I had given instructions for making contact with Windward Passage at each location where we had crew arriving with a definite location and time that we were sure could be met. Planned a one-week passage from Tortola to Bermuda, 4 to 7 days in Bermuda then a week from Bermuda to the Chesapeake. Only had a problem with the last leg. We had to stand off of the Chesapeake on the eastern side of the Gulf Stream for three days waiting on the severe weather that was off of Cape Hatteras and the Chesapeake to move out. We finally crossed the Gulf Stream in winds of 25 knots gusting to 35 from the northeast. Was quite a wild ride but Windward Passage handled it quite well with a double-reefed main and a Gale Sail (more on that under equipment).

2.2. Equipment: I installed the following equipment for the trip: 6 person Givens liferaft, Single Sideband radio, EPIRB, Storm trysail (110 sq. ft.), Galesail (100 sq. ft), GPS at the helm, Paratech sea anchor, pressure cooker for one-pot meals in closed container, and jack lines on port and starboard.

1. Liferaft: Did not have to use this but would not go offshore without it.

2. Single Sideband: Used extensively for weather information. We would have gotten into trouble without good weather information as most of the storms that we encountered hit us in the night and we would probably have had too much sail up had we not had the warning of the weather to come. Used Southbound 2 for afternoon weather reports (free) and subscribed to a weather routing service from Dave Jones in Tortola (Caribweather) with his report coming in the morning. It was especially useful to have morning and afternoon reports on the trip from Bermuda to the Chesapeake when we were trying to find a window to get across the Gulf Stream. Would not go offshore without an operating single sideband radio.

3. EPIRB: Did not use this but would not go offshore without it.

4. Storm trysail: I intended to have an additional track mounted on the mast so that I could rig this sail for use when needed without having to remove the mainsail from the mast track. When I arrived in St. Lucia I discovered that the way the mast was rigged with lines coming out the sides left no room for an additional track. Had the slugs changed on the trysail to match the mainsail track so that we could mount the trysail on this track if needed. We found that a double reef in the main was sufficient for the max 35 knots that we encountered. Consequently, we never used the storm trysail. I'm not sure that we would have been able to mount this sail in rough conditions and would probably have chosen to douse the main and sail under jib alone rather than try to mount the trysail. Probably could have done without this investment.

5. Galesail: This is a patented design sail that is designed to be installed around the furled genoa. We used it on several occasions and were extremely pleased with its performance. It was easy to rig (I had purchased additional sheets that were permanently attached to the Galesail so that we did not have to worry with removing the genoa sheets and using them (this would have required that some line be used to tie the genoa to prevent it from unfurling in the high wind before the Galesail was mounted). I highly recommend this sail for offshore. On one occasion we sailed in 25/30 knots with a partially reefed genoa. I was quite concerned about the stress on the sail and furling system. We hanked on the Galesail and the boat handled much better with no strain on the furling system.

6. Pressure cooker: It worked great! Had fantastic meals cooked in one pot with a lid that would not come off even if the pot fell off the stove (did not happen). Intend to use this on my bay cruising as the meals are great and it is a lot easier than multiple pot meals.

7. Jack lines: Used flat nylon braid jack lines run from the tip of the bow to the stern cleat. These lines are run inside the shrouds in such a way that a person can clip their harness tether to the jack line while in the cockpit and then go all the way to the bow along the centerline of the boat without having to unclip the tether. Really appreciated this when we had to go forward in 25 knots with 15-ft waves to hank on the Galesail or to work on the foredeck.

8. Sea anchor: Not used. Would have deployed using the rode for the Bruce anchor (25 ft. chain + 300 ft. nylon line) which was in the port cockpit locker.

2.3. Stowage Issues:

1. In the sail locker, we had the following items stowed (listed from bottom to top of the pile): Spare mainsail, spare genoa, rolled up inflatable dinghy (with roll up floor stowed separately), storm trysail, Paratech sea anchor, Galesail, Downwind asymmetric spinnaker. With all of this weight in the bow Windward Passage was down on her lines but she sailed quite well.
   
   However, I would probably not have the spare main or genoa on board if I were doing this trip again. The Galesail could replace the genoa if needed and the storm trysail would get us home if the main was lost.

2. When we left Tortola we remove the CQR anchor from the bow roller and stowed it in the anchor locker with the chain. We stowed a couple of fenders with the anchor to reduce impact with the hull when pounding in a seaway. This proved to be a good tactic.

3. Had a complete inventory of tools on board and was glad to have them! Also had an inventory of electrical connectors and stainless screws (purchased in a plastic container from Boat US). These were essential!

2.4. Problems Encountered

1. The only major problem that caused some concern occurred as a result of the way the anchor windlass wires were installed. A 1/4-inch hold had been drilled through the bulkhead between the anchor locker and the sail locker apparently to thread the windlass control lint through. However the line had been rigged in the sail locker and so the hole was not used. In addition, a 1-inch diameter hole was drilled in this bulkhead for the power lines to the windlass. This hole had a rubber grommet to seal around the wire. However, three wires had been run through the hole resulting in a significant gap between the wires. When we were pounding into a seaway the anchor locker filled with water as it was coming over the bow continuously and the two drains in the locker were incapable of draining fast enough.
   
   When the anchor locker filled water poured through the empty 1/4-inch hole in a continuous stream and through the gap between the wires in the 1-inch hole. The result was a lot of water in the bilge and with us heeled over as much as we were; the floorboards began to float since the water could not flow to the bilge sump. I took a wooden pencil and hammered it into the 1/4-inch hold and took another pencil and wrapped it with a washcloth and stuffed it into the center of the three wires in the 1-inch hole. This stopped the flow through the 1/4-inch hole and reduced the flow through the larger hole to a trickle. In my opinion, this is a major flaw that I should have noticed and corrected before departing St. Lucia. The 1/4-inch hole should not have been drilled in this bulkhead and should have been sealed when discovered. The power lines to the windlass probably have to go through the bulkhead but they should have been individually run through separate holes with sealing grommets around each wire. I strongly encourage anyone going offshore to inspect the bulkhead aft of your anchor locker to ensure that it is watertight. In addition, I took one of the pillows and placed it into a plastic bag and jammed it into the slot for the anchor chain in the anchor locker hinged cover so that the amount of water coming into the anchor locker when waves came over the bow would be minimized. This seemed to help a lot even though the slot for the nylon rode was not sealed (it is much smaller than the slot for the chain). Before going offshore again I plan to install a bolted-on piece of fiberglass or wood over both of these slots to minimize the amount of water flowing into the anchor locker to an amount that can be handled by the drains.

2. On the last leg from Bermuda to the Chesapeake Bay our auto pilot unit failed. The 5 sentence diagnostic page in the manual indicated that the problem was a failure of the computer and that the computer would have to be returned to the factory for maintenance. I sent the unit off and the technician called me to say that he could find no problem with the computer.
   
   He then told me that if there were a problem with any of the instruments feeding the computer we would get the error message that we got. The proper method of diagnosing the problem would be to sequentially disconnect each instrument feeding the computer to determine which was creating the problem.
   
   The manual does not mention this. When I get the computer back I will go through this process and hope to get the unit operating again.

3. Customs: Clearing customs entering the US was quite easy. We pulled into Little Creek at the mouth of the Chesapeake and called the immigration office (the marina had a pamphlet with all of the information in it) on the phone. They asked for the vessel documentation information and the names, passport number and birth date of all people on board (all were US citizens). They also wanted the home address of the owner. If the owner had not been on board there may have been other issues to be addressed. Also, if the vessel had not been a documented vessel the process may have been different.

The trip was great and I would do it again in a heartbeat. We had some heavy weather but all of the crew said they would go again (although several said not next week!).

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