The Sailing Catamaran
“This page is a memento of a bygone chapter in our life’s travels — a handful of images and reflections drawn from our time aboard the yacht.
It’s here for fellow yachties, and anyone curious about the rhythms of life afloat: what lies beneath the surface, what makes a yacht tick, and how one might live well in small spaces, often far from shore.
Enjoy.
The saloon stretches across the wider, mid section of both hulls.
The first thing that stands out when you step aboard this vessel is the high quality of workmanship and the exceptional finish. This Hitchhiker has been meticulously built according to the designer’s plans, and is thus a well performing and exceptionally safe cruising catamaran. The interior is beautifully finished with all the creature comforts combined to reflect an atmosphere of home but within a very practical sailing layout. There is a huge amount of concealed storage for living aboard and many bouyancy chambers are built into the structure. Having completed several Pacific Island cruises to Vanuatu and New Caledonia, this vessel is fully equipped for remote area living aboard and comes with all safety equipment. A great cruising vessel which is safe and ready to set sail.
The cockpit and steering station
There is a pilot berth also in Cockpit
The picture below shows Shekinah’s galley which has Gas, 240V and 12 volt facilities. The galley includes a 240v toaster, jug, microwave and frypan plus SS saucepans and frying pan and a large amount of kitchen utensils. The double crew cabin can be seen just forward of the galley.
Shekinah’s fully equipped galley in the Starboard Hull
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At the aft end (the rear) of each hull there is a smaller cabin which , as pictured here on the starboard side, houses a single berth. The similar cabin on the port side was our shower and toilet or ‘Head’.
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On any yacht, space is always at a premium and that demands extra use for many spaces. This cabin also doubles as a computer cabin, hanging clothes storage and a large storage area under the blue mattress.
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The heart of any sea going yacht is its navigation station and Shekinah has backups for just about everything. Two GPS units, three ship to shore radios, a high frequency modem for sending emails and a full size chart table littered with expensive, but super acurate, charts. The Nav’ station is also linked to the steering and instrument station in the cockpit.
Navigation Station and chart table
In the cockpit, the steering station has the main instrument panel for such things as boat speed, depth of water, wind speed, wind direction etc and of course, the autopilot which steers the boat in a pre determined direction. Back in the navigation station the main GPS unit also gives the autopilot corrections for tide and drift movements. clever stuff!
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“Although a little technical, within this story I have tried to offer a closer look at this living, breathing form of ocean transport — one that few people ever experience in their day-to-day lives. Words, however carefully chosen, can only suggest what such a vessel is like. Each reader is left to form their own mental picture. Photographic images remove that uncertainty. They ground the narrative in visual reality, allowing the boat, the spaces, and the sea itself to speak with clarity and honesty...I hope that together, these words and images have given you a genuine glimpse into the lived reality of this story”.
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Shekinah’s Electricals
Shekinah needs stored power – The combined elements of wind, sun and her motors are all tuned to charge her batteries.
In use, two 60 watt and two 80 watt solar panels are mounted on a stainless steel Targa frame which stretches across the width of the boat just behind the cockpit. The two 60 watt solar panels are ganged together to create a source of power to charge our batteries. The two 80 watt panels are ganged to create a bank of slightly higher charging power for the batteries. and can be assigned to charge Shekinah’s two banks of four batteries. A rotary switch marked ‘batt1’ and ‘batt2’. is used to direct either the two 60 watt panels or the two 80 watt panels to charge either battery bank.
If one battery bank is running down, simply turn the rotary switch to that battery bank. ie. ‘batt 1’. In this situation the two 80watt solar panels are diverted to charge ‘batt 1’ and the two 60 watt panels will continue to charge the other battery bank. Simply switching the rotary switch over to ‘batt 2’ will reverse the charging situation. In this way all batteries receive a continuous charge but you can divert the higher charge ( 2 x 80 watt solar panels) to whichever battery bank may be running lower.
During periods of no sun (at night or on cloudy days) the small Air Marine wind generator comes into play and provides charging to either battery bank via two white switches. If there is no wind, battery charging can still be achieved with a small Honda 1 Kvh petrol generator supplying power (through the ‘Electrical Intake’) to the built in battery charger. Again, that battery charging may be assigned to whichever battery bank needs the power first. The two battery banks are made up of four six volt, 225AH low maintenance, deep cycle batteries. The four batteries are wired as two separate pairs, each in series to form two very powerful 12 volt battery bank and this is the recommended best situation for using batteries with solar panels and wind generators. In addition to that ‘best’ situation is Shekinah’s dual power supply (4 x solar panels / wind generator), dual power storage (2 x battery banks), a third alternative is a petrol generator to run the built in 14 amp charger and a fourth alternative is Shekinah’s two Yamaha 9.9 HP motors which also provide charging to each battery bank. The port motor supplies charging to Batt 2 and the Stb motor to batt 1. Shekinah’s electrical system also incorporates the American ‘Pro Star 20’ solar charging controller (The large white unit in the middle of the picture above) which is designed to protect all parts of the system but especially the four (very expensive) batteries from overcharging.
‘Shekinah’s Electronics’
Now we’re getting really technical (smile)
The electronics systems on Shekinah are those systems that provide for navigation, communications and ship’s situation.
Navigation includes;
- The Primary GPS (Global Positioning System) is the Garmin GPS 128. This is our main standalone GPS. We have also set this up with a ‘D’ sub connector which then communicates with electronic charts in our laptop computer. The Garmin also provides a variable anchor alarm and ‘man overboard’ position indicator via a button at the steering station.
- Philips ‘ap Navigator GPS’ is a spare.
- Raymarine
- ST4000 wheel autopilot (seatalk and nmea capable)
- ST60 Tridata (speed/depth/log)
- ST60 Wind Indicator.
- Furuno 16 mile radar with guard zone.
- Electronic hand bearing compass
Communications Includes;
- Top of the range Codan HF radio with HF Modem – this unit allows for International phone connect through the handset, scanning of multiple groups of frequencies, sending and receiving of emails and many other special features as demanded by world military organisations. Codan is the recognised ‘Rolls Royce’ of communications. The system is complete with ‘E’ plate and aerial built in to the port mast back stay.
- Shore side phone system with 2 fixed phones in the galley and the bridge deck cabin. Includes all cables to connect to a marina phone (Telecom) system.
- Fixed VHF installation (GME Electrophone GX552A) plus a waterproof hand held VHF for when crew goes ashore (Garmin submersible VHF 725e).
- Fixed 27 Mhz. radio (GME Electrophone GX287A). For possible communication with small club sailing events.
Your thoughts or reflective comments are welcomed and encouraged