The Catamaran Adventures of Noel and Ceu
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The Boat & Gear Reviews

These are our thoughts about various pieces of equipment that we have on board. See also our posts in the Maintenance tag.

The Boat


Home Improvements

A whole bunch of gear and improvements that we have added to Life Part 2. Some of them essential upgrades, most fall into the ‘optional but nice’ category.

Lithium Batteries - best thing since sliced bread

It is now about three years since we installed our LiFePO4 batteries, and we couldn’t be happier. Lithiums charge so much faster than lead that we don’t waste any of the solar and wind power that we are producing. This has resulted in us now being fully self-sufficient for power, whereas when we first bought (click to read more...)

CopperCoat Review after 7 Years

The first part of this post was written in 2016 (see below that for the 2022 update): A year ago we put CopperCoat on the bottom of our boat as we were tired with having to haul out every two years to repaint. Plus the anti-fouling paints are not exactly very eco-friendly and, with increasing (click to read more...)

Viking Life Raft Review - A Sad Story

We have not actually used the life raft, so cannot comment on how well it works as a life raft. But we do have some experience with their customer service and service centers – and those have been far from satisfactory… We bought Life Part 2 in 2009. It came with a Viking RescYou 8 (click to read more...)

Prop-Shaft Driven Alternator

When Joshua Slocum sailed around the world in 1897 he had an oil lamp for light and navigation lights, a wood stove for heat and cooking, and a sextant and wind-up tin clock for navigation. That was it. No GPS. No chartplotter. No autopilot. No fridge. No laptops. No CD player. No LED lights. No (click to read more...)

Lightning Protection for Catamarans - One Boat's Solution

Here are the facts: 1) Boats often get struck by lightning and catamarans in particular seem to be more vulnerable that most. 2) Getting struck by lightning is no fun. Most likely it will kill all your electronics. It may put holes in your boat. And if you are really unlucky it may hurt or (click to read more...)

Dyneema Dynex Dux Synthetic Standing Rigging on a Catamaran

Life everyone else, we used to have stainless steel rigging. But when it came time for the 10-yearly scheduled replacement, we decided to go with synthetic rather than stainless again. Why did we do this? There are several problems with stainless that are overcome by using synthetics: 1) Stainless steel is subject to crevice corrosion. (click to read more...)

Bebi Electronics LED Anchor Light - Review

What can I say? It does what it says on the package – very bright, waterproof, reliable, low current consumption and with a nice automatic light-sensitive switch so we can switch on the light when we go ashore in the morning, and it is there shining brightly to guide us home in the evening. It (click to read more...)

A Vacuum Cleaner for your Yacht

Boats are small  places, making them difficult to clean easily. Picking up dust and other bits of debris is a lot easier with a vacuum cleaner. So this is what we use, and it works great! If you get a 7.2 volt version you will find that the voltage needed to recharge the batteries is 12v – which means you can do away with the little mains power supply and wire it straight into your boat’s 12v supply (through a suitable switch and breaker, of course). We have ours mounted on the wall in a cabin with the charging cord permanently inserted into the bracket. To charge it, we just switch on the power supply to it.

Yamaha 3JH3E and Kanzaki KM3A1 Marine Drive – Clutch Slipping

For a while we have been puzzled. We would start the port engine and put it into gear. And all would be well. Then we would stop for whatever reason. And then we would put it into gear again – and nothing happened. It seemed like the prop wasn’t turning. Indeed occasionally that was the (click to read more...)

Eclectic Energy D-400 Wind Generator Review

Our D400 Wind Generator In a nutshell: We love it! We did quite a bit of research before selecting the D-400. Our requirements were that it kick in at low windspeed, have high output, and be quiet. It fulfills all of those requirements excellently. As I write this I am sitting at anchor in Portimao, (click to read more...)

Abandon-Ship Bag Essentials

Let’s face it: Boats sometimes sink. Yes, it can even happen to YOUR boat – despite your vast experience, excellent skills, chart plotter, backup GPS, radar, AIS, fire extinguishers and all the other systems, procedures and equipment you have put into place to avoid that ultimate disaster. The fact is that you might run into (click to read more...)

Boat Specs, Equipment & Photos

DESCRIPTION MAKE/MODEL: Robertson & Caine/ Leopard 42′ WHERE BUILT: South Africa YEAR BUILT: 2001 MODEL YEAR: 2002 FLAG: Canada LOA 12.62m / 41′ 5 ” LWL 10.50m / 37′ 9 ” BEAM 6.93m / 22′ 9 ” DRAFT 1.30m / 4′ 3″ Mast Height: Mast head to winch: 55′,    Top of aerial to waterline (click to read more...)

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