We sold our previous boat, which was our only other boat, was S/V Maggie Drum - Whitby 42, to a great Australian family in New Zealand in April, 2008. We sailed her around the Pacific Northwest in the US for five years before taking her south to Mexico and then over across the South Pacific to New Zealand. We put over 15,000nm on her and we loved cruising. The new owners are taking her around the world from Oz and are now waiting out the hurricane season in the south Caribbean. The link to their blog and our previous blog will be added later.
We were boatless from that time until 2015 when we made another mistake and purchased S/V Argonauata, a Goldenwave 42, from the previous loving couple who lived aboard her for many years, taking her all around the PNW, and to Hawaii. She was designed by Bob Perry and built at the Cheoy Lee boatyards in Taiwan in 1981. She is a "classic plastic" cutter with an aft cockpit, skeg hung rudder, large "fin" keel, old Perkins 4108 engine, one head, beautiful teak interior, and beautiful lines. She also has a powerful rig with at 55' mast, and with a sleek hull, slices through the chop with ease. Just like all boats, she is not perfect, and is a constant work in progress, even more so, with me since I am tweaking, replacing, repairing, adding something all the time.
The previous owners had added some significant items to her, including some beautiful stainless railings, arch, and bimini. The stainless was beautifully done and must have cost a small fortune. They also added two feet to the stern at the waterline and four feet on deck, changing the transom to a classic overhang. It has the effect of "moving" the cockpit farther forward which I suspect will make it a drier area. The work was very well done and no one can tell it was an add on at all. Even brokers will stop by and ask what kind of boat she is. She is a "looker" from her lines and attitude. Of course I'm biased but there you go.
The Goldenwaves were built to compete with the Swans of the area and many think she might be one. She has some issues, like all boats, some which we will just have to live with and others that we will modify. Just like all boats.
I'm going to use this blog to document and preserve some of our adventures, good and bad, and some of the aspects of owning and maintaining an oldie-but-goodie boat. It is not for the faint of heart and some lack of intelligence is required to even start much less continue this madness. We did not ever plan to have another boat specifically but we knew we might someday. They are an expensive hobby. Wildly expensive.
I am sad to say that we have not had her out very much in the last three years. Surgeries, home projects, system issues, and other reasons have gotten in the way. I have also done some major surgery on Argonauta, including rewiring the AC panel, replacing the DC panel/battery switches/battery cabling. I also just completed putting in a 400Ah lithium battery, consisting of 16 cells with Lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry (LiFePO4 or just LFP). This is a much safer technology then used in the infamous burning lithium batteries found in small appliances and cell phones, and definitely different than the ones that caught fire on Boeing's new jets. This is the type found in most electric cars at this point, which have been proven to be very safe. I'll go in to that in the next post.
Other projects included rebuilding the anchor windlass, moving the bilge and water pumps and replacing all the hoses, new bilge wiring and switches, new engine and genset alternator regulators, new dinghy, new dinghy motor, replacing many running rigging lines, replacing the head toilet pump, and now, rebuilding the refrigeration system. The refrigeration system is the current project and it is was not even on the original project list. I found some problems that I didn't know about and so it goes. This is a huge project. I'll document that later as it goes. By far the longest and hardest so far, was the new AC/DC panels and battery rewiring. One of the least pretty parts of Argonauta was the wiring even though it was also mostly new wire. I'll post some before and after pics later.
We were boatless from that time until 2015 when we made another mistake and purchased S/V Argonauata, a Goldenwave 42, from the previous loving couple who lived aboard her for many years, taking her all around the PNW, and to Hawaii. She was designed by Bob Perry and built at the Cheoy Lee boatyards in Taiwan in 1981. She is a "classic plastic" cutter with an aft cockpit, skeg hung rudder, large "fin" keel, old Perkins 4108 engine, one head, beautiful teak interior, and beautiful lines. She also has a powerful rig with at 55' mast, and with a sleek hull, slices through the chop with ease. Just like all boats, she is not perfect, and is a constant work in progress, even more so, with me since I am tweaking, replacing, repairing, adding something all the time.
The previous owners had added some significant items to her, including some beautiful stainless railings, arch, and bimini. The stainless was beautifully done and must have cost a small fortune. They also added two feet to the stern at the waterline and four feet on deck, changing the transom to a classic overhang. It has the effect of "moving" the cockpit farther forward which I suspect will make it a drier area. The work was very well done and no one can tell it was an add on at all. Even brokers will stop by and ask what kind of boat she is. She is a "looker" from her lines and attitude. Of course I'm biased but there you go.
The Goldenwaves were built to compete with the Swans of the area and many think she might be one. She has some issues, like all boats, some which we will just have to live with and others that we will modify. Just like all boats.
I'm going to use this blog to document and preserve some of our adventures, good and bad, and some of the aspects of owning and maintaining an oldie-but-goodie boat. It is not for the faint of heart and some lack of intelligence is required to even start much less continue this madness. We did not ever plan to have another boat specifically but we knew we might someday. They are an expensive hobby. Wildly expensive.
I am sad to say that we have not had her out very much in the last three years. Surgeries, home projects, system issues, and other reasons have gotten in the way. I have also done some major surgery on Argonauta, including rewiring the AC panel, replacing the DC panel/battery switches/battery cabling. I also just completed putting in a 400Ah lithium battery, consisting of 16 cells with Lithium-iron-phosphate chemistry (LiFePO4 or just LFP). This is a much safer technology then used in the infamous burning lithium batteries found in small appliances and cell phones, and definitely different than the ones that caught fire on Boeing's new jets. This is the type found in most electric cars at this point, which have been proven to be very safe. I'll go in to that in the next post.
Other projects included rebuilding the anchor windlass, moving the bilge and water pumps and replacing all the hoses, new bilge wiring and switches, new engine and genset alternator regulators, new dinghy, new dinghy motor, replacing many running rigging lines, replacing the head toilet pump, and now, rebuilding the refrigeration system. The refrigeration system is the current project and it is was not even on the original project list. I found some problems that I didn't know about and so it goes. This is a huge project. I'll document that later as it goes. By far the longest and hardest so far, was the new AC/DC panels and battery rewiring. One of the least pretty parts of Argonauta was the wiring even though it was also mostly new wire. I'll post some before and after pics later.
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