No to new car to prepare my boat for challenging sailings

PkBoo is a Dufour 405 GL purchased new in 2010, almost always moored at Marina degli Aregai (except for a break in Cagliari) and with which we have traveled about 5,000 miles in the Mediterranean, mostly in Corsica, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands and the South of France. We have participated in a few Giraglia, always for fun and knowing that we are not competitive, and this year I decided to take on the ocean. In April I registered the boat for the ARC (Atlantic Rally Cruiser) and with some friends on Nov. 20 we will sail from Gran Canaria to the island of St. Lucia, after crossing the Atlantic Ocean, 2,700 miles of sailing. Why do I do it? Lawyer with a practice in Mantua, 48 years old, married with two grown children (26 and 22), with a great passion for the sea and a great desire to escape from the routine, made more and more often of false relationships and boring social conventions; accomplice to the completion of twenty years of profession, I have decided that instead of renewing the furnishings of the study or buying a new car I will go to the Caribbean for some time, before age or some illness prevent me. With me aboard PkBoo are four friends who share my passion for the sea and have a great desire to measure themselves against ocean crossing.

HOW I INVESTED TO IMPROVE THE BOAT
As I said, this is a production boat, to which I have made many improvements over the years and have now basically redone. I started with a very serious check of the hull, keel and rudder and relied on Davide Zerbinati, who turned out to be not only a great professional but also an exquisite person. The survey unfortunately revealed that a poorly executed repair by the construction site had not been decisive, and I had to intervene to restore the structural rigidity of a madiere. I took the opportunity to replace the sockets and valves (I opted for Teflon Randex).

As for the sails, I relied on Beppe Zaoli’s sailmaker who checked the mainsail, adding a third coat of reefing, re-trimmed the genoa,made mea new reinforced jib and a new foresail for high winds (to be rolled). On board I already had a turmentine winding on the rolled sails.
I will bring two gennakers that I already had (a smaller, heavier one and a larger, lighter one) and I purchased a 105sq m parasailor.

The rigging was supervised by Massimiliano Fiori of DOFI., who – in addition to supervising the various works at the site – installed me the heath for the foresail and related flywheels (made of dyneema), the tangon attachment (which we will need to tangon the genoa) and The new halyard for the foresail halyard with whisk, as well as various other work (halyards, sheets, blocks, bindings, etc.). I already had a Baitek 12v 60l/h watermaker on board; the manufacturer provided me with a maintenance kit. I installed a water purifier filter (Seagull IV).

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I installed three solar panels of 125w each (Solbian) with MPPT controllers, two of them on a steel arch attached to the bimini (supplied by Asseaboat of Bologna) and one in the deckhouse. I changed the service battery pack (6 120A AGM batteries), the charger (Mastervolt 70A that will handle both 110V and 220V current for me), and replaced theinverter with a more powerful one (2000W Victron).

I purchased a replacement alternator, because the boat engine will be the only additional energy source along with the solar panels (I have no place to install a diesel generator, on hydro generators I have collected many dissenting opinions, while the wind generator at the carriers in theory would not make sense). However, I left the final decision once we are in the Canary Islands, after testing the system in the transfer. In addition to the Raymarine E90W plotter I had (I upgraded the charting and purchased that of the various navigation zones), I installed a Vulcan 5 from B&G and upgraded the data instruments (new transducers and new wind station).
I added a more powerful autopilot (T2 linear and Raymarine ACU 400 system) which became the main one, and left the previous autopilot as a spare in case it broke down. I bought a satellite phone (Iridium 9575) with an external antenna. I am waiting for Nautigamma to provide me with its DCP, a preset computer with navigation and data transmission software, which will be interfaced via multiplexer to the on-board data.
I paid great care and attention to safety equipment (the ARC handbook helped me a lot in this) and so:
– Raymarine AIS transreceiver; EPIRB with hydrostatic release; raft overhaul and compliance check with ARC standards; IOR rod; new lifebuoy for man overboard recovery; serious searchlight (Aqua Signal); floating anchor (SeaBrake was the choice); PLB and AIS MOB; I also installed an AIS Allarm from Ocean Signal interfaced with the various MOBs that sounds an audible alarm in case of falling overboard; serious fire extinguishers (not the ones they sell us just because they are mandatory); fire blanket near the galley; etc. etc. (the list would be very long).I should add that I purchased a serious (Stazo) outboard motor anti-theft system and a serious chain (also Stazo) for the tender. In the Caribbean it will come in handy. In September I will complete the part about the shipboard pharmacy (very complicated), for which I will ask my pharmacist brother for help, and nutrition. After arriving in St. Lucia, complicit with the dangerous situation on the islands to the south, we will head north to spend Christmas between Martinique and Guadeloupe. Then Antigua and BVI.I have not yet decided what we will do next: return (ARC Europe or ship), Caribbean stop for new season, continue to Panama and then face the Pacific; I don’t know, we’ll see. But this will be another adventure.

Marco Baioni, author of the article started windsurfing as a boy, then in 2010 he got his boating license and bought PkBoo, a Dufour 405 Grand Large (the name comes from the English “peak a boo,” the equivalent of “cucubau”); this despite the fact that his wife was leaning toward a motor-powered minor (which, he says he has always liked).

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