The Boat
Yamana is a Beneteau Idyle 13.5 (43feet), a French production boat built in 1984. Her draft (depth under water 5.10 feet. Her mast is 62 feet off the water and she weighs about 12 tons. She has a newish powerful Yamar engine, 73hp turbo and a full suite of sails, a mainsail, 150% genoa, stay sail, storm sail and a spinniker. Her hull is fiberglass with a lead keel and spade rudder. Worth about 100 grand US.
Yamana has been a really great boat for us. We were so lucky to pick her up such a well maintained boat from Hugh and Lynn, friends of my brother. They had put in a new engine, generator and water maker alone with many other improvments. Touchwood she's very sound all round, built at a time when they didn't cut corners on factory boats, she has a thick fiberglass hull and strong keel stepped mast which is over rigged. The cockpit is the superfeature of Yamana, so big and comfortable, great for entertaining and eating together. The seat is the unique feature not normally found on sailboats, it makes the passages far more pleasant. She's a reasonably fast boat too, the engine easily makes 7 knots on a calm sea and with a fair breeze the sails even more.
We've done our best to maintain and improve Yanmana, developing her from a sloop to a cutter with an inner forestay allowing us to use an staysail or storm sail. For the lightwinds we introduced a wisker pole to hold out the big genoa to go wing on wing with an asymmetrical spinnaker. On the domestic front we pumped in seawater to the galley sink, greatly reducing our fresh water consumption. Energywise we installed a wind generator and solar panels which on windy sunny days will supply all the amps we need, usually we add a bit more from the diesel generator.
For comfort for a family of four she's ok, just. We're a bit on top of each other, having to squeeze past, the walkable floor area including the cockpit is XXXX square feet. The V birth can bearly contain Olive and Ruben. The cockpit is the saving grace when in comes to space, so big and well protected from the elements, it's our lounge.
On passage Yamana keeps going and going, never complaining or failing. She's lovely to sail and easy on the helm, although she does heal over a little too soon into the wind. In rough seas, we've only had her in 14 foot waves, she feels really solid although there's a lot of creaking, groaning and water smashing noises below, terrable for the imagination.
