How to Choose a Catamaran PLUS a Bit About Us | Harbors Unknown Ep. 13
Harbors Unknown
Harbors Unknown is the story of two dreamers, Kristin and Fabio Potenti, and our French Bulldog Yoda. We sold our home at the beginning of the pandemic (May 27th, 2020) and moved aboard our Seawind 1600 catamaran, SV Wanderlust, in September. We’re documenting boat life as live aboard sailors, sharing our learnings, sailing adventures, travel experiences and delicious meals cooked on board. We're sailing SV Wanderlust to Harbors Unknown, to explore the world’s vast cultures through food, a common thread amongst people everywhere. Connecting with people and places through the local cuisine, and showing how those dishes can be cooked on a boat with limited space and resources. We hope to inspire people and showcase the possibility of living an alternative lifestyle living on a boat that provides freedom and fulfillment. Visit our website to learn more. https://www.harborsunknown.com/ and consider joining the Harbors Unknown community on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/harborsunknown
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How to Choose a Sailing Catamaran PLUS A Bit About Us | Harbors Unknown Ep. 13
Lots of people have asked about our boat selection process; why we chose the Seawind 1600 and what our sailing background is. Since we’re back at the dock in Ft. Lauderdale we thought it would be a great time to share those stories. So grab a drink and settle in. There are some hilarious bloopers at the end. Don’t forget to subscribe, share and like this video.
Fabio was born in Piombino, Italy a small town on the coast of Tuscany and always had a love for sailing. Windsurfing and hobie cat sailing was very popular and he enjoyed both. After a research residency in WI he moved to RI. Fabio met the Marrocco brothers and opened a restaurant with them. Soon after he met Kristin there who was a bartender. RI is a great place for sailing and we sailed with a friend who had a Pearson 35. It was the first sailing Kristin had done & she loved it.
Naturally this led Fabio to want to buy a sailboat. Kristin grew up on the water. Her dad is a commercial diver and on the days he wasn’t working he’d often go quahogging. Kristin acted as the tender just in case anything went wrong and helped sort the quahogs. So even though she didn’t have a sailing background she loved being on the ocean. Needless to say Kristin thought Fabio’s idea to buy a sailboat was fabulous!
We bought a Beneteau 473 & kept it on a mooring in Narragansett Bay at Conanicut Marina in Jamestown just across from Newport. We could hoist the sails on the mooring and head right out into the bay. It was a great place to sail! We took the boat to Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard + Nantucket as well as down the east coast to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida where Fabio’s brother lived.
We decided to move to Ft. Lauderdale in 2004 and because of the active hurricane season, hired a captain to take the boat down the intercoastal once the season ended. The Beneteau turned out to be the wrong boat for South Florida with it’s slowish speed and deep draft. We sold the Beneateau & a few years later bought a Dragonfly 35 trimaran. That boat was fast! We got her up to 18 knots. It was a lot of fun but once we started toying with the idea of living aboard a boat we started looking for something larger. We sold the trimaran and Fabio’s search became intense.
How do you choose a catamaran with so many choices? First, decide if you want a production cat with a lot of living space & don’t mind sailing with the tradewinds or motor sailing OR if you want something that goes a bit faster, sails in light winds, points into the wind almost like a monohull and are willing to sacrifice space.
We had three main criteria; daggerboards, covered helms & the ability to see out to the ocean from the cockpit. Given our budget this limited our selection to four boats, the Outremer 45, Catana 53, Balance 526 and the Seawind 1600. The Outremer living space was smaller than we expected & Fabio even had to turn on a diagonal to walk in the hull corridor. The helm stations on the Catana are too exposed. The Balance is really more than we wanted to pay, plus it has only one helm station. That left us with the Seawind 1600! We’re happy with our decision. She’s a GREAT sailing vessel. As hull number 4 there are a few kinks to be worked out in the systems for liveaboards and we’re working with Seawind to iron out the details.
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Timecodes:
00:00-00:25 Episode Intro
00:26-00:59 Channel Intro
01:00-03:50 A Bit About Us
03:51-08:30 Beneteau 473
08:31-11:03 Dragonfly 35 Trimaran
11:04-12:56 How to Choose a Catamaran
12:57-15:09 The 4 Boats We Considered
Our Gear:
Main camera: https://amzn.to/3ik0LSu
Main Lens: https://amzn.to/2LByP0j
Gimbal: https://amzn.to/3igBFDI
Microphone: https://amzn.to/3bHOvd3
Action Cam: https://amzn.to/39F6TAR
Drone: https://amzn.to/2LSZ5TE
Light: https://amzn.to/3bIPNog
Computer: https://amzn.to/2XKfJYo
Monitor: https://amzn.to/3nOpKOT
15:10-18:35 Why We Chose the Seawind 1600
18:36-21:57 Planned Upgrades
21:58-23:55 When You’re Given Lemons, Skip the Lemonade and Go Straight for the Good Stuff
23:56-25:15 Bloopers
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