Diesel Duck 462 so far

South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Mon 17 Oct 2016 16:56

I have been with Dora Mac for two seasons now starting to know her.

To stay in Turkish waters the first season followed by a Med crossing was a good way of practising since circumstances in the Med is not that demanding. Compared with stormy waters in Scotland or Norway and very long passages in the South Pacific the Med is a good way to start.

Today I think I`m comfortabe with most normal case scenarios onboard . Except when having heavy beamwinds she´s also fairly straight forward to manouver in port ,having a strong bowthruster as a necessary part of her equipment.The problem is when things onboard fail (autopilot error,Raymarine system shut down,John Deere failure for what ever reason etc).The former owner Randal, is probably one of the persons knowing the DD462´s best and he has been a fantastic support through cyberspace. Encountering problems is unfortunately the best way to learn.

Dora Mac is a very comfortable passagemaker. Days and nights are passing and your role onboard is to be a system controller (that is until something fails ).

She´s also a very comfortable liveaboard. Nothing is missing out of that perspective.

On the downside are all complicated systems. Especially the loads of domestic pipes/connections/valves for fuel,steering,sea and freshwater. As long as I have been onboard there has allways been some (minor or major) leak. I cannot resist thinking that this is one sign of being an American boat "to solve the problem just add another pipe or valve" or everything has to be managed by an electrical device. To switch on and off the propane would be easy with a manual handle instead of a 12v solenoid controlled by an elecrical device which when it fails stops you from cooking.

If I could choose I would choose Furuno instead of Raymarine as a nav system. I´m not so happy with the Raymarine and have very good experiences from Furuno.

We have not tried Dora Mac in bad weather and heavy seaway. Coming out from Greece on the Ionian Sea we had a force 6 (around 28kts) on our beam with heavy roll and seasickness. After launching the paravanes roll was decreased and seasickness declined.

We do know a DD 44 heading up the Red Sea in a force 9 and a DD 462 encountering 45kts of wind for 48 hrs outside the US westcoast both bragging about the performance of their boats. Wether we like it or not, sooner or later we will have our own experience.....

Finally Dora Mac do call the attention. People stop and look,and very often ask questions(especially about the paravanes). She´s definitely not a beautiful boat but she looks sturdy, strong, and tough. Someone said "the Landrover of the sea" which actually fits with my gutfeeling the first time I saw her.

 

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