Diesel Duck 462 after 5 years and 10.000Nm-Pros and Cons (trawlerfans)
South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Sat 1 Feb 2020 15:07
Basically Dora Mac is a great boat. Where ever I am she calls the attention for being a sturdy and tough boat and people passing by stop,admire and ask questions. As mentioned she´s a comfortable passagemaker and liveaboard and all systems installed onboard are well known trademarks (mainly American and Canadian).
The conservative approach from the designer George Buehler appeals to me with sails and paravanes not having to rely on electronics. Having said that there are of course also backsides.
Domestic fresh waterpiping comes first. Based on a bad piping material leaks have been common with the piping cracking (especially in bends)needing replacement. When in a bad position,replacement can be awkward.Most piping though,have been replaced on Dora Mac and the newer Diesel Ducks are built with another pipingmaterial.
Another problem is corrosion in the joints between stainless and steel. All bollards have been welded in to the steel and in the joints corrosion appears frequently. Now when spraypainting in Estonia all joints around bollards were grinded down to steel and treated with filler,primer and several layers of Awlcraft epoxypaint. So far it still looks good.
New Diesel Ducks have their bollards bolted instead of welded.
Finally inline fuses have caused frequent electric problems on Dora Mac. The electric propane controller (Xintex fume detector) lost it´s power due to a broken inline fuse never found. Electric supply had to be bypassed.The Balmar 24v alternator frequently loses charging due to bad contact in an inline fuse(fortunately reachable).The AIS system lost power out at sea due to broken soldering in an inline fuse. The VHF lost power due to a broken inline fuse difficult to find needing to be bypassed to get power and finally the Danfoss compressor of the refrigerator stopped working due to an inline fuse with bad contact(the fuse itself was intact).
These inline fuses have in common being difficult to find and/or reach. Since most marine electric devices today are "protected" by an inline fuse this is probably common on boats in general,but important is to install the inline fuse close to the device it protects and making it reachable in case of failure !!
Finally Dora Mac does roll uncomfortably in heavy beamseas (+-30 degrees). Paravanes does compensate both in size of rolling and in frequency. I´m sure the competitors Nordhaven and Kadey Krogen does roll heavily as well but it would be very interesting to compare and to compare finstabilizers and paravanes/sails.
If anyone ask me if I would recommend Diesel Duck 462 for cruising the oceans the answer is without any doubt-yes.
