A number of folk, usually non sailors, have asked us about how the crossing was, what it was like in such a relatively small boat, and so on. The average length of yacht participating in the ARC in 2012 was around 51 feet, and though there were a couple of 37 foot yachts and one 32 foot Rival, we were definitely amongst the smallest boats to participate this time.

What is interesting is that, the more time that passes since we arrived at Rodney Bay, the better the memories of the trip have become.  Our crossing was fast in relative terms compared to recent ARC events, and a lot faster than the journeys experienced by many of the non ARC cruising yachts we have met since we got here.

I think the price we paid for that apparent speed, was the variety of activity that some enjoyed. We were pretty fully engaged with sailing the boat and keeping things safe, that we had little time to do anything else. Our fishing experiments were fruitless and though there was time for some reading etc, the lack of any automatic steering aids made our primary activity simply sailing.

The time shrinks too. We were 16 days at sea and, looking back, it now seems a fairly short length of time. Yet, if you'd asked any one of us on board Persephone, how we felt about the prospect of nearly 3 weeks at sea, before we left Las Palmas, I am pretty sure that filling the time would have been a significant concern. The mind seems to foreshorten the perspective, like a long telephoto lens, and I cannot remember boredom being any part of the experience.

The simple fact of continuously sailing for 3000 miles or so, does affect the wear and tear on the boat. We knew this would be the case before we set off, but some of the issues we were warned about, simply never presented themselves. Chafe, for example…some boats used pipe lagging and other protection on spreaders etc to fight the risk of chafe on sails, but we found no issues. Similarly, halyards were all in tip top condition at the end of the trip, as they had been at the start. Our "issues" if you can call them such, fell mainly into the category of things not being "fit for purpose" and not having been tried and tested for long enough.

One case is the lovely Spinflo cooker we fitted about 18 months ago. Don't get me wrong,  it has been great.  However, the manufacturer says it is all stainless steel. But it is not. The rails and pan clamps are cheap non stainless steel which has been chrome plated. The chrome comes off once the cooker is in daily, rather than weekend use, so rusty stains start to proliferate.

Another was or super duper flexible solar panels. New, they delivered sufficient power to top up the batteries nicely. But they were really not designed for marine use, despite the manufacturers claims and all the marketing blurb. They were not waterproof!  So we found we had possibly the worlds first solar panels designed for indoor use. Steadily the panels absorbed water and rusted from the inside out so that, by the time we got to St Lucia, they were delivering no electricity at all. They have gone into a skip, and we await replacements (from a different manufacturer) as we write.

The sat phone has been much commented on in earlier musings, but has been tested and the report we had seems to indicate that the problem lies either in the aerial or the cable…and new examples of each are on their way to us too.

Is the Sigma 38 a good passage making yacht?  Well of course it is, from a range of perspectives.  Persephone is safe - we were never pooped, as others were,despite huge following seas for most of the Atlantic crossing.   But making and storing electricity is a significant part of our daily routine while cruising. Almost all the power is used to keep the fridge cool, and it is a constant battle.  So, if we were doing it all again, there are some adjustments we would make;-

None of these things are new experiences for Sigma 38 owners making extended passages in warm climates. But they are mostly fairly major bits of work which cost a fair amount to achieve. Many of these items on a "wish list" are not realistically achievable….as space is a consideration.  And Persephone is, first and foremost, part of the one design community in the Solent, so all the costly extras would have to come off at some point?  

Except the fridge….

And where would we store and use a genset?

Which is why the average length of a 21st Century cruising boat is 51 feet!