Preparing your catamaran for a round the world trip
Join David as he gears up for a half-circumnavigation on an Excess 14
A sailing voyage requires thorough preparation. Whether on a monohull or catamaran, the key areas to focus on are the same. Follow the preparation of the Excess 14 Alhena II as it sailed from Les Sables d’Olonne to Polynesia, covering over 10,000 nautical miles. Owners Jean Pierre and Beatrice prepared their catamaran for long crossings and for life onboard, and they paid attention to every detail!
Jean-Pierre and Béatrice, owners of an Excess 14
Learn about the key equipment needed to sail around the world
Choosing a boat model to sail around the world
Jean-Pierre and Béatrice’s decided on an Excess 14 catamaran because it fits with their sailing project and their personality.
Thier sailing journey spans many years, beginning with Jean-Pierre’s teenage adventures on a dinghy and later graduating to “borrowing” his parents’ elegant Wauquiez monohull for some not-so-official voyages. Béatrice, on the other hand, honed her cruising skills alongside Jean-Pierre during their trips to Greece on charter catamarans. Their nautical pursuits culminated in the acquisition of the splendid Dufour 56, the Alhena I, in Antibes.
It was during a cruise on the Paul Gauguin that they fell in love with Polynesia, and decided to return under sail to discover the islands and atolls. Their monohull, though fast, racy and an excellent upwind boat, wasn’t the most suitable for Polynesia: too much draft and too much roll downwind.
They decided to replace their monohull with a catamaran, but wanted to keep the high performance: they chose the Excess 14 as it combines a great feel at the helm with a high average speed thanks to its good sail-to-weight ratio. And it includes all the comforts of a modern catamaran.
Excess 14 : performance blue-water catamaran
Excess 14 : sailing downwind
How best to choose your boat and dealership
Criteria to choose your boat
- Space onboard
- Number of cabins
- Sailing performance
- Easyness to handle
- Comfort at sea and at anchor
Choosing your dealer
- Brands distributed
- Geographical area
- Blue-water sailing experience
- Technical competencies
- Listening and empathy
Choosing your dealer according to your sailing project
Jean-Pierre and Béatrice contacted Sail Tahiti. They were looking for a dealer who knew ocean sailing and who would help them to prepare their boat for an extended cruise.
David from Sail Tahiti was the perfect fit, with extensive experience sailing and crossing oceans, and expertise in catamaran equipment and systems.
Collaborating closely, they fine-tuned the setup for the upcoming Alhena II, combining factory-installed gear with a range of personalized options.
Sail Tahiti has made custom boat setups their specialization with partnerships in Vendée, France, to ensure the best quality and service.
Sail Tahiti : boat preparation for an ocean crossing
Choosing the lay-out and builder’s options
Choosing the configuration and the main builder options is one of the key stages of the project. It begins when the boat is ordered and ends 6 months before it leaves the factory. Béatrice and Jean-Pierre wanted a high-performance catamaran that would be comfortable to live aboard over long distances, yet flexible enough to accommodate children, grandchildren and friends.
In their initial factory setup they made the following choices:
- Owner’s version with a large cabin and office area
- Storage space and workshop convertible into a cabin with 2 single beds
- Pulse Line performance rig with large bowsprit
- 57 hp engines with folding propellers
- 3 fridges and a freezer
- Cockpit tower covers and biminis on helm stations
- Electric toilets, additional water tank
- 100l/h watermaker
- Garmin electronics with 2 x 12″ GPSMAP displays
- Radar, AIS, autopilot, Garmin VHF
- Composite davits for tender and solar panels,
- Roof access stairs
Storage space that converts into a workshop or double cabin.
Installing custom equipment
If the builder’s options represent an essential framework, working hand in hand with a dealer specializing in ocean cruising projects enabled Béatrice and Jean-Pierre to have a series of made-to-measure equipment installed: marine cabinetry to create extra storage space, safety and communication equipment, performance sails, seamanship work, tools, kitchen utensils, water purifier, offshore safety equipment, etc. Here are the highlights.
Rigging
The running rigging can suffer during ocean crossings. To prevent chafing, Sail Tahiti has installed sheaths at friction points, as well as extra reefing lines to secure the reefs. At each stopover, and even underway when conditions permit, we climb up the mast to check the attachment points and monitor any signs of wear.
Choice of sails
For their round-the-world trip, Jean-Pierre and Béatrice opted for the Pulse rig on the Excess 14, with an extended mast and large bowsprit. Sail Tahiti offered them an enlarged code zero Elvstrom and an asymmetrical spinnaker for even more power downwind. A parasailor completes the list of downwind sails. The genoa and mainsail are hydranet.
Electronics
The Excess 14 Alhena II’s electronics are ultra-complete. Each helm station features a large Garmin GPSMAP 1223 display and a Garmin GMI20 multifunction indicator. So you can keep an eye on wind and speed data, the chart and the anti-collision system with AIS and radar. At the chart table, a Digital Yacht marinized PC with an extra-large screen displays Maxsea Time Zero software linked to NMEA.
Communication
RM Nautisme has installed redundant communication systems, but each has its own specific features: Starlink allows you to connect to high-speed Internet to work remotely, watch movies and load gray files for the 2 routing systems: Predictwind and Timezero . An Iridium Go Extreme is ready to take over, while the Garmin Inreach sends the boat’s position every hour.
Fishing
Fishing is one of the pleasures of boating, but also an important means of providing delicious protein during long crossings. Nothing was left to chance: we installed 2 trolling rods with large reels to accommodate 600 meters of high-strength line. Comptoir de la Mer advised us on the choice of lures to suit all climates.
Cooking
The galley has been equipped for a comfortable round-the-world trip: 2 fridges, a freezer and an external fridge for storage, 3 gas rings and an oven, a microwave in a made-to-measure stand, a thermomix, a Nespresso machine, an Italian coffee maker, a kettle and a toaster, but above all custom-made furniture made by Mer et Bois to optimize storage space.
Organizing life at sea and enjoying anchorages
One of the main challenges of long-distance cruising is to have enough storage space and to organize it properly to carry technical equipment, tools, clothes, anchor toys and supplies, and to be able to find everything when you need it.
Cooking at sea or at anchor for family and friends is also one of the joys of life on a boat, and should not be overlooked when preparing the boat: what equipment to use for cooking outside and inside, where to stow it when sailing and how to get it back into action when you’re at anchor!
For the Excess 14 Alhena II, Sail Tahiti’s technical partners have come up with some innovative solutions…discover them in pictures.
Life onboard : outside cooking
Installation of an electric griddle on a pivoting, removable stand
Offshore sailing coaching
Getting to know your boat well is crucial to safe sailing. Key points include harbor maneuvers, sail changes, gybing and tacking in rough seas, tuning your boat to optimize performance, weather routing, daily technical monitoring…
Jean-Pierre chose to have a good team on the Atlantic crossing to Panama. This means not only advice and the experience of other good sailors on hand, but also to ensure he had support in making sure that all the equipment is working properly and to deal with any problems. Sail Tahiti helped to find the right people for the trip.
In addtition to onboard support, Sail Tahiti’s technical team will also monitor the boat’s operation remotely. Victron electrical systems allow remote connection for routine checks and maintenance. If necessary, Sail Tahiti can send spare parts to any port of call and provide advice at sea thanks to the Starlink connection. A Garmin Inreach tracker keeps track of the boat’s position in real time.
Jean-Pierre checks the sail trim from the helm of his Excess 14
Staying in touch with family and friends
Sailing halfway around the world to Tahiti involves long periods away from friends and family. Keeping in touch is important, and allows you to share the adventure with those closest to you. There are many ways of doing this, whether by video, telephone or social networking, but the key is of course to have a high-performance communications system. The battle for innovation is on in this area, with Starlink leading the way, offering ultra-fast but relatively expensive data rates. Iridium is modernizing with the new Iridium Go Extreme, offering 40 times the throughput of a conventional Iridium Go.
Tracking systems make it possible to follow the position of a sailboat around the world in real time. On this crossing, we’re using 2 of them:
- Inreach Garmin sends positions every hour, but text and image options are limited. It’s efficient, inexpensive and fits in the palm of your hand.
- Predictwind tracking is available with routing subscriptions. By connecting the PredictWind Datahub to an Iridium or Starlink, navigators can post their position, accompanied by text and images.
