Passagemaker in the Wild

Yesterday, in the USVI, as I was bringing charter guests back to the marina/drop off point, we were passed by a beautiful Amel 53' Super Maramu.  I had been chatting with the guests about building boats back in the PNW.  As the Amel passed us, I pointed out that I built boats like the one on the back of the center-cockpit sloop.  Then as it got closer, I said, "Actually, that's the boat I just finished building".  It was a Passagemaker as tender to S/V Kristy!

After dropping them off, I wandered over to S/V Kristy to get a better look.  I started chatting with Captain Kent and he invited me aboard for a beer and to talk about Passagemakers.  Come to find out, they had the boat built by someone else, so there were some issues there.  We talked about the things I did with my build, where I deviated, how I adapted, my recreational use vs. their using it as a tender for a 53' sailboat, and what to do to fix some of the the things done during the build, etc.  It was a very enjoyable and enlightening discussion on both sides, and I made some new friends.  The fact that we both had chosen the gunter-sloop rig really gave us some common ground, whereas they went with the stock aluminum mast, I went for the optional wooden one.  It was interesting to observe some of the differences in the real world.  

Anyway, if you have any specific questions about using a Passagemaker as a tender, I'll do my best to try and relate their experience.  I love my PM and it does exactly what I built it for.  Here are some pics of this PM in the wild.  BTW, it's a take-apart version called "Cut Up"....


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RE: Passagemaker in the Wild

So we ended up making friends with the owners of "Cut Up", spent a few days hanging out with them, talked about a few upgrades to make sailing her easier on them.  Dinghied over to a nice restaurant one night.  I showed them some Dyneema splicing techniques and we took her out for a sunset cruise.

The lady who's taking my wife and son sailing runs a catboat on the east coast, so she was more comfortable running without the jib, especially with inexperienced crew (they also hadn't installed any cam cleats yet, and we discussed "drill/fill/drill").  Still, "Cut Up" sailed like a dream back and forth through the mooring field off Honeymoon Beach on Water Island, USVI in Iris' expert hands.

It was a very proud dad who was chasing them around in the dinghy.  Thanks Kent & Iris of S/V Kristy (Amel 53 Super Maramu) for giving us this experience.  Fair winds and following seas...

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