About The Boat

About Southern Cross

Power supply: engine with 55 amp alternator and one 43 watt solar panel to a 210 amp-hour deep-cycle battery bank to service the "house" and a separate starting battery. 12VDC and 110VAC systems ran throughout the vessel and provided a shore power battery charger.

Dinghy: West Marine inflatable. That was replaced by an Avon Roll-up in 1993 with power supplied by a Yamaha 2 HP in 1991 and replaced by a Yamaha 3HP in 1993.

Sails: The trip began with twelve-year-old (original) hanked-on sails: 150 genoa, 130 genoa, yankee, staysail, recut roachless main, and two new sails...a radial head drifter and storm staysail by Lee. In 1991 the Simon Willis Loft in Kerikeri, New Zealand, built a new fully battened main and in 1993 a roller furled tri-radial cut genoa for the roller furling unit donated that year by ProFurl. North Sails provided a new staysail in 1996.

Compaq Computers provided a Contura 3/25C laptop in 1993 for a growing correspondence list and articles for SAIL Magazine. The first two drafts of the memoir of the voyage were written on it.

"Southern Cross" was built in 1976 by C. E. Ryder Corp. in Bristol, Rhode Island, to Thomas Gilmer's traditional Colin Archer design. She is Hull #23 in the series of Southern Cross 31's.

Hull: Airex cored fiberglass, with a plywood cored deck.

Auxiliary power: Yanmar 2QM20 diesel.

Water capacity: 55 gal. in two tanks and 10 gal. carried on deck.

Fuel capacity: 35 gal. in one tank and 20 gal. carried on deck. During the Red Sea passages the on-deck supplies were increased to water at 35 gal. and fuel at 30 gal.

Navigation system: at the beginning of the voyage a Sitex SatNav with sextant backup (used for nine days en route to New Zealand). This was replaced in 1992 with a Magellan 5000 GPS. Depth sounder and digital knot log: Datamarine.

Steering: tiller to an outboard-hung rudder. Self steering: Path Finder wind vane. It featured a trim tab on the rudder, but without return lines to the tiller, it proved unsatisfactory. The initial electric autopilot, a First Mate, had a very high rate of power consumption. In Darwin, it was replaced with an early Navico model. In 1995 that was changed for a new design by Navico, TP300C. Many problems were built into the new design, including overdampened response limits.

Safety gear: a used Beaufort 6-man life raft, EPIRB, fire extinguishers, flares and rockets, life jacket, and radar reflector.

Communications equipment: a Ray Jefferson VHF and (in 1990) a Kenwood TS140S HF radio with manual tuner and backstay antenna. Ham call sign: KM6DR.

Ground tackle: 35 lb. CQR on 200' of high test 5/16" chain with 200' of nylon rode to a manual ABI windlass; 22 lb. Bruce on 30' high test 5/16" chain with 200' of nylon rode (carried on the stern); 14 lb. Danforth lunch hook.

Galley: 3-burner Force 10 propane stove with oven and broiler, ice box, and deep single sink serviced by manual fresh water and salt water pumps.