Windwalker

We are in the process of purchasing a new (to us anyway) sailboat. She is a 1974 Cal 35. Called a "Cruising" Cal due to the tankage. 156gal of diesel and 110gal of water. Together with the 38hp perkins diesel, gives her quite a good range.

Cal has a reputation for stout boats, and this one is no exception. With a displacement of 17,000 lbs, she's a middleweight for her length. A long though shallow keel has a fair amount of wetted area, but is also shallow draft (4'8") which opens up a few anchorages that the 6'+ keels of some of her contemporaries have to steer clear of.

As you can tell from the above picture, she has little brightwork, which means less time sanding and varnishing. So sad. :)

A raised saloon gives her the appearance of a pilot-house, but since she has no interior steering station, she has more room inside than most pilot-house designs. Also, the boom clears the cabin top by a couple of feet, which means that for a short guy like myself, no worries about getting smacked by the boom while I am in the cockpit. Actually, the boom barely comes aft of the dodger, so even the taller folk have little to fear from it. Unless they are playing silly buggers on the cabin top of course, then all bets are off.

Galley, facing aft.	Nav station	Main cabin, facing forward	V-Berth

These pictures are from the sea trial on April 28th. We sailed from Bremerton, to Shilshole for the survey. Too much fun

Sea trial and survey

The perceptive among you will note that the name on the transom is Kuriakos and not Windwalker, well, the previous, owners (before the folks we bought her from) had changed the name from Windwalker, to Kuriakos, we are changing it back.

Windwalker also has a decent electronics suite. A radar, LoranC, VHF, and knotmeter and depth sounder. A good start. We will be adding a GPS and chartplotter, and upgrading the rest of the electronics, but there is no rush.

Ground tackle includes a 25lb danforth, and a 35lb bruce style anchor, there is a length of chain for rode, (but I am uncertain as to how long) and nylon rode from there. There is a manual anchor winch on deck.

The two winches in the cockpit will be replaced with self-tailers, so that one person can use them effectively. It's hard to crank on the handle while you tail the sheet by hand. (or so I have been told, what do I know? I am not a sailor yet.)

We are now the proud owners of Windwalker. We have moved aboard, mostly, with our three ferrets, Fidgie, and Dex,Taz, and the cat, Kitts. The ferrets are enjoying exploring their new home, and the cat likes to perch high above all, to look down with lofty disdain, well, he is a cat after all.

November 2001
We have lived aboard Windwalker now for the better part of 6 months. We haven't done much to her, due in no small part to workload. As winter approaches, there are some changes that we want to make to her for comfort in the coming months.

1. A cabin heater, currently we have an electric oil filled heater which works fine at dock, but doesn't help when cruising or if the power fails for any reason. We are thinking of a propane fired bulkhead mount unit from Force 10 or Dickinson. The only tough part is where to mount it that puts it out of the way, yet allows it to actually heat the cabin.
2. New batteries and new charging system. The existing system is simply inadequate, cannot handle gel cell batteries, and is not up to the wear and tear of a marine environment. So we will be replacing it with an integrate charger/12VDC monitor system from Trace or Heart. At the same time we will replace the two group 27 wet cells, with gel cells. The maintainance issues are far simpler. Cost is slightly higher than flooded cell batteries, but it is worth it in our opinion.
3. A new head. The existing head has no holding tank, and is thus useless except when underway. It could also do with a rebuild, but that will hopefully wait until we haulout next year. We would like to put in a tank of about 20 gallons, which is plenty for a couple, and enough for two couples over a weekend if they are aware of the marine head issues. The problem is location, there is no good spot under the cabin sole, all that space is taken, we might be able to fit one behind the head, but it will be a bit of a squeeze. I would like a tank that sits directly under the head, which simplifies the plumbing quite a bit, and would allow us to raise the head a little, since it's actually rather low at the moment. This would entail a custom tank, but they aren't much more than the stock ones, at least for rectangular ones.

Planned modifications

• Engine
• Sail rig
• General electrical
• Navigation and communications
• Galley
• Head
• Hull
• Deck
• Anchor & etc

This is just a start, and like I said, doesn't include maintainance tasks.

Last modified on Thu Dec 20 20:41:27 PST 2001