The 71 Percent crossing Pacific

[READY]

Curious to hear opinions about this for those who watch the channel?
My thoughts:
1) Selene makes a good boat but it is just being commissioned and they dont have significant experience with it.
2) They have done coastal boating and Bahamas but I don't think they have any offshore or Pacific experience. I believe the longest they did was a 4 day passage Bahamas to Chesapeake.
3)Not certain but I think his partner is not a fan of rough water
4)I believe they intend to go with just the two of them. Would be much better if Selene supplied a captain and or engineer (and perhaps they wiil).
5) I am not aware that they have ever been in seriously high seas ( or even 8-10 ft) for extended periods. The fatigue factor from that may not be appreciated.

As I understand it Selene is giving them use of the boat for a year. Nice deal for the couple! Good PR for Selene if it goes reasonably well. Good source of YouTube content.

 

[Retriever]

My impression is they plan on going the "wrong way" back to North America, beating against prevailing weather the entire way. This seems like a recipe for an unpleasant series of passages. Personally, I think the trip would be more fun and a much better example of powerboat capability if they motored north through Asia all the way to Japan and then came back to North America via the Aleutians.

 

[skyhawk]

My bet is that they'll do some "coastal cruising" before setting off on a long passage.

I for one, am staying tuned. Selene is probably my favorite boat to dream about...Well I like the lines anyway, not totally sure otherwise... That's why I'm very interested in tehir journey. I want to learn about that boat, how liveable is it? how seaworthy is it?

 

[READY]

I hope so but I would want 6 months or a year with a new to me boat before I would consider such a challenging bluewater passage. I would want to know how the boat does in gale force and higher conditions before I took it into the blue ocean. I did exchange an email with them and have great respect so hoping for a great trip.

 

[Mambo42]

I am watching them as well, also curious what they are going to do. It would seem highly reckless to just cross the Pacific with zero experience. I cannot believe that this is exactly what they will do.
Since the boat belongs to Selene I can only assume that Selene will be heavily involved, after all, would you give a 1 or 2 million dollar boat to complete strangers, with no experience and then let them cross the Pacific ? To basically put the reputation of the whole company on the line for just some Youtube airtime ?

That just doesn't make any sense, so I will be following the development with interest, but am not sure I am going to watch the whole passage. I think it will become boring pretty fast.

 

[Serene]

I am watching closely too. Have been on board the boat when it was for sale and have also been a viewer of the channel so will bring two things together, plus of course the Australian coastline which I am familiar with too.

Somebody up-thread commented on Lindsey’s aversion to rough weather. It is correct and she has stated a number of time she gets seasick.

Will be interesting to see the route they chose. Will they go south via Lord Howe Island to New Zealand, or jump straight across to Vanuatu, or up the Queensland coast first. I haven’t watched the latest few episodes so not sure if they’ve discussed routing yet.

 

[ranger58sb]

All that earlier yakking about 71% (and Wynns, etc.) here led me to have a look at some of their vids.

At first, the two about moving their Nordhavn 40 from Annapolis to FLIBS.... partly because we also ran a short part of the same route only about 3 weeks (I think) after theirs... and we could point our "crew" families to those two vids to give them an idea about our own trip.

Then I went back to a few from their beginning; some OK stuff, but mostly I appreciated their eventual review of the Riviera 5400 they had before Nice boat, although without a flybridge it wouldn't have rung our chimes.

Still, the views of their dinghy garage was worth the price of admission. I think that seems like a great solution for managing dinghies at near water level, not interfering with crossed stern lines at the dock, avoiding worries about backwash when coming down off plane, better protection for the dinghy when garaged... I'd want one!

The Selene looks nice.

-Chris

 

[Jklotz]

I have to agree with Ready. We've had out boat for 7, coming up on 8 months and have done quite a bit of cruising on her. We've spent most of our time onboard since we got her. I'm just now starting to feel comfortable with most of the systems, not all. I've been stocking up on spares as I can, nowhere near enough as of today. I can't imagine crossing an ocean, feel like I need another year, at least, not that that is my objective.

 

[Serene]

The boat has sat unused for almost two years too, so will be interesting to see what issue that might raise.

 

[bandidaboat]

My reflectiion is that it's just too small a boat to be considering this trip. I have a Fleming 55 which is bigger and just as capable and I would never contemplate a trip like that

 

[DDW]

It is a stunt for the sake of Youtube votes. "Hold my beer and watch this...." To get many viewers it needs to be a bit chancy and controversial.

 

[NWboater2]

Good lord. I couldn’t watch those vacuous posers for ten minutes.

 

[sunchaser]

About a decade ago a very accomplished skipper named Brian Calvert took his Selene 47 from the PNW to Mexico and then on to points west. His Pacific crossing is a great blog and points to the importance of a well prepped boat and skipper’s capabilities.

A boat’s size (meaning small) is far less important than preparedness, design and crew capability. Look no further than Nordhavn’s around the world trip two decades ago in the N40. On TF, listen to Retriever when in comes to Transpacific topics. He’s the real deal.

 

[Fletcher500]

Two of my ex classmates rowed across the Pacific about 10 years ago. Men and women row across the Pacific and Atlantic ever year.

A guy named Ed Gillet crossed the Pacific in a kayak. His book is great, highly recommend it.

The 71 percenters are in a big trawler with all the modern conveniences of life. They will have some drama, but likely be fine. Then on to the next “project”.

 

[Mako]

We've had out boat for 7, coming up on 8 months and have done quite a bit of cruising on her. We've spent most of our time onboard since we got her. I'm just now starting to feel comfortable with most of the systems, not all. I've been stocking up on spares as I can, nowhere near enough as of today. I can't imagine crossing an ocean, feel like I need another year, at least, not that that is my objective.

Curious what you feel have been the most challenging to become comfortable with.

 

[Jklotz]

Curious what you feel have been the most challenging to become comfortable with.

It's not operating the systems, it's when something goes wrong. Understanding how a system works is one thing, knowing how to fix it when it goes south is another.

 

[Gdavid]

It's not operating the systems, it's when something goes wrong. Understanding how a system works is one thing, knowing how to fix it when it goes south is another.

I just watched their newest video and fortunately, they were able to repair a belt tensioner which came loose due to a sheared bolt. Understandably, there isn't any footage of the actual repair other than seeing him fighting with the belt cover and railing around the engine, which interfered with the replacement. Glad to see him overcome this and while it seems like a pretty simple repair, they apparently managed the situation well by immediately addressing the issue after hearing the belt squeal rather than ignoring the problem until the engine began overheating.

If I were him, I would be both frustrated and very curious to know why the belt sheared. Is there a misalignment or bad idler bearing that lead to this failure or was it simply a bad bolt. Footage of installing the tensioner itself would have helped his video, but it is very understandable that he focused on getting the repair made versus making content.

I hadn't watched much of their previous videos, but this recovery from a moderate breakdown is promising. He is probably more mechanical than previous videos have portrayed. It was also useful to explain that stabilization was lost when the main propulsion had to be shut down. I would add that Selene should be mindful that the wing engine was not capable of maintaining sufficient speed for steering in such conditions.

 

[READY]

They had a relatively uneventful first 1500 miles other than the bolt. However it exposed the problem with a 2 person crew on such a long and remote voyage. Of course you are always taking risk but I do feel strongly they should have had at least 3 if not 4. Often problems are not singular and some jobs either require or are much easier resolved with 2 people working on it.

I guess I still don't buy into prioritizing getting the badge of accomplishment vs. planning for a more serious problem. If they get seriously rough water it is going to really ramp up the stress and fatigue.

I expect they will (or perhaps already have) completed the voyage and happy for that. But I think YouTube views is not a great reason to put loved ones at unnecessary risk.

FYI Nathan had a career building extreme high HP engines so I suspect he is quite competent. Sadly with new engines you have less options to self repair without deep factory training and advanced diagnostic tools.

I too was surprised that the wing engine was not adequate and they had to use the bow thruster to hold a heading. I hope they will provide more info on that.

Soo far I am not sure this is going to be great PR for Selene.

 

[Mako]

I would add that Selene should be mindful that the wing engine was not capable of maintaining sufficient speed for steering in such conditions.

I too was surprised that the wing engine was not adequate and they had to use the bow thruster to hold a heading. I hope they will provide more info on that.

I haven't watched the video but these comments are confusing. Why would he want to continue his heading under the get-home aux power? Truly all he needs to do is maintain heading directly downwind/downwaves, keeping 2 knots should be sufficient. A drogue hung off the transom (or 100m of heavy rope) would assist with that if the seas are big.

 

[DDW]

Not sure why you would undertake that voyage without a suitable drogue or sea anchor onboard, especially on a single engine vessel. Nor why you would have embarked without first seeing if the wing engine could do anything useful.

A lot of the 'influencer' channels seem to plan to have some drama, or purposely lack planning with the hope of having some drama - it leads to more views than a boring, nothing happened we just did it as planned trip.

 

[READY]

From what I saw they did not see any seriously rough seas. Even coastal California it is not uncommon to see 2-3 meters 10-60 miles offshore and of course much more at times. I am not sure what they have experienced to date but unless they get really lucky they likely will see tougher days ahead. So should provide for exciting content (at their peril). I absolutely buy into the fact that the camera rarely captures the sea state and stabilizers might smooth out the video. I find the best way to observe the seas via a camera is either one capturing the anchor pulpit and horizon and one facing astern.

 

[Mac2]

My thoughts after seeing the video. As noted, I was also surprised at the lack of performance by the wing engine. He stated they could only do 1.5 knots in those rolling seas, which couldn’t keep the boat on course, thus the thrusters. With hydraulics down, Im assuming the thrusters are electric and Im surprised they didn’t overheat and shut down. The sheared bolt on the tensioner was also a big surprise. I hope we get a diagnosis on that. I got the impression he planned a quick fix after discovering the problem. They don’t mention if they had a drogue or anchor, but I wouldn’t go through that trouble if I was replacing a single bolt. Looks like he started the fix and then the railing got in his way, causing him to break out the plastic mallet and go to town. He also got seasick and left the camera view to puke. He was prepared for this including having a puke bucket in the engine room. The fix took one hour. As a crew, I was impressed with their teamwork. They were never panicked. They kept grinding, which is all you can do in that situation. As Ready said, this might hurt Selene more than help. Clearly that wing engine needs more torque. How that’s accomplished on a finished boat is still to be determined.

 

[RedRascal]

...Why would he want to continue his heading under the get-home aux power? Truly all he needs to do is maintain heading directly downwind/downwaves....

CORRECT! They also had an issue come up on one of their coastal trips in the Atlantic where they were trying to figure out something with the boat and kept going into a head sea. They continued bashing while they were trying to resolve an issue. They did it again in this latest video and I saw they were responding to comments so I added a comment that said turn around and run with the weather if you need to steady the boat. They saw my comment and responded with "should have done that, lessoned learned." So I think they have it now.

 

[Mako]

If they were only achieving 1.5kt on their course, then I bet they would have doubled that downwind

 

[rslifkin]

An underpowered wing engine is an issue in 2 ways: Being limited to a very low speed (especially upwind) on the wing engine is bad enough, but there's also typically no prop wash over the rudder. So unless the rudder is up-sized significantly to account for running on the wing engine, steering is going to be very poor if you can't make good enough speed. And that poor steering might make running downwind just as challenging even if it's faster. It doesn't help that most wing engines also have compromised props on them to avoid excessive drag while the wing engine is shut down.

This is making me think more that if you're going to bother putting in a second engine, it should just be in the form of twins rather than a main + wing. At least then you still have prop wash over 1 rudder, so while your engine-out cruise will be slower (unless the boat is significantly overpowered), it's easier to avoid significant handling problems. The amount of rudder over-sizing required isn't as much and you still get a good prop to push the boat with (although it'll be a bit overpropped with 1 engine shut down unless it's underpropped with both running, so full power from the remaining engine may not be available without risking damage).

 

[RedRascal]

They reported 1.5 knots and that is what THEY could get out of it. I think they had a few things working against them with a new to them boat, first time using the wing in a seaway and the middle of the night. I do wonder if the speed would have been higher if they would have altered course 10-20 degrees to get a smoother ride with less pitching. I think they were just problem solving to stay on course vs stable ride or speed with the wing.

 

[Mac2]

I just recalled they had the two bladders of fuel on deck. I wonder how that weight affected the speed?

 

[rslifkin]

I just recalled they had the two bladders of fuel on deck. I wonder how that weight affected the speed?

It's probably not a massive amount of weight relative to the overall boat, so I can't imagine it costing them more than a couple tenths of a knot at worst. Actual impact will depend on what it does to the boat trim-wise, as changing deck angle can have a more significant impact on drag than just the added weight.

 

[Comodave]

My concern with the fuel bladders would not be the weight but rather controlling them so they don’t come adrift. That is a lot of weight to control. I haven’t watched any of their videos on this trip so maybe the bladders are well secured, I don’t know.

 

[Jklotz]

Funny, was in Little Harbor, Abacos today, stopped by Pete's Pub for lunch and saw the 71% sticker on the wall. Anywho, y'all might have missed this, but Nathan is starting a 2nd channel called "Navigating the 71" which focuses on the more technical side. He specifically said the 71% channel is entertainment based, so he can't go into a ton of technical details for fear of losing the audience, so he's starting the new one for that purpose: