Autonomy
Autonomy is the sailboat’s ability to be self-sustaining without going to port, or in the extreme, able to survive the worst disaster and await assistance. We have prioritized autonomy into six elements as follows:
- Survival gear
- Ability to navigate in broad set of conditions
(storms, damage to sails, no electricity, no engine) - Adequate & sufficient provisions for broad set of conditions
- Ability to locate ourselves on map
- Ability to communicate
- Last but not least, ability to generate electricity and multi-safe electric backup measures
Here is what we’ve done aboard O’Comillas:
Survival:
-
Self-inflatable fully-equipped liferaft canister (10 pax)
-
Radio beacon (ACR Satellite 2 SSM)
- Signals & flares on boat and inside liferaft
- GPS positioning for VHF and SSB radios for distress calls
- Parachute sea anchor
Sailing:
- Reinforced furling mainsail with vertical battens
- Backup furling mainsail (factory standard)
- Furling genoa (factory standard)
-
Asymmetric spinnaker
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Furling storm jib on second stay
-
Storm mainsail with separate mast track
-
Winches that can operate both as power assisted or manually
- Electric and manual bilge pumps
- Two steering wheels
- Two independent autopilot connections to the rudder
- Self-adjusting pendulum bearings (factory standard)
- Direct attachment to the rudder axis (backup)
- Emergency tiller
Provisioning:
- Appropriate quantities of food for the entire trip. (Add 25-50% to estimates)
- A refrigerator, a freezer, and a small bar refrigerator with built-in freezer
- Two natural gas tanks (x hours)
- Adequate amount of food that does not require to be refrigerated
- Survival quantities of ready-to-eat food that does not require refrigeration or heating
- 170 Gallons of water, plus potable water bottles for personal consumption
Positioning:
- Seiwa Explorer mkII plotter controller with GPS antenna
- Two portable Garmin GPS (with multiples sets of spare batteries)
- DMR-200 automated tracking system can be connected to a computer to give its location
- Two computers (weather data, course, tracking)
- A Mark 25 sextant, nautical tables & paper charts
Communications:
- VHF radio with two handsets and a backup VHF portable radio
- SSB (single side band) Radio
- Email connectivity over satellite phone or SSB radio
- Weather over email and SSB WeatherFax
- Flares & other visible signals
- Powerful halogen light can be used for signaling
Power:
- Engine battery (80 Amps Gel)
- Main battery bank (Four 140 Amps Gel for a total of 560 Amps separate from engine battery)
- Mastervolt Whisper 3500 (3 kW diesel generator with its own independent battery for self-start & 1 liter/hour consumption)
- Two alternators on main engine (150 Amps per hour)
- Fuel 125 gallons or 360 liters (with additional tank)
Finally, if we need to repair something such as sails, engine, equipment, electronics, etc, there is a huge toolbox with all sorts of tools, spare parts, electrical meter, sewing tools, manuals for everything, and of course duct tape.