Our Boat Building Tour of America

2014-2018

To get Vandal "pacific ready" we spent many months back and forth between boatyards, sea trials, and small trips to test out the improvements we were making.  Because we built Vandal with Gunboat and were heavily involved in the design-build process, we knew Vandal's strengths and weaknesses intimately.  When we first launched her, we realized her lightship weight had come in heavier than originally calculated.  A number of factors were under spec-ed, so we spent the next few years beefing her up, removing any weak spots, and further testing the load and breaking points which the boat could tolerate.  We used to weigh literally every item we brought on board to keep her ultra-light.  We had to be extremely discerning, even once removing a 2lb bread toaster because we just didn't want the weight.  But now, after building Vandal an entirely new mast with a new sail package and redesigning the hull to remove her centerboards, she is PACIFIC STRONG.  She can handle being fully loaded (and stocked with 1,000+ diapers, wipes and toys), and sailed to her true potential.  Over this process, we had the joy of meeting and working alongside many talented craftsman at Gunboat's old headquarters in Wanchese, NC, at Newport Shipyard, LMC Ft Lauderdale, Front Street Shipyards (Belfast, ME), Rybovich (West Palm Beach), and Lyman-Morse (Camden, ME) just to name a few....  It was an awesome experience (as much as hanging around a boatyard can be) to get to know well the creative and handy men and women that keep the world's fleet of boats sailing.  It wasn't quite the "island tour" everyone presumes you do when you have a boat, but its the reality of boat ownership and if you embrace the learning opportunity, you'll learn how to fix an engine and a hundred other thingsin the process.