Chris Morejohn: Haul outs today

A few weeks ago my daughter Lillian and I sailed up to Abaco to haul out and paint the bottom of Hogfish Maximus. I really like going to Green Turtle Cays boat yard Abaco Yacht Sevices because it is run by the Roberts family and is the cleanest yard in the Carribean Sea and the south east. HFM had not been hauled in 5 years time. Because I do not belive in insurance for my boat I cannot haul in the states so have been hauling out in Cariacou in the Grenadines and Green Turtle where the first world lawyers have not gotten involved. Since launching the HFMs I would have spent at least $ 12,500.00 US on insurance so far. We have gone through 5 hurricanes in her during this time watching over her our shelfs using the 8 anchors and all the anchor roads to go with them. Being on board full time means you are continually watching after your home so the main risk is being around other boaters. Liability insurance I can see using if you are doing a lot of marina hopping as in Europe. With our shoal draft we try to anchor away from the crowd which is an advantage. By anchoring in shallow water boats can't drag down on us as they run aground first. We also lure a lot of boats to try and anchor next to us this way as we look like a deep draft vessel.

Buying bottom paint for an affordable price has gotten to be a challenge. We need 5 gallons for 2 coats and at the current retail prices of $450.00 a gallon it's getting to be a major cost.

But being a scrapper I am always thinking years down the road so when I come across a deal I invest. The paint we have been using for quite awhile is International commercial brand that I bought 3 five gallon buckets of for $500.00 4 years ago at a junk shop. We put HFM on the beach now and again and paint about 75% of her this way on the tide. The bottom we have to dive to keep clean. I feel the oceans around all the small islands have gotten very nutrient rich over the years as growth now takes no time to grow. Hence the latest full bottom job. We have one 5 gallon bucket left so I hope the continually sailing about will keep it mixed up till we need it.

Here you can see the little chine wings that I put on these flat bottom designs. They are adaptions of

Henry Scheels keel design. It really works well with the dagger board up and the rudder full up we can still tack and sail to weather in about 31/2'-4' of water with minimal slippage . Of course we now have a motor so we can cheat if we want.

The rudder draws 4'9" when fully down and has to be pulled into place. The tackle will break if we hit a whale or a coral head going full speed. So just like a big dinghys. We have not hit a whale yet but hitting the bottom in our quest to go where no other sail boats have gone before is a regular accourance.