All posts by : Jessica

Aligning has still been a little tough, and that’s because our bridge deck keeps flexing in opposite ways. Time to bond that back together so we no longer have this issue!

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https://www.patreon.com/mjsailing​ **

To get to the point of joining the two sides of the hull together, we have to pass through a few steps – including raising the deck and adding the main beam underneath to keep everything level – as well as cutting little cleats which will pull the two sides together after we’ve added our resin. They’re coated in a clear packing tape, which will make them much easier to use once the resin dries.

There’s more of it to come next week when we switch our attention to the botton, but finally it feels like forward progress is happening here!

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from Annapolis!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

Now all the pieces are with us, it’s time to give the boat a dry fit before we can think about glassing in bulkheads, or bonding the components together.

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One of the biggest issues is the side hull, which is resting with its flange underneath the hull. Once we can get that up and over, we can bolt the two together. But working with pieces over our heads which weigh 300 pounds? (150kg) We have to come up with lots of interesting ways to manage doing that with just the two of us.

We also go through the effort to make sure the hulls are properly aligned, which means moving the port side hull forward *just a touch*. Once have made the measurements (in metric) that everything is where it is supposed to be, we use a water level to make sure both hulls are level with each other.

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from Annapolis!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

We’re only 48 hours into having the first set of components for our catamaran, and she’s already starting to come together and look like a boat!

Follow along as we work tirelessly to get all the components unloaded from the container – and fail miserably at our time allowance. But honestly, that part soon matters less and less to us because we have a great group of people working their butts off to make sure every piece is taken off carefully and doesn’t receive any damage.

36 hours later, we gather a few of them back to put the main pieces of the hull together while we still have access to the telehandler. And once we snap those few pieces together – Voilà she’s already looking like a boat!!

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from Annapolis!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

After one year of planning and six months back in the US, we finally have the components of our catamaran arriving to us, which means the build can commence!

Start your clocks – the two year process starts now!!

With the few days before the container arrives, we prepare the tent by marking out where the forms will be placed. This is the base the catamaran will sit on, so we need each spot measured perfectly for the forms to sit on. We place and level bricks in these spots, and because of the slope inside our tent, also level the height of the pads from fore to aft, and port to starboard.

Then, the morning we’ve been waiting for! Our container arrives bright and early on a bitterly cold day in Maryland – and us and our rag tag group of Patrons have only two hours to get all of the pieces out! Make sure to stay tuned next week for the conclusion of unloading.

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from Annapolis!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

We start the morning by preparing ourselves to enter the St. Augustine Inlet, which back in 2012, left the three of us shipwrecked for three months when we went off course and ended up in breaking waves.
(https://www.mjsailing.com/thursday-no…​)

Much love from the Atlantic!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

As you know, we’ve been waiting quite some time for the new catamaran to arrive. So why not spend that time sailing?

When our friend Jeff asked if we’d like to spend a little time in sunny Florida, (and why not?, the snow had just arrived to Annapolis) we jumped at the chance to help him get his Catalina 36 further down the coast and into warm weather.

Since the Gulf Stream was pushing very close to the coast of Florida, and to a potential inlet point of Cape Canaveral, we planned to enter in St. Augustine. That would mean approximately 115 miles and 24 hours out in the open ocean. To make things even more fun, we had a buddy boat for the trip! Taylor and her mom, of @Taylor’s Travels​ .

Join us for Part 1 of this journey, where we get back into our element – even if it is on someone else’s boat. Sigh – I do miss that sound of wind and water surrounding us.

We hope you enjoy!!

Much love from the Atlantic!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

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When we first bought the components for our build, we were sure we’d be using dual outboards for propulsion. But, now we’ve found ourselves with a set of diesel engines. The more we started researching, the less outboard engines sounded appealing to us … and when a set came up for sale after being removed from a new catamaran, we jumped on the chance to buy them. They may not be what we end up with, but at least we have them now, and at a reasonable price (compared to buying new diesel engines).

Before heading out to Maine to pick them up though, we really get to work on the Viking, and Matt cuts out the core up in the v-berth. The rotting up there is incredibly bad, and it will need to sit with a dehumidifier for quite some time before we can go to work again patching it up.

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from Annapolis!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

You may have heard before that we worked out a deal with the marina for our build site – but did you know we’re only paying ONE DOLLAR A YEAR to be there?

**Help support the build and get all the behind the scenes action by becoming a Patron today!!
https://www.patreon.com/mjsailing​ **

Originally we had NEVER though of the Annapolis area as a possible build site because being such a sailors haven, we didn’t think we could remotely afford anything in the area. But – one of our Patrons had a connection at Kentmorr Marina on Kent Island and wrangled us the deal of a lifetime. $1/Year for the use of this 28’x50′ paint tent. There is still some work involved on our part, patching numerous holes and getting new gravel installed…but we still call this a win!!

Before we head to the marina to officially sign the lease though, we close out our Annapolis group as half of our party is starting their trip south. Jeff & Cam of s/v Westwind, Bill & Grace of s/v Calico Skies, and Taylor and Bobby of s/v Lady M; are starting their voyage south to warmer weathers. So along with the crew of s/v Delos and the couple hosting them, we head out in a little center console on a beautiful Saturday morning to see everyone off.

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from Annapolis!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

There’s been YET ANOTHER DELAY with our container, so we’ve decided to do some sailing in Florida instead.

Due to bad weather, our container did not leave Vietnam on January 3rd, as we had originally anticipated. Instead there were a number of delays, ships stuck in harbour due to bad weather, and we did not get confirmation of her departure until January 21st. This gives it an approximate arrival date in New York on February 21st.

So what are we doing with this extra time? Delivering a boat from Savannah Georgia to Boca Raton Florida. This is better than a regular delivery though, because the boat belongs to our good friend Jeff, and he was by our side for the entire ride. Plus, now we know exactly what the fuss over Catalinas is. This 36 Mk II is a wonderful cruiser for 2 people, and has been so easy to handle.

We’re going to enjoy this warm weather while we have it, but soon enough we’ll be back in Annapolis, making all the final arrangements for our catamaran to arrive!

Track our container using this link:
https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:196571/mmsi:215131000/imo:9410806/vessel:CMA_CGM_LYRA

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/mattandjessicasailing/

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mattandjessicasailing/?hl=en

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from Boca Raton!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie

We’re out at the Viking to take a close look at all of the things we’ll need to complete before we can move aboard her as our temporary home.

In this week’s episode, we’re just about a week away from leaving Annapolis for the holidays, and are making one more trip out to ‘Couch Dream’ to asses a few of the things that will need to be finished before we can move aboard upon our return. We also start tearing apart the v-berth to get a better idea of the rot on the deck there, and take stock of everything that will need to be replaced.

Matt also takes a moment to talk about how we’re doing on the hunt for boat builders insurance, and spoiler alert – it’s still not looking good. By the way, if you need to get rid of your old boat, consider getting help from Boat removal/Disposal services.

We hope you enjoy this episode, and just like you, we’re eagerly awaiting the point where we can turn our attention to the catamaran as soon as the first container arrives!

We hope you enjoy!

Much love from Annapolis!
Jessica, Matt & Georgie