Every sailor has an idea of what makes the perfect bluewater cruiser - we chose a Beneteau Oceanis as they cruise the world every year providing efficient and safe passages for their owners. After speaking with other Beneteau owners, we are were confident in Gargoyle’s ability to handle our adventures. These owners have also been an invaluable resource for us to be able to reach out for recommendations and learn from their experienced cruising. They have assisted us in getting Gargoyle ready for our trip.
Questions? Feel free to reach out to us if you would like to know what we have completed on Gargoyle and the changes along the way, please reach out to us!
Gargoyle's primary sail inventory is from Neil Pryde Sails. She is equipped with a 140% headsail that is 649sf / 60.3m2 in area and is fitted to a Profurl C430 furling unit along with a Forespar whisker pole for downwind sailing. The Selden in-mast furling mainsail is 534sf/49.7m2 and we have installed a Dutchman boom brake to assist with downwind sailing. Our Asymmetric cruising spinnaker is a lightweight nylon downwind sail that is in its element in 3 to 15 knot winds and apparent wind angle from 55 to 155 degrees. The spinnaker is furled on a Bamar Rollgen top-down system. The last addition was the storm jib, bright orange in color and set up on the deck when required, rigged a with Dyneema inner stay to be able to maneuver quickly if required. We would like to thank Dennis and the team at the North Sails loft in Vancouver, Canada for patiently answering all our questions/concerns and preparing our sails for the journey.
Gargoyle came equipped for extended cruising with the additional fuel tank, water maker and stainless arch with solar panels. Over the past three years we have added and upgraded systems in preparation:
our LG bifacial solar panels ( 3 - 395 WATT), controlled by Victron, to provide us 4 - 7 KW per day - enough power to manage our systems at anchor and sea.
Spectra Watermaker to provide us with enough freshwater at anchor and at sea. It has been trouble free and with some special care with the filters we have been able to increase their longevity!
IridiumGo and Iridium satellite phone for additional communications.
so many spare parts we lost track and thankfully we have long spreadsheet to find things.
our full enclosure, we thought it would be tucked away after we hit the tropics? We continue to use it to protect our crew during squalls and windy night crossings.
Watt & Sea Hydro generator was installed in December 2020 after we noticed the gap in power during our passages to the Galapagos and back to Central America. With the sun setting at 6pm, we had limited hours of solar power and overnight with the systems running we would need to start the engine at 4am to bridge the gap to sunrise. We used the hydro generator on the passage from Panama to the Caymans and it was able to supply the additional watts to keep Gargoyle’s systems running through out the night.
Special thanks to the team at First Yacht Services in North Vancouver, Canada (https://firstyachts.com/). It has been a steep learning curve for both of us to understand Gargoyle’s systems and be able to confidentially troubleshoot when required. With Brad, Adam, Pat and the rest of the crew assisting us through countless questions, phone calls and all the additional work they completed, we have been able to solve “most” of the ongoing issues. They have been and hopefully will continue to be our on our speed dial when we have no clue or ideas on where to start.