Circumnavigation: The Boat – Part I

Last week I announced the plan to begin a 5 year trip to circumnavigate the Earth by sailboat – and to make use of Google Earth in many ways. There are a lot of details behind this trip, so I’m sharing elements of the plan over the next few weeks in posts here at Google Earth Blog. I’m looking forward to telling you about some of the cool ways I will be using Google Earth to share our trip – but, now is a good time to introduce you to our new home and mode of transportation. Since the trip is for five years, we will be selling our house and our boat will be our main home starting sometime next year. We had previously owned a nice sailing catamaran and found it to be the ideal boat type for cruising and blue water travel. I should point out that sailing is an incredibly “green” mode of transportation. The primary means of movement is wind – you can’t get much greener than that!
We attended each of the Miami and Annapolis Boat Shows, did a lot of reading, and communicated with many boat owners during the last 4 years looking for the right boat. We ultimately settled on a St. Francis 50, by St. Francis Marine built in South Africa. South Africa has a reputation of building some of the best catamarans in the world. Our last boat was also built in South Africa. This boat has 4 queen-sized staterooms with a private head (bathroom) for each room (we plan to have friends and family visit along the way). There is a nice galley in one of the hulls; between the hulls there is a large salon area with a dining table suitable for up to eight people , a navigation station (and large desk area), and a TV entertainment center. There’s also an outside dining area suitable for eight, and the helm station with instruments all protected by a large “roof” area (called a bimini) giving protection from the sun and ocean spray – and there are solar panels on top (another important “green” element). The boat has two engines for times when you can’t sail, or while maneuvering in a harbor. And, it has a generator for charging the battery systems when solar power can’t keep up. See specifications including floor plans.
The boat we’ve just purchased was used by the builder at the Cape Town Boat Show last fall, and then at the Miami Boat Show in February (where I first saw it). Then, it was taken to the St. Francis Resort in the Bahamas where their sales representative lives (which is why we went to the Bahamas back in June). Here is a Google Earth file which shows where the boat was built, and the approximate route it took to get to the Bahamas along with the two boat shows. The boat had nearly 8000 nautical miles on it when we picked it up as a “new” boat. But, that’s often the case when a US citizen buys a South African boat. These boats are designed for long-distance travel. Here are some pictures of a St. Francis 50 from their web site (no, it doesn’t come with the cheerleaders). And, here are some pictures of it under sail.
The next part of this series will talk about going to pick up the boat and delivering it from the Bahamas to North Carolina where it will be kept part of the time while we are preparing the boat for the trip. Included will be GPS tracks, how Google Earth was used, pictures, and some other details about what happened during the trip.

About Frank Taylor

Frank Taylor started the Google Earth Blog in July, 2005 shortly after Google Earth was first released. He has worked with 3D computer graphics and VR for many years and was very impressed with this exciting product. Frank completed a 5.5 year circumnavigation of the earth by sailboat in June 2015 which you can read about at Tahina Expedition, and is a licensed pilot, backpacker, diver, and photographer.

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