OK, time for an update.
I took delivery of Da New Da Nag last Thursday at EQ. Les and I took her for a brief shake down cruise out of Cornett Bay, after which I loaded her back up and proceeded south for the weekend gathering at Jarrell Cove.
I couldn't have asked for a more educational weekend; I got tossed a little bit of everything.
The launch out of Olympia Friday morning was...interesting. With 20 MPH winds at the dock, and me launching single-handed, I discovered rather quickly that the 22 with full canvas deployed was much more of a handful than my 19 was. Getting it off the trailer and tied up to the dock was no problem, but releasing the lines and getting on board provided some entertainment for the unhelpful fellow watching from the yacht tied up next to me.
My destination was Penrose State Park, where I planned on meeting up with Brock (Bambina/Catman), Fred (Anita Marie) and Jon (C-Lou). Once underway, I immediately appreciated the electric wipers - a nice heavy rain pounded on me along with the heavy wind, which let up somewhat as I approached Boston Harbor. With the wind directly behind me out of the south, the heavy chop was pretty manageable and I was able to hold 12-14 MPH comfortably. That all changed when I turned south into the wind when rounding Johnson Point.
I was greeted with some of the choppiest water I've ever been on. Nothing huge, mostly 2 footers, but they were so close together, non-stop and unpredicatable I had to slow to about 2 MPH to avoid getting beaten to death. Fortunately, this was the only southerly leg, and was only about a mile in length. Upon rounding Devils point and getting the wind behind me, things got back to normal, and I made it to Penrose without any further drama.
This first cruise made me quite happy with two options in particular; the autopilot, and the hydraulic steering. I'm somewhat familiar with the South Sound area, but being able to move your cursor to a point on the chartplotter, and tell the autopilot to take you there, was just too cool for words - especially in nasty weather. As Les has mentioned, it frees you up to pay more attention to other things, such as traffic and obstacles in the water. I had to disable the autopilot in the choppy stuff, as I had to constantly adjust position due to the chop coming from all directions. This gave me a warm fuzzy feeling for the hydraulic steering; 'tis much nicer than the cable setup on my 19.
After spending some quality time with the Raymarine manuals while at Penrose, I got to play with some of the RADAR functions on the way to Jarrel Cove with the gang. I figured out how to overlay the RADAR on the chartplotter display, then discovered how to work the MARPA tracking functions. This system is really slick; with the RADAR overlay on the chartplotter, you move the cursor over a target, then punch a button to acquire the target - you can grab up to ten different targets. The MARPA functions track the object, and display a heading line for them on the chartplotter; you can easily see where paths will cross. You can also pull up a list of all targets that are being tracked, with their bearing and speeds listed. The nerd in me is quite happy.
Another item of interest - the canvas work commissioned by Les. It has so many nice features, I'm not sure where to begin. The visibility is fantastic; glass is everywhere. There are numerous strategically placed zippers - it's no problem to get into the lazarettes or into the motor well, the sides can easily be rolled up (without being removed) when the weather gets nice and you want some cross breeze, and there is no need to unsnap the canvas to get in/out of the boat. The top section is zippered just aft of the attachment rail - this allows you to fold back a flap on top. No need to duck under the cover when climbing in/out of the boat.
And the trim tabs...I'm sold on the electric Lencos. The optional position indicators are a neat touch, and it's nice to have them auto-retract when you cut the power to them. Operationally, I found they are nicer than the hydraulic tabs I had on the 19. With hydraulic tabs, you tap the controls, and wait a second or two to see how the boat responds. Not a big deal, but with the electric tabs, the boat responds immediately. I always assumed the delay with hydraulics was the boat adjusting to the new tab position, but now I'm guessing the hydraulic pressure takes a second to build up before the tab moves. With the screw jack design of the electrics, they move immediately, and the boat responds immediately.
All in all, the boat is great, and Les and EQ lived up to their reputation by doing a fantastic job with the rigging. Les didn't quite have enough time to get the forward facing seat conversion done, so no details on that yet. I'll be back up there for Lopez in a few weeks, so those of you attending will get to see what he comes up with.