OUR BOAT

We have only had a basic description of our boat so far, so here are a few additional details of the build, the outfit and where appropriate, some supporting comments.

Finally my darling (formerly Symphony), was constructed in the Lagoon factory near Bordeaux on the French Atlantic coast, located at the top of the notoriously stormy Bay of Biscay. Her hull number is 441 and she was built mid 2006 to meet an order for her former owners, Herbert and Angelika. She is a three-cabin owner’s version, the entire starboard hull being the owner’s cabin, bedroom, lounge, office, with separate shower and toilet. In the port hull, there are two more cabins to suit a couple, each having their own bathroom and toilet.  For the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to finally my darling as simply “FMD”.

Like all other Lagoon 440’s, FMD is powered by twin Volvo-Penta D2-55Hp 4-cyl diesel engines, each mated to a Volvo 150S sail drive. We also enjoy a pair of 3-bladed folding props designed to reduce drag when sailing. There are numerous discussions about the value of the folding props over the standard Volvo two-bladed fixed props. Though we have no technical proof one way or another of the benefits of one type over another; but our folding props seem to meet all operational conditions, including manoeuvring, very well. We estimate we attain the stated 5 lph fuel burn at 1800rpm when motoring for a steady 5 kts speed over the ground (SOG), based on constantly updating GPS data from our comprehensive Raymarine electronic system.

FMD’s previous owner was a keen SCUBA diver, and in addition to the Aqua-Tec 140 lph water maker he had installed, Herbert also had a Junior Bauer electrically driven dive compressor installed in the same compartment as the 2 X 300L water tanks located immediately in front of the mast. (Lagoon’s normally have 3 X 200L water tanks, but one had to go to make room for the water maker and we find 600L is more than adequate considering we can make our own water as long as the sea around us is clean). 

We did however find a maintenance item we were probably told about by Herbert and forgot, but keeping the water maker 25 micron and 10 micron pre-filters clean is essential. The two primary cartridge-type filters are located out of site (and in our case out of mind) under the floor in the passageway in the port hull between the hull inlet fitting and seacock, and the low-pressure saltwater pump that provides pressure to the actual high-pressure pump at the water maker further forward. Growing worse over about 4-6 weeks, the smell of the water coming from the test point at the water maker was for some weeks really “on the nose”, a bit like rotten egg gas. The smell would clear after about 4 litres had passed through the pump and we could select the control valve to “make water”. The actual water being made was excellent with no bad taste at all. When we asked for advice, the first question we were asked was “are you changing your pre-filters about once a month?” We looked at each other and thought… whoops! We hadn’t touched or even inspected them since joining the boat! On investigation, the first pre-filter was green with captured sea matter including probably sea grass and other organisms that had become rotten. The very next batch of water we made with new filters installed was perfect with no bad smell at all. The filters are readily available and inexpensive so we now buy them in batch of six, being 3 X 25 micron, and 3 X 10 micron.

Both the dive compressor and the water maker draw lots of power, so it’s essential to start our (over-sized) 11.5kVA 220V Onan generator when doing either of these functions. I understand the standard generator is a 6 kVA Onan, so we have lots of reserve power. The generator will handle the dive compressor and water maker at the same time, and will even run our 3 X air-conditioning units if that was required, simultaneously. While on comfort, we also have a number of built-in diesel heaters installed during construction, so when we joined FMD in Croatia in early March this year, we were kept cosy warm by these small and very efficient heaters.

As mentioned in an earlier technical update, the original owner’s needs and ours differ significantly, so we have made a number of mods to accommodate those differences.  For most of FMD’s former life as Symphony, Herbert and Angelika left their boat in a permanent mooring at Marina Mandalina in Sibenik and drove from their home in Germany to spend time sailing or motoring for reasonably short periods, whereas FMD’s new purpose is to provide a fulltime, live aboard cruising platform for between four and six people (most visitors are couples), between late March and mid November each year.

The modifications we’ve made have all been about utilising available space onboard for storage of clothes, food and the other essentials of the fulltime cruising lifestyle. We were keen to meet the balance of our power demands without constantly running the generator, so with the design created earlier by fellow Australian Lagoon 440 owner Frank Maunders, we installed the 3 X 250W solar panels on an adjustable array across the transom and added an Outback FlexMax 80A solar MPPT regulator to manage our solar collection and battery management. Since the system was fully commissioned, the solar power and solar regulator meet the vast majority of our needs, the dive compressor and water maker being the only exceptions. We have three large AGM house or service batteries with a number of years of life still left, but we’ll eventually change our batteries to lithium which will give significant improvement in storage and charging flexibility. 

We also have an Australian designed and manufactured “Airborne” weight-shift microlight aircraft (shipped from Australia to Croatia in a 20’ container in March 2013), complete with a pair of seaplane type floats suspended from a special lifting frame under the solar panels. We installed a spinnaker pole-type boom pivoting off the base of the mast, to raise and lower the 3.1M dinghy and 20Hp Honda 4-stroke outboard in or out of the water and its special cradle on the port trampoline. The system is easy to operate – although it is a two person operation and we can have the dinghy in or out within about three minutes. 

  

A significant but fairly simple change we have made is to remove altogether the engine gear shift and throttle controls from the navigation desk in the saloon and relocate them (also changing to shorter control cables) to a new pedestal fixed to very rear of the port hull. I believe most Lagoon owners will agree the original units located in the saloon were seldom if ever used. Mounted on a custom made pedestal, the dual controls make backing in to the standard Mediterranean quayside type mooring an absolute breeze. I should note that the solar panel array and trike aircraft on the stern had hindered the view from the upper helm position; so being right there within 2M of the quay really helps. It also allows the person driving/operating the controls to handle the starboard stern line if required. The only thing we need to do now is to install an electric switch to heave in or let out the anchor from the same stern pedestal control position. In Greece in particular, very few bowlines are laid to seabed moorings so the routine is to drop the anchor and back in, using the anchor to manage the bow position and the final distance of the quay once stern lines are ashore. Being able to manage the anchor from the stern pedestal leaves other crew members free to attend to other equally important duties while berthing.

Much has been said of Lagoon’s sailing ability with comments like “they are only a glorified apartment block with sails”. Nothing in my view, and might I add most of those who have sailed a 440 at least, supports those comments. Our boat has a fairly standard Lagoon factory rig save for an additional gennaker and a huge parasailor courtesy of the previous owner. Our headsail is a self-furling genoa and the main sail is a battened, slab-reefed, robust sail. While we have done some small modifications to our lazy jack line rigging and changed the three reefing lines to new, self-adjusting spectra anchor points on the boom, the rig is basically that supplied by Lagoon. On numerous occasions and particularly since entering Greek waters with the prevailing NW winds now at play in the Ionian sea, we have on several occasions averaged +8kts in a 15-18kts breeze over 4 hours, with no heeling whatsoever and with the rig eased to reduce any strain particularly on the standing rigging. Sailing has been a real exhilarating pleasure. Catamarans in general are not supposed to point (sail up into the wind) very well. On the contrary, we have on several occasions, pointed almost as high as mono-hull yachts in our immediate location without significant loss of performance. 

The Parasailor is an exceptional bit of kit and although our experience is that it can only be used in about a 40 degrees arc through the stern. It is easy to “pop” or open and just as easy to “snuff” or close down quickly, due to its light weight sausage bag and carbon-fibre throat that contains the sail until we want to let it fly. We have had ours up in only about 12-14kts, but we can’t wait for a 15-20 kts following breeze to really see how it really can perform. The Parasailor is best flown by itself. Once up, it is extremely easy to manage and we have reports of people crossing the Atlantic for up to 90 hours in a single hit with only their Parasailor up; and making well over the magical 200nm per 24 hours.  

A couple of other sweet things about our Lagoon 440 is the icemaker and hydraulically operated extendable gangway, or as they are known in Europe, our passerole. The icemaker is 220V but runs easily on the 12V to 220V inverter, so we are never short of great cube ice in three size options. The passerole is “must have” option with the normal Mediterranean stern-to type of mooring. We see gangways that range from pine planks on charter yachts to carbon-fibre hinged units, and extra-long units for large crewed charter boats who regularly back up to the shore to discharge their guests. Ours is two-part meaning it can be (hydraulically) extended to about twice its normal stowed length of about 1.6M. It can, at the press of a button on either the fixed onboard control panel or a fob (a bit like a roller-door controller), but with multiple functions. We can leave the boat taking a fob with us (we have four fob and door key sets) and lift or retract the passerole as we leave for either physical boat security or to protect the gangway against waves or swell from passing boats while we are absent. Options of three and even four part passeroles are available depending on your boat size, but a two-part gangway works well for us.

Not much more we can add but we’ll gladly answer any other questions about our experiences with the Lagoon 440 via our email address at crew@finallymydarling.com.