Born of the boat II.

I've just arrived from the visit of the Dalpol boatyard to check the status of our boat. I was pretty surprised by the size of the factory. I was expecting something big, but it seems legit as their production is around 80 boats per year.

I was looking around our boat for more than an hour taking pictures as much as I can. Found some issues with hardware mounting, but they make sure it will be fixed. Anyway the boat should be finished by the end of this month as it seems they were just finishing the interior woodwork.
Great Christmas present, isn't it?

Here are just some of the picked photos from the huge collection I made. I will make the rest of the gallery online later. Click on the picture to walk through the gallery in higher resolution.

factory entry

boat parts shop & office

assembly hall

Phobos 21 hull mold

Phobos 21 hull mold

metal workshop

wood workshop

assembly hall - kind of dusty :-)
(from the left Phobos 21, 25 and 22)

our boat

aft berth & galley

frame of the cabinets

cabin locker with electrical panel

head room

mast support

water tank

seating in the cabin

aft berth window

center board with antifouling paint

Plexiglas acrylic windows

cabinets are getting final shape

water inlet & tank vent

rudder and its mold

assembled masts and booms

woodwork templates for various models

Airex core (green color) in the laminate part

River lock for my son

So one day I'm asking my son (4) about his wishes for Xmas. He immediately replied: river lock. One cannot decline such request :-)

Dalpol boatyard visit

Just received a call from the local dealer that he is going to pick up someone else's boat so I'm going with him to visit the Dalpol boatyard in Poland and see the progress on our boat.
I'm taking a camera with me, so stay tuned for more photos.


See on Google maps

Optional equipment list

Buying a new boat is always a compromise between your wallet and your technical skills. That means that whenever we chose something from the optional equipment I started to think - what if I will add this afterwards by myself?
Something is easy like adding new fenders, but something is not. Like adding rigid fresh water tank and relocate it to a different locker (in our case from the cockpit locker under the V-berth).
Even I have some technical skills, that does not mean I have a time or space in garage for such upgrades, so I opted for only the easy upgrades and rather go more sailing.

Standard boat is equipped very differently depending on the market and the dealer.
This is the list of the optional equipment we've chosen to be added directly in the boatyard to make it more comfortable in terms of sailing and living aboard:

• round opening window in the head room
• rectangle opening window in the cockpit (more lights and air in the aft berths)
• anchor roller integrated in the bowsprit
• "dead man" - so called system for lowering the mast. V-shaped tubing attached to the forestay which helps you to rise or lower the mast single-handed (really a must!).
• retractable ladder on the stern
• reinforced bracket for 10HP outboard motor
• quadruple Lewmar Easylock Mini rope clutches and organizers
• main sail lazy jack
• genoa and genoa tracks instead of the foresail and foresail cabin tracks
• roller furler Trimet
• centerboard bearings in the line pulley (this should help a lot in lowering or rising just by hand)
• double safe lines in the railing (mainly due to small kids)
• Deep shelf accessible from the headroom under the port cockpit seating
• additional berths in the main cabin (just a plywood board and a mattress between the saloon seating and centerboard trunk)
• closed cabinets in the main cabin
• rigid fresh water tank 54 l under the V-berth

I'm planning to install this equipment myself sooner or later:

• depth sounder
• full navigation lights (even COLREG does not require the navigation lights for boats up to 7 m)
• ethanol or propane cook top (not decided yet as propane cook top requires dedicated bottle locker)
• portable compressor fridge
• bimini top 
• solar panels

With everything new I want to add more and more gadgets. This is not my first sailboat, so in this case, I have to keep calm and install only necessary things to avoid later maintenance. We want to sail, Aye!

Born of the boat I.

It took over two months since we ordered the boat and now we received these pictures from the boatyard. There is still much of the work, but getting closer.

cabin top (optional quad-stoppers)

optional rigid fresh water tank with inspection hole

galley

head with sink

optional cockpit window and bracket for 10HP outboard

Stay tuned for more...

Boat specification

Here are some technical information and official text from the boatyard website/brochures.

Phobos 21 is our yacht yard’s new product for the 2011 season. Despite its small size, it is quite capacious and comfortable.
In style it is clearly similar to its larger cousin - Phobos 25. The boat is very stable and exceptionally comfortable despite its smaller size. The hull is high and wide at the waterline. The small draught of the yacht makes it possible to shore anywhere.
Designed by a well-known yacht racer Wojciech Spisak, Phobos 21 will surprise you with its smooth sailing, even in difficult conditions. Thanks to its large keel, it can be sailed with precision against the wind and during in-port maneuvering.
The interior is a tall, well-lit and well-aired single large space, without bulkheads.  It features a typical and reliable set-up of 4 berths, with the possibility to set up 6 berths, a galley and a separate closed-off WC cabin.

Technical data

Overall length	6,63 m
Hull length	6,18 m
Beam	2,51 m
Draught	0,28 - 1,23 m
Mast height from waterline	10,0 m (mast itself: 8,55 m)
Bottom ballast weight	260 - 280 kg *
Centerboard weight	80 - 85 kg *
Yacht weight	ca. 1200 - 1300 kg *
Height in salon	1,69 m
Sail area (main & jib)	20 m2
Sail area - main	12,5 m2 (full-batten)
Sail area - jib:	7,5 m2
Sail area - genoa **	9,5 m2 (130%)
Sail area - gennaker **	25 m2
Sail area - spinnaker **	30 m2
Berths:	4 + 2

* Boat weight and ballast depends on the equipment
** Optional

Under deck layout

default layout

additional 2 detachable berths in the main saloon

Boatyard photo

shape of the boat for the negative mold creation

hull #1

 

creating internal modules mold (this is from Phobos 25 or 27)

centerboard (iron plate with zinc coat)

The hull is laminated using Ashland's isophthalic resin Aropol and the blister resistant isophthalic gelcoat Maxguard.
The deck is cored with the Airex C71 - 8mm closed-cell foam so the problems like balsa core rotting is no more an issue.

Journey begins

Welcome to our new blog about our adventures of trailer sailor Dalpol's Phobos 21.

It all begun two years ago we found out that we don't want to get stuck on the Labe river in Czech Republic forever so we decided to sell our pretty heavy keel sailboat Catalina 25 "High Anxiety" (hull #701, 1987) and buy something smaller.

We defined some priorities for a new boat:

• it must be lightweight with retractable keel so we can launch it from the trailer easily
• enough head room for my wife
• enclosed toilet room
• simple preparation before launch and low maintenance
• comfortably sleeps for two adults and two children
• cruiser rather than racer

From all that after long discussion and market research, we found our boat - it's Dalpol Phobos 21.

At the beginning, we thought that we will buy the used one, but I don't want to fix numerous issues anymore like I had to with my previous sailboat and I wanted to sail more than doing a maintenance. So we decided to rather buy a new one. Another fact is that Dalpol started the production of this boat in 2011 so there are no used one yet.


From this decision, it all begins to escalate pretty quickly.  I had to undertake the driver's lessons to upgrade my driver's license to B+E (trailer up to 3500kg), buy a trailer and a car capable of towing such boat with launching capability.

Part 1 - Trailer

I bought used trailer from year 2009 dual-axle trailer with 2600kg total weight. It's pretty overkill for this small boat (1300kg), but its a robust construction and I have an additional space for heavy baggage.

This trailer was already used for a sailboat so I hope it will be ok and there will be no need for massive adjustments.

Part 2 - Towing car

We had Citroen C4 Grand Picasso, but it's capable of towing only 1500kg. It was a great 7 seat car, but we had to sell it. I wanted some car that is suitable for boat launching, but also for a daily use. So we ended up with 4x4 Kia Sorento 2.5CRDi with automatic transmission from 2007, which is capable of towing 3500kg on the hook and pretty popular in the caravan world.
Another advantage of this 4x4 car is that it has a reduction transmission, so the launching from the beach or steep ramps will not be an issue (I hope).


Part 3 - Sailboat

It took us over two years going to boat shows and checking pros and cons, but when we decided for one particular type it was pretty straight forward.
When we wanted to buy the boat directly from the Poland shipyard they forwarded us to the local Czech dealer Lodní servis Linhart. They showed us demo boat several times and we finally signed the deal.

Proposed delivery is the end of December 2013. Great Christmas present, isn't it? ;-)