Schooner Adventure

About Adventure

Launched as Pharaohs in the spring of 1988 , Adventure was built at the yard of Brian Alcock of Hout Bay Yachts in Hout Bay South Africa, about 15 miles south of Capetown. The design known as the Hout Bay 40 is from the board of the internationally renowned yacht designer Dudley Dix, formerly of Hout Bay, and now a resident of Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Within two weeks of her launch, she embarked on a voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, ending up in Fort Lauderdale Florida. Under new owners, she voyaged to Maine and sailed those waters for about ten years. We found her in Boston Massachusetts and brought her home to Annapolis Maryland in August 2000. From then through 2002 we made extensive renovations and improvements to the rig, topsides and interior.

She is built of steel, "from the keel to the truck", and laughs at reefs and hurricanes as we well know! Her particulars are:

LOD 40'    LOA 52'    Beam 13'     Draft 5'8"   

Keel sides    6mm plate

Bottom, Topside, Deck & Cabin    4mm plate

Masts    6.25" OD 3mm wall steel tubing

Spruce Topmast, Booms & Gaffs

Lower sails are original tanbark Duradon sailcloth made by North Sails of South Africa and still in excellent condition. Topsail built of cream Oceanus sailcloth by Meade Breese of Rock Hall Maryland in 2002.

Engine is a Yanmar 4JH3 57 hp. naturally aspirated driving a 16 x 17 4 blade prop, installed new in 2000.

A permanent magnet alternator is belted to the propeller shaft for charging while sailing. A Air-X Marine wind generator provides power at anchor. Until "Ivan the Terrible", a 47 watt solar panel assisted.

Electronics include:

    Icom M700pro single sideband radio.

    Icom M600 SSB backup.

    Raytheon R10X raster scan CRT radar.

    SCS Pactor IIe modem for email communication via Winlink, and weather fax with JVComm software.

    Autohelm 3000 autopilot.

    Magellan 6500 GPS interfaced to computer.

    Hamtronics R139 weather satellite receiver.

    Compaq desktop computer built in to dedicated cabinet.

Wind vane self-steering is of a unique design by Dave based loosely on the Saye's Rig. Twin vanes on the quarters are used separately or combined to actuate a taffrail mounted servo rudder acting directly on the main rudder through a "hairpin" shaped arm. The wheel steering can be easily disengaged from the rudder when the autopilot or windvane is used. The expertise of our good friend Paul Fay was invaluable here.

The galley stove is a Force 10 3 burner model with oven and broiler installed new in 2001.

Dodger windscreen and full length harbor awning was made by Steve at Marty's Bag Works.

This table was stolen from Dudley's website, and shows the gaff & marconi cutter variations as well: