Water Sprite never intended to stay with us so long…

 Peter wryly admits that as he said goodbye to his boat and headed back to Australia for lockdown, he genuinely thought they would be back within three months. He laughs at his foolishness but we all agreed we couldn’t possibly have anticipated we’d have two years of it. In fact, on the day I finally get to meet Peter and Elizabeth, it’s exactly two years and ten days since they arrived in the UK having been forced to take an unplanned diversion and break their circumnavigation when the pandemic began.

 
Water Sprite is a 2015 build. She was five years old when they arrived, and had done a fair few miles, so a few things had already gone onto a list for ‘a yard’ to have a look at. One of those was the rig which they felt had become unstable during their Atlantic crossing, so when they left there was a short list of things for us to do though mostly just apply the Coppercoat and check the rudders and rig. 

You can read part one of Water Sprite’s. story on our website blog here. 

The Leopard 48 owner’s group helped them to pass the time away from their boat during lockdown….

Elizabeth laughs and confesses that as the months went by and they missed life aboard, they discovered the existence of a Leopard 48 Owners Group. Just imagine, all those frustrated owners unable to get to their boats and unlimited time to research upgrades… That’s when the refit really began!
 
Peter takes me on a tour of the boat, starting with what they both identify as  a critical upgrade – the rig. “That’s a new Selden mast and the guys from Allspars put that on. I have to say when I compare the quality of this mast with what we had before it is quite remarkable…Just improvements in terms of, it just feels a lot more solid and it is a lot more solid, but it’s going to be because it has spreaders and diamonds on it. It’s going to be a lot more rigid and a lot more comfortable so we’re very excited with that. The Furlex furler there came recommended. It’s a pretty serious piece of kit” 

I’m impressed by the forward cockpit and for a while we discuss the merits of gaining through – draft and a great spot for enjoying cocktails. Peter tells me they’ve taken literally hundreds and hundreds of gallons of green water over the bow and it just drains away in seconds. 

Doing it in comfort

We move across to where Peter opens the most enormous and cavernous locker. This is where a generator was previously housed, a once essential piece of kit now redundant and gone. Peter explains the need for power “It’s not a utility boat, it’s built for comfort not for speed and so on a long trip, for example in the trades, we will average maybe seven knots compared to, if you’re in a Dazcat, maybe averaging 11 knots…It’ll take us five days longer to cross the Atlantic but we want to do it  in comfort!”

Getting down to the nitty-gritty…

And then we start to get to the nitty gritty “The reason why we’re confident enough to have the generator taken out is because we are satisfied that technology has progressed enough to make it viable. We spoke to Simon and he got Dan to come in help us work through our power needs. Dan is  a delight to deal with and an amazingly smart man…”

 
Peter points around, “We now have 16 solar panels giving us a potential 3.4 kW. There are 12 flexible solar panels on the coachhouse roof, and four rigid panels on the new solar arch which has been built on the back. 

To store all this solar power, Dan has installed a system’s cabinet housing 4 x 310amph lithium ion batteries as well as the necessary inverters and battery management systems. As we both peer into the cupboard at the immaculately orderly mass of wiring it occurs to me that on a boat such as this one and how she is used, this is the difference between true freedom afloat or not. Peter is clearly impressed and somewhat echoes my thoughts “This is  the heart of what happens. I am gobsmacked that Dan has been able to work in there and make it look so damn good – it really is impressive. So yeah, time will tell how it holds together but we suspect it’ll be fantastic.”  

We’re back onto discussing the air conditioning (next stop is the Med) and Peter tells me the old unit in the main saloon has been replaced with a new generation unit which is far more efficient. They didn’t replace the two that go into the cabins, Peter’s arguing that cool air drops from the saloon to the cabins, and even if it isn’t as cool as you’d like, it’s bound to be to be better.

  

 
Other benefits of the upgraded electrical system are the newly installed side by side fridge and freezer, This replaces the previous two-drawer version which was  effective but was harder to keep things neat and not piled up in a jumble at the bottom of the drawer. In addition, there’s a new aft cockpit fridge, from where they hope to enjoy many happy rums! More galley upgrades include an induction hob and a combi microwave/convection oven replacing the gas hob and microwave oven (which never got used due to their dislike of the generator). Importantly, this means gas has been eliminated from the cabin, making it far safer and also means no need to change the bottles and regulators in every new country. 
 
Which brings us back to the crucial power supply and storage. Right now the batteries are 95% full but Dan is waiting for some final components  which will bring them to full functionality. Peter tells me that the batteries were fully charged the night before so they intentionally ran down the hot water tanks to use power. It’s back up to full temperature (hand burning hot) and yet the battery is back to full power. In effect, they tried to drain the battery and couldn’t, or at least couldn’t keep it down. In the tropics on a hot day the aircon would be drawing directly from the panels so you wouldn’t even take from the battery at all so long as you’re not running the water maker at the same time.  
 
Which leads up to what Peter describes as the “item of total decadence”. The washing machine. He feels a need to make his excuses, although having spent extended periods living aboard different boats myself I’m 100% all for having a washing machine aboard. “So far we’ve crossed the Indian and we’ve come up virtually the length of the Atlantic washing out of a bucket. After a while with the bucket I started losing my sense of humour!”  
 

   

Other works have included installation of Flexiteek decking. Elizabeth tells me it’s a subject of some debate in the What’s App group but she is a definite advocate and already feels it is softer underfoot and much less slippery than the GRP that was there before. There was also the leaky escape hatches which Peter identified as possibly being connected to the angle that water hit them when under pressure resulting from the hull shape. He set this one as a challenge for Simon, adding his own thoughts on the fix. As far as I am aware it’s held so far. And then there was the almost accidental discovery of the engine mounts, which had rusted so badly they could be crumbled between your fingers. Not entirely sure what was still holding the engines in situ.
 
Although the most eye catching of Water Sprite’s updates is the beautiful and very shiny wrap (Thanks to locally based Wrap Workx) that had her glistening as she moved through the water, almost conjuring the illusion of dancing sprites… 
 

It was a real pleasure to have Water Sprite at the yard and to work with Peter and Elizabeth on all her upgrades. We wish them a safe and enjoyable onward circumnavigation.