November 3, 2005 - Changes over the Years
by Michel & Jane DeRidder

	Magic Dragon gets younger as we grow older.

We have of course made changes of various sorts as the years slip by, for simplification, safety, streamlining, added manoeuvrability, greater speed, ease of handling and ease of care, improved ventilation, additional storage, greater lightness and brightness, routine renewal, plus a few odd-ball additions just to test an idea. Some of these transformations happened as money became available, others simply as the ideas occurred to us, though when we first began cruising we did very little but marvel at the time other cruisers spent working on their boats while we enjoyed our leisure.

Two of our earliest and most major changes were to change the keels from asymmetrical to symmetrical, then a few years later to swap our 35 hp Isuzu diesel engine for a 75 hp one as we were about to head back to BC from the Caribbean. But most of the changes have been smaller in scale.

We raised the windshield and cut opening vents. Note that the windshield can be folded forward.

Early on extra storage became a top priority. It wasn't long before we figured out ways to get more book stowage, adding two more shelves in the main cabin and two more in the forward cabin, which is to say an additional twenty feet or so. We found nooks and crannies to build smaller purpose-built hidey-holes for many other accumulations of gear; for instance, we increased cockpit stowage with lengths of tubing to house rolled dodger side panels. The latest additional storage space we only just finished — a handy bin under the table for our ever-growing collection of electronic gizmos.

Progressive streamlining transformed a slow boat to a strong passagemaker. When we changed the shape of the twin fin keels from asymmetric to symmetric we gained the better part of a couple of knots in light air. When we replaced our fixed 16-inch three-bladed propeller for a Hundested variable pitch propeller, that was like ceasing to drag a garbage can. Eventually we removed the A-frame skeg, which had been designed to protect the prop and rudders from the deadhead logs and debris so prevalent in our BC home waters. Each of these changes made a difference to passage times. Though we have never yet broken the magic 200-nautical-mile day mark, we've come close to it on many occasions. I'm sure a more gung ho crew could have upped the speed. We two prefer to be cautious and comfortable.

	One of the adjustable captain seats that face forward. The backrests are collapsible so as to make tables, or the seats fold up out of the way entirely. They are adjustable for angle of heel. (They even have seat belts!)

Simplification eventually became a goal, as a result of which we raised the waterline and anti-fouled the boot top. We painted the exterior in a single colour, getting rid of two-colour hull, two-tone decks, and varnished exterior trims. These measures save us hours, even days, at each haul-out.

As the years passed, greater comfort became more important, so we raised the coaming and the windshield, and built pilot seats facing forward and adjustable for angle of heel, giving us better visibility as well as much greater comfort. No more sitting facing athwartships, straining upward and cricking the neck sideways. With the windshield now closer to our eyes, we get a greater angle of vision, and can look up at the luff of the sails without moving out of our seats. Under the windshield, we put in sliding windows to better ventilate the cockpit. Never again has Michel talked of building a powerboat.

As we grew older and wiser, we decided that we were fed up with handling heavy sails, so for wonderfully improved ease of handling Michel devised his own roller furling headsail, inspired by what John Wood of Kerikeri NZ had built and extensively tested. We tested ours on a return trip from Down Under to North America, soon realizing that it would be a good idea to dream up a home brew version for our mains'l as well. All those many years we'd preached the gospel of a battenless mains'l for cruising boats, and then we were talked into a fully battened main for the roller-furling version. We have been delighted with it for both passagemaking and gunkholing. The quest for ease of handling still goes on. We have just installed self-tailing add-ons to our Barlow sheet winches after forty years of managing just fine, though close tacking in strong winds was never fun.

Michel leaning against the pushpit at sea while adjusting the solar panel.

Routine renewals large and small eventually became necessary or desirable. Galvanized water tanks gave up the ghost after twenty-two years, so we built new fibreglass ones, thanking our lucky stars that ours were designed to be so easily removable. A fridge/freezer that had served for thirty-seven years refused resuscitation so gave way to a younger version. Laptops crap out, or are too small-minded, or just too slow. Our latest, a Dell Inspiron 3700 that a friend was replacing with something newer, smaller, faster and more powerful, is a marvel to us. Its speed and capacity confound us. Upgrades explain sound system changes. A Uher reel-to-reel (like the Watergate one) made way for a cassette player, which has only just made way for a CD/MP3 tuner. We are always somewhat behind the times.

Safety is sometimes reason for change. We added a pushpit after we'd crossed and recrossed oceans. It gives us peace of mind, particularly when landing a fish or changing the orientation of our solar panel at sea. We had not wanted to block our convenient boarding access at the stern. Finally we dreamed up an inboard pushpit, leaving us a couple of feet outside it to come aboard. We devised better means of fastening down floorboards, batteries, locker lids and so on after hearing tales of knockdowns when batteries and other heavy objects became unsecured and hurtled about the cabin like killer battering rams. As we'd safely weathered a hurricane, had a narrow escape from a typhoon, and had been chased by a few cyclones, we reckoned our luck might be running out.

Rain water catchment we did not have for many years, as it seemed easy enough to take on shore water in BC, but we discovered that easy access to safe water is not everywhere the case by any means. That's when we devised a dam so we could use one side of the deck as water catchment. As well, we have a canvas funnel that we can set under the boom gooseneck to collect water from the mains'l.

	The deck light cut through the many-layered deck thickness, to let more light into the main salon.

As the interior wood of Magic Dragon's hull and overhead darkened over time, we decided rather than paint out the wood we love so much we'd make the boat lighter and brighter by other means. We made a second hatch for the forward cabin, this one made out of Perspex. Light and easy to orient into the wind, it's been great for brightening up forward. It is easy to exchange for the original solid one for when we are underway. In the main cabin we cut a hole in the deck between beams in our thick and solid overhead, covering it with half inch Acrylic bedded down with "GE Silpruf". Washers allow it to be securely fastened over the camber of the deck without squeezing out the necessary thickness of bedding compound. An Alpenglow light fixture gives us better and less amp-hungry lighting, and a couple of halogen lamps direct their concentrated beams when and where needed.

Above: A suction fan for dorades can be installed in any one of three different cabins. Below: One of seven 'Typhoon Stoppers', plumbing fittings screwed onto the dorade vents inside the boat in case we get into such enormous seas that it is wise to seal them. When we unscrew them, we carry a bucket to catch any salt water dribbles.

Improved ventilation we attained through substituting an opening hatch off a wrecked vessel in our galley to replace the fixed porthole we'd initially had. The sliding windows under the windshield have proved their worth and their watertightness. We have always had seven large dorade vents that aerate the vessel both when we leave her locked up, and when it's raining too hard to keep hatches open. At sea in tropical climes, they are indispensable. Should the weather become so stroppy that breaking seas threaten to find their way aboard, we added what we call our "typhoon stoppers" - interior screw-on plumbing fixtures to prevent boarding seas from finding their way inside. We seldom have had to use them, but occasionally have been very glad of them. An automotive heater centrifugal fan whose squirrel cage happened to be the same diameter as our dorade intake tubes can now be fitted in three different cabins to force air inside when there is no wind. Our hatch construction, a proven dragon special, has been a great success. It is important to renew the rubber gasket seals every few years. Just to be on the safe side, in times of gale or storm force conditions we do circle the hatches with rope to break the force of green water coursing on deck.

	The fourteen foot dinghy is glommed onto the side like a limpet for coastal cruising - outboard and all - though NOT for ocean crossing! We carry it on deck for offshore passages.

As for the one-off odd-ball additions that Magic Dragon has become known for…There's a lifting rig, designed so that the boat can be lifted by a crane from a single point through the deck by cables attached to keel bolts on the twin fins. This comes in handy whenever it's necessary to haul out where boatyards are prohibitively expensive or non-existent. We've only used it three times so far: in St Thomas, in Tahiti (where the local truck crane charged us a tenth the shipyard fees), and in Saipan (where no shipyard was suited for Magic Dragon, but the old World War Two seaplane base was ideal to stand MD on the concrete pad). Then there's our system for carrying the dinghy glommed on to the hull like a limpet, devised when our 14-foot tender became dangerously waterlogged and heavy - not how we would cross an ocean, but it's quick and handy for coastal work. We can hoist the dinghy alongside without removing the motor, gas tank, oars and wheels that must be stowed in the hold when we load it on deck. After all, we built the dinghy in 1967 and it has been in almost constant use ever since, putting on weight over its lifetime. Then there's CUJO the self-steering and trim tab power steering mechanism that I won't go into now. Michel has never been known to do things in the time-honoured manner. Thank goodness.

But the piece de resistance is "The Crystal Palace", our room with a view. We'd always had a convertible covered cockpit with a back flap made of canvas with windows in it. It was a bit sombre. The last time we fashioned a convertible top replacement, we did it of vinyl and clear plastic and it's a winner: a greenhouse in winter, a shelter and changing room to shed oilskins in rain, a room for indoor/outdoor dining or an enclosed workshop. At sea we can keep the weather side closed, leaving the lee side open for sail handling. Easy to lower when the weather is good, it's one of the best things we've ever come up with.