Thought process. I chose to modify my Cal-25, DIRECTION, because it was the only boat I could afford. I was 22 years old, and the desire to sail around the world was burning a whole in my brain. I had little money, a lot of energy, and I wasn't afraid to undertake a big project--even though other people told me it was foolish. Looking back, I wouldn't change a thing: Get a boat, get a job, fix the boat up, AND GO! I left for my world cruise with less than a 1000 dollars in cash. I found work everywhere I went.

Many individuals tend to overanalyze the cruising process. It is natural to want the best gear, and the best looking, fastest, most comfortable boat available. Well, if you can afford it, fine. If not, these expensive prerequisites will most likely keep you rooted to the dock. Basically, a cruising boat is a platform from which adventure springs. The more problems you have, the better the adventure! Seriously, the trick is to break away, and just GET GOING. Go on. Take a chance. What do you have to lose? A few dollars? A good job?

On 25 foot DIRECTION, we saw the same tropical sunsets and swam in the same tropical waters as folks sporting 50 foot boats. As soon as you are out there, the playing field is equal. Over the years I have heard many seasoned cruisers lament about the time and money they wasted prior to setting off for the first time. From experience, I know that when Jaja and I are shore-based we tend to think differently than when we are cruising. The farther we get from the security of land, the less we focus on the two almighty motives of modern living: Comfort and Convenience.

What Problems to Look for in a Production Boat?

An important goal when modifying a production boat for offshore voyaging is to engineer ways to keep the water out of the cabin. You can survive almost any type of storm provided the boat remains floating. Many production boats suffer from problems such as ridiculously big cockpits, enormous companionways, vulnerable lazaret cockpit lockers, aluminum frame windows, molded fiberglass deck hatches, and undersized rigging.

A deep cockpit, with lazaret style seat-lockers, is a disaster waiting to happen--especially if the lockers themselves are not 100 percent watertight. On many boats, access to the engine is gained through the lazaret. In a bad storm, with breaking seas that continually fill the cockpit, water is likely to find its way to the bilge. If that lazaret lid gets torn off, the boat (and your life) will be in peril. Either permanently seal those lids with silicon, or meticulously create a reliable seal. Be certain they can be securely latched.

A companionway should have nearly vertical sides so that the door boards have to be lifted a fair distance before they come out. The sill of the companionway should be as high as possible to prevent flooding.

Aluminum frame windows (common on older production boats) are dangerous. All it takes is one whomping wave to stove them in. A simple modification is to completely remove them, and cover the hole with 3/8 inch, or even 1/2 inch Lexan. If you use thick Lexan, storm shutters should not be needed. Avoid using Plexiglas which tends to crack.

Boat manufactures install molded fiberglass deck hatches because it is cheap. It's almost guaranteed that this type of hatch will leak. Over time, even a random drip will turn an otherwise dry cabin into a swamp. If the molded hatch has high sides, it is probable that a breaking wave could tear it off the deck. Water has amazing force. If you are not certain whether your molded hatch is strong enough, give it a solid whack with a 5 pound sledge hammer. Pretend you are Tiger Woods teeing off. (This rudimentary test method can also be used on aluminum framed windows.) I have found it best to replace these molded hatches with good quality, alloy ones.

The Rig

When a boat is loaded with all the gear, liquids, and provisions required for an offshore voyage, the displacement will be radically altered. It is important to figure out how much weight will be added so that the increased load on the mast and rigging can be calculated. Most mast sections are adequate. However, tangs, bolts, turnbuckles, and wire sizes will most likely have to be beefed up. Increased rig loads also increases chain plate loads.

Gear Placement

All that extra cruising gear is going to have to go somewhere. When stowing, keep a sharp eye on the waterline to prevent the boat from getting out of trim. Try to keep heavy items such as cans, books, anchors, and spares, near the centerline of the boat, and below the waterline. Loading the ends of the boat with extra weight will accentuate pitching and kill boat speed when sailing to windward, or when poking along in a seaway. Loading above the waterline will raise the center of gravity, making the boat dangerously top heavy. A top heavy boat is much more likely to be knocked down, or even rolled. Lining the deck with Jerry cans full of extra water or fuel not only restricts movement on deck, it puts concentrated loads in the worst possible place. It is a lesser evil to add tanks under the V-berth or under the cockpit. This will increase pitching, but it will help maintain a low center of gravity.

Modifications Made to DIRECTION

The Cal-25 is a typical early-seventies boat. It has a solid fiberglass hull with a plywood-cored deck. The cockpit is humongous, and the companionway is so wide you could fly a helicopter into the cabin. The Cal has two lazaret cockpit lockers (that will leak onto your sleeping bag) and it has a molded fiberglass deck hatch (that sends drips onto your pillow). To crown it off, the Cal-25 has the famous "pop top"--quite literally, the largest, molded fiberglass deck hatch in the world. In other words, if you weren't satisfied with flying a helicopter through the companionway your could float a Goodyear Blimp through the pop-top.

Another cutting-edge engineering concept of designer Bill Lapworth, was the Flexible Hull. The hull has a high incidence of woven roving, which means the hull can be thin, and relatively lightweight (for its day). Other Costa Mesa builders, such as Columbia, used mostly chop strand. Those hulls are stiffer, and heavier, but not as tough.

The hull of the Cal-25 flexed so much, that the builders engineered very few bulkheads for fear of creating hard spots. The bottom third portion of the main bulkheads, for example, are not even glassed to the hull. In 1984 I sailed DIRECTION (then a stock Cal-25 with few modifications) from Seattle to New England via the Panama Canal. By the journey's end I had pounded loose all of the v-berth bulkheading, and cracked the hull--all due to the effects of "oil canning".

For DIRECTION to make it around the world, I realized the hull would need some attention. I began by cutting out the cockpit and removing every bulkhead from the interior. I sanded the hull back to clean glass. Basically, I started reconstruction from a bare hull.

To begin, I fiberglassed 3 longitudinal stringers on each side of the hull's inner surface. One acted as a sheer clamp, one followed water line to stiffen the flatter sections, and the last one lay a couple feet off the center line. To prevent keel movement I added four, box-section keel floors, which tied into the lower stringers. I then added a thwart bulkhead five feet forward of the transom, and I added a ring bulkhead five feet aft of the bow. That phase of construction represented 500 hours of labor and, 45 gallons of polyester resin, and hundreds of yards of chop strand and woven roving.

The new cockpit I built resembled a J-24 cockpit with a shallow floor and wide gunwales. I made a water tight stern locker between the transom and the new aft bulkhead. The gaping hole in the deck created by the pop-top was covered by a solid dog house. The new companionway measured 18 inches by 24. It was a nuisance getting in and out of the cabin, but it gave breaking waves very little opportunity for entry. I replaced the molded fiberglass deck hatch with an alloy hatch made by Bomar.

I rebuilt the mast using heavier tangs, bolts, and spreaders. I used 1/4 inch rigging wire and large turnbuckles. I added new chain plates so that the mast could have split lower shrouds.

I built a new cabin interior with settees instead of the traditional Cal-25 dinette and galley arrangement. The new settees, which were amidships, and below the waterline, were able to contain a three month supply of food (for two persons), and a multitude of spare parts and liquids. For water storage I had 25 gallons in built-in tanks, 20 gallons in Jerry jugs (stowed below the waterline in the stern locker), and 15 gallons of water placed randomly under the settees in one gallon-sized, plastic apple juice bottles.

At the end of the DIRECTION project I had poured 8,000 dollars and 1200 hours into her. The final product was a sea going ocean machine costing less than 15,000 dollars, all told. Sure, 25 feet is small, but size is a mental game. If the dream is to sail around the world, you can get used to anything.