Dignity Critique

We’ve been asked by a few folks for a critique of the boat. So here I go with what we liked and what we didn’t. The context of this critique is our needs for our boat. Those with different requirements will have to take this into account. It’s personal. So before we get to my pros and cons I want to recap what we were looking for in a boat.

First and foremost, our boat will be our home. We wanted a boat we would be comfortable living in at anchor, on a mooring and occasionally in dock. Second, while we originally weren’t thinking about an ecological boat, the Lagoon 420 appealed to us in a very big way with it’s great potential for regeneration and platform for solar power. Third came performance. It doesn’t matter too much to us as when we finally move aboard, time will not be our problem. We’ll be in no rush. But to be fair, nor do we want a bus.

So what did we like:

• Spaciousness & layout. This is the first thing that hits you and it all works very well. The galley, being in the cabin and facing out to the back complete with sliding window as well as the helm being close to the living space keeps everyone together and social. The boat feels very roomy and light. Not only is there a lot of space, it feels bigger than it’s size. The right-angle seating works very well allowing all sorts of seating positions depending on sun direction and whim. Living in the owners cabin exceeded our imaginations. The ventilation was excellent. Waking up seeing where you are through the big side windows you get on Lagoon’s is priceless. While feeling quite cosy in the bunk, seeing the whole length of the hull stretch out ahead provides an amazing sense of space. The guest suites were well laid out and while not coming close to the space of the owners hull they still had the benefits of visibility, ventilation and comfort.
• Single handed helm. This works very well. The arrangement of lines is very important as if not carefully thought out they could easily get tangled. Hats off to the folks at CatCo who had left the lines organized very well. On the first day I managed to tangle up the lines on the winches a couple of times but that soon stopped. It was just a matter of learning the right direction to pull from and once learned it became subconcious very quickly. What was nice was that although it was set up very well for single handing, two could work the lines when tacking and gybing very well without being crowded. As mentioned above, the fact that the helm is in the cabin is a big plus for us. Keeps us together.
• Sailing performance. This was a big surprise. Reading the (perhaps third hand) accounts on the web I expected a slow boat. She wasn’t a racer but she certainly flew. We didn’t get a chance to sail her in light winds which I don’t expect her to do well. The wind speeds during our trip were typically in the 16-22 knot range and only dropped below when we had a wind shadow from a nearby island. We typically managed just below half the wind speed and that was including the speed loss due to regeneration.
• Regeneration. Another surprise. Had expected the output to be fairly low – again based on indirect accounts. For example, on one day we were on a reach in 18 knots of wind making a smidge over 8 knots through the water making 12A at 72V on each engine. That’s practically 1.5kW of power. Now I fully expect losses to erode this but I am now fully convinced of this boats regeneration capabilities on longer sails. I’m quite excited by the prospect of longer crossings without having to run stinky engines to get the power to run fridges, autopilots, etc. Once we put on solar cells we’ll be able to survive the windless days too. The one downside to the regeneration is it is a bit tricky to tune. One has to find the sweet spot on the throttle where regeneration is maximized. That can be hard to find and it has to be adjusted from time to time as conditions change.
• Stability. Dignity was remarkably stable. That being said I never motor anything but the shortest distances without putting sail up and would never motor directly into wind which always causes problems. With these habits embedded we never really had a bad time. We had been told that the week we were there was one of the worst they had in while but we never noticed – in fact we had a whale of a time (that is a funny expression – I’ll have to look it up). We were allowed to develop bad habits of leaving things around and they stay where you left them even when you’re going over the bumps. Speaking of which, the forward nacelle seems to do a very good job of dampening the odd occasion when we had hull slaps. Much less of a boom than our previous experiences on cats.
• Quiet running. Our ears were blessed. Even when the genset kicks in it’s hard to hear. Nice.
• Hatches. I was really impressed with the low profile hatches. Significantly reduced chance of stubbed toes. As mentioned previously they are well positioned allowing plenty of ventilation. We simply had no need to run the aircon anywhere bar the marina which was chosen for it’s lack of wind. And even then it was not that necessary.

So what didn’t we like

• Coming home. By my reckoning the trip was about 9 years and 51 weeks too short. This can and will be fixed. Having said that it was nice to come home and see the boys even with the mess and mysteries presented.
• Setting anchor. This is a real case of a plus being a minus. When setting anchor I am used to using the engines to drive the anchor into the sand and test it. Typically this is done by keeping an eye on the engine revs and an ear to the sound of the engine so that the power applied is right. So on Dignity with no rev meters and no noise from the motors bar the swish of water the old techniques can’t be used. This may just be a matter of getting used to new signals. If there’s a chance of getting a reading of revs up to the helm I may look into this too.
• Duration motoring on batteries. This was not as good as it should be. We know the G2 upgrade is coming along which sets very clear expectations on this. No specific dates on when this upgrade gets put in but the month of June is being mentioned.
• Space at stern for dinghy. To improve interior space, the Lagoon 420s have steep sugar scoops (stairs) at the stern of each hull. This reduces the distance between the rear of the saloon and the dock. Turns out this doesn’t leave enough room to leave the dinghy up on the davits when docking at Nanny Cay as the power tower is in the way. This is likely to be the case elsewhere too. This adds an additional activity when docking – ie, lowering the dinghy so it sits between the hulls. I am sure this will just become habit and a non issue in time.
• Sugar scoop railing. A rail on the side of the sugar scoops would be very useful as an additional dinghy attachment point as well as helping people in an out of the dinghy. We had little problems without this but I’m thinking of visitors less used to the water environment and, I confess, the nights when our own legs are less stable.
• Sailcars. Just like our monohull, assistance at the mast is required getting the mainsail down. I have been on boats where the mainsail drops without assistance which I find a pleasure. Requiring one less person to do any task is a plus. Chances are this may just be a matter of applying a little lubricant to the track.
• Lighting oven. This turned out to be a bit of a pain with matches. Maybe we’re just being softy land-lubbers. Going to bring along one of those oven lighters next time.

Surprises. I thought I’d mentioned a few surprises. Expectations certainly get set by what one hears and reads so I think it’s worth pointing out what surprised us.

• Sailing performance. According to many the boat is slow. As far as we are concerned and certainly as far as our needs go, she flew.
• Wet vessel. Had heard she was a wet vessel. We had plenty of rain and I now have no idea what people are talking about. Everything inside stayed dry during and after rain. When I sailed when it was raining I got wet. Not sure I see anything wrong with this picture.

That’s it for now. I think you can tell we are more than pleased with Dignity. I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced anything where my expectations were exceeded multiple times. We took a big leap of faith when we bought the boat off spec. The first pics in August 2006 were a delight. Seeing a 420 at the boat shows in 2006 and 2007 was again a very pleasant surprise. Spending a week on Dignity upped the experience again.

Next ….