S/V TARA VANA

Tara Vana is a 1996 Nautitech 435 cruising catamaran, manufactured in France by Dufour, a well known boat builder. The Nautitech 435 won the coveted Cruising World "Cruising Multihull" of the Year Award in 1997. Check out a copy of the Cruising World report on our SailBlog.

Tara Vana was used for captained day charters in Martinique, in the Caribbean, before we bought her. A friend who lived on his own boat on the same dock in Le Marin, Martinique tells us that she did not go out much....and when we bought her she was indeed pristine, reflecting that she truly had not been used much.

We have been living aboard Tara Vana since September 2001. We've made substantial upgrades to the boat, and added a lot of safety equipment. We both value quality work, and insist on doing every project just right. One look around Tara Vana shows that we are perfectionists!

We bought Tara Vana after 2 years of catamaran shopping. We love the roomy, uncluttered cockpit. After all, that's really where we spend most of our time! Since Rick is 6'3", the ample headroom inside was important to us. There's plenty of storage, both inside and outside. The boat is light and airy, with a good sized working area in the galley, and good ventilation throughout. It's a really comfortable home for us.

SAFETY:

We outfitted the boat for extensive offshore cruising, and when it comes to safety, we've got it! We have a ParaTech 18' sea anchor, and a Galerider drogue. Both are used to slow the boat down in nasty weather. We have 2 autopilot systems installed, so if one fails, we simply switch over to the other system. We installed mast steps to make it easier and safer to go up the mast. We bought a new liferaft, after much research. We have inflatable PFD's that we wear at night or in bad weather, with new jacklines running up each side of the boat, inboard. We have an EPRIB that sends a radio frequency alert message to the ground receiving station in case of an emergency, with our GPS position. We have a spare VHF radio, and 2 handheld VHF radios. We have a backup GPS system, and a handheld. We installed extra handrails all along the cabin top. We bought new fire extinguishers, and check them regularly.

SAILS & RIGGING:

Nothing beats a downwind sail on a catamaran! We have a 1000 square foot asymmetrical spinnaker that is just too fun! It stores easily in the port bow when we're not using it. We replaced our standing rigging in 2007, and had a new, custom main sail made, along with a new sail bag and lazy bag system. In the case of rough weather, we have a storm sail that is really cool, as we just hank it on right over our furled jib!

ENERGY:

Between our four 75-amp solar panels and our KISS wind generator, we typically produce more than our daily amp requirements....on all but those occasional cloudy, still days! The high-output alternator we installed on the port engine cranks out the amps whenever we do use the engine. And our house battery bank is huge....650 amp hours! We've replaced the salon lights, reading lights, anchor light, and tri-color navigation light with energy efficient LED bulbs.

MASTER STATEROOM:

We use the starboard aft stateroom as our master stateroom. We have 2" memory foam on the double mattress....it's so comfy! And long enough even for Rick, who is 6'3"! There is a hanging closet and a shoe locker. The en-suite head is used as a dedicated shower. Air ventilation is good, with a hatch over the bed and 2 portholes.

We have a 21" flat screen Visio TV mounted on the aft wall, on a swivel mount so that the TV can swing out over the bed. The flat screen TV and a Sony DVD player run off a 500 watt inverter installed behind the bed. We've got some great DVDs on board, mostly documentaries and classics.

There is a 6-gallon water heater under the berth, which we don't use all that often....usually a dip in the sea with a fresh water rinse does the job. There's a 12 volt outlet just by the berth, for a computer or other device.

There is plenty of storage under the berth. We keep our 9000 BTU Haier free-standing air conditioner stored there, as we only use it when at a dock or on the hard. In addition, we have stores of food provisions.

GUEST STATEROOM:

We use the port aft berth as a guest stateroom. It has a double size mattress. It has an en-suite head of molded fiberglass, a hanging locker, and a shoe locker. Like each of the staterooms, it has good ventilation, with a hatch overhead and two portholes. There is plenty of storage under the berth.

We store our house battery bank, our 650 amp hour Rolls lead acid batteries, under the port aft berth. The batteries are easy to access for maintenance. We also have a 1000 watt inverter, and an impressive inventory of spares.

FORWARD STATEROOMS:

There is plenty of storage in the two forward staterooms. We keep our spinnaker and Gale Sail in the port forward stateroom. Extra clothes, books, and provisions are stored under the starboard forward berth. Light items are kept up in the forward bows, with a lightweight Textaline curtain hiding the storage areas. Each forward stateroom has an overhead hatch, and two portholes.

THE HEADS:

The boat came with 4 heads, one in each stateroom. They are made of molded fiberglass, so they are very easy to clean. We took the toilet out of the head in our master stateroom, and made that head a dedicated shower. We also took the toilet out of the port forward head, and we use that head for our dive gear and Rick's stand-alone ice maker!

SALON & GALLEY:

Tara Vana boasts a big, comfy salon, with a settee and table that can seat up to 10....it's great for those potlucks on the boat! The salon is light and airy, with good ventilation. There are 2 12-volt Hella fans behind the settee, plus one right above the galley stove...that's the one we use the most!

The greatest thing about our galley is that it opens up to the cockpit with a good-sized sliding window. The person in the galley feels part of the socializing in the cockpit. And it ensures good ventilation while the chef is slaving over the hot stove! On those really hot days, though, we tend to cook everything on the bar-b-que that we installed on the stern.

We love having the large, double-basin sink in the galley, and a recessed area for our dish rack. We've got an in-line water filter, the kind that filters out everything, right at the sink...no hauling of bottled water, and disposing of all that plastic!

We installed a new refrigeration system, that is more energy efficient than the dual cold plate system that came with the boat. We added a nice teak pantry to give us easy access to the stuff we use the most. Best of all, we love the 4 teak drawers we had built in Trinidad, where we keep silverware and kitchen utensils.

OUTFITTED FOR OFFSHORE CRUISING:

We outfitted Tara Vana for the extensive offshore cruising we planned to do in the Pacific. We have 250' of BBB 3/8" chain, plus another 100' of rode, for ease of anchoring in the deep anchorages you tend to find in the Pacific. Our 55 pound Delta anchor is awesome; it has never let us down! We have a 33 pound aluminum Spade anchor that we bought to use as a stern anchor, but can also be used as a primary anchor or a second anchor in severe conditions.

We installed folding mast steps up to the spreaders. Now it's easy for one person to climb aloft to watch ahead when navigating in shallow waters with coral bommies. We recently installed a new chart plotter, a new VHF radio, and a Feruno radar system. Our redundant auto pilot insures that we won't be forced to hand steer for days in the case of an auto pilot failure on a long passage!

We had to install a decent sized house battery bank, solar panels and wind generator, to meet our energy requirements. We installed a watermaker to make us more self-sufficient, and allow us more cruising freedom. We bought binoculars, handheld VHF radios, and a handheld GPS. We bought all new anchors and chain.

The nav station has a big storage area for paper charts, and all the instruments are easy to see. We feel that an SSB radio is not a luxury, but an important safety feature. It allows us to listen to weather nets, safety and security nets, and to touch base with friends on cruiser nets. We use SailMail, with our Pactor II modem and the SSB radio, for onboard email. We have worldwide electronic charts on our PC, which ties in directly to our chart plotter, and two 12 volt outlets at the nav station. We also have worldwide pilot charts, and paper charts for the Caribbean and the Pacific. We have an auto pilot remote that lets us change our course from inside, which is nice at night or in squally weather.