SV Watermelon is a Jeanneau Sun Fizz, 38.5 (or 39.5) feet, to which we added 3 feet while in Australia in 1993-4. *
The French could sleep 11 people in a Sun Fizz. Two in each of the aft cabins, two in the forward vee berth, two on the port settee when the table was dropped down, one on the starboard settee, and one in each of the pilot berths.
When we bought Watermelon, Peter’s first two jobs were rewiring the boat to 110V with shore power, and converting the pilot berths to bookcases and storage compartments. It worked very well.
The aft cabins were rather small for two people, but were perfect for even the roughest passage. A few pillows on the lee side of the coffin-like berth and no matter how much the boat was bounced around one got a calm and comfortable sleep. There was a porthole into the cockpit, so under reasonable conditions it was kept open so whoever was off watch could hear any calls or problems easily. Even when the weather was bad and the port was closed, a kick on it usually woke up the off-watch sleeper.
Those cabins were so comfortable that on our nasty passage to Vanuatu, when I blew out the mainsail in 50 kts of wind, Peter never woke up until I yelled – loudly.
The trip is described
here
Watermelon had an incredible amount of storage. The cockpit lazarettes were almost big enough to build a mother-in-law berth in one of them, so I installed lots of hooks and hook-and-loop straps to suspend dock lines and other light stuff that would otherwise wind up on the bottom of the lazarette, too deep to reach without practically standing on one’s head inside the compartment. I appreciated the storage, though it was almost too easy to overload the boat, which we tried hard not to do.
The reason we added the three feet to her stern was that we wanted a locker to store explosives (propane and gasoline) with no connection with the bilge, and we wanted to extend and close the sugar scoop to add buoyancy when she sailed faster than 6 knots. When she reached 6 knots the stern would squat so low that the sugar scoop was under water and it didn’t seem to be improving the boat’s sailing ability. With the extension, we added a knot to her speed, particularly in light winds! Came in handy when the transmission packed it in on our passage from Borneo to Singapore and we had no engine. (doldrums) *That trip is described*
here
Photos of Watermelon, and some of the gear and improvements including the stern addition,
HERE
I miss her, the sailing was glorious.
Fair winds,
J
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