OUR BOAT PRIMULA
Sailing Catamaran
Manufacturer: Fountaine Pajot in France
Year Built: 2006 model outfitted and launched in early 2007
Length: 43 feet
Beam: 23 feet
Draft: 4 feet 2 inches
Height above Water: 64 feet (to the top of the mast)
Engines: 2 x Volvo 29 HP each
Primula was originally bought and chartered by a company in Spain. She did a few trips back and forth across the Atlantic to take advantage of the different charter seasons. If you are familiar with charter boats then you know that charter boats can have a bit of a hard life. Primula definitely saw little love in the last five years of charter, but we were told by the Marine Surveyor she was a solid boat and had good bones. We purchased Primula in November of 2016 in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. Every year since purchasing we have been making her our own. The first season we owned her we spent our time getting to know her and mostly doing outstanding maintenance items. After a few weeks of serious maintenance we managed to get some great sailing in. We ended up putting Primula to bed for the hurricane season in St. Kitts. Turned out to be a good choice as somehow St. Kitts was missed by two very major hurricanes.
Season 2: We purchased an arch and a solar system to reduce our dependency on running the diesel engines to generate power. This was a wonderful addition. Ron also had taken home the old sail cover and bimini and sewed new ones while we were at home. Ron finished upgrading all of the lights to LED for lower power consumption. Also as the boat was European it was all 220 voltage, Ron converted everything to 110 systems. This allows us to use normal to us appliances etc. Another great sailing season that took us from St. Kitts to St. Martin, Anguilla, Antigua, Guadeloupe, Montserrat and St. Barts and back to St. Kitts for the hurricane season.
Season 3: We purchased a water maker and Ron installed this. What a difference not having to think about every ounce of water we use. We upgraded our inverter to a 2000 pure sine wave system. We discovered our previous inverter could not handle variable speeds which caused a few power tools to malfunction. Another great addition this year has been the AIS. This system allows all boats with AIS to see each other electronically and identify them by name. Makes for safer navigation especially at night. We now also have AIS equipped man over board locators for each our life jackets. In addition we purchased an asymmetrical spinnaker for those occasional light air days. We had purchased our first year a Rochna anchor but not always happy with this we have now purchased a Spade anchor. I will let you know how that one compares once we have a few anchoring sessions.
On Primula 