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Dream Charter:
Dream Charter is a private operation run by husband and wife team Peter Moeller(German) and Aideen Henry(Irish). With two yachts in their fleet Sy Petima and Sy Jenny they are in a unique position to provide you with private, experienced and flexible sailing holiday. Peter now 12 years on a World Trip is a very experienced skipper and along with his wife Aideen's sailing experience you can feel safe and secure in their sailing hands. Peter and Aideen have been in SE Asia now for five years and know this area very well. With their knowledge of this beautiful area and the different cultures you can be sure to get a holiday experience of a lifetime. Guests that come sailing with Dream Charter are encouaged to sail the boat. We are happy to teach people the basics of sailing and navigation. You don't need any experience if you would like to come sailing with us. Whether you want to sail the boat yourself or have it skippered Peter and Aideen can make your charter wishes possible.

To find out our current location just send us an email to dreamcharter@gmail.com

Find out more about our yachts SY Petima and SY Jenny.

Peter:
Mr Peter Moeller is a native of Hamburg, Germany and a very experienced skipper. Having sailed all shapes and sizes of yachts throughout his life he decided to start a World circumnivigation in 1999. He has spent the last 12 years cruising the Inland Waterways of Europe, Mediterraean and Atlantic Ocean, Carribean, West Cost of America, Canada, Mississippi, through the Panama Canal, Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Western Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Borneo and the Philippines. Peter is fluent in German, English and Danish. He is a commercial diver who likes to cook. In general an all round fun and easy going guy.

Aideen:
Aideen Henry a native of Ireland has been sailing over the last decade. Mostly having sailed on Multihulls when she met Peter, a monohull was a bit of a change. Always up for a challenge she took to Sailing Vessel Petima like a duck to water! Aideen has lived in Australia for nine years and built a 43ft Catamaran in Perth, Western Australia. She has sailed from Perth around the top of Australia to Surfers Paradise on the East coast. From there through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, The Andamans, Borneo and the Philippines.Now with two yachts to operate Aideen skippers Petima and Peter skippers Jenny. Aideen speaks English und ein bischen Deutsch. Aideen also loves to cook, write for sailing magazines, loves all acitivities to do with water and is a crazy for adventure.

We can always help you to find flight connections just ask. Email Aideen/Peter at dreamcharter@gmail.com.

Back on the road again after a month in Europe. Both boats were well behaved in Brunei while we were gone. Restocked the fridge/freezer and pulled up all four anchors and off we went to Labuan. We cleaned the bottom of both boats. Alot of barnacles. We arrived in KK with two dead batteries so bought some new ones and a 5hp outboard engine. Picked up our two English crew, Gihan and Mike on the 9th and started our week trip North to Kudat. Weather unsettled. Had great snorkel and beautiful weather with full moon at Pulau Mantannai. Hid at the corner of the Tip of Borneo for two nights until weather calmed and arrived in Kudat on the 15th. We did a week of repairs and maintenance and picked up our next crew for a week trip around the islands of the North Peak of Borneo. A beautiful week with excellent weather and alot of sailing. Fantastic stay at Pulau Tiga where we went ashore and met the Sea Gypseys. It was also the perfect weather conditions to anchor of the Peack of Borneo which is another beautiful spot. Long sandy beach and turqoise waters. Arriving back in Kudat we provisioned the boats again and our next crew from Germany jumped onboard. Oct29th and we start our sail to Sandakan. Slow Rush! Found a great snorkel spot at Molleagan Kecil Island. Not alot of devastation from the fisherman. Alot of fish. Big current so drift snorkelling. Great visibility.

Spent a beautiful day in Temburong National Park with Bohari and the rest of the Abdullah family. Then headed out and anchored of Pulau Bulong near Labuan and finished our sanding and varnishing of Petima on the port hull and up on deck. Spent a week in Labuan doing some maintenance and havin some cheap Tigers. Anchored Jenny in Brunei River and sailed to Miri. Spent a fantastic week in MIri partying with old friends and also three days in Mulu National Park. Back to Brunei. Anchored both boats in the river and secured them for our time away.

We are back on our bikes and cycling around KK. It's a pleasure to go food shopping again in the fantastic market. Fresh food and veg aplenty! Had good rain and some storms come through. We were having a massage one evening when 40knots blew through KK and Jenny went wandering. Luckily enough her anchor grabbed again and we picked her up when we got home:) We moved back over to Gaya Island and started sanding and vanishing Petima. We were the only yachts there and the water was calm, perfect conditions for sanding near the waterline. Completely stripped and varnished Petima's starboard hull. It looks great. Trying a new varnish from the Philippines and hopefully it will fair better than the Malaysian brand. Had a great three day trip from Kota Kinabalu to Brunei via Tiga and Labuan Island with our Aussie guests from Albany, WA. Unfortunately didn't get to sample the mud baths at Tiga but got their fill of chocolate at Labuan and a nice 30knot experience on the way to Brunei. Anchored in the Brunei River and caught up with old friends Jamie and Flick. Tried a 7m diameter round parachute on Jamie's Warran cat 'Jumpa Lagi'. Light winds but it worked beautifully and I think he's hooked.

We made it back to Kudat June 13th in beautiful squally Malaysian weather. Cleared immigration no problem despite having no clearance from the Philippines. You've got to love Malaysia. Malaysia Truely Asia!!!!! We got stuck into maintenance straight away and will be for a few day as we await our friend Theo and then party time because its Pete's birthday on June 18th. Sailed from Kudat to KK in Westerly winds. We were very lucky. Four days and we arrived at Gaya Island where we laid low for a couple of days. We provisioned up off KK town and then moved over to Tajung Aru. Have been meeting some lovely people, Doing some maintenance and sight seeing with Theo. Visited the local Buddhist Monastry at Santavana.

We sailed the short distance to Romblon and on our way met up with Peter's old mate Hank Bass. We moored both boths together in a very sheltered bay just a short distance out of town. The water here is so clear with fantastic visibility. The island is beautiful and the locals are so friendly. The local barangay had a disco one night which we ended up going to. We danced until 3am and the music was still going at 8am the next morning. While we are here we want some marble work done so we ordered straight away as its takes time for it to be completed. Everything is done by hand. After three weeks we left Romblon in very light winds with our new marble sink, marble tiles in the bathroom and marble chess and backgammon game on our aft table. The boat still looks balanced. We made our way to Borocay to see what all the fuss is about. Borocay has a beautiful beach, gorgeous clear turqoise water but it has absolutely too many people. We stayed two days and left heading South and continuing on toward Palawan. The season has started to change already and there are very light winds, thunderstorms and rain. Cyclone Sondra hit Northern Philippines and we hid out for a few days despite the fact that we were 300nm away from the centre we still had strong winds and big seas. Now we are back sailing down Palawan island and the SW Monsoon is already here.

In strong winds we sailed up the West coast of Mindoro until we got to the NW corner where we stopped for three days. Here the wind and current meet daily and creates big seas. At 4pm one day all the white caps were gone so we made a run for it 15nm to the next island. Wind was still strong and we made it just on nightfall. We sailed to Luzon and anchored off Lemery. This is the first big town where we have seen cars since we have been in the Philippines. We spent a few days exploring here.. The people were so friendly and helpful. We took two days and sailed to Puerto Galera. Nice and protected this area is beautiful but tainted by tourists. We anchored of the yacht club and started to take our transmission apart with the help from a local mechanic. Hopefully we can get our clutch fixed here. After a week all was sorted and we left PG. We had our new deck hand Ruel onboard and sailed toward Romblon. The weather has completely changed with very light winds. A complete change to the strong winds from two weeks ago. I think the seasons are starting to slowly change. We had a lovely Easter on Cobrador Island. We arrived on Easter Saturday and all the locals were drunk already. So we sat with them a drank a few brandies while the sun went down. Easter Sunday we had a BBQ pig with the locals. A great laugh

March started with the building of our bamboo kayak. We had collected the bamboo the day we went to Conception waterfall and had kept it in the water so it wouldn't dry out. We stopped at a beautiful island ten miles further along from Conception and decided to get started before the bamboo dried out. I slit my knee open with a cut branch of bamboo and it was a choice between bandage it up really tight to see if it could heal itself or Doctor Peter was going to have to give me stitches. I bandaged it up so tight that my whole leg swelled up. But I couldn't move very far so we decided to stay one more day at the island. But no rest for the injured I spent the whole day with Peter tieing bambo together with fishing wire and before we knew it we had half a kayak. Once I was more mobile we sailed for our Philippino safari experience at Caluit Island. Yep they have all these native African animals giraffe, zebra etc that you can get up close and personal with while they roam freely around the National Park. Amazing! Africa eat your heart out.We were on our way to Mindoro when the Tsunami and earthquake hit Japan. We didn't even know it happened until suddenly my mobile went crazy with sms's asking if we were ok. Of course we are ok what the hell are they talking about. I didn't realise until I got on the Internet what happened. We were not effected at all. My heart goes out to the poor Japanese. We are on the West coast of the Philippines and the area's hit were further East. So don't worry everyone we are ok and thanks for your concern. We dropped anchor in San Jose, the southern tip of Mindoro for one week while it blowed its guts out. But you could be stuck in worse places. The best market we have seen in the Philippines yet lives here. You can find everything in this town and the price is Philippino prices. No tourists here! We spent a fortune on meat. Tenderloin, chop it doesn't matter every part of the animal costs the same and its great meat. Our freezer was full again! After a week we decided we had to move and we headed for Semira Is. What a bad move! Not only did we get hit by 25-30 knots winds with very big waves on the way but once we got there the only place to anchor was just off a coal mine. Before we had hit the island both boats were completely dirty as the wind was just blowing coal dust right off the island. We couldn't move. It was terrible. Jenny and Petima both looked like bombs had hit them. Everything that could possible fall out of a cupboard did. Unbelievable. Petima had waves over the roof and Jenny's deck was awash. But boat boats are suited to this rough weather and they did fine. We stayed three night and four days. The wind was getting worse and the forecast looked like it was going to stay that way. The Philippino army kept trying to get us to move because they didn't want us anchored there via order of the mine. So on day 4 we had enough and decided to go back to San Jose, Mindoro. We had rougher weather than when we left there. But it was more comfortable as the wind was at a better angle. A very quick trip we anchored off the town of San Jose by 3pm. After a good clean up of the boats we were ready for a strong sundowner.

After one week in El Nido we decided to move North again and head for The Calamian Group of islands. We made it in a two day hop and we sailed...yahoo! This is a gorgeous part of the Philippines. Islands, islands and more islands and beautiful sailing. And it is here Coron, Busuanaga Island where we are at the moment. Betwenn sailing, trekking and diving the magnificent WW2 wrecks we are exhausted but loving life in Busuanga. We could stay in this area for years exploring above and below the water. We spent a few lovely nights at Culion Island where we hired a motor bike from the local pastor and drove around the island. It wasn't a dirt bike and we quickly realised that we should have had one. We dropped the bike twice on the wet dirt roads and then got a flat tyre on the way home. But we were rescued by a Swiss guy who owns a resort on Culion. This island used to be a leper colony but now you would think that you were on holidays in a beautiful village in Spain. It has such a Mediterrean feel. We spent another two weeks in peaceful and friendly Puerto Del Sol. After bidding farewell to our new friends from PDS we moved West up the Busuanga coastline.

Second week of January we left Puerto Princessa. We had good weather up the coast until Green island where suddenly a 30 knot NE wind blew up. We anchored both boats behind the reef and waited three days for the weather to calm down. On the fourth day with no wind and a big swell we moved further North to a beautiful part of the coast line just North of Taytay Bay. Here we spent three days and could have stayed longer. We struck up a good friendship with a local family. Between Banca rides to local islands, diving philippino style with hose in mouth to visiting a Lapu-Lapu fish farm we had a ball. The water here is so clean and clear that there are alot of pearl farms in this area. I ended up buying two black pearls at a very good price. We rounded the top of Palawan Island to come face to face with big swells on the West Coast. We arrived in El Nido two days later. Not a very good anchorage in El Nido. We had strong winds/bullets of 40-50knots coming off the mountains and alot of boats including Jenny started to drag. El Nido is a beautiful area with gorgeous islands. The anchoring is very deep and while we were there we had strong winds. We left Jenny in El Nido and had a fantastic sail with Petima further South. We dropped anchor off New Guilhlo town, (no tourists here) and took a tricycle ride to Taytay on the west side. What a great day with our drive Toni.

Not sure what flotilla sailing is, well let me explain. Flotilla Sailing was invented in 1974. A flotilla is a group of yachts sailing in company, accompanied by a flotilla skipper on a lead yacht. You have virtually all the advantages of independent cruising plus the support of experienced help if you need it. You are the skipper of your own yacht, and each day’s activities are yours to decide – you can sail hard, or simply idle towards the next port soaking up the sun on the way. Less experienced skippers appreciate the help, advice and support from the flotilla skipper. Flotillas are the ultimate in social sailing, providing the perfect balance between independent sailing and unobtrusive support. If you are not overly confident with a sailing yacht, don’t worry. You will cast off each day with the support of the lead crew. You can be as independent as you like, but your Lead Boat Crew are always nearby in case you need any assistance during your trip. They will also recommend the best anchorages, harbours, and places to visit.

Flotilla sailing is loved by all types, both young and old, friends or families, of all level and ability, across the globe. Flotilla holidays are fun-filled, social sailing adventures. Join a flotilla sailing holiday if you want to sail your own yacht with the added support of a lead boat crew. You can even join in with your own personnel yacht if you have one.

Here in Borneo the only flotilla sailing company available is Dream Charter. Dream Charter is a small flotilla sailing company with two yachts, wooden yacht SY Petima and steel yacht SV Jenny. Dream Charter are offering those interested, the once in a lifetime opportunity to sail around Northern Borneo visiting places like Kudat, Sandakan, Sipidan, Marbul Island, Kinabatangan River etc.

Alternatively you can experience the holiday of a lifetime meandering through the beautiful crystal clear waters surrounding the Philippine islands. Visit Palawan, the beautiful white beaches of Borocay, Porta Galera etc.

If this sounds like something you would like to try contact Aideen on 7119744 or email at dreamcharter@gmail.com.

Someone once said ‘Sailing is like standing in a shower while throwing 100 dollar bills over your shoulder’. I think whoever came up with this definition for sailing had just completed a downwind sailing passage. Wind is directly from the aft and below 10 knots. You have you main and headsail up. There is a swell from the side. Everything is rolling including the lunch you just ate. Crew must hold onto anything permanent they can find on deck to stop from sliding overboard. Your heart just about pops out of your chest every time the boom and all the running gear crash from side to side. The headsail collapses and fills with such force that the whole boat shakes. With every bang, crash and vibration of your yacht as you sail downwind you can feel every dollar just floating away.

Or maybe you have your spinnaker up. Mostly you need two people for this sail. Depending on what type of spinnaker it is you will need a pole. Unless you are constantly watching this sail and monitoring the strength of the wind this is one sail that can get out of control and end up a tattered mess on your foredeck. If crew can’t get it on deck fast enough it can end up in the water whereupon the boat sails over it. Ahh, what a mess. No wonder a lot of sailors leave their spinnaker in the forward lazorate just so they can say that they have one but in fact it has not seen the light of day since the boat was purchased.

There is also the wing on wing option. This can drive you crazy. Unless you have perfect sail balance between the main and the headsail the boat can easily round up to wind. It puts more pressure on your autopilot and in some cases depending on the seas the autopilot just can’t handle the situation and you end up handsteering. With this sail combination you need someone monitoring the sails, the autopilot and the seas at all times

And then there is the two headsail combination. This is not a bad option. Have one headsail on the roller furler and the other headsail free standing. You don’t have the banging effect anymore but it doesn’t stop the rolling of the boat.

Or like a lot of sailors in order to relieve all the stress and tension on the boat and their hearts there is motoring. But in today’s world this is not a cheap option. And anyway aren’t we supposed to be sailors?

Downwind sailing can bring your dreams back to reality with every bang of the boom, to such an extent that you feel like putting your boat up for sale in the next port. Why do you think there are so many boats for sail in the Caribbean? Downwind sailing can be very tricky. The reason been most yachts are just not set up for this type of sailing. Today yachts are so top heavy with all the latest equipment on board radar, solar panels, wind generator and in light winds this doesn’t help your downwind sailing experience. So what if I told you I had the perfect solution to all your downwind sailing frustrations. A Modified Round Parachute. Not just any round parachute. A parachute that you jump out of a plane with.

Flying a round parachute as your downwind sail of choice was first tested crossing the Atlantic Ocean back in the year 2000. It was the brainchild of my husband Peter. After hearing all the stories from previous cruisers who had crossed the Atlantic with the large waves and wind from the back he swore there had to be a better solution. And he found it in the form of a modified round parachute which he flew the whole way across the Atlantic without once taking it down. After getting his hands on a couple of different sized parachutes he found the parachute that was the right size for our 11m wooden yacht ‘Petima’. Our parachute has an 8m diameter and would be suitable for yachts between 10 to 13m. You can fly the parachute between 130 and 180 degrees and between wind speeds of 5 to 35 knots. The parachute flies in front of the boat, approximately 10 meters in front. It is attached to the spinnaker halyard at the top and another sheet from the bow. The round parachute moves around but it does not oscillate. A round parachute has 28 lines around the cap. 14 up and 14 down. These 28 lines give the parachute its shape and strength. By splitting those 28 lines into two lots of 14 you get two holding points.

The beauty of this configuration is that the parachute pulls your boat and doesn’t push it like a spinnaker. If you are in big waves you will ride the wave and your bow will not dig into the wave as the parachute lifts up the bow. The boat will never turn side on as it does down a wave. With the round parachute you will surf the wave. It is a perfect option for cruisers on a long downwind sailing passage with a small crew. You don’t need an autopilot just adjust your rudder in the direction you want to go and it will pull you along n this course. So no strain on the autopilot and no drain on your batteries which is a regular occurrence in downwind sailing. If you have solar panels you will find that the solar panels are not in the shade of your sails so you get more power into your batteries. Most importantly the rolling motion of your boat, which can make most grown men cry with frustration will stop immediately as the parachute stabilises your boat. You will find no other sail that gives you so much comfort by downwind sailing on a yacht.

One of the tricks with flying this round sail is to make sure that none of the lines get tangled. There are 28 lines on our parachute, 14 lines to the top and 14 lines to the bottom of the sail. When we bring the sail in we always tie the two sets of 14 lines separately and make it ready for when we want to launch it again. This makes your job of setting the parachute very easy. You also want to set your parachute so it doesn’t get tangled with anything on deck. We normally set our round parachute over the side of the boat and then set up the parachute and our course once it is launched. As for taking the parachute down, this is the part that most people dread when it comes to flying their spinnaker downwind. There are a couple of ways you can get your parachute down. We use our genoa. By rolling out our genoa the parachute comes in the lee of the sail and you can easily pull it in on deck.

Flying the parachute has been tested on both catamarans and monohulls. Speaking to cruisers about our experiences with flying a modified round parachute they are naturally very curious and interested. Most are so frustrated with downwind sailing that they want to give it a try. Anything to stop the rolling and banging! When they try it themselves they just can’t believe it. They could never have believed that downwind sailing could be so easy and safe. We can still see our friends Margret and Henning Kruithoff standing on the foredeck of their catamaran shaking their heads in sheer disbelieve as they sail alongside us with their newly aquainted sail. ‘Diatethyl’ an 11m German catamaran sailed parallel to Petima from Brisbane to Cairns on the East coast of Australia as Peter explained to them how to rig their new parachute over the VHF. They found it so easy to set and more importantly bring back down and have raved about downwind sailing every since.

Other friends of ours on Canadian yacht ‘SDF’ sailed for 13 days consecutively from the Galapogas Islands to the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia with their round parachute set day and night. Skipper Jean Marie mentioned ‘we didn’t have to adjust the sail once in the trade winds. Wind was a constant 15-20knots with occasional squalls reaching 30knots and the parachute handled it beautifully. It was dream sailing’.

As you read this article I can already hear you saying to yourself ‘Well it all sounds great but I don’t have room on my yacht for another spare sail’. No matter the size of your boat there is always room for a modified round parachute. It weighs about 6kg and it fits into a bag the size of a backpack. Round parachutes are a lot cheaper than spinnakers. You can’t just go to your local sail maker and purchase one but there are a few places you can try to get one. Ebay, your local parachute club might be selling off old parachutes. If there is a military base nearby they also sell off their old parachutes. Or maybe you are sailing through Micronesia then you can get one of the locals. The US still drop Christmas presents to the islanders via parachute.

Tech Drawings, Diagrams and Detailed Photos available of Set Up, Launching, Flying and Retrieval.

Someone once said ‘Sailing is like standing in a shower while throwing 100 dollar bills over your shoulder’. I think whoever came up with this definition for sailing had just completed a downwind sailing passage. Wind is directly from the aft and below 10 knots. You have you Main and Headsail up. There is a swell from the side. Your heart just about pops out of your chest every time the boom and all the running gear crash from side to side. The Headsail collapses and fills with such force that the whole boat shakes. With every bang, crash and vibration of your yacht as you sail downwind you can feel every dollar just floating away.

Ok the rolling effect on a catamaran is not nearly as bad as the rolling experience on a monohull where everything rolls including the lunch you just ate. But lets face it despite the stability of a catamaran there is still an annoying movement of the boat when you have a side on swell and you are sailing downwind.

One downwind sailing option is the Spinnaker. You are sailing along in a ten knot breeze from the aft. Your catamaran is sailing along nicely at seven or eight knots. Suddenly the wind picks up and fast. Mostly you need two people for this sail. Depending on what type of Spinnaker it is you will need a pole. Unless you are constantly watching this sail and monitoring the strength of the wind then this is one sail that can get out of control and end up a tattered mess on your foredeck. If crew can’t get it on deck fast enough it can end up in the water whereupon the boat sails over it. Ahh, what a mess. No wonder a lot of sailors leave their Spinnaker in the forward lazorate just so they can say that they have one but in fact it has not seen the light of day since the boat was purchased.

There is also the wing on wing option. This can drive you crazy. Unless you have perfect sail balance between the Main and the Headsail the boat can easily round up to wind. It puts more pressure on your autopilot and in some cases depending on the seas the autopilot just can’t handle the situation and you end up handsteering. With this sail combination you need someone monitoring the sails, the autopilot and the seas at all times

And then there is the two Headsail combination. This is not a bad option. Have one Headsail on the roller furler and the other Headsail free standing. You don’t have the banging effect anymore but you will still feel the effect from the side on swell.

Flying a modified round parachute as a downwind sail of choice was first tested crossing the Atlantic Ocean back in the year 2000. It was the brainchild of my husband Peter. After hearing all the stories from previous cruisers who had crossed the Atlantic with the large waves from the side and wind from the back he swore there had to be a better solution. He wanted to find a way to sail downwind that was comfortable, safe, easy to handle, suitable for a small crew and with little stress on his yacht. While preparing his yacht for the Atlantic crossing in the Canary Islands he found the solution in the form of a Modified Round Parachute. Peter flew the Modified Round Parachute for 16 days, 24 hours a day across the Atlantic without once taking it down. After getting his hands on a couple of different sized parachutes he found the parachute that was the right size for our 11m wooden motor cruiser ‘Petima’. Now you are thinking to yourself this person sails a monohull. What the bloody hell does she know about catamarans? Well previous to my current monohull life I had a multihull cruising life. I have previously built a Farrier F-41 and sailed her from Western Australia to Surfers Paradise and then up through SE Asia so I know how they operate. And this downwind sailing option is perfect for multihulls. Flying the Modified Round Parachute has been tested on both monohulls and catamarans of various sizes in varying wind speeds and sea conditions and they are a safe and efficient and cost effective option for downwind cruising.

So back to the technical stuff! Our Modified Round Parachute has an 8m diameter and would be suitable for catamarans between 10 to 13m. If you have a larger catamaran you can either fly a larger Round Parachute or two smaller Round Parachutes, one from the bow of each hull. This is exactly what we did with 17m Crowther Catamaran Investigator 2. We met Australian owners Alan and Mary Tatton while cruising in North West Borneo. Over a couple of sundowners the topic of downwind sailing came up and to cut a long story short we ended up demonstrating how it all worked by flying two Modified Round Parachutes of the bow of each hull on Invesitgator 2 while they were in Brunei. One Parachute had a 7m diameter and the other an 8m diameter. Alan and Mary have been boat owners for many years and have a lot of cruising miles under their belts. They were amazed at how quick and easy it was to set up. All Alan could say was ‘I want one’.

You can fly the parachute between 130 and 180 degrees and between wind speeds of 5 to 35++ knots. The Modified Round Parachute flies in front of the boat, approximately 10 meters in front. It is attached to the spinnaker halyard at the top and another sheet from the bow. 70% of the pressure is on the bow line and 30% on your spinnaker halyard so the pressure on your rigging is minimal. A Modified Round Parachute has 28 lines around the cap - 14 up and 14 down. These 28 lines give the Round Parachute its shape and strength. By splitting those 28 lines into two lots of 14 you get two holding points.

The beauty of this configuration is that the parachute pulls your boat and doesn’t push it like a spinnaker. If you are in big waves you will ride the wave and the bows of your multihull will not dig into the wave as the parachute lifts up the bows. The boat will never turn side on as it slides down a wave. With this Round Parachute you will surf the wave. It is a perfect option for cruisers on a long downwind sailing passage with a small crew. You don’t need an autopilot. You can just adjust your rudder in the direction you want to go and the Round Parachute will pull you along on this course. So, no strain on the autopilot and no drain on your batteries which is a regular occurrence in downwind sailing. If you have solar panels on the saloon roof you will find that the solar panels are not in the shade of your sails so you get more power into your batteries. Most importantly the uncomfortable motion of your multihull, which can make most grown men cry with frustration will stop immediately as the parachute stabilises your boat. You will find no other sail that gives you so much comfort by downwind sailing.

One of the tricks with flying this Round Parachute is to make sure that none of the lines get tangled. With all the lines on a Parachute you must make sure you tie them together correctly so the Round Parachute is ready for when you want to launch it again. This makes your job of setting the Parachute very easy. You also want to set your Parachute so it doesn’t get tangled with anything on deck. We always launch our Modified Round Parachute over the side of the boat. By doing this you minimise the chances of it getting tangled with anything else on deck. Once the Parachute is launched we set our course and adjust the p\Parachute accordingly. As for taking the Parachute down, this is the part that most people dread when it comes to flying their Spinnaker downwind. There are a couple of ways you can get your Parachute down. We use our Genoa. By rolling out our Genoa the Parachute comes in the lee of the sail, spills all its wind and you can easily pull it in on deck. The other option is to have a trip line tied to your Round Parachute. Then you give slack in both the halyard and the bow line and pull the Parachute onboard with the trip line.

As previously mentioned flying the Modified Round Parachute has been tested on both catamarans and monohulls. Speaking to cruisers about our experience with flying a Modified Round Parachute they are naturally very curious, a little sceptical but interested. Most are so frustrated with downwind sailing that they want to give it a try. Anything to stop the horrible motion and pressure on the rigging! When they try it themselves they just can’t believe it. They could never have believed that downwind sailing could be so easy and safe. We can still see our friends Margret and Henning Kruithoff standing on the foredeck of their 11m catamaran shaking their heads in sheer disbelieve as they sail alongside us with their newly acquired sail. With wind speeds between 15 to 25knots ‘Diaethyl’ an 11m German catamaran sailed parallel to Petima from Brisbane to Cairns on the East coast of Australia as Peter explained to them how to rig their Modified Round Parachute over the VHF. They found it so easy to set and more importantly bring back down and have raved about downwind sailing every since. Their comment was ‘ After having sailed half way around the world already we wish we had known about this method of downwind sailing from the beginning. Life would have been so much easier!’.

Melbourne born Jamie Rohan owner of an 11m Warram Catamaran ‘Jumpa Lagi’ is delighted with the results of sailing downwind with his Modified Round Parachute. Jamie said ‘I’ve been looking for downwind sailing options which are easily shorthanded. I’ve got the Spinnaker but it gets a little scary over 15knots, especially when I am by myself. When sailing downwind with more than 10knots I feel confident using the Round Parachute. It is easily launched with just two control lines. I highly recommend it to all cruisers’.

Despite Investigator 2 been up for sale Alan and Mary Tatton swear their sailing days are not over and they will have a Modified Round Parachute on their next yacht. ‘It is fantastic how easy and comfortable it is to sail downwind with this Round Parachute and the best no stress on your rigging’, said Alan Tatton.

As you read this article I can already hear you saying to yourself ‘Well it all sounds great but I don’t have room on my yacht for another spare sail’. No matter the size of your boat there is always room for a Modified Round Parachute. It weighs about 6kg and it fits into a bag the size of a backpack. Round Parachutes are a lot cheaper than Spinnakers. You can’t just go to your local sail maker and purchase one but there are a few places you can try to get one. Ebay, your local parachute club might be selling off old parachutes. If there is a military base nearby they also sell off their old parachutes. Or maybe you are sailing through Micronesia then you can get one of the locals. The US still drop Christmas presents to the islanders via parachute.

Tech Drawings, Diagrams and Detailed Photos available of Set Up, Launching, Flying and Retrieval.

Aideen Henry sailed from Australia to Asia in the 2007 Darwin – Kupang rally. At the time Aideen owned a 13m fibreglass catamaran. Now in the South East Asia area for three years Aideen finds herself living onboard Petima a 11.25m wooden motor sailor, built in Denmark 25 years ago. Having sailed The Baltic Sea, The Inland waterways of Europe, The Great Lakes in Canada and the Mississippi River to name a few of her sailed locations, this is one boat with many experiences and stories under her keel.

Peter, Aideen’s husband has owned Petima for 16 years after buying her from a Danish gentleman in 1994. He spent five years sailing her around Scandanavia and The Baltic Sea while gradually preparing Petima for a world circumnavigation. Having retired at 45 after selling his business, he set sail in 1999 from Langoe, Denmark for a world circumnavigation.

Petima was designed by a famous Danish marine architect ‘Knud Olsen’, and built by two experienced Danish boatbuilders on a farm in Denmark. Her main structural beams are solid oak and her hull is made from Norwegian Pine. Her pilot house is teak and so is her deck. The interior is constructed from a mix of pine, teak and plywood. Petima’s layout is simple – a double cabin aft, followed by a roomy saloon in the pilot house, then down three steps and into a spacious galley. Next is the bathroom with electric toilet and shower and forward another double cabin. People are always surprised by how much room Petima has to offer inside. Every space is utilised, with alot of room in the bilges for the all important wine collection.

Petima is a motor sailor sloop with full battened main. She has two forestays. The forward stay has a roller furler headsail attached. The second forestay is a self tacking jib. As Petima is a motor sailor she is naturally reefed already with the shorter mast. So you can feel very comfortable leaving full sail up in 25-30 knot winds. Petima is very safe and easy to sail. There are two helms, one outside and one inside the pilot house. So, no matter the weather conditions you have your options. Having always sailed multihulls, sailing a monohull was a new experience for me. Petima’s set up is so good I find I can safely sail Petima single handed and have done up the West coast of Borneo.

Petima is fitted with a 90HP Fiat diesel engine. This is still the original engine, but Peter did rebuild the engine before he left for the world trip in 1999. There wasn’t anything wrong with the engine at this time, but he wasn’t taking any chances. He is German what can I say! The Fiat never misses a beat. You could run it on coca cola and it will start the first time, every time. Originally Petima had capacity for 400 litres of diesel but that was soon increased, by converting one of the 200litre water tanks into diesel. Now she can hold 600 litres of diesel.

Always the two variables that cruises struggle with and Peter likes to think he has conquered. For four years before he left Denmark on a world circumnavigation he owned a 15m Irwin in Florida, USA where he operated a charter business. This was where he made his experience with marine fridges, generators and 12V systems. On ‘Espresso’ (15m Irwin), he had a marine cooling fridge system and was always having to change the cooling pumps because while sailing a vacumn would occur in the system and when turned on the cooling pumps got burnt out because there was no water getting through. Peter also had a generator but if this broke down as generators do, then you have no fridge system at all and you are back to buying ice cubes.

With Petima Peter decided it would be different. He installed a 240V, 180litre domestic fridge freezer. Before he did this however, he had to find the answer to a few questions.

No problem, a friend of his drew up a power system that would hold this consumption. Today it is still the same power system that operates onboard and it’s brilliant. Peter wouldn’t put another marine fridge product onboard again and I would agree.

Firstly, he found a perfect spot in the galley for the fridge freezer. He installed it in a frame, with its back to the bathroom wall. He put a vent in the wall behind the fridge so the hot air could go straight out the bathroom hatch. The fridge consumes 7A. We have 400amp batteries for the house system. We have a 1,000Watt inverter which converts 24V to 240 and a 1,800Watt inverter as a back up. You also need a very good solar system, which we have. We have four 75Watt solar panels, two 60Watt and two 30Watt and a wind generator. However, on days when there is no sun or wind you still need to charge your batteries, so there is a 70amp alternator installed on the engine and this charges the batteries very quickly. For the start up system, there are two 100amp batteries. It’s very important to have good batteries and if they don’t charge well then it is time to buy new ones. To date we haven’t come across a better electric system on another boat.

Petima’s capacity for water is a 200litre tank. We have an Ocean Maker Watermaker, which provides 60 litres of water per hour and is run off a belt on the engine.

There aren’t many varnished wooden boats sailing the seven seas, so you are always noticed. One thing cruisers always ask us ‘Your boat is very beautiful, but it must be alot of maintenance’? Wooden boats, in my opinion are not more maintenance than a fibre glass or steel boat. It’s just another type of maintenance, varnishing the wood instead of picking of the rust from the steel. The trick is never let the varnish deteriorate too much or you will have to sand right back to the bare wood and its more work than before.

Peter has lived on Petima in The Tropics now for many years and the sun is deffinitely harder to the varnish than the cooler climates of Europe. In Europe Peter would give Petima a complete varnishing once a year. Here in the tropics we completely varnish her twice a year and other parts exposed more to the sun more frequently. We use any polyurethane varnish that is available in the area we are in at the time. Below the waterline Petima is hauled out once a year for antifouling and checked for thread worms. Thread worms thrive in the tropics and you can usually smell them before you see them. After so many years Peter can smell them a mile away. He just cuts out the area of wood that they have infected and replaces this with spare wood that is always stored onboard. In Denmark Peter used to haul Petima out over Winter, from December to April with no problems. But in warmer climates particularly the Tropics, you can only haul her out for 10 days maximum. Anything over that and her wooden planks will start to dry out and crack. If you were to put her straight back in the water, she could possibly sink with the amount of water that would enter between he cracks in the planks.

Of course a worry for any wooden boat owner (a nightmare more like), areTermites. After 16 years of ownership Peter got his first case of termites in the davit at the stern of the boat this year. He nearly had a fit when I pointed them out to him. The davit is constructed from laminated Norwegian Pine. I saw a small mound of tiny wooden balls and on a closer inspection could see the termites working furiously at eating away the davitt. We immediately injected poison into the hole, a jar full, so we knew that they had eaten quite alot. Then we put an air pressure hose that we normally have for blowing up the tyres of our bicycles, on the hole. The varnish started to blow off the entire length of the port davitt leg where there were more holes. We then injected very runny epoxy resin(thank god for epoxy) and monitored the area for a few days until we were satisfied we had killed them all. And off course started to sand and re-varnish the davit so it looked normal again.

There is always maintenance on a wooden boat, like any boat. When a wooden boat is looked after well it can look beautiful. If you let the maintenance slip then it can start to look bad very quickly.