From: STU@mwvm.mitre.org
Subject: Review of Privilege 39' Cat
Organization: The MITRE Corporation, McLean VA 22102
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 18:27:22 GMT

As many of you know who have followed rec.boats, I've been in search of an
ideal cat to purchase, live on, and sail.  An ideal cat is kindly, points
fairly well, can be sailed by one person, is capable of open ocean sailing,
and has space for living comfortably.
 
Last year, I subjected you to a review of a Snow Goose, Prout 34 - not an
ideal cat - in fact, much closer to a pig.
 
This year, 8 of us chartered a Privilege 39 (Jeantout [sic?]) from Tortola
Marine Management via Boats US.
 
First, the easy part.  Boat US performed exactly as promised.  The boat was
waiting for us with a pre-charter sleep aboard, all the paperwork complete,
and permission to extend the charter range beyond the normal limits of the
VIs - I wanted to go to St. Croix to experience open ocean sailing.
 
Tortola Marine was less satisfactory.  The Brief-out took 4 hours!!! and was
interesting to the non-sailors but useless to anyone who had ever chartered
anyplace before - who needs to know the names of people in a port you might
not visit.
 
The boat was marginally clean - my bunk had [trash] under the bunk (use your
own imagination) and one of the couples said their bunk smelled from a
previous user that had been ill.  The rigging was in marginal, but servicable
shape and the depth guage didn't work.  As the weeks progressed, I repaired
the depth guage, cleaned up a bit, and whipped several of the lines - but
since Tortola Marine charged us only $500/week less for a 39' than the
Moorings charges for a 42', use your own judgement - the Moorings boats are
nearly in "proper" condition.
 
Performance, the bottom line.
 
1.  The boat sailed well (not a small compliment).  With 8 people, 16 SCUBA
tanks, tons of food (it seemed like) and about 150 gallons of water, she
easily motored at 7 knots (5 into the wind, blowing over 35), and routinely
broke 8 knots in a reach.
 
2.  Beating - another story.  Again, she sailed comfortably at 6+ knots in
30 knot winds with a single reef in the main.  She held an apparent 50 degrees
off the wind and held 42 degrees of before stalling.  Leeway was another
story.  On one long sail (6 hours), we tacked once after establishing a
track with the GPS.  She tacked thru an actual 115 degrees - probably not
good enough to get there from here, but OK if you are just having fun on
a charter.  Motor sailing, she easily tacked thru 85 degrees and maintained
almost 7 knots (about 4 knots made good).  Sufficient for charter use.  This
was far, far superior to the Prout!!
 
3.  Kindleness - excellent would be an understatement.  With a mixture of
sailors and non-sailors, no one experienced severe sea sickness (there was
some minor discomfort [my persepctive, not the person who was ill.])  This
included our first attempt at the St. Croix crossing when we saw 8-12' seas
and had occasional waves breaking into the cockpit.  People below had some
minor discomfort but were able to read and do some cooking.  During a later
crossing we saw 6-8' seas, 25-35 knot winds, averaged over 8 knots in a 65
degree apparent reach, and a couple prepared a meal during the crossing.
 
4.  Fit and finish - not nearly what I would have expected in a boat of
nearly $300,000.  In fact, poor is about right.  The galley, for example,
had doors screwed in to hinges on their end-grain - I couldn't find anything
thru-bolted on the boat except the running rigging.  There were no fiddles
(maybe none needed), and the things you might grab in the night in a storm
broke off if pulled on.  Every port light leaked and one hull leaked (or
part of the hull, the boat had 8 watertight compartments).
 
5.  Running Rigging - she had a single low aspect main that was to large for
me to handle easily.  We occasionally motored when we could sail because the
main was so hard to handle.  Even with a Lewmar 42, it was a dog to raise.
The lazy-jacks only sort of fit - they jammed unless you were absolutely level
and directly into the wind.
 
6.  Downwind performance - surprisingly good.  We went wing-on-wing for
hours at a time with inexperienced helms[person]s and had only limited`
trouble recovering from jybes.  Not nearly as frighteneing as the Prout or
even a Non-Such when a jybe put anyone leaning over the stern rail in danger
of losing a limb to the main sheet.
 
7.  Facilities - she had a freezer driven by the engine with a cold plate and
a fridge driven by the other engine.  This was a double pain - both engines
had to be run twice a day for 60 minutes - and the engines suffered terribly
from having been run without sufficient load for months or years.  Tortola
Marine told us to run the engines at 1500 rpm and not to run the fridge when
motoring - WRONG!!! - running a Yanmar without load at low RPM carbons up
the water mixing valve and gums up the injectors.  We ran the engines hard
(2500 rpm+) as recommended by Yanmar and ran the frigde as part of our
regular motoring operations whenever we could.  By the end of the 2 weeks
the smoking stopped and the engines ran substantially better.  Give me an
electric system any time - I'll plug in when I can and use one engine at
high rpm to drive a big alternator to keep the batteries topped up.
 
8.  Power - the Privilege was equipped with dual 50 AH starting batteries,
and dual (as far as I can tell, parallel), 200 AH-8D house batteries.  The
running required to keep the fridge cold easily kept the batteries full and
we experienced no power difficulties.  In fact, the non-sailors never knew
we had a limited power budget - frequently left a number of lights on when
we went to shore.  With 2 Yanmar 3HM engines, we charged at about 70
Amps, peak, so power was not an issue.  Separate starting batteries (I'm
going to convert the Shearwater - it was a good idea), made starting "no
problem mon" even after a night of running all our lights.
 
9.  Would I charter again?  Tortola Marine will only see me again if they
have something I can't find anyplace else.  They charge like a tier-1
outfit (the Moorings) and service like a much less expensive outfit.
 
10. Storage - it just wouldn't quit.  We had several empty hanging lockers,
space for at least another 16 tanks, and several holds that we never opened.
True, weight is more important than space on a Cat, but even with 8 people
and 16 tanks, performance (except windward) was adquate.  With 2 or 3
living on board is easy.
 
11.  Would I buy one?  Well, as my companion said, "the Privilege is so
much better than the Prout, they obviously haven't perfected the idea yet."
This year, I'm going to try the new Legend 42.  I was on one during this trip
and she was beautiful.  I was also on a St. Francis - in fact, several passed
us when we were sailing - and would try one if they were production boats.
St. Francis, built in South Africa, are one-offs - and apparently are not
available bare boat.  They offered to sell me one and "guarenteed" I'd like
it - but . . .
 
E/mail me, please, if you have sailed a Legend 42 - or have any questions - or
know of a stateside distributior for the St. Francis.
 
/Stu Bell