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Why You Should Buy Good Hope
Good Hope was cruised for seven years in the Caribbean by its second owners who sold the boat to us in November 2003. We chose Good Hope because of all of the well thought out additions the previous owners had made to the boat and because of the impeccable maintenance they performed on her. Some of their improvement were:
- Arch. This arch is built out of two inch aluminum tube and is incredibly strong while minimizing the weight at the stern. Even better is her design. The dinghy rides very high off the water for two reasons: it is safe in the arch during passages and you can see below the dinghy when you are sitting in the cockpit at anchor with it raised. The solar panels and wind generator are integrated into its design and there is a spare post on the port side for an additional wind generator to be mounted. Currently it mounts a VHF antenna for the cockpit radio that is independent of the masthead antenna for the VFH at the nav station.
- Wind Generator. This Fourwinds II unit is silent. Because it has large diameter blades it makes power at lower wind speeds. It has been wonderful to wake up with more energy in our battery banks than when we went to bed!
- Solar Panels. Three hundred watts of solar panels integrated into the arch when it was built and we get 16 amps /hour when the sun is overhead. Maintenance free, silent, and sized to cover the needs of the refrigeration. What more can I say?
- Book shelves. We are big readers already, and this saved us from a tricky woodworking project getting the shelves integrated into the curve of the hull and matched to the existing wood work.
- Hanging bag for canvas. I mention this because it illustrates their attention to detail. In the aft cabin is a Sunbrella bag hanging against the wall that holds all of the windows and bug screens that enclose the cockpit. The windows each have their own “pillow case” to prevent scratching.
- Expanded battery box. The factory battery box holds three batteries, but by using some of the foot room under the Nav. station they fit in three more group-31 Gel Cells, increasing our battery bank to 600 amp hours. It gave us the batteries with out losing other stowage space.
The only problem found with her during the survey was that they diesel fuel tank had a small leak, the standing rigging and the sails were ‘tired’ because they were original to the boat. We replaced the fuel tank (and were forced to replace the water tank at the same time), the standing rigging, and bought all new sails. From there we started making our own improvements to the boat, some of which include:
- Anchor chain. Replacing the old 3/8” 160’ anchor chain with 200’ of 5/16” HT (high tensile strength) anchor chain so that it would stack better in the chain locker.
- Radio. Installed an ICOM 802 SSB/HAM radio and Pactor III modem. This radio allows the easiest and fastest e-mail capability from a boat. You will love having it when you see the alternative other cruisers are using. We also added to the ground plane.
- Tricolor & strobe. We took advantage of having the mast un-stepped to replace the standing rigging and ran the extra wires to add a masthead tricolor light and a strobe light. It is all in the same housing as the anchor light. The tricolor saves electricity on night passages and increases our visibility; the strobe allows us to get anyone’s attention at night.
- New Sails. The sailmaker said that with new sails we would sail ½ to 1 knot faster to windward and point about 10 degrees better. He was right and the sails are still in almost new condition.
- Lee cloths. These custom made lee cloths give us two solid sea berths during a passage. We don’t know how anyone survives without them.
- Stainless steel port lights. While not an improvement we made, this model has the stainless steel port lights the factory switched to from aluminum. 100% leak free.
- Upgraded the forward head. We upgraded the forward head from a Raritan PH-I to the Raritan PH-II. It runs more smoothly and we carry fewer spare parts!
- New helm cushions. New foam and better angles/shape for the foam means a more comfortable seat when driving. It is the kind of thing you only get right after being on the boat for a while…
- And many more …but we think you get the idea.
We are only able to afford an 18-month sabbatical from work and we didn’t want to spend our cruising time constantly repairing the boat, so we started by buying a great boat and kept up on the preventative maintenance. Sure we have had our share of things go wrong, but nothing that has stopped us in our tracks for a month. You often read in sailboat advertisements, “Just back from cruising! Ready to go again!” I always take those with a grain of salt. In this case it is true.
One last advantage to this boat that I would like to mention is her size. The Island Packet 38 is one of the highest volume 38-foot boats ever built. It is huge inside and has a seven foot long cockpit outside. Counting the bowsprit she is about 41 feet long, and with the dinghy hanging in the arch I suspect our LOA is close to 44. But when you have to pay for a marina slip by the foot we pay the 38 foot price. A nice bonus! Yet at 38 feet she much more manageable by two people than some 42-footer.
Please do not hesitate to contact us about Good Hope or Island Packet yachts in general. We are very pleased with our boat and will gladly answer any questions you may have –even if you aren’t seriously looking.
Best regards,
~Peter Stoffel
Last updated February 22, 2006
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