Sailing Catamaran SAVITA

Blog Post

Viewing the boat in La Rochelle

Ganesh Jung • April 27, 2019

Beautiful views and crashing electronics

It was a 12 hour ride from Munich to La Rochelle. We started on Monday 4. March in a Volkswagen Crafter full with 30 boxes containing everything I could imagine we would need on board. This included for example 2 guitars, a printer/scanner and 4 deck chairs to prepare for many guests on board.

Seeing the boat for the first time I instantly fell in love.

Our catamaran is Nautiech's 40 Open number 145.

We sailed a little tour in the Pertuis d'Antioche with light winds and sunshine.

Eva took the chance to show some of her best sides.

Sebastian came from Switzerland to introduce me to the boat. Thank you so much Sebastian for this day of teaching me all the details. Your experience with boats and especially catamarans was great help to me.

Apart from a list of smaller problems the two biggest failures of the 40 Open seem to be built-in to all of them.
For some strange reason the railing touches the sprouts breaking the raling and weakening the sprouts within months. We agreed to cover the raling with a lather sheath which will need to be replaced every few months.
The other big problem is the computer system. The original B&G Zeus³ chart plotter software was extended with a system named Naviops. On a regular ship you finda big panel with lots of switches and gaugesto turn on and off navigation lights, deck lights and pumps and to view diesel and water levels. Naviops makes all of these analog switches available in the chart plotter's menu, so instead of turning on the anchor light on an analog switch you now follow a path of 3 clicks on different screens of the chart plotter's touch panel (try this with wet hands in heavy swell ...). Furthermore Nautitech not only decided to use Naviops to control the ship. They found it a great idea to completely abolish those ugly analog switches and put the crew fully into the hands of Naviops. During my first time on the boat the system crashed twice. Nautitech brought the Italian developers to the boat to find a fix, delivery had a week of delay, now Nautitech comfirmed they have full confidence into the system. I will check closely and keep you updated.

Tahiti to Auckland

By Ganesh Jung • March 12, 2023
From Tahiti we continued the Pacific crossing and reached Auckland via Fiji.

Panama to Tahiti

By Ganesh Jung • March 12, 2023
After a month of Corona Quarataine in Panama, Shelter Bay, we passed through the Panama channel and continued our journey towards Tahiti.

Trans-Atlantic and the Caribbean 

By Ganesh Jung • April 22, 2020
Starting from Sal in Capeverde this trip led us to Martinique in the Caribbean. We were five on the boat, watch our story here.

Cabo Verde 10/2019

By Ganesh Jung • January 8, 2020
On our way from the Canaries to the Capverdes we caught another fishernet. We were sailing, no motor on and the net was abandoned and free floating in the middle of the ocean. When we caught the net the boat suddenly turned quickly and we first thought the autopilot was broken. Later we saw the net trailing behind the boat. The weather was calm and all crew members helped with the diving, so we were able to get free again.

La Caleta beachparty + future plans

By Ganesh Jung • November 7, 2019
When we visited La Caleta in June we met Hussein who has lived in La Caleta for over a year. We became friends quickly and he offered to organize a beach party. We set the date on September full moon, Saturday, 14th of September. Friends came from different places, planes were booked and everybody was picked up to join the event. Getting all the food and people the boat to the beach through the waves was an adventure and the night was magic. Next morning the guests had to swim back through the waves to get back to the boat. They will remember the night for long. During the next days the after party continued with water games.

Azores July 2019

By Ganesh Jung • November 7, 2019
On our way from the Canaries to the Azores we caught a beautiful Mahi Mahi. Watch the video to see it.

La Gomera June 2019

By Ganesh Jung • June 28, 2019
With two children and two couples on board we had much swimming, snorkling and sun bathing time and very little wind.

Madeira in May 2019

By Ganesh Jung • June 7, 2019
From Las Palmas to Madeira it is 280 nm. With a fast ship you need - depending on the wind - 2 days. Luckily we experienced again that the SAVITA is a fast ship. The crew consisted of Jens and me and of course the autopilot and the radar of SAVITA. We had the wind against us and hacked, barely we left Las Palmas, on starboard tack with 8-9 knots into the waves. Jens had terrible pains in his back as the waves tortured his stomach. He cursed the day when he had started sailing, and decided to stop as soon as possible.

Equipment changes, current defects, future plans

By Ganesh Jung • May 20, 2019
With Alisios Sailing in Las Palmas I have found a good partner to equip the SAVITA for the crossing. I am planning to glue some of these thin flexible solar panels to the hard top and to get a Watt&Sea hydrogenerator to have sufficient electricity available without running the generator several times a day. When the radar is on the SAVITA uses over 20 Amperes of energy also running the autopilot, 2 fridges and 2 of the 3 chartplotters. This equals 240 watts of power and brings the batteries down to 50% in half a day, so good electric supply is essential. I will also add more batteries, hoping that after a sunny day the systems will get over the night without running the hydrogenerator. On the other side the hydrogenerator can deliver over 600 watts giving us enough electricity for cloudy days.

Tangier to Las Palmas

By Ganesh Jung • April 27, 2019
Transfer of SAVITA from Tangier to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Show more
Share by: