Prep Time

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Incline Test
Now that Antara is in the water, it's difficult to imagine her as ever having been out of it! She's as snug as bug in a rug now that she is afloat in her medium. 

Checklists
The first thing on our checklist now was a survey by the Director General of Shipping. The Goa representative came down to the yard and after a good look at the boat, advised us on the ext steps. So more surveys and documents coming up in the near future before we can start sailing.

An interesting check and a first for me, was an incline experiment. It's done in order to check her stability; including the angle of vanishing stability or just how far the boat will roll and right herself. Most people panic at a incline greater than 10 degrees. Good thing I didn't know that when I sailed across the South Atlantic, when the average incline on our boat was 45 degrees! The test involves putting equal amounts of weight in places, two aft and two forward, symmetrical to the mast. These are then moved around and a pendulum used to check the angle of incline. The data is then fed into a software that spews out the stability outputs.
Johan Vels

This experiment is part of another survey, this time by the Indian Registry of Shipping and has to be fed back to the DG, Shipping to take one more step forward.

Friends and boatbuilders
We intend to explore India's coastline with Antara; but, the lack of marinas is likely to be a challenge. In preparation, we had our friend and yacht maker, Johan Vels, help design a roll bar that would carry a dinghy slung over the stern. The dinghy will have an outboard motor and will help us move people and paraphernalia between boat and shore when Antara is at anchor. 

Johan sent us a sketch of what he had in mind and Ratnakar helped
Sachin & Siddhesh set up the dinghy
translate that into reality. As usual, he first made a sample and put it up on the boat and left it there for a while, so we could ruminate over it. Then he took it off to work on it some more and put it back on once the boat was afloat. This time it was set up for the suspension and extension of a dinghy. Next, he got an actual dinghy, jury rigged it with suspenders and tested out the entire set up, hoisting the dinghy from the water and leaving it hanging on the roll bar. The engineer in charge Siddhesh, was then asked to ruminate some more.

Gimbal stove
Meanwhile, the insides are also being attended to. The engine, which is placed below the stairs has openings aft and on the portside. Dilip insisted on another open patch on the starboard side after the water leakage at the propeller shaft, during the launch, alerted him to the restricted access on that side. Access has now been created keeping the aesthetics of the bathroom in place (that's where the access is from). The bunks have also been put in place. And, look at the eye for detail. The hinges holding the bunks up have nuts and bolts that would onn oned side have poked the user and on the other side, damaged the wood back rests; so, there is a gizmo that creates a circular hole around the nut and enables it to be screwed in such that it is flat aligned with the bunk! The hole is then filled with clear epoxy to seal the deal. 

 The kitchen table cut open for the gimbal stove has a new, edgy look and the wiring ducts have been put in place, awaiting the navigation equipment. With that another week has just flown by!

With Antara you now have the opportunity to sail, safe in Covid times - on a large sailboat, along the coast, in the deep blue yonder! You decide and we'll design a sail just for you. 

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