It has been my dream for my entire working career to sail home for retirement.  I have sailed Cachalot, my Bristol 24, for over 25 years.  Now that I am retiring on June 28 and moving to North Carolina that dream is about to come true.  I am refitting Cachalot from the keel up to prepare for the trip.   I have a great crew to make the trip with me.  They are Jeff Gardiner and Rich Terry.  I will be posting updates on the projects and our planning meetings.  This is a description of Cachalot that I wrote several years ago: 

Cachalot is one of a kind.  I bought her from an executive of the Bristol Corp.  She was custom made for her.  The rig is an off shore rig (which was an option at the time) from a Bristol 30.  It was very heavy duty.  I have replaced the standing rigging over the 14 years that I have owned her and have down sized a little, but not too much, to save money and weight aloft.  Because the rig and mast extrusion are so heavy I was able to put on a cutter rig without running back stays.  It gives great sail choice for heavy wind.  I also put on smaller life lines as the originals were 3/8 in. or better.

I replaced the front ports with opening Lewmar ports with screens.  It has been very nice as the main hatch is also screened and you get good ventilation on a buggy night.

Cachalot is dark British Racing Green, gold leaf lettering, gold leaf cove stripe, tan bark sails and has hemlock tweed Sunbrella canvas.  My 10 foot Herishoff rowing/sailing dingy was made to match.  I think it is classy.  

When I put the anchor platform on I had a bow pulpit made to match what I saw in Europe.  They called it a rams horn or stag horn design.  It is designed to dock bow to the quay and enter/exit over the bow platform.  I have found it very nice.  It gives a lot of privacy in the cockpit when you dock bow in.

Cachalot also has a full mahogany interior with a finished gel-coat headliner.  Also she is ballasted with lead and very heavy, weighing in at 7300 empty.  The over ballasting with lead makes for a very stable boat.  I get 10 to 15 degrees of heel and then she stops unless I am doing something very stupid.

Please follow along with our journey and offer comments on our course when I post it.

Ed Gagnon