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Beneteau Oceanis 51.1 – A Floating Beach House

Beneteau Oceanis 51.1 – A Floating Beach House

Owning a large sailboat, our is a Beneteau Oceanis 51, is like owning another vacation home.  While a sailboat is technically a mode of transportation, from a cost perspective, the annual ownership costs are much closer to what a ski or beach house run.  Given that you could describe our boat as a mobile wind driven 3 bedroom waterfront home, a floating summer beach house is a good way to look at it.  Another way to think about it is like having a ski house that you can move from mountain to mountain and always be right on the hill.  Like skiing, sailing is very much a lifestyle choice and one that requires commitment to get the most out of.  In my experience skiing and sailing provide similar levels of thrill, beauty, sense of accomplishment, tranquility, and occasionally terror. 

I still have vivid memories from my sailing experiences as a young adult.  The core of experience was mostly of flailing lines, jammed main sheets, and uncooperative winches all accompanied by lots of yelling by some of my older relatives.  Sailing today is completely different. Turns out a lot has changed in the last couple of decades.  I can literally stand in the stern with one hand on the wheel and raise the sails with a simple push of a button on the electric winch.  All the lines are now threaded back to the stern (back of boat), the winches are all electric, the main sheet is on an in mast furler, the jib is self-tacking, the helm has an autopilot, and there are both bow and stern thrusters to help with docking.  All the advances in electronics and navigation have made it very easy to plot and follow courses while avoiding underwater obstacles.

 

We have christened our boat, Vitae Magna, and it has been a good life aboard her.  In the two and a half years that we have had Vitae Magna, we have taken her out at least two dozen times each year.  For us the season starts in early May and ends in late October.  While most of the outings are day trips over to the islands, we have done a fair number of overnights as well.  I continue to be impressed by how easy the Vitae Magna is to sail, how well it handles, and how smoothly it rides through the waves.  In a four-foot sea you barely notice the rocking.  In a good wind, Vitae Magna will do 10 knots (11.5 mph) and it moves quite well even in a light breeze.  One person really could sail the boat, but it does help to have a second person on board to work the lines on the other side, so you don’t have to run back and forth. Also picking up a mooring solo is not something I would want to attempt although I have seen it done (it involves a lot of running back and forth).  The only moderately stressful part of going out for a sail is getting back into the slip at the end of the day.  Backing a 51-foot boat into a slip with only a few feet of clearance on one side is not for the faint of heart.  To do it properly you have to get the transom (boat’s butt) perpendicular to the edge of the dock, then swing the bow using the thruster until the boat is parallel to the dock, and then use the motor to back in.  Depending on the current and wind direction, you also need to use the stern thruster to keep it lined up with the dock as you reverse.  It sounds easy until you factor in wind, tides, and currents.  It’s akin to driving a race car on slicks in the rain.  It’s all fine until it suddenly is not.

 

Vitae Magna is 50 feet long, 16 feet wide, and draws 7 feet.  Vitae Magna sleeps 6 in 3 cabins, has 2 heads (bathrooms) with showers, decent size galley (kitchen) area, chart table, air-conditioning, heating, and a good size dining table.  The boat does have Wi-Fi so it is millennial friendly.  She has both a generator and solar panels so we can power a fair number of appliances on-board for as long as the sun, batteries, and fuel tank last.  Life on board is quite comfortable with a fridge, freezer, oven, stove, microwave, Jura espresso maker, and washer/dryer.  We also have a hot plate and grill which swing open off the back deck over the swimming platform.

 

We are very fortunate that we have a number of islands within a short sailing distance.  Many of our daily sails involve sailing out to one of the islands, finding a beach, dropping the anchor, and BBQ’ing off the back of the boat.  After lunch we normally would take the dingy into the beach and let the dogs go for a run and a swim.  The balance of the afternoon was normally soaked up by a few dips in the ocean off the back swim platform on Vitae Magna, soaking up the sun, before heading back to port.  As much as we enjoy being out on the boat together with our dogs, it’s also a great experience to share with friends.  With three cabins and plenty of room both above and below deck, we can comfortably take a 8-10 friends out for a daily sail and Lobster Rolls or a smaller group out on overnights.  As we only moved to the area a few years ago, sailing has helped us turn new friends into good friends and opened up a number of great new opportunities to meet people. 

So far, we have only had two hairy experiences on Vitae Magna.  The first involved docking and the second a massive, unexpected gust of wind.  On the first, in what can only be described as a massive brain fart, our dock master decided to allow a massive 90 foot yacht to tie up alongside the dock that runs parallel to the entryway of the marina.  When I radioed in that the entrance appeared to be blocked, I was told that they had measured, and I should have about 3 feet clearance on either side.  While that might sound like a lot, when you are piloting a 15 ton sailboat moving at 2-3 knots in both a stiff wind coming from the starboard side and strong current running against you, the room for error is tiny.  It’s like trying to pass Max Verstappen on the outside in a tight corner.  It’s unlikely to end well and way or another, you are going to run out of room.  While we finally made it into the marina and our slip, it took 9 attempts to get Vitae Magna lined up perfectly to shoot through the small marina entryway gap.  After the first couple of aborted times, we finally got the massive yachts crew to put out fenders in case we did drift.  While it ended well, two big boats scrapping would have been an expensive outcome.

 

The second hairy experience came via a completely unexpected gust of wind.  I was at the helm and we were cruising along nicely at about 8 knots in moderate wind.  Suddenly we got hit broadside by massive gust.  Vita Magna heeled over suddenly to the starboard side and I my legs swung up vertical to the deck as I held on to the wheel for dear life.  Mrs. SSO very helpfully yelled at me to hold on.  As soon as I got my feet back underneath me, I got the boat turned up into the wind and back under control.  The whole thing probably took 30 seconds, but it felt like an eternity.  While it ended well, had I gone over the side, it could have turned into a major mess. 

 

Owning a sailboat is definitely a serious financial commitment.  As a reference, we spend more on Vitae Magna, every year than all our supercars combined.  Using the annual ownership costs of our ski house (including lift tickets and ski equipment) as a benchmark, Vitae Magna comes in at about $20k over.  The major expenses are winter storage at $8k, end of season service and winterization at $10k, spring recommissioning at $15k, summer slip rental at $15k.  Cleaning, waxing, and other miscellaneous charges for things that need fixing, can easily add another $5k per season.  Add it all up and you get to about $55k pretty quickly. It doesn’t help that our local marina is a key driver of inflation in the US and most of these costs have risen very substantially in the last 2 years.

So, given that sailing makes skiing look inexpensive and can end badly in so many different ways, what’s the appeal?  It’s really the whole experience from mastering the wind to get from point A to point B, finding a quiet bay to drop anchor in, BBQ’ing fresh scallops for dinner on the back deck, taking our Labrador Retrievers to the beach in the dingy for a run, sleeping while the boat gently rocks as the tide moves out, waking up to the sun rise, having fresh coffee on the deck, and diving off the back for an early morning swim to wake up.  It’s a basket of experiences that ranges from the decedent to the sublime. 

 

A sailboat is more about the journey that it is about the destination.  Life on board Vitae Magna is quite comfortable. Whether it’s a day trip or a multiday voyage, time on the boat is a wonderful relaxing experience.  While there have been a couple of hairy moments, the ones that we have had are very few and far between.  However, everything feels right in the world when you are driving a beautifully designed sailboat on a sunny summer day. 

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The Bayside Restaurant: Home of New England’s Best Lobster Roll

The Bayside Restaurant: Home of New England’s Best Lobster Roll

This is actually the first standalone restaurant review we have ever done.  All the prior one’s have been included in road trip reports.  However when a restaurant consistently makes the best lobster roll in New England, it has earned the right to have its own review.  The Bayside does, and it certainly has, for the two years since we first discovered it.  You don’t need to take my word for it, Food & Wine Magazine voted it as one of the Best Lobster Rolls in America (Food & Wine’s Best Lobster Rolls). 

The Bayside is family owned and operated.  It has been around for almost 50 years now.  Its one of those local establishments that if you know, you know.  It’s crowded from the day it opens right after Easter to when the doors close for the Winter right after Thanksgiving.  The people at other tables begin to look familiar after a few trips because they are.  The Bayside is one of those places people just keep coming back to, and for good reason.

 

The Bayside is located just off Buzzards Bay on 1253 Horseneck Road in Westport, Massachusetts.  On a nice day, the views from the outdoor tables are sureen as you look out on to both the bay and a beach that stretches for miles. The Elisabeth Islands sit on the horizon, and in the summer, the bay is filled with sail boats of all sizes.  Inside it is a bit more crowded and noisy as the tables (pre covid) were placed closely together in more of a typical bistro style.  The atmosphere and décor inside is what I would term chic classic beach shack, right down to having the main menu on a large chalk board.  It is perfect for the location.

The menu is an interesting mix of classic New England Seaford, with a number of Mediterranean and Portuguese inspired dishes.  Many of the receipes have been handed down from generation to generation and the ingredients are fresh locally sourced.  We have tried quite a few items, normally off the specials board, but I always come back to the lobster rolls.  They are simply superb and when something is that good, why would you order anything else?  Mrs. SSO is a bit more adverturious and has tried just about everything on the menu.  The lobster and asparagus salad and the Greek Shrimp are other favorites. 

 

What makes the lobster rolls at the Bayside so outstanding is quite simple.  It’s all about the lobster.  You get a lightly toasted top-split potato roll with a single large piece of lettuce in the bottom that is then piled high with fresh, perfectly cooked, lobster meat.  No filler, no pre mixed sauce, just lobster meat in the bun.  You then have your choice of melted butter or mayo on the side.  The fries are hand cut, fried in 100% sunflower oil, and then served fresh out of the deep frier.  The house made coleslaw is light and crisp.  Unlike many restaurants that tend to stuff their lobster rolls with less expensive claw meat, the Bayside lobster rolls are served with a mix of both tail and claw meat.

One of the biggest challenges post the lobster roll is finding room for desert.  There are always a selection of 4-5 freshly baked pies.  Personal favorites are both the apple and lemon merange.  However the main courses are normally so filling that we just split a piece between the two of us.  The pies are quite locally famous in there own right and we have ordered them for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

Harrison Ford’s summation of his Bayside experience neatly captures the essence of the restaurant:  “Bayside, Great food and wonderful service. Even better, no one recognized me or at least didn’t bother me”.   

The Bayside Restaurant

1253 Horseneck Rd.

Westport, MA 02790

508-636-5882

https://www.thebaysiderestaurant.com 

Open: Wednesday – Sunday  11:30 am – 8:00 pm

Closed: December, January, February, March

Karenable Rating: 🍾🍾🍾🍾🍾

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Planning Our 1st Epic Drive of 2021

Planning Our 1st Epic Drive of 2021

I have hope that things will get better this year with the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccines and that by September or October a road trip will be possible.  In great anticipation, I reached out to a group of friends with whom we have been doing road trips for over a decade now to gauge interest.  It’s a great group of people and all have extensive track or racing experience (Road Trips & Driving Talent).  We call these trips, the “Epic Drives” because, well, they are (Epic Drive 2017 Pt 1).  The response was immediate and spectacular.  Everyone was in and the excitement was palatable.  The idea of not just being able to go out for a great drive, but also to stay in a wonderful place and enjoy both great company over great food is incredible enticing.  Pulling it off will not be easy but where there is a will there is a way.

As the Epic Drive Group is ten couples/cars coming from 5 different countries, the logistics of just getting everyone together can be daunting.  The trips normally run 5-6 days including the day’s drive to the meeting point, and a day’s drive home. In the past, the mix of cars has included a few Ferraris, McLarens, a Lamborghini, and on occasion a Porsche.  Throw in Brexit, a pandemic, and it gets even more interesting.  As 8 out of the 10 participants are based in Europe, it was a fairly easy call to decide this year’s Epic Drive would be on the east side of the Atlantic.  In the past, we have held the Epic Drives in Wales, Scotland, Switzerland, Germany, France, and Italy.  For 2021, given all the uncertainty, we decided that a new destination is out and that it’s better to go back to one we know.  Choosing from the past list isn’t easy as they have all been terrific destinations.  However, a few have been dropped as options for a range of reasons.  Switzerland is out as the Alpine passes are likely to be closed by Sept/Oct. Italy and Germany are the most difficult for the majority of the group to get to, and so were also eliminated.  The remaining contenders are France, Wales, and Scotland with France or Scotland likely to be the final choice.  Both offer a combination of great lightly trafficked roads, excellent accommodations, great food, and spectacular scenery.

If we do choose to go to France, the itinerary will most likely take us across Normandy to Brittany and then down into the Loire Valley.  When setting the daily routes, I try to target 200-300 miles per day over 5-6 hours of driving.  It doesn’t sound like a lot, but on back country “D” roads that require high levels of concentration, it can be quite taxing.  This type of trip will involve multiple different hotels as we move west, south, and then back east across France.  We will likely stay at a number of Relais & Chateaux properties as they are consistently excellent in terms of both accommodation and food.  The upside to this sort of trip is you do see a lot more places and get to sample a variety of great hotels.  The downside is more complicated logistics and lots of packing & unpacking.  Having spent a fair amount of time in the past driving through the area, there are some excellent back country roads, lots of historic sites to stop at, and wonderful hotels.  The food is outstanding and in general the reception to the cars is on the positive side.  The weather can be a bit of a challenge and the logistics for those coming from the UK is still a bit of an unknown.  The French also drive on the proper side of the road which makes things much easier for the majority of the group (the British Government originally decreed in 1773 that one should ride/drive on the right as it allows you to keep your sword hand free, they then never bothered to update the practice when carriages became horseless and the public wearing of swords was outlawed).

Scotland would be a bit of a different type of trip.  For Scotland, instead of being a moving caravan from hotel to hotel, we would pick a central location and then do day trips out from there.  Our base would likely be in the Inverness area, as it’s easy to plan great day trips looping east, south east, south west, and finally up into the great north west peninsula from there. There are fantastic roads devoid of traffic in every direction, and as long as you are being sensible, the police seem to be understanding.  On a past trip, we rented out a castle on Loch Ness which was both spectacular and spectacularly expensive when a large part of the group decided to do a tumbler tour of rare Scottish whiskies one night.  The upside to this sort of arrangement is the logistics are much easier, you don’t need to worry about packing/unpacking and checking in/out of a new hotel every day.  In addition, if one of the group decides they want to take a day off from driving, they can.  The downsides are far less gastronomic variety and loss of the adventure of landing someplace new every night.

Where we finally decide to go, if we can go, will likely be driven by what the local pandemic rules are at the time.  While I would hope and expect everyone in the group to have been vaccinated by the time we go, that isn’t a given.  As we are coming from 5 different countries, each will have their own system of priority and different levels of vaccine supply.  What the entry requirements for France and the UK will also likely play a key role in deciding the location as any on-going testing requirements both at the border and in hotels could complicate matters.  If you need a Covid-19 test that’s no more than three days old before you check into a hotel, the logistics of getting everyone in the group tested repeatedly will likely rule out France given we would be moving hotels on a daily basis.  Another complication will be sorting out what the car insurance and documentation requirements are now with the UK having left the EU. 

 

While it’s all definitely a lot more complicated than it has been in the past, the idea of getting together with wonderful friends and going on a great road trip is absolutely tantalizing.  The key is to be able to do it safely in an environment where we are all comfortable.  So many of the things that we used to take for granted, now we simply can’t. If we can pull off an “Epic Drive” this year, I suspect it will be remembered as our best yet, even if it really is not just because everyone is so excited about the possibility.  As one of guy’s said, “Oh to be more than 5km from home… right now I’d go anywhere, and in any car!”

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Porsche Carrera GT to a Beneteau Oceanis 51.1

Three Wants CGT, Scuderia, & a 308

Porsche Carrera GT to a Beneteau Oceanis 51.1

A Porsche Carrera GT has been near the top of my bucket list for quite a few years now.  This year, for the first time in a while, the stars all started to align, and it looked like it might actually happen.  Then Covid-19 hit, lockdowns were imposed, social distancing became the in trend for 2020, and the Carrera GT became a sailboat.  No matter how creative I tried to be, a Carrera GT just could not match a sailboat for social distancing capability, especially the sailboat we acquired, a Beneteau Oceanis 51.1.  To be honest, the sailboat idea didn’t completely come out of left field, Karen (Mrs. SSO) and I had looked at powerboats last summer, but the idea of a powerboat just didn’t quite click.  A powerboat is much more about the destination than the journey, akin to driving a Bentley Mulsanne.  On our road trips, the journey is as, if not more, important than the destination as per our experiences with the Ferrari F40 & McLaren 675LT Spider.  A sailboat fits that latter philosophy much better than a motor cruiser. 

The road that led us to the Beneteau Oceanis 51.1 was a bit of a twisted one.  We originally started looking at motorboats as the belief was that they would be much easier to pilot.  My thoughts at the time, based on my sailing experiences as a young adult, were that two of us trying to sail a large sailboat was going to be a recipe for disaster and probably divorce.  I still have vivid memories of flailing lines, jammed main sheets, and uncooperative winches all accompanied by lots of yelling by some of my older relatives as being the core of the sailing experience.  Turns out a lot has changed in the last couple of decades.  When I started doing a bit of research on sailboats it quickly became apparent that sailboats today are designed so that they can be sailed by only 1 or 2 people, assuming they have a pretty firm idea of what they are doing.  All the lines are now threaded back to the stern (back of boat), the winches are electric, the main sheet is on an in mast furler, the jib is self-tacking, the helm has an autopilot, and there is a bow (front of boat) thruster to help with docking.  This list doesn’t even include all the advances in electronics and navigation.  You can literally stand in the stern with one hand on the wheel and raise the sails with a simple push of a button on the electric winch.  Once I discovered all this, a sailboat became a very feasible, and preferred, option.

 

Back when we originally were discussing powerboats, the brief included room to sleep at least 6 comfortably, 2 heads (bathrooms) with showers, decent size galley (kitchen) area, chart table, air-conditioning, and a good size dining table.  This interior brief was then applied to the sailboat.  At the Newport Boat Show last year, we had decided that if we were going to get a boat, it would be a Beneteau as we really liked the design and build quality.  The two Beneteau sailboats that delivered against the brief were the Oceanis 46.1 and the Oceanis 51.1, both of which just happened to be available at a nearby boatyard.  At the end of the day after climbing all over both several times, we opted for the larger boat as it has significantly more room in all the cabins and common area along with more headroom so it’s less claustrophobic in the rear cabins. 

With the decision made to go forward with the acquisition of the Oceanis 51.1, the next steps were the sea trial, final payment, and the christening. The sea trial went smoothly with the lone exception of my losing a hat overboard, payment was made, and the date for the christening set.  Karen did the honors on the christening, although smashing a good bottle of champagne on the bow did pain her greatly, and Vitae Magna was launched.

 

In the two and a half months we have had Vitae Magna, we were able to take her out at least a couple of dozen times before she was pulled out of the water for winter storage in early November.  As we were still very much in a learning mode on the new boat, we only ended up doing a couple of overnighters with the balance being day trips out to the islands.  I was really amazed at how easy the Oceanis 51.1 is to sail, how well it handles, and how smoothly it rides through the waves.  In a four-foot sea you barely notice the rocking.  In a good wind, Vitae Magna will do 10 knots and it moves quite well even in a light breeze.  One person really could sail the boat, but it does help to have a second person on board to work the lines on the other side, so you don’t have to run back and forth. Also picking up a mooring solo is not something I would want to attempt.  The only moderately stressful part of going out for a sail is getting back into the slip at the end of the day.  Backing a 51-foot boat into a slip with only a few feet of clearance on either side is not for the faint of heart.  To do it properly you have to get the transom (boat’s butt) perpendicular to the edge of the dock, then swing the bow using the thruster until the boat is parallel to the dock, and then use the motor to back in.  It sounds easy until you factor in wind, tides, and currents.  Then it’s more like trying to drive a race car on slicks in the rain.

Life on board Vitae Magna is quite comfortable.  While it does have a stove, we normally grill off the back deck at night.  So far, we have yet to use the air-conditioner as there has always been a nice breeze on the water.  The boat does have Wi-Fi so it is millennial friendly, and we can work remotely from it when we need to.  I did draw the line when it came to installing a TV, so Vitae Magna is one of the few TV free zones left on the planet.  In the evening Karen can normally be found on the back deck, reading with a glass of wine within reach. 

 

Do I regret not getting the Porsche Carrera GT this year? Given the circumstances, no because I know that is still an option for the future.  Getting the sailboat has been great experience and I had forgotten just how much I enjoy being on the water.  There is something deeply satisfying and rewarding to going out for a sail on a perfect summer or fall day.  In many ways the peace and tranquility of being out on the water has been the perfect antidote to the trauma of 2020.  For the summer of 2021, I can see us doing a great mix of weekend road and boat trips.

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