Spellbound
First Charter Report about the New Moorings 4500

By JAMIE CHILDRESS . . . Photos By Pandora Karner

It was September 7 and hurricane Erika was threatening the northern Leeward
Islands and Puerto Rico. Since I live in Seattle, Washington, such an event
would not normally cause me to lose any sleep. However, this particular
September evening, my pocket contained airline tickets to Tortola in the
British Virgin Islands (BVI) and my dreams of bareboat cruising in gentle
trade winds were threatened. For the sixth time in two days, I logged into
the Multihulls Magazine's web site (www.hypermax.com/multihullsmag) and
called up the tropical storm weather page. Much to my pleasure, Erika was
continuing to turn north and it looked like a clean miss. I kissed my lucky
tiki-god talisman in thanks and hurried to join my wife, Erinann, in the car
before we would miss our plane.

A full sailing and construction evaluation article about the Robertson &
Caine Leopard 45/Moorings 4500 appeared in the July/Aug issue of MM. So, our
mission is not to dissect the Moorings 4500's inner workings, but to assess
it as a bareboat charter. Now, before you start thinking this is some
pushover bareboat crew easily impressed with a second-rate gel coat job, you
should know the crew contained two composite materials engineers, a yacht
designer, an architect, and a professional blue-water sailor. As tough a
crowd as you'd ever see.
Graham Talbot, the technical director for The Moorings company, welcomed our
crew dockside for a thorough tour of the special design features of the
Mooring 4500. He explained to us that the Moorings 4500 version of the
Leopard 45, was exclusive to Moorings and that no other charter companies
could offer the Leopard 45 for bare boating. Graham is very proud of the
4500, and for good reason, he and Moorings Vice President Lex Raas had a big
hand in designing it.
As the story goes, once Moorings selected Robertson & Caine to produce a new luxury cruising cat, the principle designers embarked on the "Rum Punch
Concept Cruise." Graham Talbot, Lex Raas, and John Robertson (Robertson &
Caine) took a Lagoon 42 out for a few days' cruising around the BVI. Each
night they would brainstorm new ideas and decide the details of their new
yacht. Soon Robertson and Caine's Chief Engineer, Dick Churley, and
catamaran designer, Alex Simonis, joined the cruise. They focused the design
on the needs of the bareboat charterer. The boat had to be easy to sail and
anchor, have tons of power, have a private head for each of the four
queen-size staterooms, and be able to party with the best of them. As a final
requirement, it had to clean up well so that the next guest would get a boat
just as fine as the last one. Graham praised Robertson & Caine's ability to
listen to the lessons from The Moorings many years in the charter business
and turn that experience into a world-class catamaran.
We started our own rum punch cruise after a thorough briefing on the workings
of the 4500. The boat was called Spellbound and the owner had aptly named
her. All the systems are very simple and easily accessed. Even a monohull
sailor with no experience on a cat would have no difficulty understanding
the hardware on Spellbound or her sisters.
Our first official act as masters of our rented vessel was to take her out
and raise sail. The boat handled well under motor, then even at low speed in
a stiff cross wind, thanks to the twin 50-horse-power Yanmar diesels.
Raising the main proved a smidge more of a challenge, I'm afraid.
At 860-square-foot the mainsail is a handful for a single person and no easy
pull even for two. To complicate the matter, the boom is supported with lazy
jacks, creating a cat's cradle of lines to snag the numerous mainsail
battens as the sail is raised. I'm almost embarrassed to admit, raising the
main for the first time took a good 10 minutes of hoisting and lowering the
sail every few feet because a lazy jack had snagged a batten. To be fair to
Spellbound, we did become quite proficient in raising the main as our cruise
progressed. It was simply very critical that the main was raised only when
the sail was dead center in the lazy jack lines. We also invested a crew
member's undivided attention to watching for snags, so that we could quickly
correct them without wasting time or our back muscles. If we felt really
lazy, the anchor windlass was easily rigged to raise the main. However, the
immense power of the windlass coupled with the likelihood of catching the
main-sail in the lazy jack looked like trouble waiting to happen, so our crew
stuck to muscle power. Besides, at the rate we were going through rum drinks
we needed to burn a few calories.
One innovation in the Moorings 4500 I immediately appreciated as we raised
the mainsail was the stairs at the front of the cabin. These stairs go across
the entire cabin and double as sunshades for the forward saloon windows.
They allowed very easy access to the cabin top and at the same time did not
restrict the view from the main saloon. I predict you'll be seeing this
feature on more cats in the future.
Pulling out the roller furling 120 genoa added another 604 square feet of
Dacron, giving Spellbound plenty of power under sail. With the remnants of
hurricane Erika still in the air, Spellbound easily zipped along at 10.2
knots in 20 knots of true wind on the way to our first night's mooring at
the Bight on Norman Island. While certainly not blistering speed for a
high-performance cat, it's not bad for a fully stocked bare boat dragging an
inflatable dinghy with a motor attached. Moorings promised that future
production 4500s would have davits for the dinghy, which should add another
knot or two. With the davit she might give a few weekend racer's a run for
their money.
Spellbound went to windward very handily for a cruising cat. Her best speed
was about 60 degrees apparent wind, but you could milk her to 35 degrees
apparent if you were willing to lose a few knots. The bridge deck had good
clearance above the waves which kept the pounding to a minimum. The hulls
moved so smoothly through the water that the inflatable dinghy was creating
two to three times the wake of Spellbound. I know my monohull sailing friends
were impressed with her speed and easy motion, but then monohuller's are so
easily impressed. When Spellbound accelerated from 5 knots to 10, they were
amazed: nothing to notice but the pronounced wake song of the dinghy. (That's
right Toto, it doesn't heel over.)
Each of the nicely arranged sheets was equipped with jam cleats and both main
and jib sheets ran to large port and starboard double-speed self-tailing
winches. The mainsheet could be trimmed from either the port or starboard
winch which it shared with the jib sheet. The system was very functional and
allowed Spellbound to be rapidly trimmed single-handedly without difficulty.
It is necessary to back wind the jib when tacking, but this is pretty normal
for most cats. The traveler was brilliantly positioned on an aft archway
that Robertson & Caine calls a targa bar, keeping everything out of the
cockpit. In fact, Spellbound sailed so easily that after a few hours I would
have been quite comfortable dropping our crew at the nearest island and
taking off with just my wife.
One thing I might do, if it were my boat, is to place a little card in the
navigation kit with appropriate wind speeds for different reefing
conditions. Since a large percentage of the renters will likely be
monohullers who judge sailing conditions by heeling cues and weather helm,
simple reefing instructions would be appreciated. These sailors may be
tempted to keep flying all the possible sail, even as the wind edged towards
30 knots. Maybe with the 120 genoa she'd be just fine, but it would be good
to have some guidance.
After we picked up a mooring ball at Norman Island we settled in to cocktails
and contemplated dinner. This is the phase of the cruise where Spellbound
really separated herself from some other cats of her size. She was built to
party and she does it well. The galley shares the main saloon with the
dinning table, as opposed to many cats where it is shoved down into one of
the hulls. This makes cooking a real pleasure, because the cook can party and
saute at the same time. The galley is even large enough for two cooks to
share; making it a rare galley indeed. There is plenty of storage, a handy
little 12-volt refrigerator for your cold drink supply, and a huge
top-loading freezer that keeps things very solidly frozen if you run your
engine-driven compressor twice a day as suggested.
The weather was excellent, so we ate all of our meals in the cockpit.
Because the traveler is attached to the aft arch, you can walk straight out
the back of the cockpit and onto the aft bathing platform where the barbecue
is attached to a special barbecue pulpit. (To their credit, they made special
aft pulpits for the barbecue and dinghy motor mounts.) Since I'm more of a
burger man than a gourmet chef, the barbecue was about my speed. Once again
the party qualities of the boat shined. I could barbecue on the aft deck,
while simultaneously conversing with the cooks in the galley, and chatting
with my friends who were lounging around the large, permanently fixed cockpit
table. That's what I call a party-friendly layout.
The next night we headed over to a little cove on Norman called Benures Bay.
It is a wondrous little spot and we had it all to ourselves, a condition
that would have been hard to come by in the BVI during high season. We
anchored close to shore in about 20 feet of water and tested Spellbound's
nicely designed anchor storage arrangement. The anchor is stored on its
roller under a little hatch just forward of the windlass and aft of the
trampoline. As with most windlass systems, you simply ease off on the clutch
and brake to drop the anchor, then hook the bridle to the chain once you have
enough scope out. The beauty of this particular system is, that this all
happens under the trampoline, instead of on top of it. Thus, the trampoline
is not partitioned with anchor chains, making for an enormous uncluttered
expanse to lay about on. I appreciated the lack of anchor chains on the tramp
greatly when sleeping out during warm nights. (When you're from Seattle, 80
degrees Fahrenheit is a major heat wave.)
Spellbound's anchoring system worked very nicely and we had no problems
dropping or raising anchor on our cruise. I wish the same could be said for
ease of setting the hook in a few of the anchorages we visited. I'm about to
launch into a rant, so if you wish to close your eyes please do so. Now,
before I begin ranting in earnest, you should know that I am a very picky
anchorer. I truly wish I could come into an anchorage, drop a few yards of
chain on the bottom, shut off my engine, and break out the rum. I've watched
it happen many a time, but I just can't let the anchor be until I am
absolutely positive that we will not move an inch, even if the wind should
kick up dramatically at 2 a.m., which is when that sort of thing often
happens. As a consequence I will re-anchor as many times as it takes to get
the anchor buried to the shaft. In warm water I always dive the anchor. I'm
a respectable free diver and, if I have to, I can set the anchor by hand in
water 40 to 50 feet deep. I'm normally pretty laid back, but when it comes to
anchoring, I'm a crazy man.
So, why is it that bareboat charter companies invariably put CQR plow anchors
on their charter boats? Is it because they snuggle up against the bow roller
nicely? That is about the only plausible explanation. The BVI is mostly a
sand bottom, and much of that is hard sand, not the easiest place for a CQR.
Several times while anchoring, I would snorkel above our CQR as it happily
slid along the bottom on its side, never once even starting to bite the
point. On a few occasions I dove down, grabbed the thing, shoved the point a
few inches into the sand, and then had Erinann back down on it. If we were in
hard sand, often as not, it would just pop out and then start sliding along
its merry way.
Some anchorages in the BVI have a hundred boats during high season, leaving
precious little room for dragging anchors. I am of the opinion that the only
reason dozens of bare boats don't drag into each other every night, is that
the weather is mild and blows gently from the east like clockwork. If I were
in charge at The Moorings I would phase out my CQRs for Deltas as fast as I
could, but that's just me. (See Charles Kanter's article in the May/June 97
issue of MM.) Okay, rant over, it's safe to open your eyes again.
Benures Bay was everything a deserted cove in paradise should be. There was
a little beach, some cliffs, a trail into the hills, and amazing snorkeling.
Snorkeling was yet another skill in which Spellbound seemed to excel. Under
many circumstances being a good snorkeling platform is not critical, but when
cruising the Caribbean it should be a paramount design consideration. Once
again, the aft traveler arch was worth its weight in flippers. To go
swimming, you grabbed your gear, walked to the back of the cockpit and jumped
off the wide platform. One did not need to duck under biminis or climb down
steep stairs or ladders. To get back aboard, you climbed a little folding
ladder onto the aft stairs on one of the hulls. The hull stairs were nice and
wide, with a much gentler stair slope than most cats.' The shallow slope
would be of great benefit to anyone who has a little trouble with stairs. I
know my old knees appreciated it.
When we were finished with swimming, the aft bathing platform made for a fine
shower area. Even though each cabin had its own head and shower, the showers
were never really used, as the built-in swimming shower was so convenient.
For the remainder of the week we sailed in splendid weather, visiting all the
"must sees" in the British Virgins while Pandora, our resident photographer,
took photos. We snorkeled The Baths, had dinner at the Bitter End Yacht Club,
and scuba dived the wreck of the Rhone. But, mostly we were spoiled rotten by
Spellbound. As first mate John Holtrop, who designs and builds boats for
Sirocco Yachts, put it, "I can't find a single gel coat blister, bad molding,
or anything major that I would like to change. That concerns me."
When we returned Spellbound to The Moorings, our next crew and boat awaited
us at the slip. Our friends Jake and Suzanne Howitt were there to catch our
dock lines along with Tom and Karen DeMint. We waived good-bye to John,
Rosie, Pandora, Gary, and Spellbound, then hailed ahoy to a Lagoon 37 named
Wild Cat.
The Lagoon 37 and Lagoon 42 are very similar, with the 42 having a fourth
cabin and a little more room, but each has two heads and nearly identical
galley and main saloon layouts, so the size difference between the two
Lagoons Moorings charters is not that critical. The Lagoon 37 is noticeably
smaller than the Moorings 4500, so we tried to keep our comparison limited
to the amenities and design philosophy, not the size of the berths or the
spaciousness of the heads.
Once again, we headed to Norman Island for our first night's mooring all the
while comparing the two boat designs. Wild Cat handled nicely under motor
with her twin diesels. Wild Cat's main was certainly easier to hoist due to
the smaller sail area. However, with only very narrow steps on each side of
the mast, it was more difficult to get onto the Lagoon 37's cabin top. We
missed the full width stairs we had enjoyed on Spellbound. With her 120
genoa up, Wild Cat sailed quite well, doing 10.5 knots in 19 knots true wind
at 60 degrees apparent, while dragging a rigid dinghy. She wouldn't point up
quite as high as Spellbound, but in the right conditions it might be a fair
race. So far, Wild Cat was holding her own with vessels twice her price.
Once we picked up our mooring, the difference between the yachts became much
clearer. Wild Cat just didn't party like Spellbound. I've always liked
Lagoons, and I'm quite certain that had we not just gotten off Spellbound, I
would now be raving about Wild Cat. As it was, the switch between the two
boats reminded me of our previous night's dinner. I was very happy with my
shrimp scampi until I tried a bite of my wife's lobster.
Wild Cat's galley was down in the port hull. It was a very adequate galley,
but it was built for a single cook who wouldn't mind working away from the
rum punch party in the cockpit. Next, I went to fire up the barbecue and
strangely found myself disassociated from the cockpit just a few feet away.
The barbecue sits on an aft stantion, but to get there you must duck under
the low bimini side and stand on the aft ama steps. The traveler at the rear
of the cockpit effectively blocks your access to the party making you feel
like an observer to the conversation. These may seem like minor details, but
one of the greatest joys of bareboat cruising is simply hanging about at
anchor eating, drinking cocktails, and chatting with your friends. Anything
enhancing party friendliness is good and anything detracting from it is
bad... pure and simple.
The next day we anchored at the Indians for lunch. The Indians are truly one
of the finest snorkeling spots in the Caribbean, full of fish, coral, and
secret underwater passages. Anchoring Wild Cat was straight- forward, but the
port and starboard anchor chains ran across the trampolines, making the
tramps just a little too small for really stretching out. The traveler across
the rear of the cockpit prevented you from jumping out of the cockpit into
the ocean. So, once again, you had to duck under the side of the bimini and
walk down the fairly steep rear ama stairs into the water.
Hardly major tragedies, but just not up to Spellbound's standards.
The rest of the week was to some extent a mirror image of the first. We
enjoyed wonderful weather, fabulous snorkeling, plenty of rum, good friends,
good food, and dolphins leaping at our bow. All of the things that make
bareboat cruising in the Virgins so fantastic. But, through it all we kept
thinking to ourselves, next time we'll take a Moorings 4500 for both weeks.
The myriad little things on Spellbound totaled a fabulous boat: the
navigation station conveniently just inside the main saloon, the captain's
chair with the soft backrest that flips around, the permanently fixed bimini
that overlaps the cockpit sides so nicely that, even when it rains heavily,
you can sit on the lee side of the cockpit and read your book in comfort.
We were so enamored with Spellbound, we courageously inquired about
purchasing a 4500 in the Moorings charter program. We discovered that the faint of pocketbook need not apply. According to The Moorings' prospectus the sticker price is a cool $400,000. You pay $100,000 down and Moorings takes care of the rest. In theory, mortgage payments for the years that theboat is enrolled as a charter will be covered by the revenue you get fromMoorings (twenty five percent of the charter fees). You get to use the boatsix weeks a year for an owner's fee of $350 a week.
The prospectus only covered four years, but when all was said and done,
Moorings will have paid off about $70,000 of your total $400,000 purchase.
During that time you can sail it a reasonable amount and can depreciate the
boat for tax purposes. I'm not enough of a finance wizard to know if this is
the investment of the century, but I talked to a couple of people who own
smaller Moorings charter boats and they seemed pretty happy with the deal.
I can honestly say that Spellbound was the finest production catamaran I
have ever been on. Unfortunately, much as we loved the Moorings 4500, there
is the small problem of the $100,000 down. I'm thinking of buying some
lottery tickets. If anyone has any lucky numbers they don't need, I'm in the
market.
END