FALCON VII, OUR KELLY PETERSON 46 SAILBOAT

As promised, here are a couple of dozen pictures of our pride and joy, FalconVII.

Falcon VII is a great boat to sail.  Here we are enjoying our new sails, which we had made for us in Sidney before we left.

Sometimes we have the pleasure of enjoying perfect wind conditions, which allow us to use our cruising spinnaker.

This picture was taken during haul-out in December, 2015. It shows the shape of the bottom of the boat and the massive keel and rudder which is part of what makes Falcon VII so safe and such a joy to sail.  We haul out every year or so for maintenance and to apply bottom paint to keep off weeds and barnacles, etc.

Here’s Falcon VII securely tied up at Marina de La Paz in our favourite Mexican city where we are about to enjoy the annual Carnival celebrations.

The view from the top of the mast is a great one.  Trish is actually the one who likes to spend time up here, more so than Jim.  This hairy leg is not Tricia’s but belongs to our good friend Gary Peacock, who helped us out with some top of the mast boat work.

This is the view from where we stand when we are at the helm.  In this shot we have our shade panels up on the dodger to keep us cool.  All of our navigation instruments, VHF Radio and other electronic instruments are within easy reach.  The cockpit is a perfect place to gather with a few people or to lay in the sun and snooze.

We have the equivalent of what, in a house, would be a garden shed.  It’s small but it holds an amazing amount of our equipment.

In 2014 we made this sun/rain awning using heavy weight UV resistant fabric.  We can easily walk along the side decks beneath the awning by stooping only slightly.  This awning withstood over 35 knots of wind at the dock in La Cruz during the summer of 2014.

Our dinghy is a 9’ 6” AB aluminum hull RIB with a fabric cover to keep the sun off made out of Sunbrella, which matches the rest of our canvas.  The dinghy will plane with three people on board. We have a set of dinghy wheels which makes it easy to pull the dinghy up on the beach.

Guests have always commented on the roominess and comfort of our forward cabin.  The berth is 6’ 10” long and 6’ 6” wide.

The forward bathroom, or 'head' as we call it, has a shower, and lots of light and ventilation.

We installed this bulkhead diesel heater.  This is in addition to our thermostat controlled furnace system.  The bulkhead heater is silent in operation and uses no electricity to run and keeps our boat warm and cozy with it's glowing flame.  We have sailed up wind in over 25 knots in Alaska with the heater functioning perfectly. It was on for eight straight weeks in Alaska!  The heater uses only  ¾ of a gallon of diesel every 24 hours.

Aft of the port settee, the raised cabinet with its curved door provides a huge amount of food storage. It provides a little separation between our ‘kitchen’ and our living area but still lets Trish stay connected with everything that’s going on.

The U-shaped dinette is big enough to comfortably seat six.  We have eaten many memorable meals at this table with friends new and old.

The aft end of the salon leads to a passageway to our private aft cabin.

Jim is a joiner by profession, having built interiors for fine yachts for many years.  He made our wonderful table out of Western Figured Maple, Teak and Eastern Rock Maple.

Our galley is spacious and has a separate fridge and freezer, deep double sinks and a Force Ten three burner stove and oven.  Tricia loves her galley and has prepared (in Jim’s humble opinion) many, many spectacular meals there.

The navigation station is located directly across from the galley.  It holds much of our electronic and navigation equipment as well as all of our safety equipment.

We have several ways to communicate with the outside world when we are off the grid. Two ways are these radios, which are installed in a custom teak cabinet.  The top shelf of the cabinet is dedicated to storing our log books, which is where we write down all of the ‘facts and figures’ parts of our voyaging. Along with our blog, these log books will be great to look back at when we are old and in our rocking chairs.

In days gone by the navigation station was where the pilot or navigator of the boat laid out their paper charts and calculated the boat’s position using old fashioned manual skills.  Today, we use exclusively electronic means to do the same thing, but we still practice the old school methods once in a while to keep ready in case the electronics fail. Under the sloped navigation table there is a huge amount of storage for such things as flares, jack-lines, tethers, man-overboard light, inflatable life jackets etc. as well as many other items.

Aft and to starboard of the main companionway steps there is the main breaker panel, which we completely rewired a couple of years ago.  This breaker panel is where we control the vast majority of our electrical systems, both 12 volt, which we generate ourselves, and 110 volt when we are plugged in at the marina.

In 2012 a wonderful company in Sidney called Canoe Cove re-powered Falcon VII. This photo shows the brand new Yanmar diesel engine which now powers Falcon VII.   As we continue to explore our horizon fever, we do it with the confidence that the very heart of the mechanical makeup of our boat is in top notch condition, giving us a great sense of safety and security.  As well as a new engine and transmission, Falcon VII received new engine supports, a new exhaust system, a tested and certified propeller shaft, new bearings and supports for the propeller shaft, relocated and vastly improved refrigeration system, inspected and modified rudder, a new propeller, all new fuel lines and fuel filtration system, new steering cables, new sound insulation in the engine room along with many other improvements.

Across from the engine room is a parts and tools locker.  It holds 21 individual containers including 7 slide-out trays for fasteners and small parts.  All containers are alphabetized to ensure replacement in the correct position.  Having our tools and parts organized so well and being so easily accessible has made working on Falcon VII, if not an absolute pleasure, at least much more than just tolerable.

This is our private bedroom, or as we call it, our aft cabin.  It is such a comfy and warm place to sleep or to lounge late into the morning.  There is great ventilation and light and tons of storage for our clothes and personal items. Our mattress is super comfy, being made of high quality memory foam, and we always look forward to returning to it when we’ve been away from the boat.

The aft companionway ladder provides access to the cockpit directly from our sleeping area.   Jim made a locker at the bottom of the companionway ladder which holds our trusty SailRite sewing machine. We’ve done many sewing projects on board and the machine has been able to handle everything we’ve thrown at it.

The private bathroom, or aft head as we call it, is bright and well ventilated and has a wonderful shower with teak bench.  It is also the photo gallery for the Bowen’s since we don’t want to mar any of the beautiful woods throughout the boat by hanging up pictures.

So…we hope you’ve enjoyed a brief tour of our beautiful Kelly Peterson 46.  She is a rare gem; only 30 of them were ever built. We are so proud to show her off and to be lucky enough to be her guardians.  In exchange she provides us with unlimited adventures in a safe and comfortable environment.

Peace

Jim and Tricia Bowen
Falcon VII
email: tandjbowen13@gmail.com