Africat 42 Journey from Tortola to Fort Lauderdale
In 2023, I had the opportunity to list and sell a very well-maintained Africat 42 Powercat, a four-cabin vessel, to a client from Virginia, which eventually led to a Powercat delivery from BVI to Florida. The boat, owned by a single owner, had seen some neglect due to the previous owner’s captain, resulting in the removal of some key equipment such as the generator and air conditioners. However, this led to a very fair price being negotiated, and the new owner got an excellent deal on the vessel.
During the Fall of 2023 and Spring of 2024, the boat’s Volvo IPS 600 propulsion systems were completely rebuilt by the dealer in the BVI, along with some other systems by an experienced refit specialist in Sopers Hole, Tortola. New Raymarine electronics were installed, along with new galley goods and systems, and all the required safety equipment to make the offshore trip back to the U.S.
The delivery of the boat was initially assigned to a very good friend and colleague of mine, Anthony Newling-Ward, a legendary delivery skipper and ex-Royal Navy submariner known for his extraordinary sailing skills. Tony had a reputation for being able to deliver the undeliverable, and he had never failed to complete a yacht delivery throughout his lengthy career. He had delivered many boats for me over the years. Unfortunately, Tony never made the delivery, as he unexpectedly passed away after a brief illness. His passing was a complete shock to us all. As a tribute to Tony’s memory and legacy of never failing to deliver a boat, I decided to complete the job for the client myself, drawing on my experience from many similar deliveries I had done in the past as a commercial skipper before moving into brokerage.
With the dates set, Starlink was installed, and the boat was provisioned and ready to go. Below is a detailed review and summary of the trip, including all the data and details of things that went wrong, things that were fixed, and fuel consumption figures. I thought this data might be useful for someone thinking about making a similar trip. On these types of deliveries, I always maintain a written log, which is not only a legal requirement for a commercial delivery but also a critical tool for identifying trends before they become serious problems. I also always carry a small extra toolkit, including a laser thermometer, backup communications such as a mobile sat phone, and a Spot emergency beacon to supplement the vessel’s primary safety gear.
Vessel Details:
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- Model: 2009 Africat 42 Powercat with twin Volvo IPS600 drives (Volvo D6 435Hp motors)
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- Length: 42’
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- Draft: 3’
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- Beam: 22’
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- Fuel Capacity: 600 Gals in 4 stainless tanks (fore and aft in the hulls) with manual fuel transfer
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- Water Capacity: 200 Gals
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- Claimed Max Speed: 26 Knots
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- Claimed Cruising Speed: 22 Knots
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- Upgrades: New Volvo IPS controls at the upper helm station, including joystick control, and a new Raymarine suite of equipment, including radar.
Leg 1: Sopers Hole to San Juan, Puerto Rico
Day 1: After our mandatory safety checks, we dipped the fuel tanks manually and found that we had 75% in the two main aft fuel tanks. I decided to shake the boat down and refill in Puerto Rico with cheaper fuel, while also zeroing out our fuel tanks to fully full so we could benchmark the fuel consumption after our next long leg to the Dominican Republic. The fuel consumption was a real unknown quantity, as the owner had only cruised inshore in the BVI and reported getting approximately 4 Gals/H. I was concerned this figure was way off, so I wanted solid, accurate figures before we ventured out to the Bahamas.
We left the BVI around lunchtime and made a course for Ensenada Honda, Culebra, for our first sail. We logged 38 Nm and arrived in the anchorage at 17:30 for the night. We tried to clear on the CPB app that night, but as we had B1/B2 visas, they asked us to present ourselves at the airport the next day—a pleasant 30-minute walk from the town dock. Since we had no dinghy onboard, we had to dock the boat at the town dock and secure it there while we cleared in.
As a delivery skipper, we always try to conserve fuel as much as possible. For this leg, I wanted to work both the motors, so we ran both at 1250 RPM, giving a combined fuel burn rate of 5.7 US Gals/H with an average speed of 9 Knots, an engine temperature of 185°F, and a transmission temperature of 121°F. The motors ran well, and there were no faults to report. However, I noticed that once the motors were off, the house battery voltage on the 6 D8 AGM batteries quickly settled around the 12.5v level, indicating they were either shot or had not been fully charged for some time. We shed power for the night where we could and made a note in the log to investigate further.
Day 2: We departed Culebra in 20 knots of east wind and had an easy run down to San Juan in 6’ following seas. The boat handled the conditions very well and was comfortable on the flybridge with good protection from the sun and weather. We averaged 9-10 knots in the following stream, estimated to be between 1-2 knots over the North coast of the big island. We docked in San Juan Bay Marina at 16:45, just in time before the marina crew went home! I was glad to be plugged in for the night so we could fully charge the house bank.
Day 3: We decided to take a day to stock up on some more supplies and purchase a power cord that was needed for the boat. The boat only had some small camping mattresses that were very uncomfortable, so we went to Kmart and purchased a foam topper mattress, which ended up being a perfect solution and a really comfortable bed. I set the house charger to equalize in an attempt to fix the house batteries. This process essentially puts a high voltage into the batteries for a set period of time to desulfate the internal plates. After a couple of cycles, the batteries started to store higher voltages at rest.
We filled up with 148 gallons of fuel at $3.98 per gallon. Dockage for two nights was a very reasonable $147, the cheapest on the entire trip. San Juan Bay Marina
Leg 2: Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic
Day 5: Puerto Rico is a big island, and I decided that the longest leg of our trip—Puerto Rico to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic—should be completed during daylight hours. We started early in the morning to avoid the afternoon thunderstorms that stream off the high mountains on the west coast of Puerto Rico towards the infamous Mona Passage, a piece of water that needs to be respected. We motored along the North coast of Puerto Rico and made our anchorage at the small town of Aguadilla on the west coast of the island.
Day 6: A tropical wave was forecast for this day, and we woke up to cloudy gray skies. We checked Predictwind, my routing app of choice, and severe thunderstorms were predicted for the day. We made the decision to stay put, do some cooking and maintenance, and wait for the weather report the next day, which seemed to be slightly better. I performed routine maintenance checks, changed the Racor filters on the twin Racor 500 fuel filter system, checked belts, oils, and bilges—all was good.
Day 7: We departed the anchorage at 07:00, and within 5 minutes, an alarm went off on the port engine control panel. The temperature was up at 200°F. I immediately shut the motor down and motored back to the anchorage on the starboard motor, waiting for the temperature to drop. Upon inspection, I found that the raw water impeller was completely shot. I can only think I induced an air block when I cleaned the raw water strainer. Luckily, we had spares on board, and I performed my quickest ever impeller change on a D6. These motors have a great design feature that means the impeller blades can only travel a short distance into the water system, as the fuel cooler is very close to the impeller housing, blocking any debris from getting into the heat exchanger. We checked the water flow and were back off the anchor by 11 am.
We set off on a less-than-ideal forecast, but there is never a perfect day to leave when you are on a delivery—you just have to make the best decision for the safety of the crew and the boat over the schedule. We had reasonably flat seas (3-4’) with 14 knots of east wind and made a solid 8.5 knots, burning 5.7-6 gal/h for the entire leg. Volvo fuel monitoring seems to be very accurate.
On this leg, I tried to alternate the running of the motors while monitoring the gearbox temperature, but the result was that dragging an extra hull through the water did not yield any real savings. The fuel burn on the running motor just increased to the point where the only saving was in engine hours. With the starboard motor charging the less-than-perfect house bank, I decided to keep both motors running for the rest of the trip. An hour into the leg, we lost radar without warning. After a quick chat with the technician, he deduced that there was a hardware fault, and we had to continue the trip without radar.
I particularly like to use radar at night for spotting and tracking squalls, and we had plenty of those later that night, along with fork lightning all around the boat—one of my least favorite things to deal with. Give me wind and waves anytime over a still night and lightning.
One benefit of having Starlink internet on the boat is that you can go online and look at the local radar, which we did that night along the coast of the Dominican Republic. It was surprisingly accurate and gave us some comfort as the storms were dragged up into the mountains and off the coast. We arrived at Ocean World Marina the next day after running 293 Mn. We refueled there to full and calculated that we burned 194 gallons of diesel over 24.3 hours at 8 knots, averaging 1.5 GPM. Fuel prices were $4.66 per US gallon, which cost $905.36. Dockage for two nights was $246.81, and we stayed an extra night to wait for a decent weather window to the Turks and Caicos.
Leg 3: Dominican Republic to Turks and Caicos
Day 10: We departed Ocean World at 06:30 after receiving our clearance from the Dominican Republic Navy. They are very strict about giving you this at the time of departure and not before, but the officer was awake, and we left on time. We had a good forecast for the crossing—10 knots from the east and 2-3’ swell. We made good time and anchored at the 3 Marys Island anchorage at 16:45, averaging 9 knots for the trip.
Day 11: At 07:30, we departed the anchorage to cross the Turks and Caicos banks—a shallow bank of water with no more than 6’ of depth in places. However, with good visibility and shallow draft, certain boats can navigate it. We anchored at West Caicos Island on the west side of the banks at 18:30.
Day 12: We departed early again for our 85 Nm (10-hour) day hop to Plana Cays. I don’t like to navigate at night while short-handed through the Bahamas. I prefer to get up early, sail through the day, and anchor before sunset to ensure good visibility for securing the boat. Plana Cays is a beautiful and remote island in the southern Exumas—a picture-perfect deserted island.
Day 13: Another early start after coffee, and we made our way to Flying Fish Marina, Clarence Town, Long Island, for our clearance into the Bahamas and to refuel. This is one of my favorite stops along the way. The fish tacos are fantastic at the restaurant, the views are stunning, and even the bull sharks living in the marina are a great sight—just don’t go swimming in there! Someone was bitten the week before we arrived!
Pre-clearance was easy with the Bahamas “Click to Clear” website (Bahamas Customs). We made our entry and then called customs to make an appointment to get our paperwork at the marina. We met the customs officer, and within half an hour, we were cleared into the country with our cruising permit and our passports stamped. En route, we encountered an alternator failure on the starboard engine—the one that charges our house bank—so we ran on the port engine the rest of the way while investigating the issue.
Day 14: We investigated the issue on the charging side of the starboard engine and, after a call with the technician, decided that the starter batteries needed replacing. The issue with the Volvo IPS 600 drives is that they require a lot of electrical power to operate the drive units. All this power is contained independently in the motor’s electrical system, so the batteries need to be in very good condition to avoid overpowering the alternators. After some fault-finding with the Volvo engineer, we found a loose connection on the alternator and tightened it up, hoping that would solve the problem—fingers crossed.
Day 16: The trip was taking longer than we had planned, and my partner had run out of time and had to return to the BVI. We found a ticket for her, and she flew out of Stella Maris Airport on Long Island—one of the smallest and oldest airports we had ever seen. It was like a scene from a 1960s James Bond film—nothing had been touched for 40 years. Now I was single-handing the remainder of the trip to Fort Lauderdale.
Day 18: I waited out an extra day for weather, as I was concerned about being on a lee shore up the coast of Long Island with a possibly faulty motor. I topped up with rather expensive fuel—$1056 for 152 gallons at $6.94 per gallon—and dockage at $913 for three days! This was the most expensive marina for fuel and dockage in the Bahamas, but a necessary expense. I left the marina around 9 a.m. and headed north for Georgetown.
Halfway to Georgetown, I got another alarm on the charging system, starboard side again. I decided to divert to Stella Maris to investigate, as I didn’t want to go all the way to Georgetown with one alternator and no charge into the house bank—just asking for trouble. I also noticed a ticking sound coming from the starboard engine that seemed to be getting louder, and a faint smell of fumes in the aft cabin. Stella Maris has very shallow water at low tide. I checked my charts, and there was only 3’3” at low water, enough to be un-comfortable navigating with a 3” draft and exposed steering pods—the first thing to touch the ground. So, I anchored out in the channel and waited for high tide the next day, giving me an extra 3’ of water over datum.
Day 19: After another consultation with the Volvo mechanic, we decided to change the starter batteries. We found some batteries on the island and new battery terminals, and spent the day installing the batteries. I also met my very first manatee in the wild! He came along and started licking the moss off the bottom of the hull, and when it rained, he was drinking the rainwater dripping off the transom. Realizing he was thirsty and liked fresh water, I fed him a whole gallon of fresh water from my supply, which he drank down in one go!
Day 20: I departed early for Georgetown on the high tide at 10 a.m.—an easy downwind leg of 25 Nm. The alternator was intermittently working on the starboard side, and the ticking was getting louder. I called the owner, who decided to fly the Volvo technician out to Georgetown to check the charging system and the noise coming from the engine. I docked at Palm Cay Marina so the engineer could access the boat.
Day 21: The technician arrived in the afternoon and got straight to work checking the motor and the electrical system. Unfortunately, there was an issue with the alternator, the charging system, and the battery connect system linking the house to the start bank in an emergency. Additionally, the ticking from the motor turned out to be a leak from the cylinder head through an injector, causing blowback of exhaust into the engine compartment—something that could not be fixed in a marina.
So, the decision was made to limp the boat the rest of the way to Fort Lauderdale—still another 275 Nm away—on one engine, topping up with power by plugging into a marina every night along the way and conserving as much electrical power as possible. It was not something I was looking forward to, as there was no AC on the boat, so the marina meant no fresh air and plenty of mosquitoes, but the job had to be done!
Day 22: I left the marina around 10 a.m. and headed north for Staniel Cay. I only used two engines for maneuvering or at critical passes to save the use of the motor. Every time I started it, the ticking noise was louder, and the exhaust fumes inside the boat were stronger. During the passage, I experienced the strongest squall I have ever encountered in the Bahamas—or anywhere else. All of a sudden, there was a complete whiteout, and winds of about 50 knots hit the beam of the boat. The movement was quite extreme, visibility dropped to a few feet, and waves were hitting the side of the boat, flinging all my provisions around the cabin violently. It was quite an event. The storm lasted about 30 minutes before it eventually cleared. The VHF was alive with vessels that had dragged or, worse, were giving out Pan Pans. I was lucky to be in relatively safe water a few miles from land, as it could easily have been much worse had I been anchored or navigating a pass through the banks. I arrived in the afternoon at Staniel Cay, where there were no marina slips available, so I took a mooring ball, shut down all non-critical systems, and spent the night there conserving battery power.
Final Leg: Day-Hopping to Fort Lauderdale
Days 23-25: I spent the next few days day-hopping to Fort Lauderdale, plugging in overnight at marinas. The decision was made to haul the boat at Bradford Marine down the New River in Fort Lauderdale. Upon arrival at the Port Everglades inlet, I was met by one of the guys from Sea-Tow, and the boat was expertly towed down the river, as navigating on one engine in a tight river would have been reckless to attempt. I finally got the boat docked in the slip 25 days after departing from West End, Tortola.
Conclusion
This delivery was challenging, time-consuming, and demanding in many ways. The electrical wiring could have been done better, but it’s usually during deliveries that all the cobwebs are shaken out and the issues with a boat are revealed—issues that might not show up during casual day sailing. It’s very rare to deliver a boat without problems along the way, but each challenge brings valuable lessons. There were many occasions where my 30 odd years of experience kept me, my crew and the vessel safe and in one piece on this trip, its all OK until it is not! When things go wrong in times of extreme stress you revert back to your training and on this trip I had to on several occasions.
One thing I took away from this Powercat delivery from the BVI to Florida was the build quality of the Africat 42, she was a really solid boat and felt extremely safe at sea even in challenging conditions, the hull was in excellent shape and showed very little signs of wear, I do reserve my judgment on the IPS drive system, I think the theory is great but in this application I feel that it is a weak spot in the boats intended use as an offshore fishing /cruising catamaran.
I have more data including expenses and a repair list if anyone wants more details, its not for publication but happy to discuss budgets if anyone is thinking of doing this trip, I hope you enjoyed the article and find it useful. Please feel free to share and like! And if you want to find out more about our yacht delivery services you can get more details here https://virginislandsyachtbroker.com/yacht-delivery/
Total Nautical Miles Covered: 1,106
Fuel Used: 730 Gals
