Matt Steverson, The Duracell Project, Converting an Offshore Racer to a Fast Family Cruiser
Offshore Sailing and Cruising with Paul Trammell
Release Date: 05/17/2026
Offshore Sailing and Cruising with Paul Trammell
Brian Hathaway was in Marina del Rey, California, where he left from in February 2022 at the beginning of his circumnavigation, during this intervierw, after completing a circumnavigation on his Hunter 44 DS. We talk about how a circumnavigation changes you, what it's like to complete one, readjusting to life in civilization, staying at a marina in California vs Mexico, haul-out facilities, an incident with a crazy doc worker at a marina, choosing a Hunter to circumnavigate and all the doubters, the pros and cons of a production boat, running warps, drogues, weather routing, weather...
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Gaurav Shinde lives and sails on Lake Ontario in Toronto, Canada. He was entered in the 2022 GGR with "Good Hope," his Baba 35, but injured his shoulder on the way to France and had to drop out of the race. His need for adventure was cultivated by his late grandfather at a very early age, starting with climbing and hiking in the Western Ghats of India. Gaurav was introduced to sailing at the Sea Cadet Corps Training Ship Jawahar and found what he was born to do. After winning several offshore sailing championships in India, Gaurav decided to take on the challenge of the Clipper Round The...
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James sails a Wharram catamaran with two free-standing masts side-by-side and Chinese junk rigged. I met him in Bocas del Toro, Panama, and later in San Blas, in 2023. When I interviewed him, he was in Madeira. We talk about San Blas (Guna Yala) Panama, the jungle, leaving Panama without clearing out, arriving in Colombia without a zarpe from Panama, rescuing a friend, sailing from Panama to Colombia, squalls, Islas de Rosario, the boat Banemalo - a Wharram Tiki 46, what a Wharram is, tarred nylon line, sailing a junk rig, sailing the boat on different points of sail, tacking angle, the...
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Matt Rutherford set off from Aasiaat, Greenland June 25th in effort to circumnavigate the Arctic Ocean solo, nonstop, and unassisted in a Valiant 42 ketch. If he succeeds, he will be the first solo sailor to have done it in one season. Matt has been on the show twice before, and is still the only person to have circumnavigated the Americas solo and nonstop. We talk about Greenland and Assiat, the port, the people, his route around the Arctic, maximizing the motoring range of a sailboat, wind conditions in the Arctic summer, diesel engines, sleep, currents and ice, the Valiant 42,...
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Ollie Bergquist recently sailed his Contessa 32 from California to Hawaii solo and plans to continue on around the world. We talk about Hawaii, arriving at a city after a long passage alone, learning to sail, preparing for the journey, learning on a Laser, YouTube favorites, books, the Contessa 32, the Dufour Arpege, the 1979 Fastnet, Fiji, California, sailing offshore for the first time, sailing from British Columbia to California, learning the Hydrovane, developing the confidence to pull the trigger and buy a boat and take her on a long journey as a novice, sleeping while offshore,...
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Jillian Feberwee, Nick Tait, William Edelman, and Michael Youngling sailed with Tapio Lehtinen aboard Galiana, his 1972 Swan 55 yawl from Antigua to Nassau, The Bahamas. We talk about what everyone hoped to get out of the passage, Galiana and other sailboats, sailing with and learning from Tapio, highlights of the passage, fishing, hand steering, seasickness and getting over it, sailing downwind at 9 knots, preparing for the trip in Antigua, cooking in the galley, difficult situations, comparing Galiana to other boats, sails, the Swan's companionway, sail trim, swimming in deep...
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Ertan Beskardes is a lifelong sailor entered in the 2026 Golden Gobe Race. He recently completed the Mini Globe Race, in which he circumnavigated in a 19' Class Globe 5.80 sailboat. He started both the 2018 and 2022 Golden Globe Races, but retired in each. His GGR boat is a Rustler 36, formerly Matmut, Jean Luc Van Den Heede's winning boat form the 2018 GGR. He also sails a Jenneau Sun Odyssey 33. We talk about the difficulty of being suddenly disconnected from all communication with family in the Golden Globe Race, learing through experience, an electrical fire, the Mini Globe...
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In this episode, I talk about Tapio Lehtinen's recent Bahamas trip and lessons we can take from it, using Google Maps to find coordinates of anchorages or dive spots and transfering them to Navionics, I read select passages from Bernard Moitessier's "A Sea Vagabond's World" and discuss them, including why it is advantageous to learn to sail in a dinghy, learning to sail offshore, anchoring, chain vs rope, snubbers, secondary anchors, things to do before heading out to sea, getting to know your boat, making landfall, sailing without a schedule, weighing anchor, using clouds to forecast weather,...
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Will Sofrin is a lifelong sailor and the author of the book "USCGC Eagle: The Legacy of America’s Tall Ship." The book tells the story of a German naval training ship seized at the end of World War II and transformed into the U.S. Coast Guard’s flagship, training generations of officers. Rather than a conventional history, it is told through firsthand accounts from those who sailed her, with each chapter capturing a different decade of the ship’s life, from her dramatic 1946 delivery to America, to Cold War voyages behind the Iron Curtain, to surviving a near-loss in a hurricane. He is...
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Matt Steverson has been rebuilding an offshore racing sailboat and converting her into a fast family cruising liveaboard, and doing a fantastic job of it, which he and his wife Janneke document on their . Duracell, the boat, was built and sailed by legendary American sailor, Mike Plant, who beat the American record for solo circumnavigation in the first Vendee Globe in 1989. We talk about wiring, organization, Matt's electrical-system philosophy, batteries, the generator, the electric motor, appliances, having a child and adding him to the sailing plans, making a YouTube channel,...
info_outlineMatt Steverson has been rebuilding an offshore racing sailboat and converting her into a fast family cruising liveaboard, and doing a fantastic job of it, which he and his wife Janneke document on their YouTube Channel . Duracell, the boat, was built and sailed by legendary American sailor, Mike Plant, who beat the American record for solo circumnavigation in the first Vendee Globe in 1989.
We talk about wiring, organization, Matt's electrical-system philosophy, batteries, the generator, the electric motor, appliances, having a child and adding him to the sailing plans, making a YouTube channel, the buffer battery, keeping up with advancements in electrical-system gear, inverters, grounding, induction stoves, preparing holes for through-bolts, water tanks and coatings for the inside, bladders, varnishing, building the new keel, and more.
Photos and links are on the podcast shownotes page
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