At anchor in Round Pond Harbor last week, the 83-foot ocean crossing motor yacht Wind Horse looks more like a small battleship than a cruising yacht.
Like a water lily that opens in the sunlight, step aboard the Wind Horse and go below deck and the beauty of the boat comes to light. The sheen of finely finished light teak and 360-degree surround windows and open galley, salon (great room), and inside bridge area gives it an airy, and welcoming appearance.
Her homeport is Georgetown, Cayman Islands, although she is likely to pull out anywhere for the winter months.
Owners Steve “Skip” and Linda Dashew, of Tucson, Ariz., have spent the better part of the past 47 years sailing and cruising together. They met years ago aboard Steve’s father’s boat, and Linda soon began crewing for Steve.
Steve started sailing at age seven. His dad owned one of the first catamarans in California. Steve started racing them in the late 1950s, early ’60s, and set world speed records.
A jack-of-all-trades, Steve raced, flew planes and owned a high-rise concrete construction business. The job was stressful. On the way home from a business trip, Steve had a life changing experience on an airplane. He and Linda decided to sell the business, buy a sailboat, take a year off and sail around the world with their two children.
One year turned into six and a half, and launched them on new unexpected career paths in writing, photography, publishing, and boat design and building.
They bought a seven-year-old sailboat that was “tippy” and had a small interior. They had the boat modified in New Zealand to meet the needs of their family. It was in New Zealand that they decided to sail around the world.
Still not completely happy with the boat, Steve and Linda, Steve’s dad and friends Jim and Cheryl started talking about building a boat, so they designed a boat with a stable platform and made a deal with a boat yard to build three identical fiberglass boats.
While work was in progress on the first two, the Dashew’s continued sailing. They came across a boat yard in the Indian Ocean.
“They were doing work in steel and we thought metal was a good idea,” Steve said. They learned steel was cheaper in South Africa, so they sailed there and found a boat yard using aluminum.
Strong and durable, and not needing to be painted, the Dashew’s were quickly sold on the idea of building their sailing yacht out of aluminum. At 62 feet, Deerfoot was “a large boat for the day. It was easy to sail with two people. She was pretty simple, and she was so much easier to sail,” Linda said.
The Dashews sailed 69,000 miles on her. On an Atlantic Ocean crossing, she was a week faster, and wasn’t as much work. On the old boat, “we could eat anything we wanted, the new boat was so much less work, we got chunky,” Steve said.
“We kind of fell into the boat business,” Steve said. While working salvage jobs for banks, the phone started ringing. Steve’s radical design, with its all-aluminum exterior and deck, and no wooden deck was not accepted early on, but when the overhang on sailboats went away, “all of a sudden our boats didn’t look so funny,” he said.
The Dashew’s went on to design two more sailing yachts, the 68-foot Sun Deer and 78-foot Beowulf. Each new boat had design features that made the boat easier to sail and more comfortable to live on. “The Beowulf is a really high performing sailing yacht. She has reached surfing speeds in the high 20s and cruises at 11 knots, and can do 300 miles a day,” Steve said. “Most people are happy with 150 miles a day.”
“She was faster than a cruising yacht,” Linda added.
“We were always looking to make a perfect cruising yacht,” Steve said. “There are 1000s of tradeoffs. You only have a fixed amount of space. It was a real conundrum. The main thing was what do you want to do with the boat. Ours are designed to cross oceans.”
By the time the Dashew’s entered their early 60s they found sailing was tougher. Past the point where they felt comfortable handling sail by themselves, and not wanting to take on a crew, they decided to design and built a motor yacht.
Wind Horse was the FPB prototype. The vessel has a 3500-gallon fuel capacity, 2000-gallon water holding tank, and is powered by two John Deere diesel engines. She carries enough fuel to make two Atlantic Ocean crossings. At 11 knots, she uses seven gallons an hour, which powers everything including the hydraulics and hot water.
The Wind Horse is in her seventh season and has never broken down. As they use fuel, water is added to lower holding tanks to act as ballast.
There are three staterooms (bedrooms) and three heads (bathrooms) on board the Wind Horse. The master stateroom is spacious with a large bed, and a couch for relaxing.
The longest time they have spent at sea in their 47-year cruising adventure is 37 days. The Wind Horse has a large refrigerator and two large freezers on board. “We usually stock up every two weeks on fresh fruits and vegetables,” Linda said.
After long voyages, her kids always craved ice cream, for Linda it is baked bread, and for Steve Mexican food. While in California they bought a big supply of burritos and froze them.
“We took pictures of us eating burritos all over the world, in Alaska and Europe and sent them to the restaurant,” Linda said.
The crown jewel of the vessel is her great room, an open area surrounded by windows. All the cooking, socializing, and navigating is down in the great room. “In a storm, we can drop anchor with a push of a button and never have to step outside,” Linda said.
While on the open ocean, the helm has to be manned 24/7 on both the sailing and motor yachts. “You learn to take a nap during the day. At night you take shifts, three hours on, three hours off. You get into a routine. We read a lot of books,” Linda said.
“What I like best about this style of (motor) cruising boat is the peace of mind,” Linda said. “I used to get a little apprehensive before going out. Knowing you can make a steady 11 knots for thousands of miles, takes the anxiety out of longer passages. We have the capacity to take advantage of weather windows, of favorable winds and currents.
Of all their adventures, and misadventures like the time they were stopped by the Mexican navy, thinking they were a military ship, the “best part is the people you meet around the world,” Steve said.
The Dashew’s cruised into Round Pond to visit friends Dave and Jaja Martin for a night. They found Round Ponders so friendly and inviting, they have lingered over a week. They have been invited to neighboring cottages for supper, been offered the use of multiple cars and rides to grocery stores. In their blog they wrote, about the people of Round Pond,” the folks are friendly, and the little village so charming… we are still here, and in no hurry to go somewhere else.”