Our boat for the Baja Expedition is Bodacious IV. She is 52 feet long and a sleek, racing sailboat called a Santa Cruz 52.

Outside she has all the interesting equipment that helps us to sail her and manage the loads that develop when the winds flow across the sails and propel her forward. On deck, there are winches that use a mechanical gearing to help us pull the sails in or raise them. Each winch is slightly different in size or function for the different functions onboard. Some are just simple halyard winches that are used to raise the sails; some are primary winches which are driven by what we call a “coffee grinder” and are used to pull the sails in to trim to the angle of the winds. The “coffee grinder” looks and works a lot like your bicycle except you use your hands and arms to drive it instead of your legs and feet!

Down below she has many comfortable appointments; seats, beds, heads (bathroom), a shower, and galley (kitchen) where we prepare food and meals. Some of our meals are frozen and reheated and some are dehydrated, where we add boiling water to the dry mix of food and after it soaks up the water, we eat it. (That tastes better or worse, depending on how hungry you are.)

Also below, there is a state of the art navigation station where our navigator keeps track of where we are and the many options that can make our route quicker and faster than another competitor. From this station, the navigator can get weather, satellite photographs of clouds, radar images of other boats and shorelines and we will also be able to send information out through the satellite communication system, which gives us full internet access. All of this is powered by a lithium Ion battery system. Much like the batteries that recharge for use in tools and toys these days, we have the same onboard Bodacious IV, only much larger. They are high-tech batteries, very efficient in charging and power storage. The engine onboard is a 48 horsepower diesel engine and has three alternators that can be use individually or all together to charge the batteries as necessary.

While all of this is interesting and important, we almost always tend to look at boats as beautiful objects. You will often hear a sailor say “she has beautiful lines.” What they are saying is that the shape of the boat and the angles of the edges of the boat combine to give her a very graceful appearance which further suggests that she will be fast in the water. And as far as Bodacious IV goes, she does indeed have beautiful lines! Her color is especially unique. She is a very light metallic grey in color with black trims. She looks very space age. The color of the hull looks silvery and when the sunlight is just right, she blends right into the waters as if she were camouflaged.

Below is Dave’s short intro walk-through tour of Bodacious IV …

And here’s a second walk-through …