December 2024  Wayward

By Dave Zeiger and Anke Wagner

WAYWARD is our fifth sailing home, going on ten years now. We cruise the archipelago of Southeast Alaska. 

                                                                                Photo courtesy of John Herschenrider

We love to sail remote for months and sometimes years at a time.

Box-barge/scows are capacious for their size with efficient storage along their square chines.

WAYWARD is provisioned with basic foods (especially grains and legumes) and spices to provide variety, extending wild, foraged foods. Water is collected as we go in up to six 6gal jerrycans.

Our wood-fired range burns standing dead and driftwood for cooking and heating.She carries a flexible set of hand tools sufficient to build or re-build any of her components, from found materials if necessary. Any boatwork can be done far from yards or chandlers.

All this - with the absence of an engine - lets us stay out of towns for extended periods without having to duck in for resupply. It also keeps our overheads very low, meaning less ‘gainful employment’ and more sailing. In practice, while we often stay out year round, we’ve spent many winters remote caretaking or in towns for community time.

Bulkheads are cut-away for a single social space.

The forward bunk is rectangular and doubles our sitting / lounging area, with storage along each side for clothing, personals and books.

The salon has a long bench opposite a dinette… the table can be made down and gangway planked over… together with the bunk this makes a large platform for indoor projects (such as sailwork). 

The galley is 8ft x 7ft with generous counter / sink space. A trunk cabin gives full standing headroom and is handy to the cockpit. Its wood range at the forward end gives a cooler bunk, warmer salon and plenty of opportunity to vent galley heat.

Eight feet of tall side windows between bunk and salon, afford light and a spacious view, and widen the ‘feel’ of interior spaces. The galley trunk has a 360deg view whether standing or sitting on the counters to steer from inside.

Our cockpit is 8ft square and flush (no footwell) over a large hold. A fixed plank bench is dead aft, together with a second, sliding plank bench (a perk of parallel sides)… this can be scooted forward for better leverage at the end of the tiller in strident conditions or used as a fenderboard, workbench or extra ‘party’ seating. The sculling oar deploys to starboard… we straddle the tiller to steer as we work it… it stows at the ready, largely clear of the cockpit. All sail controls are led aft with a forward view while handling.

Forward is a 8ft x 4ft lowered deck with hold under and a pair of anchors ready to run. The main tabernacle at its aft end has a capstan winch for heavy pulls when necessary.

WAYWARD’s handy ketch S/JR is able on the wind and fast off. It is quickly reefed in unsettled weather in country prone to williwaws spilling down from icefields. It is nimble in close maneuvers among rock and reef or threading up estuaries, while its copper plate bottom can take a rough grounding providing important, deep safety margins.

Fits us like a glove!

Our "Boat of the Month" Archive is here, and the forum discussion for comments and candidate suggestions is here