Salty Podcast: Sailing Stories & Adventures

Salty Podcast #75 ⛵SV Delos LIVE on the Salty Podcast!

• Captain Tinsley | SV Delos - Brian Trautman • Season 1 • Episode 75

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What does it take to completely transform your life? For Brian of Sailing Delos, it was a moment of clarity in his manager's office, staring at a corporate org chart and realizing he wanted something entirely different. After walking away from his software career, selling everything he owned, and buying a sailboat, Brian embarked on what was supposed to be an 18-month adventure that has now stretched into 14 extraordinary years.

This conversation takes us through the remarkable evolution of Sailing Delos—from a single man's escape plan to a global sailing phenomenon that has hosted over 70 crew members, crossed multiple oceans, and weathered storms with 50+ knot winds in the Indian Ocean. Brian shares his philosophy during those harrowing moments: "Let the boat take care of you, she will. It's the crew you got to worry about."

The journey transformed dramatically when Brian met Karin (Kaz) in New Zealand. What started as an invitation for a weekend sail blossomed into a lifelong partnership, marriage, and eventually the birth of their daughter Sierra, who at six years old has already sailed 15,000 miles and visited 13 countries by boat. Her unique upbringing offers powerful lessons in resource conservation, global citizenship, and adaptability that traditional education simply can't provide.

Now, Sailing Delos is undergoing its most ambitious evolution yet—the creation of Delos 2.0, a custom aluminum diesel-electric catamaran being built in Brisbane, Australia. This revolutionary vessel will feature 5,000-6,000 watts of solar power, 54 kilowatt-hours of batteries, and a hybrid propulsion system designed to showcase what sustainable cruising could look like in the future. The rugged, expedition-ready design reflects their desire to explore higher latitudes while incorporating all the lessons learned from years at sea.

Whether you're dreaming of your own escape or simply curious about alternative lifestyles, this conversation offers a window into what's possible when you're willing to chart your own course—literally and figuratively. As Brian reminds us: "If you're not doing something that you love, make time to go out and do it... whatever your life holds, make the most of it."

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Capn Tinsley:

Tonight on the Salty Podcast, we're hanging out with one of the coolest crews in sailing sailing Delos. For 14 years they've racked up tens of thousands of miles crossed oceans most of us only dream about, built a massive global community and even raised a salty little deckhand along the way. Now they're leveling up with delos 2.0, a diesel electric catamaran built to show what the future of cruising really could look like. But before we get underway, if you're enjoying this sailing content, please like, subscribe and share. It really helps grow the channel. I'm your host, captain tinsley, of sailing vessels, salty, abandoned, and I'll unpack it. 320 and this is the salty podcast, episode 75. Please help me.

Capn Tinsley:

Welcome the crew of sailing Delos, good evening, good morning so I am in Gulf Shores, Alabama, and you are in Brisbane, Australia.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, it's called. They just say Brisbane.

Capn Tinsley:

Brisbane okay.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, we're literally in a little shipping container in the back of the shop, just kind of located inside the swamp in a place called Thornlands, which is, yeah, we're about 45 minutes southeast of Brisbane.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, it's kind of like mainsail brisbane, okay, yeah, okay, all right. So, um, your story is everywhere. You've got a great website, the travel blog on there. You've been keeping great records all these years, these 14 years. So we're just gonna, but we're all going to touch on a few of your, your points, your, your highlights of your background, for just in case somebody here doesn't know who you are, so the unlikely, uh, chance that of that so, um, just tell us. We're just, we're going to spend about five, ten minutes on this. How did did this start? You were by yourself first, right?

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, well, I was living. I was originally. I was an electrical engineer and I got hired at a university. I went to the University of Washington up in Seattle and instead of I got a couple of job offers back when I graduated and one of them was to go work for a big software company, microsoft, and so I actually went into that world for a couple of years and then, I guess in my early 30s, I sort of had one of those freak out moments where I was like is this going to be my life for the next 30, whatever years of my career? Am I just going to be sitting in front of the computer answering emails, trying to climb the corporate ladder?

Brian of SV Delos:

I distinctly remember going. We used to have these one-on-one manager meetings where you visit your manager and then they'd let you know how you're doing and all that I remember. I sat down in his office very nice office and he closed the door and there's an, an org chart of microsoft and it starts out at bill gates at the top at that time and there was literally like hundreds of little nodes going down. He's like you know what, brian, my goal is to somewhere be on this paper chart.

Brian of SV Delos:

And I was like, oh, man, that was his goal that was intended intended to motivate me to be a better program manager in the Windows group. I'm like you missed the mark, buddy, and so I ended up leaving. I started my own company like a consulting company with a couple of friends and then I just became very disenfranchised, I guess, with the whole path of what you're expected to be as an American, and to me it was always. Like you know, you go to school, you get a job, you buy a house, you get a mortgage, you get a car and then you just work, and there's never this concept of traveling or a gap year or an overseas experience. Like you know, a lot of other countries have where you go sometime between you know where you other. A lot of other countries have where you you go sometime between you know where you graduate school and university.

Brian of SV Delos:

You go and you're back around and I wanted that and, even though I was in my 30s, I decided I'm going to do that, and I love sailing and I love the concept traveling and bringing your boat with you, and so what I ended up?

Brian of SV Delos:

doing is I just sold everything that I owned house, car, everything. I told my partners at work I'm like, hey guys, look, I'm taking off, I'm going to go sailing. They're like we know, brian, like it's all you talk about, go do it. I said I'm taking 18 months off and that's how much money I had saved up is enough to live for 18 months. And I'm going to like. I was thinking you were gonna say that you were still working while you were sailing. No, I did it. I just, you know, I stashed away the cash and I bought a sailboat. I just had just enough. It was way more expensive of a sailboat than I should have actually bought. Looking back on it, um, I put a down payment on.

Karin of SV Delos:

I took a mortgage.

Brian of SV Delos:

I was like ah, I'll just a rebuttal when I come back to work. You know, no problem, you can always make more money, right? And I literally just made a left turn, out of the straight to Juan de Fuca and headed down to Mexico and made it to New.

Karin of SV Delos:

Zealand.

Brian of SV Delos:

And then I was like you know. I'm never going to, I'm never going to. I'm never going back. That's it. I'm never going back, and so I told my partners I'm like sorry guys, like you guys can run the business I you know, do whatever you like and do you still own in that business or are you still no?

Capn Tinsley:

we?

Brian of SV Delos:

ended up. They, you know it was. It was pretty small by that point after I left and we just ended up shutting it down.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, here's where you came out, seattle, and I was wondering if you came down here first. It looks like.

Brian of SV Delos:

Panama, somewhere Down the coast, down to Mexico, across the Pacific, in 2010. Made it to New Zealand by I think it was Halloween, almost Christmas, just in time to get out of the cyclone season. And then, yeah, figured out, well, you know what next? What's the next step? And it was basically just do whatever I could do to keep sailing. I worked as like a day engineer on super yachts in Auckland, like fixing problems like 170, 200 bucks a day. Whatever I did to scrape by my brother was rolling burritos. You know, my brother Brady was sailing with me. He was working at a Mexican restaurant. Uh, we met a couple of other guys and we're like well, let's just put this boat together and then let's sail um up to Fiji. I would say that crew.

Capn Tinsley:

That crew that you had is pretty infamous. Everybody used to talk about that it was kind of a road. I think you said on your website you've had like 50?.

Brian of SV Delos:

It's been almost. I think it's been just over 70 people now. That's amazing, during that time I met Kaz. She was back. She's actually from Sweden, but she was backpacking in New Zealand and I'm like, hey, how do you like to come sailing for the weekend? And so we took her and a couple of her girlfriends out on the boat to a winery like an electronic music festival in New Zealand and just kind of like we just decided to keep going.

Capn Tinsley:

When you saw her, did you have longer intentions than just the weekend?

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh, I was in just such a party mode. I was just like taking it one day to the next. To be honest with you, Okay.

Capn Tinsley:

I didn't know if you saw her. And go, that's my wife. Well, no, no, I was like damn.

Brian of SV Delos:

Like you know what are you doing. I'm like let's.

Karin of SV Delos:

But I knew she lived in Australia. She was going to school in.

Brian of SV Delos:

Australia and stuff. So the prospects were pretty slim, but it's like hey, you know if you like sailing, we're sailing to Fiji. Why don't you fly there? When you get a break, meet us in Fiji, and yeah, we'll just take it from there.

Capn Tinsley:

We do have a. We can talk about storms. So there's a question here Storm, tell me about the storms you got. Before you do that, tell me about the guy that you were when you left out of Seattle.

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh, I don't know, you were in your 30s, a little bit pudgy, a little bit overweight, probably drinking too much. You know, like go home and have a couple of drinks to take the edge off the day and that turns into more, and then, um, you know, just I remember my favorite part of the day was my bus ride to and from work, because I could just stare out the window and I had time to myself to, like, listen to music and do what I enjoyed, instead of, you know, having 15 minutes to make it to the next meeting.

Karin of SV Delos:

And then yeah, oh, that's a funny image.

Brian of SV Delos:

That's after yeah, that's after two years of sailing, I guess.

Capn Tinsley:

Well, and you've got this before and after picture, I guess, of you and your brother.

Brian of SV Delos:

You guys did really slim down. Yeah, we were so broke. We were just basically eating fish and rice and that was pretty much it. We couldn't even afford to put diesel fuel in the boat, so we were just living day by day. This is a big change here Brian.

Karin of SV Delos:

Yeah, that's all right. I think that's good.

Capn Tinsley:

Wow, so, oh my gosh. So how old were you when you left? You was 31?.

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh, I must have been 33, something 34, something like that.

Capn Tinsley:

And is this Brady right here?

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, he would have been 23, 24.

Capn Tinsley:

He's quite a bit younger.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, that is. I love these. If you want to know details about their story, what if you and you don't already know it? Go to their um, their their website. It's great, um, okay, so so karen or kaz, right, yeah, kazza, or kaz in swedish is kavi, because it's a swedish name.

Brian of SV Delos:

Is it casa? Or cat, in swedish it's kavi, because it's a swedish name. Okay, yeah, she just like says uh, just call me karen, because people in english can see that easier. And then in australia you tend to just like shorten everything that has us, so like darren would be, uh, you know, barry would be bazaar, karen would be casa, and so I don't know, we know, I just kind of stuck calling her that and then other people started too, so I thought it was funny.

Capn Tinsley:

I know they're into shortening words there in Australia.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, I mean.

Capn Tinsley:

Recky and all this.

Brian of SV Delos:

Recky, smoko is your break, arbo is afternoon, servo is the gas station. It's hot. You can't really put that much effort into talking. Alright, let's see. So, okay, so storms.

Capn Tinsley:

Tell me about storms you've encountered. You know, it's just, it's hot. You can't really put that much effort into talking.

Brian of SV Delos:

All right, let's see. So, okay. So storms, tell me about storms. You've trying to make it to La Reunion, which is a French island, and I mean we were pretty well prepared because we'd hit some big weather coming across the Indian Ocean before, and the Indian Ocean is very windy. It's typically, I'd say, a brisk, 30 knots, which means when you get a low coming through or even a squall, you can easily get 45, 50 knots, and we saw it coming. We headed south for two days.

Brian of SV Delos:

We got down to about 42 south to get, because these lows they come across the bottom of South Africa and you don't want to be in the center, because when the grid says gray and it basically says unforecastable, that's not a good sign so it's a big blow, and they can routinely blow 60, 70 knots on that coast. So we went south and we saw maybe 50, 55 knots for a couple of days. Um, but we were able to set the boat up really well because it had happened to us before and you know waves crashing over the cockpit, boat heeling over 40, 45 degrees, getting knocked on its side, sails going in the water occasionally.

Brian of SV Delos:

But you know we didn't have a child on board, so it was. You just got to hold on and eventually it'll pass. I always think that the boat if you just let the boat take care of you, she will. It's the crew you got to worry about. The boat will be fine. You just got to take care of yourself.

Capn Tinsley:

How many people were on board?

Brian of SV Delos:

Was it four people? We were six, okay, but myself and Brady we had to take 20 minutes turns hand steering through the night because the autopilot, just you know it, wouldn't handle those conditions. On the point of sail we were trying to do, and it's too exhausting to try and sail for more than 20, 30 minutes in those conditions.

Capn Tinsley:

Right, I think. Yeah.

Brian of SV Delos:

So, you're just sleeping on the helm, sleeping on the helm, and we just set up the boat. Since she's a catch, she runs pretty good under the old jib and jigger arrangement, so we just put like on our third reef on the jib and then no main and just a tiny little scrap of mizzen to balance her out, and you just go real slow. We just try to keep our speed under five knots so we don't launch off waves and the boat kind of stabilizes and just goes. It's pretty nice, it wasn't it?

Capn Tinsley:

wasn't terrible, so he likes that quote. Let the boat take care of you.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah. And also just the noise and the energy in the, in the air. It's like I don't know if you've ever been in a hurricane in a house, but I think I feel like it's so I've been on a boat, in a hurricane, in a house, but I think I feel like it's so I've been on a boat in a hurricane, yeah, well then you know just the power of the wind and the rigging and the vibration, and the energy all around.

Brian of SV Delos:

So loud, so much power and yeah, talk about powerlessness, feeling powerless, yeah I mean, I guess we sort of do put ourselves there so we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Capn Tinsley:

No, it was definitely.

Brian of SV Delos:

We live here in Brisbane and we, where we live and I'm sorry, a cyclone and we live in a brick house and I was. I slept right through the whole thing. I was like, really, that's what it's like and I mean it's a brick house, but you know, it was like a totally different experience.

Capn Tinsley:

It's much different on land, because I do live in a high hurricane area. Um, it was definitely different. So sv island spirits is delos, one amel. Is that how you say? How do you say the name of the? I mean the kind of boat to try.

Brian of SV Delos:

Every time I try and pronounce something that's French, I always get corrected, so I'm just going to say ML. That's how.

Capn Tinsley:

I say it Okay, it's a dream yacht. Do you think you will miss her? Daelus II is epic yeah thank you.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, I mean I already do. It's a great boat. We've sailed literally sailed the shit out of that boat. I don't know if we can say that, but we have. I mean we've sailed her everywhere all around the world and she's always taking good care of us. She's a very kind, sea kind boat. Um, you know very good robust systems, like good sail plan, uh. But then again, I think, after you know I've sailed her around for about 15 years now.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, so you still think, like you know, it could be nice to try something different, like maybe it'd be nice to have a little bit more being, a little bit more space, like one of the things I've really grown to hate is rolling. You know you get, you go off of a rolly passes and then you get into an anchorage in some places the boat's doing this and this. I'm like I just want to sit down and relax. I'm like you're right, sit down and relax. I'm like you're still doing like stuff and I'm like, ah, that's something I really won't miss is those big, you know rail to rail rolls that we can sometimes get into.

Capn Tinsley:

That does sound tempting. No rolling so from Instagram. There's a comment. I just copy and pasted it. Mark PH. So many people say the reason they are doing this is because of Delos. One nerd to another, amazing. So there you go. I'm sure you hear that all the time.

Brian of SV Delos:

That makes it worth it. That's cool.

Capn Tinsley:

I love hearing that at what point did you two realize you were going to be a couple?

Brian of SV Delos:

oh Kaz. When was that? Come on over here, kaz. Just walked in. What point did you two realize you were going to be a couple?

Karin of SV Delos:

Oh Kaz when was that?

Brian of SV Delos:

Come on over here. Kaz just walked in. At what point did we?

Karin of SV Delos:

realize we were going to be a couple, I don't know, I pretty much knew straight away I didn't know. I don't know, is it when?

Brian of SV Delos:

you went back to school in Melbourne and I was sailing off to Fiji and you're like I'm not going to hook up with anybody else.

Karin of SV Delos:

You do what you want. I mean, I kind of like I felt like I was really ready to like meet somebody serious. And you know, I really felt like me and brian had a connection and, um, yeah, I was really, I was ready to like see if, if he would make it. You know, yes, we did that is.

Capn Tinsley:

That is so cool, um, that you knew, but but you didn't.

Brian of SV Delos:

That is so cool that you knew, but you didn't. I had just gotten out of a previous relationship with me and Cassius Menn. I was like, well, I got to take some time, I got to make sure that I'm doing this for the right reasons and stuff. And then once I decided. After a couple months I was like, oh, this girl's amazing.

Capn Tinsley:

I got to go all in or not at all so then I decided to go all in. And then here we are, someone could snatch her up? Yeah, all right, so this is Milestone Adventures. I got little sections here, stuff. To ask you, the Indian Ocean Run is legendary, you were just talking about that. What, excuse me? The Indian Ocean Run is legendary, you were just talking about that. What stands out most from places like Chagos is that how you say it? Yeah, madagascar and Bassas. Did you go to India?

Brian of SV Delos:

Well, it's called Basasta, india, in the Mozambique Channel. There's not even really any land there, it's just an atoll between Madagascar and Mozambique.

Capn Tinsley:

We did go to.

Brian of SV Delos:

India, but that was like the other side of the ocean. So we went to the Andaman Islands, but what stood out to you about Chagos?

Karin of SV Delos:

I mean the Indian Ocean in general. I think was just like the windy and the remoteness of it was just kind of like yeah, it was just raw in a different way and you just don't have that much people, and I mean Chagos for us. We were the only boat there for the whole time we were there and we didn't see any other people as well except that ship.

Brian of SV Delos:

That was only for one day we got hailed by the US Navy one day. That was very exciting because we were approaching the Diego Garcia military base.

Capn Tinsley:

I think you're muted a military base? Oh, I think you're muted. Yeah, is it in the? I don't know my geography of the Indian Ocean? That well Is this place. It's in the North Indian Ocean, near India.

Brian of SV Delos:

Well, it goes like India, and then there's the Maldives, or Maldives depending on how you pronounce it and then about 1,200 miles south, so I think I can't remember. It is technically in the southern hemisphere, isn't it?

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, so you weren't. You know, what I'm getting to is the pirate area. You weren't near that.

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh no no, I mean that would be that's northeast of the Seychelles. Yeah, and so no we were pretty far away from all that. I mean, there's nobody out there.

Karin of SV Delos:

I mean, it's like it basically goes.

Brian of SV Delos:

Australia, and then there's Cocos Keeling, which is part of Australia, and then the next thing you can hit is if you go a little bit north, as Chagos or uh Rodriguez or La Reunion, which are two tiny islands like southeast of Madagascar, and that's it. It's just a big stretch of gnarly ocean, yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

I've interviewed quite a few people that have done this, and how far down did you go in the southern ocean?

Brian of SV Delos:

Maybe like three or four days Not very long, just enough to get around the Cape of Good Hope, cause you gotta kind of go south to get into some westerlies to bring you across. So I think we got down to like 42 south, maybe something like that, and what was it like? Windy cold.

Karin of SV Delos:

I mean when we sailed back, like when we sailed around again like we, it was really windy, yeah. That was when we sailed far south too, because we had this just it was just a ball of gray just coming for us On the grid, yeah, yeah, and like you don't want to see gray, it's like not good, right, yeah, yeah literally, it just says unforecastable, which sucks. I mean we still. We sailed for how many like one or two?

Brian of SV Delos:

days just dead south to get away from it, and then like another seven days, kind of east yeah, I mean, we still had 50 knots.

Karin of SV Delos:

You know, like we didn't, we didn't our wind instrument just topped out at 50, so it was like, yeah, so we didn't know, we just had B&G analog gauges and it just stops at 50.

Brian of SV Delos:

And you're like, but what now? We didn't really know, like oh, it's just winter, so it's just not real relaxing in those conditions, is it? Yeah, no, I don't think so. I know people have these stories about like the parties baking bread and like hanging out.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm like I don't know, I think it's kind of not great. You probably weren't bacon bread during that.

Brian of SV Delos:

We were more hardcore than us. But I think honestly, like if I had the choice of being there or not, I would probably choose to not be there.

Capn Tinsley:

Right, right. I think that that would be the way I feel. I don't plan on ever going to the Southern Ocean, but you never know. So when you hit the Caribbean, tell me about that. That's when your channel really started taking off, didn't it?

Brian of SV Delos:

it. Uh, yeah, I think we started doing quite well there. I mean the Caribbean's. A lot of fun you can do like the whole concept of hopping from island to island in like an afternoon. It's great. You sail 20, 30 miles, you're in a new country, no overnight passage, you can, you know, do whatever.

Capn Tinsley:

It's pretty chill, did you ever think oh, we should just stay here you ever think oh we should just stay here, we've never thought that, yeah, always look for that place.

Karin of SV Delos:

You know, like still looking. Yeah, I think we've always looked for that place.

Brian of SV Delos:

We were like, oh, this is where we're going to stay for like a couple of years or something like that it could be amazing, but it did seem like the well-traveled path, yeah, and you kind of lose like that specialness of where you go into a port and you know, if it's easy to check in with customs and immigration, that it's sort of a well-traveled port, if it's really difficult.

Brian of SV Delos:

That means they don't get a lot of people there, and then you're probably going to have a very interesting experience, like it's going to be a little bit more rough, a little bit more, I don't know like when we checked into Andaman Islands in India.

Brian of SV Delos:

It literally took like three days, but we have a fantastic experience that we would never have any place that's used to seeing tourists or sailors or voters there. I mean, we almost got. We got pulled into the police station for our friend taking us to his house for dinner because somebody in the town saw that he was driving some foreigners around and they didn't know why we were there. And you know, they didn't know if he was going to try and get us to, like, stay at his house because that's illegal. Apparently we have to stay in a hotel and I mean there's just all these weird things like oh well, that was a really interesting experience. Like you wouldn't get that pulling into like the bahamas or anything like that, right, it's just this is the right, yeah, why would that be I don't know, sap phones are also illegal, so we also got.

Brian of SV Delos:

We also got in trouble for uh him, our friend, delivering butter chicken to our boat. Like they pulled us off the boat. We had to go in and sign a document that said that we were not smuggling bombs out of the country. I was like why would we like? First of all, why would we take a bomb sailing? We're sailing to Australia, like it doesn't make any sense. Like shouldn't you be worried about us bringing explosives into the country, not right before we check out?

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, it's not good into the country not right before we check out Sailboat is not what you would run off with a bomb. It's the butter chicken. Anyway, when you're arriving in Australia, put the date and the time. I'm like bro, it's like a 17-day sail. I don't know what time or even what day. What do you mean? You don't know when you're going to get there. We're not a cargo ship, just weird little things like that keeps it interesting, you know.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, let's see Switching from the tropics to 80 degrees north. Now I've interviewed people that love ice and snow and glaciers and foul board I hope I'm saying that right and then on all the way down to uh the, the tip of uh south america, where it's where you can, where you get the ice and snow down there yeah, like here at el fuego and stuff and yeah, oh, I love it.

Capn Tinsley:

They just love those conditions, so they'll go all the way. They're from norway, I believe, and they went all the way to spellboard, and then they go all the way back down to the tip of south america, and that's just what they love what did? You. What did you think of it?

Brian of SV Delos:

I mean, it's like an alien landscape, it's. It's so different than tropical sailing. I think we love tropical sailing, but after you know a few months of hopping from beach to beach, you're like, oh, I mean, it's another, it's lovely water we like to go swimming but then it doesn't really.

Brian of SV Delos:

It's still beautiful, but it doesn't give you that extreme kind of shock Like oh my God, like we're someplace, really, really super cool. And so that's how we felt when we went up to Svalbard. It's, you know, it's a very inhospitable landscape. The water is like one degree Celsius, so you know you have to carry a rifle when you go to shore. By law, bears right For polar bears and I mean a lot of the decisions that we've made around the design of Delos 2.0 are things that we learned from that trip and from trips when we took Delos, like up to Maine and stuff like that.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, but I'd love to go back.

Brian of SV Delos:

Well, and you were, were you on like a research ship? No it was like a Swan. 48. Okay.

Capn Tinsley:

I was thinking it was like because I interviewed some people that work on those. They do research and everything In between sailing. That's how they earn their sailing money.

Brian of SV Delos:

It's a little 48-foot sailboat with seven people on board, all crammed into a tiny space. Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

Wow, okay. So so you guys, it was in 2000, whatever, when you got married. What was that? 2011? Where's that 2011.?

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh geez, I should know this.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, oh, sorry about that. Let's see um 2019, 2019 and you had baby sierra, yeah, so not here yeah I would, I will. While you're talking, I'll look for a picture, because she is just absolutely adorable.

Brian of SV Delos:

She's such a little worldly traveler I mean Sierra's already sailed, like what is it? 15,000 miles. I think she's been to like 13 countries by sailboat.

Capn Tinsley:

And she's been on the boat since she was four months old.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, yeah, we left Dalos in Florida and then we flew to Sweden because having a baby in the US was just looking really, really bad for money and the care that you get in Sweden since Kaz is a Swedish citizen is just top-notch. So we decided to go there and then, when she was four months old, we flew back and went Delos and then we went sailing again.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm going to pull up a picture of her. Okay, this is too adorable. Oh there she is.

Brian of SV Delos:

She's got such a little. That's her birthday. Yeah, she's just got such a little personality. So she's six years old. Yep, she just turned six. Very outgoing. She will go up and just, I think part of this is being a cruiser kid, you know. Whenever she sees other kids on on sailboats or adults or whoever, she's like I'm gonna go talk to those people, daddy. I'm like, well, you go ahead like you go engage with them. And she's she's continued that even though we're kind of living in civilization now, she still goes up and talks to people in the mall or the supermarket or at the park. She's like I'm gonna go play with your kids. I was like okay, so how is she?

Capn Tinsley:

she must love it.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, she does. I mean, she loves, she loves swimming. She became addicted to snorkeling. She just started one day. We decided to see if she would you know, breathe through the snorkel. I was like, oh, let me show you how to put it on. I'll teach you how to do it. We'll take it real slow. She put it on and she just immediately went under, started breathing, started diving to the bottom. I was like, wow, she really loves this. So that was pretty cool.

Capn Tinsley:

I've interviewed boat kids. You know that actually grew up on boats and now they're adults and it just sounds like a great life to raise kids.

Brian of SV Delos:

I think so. We'll see.

Capn Tinsley:

We'll see how she feels about it she wants to go when she's in her 20s or 30s or whatever. Well, these kids were on the boat till they were 18 or 19. Now they're selling boats.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, okay, cool.

Capn Tinsley:

And they can help people. For families that are planning on doing this, they have a lot of great advice.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, yeah, she loves learning. We're doing homeschool here in Australia for her. Because of the visa we have, she's only allowed to be in the public school system for three months out of every calendar year, out of every 12 months, so right now we're homeschooling her, which is an enormous amount of work and time.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, is it online in time?

Brian of SV Delos:

but yeah, is it online? Yeah, we have a curriculum, an online curriculum, but it's still it's. I mean hats off to all the teachers out there. It's just such a I mean it's, it's, it's got to be your passion and your love and your joy, and it's so challenging.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, well, so do you think that? Um, do you think that was part?

Brian of SV Delos:

of your decision to get this type of boat, the aluminum boat, because of your family. Uh, I mean, I've always liked aluminum boats. Every, every alley boat that I've seen out there. I've thought it's just very cool, very different. I mean there's just different design considerations that you make, um, make that you wouldn't make for like a GRP or a fiberglass boat. You know, it's just a fully insulated boat. It'll have a proper, you know, heating system. It'll also be better for keeping cool. Aluminum tends to distort and bend rather than shatter or break like a glass boat would, and so you can take them a few more places that you wouldn't normally be comfortable taking, like where Up north, higher latitudes, anywhere around ice.

Brian of SV Delos:

And then when we were up there in the Swan, we were very conscious about any type of ice contact in the hole and we increased the hole plates to like six millimeter thick, which gives us a little bit more leeway. I mean, I probably wouldn't still freeze her in for the winter. But if we happen to strike some objects and you see all these stories about people hitting whales or containers or floating objects in that scenario we're more likely to end up with a deformation in a plate rather than a shattering or a breaking or a puncture so that it seems like you probably feel like that that would be safer for your family and it's just a very durable material, very cool, kind of rugged looking and very customizable.

Brian of SV Delos:

You know, when you build a fiberglass boat, you generally, unless it's a one-off design, you're probably working from a mold and if you want to change something, then that requires a design change and a mold change and then it gets glassed into the mold, whereas with an aluminum boat everything is CNC cut and so we were able to customize very specific things that we wanted to put into the boat and then it gets done in CAD basically, and then all that gets CNC cut out and welded together.

Brian of SV Delos:

So you have a little bit more flexibility for customization, although it is much more. It's more labor intensive right.

Capn Tinsley:

Does it help that you're an engineer background?

Brian of SV Delos:

I don't know if it helps or hurts. I mean, I really didn't understand a lot about the concepts of whole design or propulsion systems or any of that when we started, but now I have a pretty good grasp on why certain decisions are made and what's a good idea, what's a bad idea. I've always I've always really liked the rudder we have on Delos. It's a skag hung rudder and I've seen multiple stories of people Hitting the rudder on something and basically, if it's unsupported at the bottom, it just takes the shaft and tweaks it like that and then all of a sudden you can't turn your rudder because it locks things up. Or, worst case scenario, you get a hole in the bottom of the boat. Rudder comes out. It's a big hole, and so I'm fairly certain that we would have damaged Delos' rudder when we went aground in Solomon Islands, in Giza, pretty badly up onto a reef Wow.

Brian of SV Delos:

There was some wall-loader anchor and the chunks that were taken out of the front of the rudder when we were getting out there were just enormous and that took the damage and the rudder was fine, were just enormous and that took the damage and the runner was fine. And so, you know, when I started looking at catamarans and like, well, they all have these kind of like spade type runners and then they have a sail drive back there which is also this kind of like delicate appendage, and so I was like, well, if I go with the custom boat, I want to go with like a shaft drive, um, for maintenance, uh, and I want to go with the skag hung runner. It's well protected that you can land it, that you can beach it. There are some downfalls You're losing space.

Brian of SV Delos:

The sail drive is a very compact unit, so that's the plus side of that. The shaft drive, I think, is a more robust design but it takes a longer space, so you actually have to have a longer engine room or you have to put the bed under the, the, the engine under the bunk, which you see on some boats. They'll, instead of they'll, have a firewall. But then you know, because if they go shaft drive, then they'll need to put the engine under the cabin space. And I'm like, well, I've always been a fan of like the machinery space is separated. So machinery here, living here, you keep all the smells, all the oil, all the noise, all the heat in one place. But the penalty for that is you might have to give up a little bit of cabin space.

Capn Tinsley:

so we make a lot of those design decisions yeah um somebody, uh sv bo gum on instagram says you couldn't be giving her a better life through our daughter's grown grown so much in just two years of cruising as somebody with some experience right there. Yeah, I agree. So Hayden's asking about when is Daedalus 2.0 is epic. When do you see completion?

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh, good question. I'll let you know when we get closer. You know, I mean I'd like to be doing some sea trials, maybe by the middle of next year or something. I guess what is that about nine months away? I think we're about God. I should count. I think we're maybe about 10 or 11,000 hours into the project of human man-woman hours, and maybe a little bit more, and I really think it's probably like a 16,000-hour project. So I mean I think we're over halfway project 18.

Capn Tinsley:

So we're, I mean we're, I think we're over halfway, but are you, are you and the crew working?

Brian of SV Delos:

on this, or you have professionals coming in for different things. I mean me and me and cows are here every day, all day. We'll wake up at 6 00 am. I get on emails and do youtube video stuff until 8, drive sierra to school at the yard by 9 30, work here until 5 all day, get home, do the same thing on emails until dinner, go to sleep and it's just like you know, it's like a 16-hour day every day, but it's what we have to do.

Capn Tinsley:

So you're not just out there relaxing drinking Mai Tais.

Brian of SV Delos:

Now is like now is work time, but we're out sailing. That's when playtime is, and we're okay with that. Yeah.

Brian of SV Delos:

But we I mean we work with I don't know, probably three distinct teams of people, maybe more, probably more, but full-time on the site.

Brian of SV Delos:

We have cabinetry as a profession, if you want really nice, lightweight cabinetry. That's a skill that's acquired over like 20 or 30 years of experience to do it right. And so we have two guys that are just in a woodworking shop they're down on the Gold Coast Steve and Steve amazing guys, hilarious, very skilled, so they're doing all the woodwork. And then we have Dan and his team, which ranges from two to three guys that were, you know, they're the hot work for the metal team, so they were doing all the welding. And I've been fortunate enough to hang around and be like part of the team for all these phases, so I've gotten to learn quite a bit about what the different trades do. And now that we're past most of the welding and the fabrication stage, we're into the fit-out stage, which I think is actually 2 thirds of the project, and that's where we're running hoses, installing tanks, running plumbing, pulling conduits for wires, installing the propulsion system, and that's kind of where more, where I put in more of my time.

Capn Tinsley:

Um, yes, so here's, uh, your username and your website, and, um, I'm sure you're taking donations for this. On the website it says buy us a beer, but there's for this.

Brian of SV Delos:

On the website.

Capn Tinsley:

It says buy us a beer, but there's oh, yeah, yeah. Where can people contribute here? You got the Patreon, I'm sure.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, patreon's good. I mean, that's most of our support. Okay, the YouTube and the social media landscape has just changed so much. Oh yeah, for 13 years now, for since 2012 I think the first one came out um, and youtube has gone from I don't know like cat spinning balls of yarn videos to like really well produced 20 and 30 minute episodes of people's lives that are really well done, and so you know, it was a lot easier to get traction when we first started because we were one of the first people doing it there's.

Brian of SV Delos:

There's an awful lot of people there's a lot of sailing channels. There's a lot of like van life channels as tiny home channels there's.

Brian of SV Delos:

Everybody has their own genre, um, and we feel very fortunate to have the audience you got in early, yeah and um, yeah, I think we've we've had a lot of fun with it too, and I think we've we've had to share, uh, what life is like with people, uh, and still not take ourselves too seriously. Um, I don't think we're like the authority on anything just because you do it a couple times doesn't make you an expert on anything.

Capn Tinsley:

But you're right. I started my sailing channel in 2015 and it has changed so much. I mean, there was a time when I thought and I think a lot of people thought that sailing was kind of dying off. It does not appear to.

Brian of SV Delos:

That's the case now, though I think, with starlink and the ability to work remotely, uh, there's more people out sailing.

Brian of SV Delos:

At a younger age, people were able to work remotely and that's also had some impacts on places that you know. French polynesia used to be a place where people would pass through for the cruising season on their way to New Zealand, australia, but now people are staying, they're staying and they're working and it's putting a toll on some of the islands. You're starting to see complaints about, you know, trash services and about too many people anchoring and about things getting crowded, things getting crowded and it kind of stressing the resources of these small villages which might be. You know, let's say that one of the biggest town in the marquesas is, like you know, 2 000 people and if you have 100 boats show up and each of those have two people, you're adding, you're increasing the population by like 10 and that's, that's a toll on the resources, right, and so there's, you're being a seal of a pushback, unfortunately, on sailors, um, but I guess it's. It's hard for the course, you know it's now does it has it helped the.

Capn Tinsley:

I mean I'm sure there's damage. Uh, that happens from the boats and I don't know pollution, but um is it? Does it help the local economy at all?

Brian of SV Delos:

I'm sure in some ways it does. You know, cruises are always on a budget, so they're notoriously I won't say cheap, I'll just say thrifty, because I also live on Mount St Wayne and so you know if you're trying to save money, what do we do? We splurge money on going out and eating. I think where most of these communities make their money is through bona fide tourism, which I would consider to be. You know, hotels, restaurants. People come on a two-week holiday.

Brian of SV Delos:

They're going to spend way more money than me there on my boat for two weeks. I'm not paying for accommodation, I'm just paying for food, maybe a few tours maybe I buy some fuel, although I get the fuel tax free, so it's kind of like you maybe I stay in a marina that helps local economy? Probably I don't, because marinas are expensive and so I don't know.

Capn Tinsley:

I guess it could go, and so what advice would you give to people about being respectful of these places?

Brian of SV Delos:

The number one thing is take care of your garbage. I've been so many complaints about people not knowing what to do with their trash and then people leaving it next to the already overflowing bin on the street. And then somebody sees somebody from a boat do it and all of a sudden it's in some French-language Facebook group site and then the locals are complaining about it. And then you go into a store and then somebody sees you as a sail sailor and then maybe they're not so kind to you because they saw this and this, and so it's kind of got lives to say tread lightly and respect the locals.

Capn Tinsley:

And would you say, this is in other, not just French Polynesia, other areas as well.

Brian of SV Delos:

I mean to a certain extent, and I think that place in particular, think it's just so, tip of the day, take care of your trash, take care of your trash and don't anchor in court right okay, um how did raising sierra on board change your perspective on safety and pace of travel?

Brian of SV Delos:

it was probably party downs at the beginning you know, when it was me, kaz and brady and, you know, maybe alex on board, then we would just sort of go for it. Like you know, if the forecast is low and 30, you're like, ah, everybody knows what they're getting into. Like you know, s Sierra hasn't made this decision. She does enjoy the sailing, but if it's rough it really affects her. It also really affects us, because she doesn't really take care of herself. She still has to be fed, she still has to go to the toilet, she still needs her hairbrush, all these things for a kid that you do. That become exponentially more difficult when you're in the middle of the ocean and the boat's being tossed around.

Karin of SV Delos:

So I do think we always.

Brian of SV Delos:

I think our sailing just became more conservatively. I think we, you know, instead of going someplace and rocking into an anchorage for like a day or two and then, you know, jumping off, getting in the dinghy, exploring and going somewhere else, now we'll travel a little bit more slowly. We'll tend to always try to spend, like you know, a couple days or a week, so that we can kind of like, get adjusted as a family and kind of, you know, just have more time to relax. So I guess aren't you relieved?

Capn Tinsley:

that she's not in some public school. Or yeah, yes and no.

Brian of SV Delos:

I mean I guess there's the social aspect that she could be getting. I think educationally she's probably getting a much better education. I think in two hours of focused one-on-one education you can probably cover more than what gets covered in a typical school day Faster and you can focus in on what you can tailor the lessons individually to her. It's like, yeah, and you can focus in on what you can tailor the lessons individually to her. It's like it's basically private tutoring, right, yeah, and yeah, I mean she's getting a very worldly education.

Capn Tinsley:

I've always heard that the kids are so much more well-adjusted yeah, growing up on a boat and they get to see, like you said, when she sees the other boat kids. There's a lot of social interaction there.

Brian of SV Delos:

But it just seems like. They're very much more well adjusted. Growing up like she is, she's responsible in different ways and she understands the concepts of like. Well, you can't always have a hot shower, Sierra. Why not? Well, because we have to make our own hot water and we have to make our own water in fact, and she said well, where does the water come from, daddy?

Karin of SV Delos:

And I'm like well how do we do that and so?

Brian of SV Delos:

then you get to explain all these concepts about conservation and about where water comes from and you know how we need energy from the sun to make it hot and also if you want to watch your ipad, like we have to charge your ipad and we have to run the refrigerators, and all this has a toll on she's learning power management, water management yeah, and quantity of liquids and fuel, and you know she's like well, how long can?

Karin of SV Delos:

we run the engine for daddy I'm like.

Brian of SV Delos:

Well, you know, we, if we, burn x number of liters per hour. Over this amount of time we can go like five days. She's like oh, wow, okay it's more than a car. I'm like yes, more than a car.

Capn Tinsley:

A six-year-old.

Karin of SV Delos:

I mean this would not happen if she was.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah yeah, that is awesome.

Brian of SV Delos:

You know, instead of teaching her, just showing her pictures of whales and books, we'll just take her out swimming and we or just showing her pictures of whales and books We'll just take her out swimming and we'll be like, okay, so that's a mandrake Sierra, that's a shark, like you just swam with the shark. She's like really, daddy, like yeah, I mean, you know she's like, yeah, it was a shark, cool, and I think that stuff is very cool.

Capn Tinsley:

So you, brian, today, compared to that guy that left Seattle, it's got to be. What would you tell that guy now?

Brian of SV Delos:

Hold on, it's going to be quite a ride.

Capn Tinsley:

Enjoy it. Enjoy the rest of it. Yeah, I wanted to ask Kaz Kaz that same question.

Brian of SV Delos:

She actually had to go meet with the guys about a very important decision regarding the steering, so she's in the shop, but I can try now. Oh, you want to ask the same question to her?

Capn Tinsley:

Okay.

Brian of SV Delos:

I'm sure she probably knew.

Capn Tinsley:

So this is the only world that Sierra knows.

Brian of SV Delos:

So I just find that fascinating. We have spent more time in Australia now, so then over the last year certainly, than we have on the boat.

Brian of SV Delos:

I think we've spent four months sailing and like eight months here on and off. So I mean she knows I think she's getting an interesting view of both, both lives. I mean she misses going to the beach, she misses swimming in the ocean. But then you know we have a YMCA next to our house so we take her to swimming lessons and so it's just sort of a different experience, but she still gets to do things.

Capn Tinsley:

That's great. The swimming lessons I bet she's a good swimmer.

Brian of SV Delos:

She's a really good swimmer. She is. She loves it.

Capn Tinsley:

So the boat, the new boat, I think right now you have both boats in a yard.

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh yeah, we have both money pits in one place now, so you can just see the money just flying away.

Capn Tinsley:

So this boat, when you sell it, if that's what you plan on doing, I don't think you're going to have any problem selling it, do you?

Brian of SV Delos:

I don't think so. We're in no hurry. I mean, we still have a long time to go on Delos too.

Capn Tinsley:

You're not ready yet.

Brian of SV Delos:

No, and she needs quite a bit of work, Unfortunately. The rig needs to be done. She needs to be repowered. The diesel's on her last legs. You know she's a boat. She always needs some TLC. At least she's in a good place to where we can do that sort of work here. So, yeah, she's parked right next door to the shed here.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I bet it feels good to have them both there, though.

Brian of SV Delos:

It does. I mean, we had a big debate whether we should leave Delos and Fiji and then be able to fly back and then eventually sail her to Australia, and we just felt like, well, now is the time, we're in the last year of the build, let's buckle down, let's focus, let's put all of our energy into getting this done and let's not worry about, you know, trying to fly back to Fiji and cycling season coming up and all of these things.

Capn Tinsley:

So it's the right call, Joel says. How often do you run into YouTube fans on your shelves?

Brian of SV Delos:

Quite often into youtube fans on your shelves. Quite often. I mean, obviously it's more often when they're around boats and people are on boats and water, but I mean it'll be randomly. And bunnings here is like the version of home depot. You'll see somebody like, oh, I watch your videos in the supermarket, or something like that. Do they ever hunt you down in?

Capn Tinsley:

the supermarket or something like that Do they ever hunt you down. I've had that happen to me.

Brian of SV Delos:

There's a pretty steady stream of people that come by the shop to say hi. I always try and say hi to people. Sometimes I'm in the middle of something, sometimes people might think I'm a little bit short, but I always think, well, imagine if I kind of wanted into your office and just knocked on your door. I mean, you know, I've got like a welding helmet on and I'm like welding there's somebody on there shouting brian brown and like trying.

Brian of SV Delos:

You're sitting there welding and you're like it's nice to know that people want to come by and see the boat and say hi yeah, okay, well, um, what's one thing you're excited to do differently with delos 2.0? That wasn't possible on the first boat is it wrong to say run the air conditioning off? The solar panels?

Brian of SV Delos:

oh yeah, no, no, it's not wrong at all I'm really excited about seeing how the hybrid drive works. I'm really excited about seeing how the hybrid drive works. I've always been curious about that. The technology is kind of getting close to getting there, but at this point it's still. You know, we're going to have a lot of batteries, like about 54 kilowatt hours of batteries. And even with that amount of batteries I think we're still going to get a range of about 40 nautical miles, which is enough to get on and off the hook, in and out of a marina. But you know, for proper cruising it's nowhere near the range that you need to get. You couldn't even go through the panama canal with that range right on pure electric. And so it'll be a hybrid, a diesel, electric hybrid system. So we'll still have like a over a thousand nautical mile range under power. But when?

Brian of SV Delos:

we want to use the hybrid system, we'll have the ability to you know, maybe motor out of the channel or it'll be interesting to see how it works it is. It is way more expensive than just going with the twin diesel arrangement and it does add quite a bit of weight because you have to increase your battery capacity and you have you know you still have a diesel power source um so how many batteries is that?

Brian of SV Delos:

uh, and well, let's see, it's 18, 2.7 kilowatt hour batteries. Uh, and so that would be what's 18 times three, fifty four or something.

Capn Tinsley:

Somebody is going to be times 3. Get the calculator out, I lost the sound.

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh, here we go so it's like 54 standard batteries like we have on Delos.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm hearing an echo. Give me one second. I don't know where it's coming from. How about solar?

Brian of SV Delos:

We'll have somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 watts of solar, so that'll be yeah, it's quite a bit, and that's just on the roof alone.

Capn Tinsley:

There's going to be more.

Brian of SV Delos:

I don't think we'll need more.

Capn Tinsley:

I think we'll be okay with that yeah and what else are you planning on putting on there? What, what cool electronics are you?

Brian of SV Delos:

uh well I mean, I think the electrical system is going to be uh sort of it won't be, it won't be like crazy, it'll just be. I mean, it'll have a lot, being capable of handling a lot of power, but you mean as far as like the navigation system or Are you going? To have a wind generator.

Capn Tinsley:

Are you going to have a wind vane, Are you going to?

Karin of SV Delos:

you know all this stuff.

Brian of SV Delos:

I mean on Delos we get about one kilowatt hour per day of power, about 20% of our power, from wind. And so now that we're increasing our solar capacity times five and our battery capacity times like eight or nine, I mean the wind generator is nice because it pumps in power day and night, right, but if you have this large power bank that you need for the propulsion system, it's what it's more than enough overnight, and so then it's like the wind is nice, but then you're just literally like it's almost irrelevant at that at those scales when you have that much solar battery.

Brian of SV Delos:

and then you know it's just you're using like 10% of your capacity overnight, and then you're topped up by 11 the next day and okay what about the?

Brian of SV Delos:

scenario if you have, or you're probably, topped up by like 10 in the morning, without that solar or something. And then the scenario is like well, what if you have five or six days of bad weather or low solar, or you go up north where the solar is very low on the horizon? My answer is well, I mean, we're going to the electric propulsion motor that we have can also work generator, so it's basically a 20 kilowatt DC charging solution, and so you know if you can top up your bank and in two hours of runtime, or something like that.

Brian of SV Delos:

Of your generator, yeah yeah, then it's very efficient, right, and then also, you know, it sort of makes.

Karin of SV Delos:

I mean.

Brian of SV Delos:

I love the way in power we had on Delos. It really helped us. But I think, on the way the system's configured on Delos too, you probably won't need it, just yeah. And so when did that project start?

Brian of SV Delos:

we started thinking about it in 2019, looking at different designs and looking at different boats, and then we kind of chose a designer and we kind of went back and forth on the design just before we crossed. When we finished the design maybe two years ago, when we started building 18, yeah, not quite a year and a half ago. We started in March of last year.

Capn Tinsley:

So it's a two and a half year project, march of last year.

Brian of SV Delos:

So it's a two and a half year project. That's fast for a custom boat, I think, if you look at like I was just talking to somebody. I won't mention the yard because I don't want to throw shade on anybody, but it's a. It's a. It's a yard in Southeast Asia where a number of boats are coming from. Their project delay was three years.

Brian of SV Delos:

Wow the delay was three. It came three years later than they said, and so I think it was more like a five-year build, and I think if you can get anywhere between the two and three-year mark on a boat, I think you're doing pretty good, especially across the boat.

Capn Tinsley:

Why do you think that's so in shade?

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh, I don't know. Like you hear things from different people you know you hear like you don't know what their situation is or why it happened, or what the circumstances are. Maybe they made design changes that pushed the build out. Maybe they had a production bottleneck. Maybe there was a COVID pandemic. Who knows, Right, it's just could be any reason.

Capn Tinsley:

All right. So I always ask everybody this will be a hard one for you. I'm sure your favorite Anchorage oh.

Brian of SV Delos:

I love. There's a little place in the Tumotos called Tahanea or Roria Roria, roria. It's hard to pronounce, but it's like what I would consider the epitome of South Pacific paradise. It's just a lagoon.

Capn Tinsley:

What's the name of it?

Brian of SV Delos:

Tahanea, I can try, and let's see Ta T-A-H. Let's see if I can. I don't want to misplay Tahanea.

Karin of SV Delos:

Yeah.

Brian of SV Delos:

T-A-H-A-N-E-A. That place is fantastic.

Capn Tinsley:

French Polynesia. Okay, I'm going to bring this up.

Karin of SV Delos:

Just search on Tahanea.

Brian of SV Delos:

Esvidelos, I'll put it in your chat.

Capn Tinsley:

Okay, I do have it. I'm pulling it up on Google Maps. I've learned about some really, really cool anchorages. Yeah, I mean, mean it's nowhere. Yeah, there's. Even Google Maps doesn't look like it goes there a lot. That's essential.

Brian of SV Delos:

Is it Crystal clear waters? You still get good breeze coming up the atoll Plenty of cocon coconuts, plenty of crabs. Um, good swimming, good diving and nobody, nobody, okay a few sailboats.

Capn Tinsley:

We actually spent a couple of weeks there where it was just us, which is really nice so tell me about the difference that when you went back to French Polynesia, the difference like when you sailed there this time, what were you thinking Like? Here I was just this kid that was partying down sailing. And now here now look at you.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, I don't know Different people. I guess different time in your life I felt more like I was a little bit more centered this time just because, like you've been out cruising for a while, like you kind of know what to expect, how to set yourself up. I mean, we still make mistakes, but I think we're better at reading the weather and maybe keeping us out of like exciting situations. Um, they were better provisioning and like you know, unfortunately, instead of carrying like a ton of beer, you know now we're like well, now we have our skills on board, so we can make our own.

Capn Tinsley:

So oh cool, okay Well, it just had to be. Just, I don't know epic coming back in so many changes, you know in yourselves more settled yeah sounds like y'all were having a pretty good time with with all that crew, yeah, yeah we were.

Brian of SV Delos:

I mean, the social interaction was cool. But you know now it's really nice just to be our family on the board yes, and like we can still meet up with friends and we can still go out and party, but you know, when we come back to the boat then it's our space and, you know, is your brother is your brother with you and it is is his name, is it brad? Uh, brady, brady brady and alex.

Brian of SV Delos:

Is it Brad? Brady, brady and Alex. Yeah, yeah, so they're living in Lake Tahoe now, so they're not doing the sailing thing anymore. Well, they run a sailing school on Lake Tahoe and then they run an ocean-going cruising school out of their passport. I think it's a passport, Passport 42. No wait, Is it? I should know this. Anyway think it's a passport, passport 42, no wait, is it?

Karin of SV Delos:

I should know this.

Brian of SV Delos:

Anyways, it's a sailboat. They have a 42 footer in the Sea of Cortez and they do cruising lessons off of there, so the sailing school. Yes, the sailing school Is it?

Capn Tinsley:

ASA, ASA. No they sort of do their own thing. Oh, okay.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley:

That's cool.

Brian of SV Delos:

Yeah, I think they're focused more on, like the cruising aspect, it also includes the sailing aspect. But when you think about what it takes to do cruising, yes, you need to know how to sail your boat from A to B and dock and all that stuff, but you also need to know how to run the watermaker and you know how to properly set the hook and you need to know, like all these, like it's just it's.

Brian of SV Delos:

I think it's honestly it's. You know, probably when you think about it, on our trip it's been 10% sailing and 90% other stuff, right, so 90% of the time you're you're anchored or you're moored, or you're in the yard fixing your boat or you know you're just trying to figure out how to fix things, and then the other 10% is just going from A to B. You know.

Capn Tinsley:

So going back to that guy that was at Microsoft and it was like, oh, this is the chart for all the people in the organization. And he was saying I want to be in here. Where is that guy today? I don't know.

Brian of SV Delos:

Probably living in McMansion somewhere in Seattle, I don't know.

Capn Tinsley:

Have you stayed in touch with any of those people? Do they know what you're doing?

Brian of SV Delos:

I think some people do. I'll occasionally get a random message from somebody I worked with in the past. Yeah, I knew you went it's like a completely different life well, that seemed to have made a big impact on you.

Capn Tinsley:

When he's showing you the organizational chart and you're like I don't want that. So I'm just wondering if he's ever contacted you, do you remember his name? Uh, that's amazing. It would be so cool to bring him on.

Brian of SV Delos:

He's actually a very nice guy.

Capn Tinsley:

No, I'm sure, I'm sure. I just wonder if he realizes what an impact that had on you. One ocean you'd happily we got some pounding going on, no problem. It is a boatyard, so so I do have just a couple more questions. We've been on here for an hour. I don't want to take up too much of your time. I do appreciate you answering my email, by the way, or answering on Instagram. Thank you for that.

Brian of SV Delos:

My dad monitors our social media stuff.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, okay.

Brian of SV Delos:

It's time to answer comments and try and get back to people. So I said, Dad, can you help us out? He does that.

Capn Tinsley:

He said there's a podcast. This chick wants to talk to you.

Brian of SV Delos:

Very much.

Capn Tinsley:

Dad language. Yeah, One ocean you'd happily sail again.

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh Wow, that's a good one. Each one's got its own little unique thing. I'd like to spend more time in the Pacific.

Karin of SV Delos:

The Pacific's a good one. Each one's got its own little unique thing. I'd like to spend more time in the Pacific.

Brian of SV Delos:

The Pacific's just so enormous. And I think one of the things I'd like to do when we get Delos II ready to go is we'll maybe do a shakedown cruise back to the South Pacific maybe Fiji, something like that. I'm sure there'll be things that we want to change. We'll probably break some stuff, because nobody's ever built one of these holes before. Wow. So we back there to be some issues, we'll take care of that. And then I think a big North Pacific loop would be cool.

Brian of SV Delos:

And so before, when we sailed up, you know, we went from Australia to Indonesia, to the Philippines, and then we ran out of money. And so then we're like well, we really wanted to go up to Japan, but if you don't have any money, japan, I think, is not a great place to go, whereas Malaysia, where food is cheap and living is cheap, is a better place to go. So we went to Malaysia. This time I'd like to keep going north and maybe go explore more of Asia. We've gotten invited to go to Taiwan Malaysia this time. I'd like to keep going north and maybe go explore more of Asia. I'd love we've gotten invited to go to Taiwan. I think South Korea would be amazing. I think Japan would be cool and then kind of maybe continue on to Alaska. She's a perfect boat to go up to Alaska and then the inside passage back down, so like a big North Pacific loop. I think could be cool and then just see where that takes us.

Capn Tinsley:

So okay, so that's going to be. That was a question I was going to ask what you plan on doing. So you're planning on going up towards Malaysia and just all of that up there. Vietnam and all that stuff Maybe not Vietnam?

Brian of SV Delos:

I think I'd probably definitely go back to the Philippines the Philippines is incredible and then just maybe go north from there. Yeah, I've interviewed some people with some great pictures of their boats anchored right by a glacier. Oh yeah, so beautiful. Yeah, I've always been interested in the northwest passage, so I mean that could be an interesting way to get to the atlantic and then go explore.

Capn Tinsley:

I don't know, I think it should be a really good boat for the northwest passage. So last question I may think of another one, but um, how would you describe the new vibe you're hoping for on Delos 2.0?

Brian of SV Delos:

Oh the new vibe. What are?

Capn Tinsley:

you hoping it'll be like.

Brian of SV Delos:

I'd say rugged and expeditionary. So like we're not going to paint the boat, she'll just be raw aluminum.

Brian of SV Delos:

the systems are going to be robust and durable so smart, so I don't think she'll be considered a luxury boat, like there won't be any shiny things, there won't be any like gratuitous use of carbon fiber inlaid instruments or anything. I'll probably just do polished aluminum backdrops because it's very durable, it's very easy to clean, it's very easy to weld. No paint, so paint paint can't flake off. You don't have to repaint it if it's not painted in the first place. Um, things like that. Low maintenance, yeah, low maintenance.

Brian of SV Delos:

Um, and also a lot of thought and attention given to some of the downfalls that we saw in Delos one which is like lack of ventilation, kind of lack of light downstairs, and so we've kind of really planned out like the hatches and the ventilation system and the heating and cooling system, like based on what we've learned be a fully insulated boat, so very good for acoustics and thermals, will be quiet inside. Um, you know you don't think about it but, like on delos, the compressors for all the fridges and freezers are right in the living space, right, right where you you're trying to watch tv or chill in the night, and those things going off in the background, always like fan noise, compressor noise. You're like I would just like to turn all of this stuff off, and so you know, some of the thinking has been involved in where do we place this equipment? Where do I put the air conditioning compressors, like, should they go in the living space? Like right under your bed?

Brian of SV Delos:

Well, no because it's loud and it kind of sucks when it turns on, and so I'll be putting those in the engine room where it's going to be like isolated and kind of quiet, Like a hydronic cooling loop or heating loop, and so I think a lot of those decisions. I'm having fun with trying to think about that stuff. I'm sure we'll make mistakes but we'll learn. I think you could sell these.

Capn Tinsley:

Oh, this is your design.

Brian of SV Delos:

We'll just focus on the sailing and you know we'll see.

Capn Tinsley:

Well Sailing. Fin Explorer says big fans excited to see where you'll take Delos 2.0. We hope to bump into you in the Northwest Passage or somewhere else high latitude. I did interview them. I interviewed them. Yeah, so they're big fans of yours. Um, is there anything else that you would like to to say? And I know that you probably uh, would like some donations right I mean support is really important to us.

Brian of SV Delos:

You, I know that people often think that you know why would you need support if you're like, you know, like a bigger YouTube channel and I mean we're just it's tough out there.

Brian of SV Delos:

I think we are a bigger channel but there's so many channels now that the love has sort of been spread amongst a lot of people now, and so you know, know, we have to work. I feel like we have to work twice as hard to kind of like stay exactly where we are, just to tread water. So we do appreciate people watching and commenting and liking the videos. That makes a big deal to us. And then, if you, if you do feel like you're getting something out of this, supporting us on patreon is is the best way. Okay, we're able to kind of interact with the people on patreon in a different way. Like I make sure that I'm able to answer all people's questions and personally answer their comments and, uh, you know we do meetups and stuff like that and no ads in the videos which you know we have to do promotions now, like it's just, I know people, we've had some flack for it for promoting products, but like, honestly, advertising is.

Brian of SV Delos:

I mean that's now it's become mainstream on youtube videos that if you want to, if you want to make a living off that, you need to represent products and brands. We try and do ones that we like and we trust. Um, but still it's 60 or 90 seconds out of a video.

Capn Tinsley:

Now, do you do those separate or do you drop them in the video?

Brian of SV Delos:

We try I mean for us, because we're not very good at it. They kind of get filmed after the fact, because we film our stuff in advance and so we're editing our videos Even though we're already here in Australia. The the videos of us sailing to australia are being released, and so we don't know what promotions are going to go in those videos, and so we'll do our best to look back and film it as if we were there. Um, but that's kind of well, I'm just.

Capn Tinsley:

The reason I asked is because I'm just starting to do that.

Brian of SV Delos:

I've had people reaching out to me and I thought I would do from your audience at first, but I mean, you got it if you need to make a living right. So people who understand that will understand that people don't will just continue complaining really yeah, okay in the comments. That's okay, because it's so engagement yeah, it still helps.

Capn Tinsley:

I'm reading the comments. Please, yes, please complain. Well, is there anything else you want people to know? There'll be a lot of people watching this in the replay, especially, so anything you want to say to your fans.

Brian of SV Delos:

Thank you. Thank you for making this possible for us this live. Thank you for watching. We appreciate it. And, uh, if you're not doing something that you love, make time to go out and do. It doesn't have to be. You don't have to put your job, you don't have to sail around the world. Maybe it's making sure that you take a 30 minute lunch break and you go sit and stare at a tree instead of answering emails. Maybe it's something as small as that, but at least take that time for yourself.

Capn Tinsley:

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people have different formulas. Some are doing it full-time, some are doing it part-time. I'm definitely a part-timer and luckily I have a job that I can, you know, work from the boat. But just, whatever you can do, do it right.

Brian of SV Delos:

That's it.

Capn Tinsley:

Whatever your life holds Right, others will make most's it, whatever your life holds Right, we'll make most of it. All right. Well, I'd love to catch up with you again down the road. Thank you so much for doing this. I really, really appreciate it and with that, all right have a good one. Thanks again. Salty Abandoned out. Thank you.

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Captain Tinsley

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