The most common reason for yacht abandonment at sea is being capsized by a “rogue wave”. But is “rogue” a good description of these boat-killing waves? And are there things we can do to reduce roll-over risk?
John
Based on the great comments from experts on a previous post, Phyllis and John have substantially changed their thinking on fighting a fire aboard.
John links to a must-read article on hull design for heavy weather and highlights a couple of really important things he learned from it.
The single biggest bitch we hear about battery monitors is that they are always wrong. John shares how to fix that and make your batteries last a lot longer too.
Being able to accurately monitor our batteries is a vital function for all cruisers, but which of the multitude of systems offered should we buy and install? John defines the functions we actually need, and then recommends a monitor.
It’s tempting, when selecting a complex piece of gear like a battery monitor, to dive straight into the details and features, but that’s a near-sure route to a bad decision. First let’s take a giant step back and look at the two main types of monitors and decide which is right for each of us.
John puts his lazy streak on display with five rigging hacks to do less work, but still do things right.
It’s always easier not to fix our boats right, and using the excuse that “everyone does it like this” is a tempting way to excuse doing extra work and spending more money, but the sea does not recognize excuses.
Phyllis and John are back out cruising and in one of their favourite parts of the world.
In the previous four parts of this series on mast tuning, we got all the basics taken care of, now we just need to go sailing to complete a great tune.
These days, most boats with AC generators have signifigant DC (12 or 24 volt) battery banks that need to be charged regularly by the generator. But often that process is horribly inefficient. The good news is that the fix is easy, simple, and relatively inexpensive.
John muses on why doing basic seamanship tasks, like moving heavy weights safely and efficiently using only the boat’s own gear, are so satisfying…and why the practice is important too.
Setting up a rig to be safe and functional offshore is all about getting the details right. Here are some vital things to know and do.
It’s tempting to assume that the bigger a battery bank is on a cruising boat the better, but past a certain point that’s not necessarily so. It all depends on our usage profile. And sometimes there are much cheaper and easier ways to reduce charging time.
John bored you to death with a lot of mast tuning theory in the last chapter, but here’s the pay off: a step-by-step guide that will yield a good tune every time.
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