Tips, Tricks & Thoughts:
Tips
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Favourite Upgrade to Our J/109
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Read more: Favourite Upgrade to Our J/109It’s so easy to get fixated on expensive updates to our boats, like cool electronics or new electrical systems, but sometimes things that cost relatively little deliver big benefits. Phyllis and I were chatting during our last sail of the season about our favourite upgrades to our new-to-us J/109 and both agreed that the Blue […]
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Where Bulb Keels Don’t Belong
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Read more: Where Bulb Keels Don’t BelongWho on earth thought it was a good idea to fit the boat with a bulb extending forward creating a setup to catch every stray piece of gear floating around our oceans, never mind the risk of snagging her own anchor rode or mooring chain? You gotta seriously wonder.
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The IOR Rule Has a Lot To Answer For
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Read more: The IOR Rule Has a Lot To Answer ForHere’s a nice looking vintage Nautor Swan. But look at the strange distortion of the stern. You think this looks weird? Check out the next shot taken from off the quarter. When shopping for boats, it’s worth looking for this result of designers cheating the station measurements of the IOR racing rule. Such distortions don’t […]
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Going Aloft Articles
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Read more: Going Aloft ArticlesI went up the mast today to remove the fragile stuff from the top prior to unstepping. A highly recommended precaution if you don’t like paying for new wind instrument wands. Phyllis and I had this down cold on our McCurdy and Rhodes 56, but it’s always a bit nerve wracking on a new-to-us boat […]
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Marking Port and Starboard Shrouds For Tune
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Read more: Marking Port and Starboard Shrouds For TuneAdding to my last tip. It’s pretty unlikely that the port and starboard shrouds are exactly the same length, so if we want to be able to duplicate mast tune in the spring we better not mix them up. I used to put cardboard labels on, but they get soggy and fall off, so now […]
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Preserving Mast Tune Hack
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Read more: Preserving Mast Tune HackI spent a lot of the summer getting the mast tune exactly the way I wanted it on our J/109. Now it’s time to decommission and I don’t want to lose that. So I carefully measured the distance between the threaded studs in the turnbuckles for the shrouds and backstay. To make this work you […]
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Q&A Hydraulic In-Boom Roller Furling in Antartica
7 CommentsReading Time: 3 minutesFreeRead more: Q&A Hydraulic In-Boom Roller Furling in AntarticaVery experienced member Matthieu Chauvel asked: Does anyone have experience with hydraulic in-boom furling systems in below-freezing conditions (and/or proper heavy seas, 50 kts+)? Asking for owners of a yacht heading down to Antarctica that has what they (and the builder of course) say is quite a beefy, reliable custom system, but it hasn’t been […]
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Reefing Horn Hack
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Read more: Reefing Horn HackReefing horns are a nice simple way to secure the tack when reefed, but they can also foul the sail when hoisting. A PITA, particularly on boats with the halyard led aft to the cockpit. This simple hack using a piece of fuel hose with the same ID as the horn OD, that I had […]
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Spinlock 6D—One Size Does Fit All
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Read more: Spinlock 6D—One Size Does Fit AllOur friend Margaret, who is of the petite persuasion, wearing the Spinlock 6D we are testing here at AAC. One of our concerns with the new model was that with only one size, instead of three as the 5D we have used for years was available in, was that fitting a smaller person might be […]
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John Kretschmer Reefs Downwind
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Read more: John Kretschmer Reefs DownwindA few days after we published my article about the causes of the tragedy on Escape, I received this unsolicited email from John Kretschmer: I am writing to commend you for your recent piece,”Lessons from a Tragedy at Sea.” It’s sober but hopefully enlightening to many. You are spot on. The notion of coming up […]
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Susie Goodall Tells Her Story
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Read more: Susie Goodall Tells Her StoryWhile I’m no fan of the Golden Globe Race, or at least not in its present form, I am a huge fan and follower of Susie Goodall and was absolutely gutted when she lost her boat in the 2018 race, particularly since she was one of the few competitors to fit what I believe is […]
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Batteries And Generators Are Different Things
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Read more: Batteries And Generators Are Different ThingsIt drives me crazy when sales people suggest that installing their lithium batteries automatically means we don’t need a generator. Batteries are a storage device, generators are…wait for it…a generation device. They are different things. Sure, installing a larger capacity battery bank (of any chemistry) might mean that we can anchor for longer, or sail […]
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ABYC Bans Twin Busses For Lithium
2 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: ABYC Bans Twin Busses For LithiumTurns out that the new ABYC E13 standard for lithium battery installations on boats in effect bans separate busses for loads and charging sources. (Thanks to member Rick for pointing this out.) 13.7.2.1A BMS shall respond to any conditions outside the SOE by activating the output disconnect device. My guess, and hope, is that this […]
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Mirage 24
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Read more: Mirage 24This little boat on the mooring next to us, belongs to a young couple with a year-old baby, who get a lot of fun out of her. I’m told even the baby likes the boat. She has two berths, a galley and a head, and was designed by Cuthbertson & Cassian of C&C yachts, although […]
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Dead Ending Reefing Pennants
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Read more: Dead Ending Reefing PennantsMost people dead end reefing pennants round the boom with a bowline, but that’s hard to tie tight and even harder to untie after it’s been under load. And don’t even think about using a buntline hitch unless you want to use explosives to untie it. There’s a better way: Login to continue reading (scroll […]
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Killer Dyneema Scissors
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Read more: Killer Dyneema ScissorsI have been doing a bunch of splicing of single-braid Dyneema (AmSteel) lately—lots of storm preparation. The stuff is seriously difficult to cut without making a mess of it, particularly when cutting single strands to taper the bury, but these scissors from D-Splicer do a lovely neat job and will even cut through a full […]
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This Won’t End Well
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Read more: This Won’t End WellIt seems like Brunswick Corporation is buying up just about every marine electrical and electronic company out there: Blue Sea, Ancor, Mastervolt, and more, and putting it all under the banner of Navico, which is a conglomerate itself comprising many hitherto independent companies. I know, they are on this acquisition spree with the goal of […]
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A Cruiser’s Way Stop Gets Hammered
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Read more: A Cruiser’s Way Stop Gets HammeredPhyllis and I were fortunate. Being in the safe semicircle and well away from the centre of Hurricane Fiona, we had only gale force winds with gusts to around 50 knots. Our power was out for just 36 hours and even our internet came back on today. We were lucky, others were not. We are […]
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Here Comes Fiona
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Read more: Here Comes FionaWe are just starting to feel the outer bands of Fiona here at AAC World Headquarters…our cottage in the woods. Thankfully, it looks like we are in the safe semicircle and so will likely avoid the worst of it, but we may be “off air” for a while. The photo is our J/109 stripped and […]
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Securing Mooring Shackles
0 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: Securing Mooring ShacklesOver recent years I have noticed that many mooring service companies, ours included, have started using wire ties instead of seizing wire to secure shackles. I always ask for seizing wire and even provide the wire when the mooring is commissioned in the spring. But even so, while checking today, I found wire ties. Fixed […]
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Mooring Check Hack
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Read more: Mooring Check HackWith hurricane Fiona heading our way I have just checked our mooring bridle attachment and swivel. To make this easy, even though the chain is quite heavy because it was sized for our last boat, I attach a spinnaker halyard to the bridle and hoist it up while it runs over the bow roller, as […]
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Dinghy Tow Rope Q and A
5 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: Dinghy Tow Rope Q and AA few years ago I wrapped the dinghy’s painter round the prop while manoeuvring to anchor in a very crowded anchorage. I don’t like towing a dinghy at sea but we had only come round the corner from a lunch spot and I forget to shorten up the line. My question is: would we be […]
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Sail Care Q&A
2 CommentsReading Time: 2 minutesFreeRead more: Sail Care Q&AWhat’s the best way to pack and store sails? I am unable to fold the hank on sails properly on deck, in a blow, solo. So I somewhat stuff it in the bag. Then on a nice and calm day, I will dry them by hoisting, and try to fold it as neatly as I can (not […]
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Why We Use Knots and Nautical Miles
4 CommentsReading Time: < 1 minuteFreeRead more: Why We Use Knots and Nautical MilesA nice post over at Sailing Scuttlebutt on why we don’t use kilometres at sea and shouldn’t be using metres per second in marine forecasts. I couldn’t agree more.
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Wichard Self-Locking Shackles
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Read more: Wichard Self-Locking ShacklesWe had the jib off, so I just replaced all the standard Harken shackles our new furler came with with Wichard self-locking ones. We have been using these things for decades in places where wiring the shackle is not a good idea (spinnakers are expensive) and never had one back out on us. Highly recommended […]
