The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site
Weekly Digest:
I can’t believe that experienced ocean sailors are still making the mistake of lying ahull in heavy weather and then blaming a freak or rogue wave when they get rolled.
We have known for over 40 years how dangerous lying ahull is.
Extra big waves are a reality in anything over gale force offshore, not freaks, so we need to properly equip and handle our boats to avoid being rolled when, not if, one comes along.
My Gill deck shoes were completely losing their grip. We are talking scary-slippery, to the point I nearly went on my ass, and overboard was a real possibility.
We have seen this before. Seems like whatever material deck shoe soles are being made of these days, it develops a hard yellowy layer way before the shoe is worn out—shoe on right.
We have tried sanding before, but with not a lot of success, so this time, in desperation, I took a grinder with an 80-grade disk to them—shoe on left.
That fixed it, as grippy as new.
Keep at it until the yellow is gone and wear a respirator, I can’t imagine the dust is good for us.
We increasingly see boats without travellers, but that’s a big performance hit, particularly in light air going to windward where we want the boom on the centreline but the sheet not too tight. To make that happen the traveler car needs to be well to windward of centre.
Check out the nice twist and leach shape that results from this setup.
My friend Hans, who advised me while I was writing the article on the tragedy aboard Escape, took me out on his Farr 56 for a demo of hoisting, reefing, and furling, using his in-boom automated mainsail-handling system.
Hans is an incredible resource, since he has owned boats with slab, in-mast, and in-boom furling, as well as being a deeply experienced ocean sailor, including countless trips to and from the Caribbean over decades, and five trans-Atlantics in the last few years—two with slab reefing, two with in-mast, one with in-boom.
I will be sharing his wisdom on all three systems and how to choose which is best for each of us, in an in-depth article.
Our new-to-us J/109 has a robust transom swim ladder that could definitely enable someone who fell overboard get back into the boat, at least in smooth water.
But check out the photo above: There’s no way for someone in the water, particularly wearing a lifejacket, to deploy the ladder unassisted. The angle is just wrong for that.
So I made the modification in the photo below. Works a treat.
I will be writing more over the next year about changes we are making to the boat to reduce person overboard risk, in our Online Book on the subject.
The plot thickens. I came across this product page at RobLine an Austrian rope maker and they have a bunch of lines for mooring, docking, that will be good for anchor snubbers.
Interesting quote from that page:
Robline caters to the trend toward using different fibers for mooring and anchor lines, depending on the specific use, and introduces cordage made of polyamide (known as nylon) in order to utilize the high elasticity of this fiber to cope with critical shock loads.
These lines are available from upffront.com, in Germany, who ship everywhere, among others.
Starlink are going to provide a solution for moving vessels, but before we get too excited check out the price! Think US$10,000 for the unit and US$7000/month for service!
Looks like I will be right that Iridium will the solution for most of us for some time to come. In 2019 I predicted 10 years more of standard old Iridium for most of us.
Might still be right, but then again five years from now might be closer for always-on internet at sea at a reasonable price—only 30 years after the billionaires started promising it for “next year”.
A member was having a heck of a time finding Nylon rope for a snubber, as we recommend, in Europe. After some research I think I have found out why:
What we call Nylon in North America, and the UK, is known as H.T. Polyester in Europe and staff in stores sometimes refer to it as “polyester with stretch”.
Check out this page at Gottifredi Maffioli. One of their mooring line products has a heading of “Nylon Braid” but the detail says H.T. Polyester on the English language page.
Also claims “Elasticity, ease of handling” for this rope, so I think that is a Nylon equivalent.
Anyone have specialized knowledge on this? If so, please leave a comment.
Also see this tip for a source of Nylon in Europe.
With fractional rigs we are way more interested in how much pumping the adjuster down has shortened the backstay and bent the mast than we are the reading on the pressure gauge (within reason). That’s why the marked batten.
Click on images to enlarge
You see people taping messenger lines to halyards, but that can lead to tears when the messenger comes off inside the mast.
So way better to put a flemish eye, sometimes known as a reaving eye, in the bitter end of all halyards and internal reefing lines.
The key to success is that the eye should have no bigger diameter than the rope, so a normal splice does not work.
Or, if you suck at rope work as much as I do, get a good rigger to do it for you.
Phyllis’s cousin Ken modelling a brand new Deckvest 6D that just arrived for evaluation. Thanks Spinlock! We have long been Spinlock users and fans and will report on how we like this new model once we have had a chance to use it for a while.
When shortening a line, it’s way easier if we put on two sailmakers whippings and then cut the line between them. Whipping how-to. (Scroll down to #6)
I made a bollocks of sailing off the mooring today and got stuck stern upwind on the chain. Not a big deal to sort out on a light J/109, but I did get a graphic reminder of how little reverse thrust folding props have.
Definitely not appropriate for a cruising boat where the bigtime reverse thrust of a good feathering prop gets us out of the inevitable mistakes we make. I like the MaxProp, but there are other good ones.
After two months and four defects:
I finally got the SG200 we bought for our J/109 working. I will write a review once I have more experience with it.
This dock line came with our new-to us J/109. Not only does it have a loop spliced in one end, which I recommend against (#2), someone first whipped it and then dipped it in some goop for reasons I can’t fathom. There is no better way to prevent a line end unraveling than a sailmaker’s whipping (#6)—lose the goop.