Many of you may not be aware, but Phyllis and I have a second job as publishers and editors of the Norwegian Cruising Guide.

Actually, that’s a bit of a stretch in that Phyllis, together with our friend and Norwegian partner Hans Jakob, do 95% of the work on that project and I get my name on the cover because…I’m good looking?

OK, I do do the technical stuff like maintaining the NCG site and figuring out the latest upgrades and insanities in Adobe Creative Cloud when Phyllis starts to tear her hair.

Anyway, in case you are thinking of Norway as a cruising designation (highly recommended), we just released a massive update to a massive and very cool Guide…No, I’m not even slightly biased.

Shameless plug over, back to our regular programming.

Question

Member Jim asked:

So now that GGR 2022 is in the final stretch – What do you think? Seems like the later start had some benefits – if I recall correctly one boat sank (auto-pilot broke off?) otherwise barnacles seems to be the biggest issue… and kudos to Kirsten!

Answer

Yes, the later start was a great change. That said, I’m still not a fan of Don McIntyre playing God as the sole dispenser of weather information, other than SSB.

And given the amount of damage from broaches, it still would have been a good idea to require a Jordan Series Drogue, in my view.

All that said, I’m following the race avidly and rooting for Kirsten to be the first women to win a round-the-world solo race, although if Abhilash were to win after showing such incredible grit to go back out there after the last race, that would be cool, too.

And if Simon Curwen was first home that would be a fun and just result given the disappointment of having to make a stop.

Incidentally, it’s now pretty certain that the boat loss was due to a structural failure even though she had been almost totally rebuilt. To me this calls into question sending people into the Southern Ocean in boats that are over fifty years old, no matter how well refitted.

My suggestion for future races would be a GGR one-design class of new boats designed and built for the race—might even be less expensive than trying to bring an old boat up to a safe standard.

More on the GGR and the benefits of requiring a JSD.

Early this week we added a reading time estimate to the header of every article (but not these Tips).

The idea is to show how much information you can get from a small investment in time at AAC, particularly when compared to trying to get technical information from YouTube, podcasts, or the biggest time sink of all: webinars.

And also to reassure you before you start an article that we have worked hard to make it as brief as it can be, but still get the job done.

For example, you could learn pretty much everything you need to know about how to choose between lead-acid or lithium batteries in 8 minutes.

Or how to make sure your boat’s underwater metals are not being eaten away in 7.

So does this work for you and, more importantly, enhance your perception of the value of AAC for your money?

Or is it just a distraction or, worse still, make you wonder why you are paying for such a short read?

Please let us know in a comment.

Mark Goodfield was our accountant and tax advisor, both personally and for AAC, for some ten years until he retired from public practice, and he never steered us wrong.

He has blogged about personal finances, investing, tax planning, and accounting for some 15 years (guess) as the Blunt Bean Counter.

Given that, if we want to go cruising and stay out there, we need to get this stuff right, reading Mark’s blog is well worth your time.

He makes the complex simple to understand, and even makes accounting and tax planning interesting, which is no easy task!

He does say that he focuses on “High Net Worth Individuals”, which could be construed as only the very wealthy, but that would not include Phyllis and me by any stretch and we have still found his writing very useful.

And, after all, anyone who owns a cruising boat is “High Net Worth” in a world sense, or is at least aspiring to be that.

Mark also went to a lot of personal trouble to keep the fees we paid the accounting practice he was a partner in under control, which tells you something about the way he thinks.

He just published a post on some simple financial rules of thumb that’s worth reading.

And those planning to go cruising will find his series on how much we need to save to retire useful.

All that said, if you prefer someone who will sugar-coat stuff for you, Mark is not for you. He is not kidding about the “Blunt” part. But then you read AAC, so I’m betting you are okay with that.

While dealing with all of the expense and aggravation, it’s easy to forget what a wonderful privilege it is to own a sailboat and be able to go sailing any time we want.

We took quite a few people sailing last summer, but my New Year’s Resolution is to share sailing with even more people in 2023.

Here’s a link to a great article on just that, and why it matters:

Hey, wanna go sailing?

If you raced offshore back in the seventies and eighties you probably wore Line 7 foul weather gear and a Lirakis harness.

The less said about the non-breathing heavy PVC former—it was waterproof but that did not help much since we stewed in our own juices—the better.

But the latter was the first widely available harness that stood a chance of not breaking under load, or maiming the wearer.

Stephen Lirakis, the deeply experienced ocean race crewman who designed, and for many years made and sold this harness, has a very cool website of photos from back in the glory days of Ocean Racing between amateur crews, and some from more recent races, too.

A highly recommended way to waste an hour when you should be doing something else…I would know.

Two companies have just announced that they are going to build an autonomous motorboat. Yes, the crew will be able to sit aboard and do absolutely nothing…except drink their faces off…while the boat runs itself.

Never mind whether or not this is even doable (way past my pay grade to judge). The thing that gets me is said companies tout this as a huge advance in boating enjoyment.

But, to me anyway, the greatest enjoyment I have gotten over my 65 years in boats, and continue to get, is in learning, and then mastering, new skills.

The thought that I will learn something new today, and maybe make, or do, something better on my boat (or at AAC), is literally what gets me up in the morning.

And that never changes. In fact, the more I learn, the more I realize how much more there is to learn, and the more pleasure I get from that realization.

For example, in the past year:

• I finally got my head around how bolted joints work and the relationship between bolt pre-load and and the forces the joint is designed to take. No, not to the level of understanding an engineer has, but way better than I did, and enough to be a better boat technician. Thanks, Matt and Eric.
• I’m learning, all over again, how to trim and drive a high-performance boat. Still a long way to go there.

That’s just two of the scores, maybe hundreds, of things I have learned this year, on and off boats—at my age I have to relearn a lot, too!

Maybe I’m just an old stick-in-the-mud, but why on earth would anyone want to expend the money and time on boating without getting that pleasure of learning? Why not just stay home and watch a YouTube video of boating…and drink your face off? Way less expensive.

All that said, I can see benefits in this tech for people who are disabled.

While 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 the correct storm survival gear, only to have it fail due to a defect.

After the race Susie kept admirably quiet about the whole thing as she processed the huge disappointment she had suffered, rather than capitalizing on the media frenzy around her, as many would have.

But now, four years on, she has told her story. A worthwhile read, and great to hear she has put her life back together and intends to go cruising.

It 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 enhancing products and services and wouldn’t dream of stifling competition or price fixing…I also have a nice bridge over the East River you might be interested in buying.

What the hell ever happened to the trust busters? Margrethe, we poor yacht owners need you…OK, maybe not.

Phyllis 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 thinking of Atlantic Canadians to the east of us who had a far rougher time of it, and particularly of the residents of Channel-Port aux Basques, a town we have visited countless times over the last 30 years, either on our boat or when taking the ferry to and from Newfoundland.

You can search Google to see videos of significant wave height seas of 14 metres, which means there were probably waves of at least 25 metres, crashing in and sweeping parts of the town away. Truly terrifying.

The harbour, with its many sheltered wharves, friendly people, and good provisioning, as well as fun and interesting walks, has often been both a way stop and refuge from heavy weather for us and many other cruisers. We know it well.

A welcome haven after the tough beat south along the west coast of Newfoundland, or a crossing of Cabot Strait.

To remember the town in better times, here are a few photos I took over the years. (Click on each to see them bigger.) The wedding appearing out of the fog is my favourite and says the most to me about good people living in a tough place and making it home. They will fix their town.

We 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 snugged down for the storm.

Phyllis and I are sending good thoughts to those in eastern Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland who it seems will feel the brunt of Fiona.