Sailing Rocks!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Saturday Sailing links #2

Here's more sailing related video and links

1) Steven Colbert talking about a 2005 Charlston to Bermuda race. He's doing the race again this year.

2) An article from Attainable Adventure Cruising:
http://www.morganscloud.com/2011/02/16/this-and-that-february/

3) A boat review of an Island Packet 34
http://nasailor.com/2010/12/15/boat-review-island-packet-36-estero/#more-3182

4) 23 min Highlight show of 1989-90 Whitbread around the world race

5) Chris Stanmore-Major rocking around cape horn
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150093094975896

6) An Ice boat crash

Monday, February 28, 2011

Memory aid for Port hand bouys

Port hand Bouys are like 7 up cans.

They are always green, odd numbered and have a square top.

This nugget of wisdom came from a Kayak blogger named Bonnie who is Bouy Crazy

Friday, February 25, 2011

How not to Navigate with GPS

The following is a list of stuff not to do when navigating with GPS

1) Do not place waypoints on solid objects. This can lead to collision with said objects.

2) Do not "Drive the TV". This is a situation where a skipper sits at the nav station and stares at the pretty boat on the screen and does not consider outside information. The worst case of this is the powerboat skipper who sits on his flybridge at night with all the interior lights on and is not able to even see outside. He just stares at the "TV" and does not keep any semblance of a proper lookout.

3) Do not assume the chart information displayed on your screen is correct. Most chart software suppliers only provide updates to their data every year or two, where paper charts can be updated regularly by hand. This can be an issue when depths change in an area of high silt deposit or other man made alterations to nav aids. Also most electronic chart data is digitized from another source. This is an opportunity for human error.

4) Do not assume GPS will always be available. Murphy's law is an important consideration at sea. Your GPS can fail from something as simple as lack of power, physical damage, or corrosion. The American government can also de-activate selective availability and reduce your GPS from 10m accuracy to several hundred meter accuracy when ever they feel like it. The safest option is to be prepared to take over from the chart plotter by recording regular fixes in your log or on a chart. To do this you also need to have paper charts, navigation tools including a hand bearing compass, and the skills to use them.

In short, having a GPS aboard does not mean that you no longer need to know how to navigate by hand and eye.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Canadian Ocean racer rounds Cape Horn Safely

Yesterday Canadian Ocean Racer, Derick Hatfield, rounded cape horn safely. He's past the most dangerous point on the whole circumnavigation, and is headed for the next stopover port in Brazil.

He has had a challenging race. The first leg from L'oreant France to Cape Town South Africa started nicely, then he appeared to gybe to early and had less wind then the boats that went further off shore. The second leg he promised to be more competitive and it looked really good. He was first out of the port of Cape town, and was challenging for second place for much of the leg. Then the Polish skipper, Gutek, chose a better route into Wellington New Zealand and beat him in by a day or so. In this third leg he has rounded the horn and is within 20 miles of the second place boat. All the boats except for the Leader, Brad Vanlou are having issues on this leg. The keel on Guteck's boat in moving several millimeters from side to side due to a broken component on the outside of the hull. He has had to throttle down to stay safe. Derick has engine issues that lead to low power available for the boats pilots and navigation equipment, as well as a leak in a forward compartment. Then there is Chris Steinmouth Major. He has had a ripped main sail that resulted in a marathon sail repair session. He posted an excellent video of his work at the link below. Chris has consistently done good video and written blog posts. See them at the same site.

http://www.velux5oceans.com/#/latest-news/csms-sewing-marathon/1562

It looks like this will be Derick's last race. He has made several comments that he feels he has done what he needs to do with ocean racing. Time to go back to his young family and retire from his second career. He's not done yet though. The last leg from Brazil up to France is still to come. Hopefully he can cross the line with a second place instead of the string of thirds that he has got so far.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

A navigational poem

A Navigational Poem

Meeting steamers do not dread;
When you see three lights ahead
Starboard wheel and show your red.

Green to green or red to red,
Perfect safety, go ahead.

If to starboard red appear,
’Tis your duty to keep clear;
Act as judgment says is proper:
Port—or starboard—back or stop her.

But when upon your port is seen
A steamer’s starboard light of green,
There’s not so much for you to do,
For green to port keeps clear of you.

Both in safety and in doubt
Always keep a good look-out;
In danger with no room to turn,
Ease her—Stop her—Go astern.

Copied from John Vigo's blog at:

http://www.johnvigor.com/Blog.html

And a poem about single handed sailing:

Pablo Neruda:

……and now, nothing more,
I want to be alone with my essential sea……
I don’'t want to speak for a long time,
Silence! I want to learn,
I want to know if I exist.

From Royal Vic YC single handed sailor Andrew Evans e book "Thoughts, Tips, Techniques &Tactics For Single handed Sailing"

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Boat Show highlights

Here's some Highlights from the 2011 Vancouver International boat show.

From the Vancouver Convention Center

Could this be my next coach boat please?...