The Coriolis Force, or effect, causes southern hemisphere sailors to prefer to sail on the opposite tack to their northern hemisphere counterparts. But which way is best, and why?
Continue readingSailing
Gratitude
I was terrified of my year 11 maths (2) teacher. Maths (2) was ‘applied’ in the sense of practical trigonometry. Maths 1 was pure, in the sense of abstraction. You know, early aspects of Newton’s calculus. That teacher was amiable. Newton, he scoffed, ‘very vague; let’s not fret overly.’
Continue readingEnough of the madness. Show me the sea.
Your correspondent is not always frothing at the mouth in the face of current political madness in the West. He recovers his sanity at sea.
Summer sailing season underway
Emu Export
There was a time in the middle 1980s when Western Australia punched above its weight in the Culture Stakes of Australia. Those were the days of Alan Bond, the Royal Perth Yacht Club, America’s Cup and Swan Lager. One of the more famous video clips of Bob Hawke, who had been Prime Minister for only 6 months by the time Australia II became the first challenger in 132 years to win the Cup, thereby breaking the longest winning streak in sporting history, had Bob on breakfast TV looking as if he was soaked in champagne. Still, such was the era that his image was enhanced. Today, one can imagine a craven apology being delivered by a subdued PM guilty of much less wayward antics than merely being soaked in champagne at breakfast.
I was reminded of those days recently while in my local Dan Murphys liquor store in Melbourne when I spotted a beer that I had not seen in over 30 years: Emu Export. The label says ‘Beer for Western Australia’. Well, of course I had to buy a supply. For in my younger days, at the start of my career, I spent two years working in Perth, WA, the State of Excitement as the local car number plates intoned. It wasn’t particularly exciting in those days if your car was low on petrol at the weekend because the filling stations went onto a roster system so that half would shut down for the weekend. This could require some planning in the pre internet days of finding out where the nearest open filling station was. There was no app.
Continue readingRe-rigging
It’s time to replace Akala’s rig. This means a new mast, boom, standing rigging, halyards, uphauls and downhauls. It is a big job. It began just before Easter 2020 firstly pulling the old mast out.
Here the boat is at Sandringham marina, the old mast has been craned out, the boat is being lifted. It will stay in a cradle in the yard for measuring and preparation for the new rig. Plus, it will be repainted below the waterline.
The new mast may take some time to be made and trucked in from Sydney. Until it is ready, I will motor the boat back to the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron at St Kilda. Then, back to Sandringham for the new installation.
Self steering, upwind – the easiest point of sail
Sailing close-hauled upwind is the point of sail most easily balanced.
This photo shows me upwind in a gentle breeze.
The wheel is held up just a fraction to push the boat downwind and held there by shock cord. Meanwhile, the mainsail is close-hauled but then eased a fraction. The rudder is not steering enough to overcome the main wanting to push the boat up until the main approaches luffing. Then, as the main loses power, the rudder takes over until the main catches more wind and pushes her up again.
A continuous series of S bends results. The finer the trim, the shallower the S bends, For this to work, the main needs to luff just before the jib would, hence the main is eased a fraction.
This boat will sail indefinitely like this. Until it hits the shore. Don’t fall overboard – the boat will sail away from you.
#Sailing alone around Port Phillip
The Vendee Globe is the pre-eminent yacht race for singlehanded circumnavigations. Solo sailors race south from the west coast of France, they leave South Africa, Tasmania, New Zealand and Cape Horn to port and return to the west coast of France. The leaders complete the race in about 3 months. The race is held every four years and the current race is about 2/3rds complete. Meanwhile, I have just completed my own mini-version: 3 days, not 3 months and around Port Phillip, not the world. I sailed from St Kilda, leaving the Popes’ Eye and the Hovell Pile to port then returned to St Kilda.
Single-handed #sailing – handling marinas
Getting a yacht into or out of a marina is often a stressful time for the skipper. Yachts do not manoeuvre easily, the space is usually crowded, there are plenty of things to run into and break, including other yachts, and the wind and tide can play havoc. On top of that, yachts using engines to go astern are subject to propeller walk: the stern will be pushed to one side (port if you have a right-handed propeller) and steerage is almost non-existent. My own yacht suffered damage last year when another boat trying to exit the marina in a breeze lost control and bumped into our stern, breaking off the solar panel from its fittings at the pushpit. The panel went to the bottom.
Get on with it
Handling a boat single-handed is a great way to learn. I spent many years crewing on different boats over the years and what tends to happen in a well campaigned yacht is that each crew-member becomes very good at their specific tasks but does not become familiar with many others. This extends to all aspects of handling from entering and leaving marinas, sail handling, navigation and so on. The single-hander needs to be able to do it all.
I was on my own with a brand new Wichard backstay tension adjuster to install as the existing one had become unserviceable. To replace a backstay adjuster requires the backstay to be released. The backstay is obviously an important part of the standing rigging that holds the mast up. What was making me apprehensive was the wind blowing in the 20-30 knot range, gusting higher, over the port quarter. Even though the yacht was secured in the marina, there was enough windage in the rig, the furled mainsail and the mast to have her heeling slightly in front of the wind. Had the wind been blowing from the north, it would be coming over the bow and all load in the rigging would have been on the forestay and lateral shrouds. But that was not the case and the backstay was clearly under some load. I busied myself with other tasks hoping that the wind would ease, which it didn’t.
Nothing else for it but to get on with it. I’ve heard opinions that the best time to do a difficult task is now. Do not delay or procrastinate. I know of yacht skippers who never delay a departure owing to bad weather – they say that leads to constant anxiety, constant delays and prevents learning and experience that would otherwise stand the boat and crew in good stead. So get on with it: I rigged the mainsheet halyard to a line (of spectra – high breaking strain rope) and attached that to a deck fitting at the stern, in similar attitude as the backstay and tightening it with the halyard winch. I let go the backstay, replaced the adjuster and re-rigged the backstay, then let go the temporary line and halyard.
Simple really.
Australian Actuary 