2022 Season

Greetings folks and thanks for being patient.

Well, what's been happening over the winter period, well as you can imagine quite a lot.

Skipper thinking ahead to our adventure to Portugal this summer organised a new and I mean new satellite communications system such that the downloading of Grib (weather) files can be uninterrupted anywhere in the world. Skippers not daft, in that with this system he'll also be able to attend Teams meetings as well, of course, send and receive attachments for his work in e-mails.  So advanced is this bit of kit, which is merely the size of a book that it is just one up from a Beta version and contains a few bugs from release since discovered and a few that haven't been.  What is it one of your philosophers said "We know what we know, but we also know what we don't know, but there are things out there, that we know we don't know and then there are those we don't know we don't know!".

Anyway, the point of ordering this back in September at the boat show is to get it fitted and tested prior to leaving the shores, so clever is it that it will detect if there's a cellphone network available and ensure that any communications from me, will take that option. If out of range i.e. 5-10nm offshore, then it will connect with the satellites and the service will be uninteruppted.  It had to be sent back to the UK dealer to have a few bugs that Skipper was pulling his hair out about, removed and so it should be re-fitted middle of next week.

Bluesky - Skylink 600

The system has been fitted to my starboard rear cabin, this thing can find satellites in orbit around the world, but the aerial length is only 2.0m and so Skipper has had to put it close to the stern to enable the aerial to reach the pull-pit.  The black object with the green light on the end is not a lightsaber, it is to plug in an ordinary phone with a BT socket, £9.99 from Argos will do (other outlets are available).

You can see that a cigarette lighter socket has been fitted that also has a built-in voltmeter and above and below that are two USB charging sockets, enabling the crew to charge their phones or tablets without clogging Skipper's chart table.

Having fitted the new Axiom plotters and heard stories of some fisherman turning off their AIS equipment, probably because they are fishing in waters they ought not to be, hence the reason they are struggling to obtain the necessary permits!  Skipper has opted to go for a digital Doplar radar.

He's been up my mast several times and brought the old one down and replaced it, he had a new base as it appeared that the holes for the bracket were different but this wasn't the case when he was up there it was able to use the same bracket without any changes.  Now all he has to do is to get the data and power cable to the bottom of the mast. The mouse line he installed when pulling the old cable out kept getting fouled on something and eventually it came away, so he bought an Endoscope camera to see what was happening and as you can see clearly below the issue.  Within my mast, I have a plate with a tube welded for cables to pass through, all Skipper has to do now is to get a rod through the gap and feed a new mouse line to the base.  At least he can see what he's doing!

The white line with black speckles is the jib sheet

the bright spot is where this exits the mast

down to the pulleys at deck level

The next item on Skipper's agenda is to sort out my Autopilot, three times the new ACU200 system went AWOL and sent me off into a gybe in one instance and into a complete search zig-zag pattern in another.  Clearly, this cannot happen if it is to be relied upon out at sea.  A Raymarine expert together with the Engineer that fitted it came on board last year and decided that the 200 unit was not powerful enough as 15amps had been seen to be drawn by the electric motor, so a 400 unit will soon be fitted and when I go back into the water (soon), a sea trial will be had to make sure it works as expected.

There's just my portside to wash, chemically clean, wax and polish up before I sit in the Marina for a few weeks before going home.  It is hoped with all the systems and the work put in, that this season will see much longer trips and days at sea.

Winter Berthing

Yes, I'm back on the hard of the Yacht Haven, plugged in so that the heaters keep me warm and more importantly dry inside.  Work continues, but whilst waxing and polishing is a bit daft whilst the Starlings look for high perches to gather before their evening murmuration and deposit their day's findings on my deck, the old analog radar has been removed together with its cable and a new plate made in readiness for the new Doplar Raymarine digital radar to be fitted to the existing bracket.  Why Raymarine can't utilise the same bracket as the old beats me, a bit like no two phone chargers appears the same!

Still its off and a mouse line fed down the mast ready to draw the new cables down, this is something that the Skipper will do himself and call in the electronic Engineers to wire it to the boat's electronics.  If the Axiom MFD's live up to their expectations then all the Skipper has to do is press a virtual button to link the two together, job done right!  Yeah ok, your belief in electronics is the same as mine.

It is deemed that my ACU200 is undersized and I need a 400 instead, so shortly the old unit will be removed and sent back, and when the new one arrives be re-fitted.  Now there's a fair price difference between the 200 & 400 so let's see how helpful Raymarine wants to be. I only hope that their expert had a decent conversation with Jeffa, the people that manufactured my steering gear to ascertain if the 15amps drawn during our 'exercise' was to be expected and that the 40amp fuse is indeed the correct size and hence the need for the 400 unit.  Rather than upsizing but this doesn't deal with the problem of the autopilot wandering off when it feels like it.

The new satellite system is winging its way over from the States, once manufactured, the Skipper ordered it at the Southampton boat show back in September having seen a neat little grey box slightly larger than the size of a calculator.  It should provide mps speeds faster than the fibre broadband installed at his home enabling fast downloads of Grib files, phone calls through existing mobile phones, and of course, cover him for work, down and uploading files, and making Teams meetings wherever in the world we are.  All he needs to do is purchase a decent laptop that can handle all the programmes he uses, with the true sine wave inverter already fitted he can run the laptop with no issues.

We say farewell to a bleak 2021, although for the Skipper work has been quite buoyant, and look forward to taking some more and longer R&R time in 2022.

Have a good Christmas break and best wishes for the New Year.

Looking Forward

I have been entered into the 2022 Portuguese ARC rally leaving Plymouth in early June for a four-day passage across the Bay of Biscay to Spain then a series of day sails down the Portuguese coast finishing in Lisbon.  Skipper wants to push on to visit Gibraltar and Ceuta (Morocco) again before returning home.

Work for him is building again and so at this year's Southampton boat show 2021, he's paid a deposit on a yet-to-be-released communication device to connect to the satellite systems.  Enabling me to connect directly to the world wild web, enabling him not only to download the latest weather information anywhere on planet earth but also remain connected to Clients too.  The saloon becoming his office extension so to speak.

Upgrades have continued.  The davits I have used to hang a dinghy off my stern for when anchoring offshore have now been utilised to support a massive 200W rigid PV panel that re-charges my batteries really quickly in full sun and doesn't do too bad in cloudy conditions either.  Remembering that this is also complemented with the wind generator, which due to the power of the PV plays second fiddle.

The davits have been turned around as I'm facing North so the PV is facing south and what a difference.

This was the display panel showing the power input from the MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) control unit which opted to slow the wind generator despite still operating in bulk mode, prior to the later phases of absorption and float.  This, like the shore power and intelligent regulator for the engine alternator the Skipper fitted, ensures that sulphates do not build up on the battery plates and keeps them in tip-top condition.

With the master switch to the battery bank supplying the windlass, winch, and bow thruster's power failing on Saturday (9th October), causing the crew to abandon their plans to test the autopilot and bring me home instead.  It took a while to work out that it was the switch was the source of the issue, but a new one purchased and fitted again, so I'm back to where I should be.

The new log is still having issues as it's not reading at all now, Skip seems to think it is something to do with the fact that the original housing does not have a recess in it to take the lug present in the log casing itself.  If this is causing it to sit some 5mmm higher than it should be and thus the paddle wheel is contained within the hull rather than pocking out.  This might only get fixed when I'm out of the water and the through the hull housing can be changed over, or it might have something to do with the same bit of kit the autopilot is connected to!

Electronics and damp sea air, still these bits of kit are supposedly made for that environment !

2021 - Part 3

The furler finally arrived and skipper set to re-assembling the parts and getting me back together again.

So not quite the summer I had hoped as again skips business had taken on a new project.

Our fortnights holiday was crammed into 4 days and we did our usual to set off and head for our anchorage in Totland, I must have a word with the Crown as I think my names been washed away.  Then the realisation that we hadn’t done this for a long time, in that Skipper hadn’t provisioned any beers on board, nor had they bothered taking the dinghy with us, still a bag of rose wine later (the crew hadn’t forgotten) and we ought to be in for a quiet night.  With the wind dying down overnight, I seemed to roll on a swell that wasn’t there earlier, just enough to set my gooseneck creaking, although we had a cracking sail to clear some cobwebs away on the way.  The crew was also not happy as we only had 100lts of water in the tanks (25%).  So it was a case of ‘what we should do when we go to the boat’, so Skipper suggested we head to Portland and fill up there (plus there’s a restaurant and a LIDL to buy his beers).

Saturday and the windless theme prevailed, although Skipper took the opportunity to set a course for my autopilot to follow and we motor sailed using what little wind there was.  Skipper would have like to have tried the code 0 plus the J3 but the effort seemed too much for their holiday!  Before reaching St Albans Head or rather the closer one (Durlston Head), the autopilot was getting confused again and I started to fishtail putting us into a gybe!  Not sure if it has something to do with the fact that the tri data gauge was showing our boat speed at about 10 times less than it should be, so 0.60 should’ve been 6.0kts, this seemed to tally with SOG and the tidal data.  As we approached St Albans, Lulworth range was on the radio, not quite clear as to whether we needed to be south of the 15’ we headed out to pass the other yellow buoy to starboard. Why he didn’t say that our present course was ok so long as we didn’t deviate to the north I’m not sure, but I’m sure they sit up there and want something to do.  No shells were fired - the road cones along a lane of motorway syndrome.

We motored our way into the marina, where Skip had phoned to book a space and a table at the restaurant earlier in the day.

 Again I looked forward to another peaceful night, no wind no swell, super.  Alas, a squall went through during the night to the east of us and whipped up some 25knt winds, and Skip had to get up three times to sort out the clanging and banging that it was thought there was no need to prepare for!

Sunday and a mixed bag weather-wise.  We set off with a south-westerly bearing in mind it was supposed to be north by northwesterly, but I was doing well and we sailed out on the electronic wind vane past the shambles to give us a decent run back in in the hope that the wind would come round and we’d be lifted so as not to have to tack back out.  It didn’t happen.  What did happen, was for a very angry set of black clouds formed over Lulworth Cove to St Alban's Head and so we tacked out until it got darker and headed to windward to put a reef in, which everyone did remarkedly well considering how rusty they are. The crew went below to fetch the wet weather gear and lifejackets and put those on only for the clouds to have disappeared, we were at least doused with a light drizzle for their troubles.  We arrived on the northern end of Swanage Bay under the cliffs and ought to have had a peaceful night, nicer than Studland as there are no oiks on jet skis.  We even tried my anchor wizard press button to tell it when you’ve dropped the hook and let it know how much chain you put out, it then gives you a ring that includes a drift factor, and sets the alarm.  Skip even put a gybe preventer on to stop the gooseneck creaking, what he had forgotten is that the depth alarm is set to 1.5m and as we approached low water at 0330 off it went!

 Monday and the crew confirms that her hair appointment was for Wednesday, not Tuesday, but they had decided to head back.  We set off on what looked like another good northwesterly of 10-15kts, when the wind instrument hit 20kts we headed up and invoked the well-drilled exercise of reefing, slightly slicker than before and I was well balanced after the reefing, without weather helm and we flew back to the Needles at about 9,0kts most of the way!

 Unfortunately, as we pulled into Gurnard to drop the sails out of the tide, the lazy jack line that I had temporary cable ties failed and plonked the main on the deck!  Our sail ties came into good use.

Skipper went to this year's boat show and came back with a 2000W inverter, which can run to 4000w for 10 minutes enabling the use of 230v equipment on board from my batteries.  Things as phones, tablets, drill batteries, and the toaster.  I've also a new satellite communication system coming later in the year so that Skipper has access to the world whilst on board from wherever we may be.  This is part of the preparation for our trip in 2022 to Portugal!

My rigging has also been checked prior to our trip to Portland and tightened up quite considerably, this is following Skipper easing everything to remove the forestay.

Skipper has decided that there are still too many boats out there that either do not use AIS or turns it off deliberately and so has ordered a new Dopler digital radar system, more powerful but uses less power and instant startup.

With a small solar panel also bought from the boat show to keep the engine battery topped up as it's the only one not connected to the wind generator, Skip is also looking to install solar power too to complement the wind generator.

So again it might not have been a year of great passages but another where electronics have either been upgraded or new features added to make life on board more comfortable or workable if away for long periods, where his business is concerned.

2021 Part 2

It's not been the year I thought it might, skipper still busy with work and the weather has been fantastic then awful.

This year the Round the Island Race at least ran, not that I went out in it, but we had Nimrod and friends come to stay on the pontoon as usual and even a newer 470 'Junik' came to raft next to me, they were off at 0530, which is probably why Skip and crew didn't want to enter!

We had previously done the race in reverse a few months ago and not in one go, we left Cowes to head to Bembridge and met the building winds around the headland, but with a reef in the main and the fact that the furler wouldn't let out all of the jib earlier, we had a cobweb removing beat to windward to get round and head into Sandown Bay, where we stayed for the night.  This happened to be the same night that their friends on board Nimrod were out on the RORC race Myth of Malhem and so they watched them come round and wished them good luck on the radio and left them to disappear into the night.

The following day we had a cracking sail around St Cats leaving my systems to helm the boat whilst the crew was able to wander around and enjoy the scenery.  Although approaching Freshwater Bay the autohelm did let go again, but we're not sure if it was accidentally disengaged as the touch-sensitive plotter may have been inadvertently leaned on.  However, once recovered we approached the Needles and cut in from the buoy marking the end of the shallows, the sea was rolly, Skipper holding the mainsheet and calling the shots, as a gybe was called for once on the other side, whilst his crew had me surfing down the waves.  Two of us (boats) took the shortcut, exhilarating and worrying at the same time, but we rounded as planned and pulled into Totland once again.

On Sunday the wind had left us but that didn't stop the skipper from trying the Code 0 and using the autohelm to tack whilst crew pulled in the sheet and Skipper spun the furler.  It worked a couple of times but the wind died and I didn't have enough speed to complete a turn, meaning that the Code 0 backed and when a puff did come filled from the wrong side.  All furled up on went the donk and headed home.

The developing problem of the furler eventually had Skippers' mind going, eventually biting the bullet and opting to replace it.  The system is a French one, Facnor, and their mindset is for low to no maintenance, maybe the occasional wash with fresh water of both top and bottom furlers and that it.  It's made that way stainless steel ball-bearings packed with grease in a stainless steel case and a weatherproof seal.  However, it had been getting stiff to wind in, and certainly, you'd expect the wind would easily unfurl it given the chance!  And it may have been the storm that trashed the original jib a few years ago that did the damage as that had no problem in getting all the sail out!

However, the first task was to take the furlers and aluminum foil down to ground (or pontoon) level.  This means that the forestay has to be eased to enable the large bolt at the tip of my bow to be withdrawn and Skipper wanted to do that without any tension at all.  Probably, as he was working some 4feet above the water and any loss over the side meant another item donated to the depths of the River Medina!  Also, if it was easy to slide out then it should be as easy to put back.

He (Skipper) wandered around my decks for a while looking at how the loads worked together to keep my mast slightly bent biased to the rear with the fractional rig I have and what would be required to undo and bring it down, without bringing the whole of the rigging crashing to the deck.  First things first, was to undo and remove the backstay, this is a 19wire 'rope' that can be tensioned to pull the top of the mast backward, hence its name this, in turn, invokes a bend in the mast and creates a sag in the mainsail, losing some of the sails power, so useful in strong winds and to provide a balance between the sails meaning the rudder remains dead center.  Any deviation from dead center produces friction and as we all know friction slows things down.  In its place, he used both the topping lift (used to raise or support the boom) and the main sheet and lead these to my stern quarters, creating 'flying' backstays so to speak.

It was then up to the French to send a replacement to the main dealer in Plymouth and so the wait started! 

2021 has finally arrived!

It's here, well it's been here for three months now - 2021 and it looks like you chaps in the UK are coming out of the national lockdown, hopefully with a bit of common sense and in an unselfish way you'll stay out!

And so it's looking better for the new sailing season and again so am I.  Skipper stayed out of the Yacht Haven as requested to comply with the requirements of the lockdown and then received not only full and complete invoices for the months I was there but a phone call reminding him I was due to go back into the water on the 1st March.  This was not received well, as none of the work to the outside of my hull had been carried out only a few bits inside during December, plus others he could take home with him to clean, etc.  So a sort of agreement was reached that if he could manage the 16th, so he set too on his trusty scaffold tower and gave me a good going over.

It was around this time that my new mainsail had been finished and was ready for collection.

Having tested the fluxgate compass and the clutch on the motor on my autopilot Skipper was still not happy that the problem of me wandering off course had been located let alone fixed.  He opted to order a replacement and I can tell you that today 7th April it was fitted as was the new main.  All my Christmasses have come at once.

Having spoken to his youngest son, a tree feller, Skip bought himself some SLT climbing gear (single-line technique), this enables him to climb up, the mast in this case, and lower himself down again.  So after a few practices making sure he had the gear correctly fitted he shimmied up the rope and replaced the two-deck lights from under the first spreader.  The former plastic C clips had suffered from age and weather and turned brittle and broke in pieces leaving the old lights hanging down and open to more weathering.

The next job will be to bring down the analog radar that the new Axiom MSD cannot read, that'll save some weight halfway up the mast, although it'll be replaced with a loud hailer.  This is so that in the fog the VHF radio can carry out the necessary fog horn sounds, save the skipper having to pump up the one he's got now.  And that's another thing, the Raymarine speaker in the cockpit is not reliable and so I'm getting a replacement from a better manufacturer of VHF's.  Likewise having a new P70s head controller for the new autopilot sitting on deck shows up the old SD wind and tri data gauges and so they're going to be replaced too.

On the 15th of April, we finally set off in what was deemed to be light airs all weekend.  With the new main hoisted and engine under tick over, the opportunity was taken to check that everything was in the right place, tied to the correct thing, and without twist or hindrance - it was.  It was just after lunch and with light not fading till around 2000 it was decided that we'd reach Totland and call it as to whether we'd press on to Studland or Swanage.  By the time we were in the Needles Channel the Solent sea breeze had picked up to around 15kts and the tide had spat us out at around 8kts, within minutes of clearing land the breeze died again.  This gave us the chance to try out the new autopilot and so skip placed a 'go to' waypoint south of the shipping channel into Poole and hit go.

The noise from the steering appeared a lot quieter than before strange seeing as the same motor was being used however, the new computer takes into account pitch, roll, yaw, tide, and wind speeds and so the journey was a very smooth one.  Apparently, the 'system' learns my characteristics and adjusts accordingly!

What was a surprise was that whilst the cross-track error grew as the tide turned and the words 'steer to starboard' came up none of my occupants realised it was an instruction, the autopilot in this mode it seems doesn't automatically steer to the waypoint.  Further investigation needed.

Would Skipper get the first night at anchor in complete rest with little to no wind?  Of course not, it might have been shipping taking advantage of the late high tide to move in or out of Poole or just a reflective swell coming around Old Harry.  Fortunately, the Webasto had been timed to come on at 0430 for four hours which it duly did and took the growing chill out of the air and more importantly the condensation from building above the heads of the occupants of the master cabin before it accurately dropped on their faces below.

Saturday morning dawned and Skip brought out Thor Junior the Code 0 and secured it on deck.  A bright sunny morning implied another day of light airs in which he can try his dual sail package.  With a slight apparent breeze forming as the momentum gained under engine whilst leaving the anchorage was turned into power.  Whites were raised and I didn't look back, 6.0kts of apparent wind and 6.5kts Speed Over Ground recorded, I could point higher too, clearly, the combination of the new main and the year-old jib was working well, Thor Junior lay in wait.

I passed three other yachts in the north channel by Hurst Castle and once clear tacked in front of them to head into Totland.  It had been a cracking four hours of sailing. Texts flying to and fro and the manual for the P70s control head was passed across and read by both parties.  It seemed that the satellite bar at the bottom was indicating that the system needed calibrating, something Skip had been told wasn't necessary and so a penalty turn was required to sort this out.

The Webasto was this time left on in Eco mode with the temperature set to 16C, the night was a peaceful one.

The Needles Channel was a millpond, only ripples pointing at the direction of flow from crab pot buoys disturbed the surface.  With main hoisted not one but two penalty turns were carried out and bingo the satellite bar pinged into life stating that the calibration had been successful.  With whites again raised 7.0kts SOG towards Hurst in an otherwise still day, this time the auto tack process was initiated and so my bow slowly but deliberately came through 90 degrees and pointed 30degrees to the wind.  This novelty was tried several times as we made our way back to Cowes.

Finally, the wind dropped further and so Skipper hoisted Thor Junior behind the jib. This took longer whilst he remembered what was needed to prevent lines from being crossed, eventually, not only did the wind stay long enough but Cowes loomed and so we headed in having dropped the sails.  Thor did get deployed but only once tied up on W pontoon!

Can't wait for the next time out, see if I can keep up the performance and try the 'follow' route mode.

2020 Part 3

The 2020 season has come to end early due to the actions of the current Government, I am due to come out of the water on the 1st of December which is still true but Skipper and crew could still make use of the time left to take me out despite having a few weekends planned with visitors or rips away.  Firstly Skip was due to take his son back up to Norfolk where his drift car had been left a week prior to having its ECU remapped to produce more power out of the engine but also to ensure that cold, as well as hot starting, wasn't a problem.

The Government closing the door meant that skip had to abandon, although his son along with a friend of his went to collect the car, people's business relies on others paying their bills and collecting the goods.  The Crew had also arranged for friends to turn up but this has had to be abandoned too as it's not an essential journey!  So my team turned up this weekend (7th November) and removed both my main, jib & lazy jack bag.

The latter requires a new zip having had one of the handles of the double-sided zip get caught in the pulleys at the end of the boom and a patch where it has got caught elsewhere.

On the 1st December, I'm being taken back to the yacht haven to be put back on the hard for three months whilst skip goes right through me to clean and prepare for 2021.  He has a few new projects up his sleeve so we'll see if these come to fruition. Whilst I have not been far this year, I have benefitted from Skips' busy commercial year with the top-down furler for my code 0, on the new bracket.  The new Webasto heater with the ducting sleeved with a thermal sock and junctions turned round to provide the air pressure within to circulate air throughout my interior and the J3

I have it on good authority that my main will be replaced this winter in the same material as the J3 DP Hydranet 393!

With 2020 being a lost year for you humans maybe 2021 can be a year to push boundaries.