Sailing log

Tuesday 20th June 2000
Stepping Crew: 9
Weather: 0-5 mph S-SW
Crane was already up.

The mast went up easily. From the wind dropping off to the mast being up including calling the helpers and them getting there took 1 hour.
Rear tubes need more stiffening to increase safety margin.

Monday 20th December 1999
Unstepping Crew: 7
Weather: 0-5 mph SW-NW

New crane assembled and went up easily. Block and tackle attached the wrong way up due to the shackles being stored on the wrong block. The mast came down quickly and easily. The crane came down easily a longer forked pole would make things even easier.
Time Taken 3 hours (incl. Break)

Wednesday 3rd November 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 8
Rib Crew: 2
Weather: SSW 5-12 knots

The new car lock system worked well two runs through the speed coarse at Thornham were completed at 200m then 100m off the beach average speed for the day was 15 knots approx max speed was 25 knots approx there was too much twist in the sail due to no halyard lock.

Friday 17th September 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 4
Rib Crew: 4
Weather: SSW 15-20 knots gusting more than that

Borderline conditions to say the least. After much persuasion Simon gave the order to go. Boat sailed impressively doing 25 knots boats speed with 2/3's of the sail flogging. Steering and control were excellent at those sort of speeds. Tried pulling in the main sail fully at one point BUT the outhaul ripped off the back end of the boom. Boat bore away needed to luff up to slow down and regain control. Parachute anchors did not work at this speed!
Rib became involved, rib driver got it a bit wrong and hit the boat. Simons finger got squashed. Towed the boat ashore. One volunteer got a cut on the head when he was pulling the fin out. Needed four stitches were administered by team doctor good thing we had two doctors aboard. On balance and important day for the project. A big confidence boost all round good performance by the boat. Just a shame things keep breaking.

Saturday 11th September 1999
Sailing Crew: 3
Shore Crew: 6
Rib Crew: 2
Weather: SSW 15-20 knots

ABORTED sail would have been a great sail but rib still not working HAD arranged another motor boat but it did not turn up.

Thursday 2nd September 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 5
Rib Crew: 2
Weather: SW 15 knots

Brilliant conditions everything went like clockwork BUT the rib failed to start. Serious problem with the starter motor. Rather than waste the brilliant conditions we organised the help of two other boats this took nearly an hour. However by the time we went afloat a sea breeze had set in this gave South close to the shore, no wind half a mile off then NE about a mile off shore. We chased zephyrs for an hour or so, but went ashore when our covering boats had to leave. Had to land into a fickle southerly which was very tricky had to pass our buoy and tie in a big hurry. Meanwhile the shore crew had tied all our lines together and swum the line out so we could pull the boat ashore. Very difficult but executed very cleanly. A great credit to all involved. Very good for our confidence to have this sort of boat handling practice.

Wednesday 1st September 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 2
Rib Crew: 3
High Tide: 10:46 am
Weather: N

Good 3 hours sailing, light at first but wind filled in NE after an hour or so. Lots of miles covered good tacking practice. No great speeds 15-20 knots only.

Friday 27th August 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 7
Rib Crew: 2
High Tide: 20.00

Good outing, tested the method of locking the leeward hull and steering on the windward only seems to work ok. Wind died as sun-down approached which as a shame. We performed at about 16 knots in 5-8 knots of breeze. Ground handling very slick possibly goes better with less people. We proved we can recover the boat and pack it up in 45 mins or less.

Thursday 26th August 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 11
Rib Crew: 4
Weather: SW

ABORTED sail wind from SW but to much of it wind died off later but too close to sundown.

Tuesday 17th August 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 6
Rib Crew: 3
High Tide: 10:53 am
Started Activity: 08:00 am
Weather: SW 10 - 12 knots

Boat performed very well and made about 22 knots. Afloat for an hour.
Halyard slipped slightly and the outer casing of the stripped mainsheets gave way.
Opposite side steering free of knots now but still not adequate. Will replace with a better system in due course.
Broke in new Rib driver.

Friday 13th August 1999
Sailing Crew: 3
Shore Crew: 10
Rib Crew: 2
High Tide: 08:25 am
Started Activity: 06:00 am
Weather: SW 20 knots

ABORTED sail SW wind but gusting to 20 knots by 07:30 weather front expected. Simon called it off.

Friday 6th August 1999
Sailing Crew: 3
Shore Crew: 10
Rib Crew: 3
Weather: Strong NE

ABORTED sail, could have sailed but chose to have a maintenance day instead.
Fixed problem on Monday 9th a twist had formed in bottom 2 steering ropes on that side. Untied and re-threaded them.

Thursday 5th August 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 8
Rib Crew: 3
High Tide: 12:52
Started Activity: 10:00 am
Weather: Light NE

We achieved about 2 hours good sailing.
Still some steering problems but we made good progress learning how the tensions in the system affect its working.
Probably achieved 15+ knots.

Tuesday 3rd August 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 10
Rib Crew: 2
Weather: NE force 4

ABORTED sail despite light SE forecast, persistent NE force 4 set in accompanied by 2-3 foot swell.
Waited 2 hours abated slightly but still not viable.

Sunday 18th July 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 5
Rib Crew: 3
High Tide: 10:48 am
Started Activity: 08:00 am
Weather: SW 12 knots, WNW 14-16 knots when we went afloat.

Boat very quick to begin with but the swell was very unpleasant to sail through. Boat flexed a great deal and the slamming put undesirable loadings on the boat. CANNOT sail in NW.
Probably achieved 15-20 knots boat speed.
After 20 mins the steering on the STBD hull locked and we were forced ashore.

Friday 2nd July 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 3 - 2 came later
Rib Crew: 2
High Tide: 09:29 am
Started Activity: 07:30 am
Weather: SW 8-12 knots

Boat sailed very nicely indeed until steering pulleys on port side forward cockpit came out with a bang insufficient reinforcement. Sailed home on opposite tack, but STBD pulleys came out in exactly the same way. Simon to fix.
Speed up to about 20 knots only as we had not really put the boat on full throttle. More than 20 knots would definitely have been possible. Comment was made that the mainsheet loads were very high. Are they too high? Do we need to go to 3:1 or 4:1?
Parachute anchors seem very effective in operation. Need to have them at each corner.
Simon reckons boat was not quite planing today this is as he would have predicted so the performance calculations seem about right.
The ground handling crew was down to seven today which is not really enough need a minimum of 8 or we are struggling.

Tuesday 29th June 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 6
Rib Crew: 2
High Tide: 07:33 am
Started Activity: 06:00 am

Sufficient wind for the first hour. Good progress made never over 10 knots though performed at least 3 tacks unassisted.
Second hour wind died. Chased Zephyrs for a while headed home at about 10.00 am.
Ground handling smooth and very good. Rib wouldn't start for a good hour engineer was required.

Tuesday 22nd June 1999
Sailing Crew: 3
Shore Crew: 11
Rib Crew: 3
High Tide: 14:29
Started Activity: 11:30
Weather: WNW 7-14 knots

ABORTED sail weather never turned SW as forecast probable cause was prevailing weather fighting a sea breaze.
Waited till 14:45 then de-rigged as wind seemed to be building quickly.
Tested new Halyard locking system - spinlock seems to be ok though tightens as mast rotates. Recruited and trained some new people.

Saturday 19th June 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 12
Rib Crew: 3
High Tide: 11:12 am
Started Activity 07:00 am
Weather: WSW 8-12 knots

Simon slightly concerned about direction of wind but confirmed it was a viable though not ideal direction. Build up was smooth and trouble free given a largely untrained crew. New bowser worked at treat. Rib was less smooth as it failed to start. This was put down to inexperience of the crew and flooding the motor engineer required. Once sorted the rib performed very well. ABORTED sail due to casing of Halyard parting at cam-cleat location. Had been reported to Simon after last sail but no action had been taken. Halyard taken to Regnart Rigging on Monday and Simon to fit spinlock to top of X beam in line from turn round mast base through to winch.

Tuesday 1st June 1999
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 9
Rib Crew: 2
High Tide: 08:30 am
Weather: Very light and variable 2-5 knots SW gusting about 8 knots

Broke shear pins on launch will go straight to the buoy in future need a more convenient system. Most of the sailing just a gentle drift frustrating from that point of view.
Steering very little feel due to slow speed. Cleats for tensioning system broke must fix a.s.a.p. otherwise gearing now correct.
Insufficient rig tension. Must tighten to settings established last year.
Cockpits need some system to see where we are (wing mirror?, hole in floor?)
Wind dropped away and came back light NE went home at that point. Tied to rib, dropped main, rib towed us to our mooring. Tidied up main and tied to X beam went out backwards.

Monday 23rd November 1998
Sailing Crew: 4
Shore Crew: 8
High Tide: 08:36 am

The steering system was not operating properly, hence the 4th crewman. Two reasons for this:
a.    sand in the bearings
b.    winches ineffective due to too stiff rope and also too high gear ratio. Some car bolts also still to long.
Steering for the most part was effected by physically pushing the rig back and forth. However steering seemed to become easier as the time passed. Possibly down to sand leaving the cars. Best performance was from STBD rear winch which operated near perfectly towards the end of the sail.
Halyard locked by Harken cleat at mast base, therefore creep was experienced in the Halyard. Sailing was abandoned due to this cleat failing. Mode of failing is not clear as there appears to be no damage to the cleat or Halyard the mainsail fell down though.
Performance estimate is around 20 knots boat speed in 7-8 knots of wind. No visible bow or stern wave - very good sign.
First Tack performed with no assistance at all. Subsequent tacks required either a push on backing the mainsail. Still considering whether more luffing up power is needed.

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