Author Archives: Joe Cooper

About Joe Cooper

Australian-born, Rhode Island-based sailing coach and consultant.

Preparing for sailing offshore

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When sailing solo or double-handed, offshore cruising or racing

The ability to set sails for use in heavy weather, including storm sails, is critical for any boat venturing offshore. In the case of the Morris 36, seen below, showing a Solent sail being checked for fit, having the rigging systems AND the sails are only one category of consideration. Inspection of all the component parts, of each part of a yachts major systems (see below) and assuring their suitability to the task is critical to a safe and successful passage.

Fig. 1. The owner of this Morris Justine 36 cruises with his wife and young kids, AND competes in the Bermuda 1-2, a “RACE” held every two years, from Newport to Bermuda solo and then a DH race back. All the kit he has purchased for “racing” is used when cruising.

Offshore sailing, “cruising” is almost universally undertaken by couples or otherwise short-handed crews as with the Morris 36 seen above. It is my strong conviction, built on more than 60 years of sailing, that “shorthanded” is a mindset more than a numerical quantity.

For instance:

Four souls on a 50-footer are sailing short-handed, especially if IT hits the fan.

Fig. 2 Heavy weather in the north Pacific aboard a Stephens 50. I was one of four crew on this delivery. Winds over 50 knots for 12 hours, with seas to match, required we paid attention, to for instance water in the bilge and chafe on the sheets and halyards.

I sailed Transatlantic on the J-class yacht Endeavor, a 40-meter monster, with 12 souls, and I can assure you THAT passage was short-handed.

Fig. 3. A series of pictures taken aboard the J-Class Yacht Endeavour in December 1991. We were 300 or so miles SW of the Canaries bound towards Antigua. Winds a steady 40, to 45 knots. One watch keeper reported a gust of 52. Rather than making her go fast, the problem was slowing her down. High single digits was preferable in this seaway and not the 13-15 kts. that was more common when she had the bit in her teeth.

I center this discussion around the Bi-annual Bermuda 1-2 out of Newport RI. Not because it is a race, quite the opposite, rather the boats represent a cross section of what most sailors sail, and they are equipped in ways that people venturing offshore should study. In my assessment.

The Bermuda 1-2 is the oldest race of its kind in the US, is Solo, from Newport to Bermuda and Double handed return to Newport. While it is nominally a race, the Organizing Authority emphasize the goal of making a safe seamanlike passage and so the race has more of the elements of a fast cruise in Company although there is a competitive spirit and trophies. They are going to where Goslings is made after all…

By far the bulk of competitors in any given year are sailing what I think of as “normal” yachts. Broadly speaking the boats represent the pantheon of post WW2 US, European and Asian production fiberglass yachts. Owners often compete in the BDA 1-2, with family members, wives’, sons’, daughters, then take the boats on the family cruise and or the local PHRF racing in their home ports or simply return to weekend cruising.

This post and the several subsequent posts discuss the requirements one should contemplate in advance of participating in any offshore voyaging short-handed, racing or not.

Fig. 4. This Beneteau Oceanus 351, competed in the BDA 1-2 in 2011

The Beneteau 351 shown in Fig 4. sailed not only in the Bermuda 1-2 in 2011, but in the 2013 O.S.T.A.R. The owner/skipper made his delivery passage to England solo and was very well prepared. A good thing too because west of the Azores he encountered a serious blow and sustained a mast head in the water knock down. The degree of planning and preparation he had undertaken, things like all the stray electronics-portable sat phone, laptop, cell phones, cables, in a watertight Kayak bag then tied down, for instance, allowed him to get back on track, quickly, stop in the Azores, pick a new wind wand and carry on to Plymouth.

To the body of this series:

I will be reviewing the list(s) of what I think of as critical things to think about. Note this series will not encompass weather forecasting, nor particularly performance aspects of sailing, with a couple of exceptions.

The hull; Including the deck and the hull to deck attachments and the structures basic integrity, lack of voids delamination’s etc., windows & ports and the structure supporting the keel.

The keel, rudder & steering: Including the keel attachment bolts, the rudder structure including the rudder shaft, bearings or bushings, the steering chains & cables, idlers & cogs, alignment in good clean lubed serviceable order and all clear of potential or actual chafe. And emergency steering

Spars and standing rigging: Including the spar tube, corrosion especially at the step, spreaders, and their connections to the tube, shroud connections, shrouds themselves, Chainplates and bolts, turnbuckles, sheaves, sheave pins and wiring lighting issues. Mast security to the boat.

Watertight integrity: Including the various hatches and ports around the boat, cockpit lockers, the main hatch. All these must not let water in.

Engine operations: The main part of the engine: Get the oil inspected, engine mountings, alternator reliability, axles in true, belts sound, hose clamps and hoses in good order, through hulls smooth and easy to operate and secured with double hose clamps. Wood plugs close by on a lanyard. Fuel tank security, capacity and consumption, clean fuel, shut off values for both fuel lines at tank end. shut off for the air vent at the intake end. Make sure the exhaust will not back siphon ocean water, that the Cutlass bearing is sound, no movement in the P strut, propeller is smooth and balanced, no nicks or dings in it.

Power systems: Including the 12-volt systems, cabling NOT run thru areas where bilge water can accrue, the size and cleanliness of the cables, esp. where they are connected to the engine, watertightness of the connections, security against vibrations, water proofing of the parts exposed to water, spray etc.

Sails and sail handling rigging systems: Including reefing systems, small sails, and systems to rig them, furler integrity, the systems for using spinnakers, the deck layout and sail control lines set up for easy smooth and fast thinking free adjustments

Emergency actions: There are 8 major events a sailor must be prepared to think about and act on when at sea. We will get to these in a later post. These are the events that have over the years created the long list of safety equipment offshore race boats must carry.

Husbandry- Care and feeding of the boat and crew. Amount of and cleanliness of freshwater, delivery systems, and backup system, reliability of pumps systems, plumbing for the head hoses, use of head, fresh water for flushing, vinegar for combating smells, the stove, back up stove (?), security of the propane hoses, food type, ease of preparing volume for stowage, need for reefer. Swinging table, cup holders, cups, labeled for each person.

The HULL and DECK structures

A cross section of boats entered in the Bermuda 1-2 over the past few years include:

  • Sabre
  • Morris Justine
  • Hanse
  • Freedom
  • Tartan
  • Alberg
  • Beneteau
  • C&C
  • Jeanneau
  • Sigma
  • Pearson
  • Bristol
  • On the more performance end of the scale are a variety the newer, faster J-boats products and
  • Class 40’s
  • Mini Transat 650’s
  • Quest 30’s and 33’s
  • Hobie 33’S
  • Olson, 29 & 30

CONSTRUCTION METHODS:

Fig 5. Conventional carvel planked timber, such as Thora, seen above. She is a 1962 Ted Hood designed Little Harbor 37, carvel planked, CB yawl motoring into Bermuda at the conclusion of the 2018 Newport to Bermuda Race. A father and son crew.

Fig. 5. shows a classically built wooden boat, that was at the time of the picture, about 56 years old. The father and son crew competed in the DH class in the Newport to Bermuda Race.

In other words, do not be dissuaded from sailing in the ocean in a wooden boat. It used to happen all the time.

There are two classes of fiberglass boat construction

SINGLE SKIN & CORED

  1. Single skin. Single skin is, as the name implies, all FIBERGLASS. There is no core, it is NOT a fiberglass sandwich. The old style, built like a tank method. Usually, the standard on boats built before about the late 1970’s. Older Pearson, Bristol, Ericson C&C, Ranger etc.

2. Cored Construction: A more contemporary fiberglass sandwich technique where the fiberglass skins are layered over a “core” material of some type. The most commonly used cores are a synthetic foam core: Divinycell and Airex are two brand names. Wood-Plywood and Balsa in a specialized form are used too, plywood not at all since the late 1970’s I’d guess.

Fig 6. This picture shows the interior structure of my 1970 Ranger 33. Here I am cutting out the headliner. The plywood core can be seen, behind my hand. The dark areas are where the plywood core is water soaked. The water was coming in thru the bolted down handrails. Because of the structure technique, the bolts came thru the outside skin, the plywood core and into the headliner.

Some older boats use Plywood though use of this material as a core petered out in the 1970’s.

Cores made from Balsa wood are common, especially in the J-boats lines.

There is a material called Honeycomb, not used in production boats due to costs, costs of skilled labor needed and the more sophisticated techniques for fabricating and issues with durability-puncturing for instance, and general wear and tear. It is sound material and common in specialized race boats, just not a good value material, suitable for production for production boats.

FIBERGLASS:

There are typically two types, classes, of fibers used in retail, production boat building. E glass and S glass. These names refer to the mechanical properties of the fibers used in the construction. Generally speaking, the S glass has “better” mechanical properties than E glass. It is more expensive.

Carbon fiber is unlikely to be found in any production boat (except for masts) largely due to cost but also it requires a higher level of artisan skill and related manufacturing methods and techniques, vacuum bagging for one, skill to work properly.

ISSUES:

Fiberglass is generally pretty bullet proof stuff from which to build almost anything, including sail boats. It does need to be inspected once in a while. Ironically it does not like to be in sunlight. It does not like to flex. Both of the negatives of these two features take a long time to manifest.

DELAMINTIONS:

This is a separation of the “skin” (one layer of fiberglass fabric and glue) from the core material. Known in the trade as Delams, these are the sites on a boat suffering this seperation and are readily found by sounding, tapping in a very close pattern along the structure. Voids and delams have a hollower sound than structure that is sound. Such technique with a rubber mallet is typically done by a surveyor at a pre-purchase inspection. This is of course common when purchasing the boat, assuming it is used. There is no reason why an owner cannot do it. Delams are generally developed over time, and use. The conditions for delamination’s in the future is typically created at manufacturing by the laminate being “Dry” as in no, or not enough, resin in the area in question.

VOIDS:

These are a subset of delams where there is NO resin in the site in question. These are an original manufacturing flaw, typically around corners. Fiberglass as a laminate cannot, or rather it is not sound to do so, be bent around a hard 90-degree corner. IF you examine your boat, you will never see a sharp corner, rather they are rounded corners, the smallest usually bigger than a 5/16” radius. Voids are where the resin is not fully spread around the fibers in a particular area. Small Voids in the corner of a cockpit corner are not particularly worrisome. Larger voids in areas of load, around the chainplates, mast partners and step etc. are more important.

Before going out in the ocean it is very worthwhile, for your own peace of mind, and your families (including your insurance agents) to thoroughly inspect all parts of the hull. Many of the systems noted above overlap. Chainplates to mast and hull for example. Check for delams and or voids in way of where the chainplates attach. It is not uncommon for Balsa cored boats to be “soft” around the chainplates due to water ingress thru the chainplates and into the deck structure.

The J-boats products the seeping chainplates are, frankly, endemic as much as I love the guys, the firm and the boats. Delamination’s in the deck around the chainplates are something to be addressed.

WATER INGRESS: Anywhere water can get into the boat is a location for delams. In the case of Balsa core, water propagates thru the Balsa, and so can spread from local ingress to larger areas of the boat over time, if not cut off at the knees. Not the case with the foams because they are ‘closed cells”, like honeycomb.

Common areas of water ingress include along the Genoa tracks, (see Fig 7, below) where hardware is attached to the deck, winches, clutches, cleats, the wee eye-straps for the dodger. These innocuous fittings, and their fasteners very likely penetrate only the outside skin and so are a prime location for water ingress into the spaces between the core, if the boat is so built, and the inside of the outer skin. If the core is Balsa, this water propagates away from the original screw hole(s) pretty quickly. AND of course, the bases of the stanchion guards for the dorades any on deck winches and so on.

Fig 7 . This picture is the deck of my Ranger 33. I have removed the genoa track and bored out the bolt holes. Again, there is much water penetration as evidenced by the darker pieces of swarf. This is water-logged plywood. The water gets (got) in thru the bolt holes and propagates thru the plywood core between the inside skin of the deck and the inside skin of the headliner. In this case the plywood acts as a sort of faux core structure. Anywhere the water can travel thru the plywood, it will. Such propagation is very random and difficult to stop and or repair without some serious work.

The hull deck joint:

In particular with boats having a perforated aluminum toe rail, like the C&C’s, seen below come to mind. These finish details are used to help hold the deck to the hull and by inserting fasteners on usually 4-inch centers. The technique noted above for drilling such holes, oversize and back filling as the noted technique is called, is just not viable and so not done in the case of production boats. Too time consuming and man hours are expensive.

photo credit (C) Bill Shea Photography

A boat of 40 feet LOA and 11 feet wide might have say, 42 feet of gunnel with such toe rail installed. 42 feet with holes on 4-inch centers, so three per foot, will have 126 holes, PER SIDE, for a total of 252. This does not count the bow and stern rail. Four legs per each rail, 3 bolts per leg, times two is another 24 bolt holes, for a total of 276 holes, perhaps 5/16” diameter BEFORE YOU GET TO THE DECK HARDWARE.

Many boats have a box like design where the deck lip fits over a matching lip on the top edge of the hull. Several tubes of sealant are injected onto these flanges and the deck and hull are mated. Sometimes this connection is held together mechanically with bolts, sometimes the sealant is sufficiently robust to glue the whole lot together.

Some kind of cap rail, commonly teak, is then installed again held down with screws, usually not 5/16 inch and some kind of sealant.

There are a few other ways builders use of doing this task, the point is to find out how your boat is manufactured and make sure water does not get in thru the hull deck joint. If it has been, stop it.

Screwed in windows, small fittings, particularly small hardware that is merely screwed into the fiberglass all need to be inspected. Invariably such screws will certainly penetrate to the inside, the core side of the skin and so offer a channel for water to get in. In an ideal world, all holes in the structure will be drilled oversize, the local core removed, the hole and subsequent void filled with epoxy mixed with a thickener. When this goo cures, the correct size hole for the fastener is drilled, and the water cannot, if the technique is done properly, get to the core. This technique can be seen and followed using techniques from the WEST Epoxy guys, Gougeon Brothers in Bay City MI.

The numbers of holes small and large in the average production boat does not lend itself to such time (and so cost) rigors. BUT if want to not have problems and want to keep the boat for a while, such work is rewarded with a high degree of confidence and in particular when It has hit the Fan at sea.

What is to be done with this foregoing list if things to think about?

Consider the age of your boat- For classes like Bristol, Catalina, Pearson Ranger etc. there are builder/class forums. I am a member of the Ranger Forum on FB, the internet is fantastic for such research.

IF you are contemplating upgrading your current boat, to a bigger one, for The Exit Plan, these considerations ought to be on the boat shopping punch list. at least as high up as how many cabins, heads and burners on the stove. The bulk of the issues discussed, above and in this series in general will, or should be, discovered by a surveyor. Bring your questions about these issues to his attention in advance.

AND remember, you need not be contemplating racing to consider these issues. The foregoing items of strength and reliability equaling seaworthiness play into any boat planning on going in the ocean.

KEEL & RUDDER. The mechanics of how these two components are in corporate into the boat are derived from the age, and so the design and construction techniques in use at the time the boat was designed, not necessarily built. Some older style boats, I am thinking boats say in the Bristol line were still building “the same boat” in the seventies that was designed in the 1960’s. The rudder and keel, in particular need some professional inspection because any issues with them are invariably invisible to the naked eye, from the outside.

KEEL:

There are two common methods for affixing the keel with production boats.

  1. Encapsulated and

2. Bolted on.

Encapsulated:  This technique, largely obsolete today involves the keel of the boat being laminated with the actual hull shape and when the boat is upright pouring lead into the void constructed to accept it.

Bolt on: This is the technique where the keel is poured into a mould, usually offsite by a firm who specializes in this work. There is a structure inside the mold, built for the purpose, around which the lead forms. This structure has threaded rods exposed on the top of the keel. These rods, now resembling bolts, after the lead is poured, ultimately are inserted thru holes in the bottom of the boat, nuts and washers are installed and tightened up. This work demands a high level of engineering in order to ensure the design of the component pards, the details of the welding, the particular properties of the steel used, is sound and seaworthy.

SUMPS: These are pretty common in the J-boats product. I find them to be a double-edged sword. They certainly allow a collection place for the water that inevitably enters any sailing boat. The intention of course. And so it is easy and through for the automatic bilge pump to bail out the boat. this is certainly convenient on general. The downside to me is there is a box on the bottom of the boat, that must be glued TO the boat with sufficient integrity to resist the gyrations of the keel, leveraged by being on the bottom of the box, commonly 20 -24 inches below the box hull connection. Lever arm indeed.

Any grounding requires inspection and possibly repair, rising to the level of serious depending on the circumstances of the grounding. Running into a rock at 7 knots does all manner of nasty things to the hull and framing structure too, again driven by the leverage of the keel. I have seen the interior of a J-105 so damaged and it ain’t pretty.

AGING:

The encapsulated method is pretty bullet proof in my estimation. My own Ranger 33 is so built and there are no cracks at the keel hull joint and no keel bolts to fret over. The downside is if there is a grounding, and the laminate in which the keel is held is penetrated, water can get inside the “keel” and can be an ongoing pain in the neck. Any repairs to such a keel need to ensure the water is all evacuated and te area is really properly dry, before closing the hole.

Keel bolts method: This technique has been around for ages and was how the keels on wooden boats were affixed, “in the day”. The issues here that a grounding can damage the structure to which the keel is attached and bend the keel bolts. In any event, when preparing for offshore sailing it may be worthwhile having the keel bolts examined by Non-Destructive Testing. This is roughly like an ultrasound as when your wife is pregnant. Roughly the same looking tool and similar looking pictures result.

An upside for a bolt on keel is they are able to be replaced in the event you find the need to.

THE RUDDER:

Rudders have some kind of structure inside the rudder itself, usually a metal fabrication with flanges spreading mainly aft from the rudder post. For production boats the rudders are made from, or in a mould. The rudder post and fabrications are put into the mold, and foam is into the mould also. The foam is faired off and the fiberglass is applied to the mould.

Issues: Any water ingress into the fiberglass/foam area, from age, cracking, the various dings we manage to inflict on our boats, generates corrosion on the metal fabrication parts.

The Rudder post/Bearings/Bushings

The rudder post enters the hull and extends up to the area where the designer says he wants it to exit to attach to the tiller. In the older boats, like my Ranger, so pre 1970 say, and tiller steered, the stainless rudder post enters into a fiberglass tube, glassed-in that is fixed to the boat between the inside skin of the hull and the inside skin of the cockpit. This tube may or may not have an inside bushing of some slippery plastic, or sometimes simply grease or similar lubricant.

This bushing tube method is a fast way of getting the rudder/steering system installed into the boat, assuming the steering is to be tiller.

For a boat with this arrangement using a wheel, the fiberglass tube stops some distance away, down, from the inside of the deck and there is a watertight cap on the glass tube. The quadrant affixes to the shaft, now exposed between the cap and the underside of the deck. The tube needs to be more vigorously reinforced of course.

A wheel steered boat has a quadrant, a pedestal, various sprockets with the chain running over them, connections to wire, large cast bronze sheaves in fittings bolted (or screwed) to structure all on order to lead the steering cables to the quadrant.

ALL THIS NEEDS TO BE INSPECTED, PULLED APART AND MAINTAINED. PERIOD.

The Edson company in New Bedford, MA., has a great library of information on how to do this. USE IT.

RUDDER BEARINGS: Later and or more sophisticated boats will have a pair of rudder bearings, one on the inside of the hull skin at the hull and one at the under-deck side of things. The rudder post fits into these bearings. IF tiller steered, the post exits far enough above the deck/cockpit surface to get a tiller on it. If wheel steered, the same menagerie of wires chain and pullies pertains, all arriving on the quadrant bolted to the shaft.

One feature of this exposed rudder shaft engineering to contemplate is this:

In the event of the boat hitting something with the rudder, the resultant force has the possibility of several things happening.

Simple damage to the rudder, breaking off a piece of it.

Breaking the rudder and the shaft away from the boat.

Leveraging a big hole on the area around where the post transits the hull.

This latter event leverages a decent sized hole in the bottom of the boat. The bottom bearing is the fulcrum when something hits the rudder. Such damage and the resultant even small hole, which it will not be, will let an awful lot of water into the boat in a very short time.

Very few boats are built to withstand this amount of water entering at speed.

Bilge pumps will not do it.

The answer to defending against sinking in this situation is to have a watertight bulkhead between the rudder post and the rest of the boat’s interior. This gives the crew a fighting chance of keeping the boat afloat and to effect repairs.

The most common boats so engineered are the oceanic racing boats. The IMOCA 60 footers, the massive Tri’s, called Ultimes that the French race, Class 40’s, boats used in The Ocean Race, and similar beasts.

Only one production boat I know of has such a structure, the J-121. I know an owner whose boat is still sailing after an incident with the rudder, a collision with something, creating such a hole. He and his boat were saved from sinking due to this bulkhead. He was towed in by the ever-watchful USCG.

So, the foregoing presents the idea of what the prospective offshore sailor need be thinking about in advance of casting off. This series will follow the cited systems and areas to insect, modify upgrade repair and to otherwise think about.

Thinking about such an adventure?

Are you getting The Exit Plan up on the fridge door?

Need some guidance?

Give me a shout,

401 965 6006

Coop.joecoopersailing @gmail.com This is my preferred email.

(The WP email system is not to my liking)

The Newport to Bermuda Race,

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What is needed?

So, you want to race in The Newport to Bermuda Race?

Your first question is, commonly, “what’s involved and where do I start??”

This race is one of the Premier ocean races in this tiny world and is very carefully planned and executed by the Cruising Club of America in partnership with the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club.

THE Bermuda Race is not complicated but it is complex. On the other hand, a lot of people have done it, many multiple times and there is an Ambassador program that the organizers established, who are available to help the novice.

You think to yourself, “gee, I’d like to do the Bermuda Race”. There are many reasons for this:

It is a bucket list race for many sailors.

It a great challenge, getting you and your boat and crew across the gulf stream to a sundrenched idyllic island in the middle, more or less, of the Atlantic Ocean. AND back-Lots of family adventures in this portion too.

It is a great adventure generating once in a lifetime memories for the participants.

It is pretty well subscribed with Family and Friends crews, so there WILL be some one for you to race against across all 700 odd miles of sailing.

Now the bigger question becomes, HOW?  What is needed to compete in the Newport to Bermuda Race?

This essay is intended to address as many of the answers to that questions as I can.

Overall it is worthwhile remembering that Yacht Racing is a management exercise.

With the exception of the first item, thereafter in no particular order:

Crew:

Might seem an odd choice, but as with any enterprise, the people are the most important asset.

As you start to think on the program, and in your minds-eye, start thinking about potential shipmates, some of the things to toss into the mix, obvious and otherwise include:

Experience:

Many potential shipmates may indeed be very capable sailors, but with not much experience offshore. This may include sailing at night, and/or sailing in hard weather, defined by me for this discussion as in excess of 25-30 knots true wind speed, biggish seas and a lively boat motion.

Age:

Commonly there are a mix of ages on any boat going to Bermuda, with the possible exception of the full-on Cat. 3 Pro boats where the physical demands generally require crew on the younger side and in any event being professional sailors are likely to be pretty fit regardless of age. There might be a discussion with potential crew on skills versus experience combined with age. There are some very good young sailors, who do not pass the experience test, and some older sailors who are pretty fit, skilled and experienced. That is a good combination.

Fitness:

Make no mistake, the fitter you and your crew are the easier time all will have on the race. Simply moving around and hanging on aboard a boat that is bouncing around in 30 knots of sou’wester in the Gulf Stream is an exercise in strength, agility, flexibility, and endurance.

A fitness detail of high importance:

I have conducted safety seminars covering the getting into the life raft drill. The sessions take place in a warm, calm flat water, swimming pool. I have seen individuals who, uninjured cannot get into the raft unaided.

Skills:

There is the sailing part of the equation and this is frankly the easiest part. A worthwhile question discussion for prospective crew is what other things they know about? Engineers with mechanical skills, electrical, computer, medical, interest in weather and the ocean environment, navigational interest, administration-you would be flabbergasted at the degree of administrative paperwork this race generates, either in actual paper or in bytes. A three ring binder one inch thick will be full when all said and done.

Commitment:

If you start recruiting in the fall, (Or ideally a few years out) for the following years race, you might think about the following. Quite often people will sign on for such an adventure, but there are always some boats with last minute dropouts that create all manner of problems. Some of the common reasons include:

Health issues:

Of the crew member or a family member including aged parents, pregnancy, accidents, illness and so on.

Work issues:

These include, but of course are not limited to: Last minute orders, particularly big valuable ones, departure of skilled personnel, cranky customers, is the crew’s company likely to be bought or sold. It is worthwhile inquiring if there is a likelihood the crew might be transferred away from easy participation on the race and so on.

Personal:

What is going in the life of the prospective crew?

Reserves:

In this respect it is worthwhile having a bench that has a few more folks on it than “just” the number you plan on sailing with. These back-up crew of course need to be aware of this situation and may well be rotated thru the various training activities.

The Boat:

With a suitable number of potential crew (and yes this is chicken and egg issue) what is the boat to be? The options are:

The boat you have

OR

The boat you are buying or will buy.

The Charter of a suitable boat

The next boat question is:

  • What is the longer-term plan for the boat you are planning on taking?
  • IS it part of the exit plan, or “just” the next boat?
  • Is the Bermuda race (there are at least four) a bucket list item, one and done?
  • Or are you liking offshore racing and thinking you might like to keep doing this?
  • This is a good reason to do a couple of races as crew before committing yourself to the Full Monty. In the North East, there is: The Marion to Bermuda, Yes, this sails to Bermuda but it is a less intense much more Family and Friends event. Marblehead to Halifax, about half the distance. Annapolis to Newport, about three quarters the length of the Bermuda Race, plus it is possible to stay out of the stream if you wish to use this race as a practice event.
  • Do you have a history of this kind of sailing? I.E. Offshore ocean racing? Perhaps a knock on from your parents?
  • Is the boat to double duty, as the “family yacht” and so with an interior and some level of creature comfort.
  •  Or be a race boat only, hose out n arrival and hand over the keys to the return trip delivery crew?
  • Double duty of course is all the other things a boat can do such as cruising, locally or further afield, ocean/off soundings voyaging, Wednesday night racing and so on.
  • If the boat you have now, is it suitable for racing to Bermuda?
  • What might need to be done to make it so?
  • At what cost? Including the cash to Upgrade and considerations on the likely impact of such mods on re-sale.
  • What class are you thinking of competing in?
  • Grand Prix, cruiser, cruiser-racer, double-handed?
  • What is your budget tolerance for preparing the boat? A virgin boat can burn through 20k in short order. This is just the boat, not the logistics at either end.
  • Are items 6 and 12 able to be combined so that the money spent on the Bermuda Race upgrades can be amortized across other uses? For instance, is buying a couple of expensive, high-test sails something that is only for the BDA race or is the boat use sufficiently broad that they will have utility, and so value, in other sailing areas?

The characteristics of the boat:

This is of course intimately connected to the foregoing list, but the following focuses on the design properties of the yacht.

Stability:

The minimum Limit of Positive Stability (LPS) for the Newport to Bermuda Race is, or has been, 115 degrees. This means the boat can get knocked down to 115 degrees and recover. It is worthwhile taking some time to research this particular detail on the boat you own or the boat you are looking at.

Some ways of doing this include contacting US sailing and see if they have measurement certificates for sisterships, if you are looking at a production boat. The Newport to Bermuda Race is run using the ORR Rule and they are likely to have a sistership certificate too.

There a few rough and ready rule of thumb formulas online that might give a broad-brush indication of what you are looking at. In the event the boat you fall in love with misses 115 degrees by just a bit, there are a couple of ways of improving the stability without rebuilding the boat. One is additional weight in the bottom of the boat. The other is to upgrade to composite rigging. The latter is more expensive than the former but cheaper than a new Carbon mast. For a small improvement in stability the composite rigging might be a high value solution.  This kind of calculus is part of the longer-term plan with the boat.

Special Regulations for Offshore Sailing

Known in the vernacular as thewith the Offshore Regs, does the boat’s hull, interior, deck and related structures comply with the (increasingly stringent) minimums? The book, to be had from US Sailing, World Sailing or downloaded from the latter is a reference book that will be very well thumbed and annotated by the time you return from Bermuda. As the name implies, it covers everything from the size of opening ports and hatches to the number of crew who must have taken a particular level of Safety at Sea course within a specified time in advance of the race.

Getting back

Yes, the race is TO Bermuda, BUT you need to be just as well organized for the return trip with all of the crew and boat preparation being the same. The weather Gods care not if when in the stream in 45 knots of Nor Easter you are racing or “cruising home”.

This is by NO means a comprehensive list of individual tasks required to be done if you do make the leap to The Bermuda Race.

On the other hand it is a great event at both ends and in the middle (the race) and the feeling of accomplishment is right up there.

IF you need some more detailed council on the issues cover here, call me 401 965 6006 or email coop.joecoopersailing@gmail.com

This is preferred. The websites email system is cumbersome.

Thanks

Cheers

Coop

Full Length Battens

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Ladies and gentlemen,

Please join me for a free seminar, by me, on Saturday 02 November:

  • Coffee at 0900,
  • Seminar starts at 0930,
  • Intended finish time is 1100

This timing is specifically aimed at those sailors coming to Newport for the before the BDA 1-2 Gam so you can get a two’fer.

For other sailors this event is the first of what will be a regular schedule of seminars on subjects I hope are of interest and value to all sailors.

Full length battens are one of the subjects most asked of sailmakers and possibly one of the most mis-understood aspects of sails, sail handling equipment and related issues.

The venue is the Quantum Sails loft, 

23 Johnny Cake Hill Middletown RI, 02842

This is the former Hood Loft, off Valley Rd, north of the YMCA.The seminar will cover FLB and what they are thought to do, what they may do and what they may NOT do. This seminar is free but please register here. I dont want to run out of coffee…

There is more detail on what I will cover in this seminar on the event page.

Look forward to seeing you there.

Cheers

Coop

High school sailing and keel boats

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The Farr 40 Kaper

It is no news to anyone who has been around sailing boats for more than about 10 minutes that the various skills one learns when being on sail boats, on top of the actual “sailing”, the steering the boat, are vast, deep and readily transferable to other walks of life. Such is just one of the reasons why the US Naval Academy has a pretty developed small boat sailing program.

And by “small boats”, I embrace all of their sailing activities, from the College dinghies, to the learn to sail program they call Beginner Sail Training in Navy 26’s and, for those inclined and with the developed skills, the offshore sailing program. It is from this latter cohort that the Rainy Day Farr 40 Kaper emerged.

Certainly, we are talking about “The Navy” so it is reasonable to assume that familiarity with boats and the sea is a given. However, the yearly intake of freshman Midshipman has far fewer young people with sailing skills than one might think.

On a Tuesday in June I was with 8 high school sailors from around Rhode Island on the Naval Base in Newport, RI. The goal was to go sailing with some of the Navy Mids. who had just finished racing from Annapolis to Newport a week or so before, aboard two Farr 40’s from the Academy.

This all came about through an email from an old mate of mine, Jahn Tihansky, the Director of the Navy’s Varsity Offshore Sailing Team, VOST, to a number of the members of the Storm Trysail Club involved with the Junior Big Boat Safety at Sea seminars. The gist of the note was, “We will be in town with two offshore boats and 18 Mids., is there something we can do?” Something we can do” was quickly translated by me and Jahn into being some mentoring time on the Farr 40’s, wth the Mids. with some high school sailors from around RI.

As with many, more or less, off the cuff ideas, this one came together pretty easily and quickly.

I coach the Prout School Sailing Team and I am also the RI rep to NESSA, the North east region’s organizing authority for high school sailing. As such I have the other RI high school coaches in their own email distribution list. This list, plus the participant list (15 teenagers) from the recently completed S.T. Foundations Jr. SAS at Sail Newport, in Ft. Adams, along with my own team’s sailor and parent lists and a few misc. kids I know, gave me a pretty wide net with which to advertise such an opportunity to. The net result was we had 8 HS sailors on two of the Navy’s VOST Farr 40’s for close to 4 hours. The pictures in this post were taken on this day. There were a number of interesting elements involved with this Kaper over and above “just sailing” and I was able to articulate my vision for the day at the planning meeting Jahn conducted prior to boarding.

Jahn introduced himself and his fellow coach from the Academy, the highly lettered Nancy Haberland, a three-time Olympian, holder of 18 National and 7 World championships and who has been a coach at the Academy for 15 years.

The third coach, Brad Donnelly, is the current HS coach for the Rogers HS Sailing Team in Newport and is, as it turns out, a soon to be retired Commander in the US Navy and whose current day job is as a lecturer at the Naval War College, on whose grounds we were standing. I was the fourth coach.

Jahn asked the HS sailors for a quick bio of themselves and sailing experience and then for me to paint a picture for the sailors of the goals of the day. The broad brush of the day had been developed over a dinner Jahn and I had the previous week. The idea I had was this. Here are two groups of young sailors, with not many years between them.

The high school sailors are relatively new to the world of sailing having had the bulk of their exposure in the H.S. 420 & FJ dinghy environment. The Navy Mids were in fact only just a couple of years ahead of the HS sailors as was discovered when Jahn asked the Mids., “how many of you sailed before coming to the Academy”, to which the answer was perhaps one with some background. The Mids. had of course been exposed to the world of sailing, or at least the idea of the sea, for the past however many years they had been at the Academy.

Leadership is possibly the one human characteristic valued above all others in the Navy and for good reason. Leadership is what got Bligh and his loyalists 35-hundred some miles across the Pacific in one of the superior epic small boat voyages on record.

I proposed that the goal for the day have two critical components:

The Mids. would practice their leadership, communications and instructive skills with the HS sailors.

And the HS sailors would learn some of the broad-brush skills needed to sail big boats.

We then divided the 8 HS sailors into two groups and assigned them a boat. With that we moved to the boats. Each boat has a Skipper and of course all of the roles are assigned as is normal for any similar racing yacht. Trimmers, bow, mast, pit, nav. etc.

On board our boat, I allocated the four HS sailors to one of four areas: bow, mast/pit, trim and steer and to work with and under the eye of, the corresponding Mid. With that we proceeded to sea.

Well, Narragansett Bay north of the Bridge, just off the War College in fact. Along the way we pointed out the local Navigation marks and their implications, set the mainsail, instructing the Padawans on the minutiae of tailing a line, getting turns onto a winch while tailing, use of a winch handle, leading the halyards with snatch blocks across the hatch-the main halyard on a Farr 40 exits the spar below decks and must be led on deck to be tensioned on a winch. The uses of the backstay hydraulics, double ended “German” style mainsheet, boom vang, working traveler and other sail controls, may of which are on the 420’s, but in the Farr of course have more load & so purchase and many of which exit a central pod in the middle of the cockpit floor and are much more aggressively used when sailing.

After a few bare headed tacks and gybe, we set a Jib and went up wind. Intruction was given of the importance of the communication back and forth from the bow to stern and the key role the mast-man has in facilitating such communications. After a few tacks and gybes with two sails during which time the Mids. in the relative areas had been covering the pleasures of the Dip Pole Gybe, we set a kite, pretty cleanly as it turned out and headed across to the Jamestown shore in the 5,7 knots of Easterly.

Navy sailors in charge of each area were constantly showing, explaining and watching their opposite HS number in the execution of any particular task in any evolution.

We had HS sailors trimming main, steering, handling the jib and kite sheets and guys and working the bow. Jahn and I would be moving back and forth, chiming in when we felt necessary as would the two senior Navy sailors including Zach, seen below, holding onto the backstay, the boat’s skipper.

Sailing with performance meters was a first for the HS sailors when steering and as might be expected they mostly sailed by the angle of heel and pressure, a theme Jahn and I were close by to reinforce pretty regularly.

Adjustable Jib leads and a backstay were two control tools the HS sailors were introduced to, and the look and expressions of amazement at the change in shape of the main and the feel of the tiller, when the backstay was applied or eased was a sure sign the lessons were hitting home.

During the course of the afternoon we were able to rotate three HS sailors thru steering and two thru the mainsheet trimmers role.

Richie, one of the (soon to be a Sophomore) Prout sailors who had been working in the pit, jib trim, after guy, middle of the boat area, sailed with me for the Tuesday evening been can racing, later that afternoon on a 40 footer I had introduced him to, along with another young sailor from the recent Jr SAS, and it was very gratifying to see just how far Richie, in particular, had come in just a few weeks since the SAS.

The opportunity to sail with Midshipman from the US Naval Academy is a special treat unlikely to be widely available to other high school sailors around the country and so not a particularly good template for duplication. Although JAn did tell me they try and do “this” any where they go on thier summer sailing seasons. But Navy boats or not, there is no reason at all why such an instructive afternoon of mentoring and training cannot be undertaken anywhere there are keel boats, High School sailors and owners and crews interested in developing young sailors. 

Apart from the pretty obvious aspect of self-interest such efforts present to willing owner’s, by way of keeping the potential roster of future crew topped up, working with such interested and engaged young people is one of THE most rewarding activities I have done and do and will continue to do.

One last side bar.

I am also involved with the Young American Sailing Academy, the outgrowth of the Young American Sailing Team that so successfully completed in the 2016 Newport to Bermuda Race. Based in Rye NY, this group is into its third class of developing high school sailors into big boat sailors. One of the young sailors who come up from New York to the Farr 40 Kaper is a graduate of the YASA program, including the 2016 Bermuda Race and with whom I have sailed with in several races. She is one of the most buttoned-up young people you could ever meet and so it is no surprise she has been accepted to the US Naval Academy and will be heading down there mid-July. I will miss her as a person and friend, and certainly the fun of sailing with her, but my loss is a big gain, in my estimation, for the US Navy and their VOST program and so for the country in the larger picture.

Bon Voyage Maddy.

Joe Cooper Sailing Podcast

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Last week I had a call from one Chris Heaton, who with his Dad, operate Newport Nautical Consignment in Newport, RI.

Chris wanted to know if I was interested in being intervewd by him for his podcast, “Standing before the mast”. What me? Stand up (actually sit for a while) and talk about sailing? When does this start.?

Well, last Tuesday, I visited Chris at the shop, just off the rotary on the way to the War College entrance at the navy base, hang a right over the railway tracks, keep the Shell station to port and NNC is on the left. It was a hoot. He has a great little set up with nice mikes, two in fact, some computer software and it all happens in the front room of the shop. A couple of comfy chairs and some beer, although I still had my coffee, and off we go.

Click her toEnjoy:

Cheers

Coop