Category Archives: Short-Handed sailing

Safety at Sea seminar

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On Saturday 07 Feb 2015 at the Safety at Sea seminar, produced by LandfallNavigation, I will be presenting a section on sails & sail fibers. This nearshore Safety at Sea seminar is being held at the Mystic Seaport in Ct. from 0800-1630

The following is a table of the basic properties, sailmakers are interested in, of the fibers currently used in making sails. In an earlier day, this information would be distributed at the event, but today, well it is here.

The information is from the North Sails website attributed to research by their cloth people

Polyester (Dacron)
Modulus (gr/denier) Tenacity (gr/denier) UV Resist. (mo. to 50% strength loss) Flex Loss (% in std. test) Cost ($/lb.) Uses
80 – 120 5 – 8 6 mo. 0% $2 Racing & Cruising Sailing
Pros: Tough, durable, inexpensive, many weights and finishes.
Cons: Relatively stretchy compared to aramids.
PEN (Pentex)
Modulus (gr/denier) Tenacity (gr/denier) UV Resist. (mo. to 50% strength loss) Flex Loss (% in std. test) Cost ($/lb.) Uses
250 10 5 mo. 5% $7 Club Racers & Cruisers
Pros: Fits between Polyester and Aramid in performance and cost.
Cons: Cannot be woven tightly, best used in laminates.
Kevlar 29 Twaron SM
Modulus (gr/denier) Tenacity (gr/denier) UV Resist. (mo. to 50% strength loss) Flex Loss (% in std. test) Cost ($/lb.) Uses
600 23 3 mo. 25% $15 Regatta Racing Sails
Pros: Light weight, low stretch.
Cons: Low flex and UV resistance.
Kevlar 49 Twaron HM
Modulus (gr/denier) Tenacity (gr/denier) UV Resist. (mo. to 50% strength loss) Flex Loss (% in std. test) Cost ($/lb.) Uses
940 24 3 mo. 28% $18+ Grand Prix Racing Sails
Pros: Light weight, very low stretch.
Cons: Low flex and UV resistance. Expensive.
Carbon
Modulus (gr/denier) Tenacity (gr/denier) UV Resist. (mo. to 50% strength loss) Flex Loss (% in std. test) Cost ($/lb.) Uses
1200 – 2500 20 – 40 No effect 30 – 100% $15 – $100 Grand Prix Racing Sails
Pros: Very light, extremely low stretch, good UV resistance.
Cons: Brittle, low flex resistance.
PBO (Zylon)
Modulus (gr/denier) Tenacity (gr/denier) UV Resist. (mo. to 50% strength loss) Flex Loss (% in std. test) Cost ($/lb.) Uses
1600 36 1.5 mo. 30% $60 Grand Prix Racing Sails
Pros: Extremely low stretch and light weight.
Cons: Low flex and very low UV resistance. Expensive.
Spectra / Dyneema
Modulus (gr/denier) Tenacity (gr/denier) UV Resist. (mo. to 50% strength loss) Flex Loss (% in std. test) Cost ($/lb.) Uses
1100 34 7 mo. No effect $25 – $35 Premium Cruisers
Pros: Very strong and durable.
Cons: Creep limits racing applications.
LCP (Vectran)
Modulus (gr/denier) Tenacity (gr/denier) UV Resist. (mo. to 50% strength loss) Flex Loss (% in std. test) Cost ($/lb.) Uses
580 28 1.5 mo. No effect without UV $25 Premium Cruisers
Pros: Good flex when protected for UV.
Cons: Requires complete UV protections.
Modulus: Stretch resistance per weight. Higher is better for upwind sails.
Tenacity: Breaking strength per weight. Higher is better for sails.
UV Resistance: Strength loss in a standardized exposure test.
Flex Loss: Percent breaking strength lost in an industry standard 50 fold test.

D.I.Y boat building

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The Mini Diaries, 06 JAN 2015

Do-it-yourself boatbuilding is both very satisfying and often the only way one can realize one’s dreams of having a particular boat. This series of essays/blog posts discuss the home building of my boat, a Mini Transat 650. Well it was not actually built in “a home” but largely by me in a variety of locations in New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Is. and Massachusetts. The boat is a pretty specialized boat, built for single-handed racing, across the Atlantic. How I got involved in that is outlined here.

This group of blog posts, The Mini Diaries, starts in October 2014 in Durham NH, at the home of a mate of mine a fellow sailor, home builder par excellence and a fantastic woodworking craftsman, Vince Todd. My Mini had been parked on his property for while and I finally got to the point where I could re-start work on the refit I started a few years ago.

"The Mini" on her trailer in Vince's Bush Boat Yard. The paint jobs will be discussed later. Emmett's (Vince's son) J-24 next to me.

“The Mini” on her trailer in Vince’s Bush Boat Yard. The paint job will be discussed later. Emmett’s (Vince’s son) J-24 is next to me.

The scene: a sunny day in Durham NH. The first item on the work list is to finish rebuilding the cockpit. Again why this is so will be addressed later on. In order to start on this decent sized fabrication Vince put the boat in a plastic hoop shed, described below, on his property. I refer to this venue as Vince’s Bush Boat Yard because he has his own family yacht, an early 1960’s Ted Hood Robin, a 37’ wooden, centerboard yawl that Vince has restored to better than new. There is his son’s J-24, an Alden motor launch Vince is doing some re-build work on, a skiff under construction in the basement of Vince’s office and various assorted ribs, small sailing boats and dinghies.

The Good Yacht Thora, largely rebuilt at Home by Vince

The Good Yacht Thora, largely rebuilt at home by Vince

 

Inside the hoop shed, even with the temp at 35-40 degrees outside, it is 55 plus on a sunny day. Parallel to this is my involvement with the organization of Block Island Race Week, a prominent regatta in the NE of the US. The event chairman is an old shipmate of mine, one Peter Rugg. He and I have done lots of miles together double hand on his J-105, Jaded that was destroyed and written off by the insurance co. Thus Peter is boat-less in the face of the forthcoming Race Week. In conversation one day Peter remarked that we ought to sail my mini in the DH class at Block Island. Motivation is a wonderful thing and Peter’s remarks gave mine a wonderful swing upwards.

Bushranger inside the hoop shed at Vince's Bush Boat Yard.

Bushranger inside the hoop shed at Vince’s Bush Boat Yard. Test fit of the new cockpit/deck sides

After some discussion in the entire caper with Vince and figuring on the entirety of the Caper, I/we decided it would be prudent to have the boat closer to Newport, where I live, than Durham NH, a 3-hour drive (each way). So first off we discussed the fabrication of a hoop shed to be erected on the grounds of the Newport Shipyard, in of course Newport. The Shipyard is much closer, just 2.8 miles from my house and in the center of one of the bright-stars in the world’s boat building galaxy, Newport.

Vince and I discussed the basics of the shed, sizes materials costs, time required to fabricate transportation erection for starters. A couple of days later I drafted out on square paper a sketch of the shed, took a few pictures of it with my phone and sent them to Vince as a double check and we agreed we were are basically on track.

My design of a hoop shed. Turned out to be a pretty close sketch of what was built.

My design of a hoop shed. Turned out to be a pretty close sketch of what was built.

Shortly thereafter we assembled at Vince’s Bush Boat Yard to fabricate hoops.

More to come…..Coop

 

 

 

 

J-105 Double handed sailing

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This essay was originally written by me for the J-105 class newsletter with a view to getting more J-105 owners to take up the D-H aspect of racing, on a boat almost perfect for it.

Few are the boats one can sail solo with a kite up.

Few are the boats one can sail solo with a kite up.

One of the easiest boats on the planet to sail double-handed is notable by its absence from the fastest growing slice of keelboat racing: double-handed.

Regular readers will know of my interest, nay passion, for short handed sailing, often double handed. D-H  “racing” is much closer to “normal” sailing than fully crewed racing for the simple reason that double-handed is how almost everyone who is not involved in some kind of race actually sails their boat. D-H “racing” uses all the same skills and knowledge, preparation and equipment used for “cruising” and it is the shortest line between cruising and racing. Look around at the boats out sailing anywhere on any given weekend and everyone not racing is sailing with one or two people even on some quite large boats.

The really good news is that for many double-handed races a J-105 needs to merely register and show up. Only the offshore or longer races require more equipment than normal. There are many day and overnight races that a well prepared and outfitted J-105 can enter with very little in the way of extra equipment except, most reasonably, jack lines.

FOR "bigger" races it is straight forward to install a "solent" stay on which to set small sails

For “bigger” races it is straight forward to install a “solent” stay on which to set small sails. This picture is of such a rig on the 105 Jaded in the Halifax race in 2009 with one reef and the Solent upwind in about 22 true in the Gulf of Maine. To add to the economy, the Solent/ “4” in this case was a cut down old class jib.

J-105’s have competed in the Bermuda 1-2: Solo to Bermuda from Newport and then DH back to Newport. I have done three Marblehead to Halifax races and several other races and DH and Solo passages on Jaded. A few years ago a J-105 won the Fastnet overall while sailing in the Double Handed Class and one has come second in the IRC class in the 2009 O.S.T.A.R single-handed race. The skipper was 18.

If additional sailing gear is required, say smaller headsails, then it is pretty easy to install a Solent stay on the 105. AND it can be done in such a way as to not take the boat out of class for OD events. Other components like a good self steering autopilot are universal anyway.

Heading to Halifax in the 2009 Halifax Race. A sound Autopilot is a good investment anyway.

Double-Handed aboard Jaded, heading to Halifax in the 2009 Race. A sound Autopilot is a good investment anyway. When DH, you get to do everything….At least once!

D-H racing is a great way to enjoy such a fun boat as the 105, earn something new and frankly have a blast without all the phone calls, beers and sandwiches.

D-H racing has all of the elements of racing that we are used to in crewed events, and more than one person has observed that many crewed races are, largely, D-H in execution until one gets to the corners.

Lots of sitting around, until you get to the corners

Lots of sitting around, until you get to the corners of course

Sail handling, tactics, navigation & steering are all the same with D-H racing but all require that elusive component required when operating a boat—seamanship. Both of you get to do everything but you have to think a few more moves ahead than when sailing crewed. If nothing else it gives a two man crew a different view of what happens forward of the traveler.

Both parties get to do everything DH. Good practice for when executing the Exit Plan. Sorry the picture is blurry, we were going 10 knots after all...

Both parties get to do everything DH. Good practice for when executing the Exit Plan. Sorry the picture is blurry, we were going 10 knots after all…(OK full disclosure, this picture is from a Class 40…)

I have nothing against racing with a full crew. I have done it my whole life. BUT the existence we all live these days bears on all our decisions and trying to round up the crew on Friday night for a Saturday race, has frustrated more than one owner to either abandon racing all together or more frequently take up Double handed.

Fully crewed often means a lot of people sitting around for most of the race.

Fully crewed often means a lot of people sitting around for most of the race.

I count at least 7 groups around the country focusing on double-handed racing. Just on Long Island Sound alone in May and early June there are three regattas with D-H classes, all sailed on the western Sound and so easily within reach of the local 105 fleet. The boats must conform to the local YRA safety regs, which are precisely those that a J-105 has to meet for day racing on Long Island Sound.

For the more adventurous, I count over 20 races between Long Island Sound and Maine that have D-H classes.

So, come on people, get more value from your boat—sail more often. What better way to learn some new stuff and lower the cost per hour of sailing? Oh, it is a ton of fun and the camaraderie is fantastic.

Safety at Sea Seminars for 2015

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Cooper’s “Save the Dates” for winter 2015 Updated 06 NOV 2014

 

There are at two Safety at Sea seminars in the North East scheduled for early 2015. The first one, at Mystic Seaport does NOT have ISAF endorsement. It is rather a seminar focusing on the coastal and nearshore sailor. It is a long day, but the content is fantastic. I visited last year and the place was sold out. There are  plenty of breaks, copious amounts of coffee and lunch.

This years seminar is to be a reprise plus you get me presenting too.

07 February 2015: Saturday

Mystic Seaport: 0800: 1600. A one-day Safety at Sea seminar with a number of topics covered, including sails (by of course yours truly) this seminar focuses on inshore and near coastal sailors. I was at this year’s one and it was sold out and very highly regarded by attendees.

MYSTIC seminar does NOT qualify as an ISAF SAS

21-22 March 2015. Sat & Sun

At UMASS Boston. 0700-1800 This seminar, or an equivalent ISAF certified course, is mandatory for Marion Bermuda and all offshore races including the 2016 Newport to Bermuda Race.

This seminar is hosted by the Marion to Bermuda race in conjunction with the Marblehead to Halifax Race Organizing Authority. This seminar does qualify for the ISAF crew SAS certificate from US sailing. This certificate is required generally for at least 30% of crews in offshore races, more air less anywhere. So even if you are not planning on doing either of these races in your own boat, having this certificate is a “PLUS’ in the event you look for crew spots on the races.

It is a two day seminar. Class the first day with break-out sessions. On Sunday there are dedicated sessions including first aid, in the water life raft instruction, (bring your swimmers) and weather presented by the very knowledgeable Frank Bohlen who has a great ability to make a complex science understandable to normal people. The entry fee is worth it just for this seminar.

BOSTON seminar DOES qualify for ISAF certification.

As always if you have any questions you know where to find me.

Cheers

Coop

OFFSHORE SAILING: Spindrift Racing and SEAMANSHIP: The three legs of….

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What are the THREE most important things to consider when contemplating a voyage?

Planning, Preparation, regardless of your Experience.

The kind of sailing contemplated by the sailors described in the second half of this post can go nowhere without using all three legs of the seamanship stool: Planning, Preparation and Experience.

In Newport a couple of weeks ago I counted the following classes of boats:

Team Alvimedica, US ENTRY IN THE VOR  who were out Friday, doing the Around the Island Race as part of the NYYC annual regatta.

US entry in the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race

US entry in the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race during their Naming Ceremony

There were various High Test boats, like the TP 542 Interlodge, Bella Mente, Rambler and others in town for the Bermuda Race.

A TP 52 out practicing on Narragansett Bay prior to the NYYC Annual regatta

The TP 52 Interlodge out practicing on Narragansett Bay prior to the NYYC Annual regatta

Daily half a dozen Etchells arrive in advance of their worlds.

There was a record turn out for the NYYC annual regatta (Regatta Number 160)

There were two different Around Jamestown Island speed records broken, one on the Mastrand 32 Cat and one in the large mono hull category (Bella Mente in fact)….Phew…

A few of the Class 40’s in town for The Atlantic Cup are on moorings or in the Shipyard patiently waiting for the Bermuda race.

One of half a dozen Class 40's in town for The Atlantic Cup

Dragon, one of half a dozen Class 40’s in town for the Atlantic Cup seen here competing in the second to last race of the inshore series.

Another C40, Bodacious Dream, was coming in from a Circumnavigation.

Then there was the Clagett Memorial Clinic and Regatta, (one of the key regattas for sailors not as physically capable as many of us)

There were  kids arriving for a few days of coaching in the Booke Gonzales clinic for up and coming winners.

Oh, and the usual beer can, Shields, J-24 & sport boat racing on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday nights and just so much more. In lots of sailing ports one can get lots of boats, but in my experience that are all of a similar species at any given time. Only in Newport can one get such a wide swath of sailing boats for different uses all at the same time. AND frankly this is kind of a slow year with only 3 world championships this year….Where else do you get that?

OK, NOW reference my second sentence, above:

ALL of the boats ands sailors in attendance for anyone of these events have the first two characteristics in common, regardless of the level of their third.

Sitting quietly in the midst of all this sailing energy there is one boat making hardly a ruffle where she is moored at the west end of the docks at the Newport Shipyard. This boat is the absolute epitome of preparation and planning

The boat in question is a 40-meter LOA (131 feet) trimaran.

Rarely do American Sailors get close to the elite of the French ocean racing scene, unless in France. This boat came to us and is seen here at the Newport Shipyard

Rarely do American sailors get close to the elite of the French ocean racing scene, unless of course that travel to France. This boat came to us and is seen here at the Newport Shipyard. Spindrift Racing are waiting for a “weather window” of suitable characteristics to give them a shot at breaking the all time and absolute Trans-Atlantic sailing speed record west to east, from Ambrose light to The Lizard in SW England

I speak of course of Spindrift Racing, the former Banque Populaire under whose colors she set the current absolute Transat-Atlantic speed record from Ambrose to the Lizard in 3 days 15 hours and change, including a 24-hour run record of 905 miles, which is averaging a small dollop of spray south of 33 knots. Moored as she is away from the cluster of huge (tall) spars with which the bulk of the 40 meter cruising yachts at the shipyard are rigged there is, to the practiced eye, an incongruity to her spar as seen from out on the lower bay. It is thick, as in like a wing mast yet not so tall. The wing section is not so long, perhaps a meter and a bit fore and aft. The entire spar has been modified for this record. The Spindrift team cut some large number of feet, I want to say 20 feet off the top and re-did the sails since, as Banque Populaire the last time, her crew sailed almost all the way with a reef in I am told.

The current owners and crew are of course waiting for that much discussed and worried over piece of equipment “essential” to setting and/or breaking Trans-Atlantic sailing records today, the “Weather Window”. According to the chap I was chatting with on Wednesday, said window is still a minimum 10 days out, so the crew was flying home to France (where else?). It is hard to absorb the scope of this boat from pictures but I try.

Standing next to Spindrift Racing, one’s mind is readily boggled by just how massive this boat is.

When simply looking at a picture of Spindrift it is not possible to gauge the scope or the scale of this boat.

When simply looking at a picture of Spindrift it is not possible to gauge the scope or the scale of this boat.

For starters the lashings for the cap shrouds are 25 mmm spectra  based on being roughly half the diameter of my water bottle.

Compare the size of my water bottle, roughly 2.5" wide and 9 inches tall with the lashings for the side stays.

Compare the size of my water bottle, roughly 2.0 inches wide and 9 inches tall with the lashings for the side stays.

One can commonly can stand on the dock and get a good idea of the on-deck workings of a boat. NOT so with this one whose working area/cockpit is perhaps 10 feet up on the air. This, “flight deck”  one is tempted to call it, has all the sail controls and is contained inside a hemisphere the arc of which is outlined by the mainsheet traveler. The outboard ends of the traveler are fixed to the aft cross beam about half way between the side of the main hull to the inside edge of the Ama (the name of the outside hulls on a Tri) on each cross beam. The traveler describes an arc around the stern and lands on the corresponding point on the opposite cross beam. I asked one of the crew about the loads on the mainsheet when the boat was fully loaded….About 15 tonnes he remarked.

A glimpse onto the flight deck

A glimpse onto the flight deck

The bulk of this working area is trampoline netting. There are two wheels of not particularly large diameter connected by, and operating through, large motorcycle chain, roughly from a 1000 cc Super bike I’d reckon.

Spindrift

Spindrift giving a good impression of a slumbering Giant or Sea Monster, just waiting to be unleashed

Inside this platform live both the crew waiting on benches under the spray cowlings. OF the 13 crew members to be sailing aboard, three do not stand watches leaving two watches of 5 hands apiece.  On the Flight Deck there are,  well as the primary winches with their grinder pedestals, sailing instruments, misc. winches, control lines and the steering wheels and a p air of large suitcase shaped heavy material canvas bags. Their purpose I was told is to stow the tails of the various lines. The mainsheet is EIGHT to ONE and one end of it probably goes to a long hydraulic piston in the boom, unless they have removed it in the chase to make the boat lighter for this record attempt. The traveler is atop the radius at the back of the work platform and so the traveler adjusts the angle to the wind and the mainsheet adjusts the twist.

This image may give an idea of the size of things on this boat. These are merely the traveler blocks and my starboard paw for reference.

This image may give an idea of the size of things on this boat. These are merely the traveler blocks and my starboard paw for reference.

On Wednesday I took some pictures from the causeway adjacent to the Shipyard, the best place to actually see “down” onto the boat albeit giving up 50 yards of proximity.

There were a few guys working on the boat and I captured this picture of one of the guys standing on the dock next to her. You have to really look for him, which is remarkable because he is a stand out dressed in team uniform black and is standing on a largely light colored dock. For another reference, the white boat on the other side of the dock is a 75 foot cruising boat

It took me a few minutes to find the image with the crew member standing on the dock, so small is he relative to the boat.

It took me a few minutes to find the image with the crew member standing on the dock, so small is he relative to the boat. The white boat is 75 feet LOA.

Alongside the reduction in the mast height & weight (and the sail track and sail weight) in other weight savings, Tim Carrie, the only non-French part of the team and in charge of the considerable logistics support this caper requires, rattled off a long list of things they have done:

Taken the engine out, one dagger board The one on the starboard side) removed and the hole plugged up, shortening the port one and reducing it’s weight by 40% plus the reduction in mast height and a few other modifications which escaped me.

Reflect if you will on sailing this boat. To average 33 knots, one is sailing at or over 40 knots basically all the time.  Next time you are bored grab a mate with a pick up truck, rig up some safety lines or similar mechanism in the back and have yer mate drive down an empty road on Sunday morning, at say 45-50 miles per hour with you hanging on while standing on the truck bed. To really get the effect, do it when in the midst of a downpour

Then do it for 3 days, with only 13 mates.

IF you were to be steering Spindrift at 40 knots, this is where you would be standing. The B&G meters are about 80 feet away

If you WERE to be steering Spindrift at 40 knots, this is where you would be standing. The B&G meters are about 80 feet away

What are the two things that these guys are doing that ANY sailor can do, regardless of their own EXPERIENCE, the passage to be undertaken or the boat aboard which they will undertake it?

PLANNING

AND

PREPARATION.

It is absolutely just not possible to take on an exercise of this magnitude without planning of the highest order and the finest mesh. The good news is there is nothing special about planning and preparation for going sailing it just needs to be done.