Preparing for sailing offshore

Posted on October 30, 2022 by Joe Cooper

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

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.

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)

Hall Spars Carbon mast for a Gunboat 90

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Joe Cooper

One of the great aspects of my life is I get to wander around boat yards and so see lots of really interesting and innovative things to do with boats. Very kid in a candy store stuff. A couple of days ago I was at the Hinckley/Hunt marina complex in Portsmouth RI when I came across two Hall technicians prepping a Carbon mast to be returned to its boat, a 90 foot Gunboat catamaran.

Hall Spars has long been a leader in the construction of Carbon fiber masts. Brothers Ben and Eric Hall have been building spars for pushing 40 years and carbon masts, booms, kite poles and other carbon bits for probably 25 plus years. This brief post shows some pictures of parts of the mast and some commentary from me. Enjoy.

This first image, below, is of the bottom of the mast. The rig is a partial wing mast (NOT a wing sail), which means that it is perhaps 700 mm long (fore and aft-Compare with the ladder or my coffee cup on the ladder) and is much more wing shaped, albeit thicker, as wings go, than a conventional spar.

There are a number of reasons for using a wing shaped mast on a fast boat, not the least of which is to reduce drag as the airflow begins to pass over the sail. The drag from conventional shaped, (roughly oval in cross section) adds up when you do the math to sum the cross sectional frontal area exposed to the wind. An additional benefit of wing masts is there is a lot less standing rigging required to hold the mast up-This has long been a benefit of multihulls because of the wide staying base.

A wide staying base reduces the loads on the mast, and also the amount of rigging needed to keep it up. With the elimination of multiple sets of spreaders, and intricate standing rigging, the mast can be this wing shape.

Today, composite standing rigging is certainly lighter and stronger than any metal rigging, but composite standing rigging is thicker in cross section, so having less of it is a big plus. The image below is of the ‘bobstay’ securing the top of the deck spreaders to the hull on No way out, the latest IMOCA 60 from VPLP/Verdier. The acute angle demands stronger, so thicker material, but you get the idea.

The bobstay, is secured to the hull in some invisible fashion, below. Notice that all of this is so the boat can have its own partial wing mast, or vice versa…

Finally the drag goes up exponentially with the speed, so a cat or tri (Like Spindrift, shown in the featured image) is incorporated into the sail area and sail shape for considerations of sail shape.

The facility of wide shroud base has transitioned into the IMOCA 60 boats, (seen below is ‘No way out’) such as those in the Vendee Globe presently underway.

This latest generation IMOCA 60 has the now common deck spreaders and wing shection mast. The spreaders are to get a wide shroud base, to minize the compression on the spar so it can be a but lighter. Many many Excel spreadsheet Cells were sacrificed in figuring out the cost benefit of this arrangemebt.

This latest generation IMOCA 60 has the now common deck spreaders and wing section mast. The spreaders are to get a wide shroud base, to minimize the compression on the spar so it can be a bit lighter. Many, many Excel spreadsheet Cells were sacrificed in figuring out the cost benefit of this arrangement.

The variations in the size of wing masts are as varied as the boats themselves, as this picture below, of Spindrift, shows. (Spindrift Racing was kind enough to let me have some of the Prout Sailing Team visit Spindrift a couple of years ago.) On the forward side of the mast, at the base, you can see the rotating quadrant with tackle attached. See too, the knife in the yellow sheath, just next to Julia’s left calf…..

Back to the Gunboat mast.

Because it is a wing mast, it is deck stepped so it can be rotated. (Or perhaps it is the other way around. It is stepped on deck so it CAN BE a wing mast). To achieve this rotational ability, there are two unique details. The bronze colored circle in the middle is the fitting, slightly concave, which lands on top of its mate on the mast step, on the boat. It is basically a bearing surface for the mast to sit on, so it can rotate.

The half circle looking part is on the forward side of the mast. It is, and so acts like, a quadrant, in a wheel steering system providing a lever arm to move the spar. There are control lines mounted to it and when actuated, these lines can turn the mast thru, what looks like 90 degrees, but is probably only 45 degrees, either side of fore and aft, in practice. You can see these more clearly in the Spindrift images, above.

This closer detail shows a remarkable piece of carbon detailing and finish work. Smooth, shiny and undoubtedly strong. It is as much a work of artisan craftsmanship as an engineering part for a 90-foot high-speed sailboat.

Built into the base of the mast is a detail to accept the halyard turning blocks. This design is necessary because the (aft side of the) mast moves thru, perhaps 12-18 inches when being rotated, so incorporating the blocks mounted onto the mast eliminates the traditional idea of mounting them to the deck with big pad eyes thru bolted.

This traditional method would not be very successful in any event because the halyard’s lead out of the mast would be moving all over the place as the mast rotates. In keeping with the proliferation of using cordage in lieu of metal for securing things to the boat, these Harken blocks are looped onto the mast with large diameter spectra. The Harken Velcro straps stop the loop from separating when there is no load on the block. The little piece of light line is probably to keep the Velcro attached to the boat when working on the block

At the loads the sails on these boats generate the engineers must consider the transfer of this load thru the (main) sail’s leech to the mast track. In this picture, a section of track is the pewter colored piece on the aft side, the bottom, of the of the mast in the image. The loads on this boat, when sailing full speed, close to the wind, with a fully hoisted main are considerable. Bear in mind that a 90 foot cat, particularly a light fast one, generates the kinds of sail loads roughly equal to a 140-150 foot monohull

And just as much load is generated when reefed. This next image shows the beefy metal (I did not ask what) at the reefs too. The luff track/batten car slider system is suitably large Ronstan ball bearing equipment. This construction detailing on the spar of course requires considerable communications between the Sailmakers and the mast builders as to where the head of the sail will land when the sail is reefed.

Another detail to do with the huge loads on this (these) boat (s) is that they do not use ‘conventional’ jib halyards & furlers but rather the foresails are on ‘free luff’ furlers. These furlers have become pretty commonplace on high test boats from Class 40’s to Ultimate trimarans, like Spindrift, above.The dead weight of the sail and furler combination is lighter than a conventional aluminum section (or Carbon sections on bigger boats) and can offer the option, quite often exercised of removing the sail and stay completely. The benefit to this of course is to, again, reduce drag and weight aloft and, incidentally, improve stability. The concept and equipment for this kind of free luff furler comes from the reaching Genoas used on furlers for the solo offshore race boats for perhaps the past 20 plus years that has now trickled down to all manner of boats. In order for the loads to be accommodated, the sails/stays are secured by halyard locks. The idea of halyard locks has been around for a while–many smaller boats, Finns, Etchells, and so on have halyard locks, for the mainsail at least, and have had for years.

The contemporary high-load halyard lock is a bit more sophisticated though. The rigging of this halyard lock and free luff sail arrangement involves a ‘stay’of a lightweight composite fiber manufactured for the purpose, being captured inside a luff tape on the jib and secured to the head and tack of the sail.This idea is basically like the luff-wire in the jib of a 420-dinghy jib for instance. The rolled up sail is hoisted on a ‘halyard’ that is really just a length of line, robust enough, to hoist the sail and, when hoisted, the top of the stay is introduced into this metal lock and is thus held in place with no load on the ‘halyard’. The lock is held to the suitably reinforced part of the mast with Spectra loops, seen below.

This reduces weight in the mast because the sheave area does not have to be so strong as to resist the halyard tension, rotating over the sheave at about a 160 degree turn and the (hoisting) sheave itself can be much smaller, just big enough to sustain the loads of pulling the sail up. This absence of halyard load reduces the compression on the spar,(cf halyard loads in previous sentence) another element contributing to the weight (savings) in the mast. No (conventional) halyard means fewer blocks at the base of the mast, or winches and clutches on the mast and so on. The lock is probably one of the few metal parts on this mast. The lock hardware thus has a padded jacket around it to protect the (beautiful) carbon work the mast represents.

The above view is up through the tunnel which the part to be locked, the top of the stay, fits.

The stay is tensioned by some combination of tackle, winch or hydraulics as seen on, again, the IMOCA 60, No Way Out.

As noted, wing masts have a lot less standing rigging that a conventional mast, but they are not without some rigging. The picture below shows the additional layers of carbon laminated in and around where the spreaders pass thru the mast. The technique the Hall folks use is a layup over a mandrel, so the outside of the mast shows all the effort put into the work by the technicians actually laying the fibers onto the spar. Truly, art meets science. The shiny-ness of the mast is probably due to a clear coat paint job.

The engineering of these masts is pretty complex and must take into account all manner of multi-directional loads, both static AND dynamic and peak loads, as when sailing into the back-side of a wave at 30-35 knots and slowing down rapidly to 20 knots or less. The composite lay up for the boat’s gooseneck must withstand this loading and have a suitable safety factor to boot. This probably accounts for the size of the gooseneck. My thumb is at 21 inches.

A proper seagoing mast ought to have a tunnel inside the spar to run the cabling for all the electronic and electric stuff. An innovative variation on the typical round tube held to the inside of the mast is this sheath fabricated from some light sailcloth. All the cabling is captive inside this sheath. It is held in place and tensioned by, at the bottom, the piece of lightweight Spectra, the blue colored one. The reddish piece of Spectra is probably mouse line for installing and removing cabling.

Certainly not all of us have the means to own and operate a gunboat 90, but as noted above, hanging around in boat yards is, for many water rats, a fine thing to do.

Feature image Spindrift Racing, 30 meter Trimaran.

Picture courtesy Spindrift racing

Vendee Globe-Solo record still possible

Posted on November 25, 2016 by Joe Cooper

The foiling IMOCA 60’s are giving a good impression of multihull speed over the course of the first 19 days of this edition of the Vendee Globe, solo circumnavigation. As of 1700 EST, Brit Alex Thompson aboard Hugo Boss has had the pedal down despite breaking a foil on something in the water a few days ago. (It is worth noting that at the moment four boats have hit something and broken the boat obliging three of them to abandon the race).

The VG tracker has a number indicating the percentage of the race the leader has completed. After 16 days Hugo Boss had completed 25% of the calculated great circle length of the race. Extrapolating on this data brings one of course gets to a 64 day circumnavigation. Will this be the end result? Too soon to say fo course. BUT I just did it again for 19 days at 30% which is 62 and some days, so they are not backing off at all.

Thompson has been able to get back up to full foiling speed having gybed to starboard for a while today allowing him to deploy the ‘good’ foil for a while. But sail boat racing regardless of what the boat or the course is needs wind and they appear to be light on for such at the momenet, light being the operative word.

The biggest hurdle the two front runners, now 25 miles apart (at 1700 Race time) is the wind petering out and becoming confused and light. Thompson reports basically sailing into the back of the front.

Oops- pays to pay attention. The 2200 race time position updates places The Boss stretching again over Armel LeCleac’h, (aka The Jackal in French solo terms) at 31 miles over his earlier 25 miles. AND the Boss has the juice again at 22 knots versus 18 of The Jackal.

British Bull Dog lives to fight another day.

The following link/news update courtsy of the VG press office.

http://www.vendeeglobe.org/en/news/16495/the-jackal-is-on-the-hunt

Offshore sailing-Ideas from single-handed sailing

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Joe Cooper

Regular readers will know of my interest in the Mini Transat, OSTAR, Vendee Globe, Figaro and similar solo and double-handed races. Apart from the actual racing itself, these boats represent a melting pot of ideas and were lots of smart people invent ways to sail fast when alone or with only two people. The majority of cruising sailors sail with a crew of only two people aboard anyhow. Short-handed boats prepared for racing have been at the forefront of most of the ‘advances’ that cruising sailors take for granted today. So when I see boats from this short-handed cohort of yacht racing, I am always curious to see what the thought process is and if there any new ideas I can pinch.

I was at Sail Newport last Sunday and I noticed the Mini Transat boat that, a couple of weeks ago was in the water, had been pulled out. I was interested in this boat because it had a canting keel, but there was no obvious dagger board or other device to resist leeway, at least as viewed from the dock with the boat in the water.

Not only canting side to side, but moving fore and aft close to a meter the fin on this Mini Transat class boat requires some pretty careful attention to detail. That she had a canting keel is evident by the lines exiting the cabin bulkhead under the cowling-see below-(and passing thru jambers) These lines are part of a three or four to one tackle inside the boat and then lead outside to a winch so as to lever the keel side to side.

The large clutch on the deck secures the line controlling the canting keel. The lines are set up to lead to a winch. The boat was set up with a canting keel but where the dagger boards?

This mini, designed by Simon Rogers for Australian Tom Braidwood and built in Sydney, Aust. 2006 has both a canting keel and the keel moves fore and aft too.

This mini, designed by Simon Rogers for Australian Tom Braidwood and built in Sydney, Aust. in 2006 has both a canting keel , articulating from side to side and the keel moves fore and aft too.

574 looks, at first glance, like a ‘normal’ (And not like mine) mini: beamy, twin rudders, skinny fin with a big bulb, huge rig, and articulating bowsprit

Apart from the ‘canting keel but no dagger boards’ question, a second interesting detail was the mast. It is longer in section (fore and aft) than ‘normal’ mini masts and has only one set of spreaders. Hummm me-thinks.

MAST and Rigging

Tis boat has a maast with only one set of spreaders. IT can do this because the mast is longer in the fore and aft plane and probably thicker walls too. The underlying scheme here is to minimize windage, drag, from the rigging. The configuration of 574 is likely to have less exposed stays and certainly spreaders, than a 'normal rig'.

This boat has a mast with only one set of spreaders. It can do this because the mast is longer in the fore and aft plane and with probably thicker walls too. The underlying scheme here is to minimize windage, drag, from the rigging. The configuration of 574 is likely to have less exposed stays and certainly spreaders, than a ‘normal rig’.

Almost all of these speedy little boats, the custom ones, anyhow, have composite rigging today. Securing the shrouds to the boat is a wonderful throw back to the ‘old days when stays were lashed to the deck with lanyards and pad eyes.

The stays are secured to the deck/chainplates with Spectra line, with multiple passes around the chainplate and the stay. The black tube is what amounts to a reaching strut. This is inserted into a hole built for the purpose in the side of the hull. The end result is to hold the bow sprit after guy out away from the boat at a wider angle.

This image shows the hole in the side of the boat to accept the strut.

Underwater: The keel and canard

It turns out that this boat has a lot going on down below. The keel swings, or cants in the parlance, port to starboard. It also can move fore and aft 800mm according to the designers website.

Here you can see the root of the fin disappearing into its own mechanism to handle the canting. The longer orange rectangle is the pathway for the fin to slide fore and aft.

The fin on a canting keel boat enters into the hull through a suitable sized slot. There is an axel with bearings on it that passes through the fin fore to aft and is secured to the boat. Around the hole is a V shaped box, the top of which is above the LWL. This box has some kind of pretty waterproof cover on it too. The top of the keel pokes up thru this and has a block and tackle on the top. The l ine from this tackle is led outside thru a ferrule in the cabin wall as shown a few pictures above.

The fin on a canting keel boat enters into the hull through a suitable sized slot. There is an axel with bearings on it that passes through the fin along the fore & aft axis and is secured to the boat. Around the hole is a V shaped box, the top of which is above the LWL. This box has some kind of pretty waterproof cover on it too. The top of the keel pokes up thru this and has a block and tackle on the top. The line from this tackle is led outside thru a ferrule in the cabin wall as shown a few pictures above. I am not certain that the area around the keel entrance to the hull is race ready, but it seems to me there are a lot holes and slots that would create drag when sailing, especially, fast. ON the other hand this boat did correct to third in class in the Pacific Cup in

The object when designing a racing boat of course is to have a boat that can, and will, win races. All manner of calculus goes into the design engineering and building of such a boat. One of the curious aspects of this boat is the engineering and building detailing required to make the keel more fore and aft. This requires a lot of additional designing, engineering and boat building time and skill. All of this of course consumes (extra) money. In simple terms, what is the risk reward, or if you, like the cost benefit ratio.

The white ‘thing’ sticking down to the left is the canard, set forward of the keel. This is deployed to resist leeway, acting like a ‘normal’ keel on normal boats. That it can be canted too is a benefit because when the boat is heeling, the canard can be vertical and so be working most efficiently.

This boat is a close sister-ship to the one Jonathon McKee (a prominent and successful US sailor from the Pacific North-West) sailed in the Mini Transat in 2003. Sadly he was dismasted while leading the second leg of the race. I don’t know what style of mast McKee had, but the one on 574 is configured in a way that many of the new IMOCA 60’s are, which is interesting since this boat is 10 years old now. The idea is that the mast and standing rigging has a certain amount of drag.

And finally back to the mast

If you do the math on the surface area of the standing rigging on your boat—Sum the total length of standing rigging, multiplied by the various thicknesses, it is a lot of square units. Ignore for now the radar, radar reflector, satellite dome, spare halyards, the bulk of the furled headsail or staysail etc. Now, for the average 45 foot cruising boat, this kind of drag is repressed into oblivion by Bimini’s, dinghy davits and so on and traveling at 5 to 7 or 9 knots, BUT on a boat traveling at 15-20 knots, like a Mini or an IMOCA 60 traveling, as the boats currently leading the Vendee Globe are, at over 20 knots most of the time, for the foiling boats, drag becomes something to think about. Minimizing drag becomes especially important for boat traveling fast because the drag goes up exponentially with boat speed. Hence the wing masts and lots of effort art educing drag on fast Multihulls of IMOCA 60’s

This latest generation IMOCA 60 has the, now common, deck spreaders and wing section mast. The spreaders are there to get a wide shroud base, to minimize the compression on the spar so it can be a bit lighter. Many, many Excel spreadsheet Cells were sacrificed in figuring out the cost benefit of this arrangement.

The benefits of reducing drag are even more visible on big trimarans. This picture is courtesy of Spindrift Racing.

Vendee Globe: Hugo Boss inches away.

Posted on November 17, 2016 by Joe Cooper

So far so good for the tenacious Brit on his fourth attempt to get his Knighthood, I mean, win the Vendee Globe. Personally I reckon the big job now is to be steady and cool and not get too psyched by being in front. I am sure he’d rather be there than in some of the other positions he has been in during his three previous races. Right about now 4 years ago I think he was fixing one of the rudder connecting rods after the Watt and Sea came adrift and busted said rod. Ever the Sponsors Man, he recorded it on board the boat with Hugo Boss logos everywhere. And of course this time, he is posting positions on the Alex Thompson website, so more eyeballs again. THIS is great sailing as marketing tool thinking

The other two leaders are putting the yards (meters?) on the top of the next group. Currently in second is Seb Josse on his third Vendee Globe. Just the short version of his CV includes a fourth in the first leg of the 1999 Mini-Transat, a second in the 2001 Solitaire du Figaro-A four or five leg stage race soloin 33 foot one design boats, around the Bay of Biscay and the western approaches to the English Channel. ‘The Figaro’ is THE training ground for the serious French solo sailor, and lately Brits too. Josse was a part of the crew and so, co-holder, of the Trophy Jules Verne aboard the Maxi Cat Orange, nee PlayStation. Third in the TJV with Isabelle Autissier in ‘03, fifth in the Vendee globe in ‘05, fourth in the ’06 VOR on ABN Amro 11 including a 24-hour speed record. You get the picture. He is sailing for the financial house of Edmund de Rothschild, long a prominent name in sailing with a collection of Gitana’s.

In third lies Armel Le Cleac’h, presently 92 miles astern of The Boss. Le Cleac’h is another professional sailor with a long history of big time racing. Figaro, World Champion in IMOCA (these Open 60’s) fourth in the Route du Rhumb, France’s answer to the OSTAR. A second place, twice, in the 2009 and 2013 Vendee Globe gave him the scent no doubt.

Interestingly when researching the basic stats of the boats, the beam of Hugo boss is not given. But Thompson has the most upwind sail of the three leaders at 340 sqm. Compared to Le Cleac’h at 300 and Josse at 290. He is also a tenth of a metric tonne lighter, 7.5 vs. 7.6. And, in what must be an enormous mental boost for Thompson and a bit of a ‘WTF’ moment for the rest, is the fact Hugo Boss was abandoned in the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre, in November after being launched 01 September. After being recovered, a nice bit of work in itself I reckon, Thompson’s team spent six months rebuilding her again. And a slight bit of sailing trivia for you Thompson’s co-skipper in the abandoned TJV was the same Spaniard, Guillermo Altadill, (the most successful sailor no one has ever heard of) who was aboard High Noon, the youth boat that blitzed the 2016 Newport to Bermuda race.

Second and third are 89 and 92 miles astern of the Boss, and after that the distances really exercise the bungy cord. From fourth through tenth, they are respectively: 123, 195, 207, 285, 442, 575 and 619. And we are not talking about the rookies here either. Just in this group are a total of 17 (including this one) Vendee Globe races from a total of 43 previous races within the fleet.

From todays interviews with the sailors, Sébastien Josse remarks on the increasing discomfort aboard the boats in this race. ‘With each Vendée Globe it’s worse and worse. In my first one, I had a comfortable bed, but now it’s really uncomfortable and it’s hard to sleep’. Having boat speed is a great way to win a sail boat race but it does have its down side in a three-month race. Josse again:

When the boat is above 18-19 knots, it’s hard to move around. It’s noisy and it’s impossible to sleep with all the banging. It’s less comfortable than a multihull.

Then there are the forces these boats are subjecting themselves to. The following remark was made while the boats are sailing in 15 knots of true wind. We’re at the maximum loads for the boat. In the Southern Ocean we won’t be able to do that.”

If you did not know Thompson, (is British) it might be easy to infer it from his remarks from the same body of ocean. “It’s a bit bumpy. He goes on: (In this cut and paste from the VG news section whose work is duly recognized)

It is pretty amazing to be on a boat which in 16-17kts of breeze I can average 22kts. The breeze has finally come left a bit to allow Hugo Boss to lift up her skirts a little bit and go a bit faster. I have a bit more breeze for a few hours and then it will lighten up and drop a little bit before tomorrow when we will start a real fast, fast dash for three or four days towards the Cape of Good Hope. I could not have asked for it to be positioned more perfectly. It is a very normal scenario this. It is developing just to the south of us and will move down, and I will be able to stay ahead of it. I think just this lead pack will be able to stay with it. We will be with this low pressure for quite a while. I think Seb is right. This is going to be the first big test for the boats. I am imagining a wind angle of about 120 to 125 degrees true, sailing in 23-26kts of wind. Depending on the wave conditions is what will decide how fast the boats go. To be honest if it was flat water in those wind conditions my boat could average over 30kts. With waves I don’t expect to be going much faster than I am now, to be honest 22-24kts maybe. Today I will prepare the boat a little, re-tidy up, re-stack, and I will try and get as much sleep as I can in the next 24 hours. I have a little composite job to do, just to make sure everything really is ready, make sure my sail plan is correct for when it comes, make sure my contingencies are ready, make sure I am fresh to be able to hit the turbo button when it arrives. I guess we are going to find out how strong these boats are now. Who will be ready to lift the foot first? Show the French you have learned? I think these boats…well the limit is quite obvious. You know when you have to slow down. Last night I had to slow down. 24 hours before the Cape Verdes you get slowed down. You get told by the boat. The boat tells you when to slow. It is as demanding now as in more wind. We do not need a lot of wind. The more wind, the more waves, the slower you go.”

We’re not in Kansas any more Toto.

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