Golden Globe Race

[Kukri]

“...the people who are most worth listening to are those with considerable recent experience of doing it.”

There is one right here: I’m looking forward to what Frank has to say.

 

[Frank Holden]

“...the people who are most worth listening to are those with considerable recent experience of doing it.”

There is one right here: I’m looking forward to what Frank has to say.

Thank you Andrew, I've only done NZ to Puerto Montt twice in my 39 foot Westerly - most recently in Jan/Feb 2016. First time I went fairly deep early on and learnt lessons that told me not to do that again.
Weather info in both cases was simply GRIBs ex sailmail plus wefax from NZ early on and Valpo later.

Last trip I fell into a trap early on... going south to get under a big high... high evaporated and was replaced by a very deep low with a front that covered a big slab of ocean and brought wind and swell that sent us scampering north at a very lively rate.
In the attached pics the 1024 high was replaced by the effect of 960 Low just offshore Antarctica...

One each trip I was faced with the choice of going south or north when a low was coming over the top of us... Going SW on a rising northerly ahead of the low is the soft option. Building on lessons learnt we went north ... not very far and not very fast and on the second trip actually lay to bare poles overnight to let the low get away from us.

What I also learnt is to 'sail the isobars'... 1020 mb gives you a nice warm NWly... maybe 20 knots over the deck....

There was an Ovni ahead of us... using the services of a weather router... they crossed in about 35*... copped a lot of easterlies ..

About ten days before landfall we heard that a US flag singlehanded circumnavigator some 800 miles south of us had been rolled... given up on her attempt... and was heading home via Panama directo....

We managed to find a relatively sweet spot in the low 40s.. about 42/43. Wr wouldn't have won races but did achieve a 5k average for the trip....

Oh.. we did manage to lose our aux rudder.. I think I have already told that story....

 

[Seajet]

I was thinking that.

If you break your boat, you don’t finish.

I was also thinking that the weather systems along the edge of the exclusion zone may be more vigorous with the warming that has already taken place.

Strikes me it's not just up to one's efforts, the Southern Ocean offers a special Boat Breaking Service !

 

[alant]

Diving south to avoid a small intense area of low pressure would seem counter productive....

Better methinks to stay north of the centre.....as far north as you can get..... bearing in mind that most lows on approaching the Chilean coast are driven south themselves by either the Andes or the offshore high - if it chooses to manifest itself...

Yep, the lows run clockwise down there.
I seem to remember reading how square rigged ships went deep south, in order for the low to push them west around Cape Horn.

 

[doug748]

It looks like Suzanne Huber-Curphey has just rounded the Horn in her Koopman alloy cutter Nehaj.

Sailing in the Longue Route event. A remarkable woman:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail...lanzarote-to-the-land-of-the-long-white-cloud

She set off from Maine in June.

 

[Robert Wilson]

Some people think about it, others get on with and DO it!
What great saga!

I liked the bit when she said her husband was only "half a world away" and then added he couldn't be any further!
That's some relationship!

 

[capnsensible]

We were waiting for that...
/QUOTE]

Well good. I have found in a couple of Atlantic crossings I've completed with a Hydrovane have been easier than the other nine without. It was fairly useful also going across the Pacific last year. Roll dem eyes........

 

[Wansworth]

It looks like Suzanne Huber-Curphey has just rounded the Horn in her Koopman alloy cutter Nehaj.

Sailing in the Longue Route event. A remarkable woman:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail...lanzarote-to-the-land-of-the-long-white-cloud

She set off from Maine in June.

Her husband is not far behind somewhere easy of NZ

 

[Kola]

Monitor shear-pin break - Randall Reeves - Figure 8 Voyage

 

[auditdata]

Interesting counterpoint to Don MacIntyre views on Self Steering with good technical photos and diagrams. Amusing cartoons also.
Use google translate or open in Chrome browser.
I'm a great supporter of Don and his willingness to express his views. It is with argument and counter argument that we arrive at knowledge.

https://windpilot.com/blog/golden-globe-race/don-mcintyre-ggr/

 

[Yellow Ballad]

Use google translate or open in Chrome browser.

He has an English part to his blog here

https://windpilot.com/blog/en/golden-globe-race/don-mcintyre-ggr/

 

[auditdata]

Thanks Tom. Silly me should have spotted the english version. Post corrected with english version.

"Interesting counterpoint to Don MacIntyre views on Self Steering with good technical photos and diagrams. Amusing cartoons also.

I'm a great supporter of Don and his willingness to express his views. It is with argument and counter argument that we arrive at knowledge. "

https://windpilot.com/blog/en/golden-globe-race/don-mcintyre-ggr/

 

[capnsensible]

Despite being well impressed with Hydrovane, I can point out a drawback.

It will impressively work if you have a sugar scoop transom and offset the Hydrovane to one side of it or the other.

The downside of this is that if you are anchored in the Galápagos Islands, it gives room for very large seals to still manage to squirm their bulk onto the scoop for a kip......

 

[Kukri]

I am impressed by the remarkable accuracy of the navigation of a couple of the entrants. Particularly Istvan Kopar, who is keeping just 15 miles out of the no go zone. I look forward to buying his book on sextant navigation.

 

[savageseadog]

I am impressed by the remarkable accuracy of the navigation of a couple of the entrants. Particularly Istvan Kopar, who is keeping just 15 miles out of the no go zone. I look forward to buying his book on sextant navigation.

Keeping to a line of latitude is one of the easier things to do with a sextant

 

[Daydream believer]

Interesting counterpoint to Don MacIntyre views on Self Steering with good technical photos and diagrams. Amusing cartoons also.
Use google translate or open in Chrome browser.
I'm a great supporter of Don and his willingness to express his views. It is with argument and counter argument that we arrive at knowledge.

https://windpilot.com/blog/golden-globe-race/don-mcintyre-ggr/

Having read that blog & sorted past the twaddle & attempts at comedy i can see what he is saying about the side swing during a knock down. The point is clearly relevant, although I think that I do recall Franklin writing about having to temporarily cease manufacture of his early Aeries design due to a problem during broaches caused in certain seas. His side arms were in some way designed to prevent this; but I cannot find the article or recall the incident in which it all arose.
However, That is not my point, only an aside.
When my Aeries broke recently, it did not swing to one side or the other. I am sure of that because there was no sudden movement of the vane. The shock was dead in line with the direction of the boat as it hit something hard in the water. I am convinced that, in spite of the slight angle aft of the Wind Pilots oar it would not have had the chance to deflect sideways in the same way that my one did not.
It is not unknown for ocean voyagers to hit obstacles at sea, ie logs etc. A well published event would be Guy Thomson loosing his foil in the last round the world race.
I cannot see from the pictures how the Wind Pilot allows for this. Is the shock thus carried right through to the supporting frame? If so I would consider that a serious weak point. The typical cruiser is more likely, like me, to hit a floating obstruction square on than be rolled in serious seas ( Well I hope so anyway!!!) So what is more important. A deliberate break point for impact, or a side swing for being rolled.

That being said, The wind Pilot clearly works, because I have seen ( & spoken to a few) many Dutch & German cruising yachts using them to great effect.

 

[Kukri]

Keeping to a line of latitude is one of the easier things to do with a sextant

Especially when you can see Polaris, which gives you more than one shot at doing it the easy way. Absent that, you can do a noon latitude if you have the sun and a horizon and/or you can do sums, but if you are doing sums then it isn’t easy any more - at least, not for the likes of me. And I don’t find it easy to run 24 hours in strong weather and be where I expect to be at the end of that time.

He may have a private supply of fine sunny weather. Or a private supply of accurate forecasts for his position...

 

[Latitude52°N]

Polaris on the Southern hemisphere?

 

[oschonrock]

... although I think that I do recall Franklin writing about having to temporarily cease manufacture of his early Aeries design due to a problem during broaches caused in certain seas. His side arms were in some way designed to prevent this; but I cannot find the article or recall the incident in which it all arose.

......

in spite of the slight angle aft of the Wind Pilots oar it would not have had the chance to deflect sideways in the same way that my one did not.
It is not unknown for ocean voyagers to hit obstacles at sea, ie logs etc. A well published event would be Guy Thomson loosing his foil in the last round the world race.

Couple of slight corrections / clarifications here.

1. The "mythical bad weather problem" where the "pendulum swings out of the water randomly in bad weather": It does not exist. Nick Franklin never said it existed. The "bad weather problem" was invented as a "marketing trick" by Peter Matthiassen the Danish Aries distributor. It has no basis in fact, and there is no evidence that it exists. This is what Helen Franklin wrote about it:

"Firstly I need to say that I repeatedly, repeatedly asked for the bad weather problem to be taken down. Aries – Marine Vane Gears Franklin’s – never stooped or needed to stoop to such low depths, I know that I need not state such an obvious fact to you.

It causes me problems with my customers all the time, all worried about their vane gears whether it was a Standard, a Lift Up or ‘the bad weather model’ – shudder – then I have to reassure. It was I think the beginning of my distancing myself from Denmark. I was and always have been ignored…"

2. Protection from impact by flotsam coming from the front: You're right this is very important. The Windpilot blade is retained in a "fork" by friction, and easily swivels backwards when hit from the front. You can see the drawing here:

https://windpilot.com/n/wind/en/serv/manu/zeipacific - the "friction fork" is item 430 in the diagram.

And there is of course the "whale video, which, if you look closely, shows "side swivel" and "aft tilt in the fork": (whales can manage both!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j7WvzWAlt4

Cheers

 

[oschonrock]

Especially when you can see Polaris.

Istvan is in the Southern Hemisphere, where you can't see Polaris...ever, by definition.

Anyway star sights are harder, because you only get 10mins each at dawn and dusk to take them (need a horizon!). A midday sun is much easier. You don't even need accurate time. But you do need a clear sky (right at midday if you want the easy maths)..not a given where he is.

Anyway, he is 15nm from the zone right now. You can achieve 3nm accuracy as a practised sextant operator in a small boat in reasonable conditions. Then sail for 24hrs until the next one. So 15-3=12nm error after 24hrs of dead reckoning, is not necessarily "too close".

Although he has been known to "push it". Already been penalised once!