Golden Globe Race

[Roberto]

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.

I have one WP, the servo pendulum type, if the blade hits something it can tilt around the bolt that keeps it attached to the swinging arm. If the bolt is not tightened enough the water pressure is enough to tilt it.
You can see it here (also the reason why we called it Nijinsky)


I am very happy with the WP, made over 20k miles with it, though I am not entirely convinced by Peter explanation about 270° sideways movement: the swinging arm can and does turn 270° in case one lifts it out of the water when not in use; but in a knockdown its freedom of movement will be severely reduced by the two ropes connecting it to the tiller or in my case the wheel adaptor. I have put two snap shackles ln the two ropes in order to be able free them to lift it out, otherwise it is not possible. Peter advises to use some "thin cord" to attach one of the blocks through which the command ropes run, to make it act as a mechanical fuse, no matter how I tried I could not find the correct breaking strength of the attachment: either it broke too soon either it resisted to very strong pulls.
As to the pendulum blade resistance, a few severe broaches with the boat at (relatively) high speed and the pendulum pushed hard on one side have been rather convincing. Broaches were my fault, the command ropes were of average quality and getting old, in a spell of bad weather they became too elastic and the WP was reacting too slow, I changed with new and all went back ok.

 

[zoidberg]

As indicated above, there are several requirements for a usable astro LOP for Latitude. One of them is a visible horizon. The other is sight of an identifiable body underneath. At or around 46°S in mid-December, that's unlikely to be Polaris.


Edit: Did I write 'underneath'...? !!! Maybe that aberration comes from the mental gymnastics of conceptualising where the Sensible and the Celestial Horizons appear in one's mind-picture, deep into the Southern Wilderness, and In The Plane of the Ecliptic Thingy.....

 

[savageseadog]

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...

Or a Garmin watch

 

[oschonrock]

I am very happy with the WP, made over 20k miles with it, though I am not entirely convinced by Peter explanation about 270° sideways movement: the swinging arm can and does turn 270° in case one lifts it out of the water when not in use; but in a knockdown its freedom of movement will be severely reduced by the two ropes connecting it to the tiller or in my case the wheel adaptor. I have put two snap shackles ln the two ropes in order to be able free them to lift it out, otherwise it is not possible. Peter advises to use some "thin cord" to attach one of the blocks through which the command ropes run, to make it act as a mechanical fuse, no matter how I tried I could not find the correct breaking strength of the attachment: either it broke too soon either it resisted to very strong pulls.

Actually, when the pendulum is forced beyond its normal operating range by a bad wave or knockdown, there are 3 things that can take up this extra travel:

1. The main rudder can move more, because normal operation of the pendulum will never turn the main rudder to the end stop. So the pendulum will be able to go to perhaps 60 off centre - the exact figure depends on the reduction and endstops of your steering system. Normal operation is just 22 degrees - It will just steer more, which is what you want.

2. You don't need the "thin cord", that's only for tillers. The Windpilot wheel adapter contains a "disk-brake-like" mechanism which can be tightened, but it will slip under extreme loads...thereby giving the necessary relief.

3. Technical point. Because the upper end of the pendulum arm moves in a circle, when you get beyond 45degress pendulum action, the amount of "horizontal travel" for each extra degree of pendulum action, progressively and rapidly decreases - it's related to the "sine" function.

 

[NormanB]

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......

Like this?

 

[capnsensible]

Albino seal in a snowstorm? :nonchalance:

 

[NormanB]

Albino seal in a snowstorm? :nonchalance:

Hyperlink on word ‘this’

 

[Motor_Sailor]

Or a Garmin watch

Do you have any evidence that he's cheating and contravening the very essence of the race?

 

[capnsensible]

Like this?

Got it now, the cheeky pup. I'm talking though about fat boy dinghy bursters.

 

[Frank Holden]

Do you have any evidence that he's cheating and contravening the very essence of the race?

Jeanne Socrates https://svnereida.com/blog dropped this bombshell in an interview with 'Good Old Boat' in late November....'
' JEANNE: Please note - they get their positions from talking to radio contacts daily on SSB - the fact that skies are overcast for days on end, preventing sextant sights being taken, does not stop them from knowing exactly where they are from other people who can see their tracker positions! '.......

Caused a bit of a fuss in the GGR command bunker....

 

[Frank Holden]

The interview with Socrates can be read here.. https://www.facebook.com/goodoldboat/posts/2351393134902402?__xts__

 

[Kukri]

Polaris on the Southern hemisphere?

Sorry: British humour, or an attempt at it.

 

[Motor_Sailor]

Jeanne Socrates https://svnereida.com/blog dropped this bombshell in an interview with 'Good Old Boat' in late November....'
' JEANNE: Please note - they get their positions from talking to radio contacts daily on SSB - the fact that skies are overcast for days on end, preventing sextant sights being taken, does not stop them from knowing exactly where they are from other people who can see their tracker positions! '.......

Caused a bit of a fuss in the GGR command bunker....

This loophole was known and discussed four years ago amongst those interested in doing the race. The 'GGR command bunker' must have been aware of the problem but unless they were going to employ something the scale of Bletchley Park to monitor all Amateur and Marine HF bands, both SSB and Morse, in English, Dutch, Arabic, Norwegian, French, Hindi, and Russian, then the 'solution' was unenforceable.

This accusation was that Istvan had gone beyond that and deliberately broken the basic tenets of the race by taking a Garmin watch with him.
Just curious if Savageseadog had any evidence to support his naming of a specific person in this way.

 

[Frank Holden]

I don't think it was an accusation..... I think it was more of a query....or observation...

Scooting along that close to the exclusion line is interesting....whether using a fix via HF or a daily mer pass you only know where you are once a day....

Easy enough to stray from that line over the next 24 hours... I don't think I am the only one to find that when hand steering I will find myself working up to windward of the desired track.... so if the wind is on your stbd quarter ( ie SWly ) you tend to work off to the south....
Then - if on windvane - if the wind veers while you sleep you are going to run off to starboard...likewise if the wind direction stays the same but moderates....

Yet here we have yachts that day in day out sit between 15 and 20 miles from the line......

 

[Mark-1]

Scooting along that close to the exclusion line is interesting....whether using a fix via HF or a daily mer pass you only know where you are once a day....
Yet here we have yachts that day in day out sit between 15 and 20 miles from the line......

Hmmm, circumstantial, but good enough for me. Talk about cheating at patience.

 

[GHA]

The interview with Socrates can be read here.. https://www.facebook.com/goodoldboat/posts/2351393134902402?__xts__

Great link thanks. Interesting comment about "the lack of jordan series drogue which would have saved injury and mast due to knockdown", Jeanne has spent a lot of time down there so certainly worth a listen to.
Seems unsure what Suzy was trailing that broke before her pitch pole https://www.morganscloud.com/2018/12/08/susie-goodall-pitchpole/
(paywall) She bought a jsd, shark and florintino over the past couple of years apparently - seabreak who made the jsd said " there is no reason why a drogue (or set of bridles) should have failed in “only” 60kts of wind."

 

[capnsensible]

Has any poster on here who has suspicions about the race navigation practices actually contacted the organisers with their concerns?

https://goldengloberace.com/contact/

That is the link to send them an email. If anyone is prepared to voice their concerns to the race management, I'm sure some posters here would be interested in the answer........

 

[Frank Holden]

Has any poster on here who has suspicions about the race navigation practices actually contacted the organisers with their concerns?

https://goldengloberace.com/contact/

That is the link to send them an email. If anyone is prepared to voice their concerns to the race management, I'm sure some posters here would be interested in the answer........

It has already come to their notice...

From somewhere within the GGR information diseminating machine.. on or about 29th of last month..
'"Entrants are navigation(sic) using a sextant. They can receive any information over the HF SSB radio that is free to the public (except ROUTING) GGR does not co-ordinate or manage any HF Radio scheds. Entrants are free to join any existing maritime network or organize their own HAM radio net if they are a licensed HAM operator. Occasionally Entrants have been given other entrant positions from the GGR LIVE TRACKER as they are interested in where they are in the flee etc. That makes some followers believe they are not navigating with a sextant anymore (which is NOT the case) and it may be against the spirit of the GGR. HF radio is encouraged for use as it was in 1968 for safety and logistic reasons. None the less to save any confusion the following new rule to the GGR comes into force on Dec 1st. NOR 3.1.3.3 GPS Positions from GGR Tracker and AIS Marine Traffic.
GPS co-ordinates of GGR entrants from the GGR LIVE tracker or AIS Marine Traffic are forbidden to entrants. Penalty 48hrs 1st offence. Disqualification 2nd offence."

 

[capnsensible]

Do you think this response will satisfy the Suspicious Minds?

I suspect not........

 

[zoidberg]

"Rools..... are for the guidance of wise men and the obedience of fools"

I've heard that said on a few occasions. I know several boaty racers who consider 'The Racing Rules of Sailing' to be an arena, where the last man standing wins the argument. I sailed with and against a barrister, over several years, who lived by the code of 'Thou shalt not get caught'. On one occasion, in the pre-start of a Fastnet Race, it emerged his propeller had fallen off. He continued the Race, made no Declaration, and when asked about that 'informally', simply said "Prove it!"

For those who don't know, that conferred a significant speed advantage.