more transat prep

tcm

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Las Palmas. More boats arrive every day and the boats that are here are preparing for a transat. I’ve heard wildish guesses that perhaps a few thousand yachts do a transat each year of which only 220 or so go with the ARC, so most are independent of course. In early October the marina tells all the long-term liveaboards to clear out – otherwise (partly cos the marina is so cheap) they would stay all the time with no space for transat boats. They seem to have a policy of (if at all possible) not turning anyone away, but they also have clear obligations to the ARC. An ARC boat arriving here is invoiced (and these days must pay in advance) for a berth up to the ARC departure day. What berth are we in? “I have no idea idea” says the nice lady in the marina office as she’s swiping my credit card – “I’m here to get the money!” Attagirl. When we get into November, non-ARC boats are allowed to stay for just a few days, and some larger ones are told that they must keep someone on board at all times and be ready to leave within 30minutes. Should have joined the ARC, but book a year ahead to be sure of a place...

Anyways, I was gonna write about the jobs list. We’ve done the haulout in Lanzarote - anodes, new seacocks all round (ozzie friend Mark on Sealife emails to say he doesn’t care about seacocks but would be more interested if they were called sea vaginas, ahem..) and new guard wires all round. So now there engine and generator servicing and all the stuff I didn’t round to over the summer.

Sailwise I have ordered a new 180sqm spinnaker (all pink!) in 1.5oz heavyish duty material which should be good for downwind daytime Atlantic with apparent wind 10-20kts and wind angles 100-180. At night we’ll fly the parasailor dead downwind – the parasailor’s wing+vent can deal with squalls which mostly arrive at night – an ordinary spinnaker might blow out.

I also ordered a halyard lock or “K-hook” (made by Karver, and as per suggestion from a ybw forumite flaming, I think) which again should arrive before the arc – instead of the halyard line up the masdt taking the weight of the sail all the time and squeakily wearing the line , a small line is used to hoist the sail and click it into a metal attachment fixed high up on the mast. So no more broken spinnaker halliards – about one a year so far, and each one costs a few hundred quid. Yeah, ok, the blimmin hook costs over three grand, but losing a spi halliard risks losing a sail (if it gets wrapped around props and has to be cut away) and a Parasailor costs eight grand, ouch.

Dee is ace seamtress with the sewing machine and is busy replacing bits of sun-wrecked canvas the busted 3metre zip yesterday and new portside panel today.

Meanwhile yesterday I bicycled to a wood yard for some 18mm ply, wobbled 3 miles back to the boat with the stuff lashed to the rear rack, and made a flip-up/down “step” at the helm, excellent for shortie people like Dee ( and Nick who is due in Nov for the ARC).

When anyone does some proper DIY, everyone is ready to help and/or advise, some even usefully - like a guy on Hungarian yacht “Tempest” just up the pontoon. He looks very like Franz Beckenbauer in the 70’s and he’s called Attila. Yeah, I’m not kidding - Attila the Hun loaned me his electric saw!

Now, I suppose some might think it’s all very well me rambling on about boats when most people have to work and earn a crust and maybe only go boating a few times a year. But …. Attila the Hun has named his round the world sailingtrip “Around the World In 80 litres” (ie 80 litres of diesel) and has a nice website and t-shirts and lots of sponshorship. Now why didn’t any of us think of that? He sez he might use more than 80litres, but he’ll have a go anyway.

Finally, one of the newest jobs on the list is to modify our fake candle. It’s a battery-powered light with a candle flame-looking thing at the top to make it look like a candle, and it’s even coated in wax to make it look and feel and smell like a candle! BUT it doesn’t have dribbly wax down the side so I gotta sort it out…
 

Salty John

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Finally, one of the newest jobs on the list is to modify our fake candle. It’s a battery-powered light with a candle flame-looking thing at the top to make it look like a candle, and it’s even coated in wax to make it look and feel and smell like a candle! BUT it doesn’t have dribbly wax down the side so I gotta sort it out…

Couldn't you just use a real candle?
 

stevepick

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Great read

Thanks Matt, that was ( as usual) a great read - I can't wait , I'm am getting to go this year and arrive in Las Palmas on the 12th Nov and I am really looking forward to it. Stuck in the office now - snippets like the one above are keeping me sane.

Steve
 

flaming

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Sailwise I have ordered a new 180sqm spinnaker (all pink!)

Watch out for tankers.

I also ordered a halyard lock or “K-hook” (made by Karver, and as per suggestion from a ybw forumite flaming, I think) which again should arrive before the arc – instead of the halyard line up the masdt taking the weight of the sail all the time and squeakily wearing the line , a small line is used to hoist the sail and click it into a metal attachment fixed high up on the mast. So no more broken spinnaker halliards – about one a year so far, and each one costs a few hundred quid. Yeah, ok, the blimmin hook costs over three grand, but losing a spi halliard risks losing a sail (if it gets wrapped around props and has to be cut away) and a Parasailor costs eight grand, ouch.

I'm going to wait until you get to the other side before claiming the credit here... Will be very interested to hear your thoughts on the halyard lock. I supect they're going to become more common on large cruising boats.
 

KellysEye

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> perhaps a few thousand yachts do a transat each year

It's a lot less than that, my guess would be 400 to 500. When we crossed in 2004 we calculated that that Man U stadium has more seats than there have been yacht transats, which only took off when GPS arrived. Good luck with the crossing.
 

ParaHandy

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In the past, emphasis has been on food and drink, especially the latter, and nut and bolty type things were of lesser interest; certainly not enough to fill a bluidy page. Now Canary wine is always described as remarkably good or unusually fine or unexpectedly pleasant as if the stuff was distilled from donkey piss. El Monte is mentioned. You might pass a few tasting notes on of this wine .... are you still into industrial quantities cos got lots of time to get that done and dusted or stored away?

Best of luck!
 

tcm

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In the past, emphasis has been on food and drink, especially the latter, and nut and bolty type things were of lesser interest; certainly not enough to fill a bluidy page. Now Canary wine is always described as remarkably good or unusually fine or unexpectedly pleasant as if the stuff was distilled from donkey piss. El Monte is mentioned. You might pass a few tasting notes on of this wine .... are you still into industrial quantities cos got lots of time to get that done and dusted or stored away?

Best of luck!

Hiya Para

I can recommend Liria at e1.50 of which i have had a lot. And el corta. And arehucas rum. Not been ill-feeling even after n average 2 bottles each . not he rum opf coursdr

m
 

capnsensible

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We met Atilla. He was looking for a North Africa pilot so I gave him a spare one I had laying about.

Generously he said he must give us something in return and trotted off to find a bottle on his boat...

We immediately went Oi, Zwack Unicum, NO

But it was some sort of Hungarian wine that I still have not had the courage to taste, it came with some story about the special soil the grapes are grown in or something.

Nice bloke though.
 

Jeannius

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I also ordered a halyard lock or “K-hook” (made by Karver, and as per suggestion from a ybw forumite flaming, I think) which again should arrive before the arc – instead of the halyard line up the masdt taking the weight of the sail all the time and squeakily wearing the line , a small line is used to hoist the sail and click it into a metal attachment fixed high up on the mast. So no more broken spinnaker halliards – about one a year so far, and each one costs a few hundred quid. Yeah, ok, the blimmin hook costs over three grand, but losing a spi halliard risks losing a sail (if it gets wrapped around props and has to be cut away) and a Parasailor costs eight grand, ouch.

Amel's come equipped with something to achieve the same objective. Great when they work. Bit of a bugger when they won't unlock when you want to get the sail down.

Only saying this because I have a Karver continuous furler that the metal parts thereof have turned into a horrible mush of corrosion after laying in my reasonably dry bow locker for about 3 months.
 
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