iangrant
Well-Known Member
Well, now truly on the dark side and loving it, great delivery trip even though the Chi bar was kicking off in a F6 southerly 2 hours after high water, that was a tad rough and yes Nelsons roll!
As for getting places we set off from Christchurch and just came home, in the sailboat I would have not even considered starting that trip at lunchtime, we were tied up safe by 1545, the drudge across hayling bay which used to take an hour motoring head to wind took 15 mins!
Settling the Nelson takes more thought than I'd imagined, using the trim tabs and getting her balanced between bow down too much and rolling less control and bow up more control takes practice.
Manouvering with twin screws is a joy, evering thing done with minimum revs gently increasing power seems to get her spining in her own length and managing a 90 degree turn into the tight berth in Northney is possible!!
Balancing the engines so they are in harmony also takes practice in differing sea conditions, the quatering sea produced a small vibration as the stern was lifted by the waves which was countered by throttling back then increasing revs again, cavitation??
There seem to be sweet spots when it's so smooth its as if she's no engines running and finding them is becoming easier, slight throttle adjustments make one hell of a difference in the smooth running and balancing them.
Engineering:- LOTS more to consider than the sail boat, gear box oil pressure there's a new gauge to look at engine temps etc.. slight drip on the stern glands which I'm told is normal, didn't have that before with a volvo shaft seal, the new shafts have a pipe leading to them but not sure what is feeding them, best guess until I trace them is raw water cooling?
Two engines to service and LOTs of oil required, stbd engine burned about two pints of oil in 4 hours which worried me but the Sabre manual says they should burn that much!
Garmin kit is really pretty easy to use, compared to years of Raymarine it's easier to use although setting up split screens means going "home". In fact the home key is never far away which is great when it's all gone wrong! Best and favourite chart is the 3D mariners view, perfect detail, ships on the horizon appear but an anoying AIS alarm that you can't switch off without turning off the AIS! Great in the channel but in coastal waters even some tenders seem to have AIS transponders! May the guy at the end of the jetty one day realise we can all see him playing with his new transponder!
Depth sounder seems to have a mind of it's own, as speed increases it can jump from reading 6 metres to 0.5 cavitation I guess but it had me looking at the chart and our position a couple of times! As the boat nearly touched the mud at low water on the berth it read 8.4 metres, the other transponder to the other depth sounder read correctly.
Raggies are rude and glare at you, I always used to wave at power boats and dinghys seem suicidal more so in front of a power boat in the fairway than on the 45' sail boat, 12 tons is a little tricky to stop dead in the water when they decided to tack in front at the last moment then shake their fist at you!!
Registration, well, she is Guernsey pt 1 registered and have found all the past blue books, original name was "Alice" so we are going to put her back to that, Yea yea, I know, who the F** is Alice!
Anyway comments on observations would be welcome especially on the engineering bits
Ian
As for getting places we set off from Christchurch and just came home, in the sailboat I would have not even considered starting that trip at lunchtime, we were tied up safe by 1545, the drudge across hayling bay which used to take an hour motoring head to wind took 15 mins!
Settling the Nelson takes more thought than I'd imagined, using the trim tabs and getting her balanced between bow down too much and rolling less control and bow up more control takes practice.
Manouvering with twin screws is a joy, evering thing done with minimum revs gently increasing power seems to get her spining in her own length and managing a 90 degree turn into the tight berth in Northney is possible!!
Balancing the engines so they are in harmony also takes practice in differing sea conditions, the quatering sea produced a small vibration as the stern was lifted by the waves which was countered by throttling back then increasing revs again, cavitation??
There seem to be sweet spots when it's so smooth its as if she's no engines running and finding them is becoming easier, slight throttle adjustments make one hell of a difference in the smooth running and balancing them.
Engineering:- LOTS more to consider than the sail boat, gear box oil pressure there's a new gauge to look at engine temps etc.. slight drip on the stern glands which I'm told is normal, didn't have that before with a volvo shaft seal, the new shafts have a pipe leading to them but not sure what is feeding them, best guess until I trace them is raw water cooling?
Two engines to service and LOTs of oil required, stbd engine burned about two pints of oil in 4 hours which worried me but the Sabre manual says they should burn that much!
Garmin kit is really pretty easy to use, compared to years of Raymarine it's easier to use although setting up split screens means going "home". In fact the home key is never far away which is great when it's all gone wrong! Best and favourite chart is the 3D mariners view, perfect detail, ships on the horizon appear but an anoying AIS alarm that you can't switch off without turning off the AIS! Great in the channel but in coastal waters even some tenders seem to have AIS transponders! May the guy at the end of the jetty one day realise we can all see him playing with his new transponder!
Depth sounder seems to have a mind of it's own, as speed increases it can jump from reading 6 metres to 0.5 cavitation I guess but it had me looking at the chart and our position a couple of times! As the boat nearly touched the mud at low water on the berth it read 8.4 metres, the other transponder to the other depth sounder read correctly.
Raggies are rude and glare at you, I always used to wave at power boats and dinghys seem suicidal more so in front of a power boat in the fairway than on the 45' sail boat, 12 tons is a little tricky to stop dead in the water when they decided to tack in front at the last moment then shake their fist at you!!
Registration, well, she is Guernsey pt 1 registered and have found all the past blue books, original name was "Alice" so we are going to put her back to that, Yea yea, I know, who the F** is Alice!
Anyway comments on observations would be welcome especially on the engineering bits
Ian
