Pouring oil on troubled waters?

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Gypsyjoss

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I'm currently reading Sailing Alone Around the World by Captain Joshua Slocum - and a super read it is.
He takes on board 'a barrel of oil to calm the waves'.

Have any of you used oil to calm the waves? Was it effective? How much did you use? What were the circumstances? In these days of being pc was it fish oil, or olive oil or engine oil?

Pete
 
Gypsyjoss said:
Captain Joshua Slocum takes on board 'a barrel of oil to calm the waves'...olive oil or engine oil?
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Olive oil? How insanely expensive would that be? Like running your diesel engine on olive oil.

The plan is for a holed container to release the merest dribble of oil every few seconds, to windward, or whichever side of the yacht the waves are coming from. The oil disperses instantly, forming a film which inhibits foaming of the crests, so you just ride a quiet swell.

That's the plan, anyway. I haven't tried it, either. Wouldn't recommend olive oil, though, nor grotty sump oil. :eek:
 
dancrane said:
Olive oil? How insanely expensive would that be? Like running your diesel engine on olive oil.

The plan is for a holed container to release the merest dribble of oil every few seconds, to windward, or whichever side of the yacht the waves are coming from. The oil disperses instantly, forming a film which inhibits foaming of the crests, so you just ride a quiet swell.

That's the plan, anyway. I haven't tried it, either. Wouldn't recommend olive oil, though, nor grotty sump oil. :eek:
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Some people flush it out through the heads. AFAIK the Pardeys have used it.
 
If you have a boat that will hove too reasonably well, this will do the same trick and better than the oil trail, im sure. I hove too this summer in force 9-10 breaking seas, and it instantly stopped all the breaking waves. It was the first time I experienced this, it was like magic.
I couldn't be bothered to go to all the trouble of oil, if you had the option to hove too.

Different folks, different strokes and all that......
 
Gypsyjoss said:
I'm currently reading Sailing Alone Around the World by Captain Joshua Slocum - and a super read it is.
He takes on board 'a barrel of oil to calm the waves'.

Have any of you used oil to calm the waves? Was it effective? How much did you use? What were the circumstances? In these days of being pc was it fish oil, or olive oil or engine oil?

Pete
Click to expand...

Traditionally, whale oil was used. But really anything cheap and nasty would do the same thing; the idea is to get a thin film on the surface of the water to enhance (I think) the surface tension.
 
Eric Hiscock, in his classic Cruising Under Sail says:

"I imagine that anyone who has ever lain in a gale, as I have done, in the sludge pumped out by a tanker, would refrain from using oil except as a survival measure, for the surface water picked up by the wind carries it all over the ship, and the resulting mess is indescribable, besides being dangerous because it is so slippery".

That's a no, then.
 
Standby I'm going to swing the lamp...:D
In 1960 I was at a sea training establishment (Merchant Navy) at Dover, and boat work, handling under oars and it's dipping lugs'l rig formed part of our training. Boat's equipment was obviously covered too, Balers x 2, axe, rations, sweetened condensed milk, ships biscuits, 'Board of Trade' Barley sugar sweets etc:.....and use of the oil bag in foul weather..:p
Out through the Western entrance under oars we went, the instructing officer sitting wrapped up like a frozen Penguin in the sternsheets while we heaved the big heavy wooden clinker built boat along. Outside in a bit of a chop we streamed the oil bag, I recall the oil was old cooking oil from the schools galley. We paid the bag out on it's line having stabbed it with a spike first, and then gently 'back watered' the oars because there wasn't enough sea running for the bag to stream properly to windward quickly enough to please the Instructor.
I'm sure it was a Belgian Ferry which was responsible..but it screamed out of the entrance and her wash carried a large amount of oil down to us and as we rolled a fair amount of water and oil came aboard.

Gripping the oars with frozen teenage hands and trying to keep the stroke while sliding around on the thwarts and smelling like damp chip wrappers we pulled the boat back across the Harbour and then spent the next two hours swabbing it out with paraffin.
Never ever stream an oil bag....:D :D
 
Hal Roth witters about oil over stormy water in one of his books, so having 10litres of the old engine oil in an ocean with around 4m sea and praps 28knots of wind i thought i would give it a go.

Useless of course, because you have to chuck out the oil and then sit in it, so hove to or whatever. Not while actually going along. A slick developed, eventually, but we’d gone. Hm.

You also need loads and loads of oil - a lot more than 2 gallons. BP shares anyone?
 
It is common in the large pond which will be observed in a certain wind in the oil to dropped in a little water. That can affect on smoothing the the rise and fall of the water in the pond.
 
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