Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i Cruising Helmsman

LETTER OF THE MONTH SINGAPORE STRAIT JACKET Hello Phil, A word of warning for those about to embark on a trip south of Singapore via the Singapore Strait. Recently we made a transit passage from the west to the east coast of Malaysia. On the way we were stopped by the Singapore police while transiting outside Singapore Port Limits. The Singapore Port Limits are plainly marked on the charts. The police let us know we were 66 metres inside Singapore waters. We were directed to turn 30 degrees starboard and proceed out 66 metres, this then put us into the traffic separation lane (going in our direction made it oncoming traffic). During the conversation yelled between vessels (not sure why the VHF radio was not used) we were asked if…

NOT ANOTHER BOOK ON COOK! Yes, but this one is quite different. A good read, especially if you managed to view the Sam Neill television documentary series: The Pacific in the wake of Captain Cook, as there were many personal references Neill brought up that are covered in the book. The author centres the book on Isaac Manley, the son of a wealthy London family, who sails as a cabin boy on the HMS Endeavour’s first voyage of discovery in 1768. Every historic detail is correct, author Anthony Hill uses real people listed on the muster for the ship. He spent nearly two years researching the book to make sure the external facts were as accurate as possible. The interactions of thought, emotion and speech are from his own interpretation.…

MOST current yacht diesels in the 40 horsepower (30 kilowatt) range are marinised tractor and industrial engines and have indirect injection and four cylinders. Indirect injection is used to meet exhaust emission requirements and reduce engine vibration through more thorough air/fuel combustion, along with four cylinders which vibrate less than three cylinders. So for years Yanmar’s 3JH5E has been the odd engine out, having three cylinders and direct injection. The three big cylinders do make for a more compact engine over the four cylinder competition, while the direct injection is more fuel efficient than indirect. The reason direct injection is more efficient in naturally aspirated diesels is that the fuel is injected directly into the combustion chambers instead of into separate chambers above the combustion chambers. But in indirect injection…

I ONCE read that humans are incapable of remembering pain. That is to say that although we recall an event as painful, we actually cannot evoke that physical sensation of pain we experienced. This surely explains why women are willing to have more than one child; birth, I am told, is right on the top of the “holy f#@k that was painful” scale. I also believe this is why sailors regularly return to haul up anchor and put to sea, this is one I know. Our passage from Papua New Guinea was a rather long drawn out affair. Since we were crossing the equator this was somewhat expected, in the beginning. We were assured, by everyone who has sailed the route before us plus our weather router who we employed…

THERE are times in the life of a boat where she needs a little TLC. Yes it can be done at anchor, but more often it means being lifted out of the water and placed on the hard where anything can happen and often does. It is never a dull life being on the hard. It can be perplexing, but it can be fun. Annoying and tedious but at the same time full of the joi de vie for which sailors have become renowned. Yes it can be a tad squashy, being placed just a few feet from another vessel. It does mean ensuring that all lines, sheet, anchor chains, in fact anything that may come into contact with the ground has a rodent inhibitor in place to ensure they…

SOLAS dinner adds to charity kitty THE Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s (CYCA) SOLAS (Safety of Life at Sea) Trusts raised just under $30,000 at a dinner held at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron (RSYS) recently. Among those attending were Sir James and Lady Joan Hardy, SOLAS Trusts chairman David Kellett and wife Kendi, Australian Sailing president Matt Allen, CYCA Commodore Paul Billingham and wife Jude accompanied by some CYCA directors and CEO, RSYS Commodore David Ward and treble Olympian Karyn Gojnich with husband John. Guest speaker for the night was Commander Marc Pavillard RAN, who was accompanied on the night by his wife Sarah. Commander Pavillard was an instrumental figure in the rescue of sailors in the 1998 Sydney Hobart, saving many lives as the winch coordinator in the…

THE call came around the right time. I had just finished studying so I had a bit of spare time on my hands. December was a good month to head south and my friends had received a favourable weather report. If ever I was going to cross notorious Bass Strait, this was the moment. But, in the back of my mind lurked the words of my recently-passed father. He had run a marine business for over 50 years and in that time he had sailed or raced on almost everything that floated. But he had only ever done one overnight passage, when he crossed Bass Strait as part of a Melbourne to Devonport race. He told me afterwards it had been the worst 24 hours of his sailing life and…

LION PROTECT FOR ABOVE THE WATERLINE It took Dave Burnett of ABS Technologies a long time and a fair bit of his own testing before he would commit to being a Coppercoat agent for Australia. So, too, has it been for his commitment to Lion Protect product, but as it was with Coppercoat, he believes it is worth the wait. “Like everything we handle, we have personal experience of the product,” explained Burnett. “I came across Lion Protect’s Gelcoat Sealer a while ago and, taking a single can, tried it on the hull of a small trailerable yacht. The hull was fibreglass, with some areas the original white 30 year old gelcoat and, in other areas a tired bright yellow colour in twopack polyurethane finish. “The hull had been professionally…

THE Lagoon 42 was one of the first catamarans I managed to take out for a test review when I first started here at Cruising Helmsman. With its slab-sided topsides and coachhouse it was certainly indicative of the design type of its day. Nearly three years down the track and 360 of this range have been built, making it a very successful model for parent company Beneteau. So how has it stayed relevant and is it still relevant? Competing as it does nowadays against faster hull designs, centreboard options and a few years of design advancement both interior and exterior. We found it to still hit its brief of being a readily-comfortable, short passage-maker straight out of the box. There have been some major improvements to keep it to the…

I HAD been planning for quite some time to take Redwing north to Boatworks on the Coomera River as I had heard very good reports, it seemed like just the place for an extended haulout. My first booking there had been in early March butthanks to a record flood and a river bar turned dangerous, I had delayed. Still, with a boat rotting out of control I knew I could not delay any longer. Besides, my partner Kerry was going to join me after the haulout and we were going to have a holiday afterwards with a week’s sailing on Moreton Bay. Redwing was going on her first cruise. Tuesday the 27th June dawned overcast and the discovery of more rot in the beamshelves just aft of the mast did…

OUR canvas bimini, dodger, clears and covers, although not the first to be installed on FriendShip II, had come near to the end of useful life after constant restitching and patching had became a common endeavour. It was time to either replace them on the existing stainless steel frame or look for alternatives. I found that most of the wear and tear occurred on the dodger and bimini tops as these were the most exposed to ultra-violet degradation. Canvas, particularly the stitching thread depending on quality, will only last around five to eight years in the sub-tropics. Another issue I had with FriendShip II was reaching the high boom to repack the slabbed mainsail. I envied the catamaran skippers who simply walked atop their coachhouse trailing the boom bag zipper…

PILE MOORING MADE EASY Cheryl Stanton and her husband live aboard their twelve metre catamaran Oskat, based in Bowen, Queensland. Bowen’s harbour is predominantly pile moorings. Casting off and picking up lines has now become second nature, but initially it was quite daunting, so much so that Cheryl had the previous owner take her around the harbour several times for practice in picking up the lines. Practice is valuable regardless of the mooring situation. The confidence gained reduces stress and the level of entertainment provided for onlookers. With experience, Cheryl developed her own routine. These days her most valued piece of equipment is a small spliced rope about two metres long. Many cruising sailors are familiar with the ‘marriage line’. This is simply a line rigged between the piles to…

MY yacht is the first of the Hanse 455 in Australia previously reviewed in CH December 2015 and Australian Sailing Aug/Sept 2015. The Hanse boats are built with the European bareboat charter fleet in mind and, as such, lacked a bit of live-aboard finesse. So after some subtle modifications to the interior: extra cupboards in the main cabin, a washing machine, a Rainman watermaker, extra house batteries, a diesel heater for Tasmania and a freezer, finished off the below decks fit out. On deck the addition of 600 watts of solar panels, a wind generator, davits along with a liferaft makes the deck look somewhat non-racey but definitely live-aboard and cruising functional. The sailing suite has been upgraded with a Gale Sail storm jib, a Hood screecher or code zero,…