Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2020 i Cruising Helmsman

EVERY year, whenever the great whale migration occurs off the Australian east coast, my wife and I have talked about the day when we would be seeing them from the water, instead of perched high up on a land-based lookout. This year, after almost three years of spending all our time renovating our 52 foot ketch Taroona, we felt the time had come to make this dream a reality. So, on a benign winter’s day in late July, we slipped our mooring in Hardys Bay and headed out to sea with the intent of spotting some passing whales. Those who are familiar with the waters around Broken Bay will know that the entrance to Brisbane Waters is closely guarded by a relatively narrow channel that snakes around a headland and…

IF you did not grow up on a boat and sailing is not in your blood from birth, learning to sail can seem like a daunting endeavour; the prospect of it almost inconceivable. This is not helped by the elitist views of some sailors and the general derision experienced by newcomers for their failings due to inexperience. Anyone would think that these sailors began as seasoned professionals and never suffered the shortcomings of learning. It was not too long ago that I was embarking on this steep learning curve. Having completed a ‘Keelboat helm and crew’ course, my instructor recommended that I crew on a boat for the summer saturday racing season on the Swan River to gain some experience. Jumping straight on the Royal Perth Yacht Club’s website, I…

IN May 2018 the Adams 40 steel cutter Goanna experienced three consecutive nights of gale force winds in the eastern approaches to Bass Strait and got severely knocked down on the third night. This is the story of that voyage. We are a husband and wife crew of live-aboard yachties and sometime voyagers. Hardship and danger have never been on our agenda. This undertaking would be our sixth sail across Bass Strait. Previous trips in that region had ranged from a genoa-all-the-way sunny ride, to a battle into winds reaching gale force strength. On Thursday 17 May 2018 Goanna departed Triabunna in eastern Tasmania bound for New South Wales. Our attempt at sailing off the mooring under mainsail and jib did not go so well, a flukey wind shift as…

SAFER MAST CLIMBING Riggers and surveyors often have to go up masts with a stranger in charge of the halyard. Although cruisers would usually avoid this situation, sometimes it is inescapable. As I did when I was yacht rigging full time, marine surveyor Anthony Gates has developed a few tricks. Here is what he does to ensure his own safety: “Not all cruising yachts have a large crew or electric winch to grind you aloft, plus someone to take up on a safety line. In my job I often do not even know the person I am going to trust to safely get me to the mast head and back. Secondly, masthead halyards are also rare on fractional-rigged boats and topping lifts are sometimes unusable. “I have a couple of…

ELBA is a beautiful Mediterranean island off the western coast of northern Italy. It has the Tuscany countryside alongside on the mainland and the island of Corsica to its west. The island is a glorious place to visit, relax and enjoy, which makes it a perfect metaphor for this Fountaine Pajot catamaran. The owners, Gordon and Louise Coates purchased hull number one from Fountaine Pajot through Multihull Solutions in Sydney and picked it up in France. Being the first build it is highly-specified as a demonstration special: electric winches, carbon fibre rig, air conditioning throughout, full sound system, two televisions and teak decking. Over 100 of this model were sold before this first hull even hit the water; equating to two years of production. Gordon and Louise have been together…

PACIFIC BY TYRE FOLLOWING on from the MySailing story in the newsletter ‘Sailing across the Pacific by rope’ (originally appeared in CH May issue) about the crew who used some ingenuity to overcome a piece of very bad luck by making improvised warps, you may be interested in reporting on legendary WA sailor Jon Sanders, currently on his 11th circumnavigation and just set a new record as the oldest (81 y.o.) to do a lap, who used a vehicle tyre (yep, you read correctly) as a drogue after the commercial one died. Read the brief story (and others from his regular blog) here: https://jonsanders.com/voyage-blog-saturday-28-december-2019/ RegardsCOL DELANEPERTH, WA NEW SILVER GULL MEMORIES MANY years ago, while New Silver Gull (CRH May) was moored off Davis’s Boatshed in North Harbour and Harry…

THE Australian Maritime Safety Authority recently issued notice 07/2020 advising users that the Inmarsat Fleet 77 and Swift 64 satellite communication services will cease operations on December 1 this year, 2020. What will this mean for cruising sailors? Satellite communications supplier Inmarsat has advised that after several years of service, legacy systems: Fleet 77 and Swift 64 satellite communication services, will cease to operate from 1 December 2020. The Fleet 77 system used a 64 kilobit/second ISDN channel to provide a range of services including voice, packet data and access to Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS). This service used a dedicated point to point channel to communicate between vessels and earth stations via geostationary satellites. Swift 64 is a similar ISDN service for aircraft operations. WHAT IS INMARSAT?…