Talking of freeboard, the following is from Jon Wainwright’s ‘Only So Many Tides’:
“We compared the two craft. Deva was less than a foot of freeboard astern, fine lined and low in superstructure. The cabin cruiser with twice the power, three times the freeboard and four times the superstructure appeared to her owners to be far safer; they couldn’t believe that freeboard at sea is like a chin held up to a punch.”
You better believe it.
We have been watching the rugby this afternoon – England losing to Wales, and the conversation got round to sporting academies and how young people seem to be protected these days and, as a consequence, are expected to survive major tests before they have built the practical experience they need to cope with them – before they know what it’s like in real life. At least the old-fashioned apprenticeship pitted the apprentice against the real world almost from the start.
My mother-in-law who comes from a farming family said that, when she was young, they used to describe people like that as “book-farmers”. They know everything on paper . . . but not much in reality.
I, like many other people who sail, devour books on sailing and the sea and could be described as a book-sailor by anyone with more experience than me. (I have just added yet another of my many books to the boatblog book shelf).
It has got me thinking: I wonder if people could be described as “blog-sailors” or “DVD-sailors”. I believe there are thousands of “virtual-sailors” currently ‘racing’ in the Vendee Globe. Perhaps they are “laptop-sailors”. or ‘pc-sailors’
Whatever . . . it is good to be interested – but the only real way to learn is to be out there on the water.
So, I wish you a favourable tide and a fair wind
Squall over Eddystone 2007
but not too favourable or too fair . . .
because how else will you learn?
Further to my previous posts, here, here and here, the following is taken from “Singlehanded Sailing”, by Richard Henderson.
He is talking about the Folkboat – (the Folksong is a Folkboat derivative):
“She (the Folkboat) has considerable aft rake to her rudder, which results in less lateral plane and less wetted surface. There was a time when some sailors thought this feature was detrimental to self-steering, but this thinking is not so much in evidence today.
. . . a considerable rake aft often causes the rudder to operate more efficiently when the boat is heeled or rolling, at which time the resultant of force components working on the rudder is acting in a more lateral and thus more effective direction. It is also true that gravity tends to keep such a rudder amidships when the boat is unheeled*. The really important concern with regard to self-steering is the directional stability of the hull, which is generally achieved through a reasonably symmetrical shape with somewhat balanced ends and an ample, but not necessarily extreme, length of keel.”
* And presumably the heavier rudder will be more effective in maintaining this.
On Blue Mistress, I am able to leave the tiller and go forward to adjust lines at the mast – (usually to loosen the lazy jacks which interfere with the mainsail shape if left too tight). She holds her course for the time it takes.
I have been gathering information on rudders – see my posts here and here.
The following by J.D.Sleightholme in his ABC for Yachtsmen, is useful.
Published in 1965, original price 21 shillings, and bought in one of my favourite secondhand bookshops – Books by the Sea, Bude, Cornwall.
The question is what effect Blue Mistress’ rather heavily-built rudder have on her performance?
It’s one of those subjects that has several different answers depending on who you talk to. At the moment I’m gathering information and listening.
Blue Mistress’ heavily-built rudder.
Mr Sleightholme writes:
“A yacht should handle with the minimum use of the rudder (which slows her).
Deep narrow rudders are more effective than wide ones and have less slowing effect. As a rule, deep rudders are broader at the top due to difference in water density.
A steeply raked rudder exerts additional force in pulling the stern down when hard over.
In tacking with good way on, very little rudder is used at first, but more is applied as the speed drops – (never more than 30 degrees). Jamming it hard over may mean missing stays.
Power craft have proportionately smaller rudders because they work in the slipstream of the propeller. May be “balanced” with a small area forward of the rudder post.
Sailing craft may have 12 – 15 per cent of immersed lateral hull area in the rudder, power craft about 5 per cent.” (p.100)
This says more about shape and angles and less about weight, but it takes us in the right direction.
River Thames at Richmond, 2nd February 2009, 7.30am
We were in London earlier in the week, returning just before the weather turned for the worse in south Devon yesterday evening.
I am posting these images because the conditions were so unusual thereabouts.
The little red yacht was still carrying its mainsail on the boom.
River Thames at Richmond, 2nd February 2009, 7.30 am
River Thames at Richmond, 2nd February 2009, 11.00 am – canal boat in the foreground
Thus is a frustrating day.
I had planned to move Blue Mistress this morning because Cattewater Harbour Commission want to work on our moorings and we are in the way.
The plan was “weather permitting” – well, it’s not.
Take time out to scroll through these fantastic pictures.
Thanks to the Adam at Messing About in Boats for spotting them.
A calculation I have never made before:
The speed that a yacht’s hull can be made to travel through water is related to waterline length.
The formula for an average sea-going yacht of conventional shape is:
Speed in knots = 1.4 x Square root of the L.W.L. in feet
The multiplier is altered according to the type of hull. It may range from 1.25 for a tubby hull to 1.5 for a large racing yacht.
Therefore Blue Mistress’ theoretical maximum speed at L.W.L of 19′ 8″:
= 1.4 x Square root of 19.66 ft
= 1.4 x 4.434
= 6.2 knots (Always remembering that speed through water is not the same as speed over the ground).
We were doing a little less in the clip below
Most posts get written and published relatively swiftly. Some get started then abandoned. This one has hung around for several days and now I realise why: I go sailing to get away from this sort of discussion! The irony is that I can’t go sailing unless I discuss it (Catch 22). So I will finish and publish, and think of it as a rite of passage.
~~~
This New Year especially some serious financial planning is needed if we are going to enjoy another year’s sailing.
Here are some thoughts on the expenses involved.
~~~
Last spring, I watched Super Yachts in the Adriatic and the Open 60 fleet out of Plymouth. During the summer Blue Mistress wallowed in the wash of luxury Princess yachts. I have just been watching clips of the Sydney-Hobart Race and I am bombarded monthly by journals full of expensive yachts and luxury accessories. As far as sailing is concerned, I know my place when it comes to what I can afford – and it isn’t at that end of the market.
~~~
“Whatever you want, oh discontented man. Step up! Pay the price. and take it.” James Allen
Exciting thought? I am sure you read the first part and the last part. Did you see the bit in the middle about ‘pay the price’?
“If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.”
Right? Wrong!
I used to think this was fair comment. It made me reconsider whether I really did need this or that piece of kit!
Now I think differently. At its best, not asking the price is a sign of no-management. More likely it’s a sign of bad-management. And we are all now living with the results of both.
So here is a quote from me: “Good financial management is a basic ingredient of good boat management”.
~~~
In the preface to “Shipmasters Business Companion, including Hints to Young Shipmasters” by J.W Anderson, price 5/6 net, printed in 1920, Captain Anderson writes:
“It is of the greatest importance that a young shipmaster should study his business well and thoroughly, and should endeavour at all times to be prepared for any emergency; the man who is well prepared generally comes out on top.” (For ‘any emergency’ include financial ones, for ‘young shipmaster’ include older boat owners).
It doesn’t matter whether it’s 1920 or 2020, this will always hold true.
That the boat creates no direct financial income is irrelevant. The income in terms of recreational value and spillover benefits is priceless.
Nevertheless, expenses are very real and must be balanced in some way if they are not going to sink the whole project.
~~~
So where does the money come from? ‘Credit’ doesn’t work any more; living ‘hand-to-mouth’ on the water might be great if you had the time and the freedom; and, yes, there are people who will always afford it, directly or through sponsorship. The rest of us have to get out there and earn it – and then spend it wisely (more or less).
Blue Mistress’ expenses break down like this:
To make the dull process of recording the figures easier, I’ve come to thinking of the categories as instruments in a jazz band – some provide the basic rhythm (moorings, subscriptions etc) and the rest get brought in at the right moment to create great music – louder, softer or not at all depending on what I can afford at the time.
For example, I will hang fire on a new rudder this year, but there is some work that needs doing down below that will get done in February and March, and the paintwork, and . . .
Here’s another quote – “it’s not what you say, it’s the music you play”
Maybe there are ways of making the world work without having to be so darned serious all the time – but you’ve got to be serious occasionally and get the basics right.
~~~
And, besides money, the other two major expenses are:
A great deal of Time
and
A whole lot of Energy
Which brings us on to income – more of which later.
On Boxing Day, at low tide, we walked on the beach.
Empty quay, Bude, Boxing Day, 2008
The weather was one of blue skies and crystal-clear visibility.
The views were amazing, but there is always more to a view than meets the eye – there is a history that rides with it.
Ceres, Bude
This is not a request to focus on the past, but to share it – to acknowledge that the past existed and that those who lived through it were no different from us.
They too saw the world change before their eyes and their old certainties lost to an unknown future.
Low tide, Bude, Boxing Day, 2008
Thus the toast this Christmas is the toast of Christmas’ past – “Absent Friends”.
Ceres, waiting for the tide, Bude
Here are four images taken yesterday morning at Duckpool on the coast of North Cornwall.
A combination of low tide, bright sunshine, and a cold, easterly, offshore wind.
This is a wreckers’ coastline – to be avoided on a lee shore.
Yesterday it was a place to take the air after Christmas.
Beyond Steeple Point 