On sailing a Folksong – thoughts on expenses

09/01/2009 / Bill

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.

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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.

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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.

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“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”.

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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.

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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:

Initial cost of boat
Marine survey
Documents/Subscriptions
Marine Insurance
Mooring/Berth
Boatyard Costs
Electronics/Software
Sails/Rigging
Engine/Fuel
Safety
R&R
Courses/Books/DVDs
Chandlery
Provisions
Sundry

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.

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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.

For love of a boat – in Messinia, Greece

04/01/200911/01/2009 / Bill

Aghios Nikolaos, Messinia, Greece 2007

If you are reading this on a blog feed, there is a link on the main site to the series of posts on inshore craft.

Inshore fishing boats are changing from working boat to leisure craft in ever greater numbers.

Looking through this series of posts, (images taken for the love of the boat rather than for any academic purpose), we can glimpse that change.

To pursue this further, I highly recommend the links in the ‘For love of a boat’ category on the main site, starting with Captain George’s video clip. Thank you again to AA for drawing my attention to it.

For the origin of this series – here

Acknowledging the past

29/12/200830/12/2008 / Bill

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

For more on Ceres – here, here and here

On Steeple Point – Low tide, Duckpool

29/12/200816/05/2009 / Bill

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.

For love of a boat – Teignmouth, Devon, UK

20/12/200808/02/2009 / Bill

Teignmouth to Shaldon Ferry, late afternoon, December 2008 (and a short clip)

I was going to describe the ferry trip, but then I found this:

“. . . I too many and many a time cross’d the river, the sun half an hour high;
I watched the Twelfth-month sea-gulls-I saw them high in the air, floating with motionless
wings,
oscillating their bodies,
I saw how the glistening yellow lit up parts of their bodies, and left the rest in strong
shadow,
I saw the slow-wheeling circles, and the gradual edging toward the south.

I too saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water,
Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams,
Look’d at the fine centrifugal spokes of light around the shape of my head in the sun-lit
water,
Look’d on the haze on the hills southward and southwestward,
Look’d on the vapor as it flew in fleeces tinged with violet,
Look’d toward the lower bay to notice the arriving ships,
Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were near me,
Saw the white sails of schooners and sloops – saw the ships at anchor,
The sailors at work in the rigging, or out astride the spars,
The round masts, the swinging motion of the hulls, the slender serpentine pennants,
The large and small steamers in motion, the pilots in their pilot-houses,
The white wake left by the passage, the quick tremulous whirl of the wheels,
The flags of all nations, the falling of them at sun-set,
The scallop-edged waves in the twilight, the ladled cups, the frolicsome crests and
glistening,
The stretch afar growing dimmer and dimmer, the gray walls of the granite store-houses by
the docks . . .”

taken from Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, by Walt Whitman

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Different ferry, same feeling – a deeply memorable description.

Enjoy the Christmas break.

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For the origin of this series – here

On sailing a Folksong – rudder 2

17/12/200822/12/2008 / Bill / 1 Comment

Blue Mistress has a very heavy rudder – “overworked”, the marine surveyor called it.

It might have graced the stern of an early twentieth century vessel.

Compared to similar sized craft, it is also slightly short of the keel . . .

For example, another Folksong 26 . . .

a Folkboat . . .

a Contessa 26** . . .

This may mean that Blue Mistress’ rudder has been repaired sometime in the past, but it may not . . .

So, I’m looking for the answers to three questions:

What is the effect of a heavy rudder on the sailing performance of a long-keeled boat?

What is the effect of a shorter rudder on the sailing performance of a long-keeled boat?

What is the effect of rudder shape on the sailing performance of a long-keeled boat?

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A younger me would have searched for a definitive answer.

Now I don’t think there is one answer – but a series of ideas about rudders that, put together, mean we can learn more about small, long-keeled boats.

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For example, a Google search showed the Swedish Folkboat Association having a useful note on this – here.

In their submission to the Nordic International Folkboat Association, they state: “We have consulted Lars Larsson, professor in hydrodynamics on Chalmers (Gothenburg’s technical university), folkboat sailor, and earlier three times Swedish Champion in Folkboats. He thinks that the lifting power 10 kg has a moderate effect – the same as if the whole crew (250 kg) moves 0.1 m forwards in the boat. Hydrodynamically it can be a favour to make the rudder a little thicker, so that the water follows a harmonic bend along the keel and rudder on the boats windward side when it tacks with a rudder angel of about 5 degrees ( to prevent the boat from turning up against the wind). The shape of the leeward side is of less importance. To make an even thicker rudder is a disadvantage hydrodynamically.”

The Association then dealt with it in a formal fashion, i.e. there is a revised class rule to be adhered to – here.

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Fair enough. But here are no class rules with a Folksong 26, so we have some leeway, which means we can work it out for ourselves . . . with a little help from friends.

If you have answers, part answers – or even more questions, please feel free to comment..

**(I am very grateful to Nick for allowing me to use this picture of Constellation. I enjoy his blog and highly recommend following and supporting his venture back to Australia on Big Oceans/Tiny Boat)