Innehållsförteckning för October 2020 från Practical Boat Owner

with the editor To receive the editor’s monthly email newsletter, go to our website: www.pbo.co.uk We’re all in it together ‘They think it’s all over…’ as the famous bit of BBC commentary from the 1966 football World Cup Final goes… but sadly it isn’t, is it? Coronavirus, that is… News in this month about the replacement Southampton Boat Show is encouraging, but the enormous jamboree of sailing that is the Round the Island Race (sorry to be so Solent biased!) has been fully cancelled. A postponement until September originally seemed on the cards, but the pandemic continues its global rampage and resurgence in Europe. We enjoyed a bit of respite though: solo skipper Bill Norrie was at sea for 92 days out of Cape Town bound for New Zealand –…

Larry Pardey, who with his wife, Lin, inspired generations of bluewater cruisers through their sailing books and cruising adventures, has died, aged 81. Together the couple sailed over 200,000 miles in their two famous wooden engineless boats, Seraffyn and Taleisin, circumnavigating the world both westabout and eastabout. They also won numerous accolades for encouraging ocean cruising in small craft including the Ocean Cruising Club’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Originally from Canada, Larry was a professional skipper working in California when he met Lin, and together they built their 24ft Lyle Hess-designed cutter, Seraffyn, which was based on the long-keeled Bristol Channel cutters. They lived aboard Seraffyn for 11 years, sailing the world and writing about their cruising lifestyle before Larry, a master boatbuilder, built the 29ft Taleisin, which was also a…

November’s ARC transatlantic rally from Gran Canaria to St Lucia has been given the go ahead by the authorities on both islands. Organisers World Cruising Club said there would be some changes to the 2020 rally due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including no split starts which would normally spread arrivals over a longer period. All ARC (direct) boats from Gran Canaria will have to start on 22 November; the start for all ARC+ Cape Verde boats will be 8 November. Entrants will also have to pay €160 per person for COVID-19 testing to ensure crews are virus free before putting to sea, and can meet requirements for entering St Lucia. Crews will also have to ‘bubble’ seven days before the start. World Cruising said uncertainly over freedom of movement through…

The Commissioners of Irish Lights has defended its decision to install an LED light at St John’s Point Lighthouse in Ireland’s County Down. Campaigners claim changing the light will reduce the “quantity and character of the beam”. But Irish Lights, which manages lighthouses in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, argues that LED lights will save energy, and it is looking for contractors to do the work. The liquid mercury bath on which the lighting mechanism rotates will also be removed. LED lights would reduce the lighthouse’s beam from 25 miles to 18 and give a slight blue-white tinge to the light. SAFETY CONCERNS OVER SWING BRIDGE A new swing bridge is to be installed over the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Skipton in the spring. The Canal &…

Working aloft in shorts? I read the article ‘Working aloft’ (PBO September 2020) and thought only one thing: three pictures with mast climbers wearing shorts! I have been up a few masts over the years and rue the one time I went aloft in shorts. A good pair of jeans will protect the legs from the grazes, cuts and bruises that come from mast work with bare legs. Philip Linsell, via email Get a second opinion… I write from Franklin in Tasmania to share a tale of woeful mechanical inadequacy. I needed to shift marinas after winter and fired up the 40hp Nanni in my Martzcraft 35, Anneliese. I’d run the engine for approx two hours a week through winter at different revs to avoid glazing and carbon buildup, keeping…

“Just say we didn’t notice the owner wasn’t on board…” I’m no expert in maritime law, but I don’t think it’s necessarily stealing if you untie a boat and go for a sail when the owner’s not around. Now hear me out. If, by way of example, you undertook such a venture under cover of darkness on a moonless night… well, that might, on the face of it, look a bit suspicious and you could get banged up. But that would be a terrible injustice, as in this particular case it’s the boat’s owner who should have gone down for criminal negligence. You see the boat in question had no nav lights, so we were forced to borrow it in broad daylight. I know that’s how the law works because…

One of the key checks when you start up your engine is that your raw water cooling system is working properly. You should see water coming out of the exhaust. The water and exhaust gasses will have travelled from the engine through a reinforced rubbed hose via various water traps and loops to the skin fitting. You need to see a good flow of water, though amounts vary from engine to engine. If you don’t see exhaust water, you need to locate the raw water impeller by following the hose from the raw water strainer. Some impellers are belt-driven, while others are gear-driven straight from the engine, but the principle is the same. REMOVAL Faceplate Close your raw water seacock then undo the faceplate screws taking care not to lose…

First I cut and chiselled out all the rot from the hull, making sure to get 6in or 8in into the good wood either side. I found a strip of good wood (I used larch) bigger than the hole and planed it down to the right thickness with my dad’s electric thicknesser. Hand planes and electric planes also work. I measured out the shape and size of the hole onto the new plank, but cut it a quarter of an inch bigger than the hole itself, before using a hand planer to shape the edges of the plank to get it to fit exactly. The plank I was replacing was just under the gunwale so was straight and easy to shape, but because there was a stringer behind it, we couldn’t…

The use of factory-set calibrated pumps makes dispensing the right ratio of epoxy to hardener a breeze Adhesive companies often claim that their products can be ‘stronger than the materials they are bonding’. The sealant I used for the keel was 3M’s UV4000, a non-sagging, non-cracking one-part adhesive that is claimed to withstand forces of up to 250lb/in2. The UV resistance also makes it ideal for external applications. An alternative I have used more recently was Sika 291i (the i denoting marine.) You can find it in most good chandlers as a standard-size sealantgun tube in either white or black. Based on a PU (polyurethane) formula, this powerful adhesive can be used for applications below the waterline and is saltwater resistant. As a ‘belt and braces’, I also used the legendary…

A rigging inspection report informed me that my boat’s gooseneck toggle and boom’s forward-end casting were worn. I enquired about replacement parts but was told they were likely to be unobtainable. No single element in the system was worn to excess, but in combination there was a lot of slack. The only DIY solution in cases such as these is to replace the fixings with slightly larger diameter pieces and then ream out the receiving parts to as tight a tolerance as possible. The toggle connects the vertical pin with the horizontal pin in the gooseneck joint. Both pins were 10mm diameter. The next realistic metric size is 12mm but the imperial size 7⁄16in is 11.11mm. I found that a 7⁄16 bolt would not fit into either part, which shows…

I learned to sail in my forties and became a senior sailing instructor at Hengistbury Head Outdoor Education Centre in Dorset at 55 and RYA Senior Instructor of the Year at 60. Now aged 72, I’m still enjoying teaching others this wonderful sport. One of the questions I get asked is: ‘Am I too old to learn to sail?’ The answer is no (whatever age you are) if you still have good mobility, enough to move easily around the boat. The oldest person I’ve taught is a man of 82, who had had a lifelong ambition to learn but had only, for lots of different reasons, just made the time to give it a go! He started his RYA L1 course of 16 hours in a Wayfarer (a 15ft dinghy)…

The reliability of communication transmissions between boats at sea and the UK Coastguard is set to improve with a new £170 million emergency radio network. Existing copper telephone wiring will be replaced with modern fibre-based technology to each of the HM Coastguard’s 155 remote radio sites, which monitor VHF and MF radio transmissions from vessels. The new network will be built and maintained by Telent Technology Services, with the replacement work expected to take a minimum of three years. Towns and villages close to the remote radio sites will also be able to utilise the new network, improving Internet connectivity for residents. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA)’s commercial and programmes director, Damien Oliver, said although the current network, X21 Kilostream, was 100% reliable it was around 40 years old.…

This year’s Round the Island Race has been cancelled. Initially, the Island SC, which organises the annual event, postponed the race from May to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Race director Dave Atkinson said: “With fears of a second wave, the growing number of restrictions on overseas travel as well as the rise in local lockdowns, our hopes of staging this year’s race have been dashed. As sailing restrictions have eased, it appeared that safety on the water was becoming less of an issue; but sadly, with Round the Island being one of the UK’s largest sporting events, achieving shoreside Covid-19 compliance within current government guidelines, is simply not achievable.”…

■ Cowes Spring Classic 2020, 4-6 September, subject to COVID-19 restrictions, at Cowes, cowesspringclassics.com/ ■ Island SC Nab Tower Race, 5 September, from Cowes to the Nab Tower and back, islandsc.org.uk/page/at-sea ■ Normandy Channel Race, 10-20 September subject to COVID-19 restrictions, at Caen, with Class 40s racing in the English Channel to England, Ireland and France, normandy-race.com ■ Little Britain Sail for Charity Regatta, 11 September, leaving from Port Solent, with a 3-race format, littlebritain.co.uk ■ Carey Olsen Jersey Regatta, 11-13 September, at St Aubin’s Bay, Jersey, info@jerseyregatta.com 01534 732229 ■ Boats 2020 presented by Southampton International Boat Show, 11-20 September, Mayflower Park, Southampton, £12.50 per ticket. Booking essential, boats2020.co.uk ■ Ocean Village Boat Show, 11-20 September, Ocean Village Marina, Southampton. Tickets free but booking essential, mdlmarinas.co.uk ■ Deacons Used…

Thanks for another great issue, (September 2020). Just the job now we’re starting to get afloat again. I’m sure you’ll get lots of messages about this [Ed: we did!], but I think you need to clarify the capacitor values in David Berry’s NASA clipper repair article. You described the capacitor as 220pF or 0.22uF. I think you really meant 220nF or 0.22uF. An easy mistake, and I’m sure those of us who still have trouble with cables and fathoms will forgive you! Richard Clutterbuck, via email Editor responds (to everyone who noticed): Mea culpa! I had a similar problem with my ten-year-old NASA Clipper wind instrument as David Berry. I sent mine back to NASA Marine who repaired it promptly for the princely sum of £9. Postage and packaging was…

One of the joys of the season has been Dahlia’s new cockpit fitout. There is the experimental cork deck, currently under test from boots, tea, Scottish wine and diesel – full report in later issues. There has also been a modification to the steering wheel, an object made of handchilling steel, which we have clothed in a leather cover. The cockpit is now a symphony in pale blue 1970s gelcoat, cork, leather, and, alas, the pink insulating tape that marks the midships point of the wheel. This is horrible. But such a mark is vital on a ketch for detecting how much weather helm you are getting so you know how to trim the mizzen. It would also be handy for reversing into marina slots, except that you might as…

My name is Katie, but I prefer to be called Sade (pronounced Sayd). I am 13 years old and over the winter and spring, through the pandemic, I have been restoring a 1950s Morgan Giles-built West Channel One Design sloop. I have spent my whole life on boats. In 2000, my parents bought an old fishing trawler, Ros Ailither (see panel, below) which they spent five years converting into a motor-sailer. They lifted the whole deck, fitted it out below, installed an engine and two masts and set off across the Atlantic. This is the boat I grew up on. I sailed back across the Atlantic with them at the age of 14 months, learning to walk on the way. We still live aboard today on the River Exe, Devon.…

To me, a wooden boat feels more alive, more natural than a fibreglass boat. It is also cooler inside in the summer, and warmer in the winter. Most wooden boats rot from the inside out: the biggest mistake most people make is not putting in enough ventilation. Keeping air flow through a wooden boat is vital. Every wooden boat I buy has to be appealing to the eye. I look to see if it is iron fixed or copper fixed – copper fixings last a lot longer than iron. A boat that’s been kept in salt water is a lot better than a boat left in fresh water as the salt water protects the wood. For a boat to live on, I’d look for nice lines and head height inside. If…

To ask a question email pbo@futurenet.com and include your address. BOATBUILDING Tony Davies has been building and repairing boats for more than 40 years CRUISING Stuart Carruthers is the RYA Cruising Manager and has sailed extensively ELECTRICS Duncan Kent tests yachts and equipment and writes for the marine media ELECTRONICS Andy Haines is a retired director of Greenham-Regis marine electronics company ENGINES Stu Davies has a background in engineering in the coal and oil industries GAS FITTING Peter Spreadborough of SoCal has 20 years in the gas industry MASTS & RIGS Mike Coates worked in the spar and rigging business for many years PAINT & ANTIFOULING Richard Jerram is former UK technical manager for International Paint SAILS Wilf Chaplin of the International OneSails loft group is an expert on sails…

A campaign to raise awareness of discharging toilet waste from boats has been launched by the community group Litter Free Coast and Sea. The group will initially focus efforts on Poole Harbour and is collaborating with the Poole Harbour Commissioners (PHC), Natural England and the Dorset Wildlife Trust on the Love Your Harbour project. Like many harbours around England, Poole is covered by a byelaw which makes it illegal for boaters to discharge waste within the commissioners’ jurisdiction. For Poole that includes the harbour and parts of Studland Bay. PHC said those breaking Byelaw 37 can face a maximum fine of £1,000 plus court costs, and where there is evidence, it will take boat owners to court. It is recommending that on-shore toilets should be used when a boat is…

Barbara Darling, who helped develop youth sailing in the north east, has died after a short battle with cancer. Born in 1937, Barbara was a former teacher. She learned to sail through school outdoor education trips, and joined Tynemouth SC in the 1960s. She was involved in the National School’s Sailing Association for decades, and played a pivotal role in Ripon SC, where she focused on youth sailing. After retiring in 1996, Barbara moved back to the north east and became actively involved in both Tynemouth SC and Derwent Reservoir SC. She helped set up the Yorkshire & Humberside School’s Traveller Series and the North Youth Traveller Series, now the North East Region’s Youth Traveller Series. Barbara received the RYA’s President’s Award in 2003 in recognition of her contribution to…

Wheels to keels ■ Some learn to sail before becoming boat owners, while others learn as they go. These three vloggers are all well-practiced visual storytellers with large subscriber bases, many of whom will be tempted to try sailing themselves. Nikki and Jason Wynn of Gone with the Wynns are the most successful example of a sub-genre of ‘Van Life’ YouTubers who have moved from open road to high seas. With over 300,000 subscribers they rank just behind Sailing La Vagabonde and Sailing SV Delos in popularity. After vlogging about roaming North America in their 33ft recreational vehicle, in 2016 they bought a Leopard catamaran, took sailing lessons, and set off around the world. Travelling back from the Miami Boat Show to their boat in Tonga when the pandemic hit,…

The golden autumn days of 2019 were the last chance for my non-sailing spouse (NSS hereafter), Philip, to have his annual sail. Taking out NSSs isn’t as easy as you’d think – taking them out for fun, I mean, as distinct from them crewing at the regatta, which Philip only does as a Husbandly Duty and for the spectacularly good lunch. For a start, the day has to be carefully chosen: a light wind, enough to keep the boat moving, but not enough to tilt her, which makes it strictly under 10 knots in the gusts. Direction matters too; cold northerlies or easterlies are best avoided. West means a nice reach both ways, and a southerly means I can hoist the mainsail in an orderly fashion in the marina berth.…

David McCabe, 53, is a self-taught boatbuilder with several wooden boat restorations to his name, including a Herreshoff, a Riva and a Chris Craft and is currently involved in restoring Thames Sailing barge Vigilant alongside Topsham Quay. He bought his first wreck at the age of 15, fixed it up in his parents’ garden and was living aboard from the age of 17. He used this boat Sea Dream for fishing trips, then converted it to run as the Topsham to Turf Ferry, which he ran with Hazel until they sold up and sailed away in 2005. Hazel McCabe, 47, loves travelling and woodwork in all its forms. She has her own business Topsham Wood Carver making hand-carved wooden signs for boats and houses. She also works as a painter/decorator and designs murals and…

I couldn’t have made Falanda whole again without the help of lots of people, but three in particular: a big thank you to dad for the tow back from Polruan, the use of his shed, and most of his tools. Thanks for the advice, and help when I ruined things – I obviously wouldn’t have done any of this without him. Thanks to Dot for the help sanding – I will try to stop your boat sinking now in return.* Thank you to mum for eventually accepting that the boat was real, and forgiving me for going ahead and buying Falanda without your agreement. Thank you for carving me wonderful new signs, and making a brilliant sail cover *Dot has been inspired by Katie and has taken on Falanda’s sister ship Tess of Teign as a project!…

The magic of the ocean has occupied my thoughts for as long as I can remember. I grew up close to the sea, and the sparkling blue horizon was a constant draw. Even when I could not actually see it, simply knowing it was close by was a huge comfort. For me, the sea represents an escape route. Freedom. A reason for living. It was always a question of when I would sail across an ocean, not if. I met Rick in 2010 while travelling in Australia. We started sailing together then he sold his boat and we looked for a new one. We travelled far and wide – across Australia, Thailand and Indonesia – and finally found Calypso, a Union 36, in Mexico. For three years we sailed her…

Windy gets even better For the past few years Windy.com has been one of the most useful websites and apps for weather forecasting. It provides clear graphics, plus fine grain data for specific points, along with easy comparison across a number of models, including the excellent ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) and the high-definition French Arome models. A recent feature available to Windy Pro users is the addition of weather fronts overlaid onto the graphics. To date a key disadvantage of app-based forecasting and downloaded GRIB files is that they don’t show fronts – instead wind shifts, gusts and periods of rain are often interpolated between time steps, a process that can conceal a short but intense feature such as a cold front. Part of the problem is…

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