Fuel Checks

I wrote some time ago of how I ran out of fuel with the gauge showing half full, and this was on the day I took the boat over! It turned out that the owner had a new fuel tank put in and the fitter had failed to check that the sender to the gauge was in the same position as previously. I believe that if you do not know your boat’s fuel consumption and you have an engine hours meter, it is worth while making a note of your hours run, fill up the tank(s) and then when you next take on fuel make a note of the engine hours and how much fuel you put in. If you have been using the engine normally you should get an idea of what your fuel consumption is. A motor boater’s rule of thumb is one gallon per hour for each 20hp’s worth of diesel engine and one gallon per hour for every 12 -14 hp for petrol engines. Consumption will however, depend on how heavy the helm is with the throttle, the weather and the sea state. With no engine hours meter, I keep a record in my log of engine running hours.

Steering Compass

Do make sure that the steering compass, particularly those on a binnacle with wheel steering, are protected as much as possible from the weather. There are often four small holes in the binnacle which are there so a compass adjuster can remove or lessen the compass’s deviation by playing with some magnets. These magnets allow the compass to be adjusted without taking the device off the binnacle; the holes are normally protected by plugs which may deteriorate over time and with salt water ingress rusting the magnets, errors can creep in. If you have a bulkhead mounted compass, you can have the same problem. If you ever have to remove any steering compass and find there is electrical wiring nearby, do ensure that the positive and negative wires are twisted together. A single DC wire creates a magnetic field which will cause deviation.

Your Log

I find very often that with a boat moored in a river with a strongish tide the log becomes entangled with weed or sometimes a mollusc or two, if left with the paddle wheel in place whilst the boat is at rest. More often than not, the discovery is made after leaving the mooring and when one is about to set the sails. So someone has to go down below, lift the sole, withdraw the paddle wheel, put in the blanking plug, clean the clogged log and then put it back in. All rather tedious, so why not remove the log at the end of a trip and this will remove the need for a clean? If you are not the only user of the boat, it is important to leave a note on the chart table to say that the log has been removed just as a reminder to the next skipper to come on board that if he wishes to navigate, the log will have to be put back in. A well found boat will have an old toothbrush kept with the log and blanking plug so that the paddlewheel can be quickly cleared of debris.
Log

I was reading of a boat owner, who, despite having a clean log with a freely spinning paddlewheel, still found that whilst getting a reading on the instruments, it was clear that there was a definite under reading. On pushing out the retaining pin holding the impeller in position, the owner found an encrustation. On cleaning this off the log was found to be working correctly.
For those of you who sail in the Solent and would like to carry out a check over a measured mile, there are the marker posts on the SW side of Southampton Water between Fawley Refinery jetty and Hythe Village Marina. But remember to plan your checks as near as you can to slack water and make three runs to work out your average log reading.

Chafe

Sticky’s Tips No 104
April 2010
Chafe
I had two erstwhile Yachtmasters Coastal, one a Doctor the second an underwater turbine engineer who, because of committed shift work were only able to manage a cross channel passage during the first week of March. To join them, I recruited a picture framer from Cheltenham who had already become a Coastal Skipper.
It does really make a difference when you have someone, slightly longer in the tooth, and with plenty of experience, who just loves to get involved in everything. Jim was not only an outstanding cook, who took real pleasure in doing things properly, but was also a convivial raconteur, a good sailor and teacher to boot. The other two crew members learnt a lot from him.
We planned our passage the night before departure and set off with NE f7 and f8 forecast the next morning. Taking departure from the Princessa buoy off the east end of the Isle of Wight, we bowled along on a broadish reach all the way to Cherbourg. Unfortunately two of the crew were sea sick, though one recovered to do quite a bit of helming. I think that skippers may have to be a trifle draconian and insist that those who only sail once a year, and who are unsure of their ability to resist “mal-de-mer”, take a pill the night before and one before setting off. We did this for the second and third legs of our passage and there were no recurring sicknesses. It may well be that those who suffered on the first two days, had, by then, achieved their sea-legs. I tried the trick of getting the worst sufferer, to put the stugeron tablet under the tongue and just sucking the pill in the hope that saliva would take the effect to wherever it should go. Doctors advise doing this, rather than someone who has been sick, swallowing the pill whole. In this case the attempt failed; I suspect that much depends on the metabolism of the person concerned and a host of other factors.
Cherbourg was pretty empty. I needed some distilled water for the service battery and tried several chandleries and two marine engineer shops. None had any distilled water. So I resorted to the old trick which I learnt as a soldier 50 years ago. Pee into a bottle and use urine, it is the nearest thing to distilled water which is to hand on a boat and which is also free!
We set off for Guernsey the next day, making best use of the ebb tide down through the Alderney Race, then the Big Russel, round the south of Herm and into St Peter Port. The wind was still in the north east so a comfortable and fast passage was made. Once down in the Big Russel, by now it was dark and the two major lights were unlit. Noir Pute on Herm and Bec du Nez on Sark, both sectored lights would have helped our pilotage considerably. For some reason the GPS decided to go on the blink at this moment, so we resorted to feeling our way by following a depth contour which was clear of all dangers. We have heard tell that some of the GPS satellites may not be reliable because of cuts in funding by the USA, there could have been propagation problems, or it might even have been the set. I am just trying to make the point that electronic navigation is not always as reliable as it is made out to be.
We stayed two nights in St Peter Port, which, like Cherbourg was almost empty; indeed we were the only boat moored on the pontoons in the outer harbor. The harbour staff gave us a berth which was, as near as they could manage, in the lee from the harbour buildings from the northerly wind blowing, now up to f8. We went ashore for four hours and the effect on our bow spring is shown in the photograph.

I am a great believer in rigging springs and breast lines so that the angle through the cleat is as near as damn-it a straight line and not a near 360° turn. If rigging the spring as shown in this photo, it is worth considering parceling (1) or rigging a Scotchman. (2)

Notes:
1. Parcel. To cover a rope with canvas, plastic pipe or smaller rope to prevent chafe. (I use old M&S vests or underpants)
2. Scotchman. Criss-cross of rope over a warp to prevent chafe.

Anyone fancy a weekend on the Solent? These are budget weekends where the cost is kept to the minimum and we eat ashore, share food, fuel and mooring costs and get in as much sailing, navigating and pilotage as we can. Email me if interested.

©Sticky Stapylton instructor@sail-help.co.uk, http://www.sail-help.co.uk

Umbrellas and Whistles

Sticky’s Tips No 109 August 2010
Umbrella
I searched on the internet for the list of least useful items to be found on a yacht and came up with the following:
Wheelbarrow
Spirit level
Bananas
Grand piano
Royal Navy Officer
Motor cycle
Umbrella
The wheelbarrow, though difficult to stow except on a largish boat, could well help with getting provisions delivered. The spirit level, during maintenance, could be useful in getting the water line correctly positioned. Bananas make other fruit ripen quickly, so they could be useful too. On the other hand you may, on a long passage, not wish your fruit to ripen too quickly. I have seen an upright piano installed in a 40’ yacht a few boat shows ago, though never heard of a grand piano except on boats of considerable size. Modern bicycles now can be fitted with electric motors, so maybe a folding bike taken on a yacht could be termed a motor cycle. I have sailed with quite a few RN officers and have found them to be just as good as the next man, some even better, either as skipper or member of the crew. The umbrella has a real use on board. A good strong golfing umbrella can be put to good use to keep the rain off, particularly in the dinghy, but most importantly for me, it acts as an excellent safety net to catch any screws, nuts, washers et al when working on any part of the boat which has no deck underneath. I was helping a friend fit out his new Elan 434 and was installing the bracket on which the horseshoe buoy was to be fixed. The boat was on the hard and a search for anything dropped would probably have found it in time. Yes I did drop a nut and you can see from the photo that the umbrella did save a trip to the ground and search for the lost item. If we had been afloat the nut would have been lost forever.

Anchoring
Before going into an anchorage, do you work out how much chain you need to lay out or do you make a guestimate? If you are staying overnight, it is essential that you work out what the least depth of water there is going to be at low water so that you do not ground You must also have an idea of the amount of scope to lay out, not only so that you have sufficient chain on the sea bed, but also so that there is no chance of swinging close to another moored boat. Always remember to add the freeboard (height of bow roller above the surface of the sea) of your boat to the maximum water depth needed, multiplying this by the relevant factor dependent on the likely wind and tide strengths, the size and weight of boat, anchor tackle and the nature of the sea bed. A look at the chart in well surveyed areas will give you an idea of the nature of the sea bed and it is worth knowing which “soils” hold well and which do not:
Poor Thin sand, weed, gravel, shells
Medium Soft sand, soft mud
Good Most sand and mud
Excellent Dense sand and mud, clay
Crew Briefing
What are your most important items to be covered in the initial crew briefing? I like to know if anyone has a medical problem, this can be mentioned in advance or via a booking form if the individual does not wish to talk about it in the rest of the crew’s hearing. The other important items to be covered initially are:
Lifejackets Cooker Lookout
1st Aid kit Radio Sea sickness
The heads Keeping warm Heeling for newcomers
One hand for yourself and one for the boat

Whistle
Not all yachts have a windvane or automatic pilot, and on long passage you may need to alert the sleeping watch below. The whistles on lifejackets never seem much up to the job of waking the dead, anyway it is quite a kerfuffle extracting them from the folds of the lifejacket. I have an Acme Thunderer from my days as a soldier; this whistle, made in Birmingham, like a lot of good solid English products of its time, could be heard above the noise of battle by those who needed to hear at a good 100 yards or more and apparently you can still buy them, from Mr Amazon (about a fiver), and they are still made in this country, at least according to their inscription.

The Art of Plotting a Course

I am thinking ahead to the late winter and early spring when I shall be taking some budding Magellans across the Channel and down to the North coast of Brittany and back.   On these passages, the navigators will be planning their courses to steer over legs of 60M+ (good opportunity for those aiming for the Yachtmaster Offshore ticket).  I have found a number of times that the art of planning a course to steer has been forgotten, or skippers have never been taught a simple method.  Reliance on GPS, chart plotters and all the modern electrickery on boats now is all very well; but have you planned what to do if your main electrics fail, the hand held GPS’ batteries are dead and there are no spares?  For any passage across the Channel I plan my course to steer by working out the total set/drift of tides in a westerly direction and then in an easterly direction and subtract the smaller total from the larger.  This then gives me a total push in one direction, which I use to shape my course to steer.  I have a simple form which I use, not my design, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I am sure the originator of this form would not object to my plagiarism!
If any of you are about to embark on a cross channel trip and would like a copy of my guide, email me and I will send it to you (instructor@sail-help.co.uk).   I also have a simple mathematical method of interpolating between springs and neaps which avoids using the graphs included inside the front covers of tidal stream atlases.   Alternatively if you would like to join me on my Easter or Whit Sunday cross Channel cruises, send an email.

Taking a group of budding Yachtmaster Offshore candidates the other week, I was surprised to find one had never conducted a pilotage exercise to take a boat into a river or port at night.  I believe that it is important that both competent crew and day skippers should experience sailing at night.  What happens to a day skipper who charters a boat and has no idea of how to safely navigate himself, boat and crew into a haven, particularly if something has delayed the daytime passage

Have you ever thought of retrieving someone from the water using a headsail sheet?  This is not the easiest recovery method in rough weather, but is feasible particularly if you have no other means.  A lot will depend on how many are on board your boat, their strength, how strong the casualty is and in what stage of hypothermia he could be.   The method can only be used on a sailing boat which is rigged with a furling headsail.    The sail must be furled away, and the sheet should be unrigged from any turning blocks or cars but remain attached to the headsail and led back to a cockpit winch.   A bight of this sheet should be lowered into the water in which the man overboard places a foot.  He can use part of this bight to haul himself up so that he can grab the toerail.  Then, with the sheet taken directly onto one of the primary winches, the casualty holding onto the toerail and with his foot in the bight, a member of the crew can be wind him up onto the deck.  Once close to the toerail, the casualty, with self preservation foremost in his mind, will be able to grab a stanchion or the toerail, or proffered arms and haul himself onto the side deck.  I hope that the photo taken in the quiet confines of a marina shows enough for you to get the idea; note that the lady with the safety line to the casualty is not part of the rescue operation.

The last three month’s tips have shown you some ways of recovering someone from the water, in all cases the method has been dependent on the casualty being conscious.  Have you a preferred method of recovery?  What would you do if the person who fell overboard was unconscious?  How will you secure him alongside, how will you get a line round him, and how will you recover him?   Man overboard is close to the top of the list of the worst things which can happen to a skipper.   Have you thought through how you would deal with such an emergency?

Retrieving a man overboard

What methods do you have set up on your boat to retrieve someone from the water should they fall overboard? Prevention is better than cure, and ideally your crew will not fall into the sea; but there is always the chance it might happen. During the last 40 years or so of sailing, I have lost five people overboard, and all have been within 100m of a pontoon, pier or wharf. So I do have a few ideas of how to retrieve someone. Over the next few months I will show you some of these methods.

A tribuckle is an excellent piece of kit, sadly now, I believe, out of production, but there are some similar contraptions still available. Tied to the toe rail, and with the spinnaker halyard made to the apex the casualty is floated into the bunt of the contraption and then the halyard is taken up and the body rolls up the side of the boat. The major advantage is that the body is pulled out horizontally, which will mean less chance of the casualty having a stroke as the blood does not immediately drain to the toes. There may be difficulty in strong winds to get the material to stay in the water, a boathook may help here. What do you do if the man in the water is unconscious? You may like to discuss this by posting a comment below. If you have some brilliant idea for retrieving a casualty, why not explain it and I will publicise it in All At Sea?

Out of fuel at sea

For the first time in my life, I ran out of fuel at sea.  We were coming into Newtown Creek to have supper and prepare for a night pilotage exercise.  The fuel tank had shown half full at the start of the week’s charter, and the owner just said fill up the tank to the same mark as you find it at the end of the trip.  So with a tank of 130 l, I assumed we had enough fuel for about 2 day’s solid motoring.  When we ran out of fuel we had only motored for five hours or so.  The engine faltered and died on us right by the bifurcation navigation mark in the creek, so we dropped anchor and lay back on that for all of 2 minutes.  I got the engine going and we made it to one of the mooring buoys up the western arm of the harbour.   I called the owner and she asked me to call out Seastart, which we did.  They were very efficient and quick to answer our call, did all the necessary in checking the fuel system and it was concluded that we had run out of fuel.  We refilled the fuel tank and had no further problems.  The silly thing was that the engine was brand new, with a brand new fuel gauge, but showing half full when empty.  I was reading a link on one of the internet forums for yachtsmen where an owner had the sender for the fuel tank gauge replaced under warranty.     The installers had apparently failed to adjust it to the yacht’s tank, and the owner, like us, ran out of fuel whilst the gauge was still showing 1/2 full.  Lesson: if you have any changes made to your fuel gauge or senders, ensure the necessary adjustments are made correctly.

Slab reefing

I am a great believer in slab reefing, simple and effective.  A number of boats I have sailed on over the years have been fitted with the correct number of cringles on their mainsails, for reeving pennants and for securing a reef’s tack to the rams horn; but not all have had sufficient sheaves in the boom to take lines for the clew outhaul, a hardener and 3 reefs.  I was following a thread the other day on an internet forum, and someone came up with the idea of reeving the pennants through blocks which could be moved up the leach for the third reef to be taken in.  The author of this idea concluded with the point “just a shackle to move”.  I wonder if a snap shackle would make this idea a lot easier to set up?  I suspect that there is a danger with such a system, that if the reef is not taken in early enough, there will be a risk of flogging sail with a block attached to it to try to tame.  Worst still, the reefing pennant adrift with a flogging block to retrieve.  I wonder if anyone has used this system and would like to comment on the idea?

Gas heaters, beware

Have you, by any chance, fitted a gas heater to your boat recently? If you have, be aware that you may possibly have invalidated your insurance policy. Underwriters will need to be told of such installations and may well demand a survey by a CORGI registered surveyor.
Catalytic heaters can be unsafe in boats because there is no permanent ventilation into the accommodation area which cannot be permanently closed off. The closeness of inflammable materials can also be a danger, especially if the heater is fitted in a passageway past which crew need to move and thus brush up against heater screens. How many skippers know that there is a firm recommendation that catalytic heaters should not be used on board pleasure craft? A talk to insurance brokers may be worthwhile.