Understanding weather forecasts

Do you listen to the forecast regularly and do you know and understand the terms used by the forecaster? To know how rapidly a low pressure system is moving or when the various types of weather are going to arrive is very useful and the RYA Weather Forecasts booklet G5/02 will be a great help. When you hear the weather forecast on the radio, you should be aware of the meanings of the terms used:

Gale Warnings
Wind is expected to reach force 8 (34 kns) or over, but gusts of 43 kns may occur. If severe gale warnings are given, the mean wind speed is expected to reach force 9 (41kns). Storm warnings include winds of 48 kns +, force 10 +.

When the weather is likely to arrive

• Imminent – within 6 hours of the warning
• Soon – 12 hours from the time of issue
• Later - 12 hours + from time of issue

Visibility

• Good - more than 5 nautical miles
• Moderate - 2 – 5 nautical miles
• Poor - 1000 metres to 2 nautical miles
• Fog - less than 1000 metres

Speed of movement of pressure systems

• Slowly - up to 15 kns
• Steadily - 15 – 25 kns
• Rather quickly - 25 – 35 kns
• Rapidly - 35–45 kns
• Very rapidly - over 45 kns

Those of us who rely on the synoptic chart for an idea of the weather need to be able to interpret not only when the fronts are going to arrive with their possible attendant wind shifts, but also what wind strengths. By using the geostrophic wind scale you can get an idea of the wind strength in the area you will be making passage. If there is no wind scale on your weather map, you can still use the scale, by interpretation, given in the RYA Weather Forecasts booklet.

Out-dated Almanac

Recently, whilst on a delivery trip, the Almanac was out-dated and had been supplemented with the year’s tide tables from another almanac. This worked fine, except that we had only small scale charts and no up to date pilot book. This meant that the layout of harbours from the old almanac was out of date; and we were missing buoys which should have been there, and were a tad  perplexed when buoys we were expecting to see had disappeared. A trip to the chandler is often necessary so that you have the most up to date information and the largest scale charts available, then your pilotage and navigation can be less problematic!

Dazzled by the lights

Many harbours have a mass of lights, neon, traffic, street, discos, fish and chipperies all lit up so that buoys and leading lights can be quite impossible to see against it all.

If you look at the large scale chart of your destination port, you may well see that some approach directions are much better than others.  If the layout makes it possible, plan your approach so that the harbour lights are not in line with a mass of light.  You should then pick out the leading lights or buoys you want more easily and hold them in view even if you have to follow them into the area of brighter light.  Given time and the right situation, I always enter Plymouth via the western entrance to the breakwater, because the marks are far more easily seen against the backdrops of Maker Heights, Staddon Heights and above Jennycliff Bay rather than via the eastern entrance which is directly in transit with Plymouth lights.

Buying a boat new

I have just been helping a husband and wife to commission their boat in La Rochelle, and thought it worthwhile highlighting some of the problems they had.

As a background, they were a successful couple who had worked for seven years in Rio de Janeiro and had decided, rather than spend their pennies on a house, they would buy a boat and spend a year in the Mediterranean before returning to work and starting a family.

They had seen the boat they fancied at the Rio Boat Show, and been helped in the buy by the agent for the particular boat manufacturer. The boat, the product of a foreign volume manufacturer, had been ordered in March 02 for delivery to La Rochelle in September.  The couple’s previous experience was three weeks sailing in the Caribbean on charter boats and a bit of day racing out of Rio. I had been engaged to teach them Day Skipper Theory and Practical, help them to shake the boat down and then progress towards Coastal Skipper Practical. I was asked to join the owners in France in the first week in November, by which time they would have launched the boat and sorted out the teething problems.

Having put off various other requests to teach in November, by half way through the month, I was concerned at being delayed going out to France because of “problems” with the boat. By early December I suggested that I go out to teach the theory and to help with the problems they were having.

When I arrived, the boat had yet to be launched, the boat yard were eight weeks behind schedule and the quality of management and workmanship had left much to be desired.

During the fortnight I was on board before Christmas I found a number of things wrong, some due to poor advice and some to just plain bad workmanship.

The Rigging
The boat was meant to have single line reefing, but the reefing pennants were set up for slab reefing. Of these the second and third pennants were short by 1.5m and 2.5m respectively. The blocks for single line reefing had been provided by the manufacturer but the boat yard had failed to fit them, probably because the pennants were too short.
The topping lift jammed behind the main halyard for the last three metres of taking up the mainsail, the two lines had been crossed in the mast when fitted. The winch had to be used before the main was half way up the track, and this sail was not fitted with full length battens. In addition:

• The plastic end to the boom fell off.
• The boom bag provided was not the right one for the sail and boom.
• The headsail furling line was not rove correctly, and if left would have chafed through in short time.
• A separate forestay for the storm jib had been ordered, but when fixed to its pad-eye with a Highfield lever, it chafed against the furling headsail.
• No separate sheets or tack strop were provided with the storm jib.

Electrics 
The owners wanted air conditioning. They got it, but at a price. An extra seven batteries were fitted which gave the boat, a 43 footer, a distinct permanent list to port.

• The Autopilot was between 30° to 40° off course in relation to the steering compass one week after being set up.
• The seal around the generator case gave way after a fortnight on board.
• The windlass would not work.
• An additional alternator had been fitted and was misaligned to such a degree that I feared damage to the engine.
• A holding nut and bolt fell off within one week of use.
• The belt showed wear from the start.
• This alternator did not work at relatively low revs; we were told subsequently that it was not meant to kick in until 2200 rpm.
• No instruction book was provided.
• The GPS failed to accept ED 50 as a datum.
• The electric winches failed to work, again no instruction book provided.

The Engine
The engine manual indicated that certain tools would be provided with the engine, namely: a pump for sucking out oil from the sump, a strap spanner for taking off oil filters and an emergency bolt-tightening tool. When asked for, we were told that the engine manufacturer did not provide them.

Generally
The way the workshop staff treated the boat was poor, tools were dropped on the sole making dents in the varnish, GRP modifications were poorly carried out, the steering wheel had not been properly lubricated at the start and squeaked, the plastic on the compass binnacle surround was split. When revarnishing of the cabin sole was done the tape used around fittings took more varnish off when removed.

It was all a very sad story for a couple who had their dream turned into a nightmare at the start of their sabbatical. For all those buying new, beware, make sure you have a good agent and that he kicks the relevant people in the right quarter to ensure that a boat is properly set up before being handed over.

Skippers - time to delegate

In an annual report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch an investigation was carried out to determine the common factors there were in accidents at sea involving leisure craft.

The most revealing was how often skippers were described as “very experienced” but with inexperienced crews.  Skippers often underestimated the additional demands placed on the crew when things began to get difficult, and invariably tried to do too much themselves.  They also failed to delegate responsibility to those who were probably capable of doing more given clear instructions.

I see so much of this as an instructor, and many a time I have to suggest to budding skippers they show crew what to do, and then delegate whenever possible.

Cooking rules

I wonder how many of you saw the photograph in the yachting press a while back of the Nicholson 55 which had suffered a gas explosion?  The theory was, at the change of gas bottle, the regulator had been cross-threaded and a slow leak into the bilges had been the cause.   If the gas locker had been properly constructed, and was wasting to the sea, the accident may never have happened.

My rules for cooking are:

• Never have gas in the boat unless it is alight on the stove. When heat is required in the galley the procedure is as follows:

1. Check all burner knobs are off;
2. Ask for gas to be turned on at the bottle. Light the burner;
3. Once heat is not required, the stove is never turned off in the galley,     but at the bottle and then the gas is allowed to burn through at the stove;
4. Once the gas at the burner is out, the gas bottle is turned off.

I never use any intermediate gas shut off cocks, only the one on the gas bottle.  One way round this palaver is to have a solenoid switch on the bottle; saves a lot of hassle especially if the gas bottle is difficult to get at.  Having said all that what do you do if the stove operates with a pilot light?

•   Whenever the gas bottle is changed over it is a two man job. One man does it, and a second checks that it has been done properly.  The second is either myself, the mate or watch leader.

Warps at sea

When you go to sea, do you put all your warps away in lockers? Why not keep a longish warp, maybe one of the springs, neatly coiled and secured to the pushpit with a clove hitch and two half hitches?  You now have a line which can be readied quickly in an emergency.

By the same token, I always have a bucket secured to the pushpit as well; but should I have an engine failure when close quarter manoeuvring, I have a simple brake to hand.  Just chuck it over the side, not forgetting to hold onto the lanyard, and pull the bucket towards the boat.  It will slow you down a bit and maybe lessen the crunch.  Its also to hand if any of your crew feel queasy.

Storm sails

Have you got storm sails for your yacht? Have you tried to set them in calm conditions, so that if an emergency were to arise you would have little trouble? Those of you who have bought second hand boats, and have a trysail and storm jib in the sail wardrobe need to have a good look at how they will be attached. Equally those who have new boats, and are planning long passages, should think about their sail plan in strong winds.

Is there a separate track for the trysail? If not, will you be able to lower the mainsail and stow it easily in a rising sea and wind? Does the dedicated track come down to near deck level so that the trysail can be bent on and stored in its bag at the base of the mast? How would you secure the boom in such circumstances, assuming you will not be using it? Do you have trysail sheets permanently bent onto the sail? If so how will they be secured to the boat, with snatch blocks or through stern cleats?

Does the storm jib have a wire luff? Is there a dedicated strong point on the foredeck for the tack strop to be bent on to? Do you have separate sheets for the storm jib? (Have you ever tried to secure a rolling or furling headsail, remove the sheets for use with the storm jib in a rising sea and wind? Not at all easy, some would say impossible). On a recent delivery of a 43’ yacht from Levkas in Greece to Dartmouth, the storm jib was impossible to raise in anything stronger than a f4 because the halyard and stay which were meant to be raised as one kept on inextricably entwining around each other. All right for those connubially inclined but not for seamen!

Welcome, let me introduce myself

Welcome to Sticky’s Tips, the blog site of Richard Chetwynd Stapylton.

A bit about me…

I have been a trainer and teacher throughout my life, and am a Royal Yachting Association (RYA) qualified Yachtmaster Instructor, Yachtmaster Ocean Instructor and authorised to teach the Short Range Certificate to qualify students in the use of VHF radio. I have sailed the South China Sea, the Arabian Gulf, the Red and Mediterranean seas and the Atlantic Ocean. However, the majority of my sailing has been in the English Channel, with regular trips to south Brittany, the Bristol Channel and Eire.

In these pages, I’ll try to share my sailing know-how, hints and tips and the occasional tale of the high seas.

I run my own sailing school, Arrow Yacht Enterprises, so don’t forget to have a look at my website: www.sail-help.co.uk