Web Captains Blog

Talk Talk book in the pipeline

gus@carawaydesign.com — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:44:00 GMT

Please help get this book published

Amazing Whale Rescue

gus@carawaydesign.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:51:00 GMT

Here's quite a moving video of a bunch of guys saving a whale from certain death in the Sea of Cortez. The poor whale became intangled in gil nets.

More ...

World's oldest sailor returns home from another circumnavigation.

gus@carawaydesign.com — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 16:39:00 GMT

Some inspiration for you! You're never too old!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8771085/Worlds-oldest-sailor-arrives-home-in-Japan-after-solo-journey-around-globe.html

More ...

Brookes and Gatehouse Network instruments - repair or replace?

gus@carawaydesign.com — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:21:18 GMT

My Flicka Caraway came with four Brookes and Gatehouse instruments. Wind, Depth, GPS and Speed. There are two transducers in the hull, one for depth situated under the sink and the speed one in the forward locker on the starboard side.

At night the instruments have lovely warm red backlights. They don’t upset night vision and give comfort when it’s rough.

These instruments were fitted new in 1993 I believe, I don’t know if the first owner ever had them repaired or serviced but in my time of owning the boat they have had the following.

1> Full service in 2002; Sikkaflex bedding removed and proper rubber gaskets used instead.

2> New depth transducer in 2004.

3> New paddles for wind instrument and new paddle wheel for speed.

4> New GPS antenna cable after pushpit re-design.

However, after many years in the Mediterranean they had seen better days. All of the screens showed crazing, the wind instrument was not showing low wind speeds and some of the LCD’s were appearing faintly or missing areas.

I was thus facing a choice, either to have the instruments repaired or to buy something else. Well, ideally I wanted to replace the lot with a simple Tacktick wireless setup.

What appeals to me about Tacktick is the ease of installation and the absence of wires. I have had no end of trouble over the years with wires. They cause a lot of trouble when it comes to running them and running them properly is very time consuming. Also Tacktick instruments can be taken off and stowed below or used below. I like the idea of seeing what the wind is doing when I’m in my berth and I like the idea that the instruments can be taken home and safely stored when the boat is not in use.

I also dislike the way that both my bulkheads are taken up with instruments. Flicka bulkheads are comfortable to sit and lean against. But not with instruments or a great big Ritchie compass stuck on them! I was hoping to re-claim at least one of them. If I used Tacktick I would be able to put a bracket on the cabin bridge or bottom washboard. The bulkhead holes could be filled and repaired.

Before repair. Lenses are crazed from endless hours in the broiling Mediterranean sun.

From a crossing where we had 10-15knots of wind just fwd the beam and made around 6 knots nearly all day with a little current to help us along.

Anyway, after much research I realised I would have to install new transducers in the hull which would mean a haul out and a lot of work before I could go sailing. Plus I would still need to fill the holes which are huge. Unfortunately the B&G’s require 7.5cm holes in the bulkhead and there are four of them. The potential for leaks here explains why fitters are in the habit of gluing them on with Sikka. There have been occasions where people have been able to use their existing transducers with Tacktick. This would have been ideal but sadly my B&G transducers were not compatible.

Also, I really like the B&G analogue wind sensor. It’s a hell of a good instrument and since I’ve had it so long I look at it all the time to see what the wind is doing. It’s very helpful when you’re running and the wind starts to shift, you can see what’s happening very quickly. I didn’t like the idea of a digital one instead. The analogue ones are just better and for this reason people still use them even though they are a very old design.

So, after discussions with B&G who I found to be helpful but immovable in their approach to my repeated attempts to drive a bargain, I reluctantly decided to have all the instruments repaired.

In the end this cost nearly as much as a brand new Tacktick system. It hurt but it was less painful than a haulout, replacing transducers, filling in holes and installing the Tacktick master unit. Richard Tinley at B&G argued that it was still very much worth having the instruments repaired because they were still supported and once repaired would carry on to give many years service. I could also buy a new wind sensor if mine finally gave out.

I don’t have much experience with instruments from other manufacturers so I can offer no comparisons but I do know that B&G network instruments are quality kit that work well. They have given me good service over the years.

However, if I were to start again I would not buy B&G network. If I had looked at them before they were installed I would never have been happy with the holes required to install them. Also the GPS interface is extremely poor to use. Compared to the Garmin I have it is like trying to programme some old main frame. Also, there is really no need to have four such large instruments. Why shouldn’t one display show GPS, Speed and depth and the other show wind?

Four chunky display units is madness. In future I would look for instruments designed for dinghy sailors because they are so much smaller. In the Flicka cockpit you are so close to the instruments that large units are a waste of space.

Technology has moved on. The Network B&G’s are well made, work well and are very well supported considering how old they are. But there a new and more practical options around these days for a 20 foot boat.

Since I live near Lymington it was helpful because B&G are based there. Also the experience was a lot more pleasant than dealing with a large corporation where often it can be hard just to track down support. Two of the staff I dealt with were the same people I dealt with in 2004 which would probably be less likely in a larger organisation.

More ...

Sailing, simplicity and the pursuit of happiness...

gus@carawaydesign.com — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 17:03:23 GMT

Well, it’s a nice idea isn’t it? The idea that you don’t have to conform to the complexity, responsibility, enslavement and tedium of modern life. That instead you can simplify your life, go sailing and search for happiness instead of climbing the career and property ladders and trying to fulfil yourself in material terms.

Small boat sailing in the Mediterranean

gus@carawaydesign.com — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 18:26:04 GMT

I came across this interesting series of videos by a guy who built his own dinghy and sailed and rowed it across from mainland Spain to Ibiza and along the coast of Spain. When the wind failed to blow which was most of the time he was forced to row. An experience which is clearly exhausting in the summer heat.

<\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/div>";" alt="">

Passage making in a small sail boat.

Although I had an engine I know how he felt being out a sea in the parching heat often wallowing in the swell. I was always forced to start the engine. But this guy having no engine didn’t have that luxury!

More ...

Upgraded blog software

gus@carawaydesign.com — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 11:36:13 GMT

I had been meaning to upgrade the module that drives the blogging on this site. I was a bit wary because last time I upgraded the blog module the blog posts were lost. This time I made sure to back up the site before installing the module. The upgrade seemed to run smoothly. I need to make some changes to the style of the blog list at the top because the customisations I made were overwritten with the upgrade.

Please let me know if you notice any strange behaviour.

thanks

Gus

More ...

New article added to Flicka Cruising tales

gus@carawaydesign.com — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 09:45:35 GMT

I finally found the time to write up my account of the last single handed passage I did from Minorca to France in October 2008. You can download it direct here or you can find it under the menu Articles/Flicka Cruising Tales. Hope you enjoy it.

More ...

Delivery trip: crewing on “Moondance”

gus@carawaydesign.com — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 09:12:55 GMT

In September and October every year my partner and I go to Minorca where she creates a brochure for a sailing holiday company; Minorca Sailing. She is given an apartment and I am invited to tag along with my laptop where I can work using the local wifi. In the past we’d arrived by Flicka but last autumn I put Caraway on a trailer and sent her home to the UK. So this time we arrived by plane.

The other day, while drinking coffee in Fornells (a small town at the head of a bay on Minorca’s rugged north coast), I was lucky enough to be invited to crew on an Elan 434 which was making it’s way back to Barcelona for the winter. I don’t have much work on and it was easy to spare the time.

The owners, an Irish couple were delighted to have an extra experienced hand on board for the 120 mile trip and promised to pay my air fare from Barcelona back to Minorca. I met them on the Friday and they planned to sail on the following Wednesday. I wasn’t prepared for this kind of sailing, having left my gear at home. However, since the weather would be relatively warm and the distance short I could manage with what I had. There were spare life jackets and oilies on board “Moondance”.

Moondance is a modern and comfy boat. She is enormous down below and has all mod cons such as hot shower, fridge-freezer and radar. A Rob Humphries design she is typical of modern yachts which seek to find a balance between accommodation and performance.

On the day of departure we met for lunch a Bar La Palma in Fornells; a very leisurely and sociable way to begin a passage. After that, Mike the skipper and I sorted out the cruising chute as we thought we might use it. Very little wind had been forecast and I expected to spend most of the trip motoring as usual.

As we left the bay the wind had got up a little on the beam so we raised the mainsail and set the genoa. I’d forgotten how much work it was raising sails on a bigger boat! I would have had the Flicka sailing in less than a few minutes. It seemed to take an age to get Moondance’s mainsail up with the winch! But the benefits were clear when in no time we were up to 6.5 knots and accelerating. The sun was out and it was warm as toast. We all covered up with sun cream as with the breeze and the long day ahead we knew we would burn. The only real damper was a huge lolloping easterly swell which came at us all afternoon just ahead of the beam and made the boat lurch horribly from time to time. It also killed boat speed.

As usual, after just a few hours the wind died off and we were left to motor on in the slop as the sun started to droop onto the horizon.

It was nice to be on a comfortable and spacious modern yacht. However, what I love about the Flicka is that when I am down below I am still close to the water and can see out of the portholes when I’m cooking. In big boats it can be a long way from the galley to the cockpit. But in a Flicka I can be cooking down below while chatting to the person on watch in the cockpit. The whole sense of being at sea is more pleasurable in a Flicka. I can’t think of any other boat that gives me so much pleasure to be at sea in than the Flicka. I can see that in big seas a cockpit that is raised high above the water can bring a sense of security but it also creates a problem in man over board situations and makes picking up a mooring bouoy more of a challenge. With Moondance, hower there is a “sugar scoop” stern which does mean it’s possible to get back on board easily despite the very high freeboard.

The sun setting over the Mediterranean.

As the sun went down Teresa put a pan of Irish stew on the hob and we organised our watches. With three on board we’d do two hours on and four hours off. We would wear life jackets and clip on when alone. I took the 8-10pm watch which meant I’d be back on a 2am and then 6am which suited me as I wanted to watch sunrise.

There were a lot of ships all around us during the night which kept us busy and awake. With a chart plotter that also showed AIS and radar data we could look at ships and see what they were doing which was fun and helpful. I don’t know how sailors managed in fog without these tools. I guess in the past there were less ships and more accidents.

The closest call I had was a big ferry on it’s way to the Balearics and coming at us dead on. I altered course to pass port to port and we cleared her by about a mile and a half. Still too close in my book!

Sometimes the morning light at sea is just glorious. The shades of blue and pink are just a delight.

As the sun came up Teresa made the most fantastic bacon and egg butties and a mug of tea. Just the perfect way to start a day at sea. Then we had a large pod of dolphins pass by heading east. Not really interested in us but did splash their tales on the water from time to time.

By midday we were in Barcelona for a fine lunch and a celebratory bottle of wine.

More ...

The best marine antenna (aerial) on the market

gus@carawaydesign.com — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:45:56 GMT

Caraway has always had a fixed VHF radio mounted on the port side to the left of the galley and above the entrance to the quarter berth. It was properly installed and has never let me down. The antenna is a Metz Manta 6 and has remained firmly attached to the very top of the mast in all weathers for at least 17 years! The antenna is not particularly expensive to replace and thus since I had noticed the plastic top cover had disintegrated and the bolt that fixes it to the bracket had rusted solid I decided it was a good idea to take it off and have it serviced or replaced.

So, I sent a quick email to Metz Communications asking if it could be serviced. I got the following reply:

“I would send back for repair or replacement, warranty will cover – Lee”.

So I contacted the UK distributor Salty John and asked him if it could be serviced or replaced. I was not too optimistic since the unit is so old, however, Salty John was very helpful and asked me to send the unit to him for inspection. He also kindly suggested I not bother sending the whip which I was grateful for as I couldn’t find a tube long enough to fit it in!

Within a few days Salty John had sent me out a brand new Metz Manta 6 antenna completely free of charge! Well, what more can you ask for? Needless to say I shall be recommending this antenna to everyone who has an ear to listen and should I ever need to replace this one I know exactly which one to get.

Another thing which I really like about this antenna is that the bracket remained exactly the same after all this time. I was anxious about this because the mast is tapped for screws and from experience I have learned time and again that companies have a habit of changing these things for one reason or another. And since I would have to fit the antenna by climbing up the mast the last thing I needed was for it not to fit and to have to drill and tap new holes. There was however one improvement. The steel nut that had corroded on the old unit has been replaced by a stainless one. Not sure why this wasn’t stainless in the first place but at least they learned and put it right.

Salty John is a UK distributor of what I would call carefully hand selected marine products. He is clearly a sailor himself and knows the value of quality and reliability at sea. He has some interesting products for sale but he is also very knowledgeable about them and helpful with it too. He gave me some useful advice on testing my coaxial cable and antenna with a multi-meter. I can recommend Salty John as much as I can Mezt antennas.

Now here’s a contrasting experience. Some time in 2003 when I was getting to know my boat I bought a Simrad TP 20 tiller pilot. Well, it wasn’t cheap but I personally hate to go to sea without some kind of self steering. I often single-hand so I need something to steer the boat when I’m making coffee or sitting on the fore deck watching out for ships. I cannot really complain, the tiller pilot steered me all the way down the French canals and all over the Western Mediterranean. It went back to Simrad for repair under warranty which was a nightmare as I was in France and it came back in a worse state I sent it away in. So I took it back to the UK and sent it back here. After that it carried on for another three or four seasons before it started to play up. It would suddenly go off course without reason and under anything but the kindest of sea states it would be completely useless.

Now, being back in the UK I decided to send it off for repair. Not too surprisingly the lady rattled off a long list of faults including faulty compass, water ingress and damaged circuitry. If you are surprised by the water ingress don’t be, I have taken these units apart a few times in the desperate hope that I can see some obvious reason why it won’t steer the boat and been a bit horrified by the inards. It’s like opening up a washing machine. The only difference is there’s no lump of concrete inside.. but there may as well be. The water seal is a simple rubber gasket which could easily be replaced by the user but do Simrad provide a spare?

So, the quote from Simrad for repair was £279 including VAT and carriage!! gulp! Needless to say I declined their offer of repair and decided to consider alternatives and do some research before buying a new one. But then came the sting! There was an inspection charge of £23 to pay! So I’d wasted £10 in postage and £23 for the fee just to be told I might as well buy a new one! What a contrast to the Metz experience!

The experience with Metz and Salty John’s is something rare these days. A company that is prepared to stand by it’s product and give it’s customers a promise it will honour. And a dealer with a no quibble attitude to it’s customers backed up by genuine customer service. With Simrad however it’s an entirely different story. Instead of having faith in the reliability of their product and offering their customers anything at all for their loyalty they are exploited again with high service costs when something goes wrong. From reading of other people experiences with these units on the web I have come to realise that many of them fail after only one or two seasons. This could easily mean that the unit has managed only a single season before the one year warranty has expired. It would be a very unhappy experience to have a unit fail after such a short service life and then be fully charged by Simrad for repair.

It makes me seriously consider the alternatives when looking for a new auto-pilot.

More ...