OT: Official Sailing Thread

[RU4Real]

Story makes absolutely no sense. They had a working EPIRB on board but never activated it? For 5 friggin months while they were adrift?

Also there was no storm in the area of Hawaii when they left and for days after. Like they claim.

They then claim they got in contact with Wake Island and they could only be helped if they reached the harbor? Your telling me everyone just ignored them once they couldn't reach the harbor. It's administered by the United States Air force for pete's sake and were only 2 miles from it.

Then the whole shark hampering story. What is Jaws not just a movie any longer? Complete bullsh*t.

Yeah...

"But the squalls were, like, REAALLY BIG and the boat is only 50 feet long."

Only 50 feet.

Absent actual hurricanes, the conditions in that part of the world are never enough to threaten a 50' boat. I know people who have sailed those waters in boats half that size.

But we should donate $50,000 to them. You know... to punish the media.

 

[koleszar]

Yeah...

"But the squalls were, like, REAALLY BIG and the boat is only 50 feet long."

Only 50 feet.

Absent actual hurricanes, the conditions in that part of the world are never enough to threaten a 50' boat. I know people who have sailed those waters in boats half that size.

But we should donate $50,000 to them. You know... to punish the media.

My good friend Jarrett is a competitive sailor. I'll have to find out what class he races in. They take their sail boat up and down the east coast to race. I know he's also in with some rich guys(he's not, just a very good sailor) who fly him down to Florida from time to time to sail. He's constantly running to maintain his weight. His Yacht club is based on the Metedeconk river down in Mantoloking.

 

[RU4Real]

My good friend Jarrett is a competitive sailor. I'll have to find out what class he races in. They take their sail boat up and down the east coast to race. I know he's also in with some rich guys(he's not, just a very good sailor) who fly him down to Florida from time to time to sail. He's constantly running to maintain his weight. His Yacht club is based on the Metedeconk river down in Mantoloking.

I used to crew on a J/105. There's a huge one-design fleet that races all over the world. Some of those guys are seriously fanatical, but the owner I crewed for was what you might call on the lower end of the competitive scale. For him, racing was just the excuse he gave his wife for buying a big offshore boat. It got frustrating after a while, because he was just too non-aggressive. Other skippers would be out there running into each other and he'd always bear off, so as to not scratch the boat. I think in four years on the team I was involved in one collision and it was pretty much an accident.

 

[NickRU714]

This looks terrifying.
You people are crazy!

 

[mildone_rivals]

This looks terrifying.
You people are crazy!

Looks like fun to me. You should try it on a 40' sailboat.

I was on a 40' sailboat doing around the buoys racing in Raritan Bay when a squall came up fast from the southeast. The conditions at the time were really calm on the bay. But you could see this cloud-like thing racing the land to our southeast, then onto the bay, thrashing the water. Then BAM, it hits the fleet of racing sailboats, many of which were smaller and much lighter than us.

Didn't have the waves like your photo shows, but had the same whiteout conditions and gusts over 50 knots.

We had gotten our headsail down, but hadn't gotten the main all the way down when it hit us. So we got knocked way the hell over at first. The helmsman bore off (headed downwind) depowering the main as much as possible, which took us on a course up the Arthur Kill. We were past the 440 bridge before we got the sail all the way down and could motor back to our mooring.

We had it easy. Almost every other boat in the fleet suffered some kind of damage, spinnaker poles through mainsails, torn head sails, broken winches, etc. Several wound up grounded on Staten Island. Was nasty.

And outrageous, awesome fun, if not one of the boat owners paying for it all.

 

[RU4Real]

Looks like fun to me. You should try it on a 40' sailboat.

I was on a 40' sailboat doing around the buoys racing in Raritan Bay when a squall came up fast from the southeast. The conditions at the time were really calm on the bay. But you could see this cloud-like thing racing the land to our southeast, then onto the bay, thrashing the water. Then BAM, it hits the fleet of racing sailboats, many of which were smaller and much lighter than us.

Didn't have the waves like your photo shows, but had the same whiteout conditions and gusts over 50 knots.

We had gotten our headsail down, but hadn't gotten the main all the way down when it hit us. So we got knocked way the hell over at first. The helmsman bore off (headed downwind) depowering the main as much as possible, which took us on a course up the Arthur Kill. We were past the 440 bridge before we got the sail all the way down and could motor back to our mooring.

We had it easy. Almost every other boat in the fleet suffered some kind of damage, spinnaker poles through mainsails, torn head sails, broken winches, etc. Several wound up grounded on Staten Island. Was nasty.

And outrageous, awesome fun, if not one of the boat owners paying for it all.

We did Cedar Point one year and the same sort of thing happened on the last race of the last day. Just as the fleet (21 J/105s that year) was rounding the mark, so maybe 10 miles from the marina in the middle of the Sound, a squall came up, the winds went to 40 knots and the seas got super choppy.

We didn't take any damage because as it happened, it hit most of the fleet from astern, so we just doused the A-sail and rode it out.

 

[mildone_rivals]

We did Cedar Point one year and the same sort of thing happened on the last race of the last day. Just as the fleet (21 J/105s that year) was rounding the mark, so maybe 10 miles from the marina in the middle of the Sound, a squall came up, the winds went to 40 knots and the seas got super choppy.

We didn't take any damage because as it happened, it hit most of the fleet from astern, so we just doused the A-sail and rode it out.

Always enjoyed such things, when near shore. OTOH, nighttime squalls offshore are no fun at all. Especially when they include lightning. Not being able to see it coming, just hearing it, is a bit nerve-wracking. And being way offshore means if there's a problem, nobody's gonna just swim a mile or so to land.

The one I mentioned from the bay race was the weirdest thing. I'd been sailing for awhile and had experienced several powerful squalls. But this one was different, to my experience.

As it came across racing across South Amboy, I couldn't even figure out what it was at first. Was this massive wall of white-gray turbulence from ground to sky. Totally obscured all buildings on land. Best way to describe it is that it looked very much like the cloud you always see billowing out from a nuclear detonation, without the vertical mushrooming.

The speed it came, and the way it changed the water when it hit was actually a bit scary until it was almost on top of us and you could tell it was just rain and wind. Then, you know, when we weren't vaporized, it just got fun. The helmsman (who was also the boat owner) clearly knew what it was as soon as someone asked "what's that" and he was yelling to get the sails down before it even hit the water off South Amboy (which was lucky for us... some others weren't so quick to respond and paid for it).

 

[RU4Real]

Always enjoyed such things, when near shore. OTOH, nighttime squalls offshore are no fun at all. Especially when they include lightning. Not being able to see it coming, just hearing it, is a bit nerve-wracking. And being way offshore means if there's a problem, nobody's gonna just swim a mile or so to land.

The one I mentioned from the bay race was the weirdest thing. I'd been sailing for awhile and had experienced several powerful squalls. But this one was different, to my experience.

As it came across racing across South Amboy, I couldn't even figure out what it was at first. Was this massive wall of white-gray turbulence from ground to sky. Totally obscured all buildings on land. Best way to describe it is that it looked very much like the cloud you always see billowing out from a nuclear detonation, without the vertical mushrooming.

The speed it came, and the way it changed the water when it hit was actually a bit scary until it was almost on top of us and you could tell it was just rain and wind. Then, you know, when we weren't vaporized, it just got fun. The helmsman (who was also the boat owner) clearly knew what it was as soon as someone asked "what's that" and he was yelling to get the sails down before it even hit the water off South Amboy (which was lucky for us... some others weren't so quick to respond and paid for it).

One reason I'm a big believer in stack-packs. Just blow the halyard and let the main sort itself out. Yeah, I know it's not something you're ever gonna find on a true racing boat, but true racing boats usually have pretty solid crews. For cruising boats doing some racing, every convenience helps.

It's the same reason I tend to kinda go back and forth on roller-furled headsails. 99% of the time it's a convenience, but I've been in situations where we had to get the jib rolled up in a hurry because of a dramatic change in wind conditions. If it's still really loaded up the furler can get all fakakta. If you bear off too much then you've got the whole damn thing flogging around, threatening to kill the bowman and shred itself to bits.

Pays to have a bowman that nobody really likes. In a lot of situations, actually...

 

[RU4Real]

Okay, @mildone (or others)...

I've been watching YouTube videos from various runnings of the Marion Bermuda. So the question is:

Winch handles - in or out?

All these cruising boats / amateur crews are lounging around the cockpit, filming their ride. Some of them are pretty rough, as you know the Stream can be. And almost every single video shows winch handles in the winches when not in use.

I was always taught that this is a major no-no.

 

[RUDutch]

In. Where else?

 

[RU4Real]

In. Where else?

In the pocket.

 

[mildone_rivals]

Okay, @mildone (or others)...

I've been watching YouTube videos from various runnings of the Marion Bermuda. So the question is:

Winch handles - in or out?

All these cruising boats / amateur crews are lounging around the cockpit, filming their ride. Some of them are pretty rough, as you know the Stream can be. And almost every single video shows winch handles in the winches when not in use.

I was always taught that this is a major no-no.

We always tucked ours into cubbies under the winches, back in the cabin. And in nylon webs up by the mast. Leaving them in is an invitation to foul a line at some critical point.

 

[RU4Real]

We always tucked ours into cubbies under the winches, back in the cabin. And in nylon webs up by the mast. Leaving them in is an invitation to foul a line at some critical point.

Foul a line, trip over them, fall into them, have them pop out at precisely the wrong moment because they weren't properly locked to begin with.

Yep, I was taught the whole muscle memory thing - take 'em out of the pocket, pop 'em into the winch, turn turn turn, take 'em out, put 'em away.

 

[mildone_rivals]

Foul a line, trip over them, fall into them, have them pop out at precisely the wrong moment because they weren't properly locked to begin with.

Yep, I was taught the whole muscle memory thing - take 'em out of the pocket, pop 'em into the winch, turn turn turn, take 'em out, put 'em away.

Agreed. A place for everything and everything in its place. I thought that was a pretty universal rule of boating in general. The way I drive, it’s a rule of driving for me.

 

[RU4Real]

Agreed. A place for everything and everything in its place. I thought that was a pretty universal rule of boating in general. The way I drive, it’s a rule of driving for me.

Ya know, if's funny you mention that. One of the videos (linked below) documents the trip made by a youth sail training group. The very first thing I noticed that on the interior shots the cabin is an absolute friggin' mess. I don't just mean, like, gear bags lying around and such. I mean the nav station has crap all over it, nothing appears to be properly stowed. Below decks on this boat immediately presents itself as a safety hazard underway, and worse, an absolutely hopeless situation in the event of a serious emergency.

 

[Tango Two]

I decided to start this thread to see if it got any action. To the best of my knowledge, only @mildone and I have any real offshore sailing experience. I'd be delighted to learn otherwise.

So if you're a sailor, chime in. Pipe up. Because we LOVE to talk about boats we love, boats we hate, places we've gone or want to go, that one time with the 30' seas washing the deck, etc.

And if you're not a sailor but want to learn stuff - ask away!

How 'bout don't post it on a Rutgers football board when it has nothing to do with Rutgers football?

You're up to your pathetic attention-seeking again. It's sad, and a little bit gross.

 

[RU4Real]

How 'bout don't post it on a Rutgers football board when it has nothing to do with Rutgers football?

You're up to your pathetic attention-seeking again. It's sad, and a little bit gross.

You're such a *****. Also, you're back on my ignore list.

 

[RU4Real]

An update in the bizarre saga of Sea Nymph, the 50' boat abandoned following the "rescue" of its two female crew members.

An entrant in the Volvo Ocean Race, "Turn the Tide on Plastic", had a close encounter with the "ghost ship" in the middle of the Pacific. Sea Nymph is still afloat and adrift, four months after being abandoned as "broken and unseaworthy".

 

[DJ Spanky]

How 'bout don't post it on a Rutgers football board when it has nothing to do with Rutgers football?

You're up to your pathetic attention-seeking again. It's sad, and a little bit gross.

Seriously? Who are you to make judgmental calls like this? In fact, why don't you take a short vacation.

 

[DJ Spanky]

So just ran across this, curious on the experts' thoughts.

Donald Crowhurst: Sailor's mystery disappearance inspires two movies

 

[RU4Real]

So just ran across this, curious on the experts' thoughts.

Donald Crowhurst: Sailor's mystery disappearance inspires two movies

Crowhurst isn't so much a mystery as the media would like everyone to believe. He was a failed businessman who saw an opportunity for salvation in the original GG. Not surprisingly, that was an epic failure for him as well. He lost his nerve, and a good bit of gear, in the South Atlantic, before ever sniffing the Southern Ocean. He conjured up some half-assed scheme to fake his log books while drifting around off the coast of South America and eventually either fell or jumped overboard.

 

[NightKnight]

When I lived in Westport, CT I took classes and passed my test at the Longshore Sailing club and bought a small O'Day that I kept in dry dock by they marina. I could leave my door and be in the water in ten minutes. At 6'7" any boat is small for me and I'm not a great swimmer to add to the excitement. Had a lot of fun tooling around LI Sound. Wife and I would picnic on the islands sometimes, but I mostly went alone for a couple hours here and there. I'd planned to make the 60 mile journey to Nantucket, but ever did. Few times I went beyond the sight of land felt very uneasy.

 

[RU4Real]

When I lived in Westport, CT I took classes and passed my test at the Longshore Sailing club and bought a small O'Day that I kept in dry dock by they marina. I could leave my door and be in the water in ten minutes. At 6'7" any boat is small for me and I'm not a great swimmer to add to the excitement. Had a lot of fun tooling around LI Sound. Wife and I would picnic on the islands sometimes, but I mostly went alone for a couple hours here and there. I'd planned to make the 60 mile journey to Nantucket, but ever did. Few times I went beyond the sight of land felt very uneasy.

Solo sailing is an extremely zen sort of thing, I believe. Perhaps one of the most...

 

[mildone_rivals]

When I lived in Westport, CT I took classes and passed my test at the Longshore Sailing club and bought a small O'Day that I kept in dry dock by they marina. I could leave my door and be in the water in ten minutes. At 6'7" any boat is small for me and I'm not a great swimmer to add to the excitement. Had a lot of fun tooling around LI Sound. Wife and I would picnic on the islands sometimes, but I mostly went alone for a couple hours here and there. I'd planned to make the 60 mile journey to Nantucket, but ever did. Few times I went beyond the sight of land felt very uneasy.

Brings back memories of many nights spent dodging lobster pots while holding course in the LI Sound during the Around Long Island Race. Good times.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Crowhurst isn't so much a mystery as the media would like everyone to believe. He was a failed businessman who saw an opportunity for salvation in the original GG. Not surprisingly, that was an epic failure for him as well. He lost his nerve, and a good bit of gear, in the South Atlantic, before ever sniffing the Southern Ocean. He conjured up some half-assed scheme to fake his log books while drifting around off the coast of South America and eventually either fell or jumped overboard.

So you don't think he lived his life out on some South Pacific island drinking mai tais and laughing at all the hoopla surrounding his disappearance?

 

[NightKnight]

To bring it back to football, I bought my boat from a Fairfeild gent who was a college teammate of Joe Paterno at Brown. Guy was super nice, told some college stories, and invited me to join his yacht club. As a black man, when a guy from that generation goes out of his way to be inclusive, it give you warm fuzzies.

 

[RU4Real]

So you don't think he lived his life out on some South Pacific island drinking mai tais and laughing at all the hoopla surrounding his disappearance?

Crowhurst didn't get within 5000 miles of the South Pacific. His boat was found drifting in the middle of the Atlantic, roughly halfway between Morocco and Bermuda.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Irony, man. Irony!

 

[RU4Real]

Irony, man. Irony!

Now, if your previous post is a concept that interests you, then the story you want to dig into is that of Bernard Moitessier.

 

[OriginalKnight]

I decided to start this thread to see if it got any action. To the best of my knowledge, only @mildone and I have any real offshore sailing experience. I'd be delighted to learn otherwise.

So if you're a sailor, chime in. Pipe up. Because we LOVE to talk about boats we love, boats we hate, places we've gone or want to go, that one time with the 30' seas washing the deck, etc.

And if you're not a sailor but want to learn stuff - ask away!

Sailing is for girly men who can’t play real sports.

 

[RU4Real]

Sailing is for girly men who can’t play real sports.

@DJ Spanky, if you would please, sir.

 

[RUScrew85]

One reason I'm a big believer in stack-packs. Just blow the halyard and let the main sort itself out. Yeah, I know it's not something you're ever gonna find on a true racing boat, but true racing boats usually have pretty solid crews. For cruising boats doing some racing, every convenience helps.

It's the same reason I tend to kinda go back and forth on roller-furled headsails. 99% of the time it's a convenience, but I've been in situations where we had to get the jib rolled up in a hurry because of a dramatic change in wind conditions. If it's still really loaded up the furler can get all fakakta. If you bear off too much then you've got the whole damn thing flogging around, threatening to kill the bowman and shred itself to bits.

Pays to have a bowman that nobody really likes. In a lot of situations, actually...

I've always said the same thing about all kinds of roller-furled stuff. Sails and jibs and all of the other things. If you're in a hurry it really helps. Especially for the other things.

 

[RU4Real]

I've always said the same thing about all kinds of roller-furled stuff. Sails and jibs and all of the other things. If you're in a hurry it really helps. Especially for the other things.

One of the boats in the fleet we raced in had a little asian chick as their bow... um... person. She wasn't big enough to wrestle a drowned spinnaker all by herself, but they could clip a halyard onto her harness and scoot her all the way to the top of the mast in about 10 seconds. Whenever we had to send somebody up the mast it turned into a 30 minute argument over who weighed less...

 

[mildone_rivals]

One of the boats in the fleet we raced in had a little asian chick as their bow... um... person. She wasn't big enough to wrestle a drowned spinnaker all by herself, but they could clip a halyard onto her harness and scoot her all the way to the top of the mast in about 10 seconds. Whenever we had to send somebody up the mast it turned into a 30 minute argument over who weighed less...

You guys were lucky; I would've killed for a little Asian (or any other ethnicity) chick.

Sadly, I always wound up on one of the two winches (two winches, two halyards, following the two is one, one is none principle) we used when hauling folks up the mast. The guy most often sent up was about 190 pounds. Even with two of us cranking away it made for a quick and intense workout.

At least I got to crawl out our spinnaker pole, in changing conditions, to do chute peels a number of times. That was always fun.

 

[RU4Real]

You guys were lucky; I would've killed for a little Asian (or any other ethnicity) chick.

Sadly, I always wound up on one of the two winches (two winches, two halyards, following the two is one, one is none principle) we used when hauling folks up the mast. The guy most often sent up was about 190 pounds. Even with two of us cranking away it made for a quick and intense workout.

At least I got to crawl out our spinnaker pole, in changing conditions, to do chute peels a number of times. That was always fun.

To be clear, she wasn't our Asian girl. She belonged to another boat.

That's one thing I loved about the J/105. NO F*CKING POLE. It flies an asymmetric on a retractable carbon fiber sprit. The only thing tricky about that is remembering to let the tack fly before trying to extend the sprit, otherwise you're tugging on the bow sprit line and nothing's happening because it's nailed shut by the tack line.

 

[mildone_rivals]

To be clear, she wasn't our Asian girl. She belonged to another boat.

That's one thing I loved about the J/105. NO F*CKING POLE. It flies an asymmetric on a retractable carbon fiber sprit. The only thing tricky about that is remembering to let the tack fly before trying to extend the sprit, otherwise you're tugging on the bow sprit line and nothing's happening because it's nailed shut by the tack line.

Yeah, but then I wouldn't have gotten to enjoy dangling out over the ocean at night w/out a harness as the wind and seas built to the point we needed to quickly exchange our half ounce for a three-quarter ounce chute before the lighter one ripped.

Not the smartest thing I've ever done (nor the dumbest, by far). But back then, I was just thinking about getting it done, not about how stupidly dangerous it was. The saner alternative would be to come up and ease the pole forward until it could be reached from the pulpit but then we'd be giving up speed - so hell no.

I'm guessing the boat's owner had told me it was no big deal to come up, but I was too much of a thrill seeker.

 

[RUScrew85]

One of the boats in the fleet we raced in had a little asian chick as their bow... um... person. She wasn't big enough to wrestle a drowned spinnaker all by herself, but they could clip a halyard onto her harness and scoot her all the way to the top of the mast in about 10 seconds. Whenever we had to send somebody up the mast it turned into a 30 minute argument over who weighed less...

You need to hire a small asian chick. (and maybe get one for the next race too)

 

[RU4Real]

You need to hire a small asian chick. (and maybe get one for the next race too)

"Boat Wench Wanted - Must be Asian"

Like that?

 

[RUScrew85]

"Boat Wench Wanted - Must be Asian"

Like that?

That about covers it.

 

[DJ Spanky]

Perhaps you could use this guy to help you find one: