Collective effort
I just read the article ‘Doing our Bit’
(YM, December 2021).
Would it be timely for Yachting Monthly to encourage this type of behaviour and use your position to push sailors to do more? My partner and I have been cruising Scotland for the last two summers and have been appalled at the amount of plastic rubbish on many of the beaches and inlets. Most of this rubbish is quite clearly from the fishing industry. Could you suggest that all cruisers make an effort to go ashore from their anchorage and fill at least one bin bag with plastic rubbish? These can be taken ashore at the next convenient marina or harbour. Perhaps local fishermen or fish farm companies could get involved by collecting the bags from the beaches and taking them to a rubbish collection point.
If everyone did this what a difference it could make. Jay Partridge
YM editor Theo Stocker responds: Jay is absolutely right that sailors have unique access to many remote coastlines inaccessible to those confined to shore. If you are able to, taking a bin bag ashore with you and collecting the rubbish you find can help to remove plastic rubbish that would otherwise remain in the environment. A number of sailing clubs have initiatives to clear up their local cruising grounds – get in touch and let us know if you’ve been involved. The Marine Conservation Society also organises annual beach cleans nationwide and then collates data to identify and challenge the main sources of the litter.
Design conundrum
Tony Curphey’s gripping piece about his experience with a series drogue (YM, December 2020) led me to visit the jordanseriesdrogue.com site. In the section on mooring and anchoring it describes the benefits of anchoring from the stern during storm conditions.
Most sailors know that, with sails furled, a modern sloop will naturally turn away from a breeze and face downwind. A sloop is not stable facing into the wind, which is why our boats sail around a bower anchor when the wind gets up. However, an anchor or mooring set from the stern will allow a boat to lie quietly downwind, with the engineering logic borne out by experience. So why do our boats still deploy anchors from the bow when they behave badly in a blow?
This underlines a compromise in the design of modern yachts. Below the waterline they are stable when water flows from stem to stern, but in the air they want the wind in the opposite direction. In calm conditions a boat anchored from the bow will swing with the tide, but when the wind dominates she will prefer to be anchored from the stern. There is no simple answer for both conditions. Steve Gale
Beware the wind change
I read the Chapman’s Pool anchorage article (YM, October 2020) just days after visiting this lovely bay for the first time in years.
The weather was fine with a light southwesterly on arrival and forecast to get slightly stronger and back east or northeasterly. Perfect for spending the night there then... NOT!
A new wind direction started funnelling off the surrounding high ground and the valley into the Pool. The night was not restful but fortunately my Spade anchor held well. The seven boats moored in the bay were reduced to three by morning.
These wind effects are mentioned in the Almanac for Lulworth Cove but not for Chapman’s Pool but they were certainly present that night. Just thought I should warn other readers.
Also worth a mention is the proximity to the firing ranges. Lulworth Range Control welcome an early call on the VHF.
Mike Thrower
One in 60 rule mistake?
I bought my first ever copy of Yachting Monthly (YM, January 2021), having been drawn in by the prospect of an easy courseto-steer calculation advertised on the cover. Not being a great student of mathematics I
was very happy with the general principle of the ‘one-in-60 rule’ and the simplified formula explained.
However, I spent a great deal of time confused by the table on page 43 showing the 10 hour passage across the Channel which didn’t seem to add up! Eventually I realised that the entries in the first two hours are wrong. Both serials 1 and 2 are listed in the wrong column. Those tidal streams should be showing easterly not westerly, a mistake that could have had us on the rocks!
I’d be grateful if you could confirm I’m not missing some additional calculation here and the table is printed incorrectly.
Ian Simpson
Theo Stocker responds: You are absolutely correct - I am mortified we let that error creep in when we were formatting the table. The first two hours of tide should indeed have been in the easterly tide column, not the westerly.
Diesel smell buster
For eliminating diesel smells where it has leaked into the bilge or indeed elsewhere look no further than this product that I bought on Amazon. The Hydra Bio HC Buster has worked very well on my deep bilges.
Michael Hayman, OCC Port Officer River Dart
A simpler suggestion?
James Stevens’ article ‘Could you fix a jammed sheave without a rigger?’ (YM, Sept 2020) certainly gives food for thought. But as he says it is not a task for the faint-hearted! I have a different, less efficient, but I believe, simpler suggestion.
Send a crew member up to the top of the forestay on the jib halyard as James proposes. He should secure himself there and, using the main halyard, haul the head of the main up to that level. It will be heavy but is probably do-able.
If the main halyard runs free under no load, it can now be tightened to take the weight of the sail. If not, a single block can be tied to the mast above the forestay, and a temporary halyard passed through the block and attached to the sail. This block could also be used to hoist the main to the same level if it’s too heavy to lift.
The sail can be reefed to the point that the luff is tight, allowing at least a reefed sail to be used. If the temporary halyard solution is used the sail should be able to be lowered without problems. Simon Atkinson
James Stevens responds: As usual there is more than one answer to our ‘Question of Seamanship’. Simon’s solution is a pragmatic and sensible temporary fix. The solution I outlined is the method I used when I was the skipper of a Sigma 41 at the National Sailing Centre.
Motor-sailing tip
I often do the same thing in heavy weather (Pete Goss on motor-sailing YM, July 2020) when running with the wind since the wash of the prop over the rudder helps the steering and avoids being pushed broadside. But there are a few points to bear in mind:
When rolling in a heavy sea the engine might be starved of oil as the oil surges across to the other side of the sump.
I think Yanmar et al advise against this habit. Of course this won’t work if the boat has two wheels and two rudders.
One advantage seems to be that the admiral is suddenly reassured when the engine is running and is less nervous. Real magic, even if you do not put it in gear! You also make plenty of hot water for showers.
I also often sail into an anchorage and drop the anchor, never having started the engine, or when leaving I just weigh anchor and sail to remind myself how the boat handles under sail in close quarters. It’s very useful too if you have to sail into a marina for help if you have rope in the prop or the engine will not start, which happened to me.
Great stuff. I love YM! Andrew Geddes