CRUISING TIPS

Make your time aboard safer and easier

ALONGSIDE IN A BLOW

It’s blowing dogs off chains, but I’m safe enough out at sea. The trouble starts when I arrive in harbor and find I have to come alongside a dock with 40 knots blowing off it. Trying to get a pair of lines ashore safely with only two people on board can be almost impossible in that much wind, even with a bow thruster. But help is at hand, especially if you have a sugar-scoop stern. All boats like to lie stern-to a strong wind, so back in carefully square to the dock so your shipmate can hop off easily with a short stern line. Make this fast and you’ve only to run a long line ashore from the bow, se- cure it, then lead your end to the windlass if that is powered, or aft to a primary sheet winch if not. It’s now easy, safe and stress-free just to winch her in alongside.

COME INTO LINE

A glance at the left-hand section of the Raymarine split-screen display below indicates that the radar image is a few degrees adrift from reality. Many modern radars allow the scanner to be realigned electronically. On this particular instrument, the function lurks secretively at the bottom of a submenu. Given that the autopilot compass has been “swung” and nobody has stowed an anchor against it, the manuals usually advise steering at a visible target dead ahead, then adjusting the scanner angle until the echo is on the ship’s heading line. If you can’t arrange this, you can always watch the overlay as you crank the “scanner” around. When the shoreline and any AIS icons all line up with the radar image, you’re unlikely to be far wrong. To be certain, the deadahead, eyeballed target remains the bullet-proof answer.

SOFTEN ‘EM UP

It’s funny how the traditional method of tackling a job often ignores technology that can make it so much easier. Here’s an example: all my life, I’ve struggled with cramming new piping onto sea cocks, head discharges and engine inlets. If it’s a tight fit, as it should be, the time-honored system for softening the pipe was to immerse it in a pan of boiling water. You left it there for a few minutes until it went floppy, then you whipped it out and galloped over to the action to wrestle it on before it cooled. My wife was watching me do this when she asked, “Why don’t you heat it with my hair dryer instead?” Her onboard unit was handy, so I gave it a go. Magic. A perfect result with no drama, achieved by listening to someone who’d never done the job and so was free to think outside the box.

ANCHOR GRABBER

Isn’t it a treat to visit a boat that’s been sorted out over many years? Here’s a sailor who got fed up with his anchor clattering around and was rightly unwilling to crank it up hard on the windlass. He rigged this permanent tackle with dinghy-sized blocks to solve the issue for good. Haul the anchor up, clip the outer block to a shackle secured to the hook’s crown, heave up on the inner block and nip the line in the jammer. Time taken—two seconds. Result—total satisfaction. Cost— not much at all… s