SHAKEDOWN DRILLS
Your boat is ready for the season, but is the skipper? These skills will knock the rust off
Come spring when most of us start sailing again we suffer from a bit of skill fade, especially this year after being locked down for so long. Theory knowledge which was red hot the day we took the test is probably not so near the mark. Practical skills such as boat handling tend more towards ponderous than slick. So it’s worth starting the season with your own refresher course.
Fortunately some knowledge and skills always stick. You don’t normally have to revise how to put on a lifejacket, raise the mainsail or the basic sailing rules and buoyage. What you might have forgotten is what is inside the lifejacket, how to prepare the sails for heavy weather and the less common Colregs.
Modern plotters have made pencils and plastic plotting instruments almost redundant, but a little revision on how to estimate a position or shape a course on a paper chart might make a big difference if the electrics fail. On the chart it is not too important if you are unable to distinguish between a castle and a fort but it is more serious if you confuse a rock which is not a hazard with one that is.
As chartplotters and instruments gain ever more functions, knowing how to use them is an important part of navigation too. Skills such as interrogating features on a vector chart, generating routes and setting alarms need to be revised, as well as more traditional skills such as how to plot a visual
fix on screen or on paper, and knowing what isophase and occulting lights look like.
After such a long break, some boat handling practice is worth the effort and might save a fibreglass repair. Practising manoeuvres is best done with a crew who get involved and have a go. It is mindnumbingly boring to sit on a deck watching the helm miss buoys or MOB dummies, unless you know you’re next.
Whether sailing alone, as a couple or with a crew, you’ll get much more from your shakedown sail exercise by analysing what happened using the principle, Brief, Task, and Debrief. Choose a manoeuvre to practise, taking it in turns and providing feedback, starting with what went well, what didn’t and finally what to do to improve. Credit should be given not just for technical skills, but also the artistic impression of handling the exercise without drama or shouting. If the manoeuvre didn’t work, don’t worry. Morale will be improved by practice and success.
NAVIGATION AND ELECTRONICS
Firstly, your charts should be up to date, and hopefully you’ll have done this over winter. If not, plug your chart numbers into the publisher’s website to check for updates, and for electronic charts, check that you’ve downloaded the relevant updates, or automatic updates have been made, then check your local area; last year’s route might be this year’s sandbank.
If you don’t carry paper charts, you need a backup system for navigation, with correct charts and positionfixing capability.
The same applies to your instruments; many yacht skippers sail for years without calibrating their depth, log and wind instruments. The days of paper instruction manuals have gone, so before you leave home download or print the instructions for instruments and plotter. While you are at it download the engine manual as well.
Spend half a day working out how to calibrate the depth, adjust the backlighting, correct the wind angle and a multitude of other untouched functions for which you’ve paid a fortune.
Some of the calibration has to be done at sea, for example, swinging the electronic compass to reduce deviation in the autopilot, calibrating the wind angle and speed through the water.
Switch on the plotter, AIS and radar and practise using functions such as gain, EBL (Electronic Bearing Line) and VRM (Variable Range Marker) and relating the real world to the electronic world. Toggle the various overlays to see the vessels which do not show up on AIS.
BEFORE YOU HEAD OUT
■ Conditions Don’t forget to check the tide times, heights and streams, and the weather forecast.
■ Engine Give the engine a good once-over – belts, fuel and oil levels, coolant and water filter. Inspect for fuel bug or water in the fuel if possible. Open the raw water inlet and fire up the engine. Check for exhaust water and no more than a wisp of white smoke once she’s running. Leave her ticking over for a while to get warm. Engage the throttle in forward and astern to check rudder, prop and gearbox.
■ Electrics Switch on and go through the main systems – instruments, VHF radio (a start of season radio check is acceptable, but not every sail). Run the fridge, cabin lights and check navigation lights are all working too. Put your log transducer in, or if you’ve left it in, take it out for a quick clean with a soft plastic pan scourer. Have a sponge on hand to cover the through hull and mop up the water.
■ Water If you haven’t already, run the fresh water through and fill up with fresh. Check the water smells and tastes drinkable.
■ Safety Get lifejackets out and inspect the cylinders – cartridges showing green, no corrosion and screwed in tight – and make sure they still fit you after a winter as a landlubber. Check the tethers, hooks and jack-stays are all in good condition and other safety gear is in good condition and properly mounted.
On deck
■ Look up at your rig. Is the sacrificial strip attached to the genoa, are the halyards running free and not twisted? With a pair of binoculars, check the rigging, wind instruments and masthead sheaves all look in good order.
■ Check your rigging terminals are all secure, with split pins in and the tension is roughly right. You can finetune this out on the water.
■ With the echo-sounder on, drop a lead line (any rope with a weight will do) to check your actual depth.