OCEAN PROOF
HOW TO PREPARE FOR (NEARLY) ANYTHING
How to be well prepared for the most likely problems a bluewater cruise can throw at you
IN THE FIRST OF A TWO-PART SERIES ON PLANNING FOR BLUEWATER CRUISING, VICKY ELLIS LOOKS AT HOW TO BE PREPARED FOR ALMOST ANYTHING
‘The trick with planning is to prioritise ’
Well-prepared boats have dealt with half the battle when it comes to emergencies and challenges at sea. But beyond the boat and equipment, the mindset, experience and knowledge of skipper and crew play a huge part in making a successful outcome from a potential disaster.
So what makes a good bar story out of a bad situation? What problems and challenges are we likely to face on the picture-perfect voyage and what does it take to cope and succeed?
The trick with both planning for and dealing with problems at sea is to prioritise. Incidents such as fire, flooding and man overboard are fortunately rare if they have been considered. It is the problems more likely to occur that also need careful consideration.”.
Below are some of the problems well-prepared boats on a bluewater ocean crossing may encounter, based on incidents reported on the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) between 2017 and 2019. Rig, steering and equipment issues are among the most noteworthy.
STEERING AND RUDDER PROBLEMS These can be some of the most challenging issues and often happen without much warning. Downwind sailing in the trades can put huge strains on steering systems, especially during squalls or in acceleration zones, and particularly if a heavily laden yacht rounds up and broaches. The good news is that most of the potential problems can be prevented with checks, regular maintenance and a decent set of spares.
Choose wisely a system that will stand up to the miles, be easy to maintain, replace and check. I have appreciated yachts on which there was good access to steering systems and space to carry out repairs without dangling through a cockpit locker like a lemur. My bluewater choice (OK, wishlist!) would feature a system of solid rods linked through a gearbox although I have done most of my bluewater miles with the traditional cable and quadrant type systems. Sometimes it’s better the devil you know, so long as the system is robust.
A cable steering system spares list would include a big bag of bulldog clamps, spare cables and/or Spectra backup, head torch and prop-up lamp, steering lubricants, double sets of spanners/sockets, and old toothbrushes for cleaning.
Consider whether your overall steering system has
sufficient redundancy and how it interacts with your autopilots, which can operate off various parts of the system. A more costly but good arrangement for longdistance or round the world voyaging is to have two separate and switchable linear drive systems to the quadrant so that one can take over immediately if the other fails.
Typically, a handful of boats each year report steering problems during the ARC. This can be quite dramatic. Depending on your autopilot set-up and the failure, the autopilot may be able to keep control of the steering. If not, then you need to use an emergency tiller. While it can be used to steer the boat they’re only intended for short-term use to hold the rudder steady as you carry out repairs, sparing your fingers or worse.
On one occasion while using an emergency tiller to steer mid-ocean, the roll of the boat sent me flying, tiller in hand, across the back of the cockpit. I quickly secured a lanyard to the tiller and would encourage a crew to attach a lanyard in advance.
See the column (right) for some examples of emergency tillers and how they have been adapted.
RUDDER DAMAGE
Collisions with underwater objects can cause serious rudder problems and are more common than being holed. Hitting sizeable flotsam and jetsam is the kind of thing that keeps sailors awake at night but it is actually a relatively rare occurrence — though on my last transatlantic, I encountered a floating fridge freezer.
Hitting marine mammals or sharks is more likely and there have been a couple of such incidents
resulting in rudder damage this Atlantic season already. If ever there were a case for investing in a Gopro to take a look rather than donning the snorkel and mask, this is it!
If a rudder does get damaged or lost, what are your options out on the ocean? A windvane self-steering system can double up as a spare rudder if you have one.
The easiest options are the drag methods of steering. These are going to get you back in control of the boat relatively quickly although with the penalty of reducing your speed. Streaming a drogue is ideal but even a coiled bunch of mooring warps can be effective.
Set a drogue up with a bridle on to your cockpit winches to move the line from side to side. For narrower beam boats you can extend the bridle outboard using a spinnaker pole laid athwartships across the cockpit.
The enemy here is chafe so move the wear points and inspect the drag device regularly, putting in extra turns or chafe protection where needed. The drag methods may buy you time to have a go at attempting to jury rig a rudder blade by affixing a board to a spinnaker pole or similar. In 2014 Ross Applebey did this on his Oyster Lightwave 48, Scarlet Oyster, during the Rolex Middle
Sea race but only managed to get control of the yacht in relatively calm conditions.
A jammed rudder is often talked about as the most psychologically challenging problem. Add in the oceanic swell and a constantly circling boat and it’s no wonder it is sometimes the cause of crews abandoning an otherwise sound boat. Balanced fin rudders rather than skeg-mounted rudders are more susceptible to impact damage, which can bend the stock or damage the bearings. Rudders can also jam up against the hull after a hard broach or impact and the steering stops or their mounting structure fails due to the high forces.
First, you must stop the boat circling; that will give everyone a huge boost. If you can get your boat to heave to, you should be able to balance the boat into submission. It may be necessary to use a drogue or the engine to help. With the boat stabilised you should be able to think more creatively to find a solution.
I have been towed a short distance with a jammed rudder and it was tricky but not impossible. One step to avoid this anguishing turn of events is to look carefully at both the stops and how they are mounted to the hull of the boat.
You may be able to use the emergency tiller or a lever attached to the rudder to winch the rudder free, if the stock is not badly bent. There have been occasions when crews have had to drop the rudder completely. This can be difficult but safely possible if rudder tube extends above the waterline.
‘The enemy is chafe, so move the wear points’
PESKY PROBLEMS
The risk of water and diesel contamination increases when sailing in warmer climates and while they can seem like comparatively small problems, the time and effort taken to fix them is definitely worth spending.
A water filtering system for tap water is a highly recommended addition for most bluewater cruisers. A run of coarse to fine reusable water purifiers, fitted in series to the hosepipe inlet should do the trick. Another thing I take these days is a supply of purifying tablets to chlorinate the water tanks should they start going green or become smelly. I’ve used these as a primary water purifier on a more self-sufficient Pacific crossing. We could pick up jerrycans of water from waterfalls and taps ashore and purify then on the run back to the anchorage in the dinghy.
Diesel bug can be a problem once leaving colder waters so I always carrying additives to combat this, and take extra filters – you can never go wrong with lots of filters.
STORMS AND SQUALLS
Among the idyllic days of balmy tradewinds sailing, there can occasionally be some tropical weather to keep sailors on their toes. Most feared are the tropical revolving storms (TRS), of which much attention is given in meteorology texts and reports.
But if you are sailing outside the hurricane or cyclone seasons you have a low likelihood of encountering a
TRS. Note, I say low… In 2005 I encountered two named tropical storms in the Atlantic at the end of November. But what is much more likely, indeed almost a certainty,
is encountering squalls. These are relatively small weather events, but they can leave a trail of destruction and ‘kitemares’ if not managed well.
Squalls bring you wind shifts, wind increases, wind decreases, rain, hail and everything in between. While I have found them a great source of extra breeze allowing faster progress when racing across the oceans and through the doldrums, when you are cruising they are really just an annoyance (unless you need a shower).
How much wind is inside the squall will depend on a few things. Rain coming from it will usually mean more wind and the height of the squall will also determine the likely increase in wind speed. One of the most useful strategies is to get to know the ‘height factor’ and use that to estimate the likely increase in wind. Once you have sailed cautiously through a few you will start to build a picture of what they are like.
The height factor is the number of times the sea-tocloud base height fits inside the cloud. Usually squalls of 1 or 2 on the scale will give only a slight increase/puff of wind. Squalls of 6 or more get my full attention! Squalls with rain are easily trackable with radar and the more you understand them the better prepared you will be.
LIGHTNING STRIKES
Sooner or later you will encounter lightning. It can strike in home waters as well as on bluewater routes. There is much debate about the best ways to protect your boat.
There is also evidence that catamarans are more prone to strikes than monohulls.
If lightning does reach your boat directly or indirectly through a nearby strike in the sea it’s likely to do serious damage. Admiral Yacht Insurance quotes the typical cost of a lightning damage claim at £35,000, and interestingly they have seen an increase in the frequency of claims over the last decade.
From personal and anecdotal evidence I feel it is definitely worth protecting your boat with solid lightning conductors to channel the lightning from the mast and rigging out through the keel. Lightning has been known to arc to metal through-hull fittings, causing skinning incidents. Lightning dissipators fitted to the masthead get mixed reviews, but they do bring me some comfort as I look up in the otherwise helpless situation of being in a lightning storm.
While on the Clipper Race, another yacht, Qingdao, was on the North Pacific crossing and lost all their electronic systems. They suspect the lightning strike came down the VHF wire, jumped across the AIS/ instrument wires into the navigation PC and the main panel. There was a bang and plenty of smoke, and the deck was scorched near the chainplates. They finished the remaining three-week race to San Francisco with only a handheld GPS and didn’t do badly in the race.
There has been much discussion about the use of the ship’s oven as a Faraday cage to protect electronic equipment in an electrical storm. Interestingly
Qingdao’s handheld GPS was in their grab bag and survived the strike, but if I had the time and forethought, I’d stash my spare electronics in the oven just in case.
POWER PROBLEMS
Power generation is a huge part of the planning for bluewater cruising. With so much kit on board there are likely to be problems. Indeed 5% of the fleet in the past two ARCS reported significant power and electrical equipment failures and nearly a third of the boats experience some sort of power or electrical problem.
Total power failure is not uncommon (again I have experienced this) and it can be precipitated by equipment malfunctions and failures as well as catastrophic issues such as lightning or fire. Much of onboard life demands power, from weather and comms to autopilots, freezers, watermakers, pumps and even some gas solenoids.
So how do you prepare for this? Most importantly, ensure you have enough water and a way of pumping it from tanks. As a guide, 300lt is a typical consumption for two people making a modest 20-day ocean crossing with enough water for drinking (4lt per person per day), washing (6lt/day, so a quick rinse shower), cooking and rinsing dishes (5lt/day). Consider additional supplies in case of slower progress or a tank leak.
If your satphone is built in to the boat, you may want to consider a smaller handheld option with more flexible charging options, such as an Iridium GO! I have also used small independent solar chargers – these can be a good option but not fast. Then, if the lights do go out, you can just relish the opportunity to experience sailing as it used to be, in the days of the pioneers.
NEXT MONTH
In Part 2 we look at rig failure and other common problems.