Hi!
My boyfriend and I recently bought a capercat and are looking for some insight, recommendations, tips, basically any knowledge about whether sailing from Ulladulla (three hours south of Sydney) to North Queensland would be feasible/possible.
We bought the capercat 5 months ago, and go sailing once or twice a week in a lake.
Neither of us had any prior sailing experience but I think that we have picked it up pretty well and have done a lot of research.
We've bought a radio and epirb, and have life jackets. Is there any other important safety precautions you'd recommend?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
I think they are telling you it's possible if your a seasoned yachtsman with a thorough knowledge of how to plan the trip and ability to read weather maps ,tides,winds and currents for the time of year you hope to do the trip. You might get 50 mls if the weather is kind.
Select to expand quoteElbeaucapercat said..
Hi!
My boyfriend and I recently bought a capercat and are looking for some insight, recommendations, tips, basically any knowledge about whether sailing from Ulladulla (three hours south of Sydney) to North Queensland would be feasible/possible.
Thanks!
YES YES YES.
Don't listen to the wet blankets.
Some of the best coastal cruising i ever did as a young bloke was aboard my H16.
The Caper Cat with its storage will be a far better choice.
Pack light.
Plan your daysails and check your weather.
Remember this coast has already been cruised by windsurfers and surfcats. In fact a surfcat that I know of transited all the way to Darwin with Day Sails. Camping on beaches along the way.
GO FOR IT.
I have met a couple of adventurers doing this trip before you. It is highly doable. The crew i met were also on a 14' cat. I had them over for dinner and beers on my boat in ballina. They got all the way to the whitsundays. I would recommend a small outboard to assist getting in through coastal bars. Being constantly wet is the biggest hurdle. Good wetsuits, drybags a light tent and sleeping bags, some requsit safety gear, a keen eye on weather and enjoy. You will meet amazing people and have a great adventure no matter how far you get.
Been done a few times, including as a promotional trip back by the dealers back in the late 1970s
I bought one of those for a carton of beer a while back. I left it down at Freshwater bay where all the tender dinghies are.
It was cool to just drag it out and cruise around the Swan when I felt like it. They're good little boats.
I reckon you should do the journey. Do a bit of research first and have a good adventure.
Well Elbeaucapercat
You have certainly started a bit of a discussion here with a variety of comments.
Of course I will add my bit
looking for some insight,
You are beginners and have to start at the beginning.
You will be amazed at how much there is to learn about sailing and boats,seamanship and navigation in general.
If you like learning , that's a start.
You can learn by yourself and sailing on the lake is a good start, but someone with experience can make the learning faster and more stress free.
sailing from Ulladulla (three hours south of Sydney) to North Queensland would be feasible/possible.
Yes it is feasible and possible.
Neither of us had any prior sailing experience but I think that we have picked it up pretty well and have done a lot of research.
The unexpected or the thing that you have never experienced will either do you in or teach you a lesson.
You will get this experience as you go. If you stay in your homeground for ever you will never gain the experience to go further.
Many sailors start very young and by the time they have enough money to actually sail away, they have years of experience under their belts.
I jumped from a 14 foot surfcat to a 32 foot sailboat and took off.
We've bought a radio and epirb, and have life jackets. Is there any other important safety precautions you'd recommend?
It is good to see that you are thinking about safety from the start and are wilingl to spend the money.
I am sure that you don't ever want to use that equipment, so attention to weather, sea conditions, route planning that gives you options, (i,e, not trying to enter a port under the worst conditions) and 100 other things is essential.
I am sure you have dredged the web for youtubes, but this is the man. Simon Carter. He has my respect.
Watch, pay attention and learn.
Great adventure, though I think something like a windrush 600 might be much more enjoyable.
Select to expand quotegarymalmgren said..
That link didn't work so I will try again
gary
Great video Gary.
Reefing head sails are the way to go for a cruising yacht i.e . not furlers.
I believe you should have been wearing a life jacket in those conditions.
users.tpg.com.au/kkmiller/jessemartin/jesse_martin1.html
Dont know if this is what inspired you or not but this a good read. Same boat. 1000km trip up the east coast.
Select to expand quotecisco said..garymalmgren said..
That link didn't work so I will try again
gary
Great video Gary.
Reefing head sails are the way to go for a cruising yacht i.e . not furlers.
I believe you should have been wearing a life jacket in those conditions.
I thought it was a good demonstration of the many advantages of a furler. If he had a furler we would not had to see the bum crack!
Hi Cisco
That is not me or my bumcrack (spell checker had trouble with that one),
No life jacket.
If you go through Simon's videos I think you will see his philosophy is "Stay on the boat".
He is by no means a risk taker.
He sails solo so if he goes over the jacket will keep him alive until he dies. (My opinion, not his)
Reefing foresail.
Funny how that brought out two opposed opinions.
I didn't have roller furling years ago so I had a deep reef in the genoa.
It was very easy to use and meant I could usually get away without a sail change.
My jib was a high cut "yankee".
So the reef in the Genoa gave an easy to use extra sail for about $200. Great value.
Now I have a furling headsail.
It will be coming off next week for maintenance.
A well maintained roller furling sail is also great.
So in my opinion, if you don't have a furler, add reef points to your genoa.
If you do have a furler, maintain it.
gary
Select to expand quotelydia said..
Been done a few times, including as a promotional trip back by the dealers back in the late 1970s
I remember a feature article in one of the big sailing mags about it.
Perfectly doable, take spares i can imagine therell be plenty of areas where getting spares wont be possible. But if you hug the coast and dont do anything silly like sailing in 30+ knots, it'd be a great trip i reckon.
Select to expand quotecisco said..
Post us a pic of you in a very skimpy bikini and you will be sure to draw assessments of what your physical capabilities may be from the forum members. We haven't had much "eye candy" for a while.
this kind of comment really detracts from the forum. is it the rum talking, or is this how you generally view and relate to women in everyday life?
Select to expand quotefishmonkey said..cisco said..
Post us a pic of you in a very skimpy bikini and you will be sure to draw assessments of what your physical capabilities may be from the forum members. We haven't had much "eye candy" for a while.
this kind of comment really detracts from the forum. is it the rum talking, or is this how you generally view and relate to women in everyday life?
Being ex-Navy Cisco was just looking at the engineering aspects of her form, after all at sea you need
a robust boat and a robust crew. I'm sure he's just thinking of the mechanics of the body in relation
to the toil it will be subject to.
I call troll.
Anytime an OP posts once , is their first post to a forum, ensures they post "no sailing experience" and then does not respond to a wealth of well intentioned advice, it screams of a juvenile mindset to me.
Select to expand quoteshaggybaxter said..
I call troll.
Anytime an OP posts once , is their first post to a forum, ensures they post "no sailing experience" and then does not respond to a wealth of well intentioned advice, it screams of a juvenile mindset to me.
Pffft, let them have some fun.
Don't worry about all the safety Nazis here and enjoy your adventure.
I'm sure cisco and shaggybaxter never said **** it and did anything fun when they were young, and look at them now. being so diligent at the keyboard and dishing out advice because they know better.
"wealth of well intentioned advice" Ohhh please?! It's an internet forum. All you're ever gonna get is opinions.
You are in your usual fine form hoop. Making assumptions and passing judgement on people whom you know nothing about.
Select to expand quotehoop said..shaggybaxter said..
I call troll.
Anytime an OP posts once , is their first post to a forum, ensures they post "no sailing experience" and then does not respond to a wealth of well intentioned advice, it screams of a juvenile mindset to me.
Pffft, let them have some fun.
Don't worry about all the safety Nazis here and enjoy your adventure.
I'm sure cisco and shaggybaxter never said **** it and did anything fun when they were young, and look at them now. being so diligent at the keyboard and dishing out advice because they know better.
"wealth of well intentioned advice" Ohhh please?! It's an internet forum. All you're ever gonna get is opinions.
??
Find a pea in your bed petal?
Apart from what's mentioned I would recommend you check your cat and it's rig for structural integrity. These beach cats are not designed to take an ocean pounding and as it's already second hand check every aluminium beam and bolt that holds the hulls together (dismantle) for electrolysis corrosion and stress cracks, add some anti corrosive paste to these areas. Reinforce or replace where necessary. Also make sure bolt heads and nuts on the above have backing plates to spread the loads on hull and beams. Do likewise to all mast and boom fittings. This is good exercise before leaving as I'm sure you'll have lots of maintenance issues on such a trek. Do lots of practice in the surf, with you and your partner plus all your gear, you'll find the boat's performance severely limited, eg freeboard, nosediving, integrity of buoyancy in hulls and damage to electrics.
I would recommend ... use this boat for training then save up and buy a bigger cat eg. Seawind 24. In the 80's I did a similar trip in a Seawind 24 and went on to PNG and the Solomons and returned. I built the boat from scratch laying up the fibreglass etc and building the rig. Even so on the return trip the forward aluminium beam cracked 8nm off South West Rocks NSW. What I'm trying to say is you'll need to rebuild or check every inch of this cat before you take it offshore and possibly reinforce every part of it. Gain knowledge of and confidence in the structure your sailing in first. Good luck.
The beach cat concept has a number of advantages over a traditional keel yacht for coastal cruising including the ability to be dragged up any beach (assuming you are strong enpugh) and sit out bad weather. I would assume the trip would be a series of day trips.
However the trip requires very careful planning regarding weather as anything more than 20 knots will make it difficult to handle leading to capsize and potential disaster. So think about that.
One thing you might want to check is where you would stay during stops. You cant just camp on the beach in moat places so you would need to locate camping areas accessible by Caper cat in each town.
My experience is related to the NSW sth coast on my small trailable yacht. It also cant deal with storms at sea, cant be dragged up the beach but does have its own accomodation.
SR
Well elbeaucapercat has certainly got the discussion going without bothering to contribute so I googled elbeaucapercat.
There are three odd pages in google to various Seabreeze forums/ articles by elbeaucapercat , mostly Dorothy Dixers since late last year
Select to expand quotegarymalmgren said..
That link didn't work so I will try again
gary
I have to say, if he was working bow on my boat I'd quietly ask him to keep a firmer grip and/or sit down when working gear on the foredeck....actually maybe not that quietly. I always wear a harness singlehanding in such situations; it's not to drag you alongside (although I can get back aboard) but to stop you going over the side.
Look at Volvo, Hobart and TP52 vids and you see bowmen moving quickly but holding on much of the time, and being very well balanced almost all of the time. Being a good offshore bowman is a specialty skill just like being a good windsurfer or a good skiff sailor, and having sailed with Volvo and AC guys I'd have to say they normally work in a much safer manner than in the vid.
Select to expand quotehoop said..shaggybaxter said..
I call troll.
Anytime an OP posts once , is their first post to a forum, ensures they post "no sailing experience" and then does not respond to a wealth of well intentioned advice, it screams of a juvenile mindset to me.
Pffft, let them have some fun.
Don't worry about all the safety Nazis here and enjoy your adventure.
I'm sure cisco and shaggybaxter never said **** it and did anything fun when they were young, and look at them now. being so diligent at the keyboard and dishing out advice because they know better.
"wealth of well intentioned advice" Ohhh please?! It's an internet forum. All you're ever gonna get is opinions.
How many people do you know who have died on small cats or offshore? I've known several - most of them champions or winners of major ocean races.
As Robgreg says, you can get things like beam failure in older beach cats, or beam bolt failure. Two of us here on this forum were on a Hobie 16 when the windward float (yep, the windward one) fell off halfway across a large lake in a howling winter westerly. We were lucky, but an inexperienced pair offshore may not be.
Sure, go out and have adventures. I'm sure several of us here may well have had more than you have. But don't ignore the risks, and how high they can be if you're inexperienced. Take it from me, searching for people you know who have vanished offshore gets old really quickly, especially when you gradually realise that by now all you are looking for is their bodies.
I think sailing up the coast in a Caper cat is an unnecessary risk in relation to the amount of fun you will have. It certainly can be done if you pick your days but you will probably find you will get board of it all in a matter of time. Especially with having no where to hide from the sun (or rain) day in and day out. Constantly being wet, and if in the case of a capsize ..and you will capsize as the Capers are known for digging the nose in like the Hobie 14 and 16's trying to right the cat back up especially with the hulls full of gear in a heavy swell and a stiff breeze. Make sure you both tether yourselves to the cat as it can be frightening how quick the cat will want to catch a breeze with the trampoline acting as a sail when the boat is on its side in the water and you too are in the water trying to swim towards it with a life jacket on and wet weather gear. Not a nice feeling trust me!No doubt the cat will be at least a 30 year old so it goes without saying to triple check the boats sailing integrity. Especially where the beams connect to the hull and how dry the hulls will stay internally. You didn't mention if its the 14 or the very rare 18 foot Caper cat you intend to sail up the coast? This would also make a big difference in the trip such as stability and speed and sitting higher above the waves.
I would be far more tempted to trailer the boat up north and do island hopping around the many sheltered Island's in the Whitsundays.
Hope i have been some help like the other posts on here.
I think this would be the end of the discussion as you haven't yourself contributed to the comments suggested.
