Where did you go on your sailing boat today?

Good question. I've been soloing a bit lately, and what works for me won't suit all but I:
raise my main with loose sheets, start motor and set auto helm into wind. Generally boat will gain on anchor until I gather up. Under motor i then choose the safest tack and then slowly sheet in. I normally only keep the engine revs to resist windage.
Caveat is I've never done this in strong winds 25+

We had a passage race yesterday with the club, the course was due East out from behind Green Island, then a beat South to round Peel Island East to West then home.
The start line was inside the islands close to the Manly leads, too close in hindsight, as a few of us ran aground no more than 100mtrs behind the startline. Ouch. So, it left the bigger boats with a pretty narrow lane reaching into the start boat, before gybing over on the gun to cross the start line, pretty hectic, but everyone got away clean..




The forecast was for a sustained 20-22 knots SE which turned out to a veritable mixed bag of 5-30+knots, SE to SW. The conditions for the close hauled work down to Peel were pretty light, so the fleet was bunched nicely as we entered the narrow channel between Peel Island and North Stradbroke, Then, as always seems to be the case when sailing, Mother nature saw the fleet of 12 odd boats all nicely converged and threw an almighty tanty. A proper "let's toss the Baby out of the cot with the toys" level dummy spit.
Depending upon which boat your were on and the position, it blew up from 10 to a good 30-40 knots on the nose (some claimed higher at the bar later on funnily enough!), pelting rain sending the whole fleet tacking blindly between lee shores under full sails, with tacks no longer than a minute before you ran out of water. We probably saw a max of 30 knots true, and under a full main and headsail the boat was still manageable and not pinned thankfully, as we worked our way through the channel.
4 of us ran aground that I know of, with two hard aground till the incoming tide lifted them off. These 2 retired, but thankfully with no damage to boats or the crew. I think the worst injury was a big egg on the forehead from one of the ladies from headbutting the front of the cockpit when they hit.
Then, to rub salt into the wound, as soon as we got round the corner to crack sheets and hoist kites, the wind died off to a placid 10 odd knots for a 160twa leg home! Arrgh! I think the crew were happy for a bit of a break though after a pretty intense workout.


I cant complain through, with a mile to go after turning the corner for an easy 120twa run to the finish, the wind picked up to low 20's and we sat on 12-14knots passing boats to windward and leeward to finish out a most challenging race! Thanks to the volunteers and the race committee, a good training run for the big one at the end of the month.
Good times.

Gday BB,
Yep, it's not too bad in the right conditions, or if we got to go the opposite direction! But going clockwise was a good workout at least. As we came around the Northern end of the island it was a mild 10knots

The x's show the approximate location of some of the groundings.
It wasn't until we got through the channel and into the clear water to the south did the wind drop below 20.....grrrr.

Now this would be a good one for that course. Start at 1700/1800 hrs. , no electronics including mobile . Depth, log ,wind , chart ,compasses and vhf allowed only.

G'day Donk,
Kettering to Cygnet, that looks like a decent haul!
How long is the race?
It looks like a good 50-60nm?

Edit: I thought you were kidding about Eggs and Bacon bay when you mentioned it to Bristolfashion, but bugger me, there it is.

Yesterday we foresook a nice day out on the water for a safety training day. For the first 3 hours, we stayed at the dock and using the Cat 2 audit form as a guide we took the crew over the boat working from front to back.
We broke this down into sections such as;
a) Water; seacocks, bilge bump location and operation, toilets,
b) Energy; engine access, warning tell tales, fire extinguisher access, fuel management systems, gas management systems, isolation valves, stove/oven operation and inbuilt safety features
c) Electrical; isolation switches, circuit breakers, lighting, emergency lighting, portable lighting. high load circuit locations , battery locations
d) Communication. VHF operation and calling procedures, DSC operation, Sat phone, EPIRB and PLB including AIS operation and testing, and explaining what systems used what networks, ie: Satellite or VHF and the difference in SAR response.
e) Personal; how to properly wear a PFD and operation, tethers, knives, jacklines, movement around the boat, watches, impairness from fatigue, cold, the order of steps in an emergency.
f) Boat safety: Liferaft deployment and operation and equipment, Dan buoys, life rings, V sheets, boat identification, flare location, types and use, Fire procedures, fire blankets, extinguishers, keel operation and manual backup procedures.

I tend to forget the complexity involved in doing all this properly, there's a lot to it. So, we tried breaking it up and making it as interactive as possible, we stopped regularly and brain-stormed worst case scenarios. It;s easy to find the gas isolation valve sitting at the dock, now what about if the boat is inverted? It's pitch black, the cabin is half full of water, now can you do it? What about emergency lighting? Where is the battery isolation switch? Can we get to and successfully deploy the liferaft?
We talked about Finistere, CR, Rambler and the speed of which things can go wrong. and what we've learnt from those incidents and some of the crew that have been in these situations shared their experiences. It really struck home with the newer crew the seriousness of the situation, and why safety should not be treated as merely a tick box in order to go offshore sailing.

A quick break for lunch, then we headed out to do the sailing component. For the next 5 hours, we practiced heaving to, heaving to without a headsail, MOB retrieval to windward, MoB retrieval downwind under full kite, lassoing, retrieval over the transom, reefing, shaking out reefs, rotated crew into positions they normally wouldn't man, we worked them hard.
For anyone that is interested, the RYA method of Mob retrieval is first class. It's simple, repeatable and full of common sense, and easy to get your head around and understand. It's the simple things that make it brilliant, you crash tack the boat leaving the jib sheeted on the (now)) wrong side,dont touch the main, and in most conditions it can be done with a single person on deck not even leaving the helm. You don't need to touch your sail plan at all before you're heading back to the Mob, giving crew downstairs time to get on deck and prep for the recovery. It's so logical, yet I believe unless you've been trained in it, you might not work it out naturally, at least I never did.

We got in just before dusk, tired both physically and mentally, but the crew were bouncing. I swear they all grew an extra inch. I mentally castigated myself for not doing this more often, not only did they learn some fundamental skills, the level of enthusiasm, confidence and the gelling together as a team are intangibles that , in my humble opinion, are just as valuable as the skills they learnt. You could see they knew they had taken fundamental steps in becoming better sailors, and it was evident in their smiles, enthusiasm and engagement, even on the way home sharing a few beers and going over the day.
Good times. 12 sleeps to Gladstone, another tick box on the to do list....check!

PS: Wahoo! I got my new wheels at last! One of the crew Kris trying them out and helming for her first time, talk about the proverbial chesire cat :)

Two dogs,
what is that in the water? Looks like a bunch of souls having a toolbox meeting!

Line reef magic again, beautiful part of the world