Social Sailing Sydney Harbour

[storm petrel]

G'day Bill,

Good to hear from you. I dried out the bilge totally this morning, left it 20 minutes and it stayed try. I am hoping it was the cockpit locker not being fully closed and/or watertight, because several times we had green water come over the side and into the cockpit when were beating down on Saturday. I am also getting water in up forward, but it only happens when I am beating into a sea and the bow is submerged regularly. I have been trying to track this leak down for a couple of years now. One of life's little mysteries?

Cheers,
Mark
Storm Petrel

[storm petrel]

Great pictures Keith! I enjoyed meeting you, having a yarn and looking over your lovely boat. David would have had a interesting sail back on Sunday into that south westerly with his patchwork head sail.

Cheers,
Mark

[Shaun]

Gday,
It was a shame i didnt make it to the CYC on the weekend, i was looking forward to the get-together & staying at the CYC(there will no doubt be other times in the future!), it was a good place to stay by all accounts & my phobia of getting into marina pens was unfounded on this occasion as it was a simple operation as they put us near the clubhouse.
I stuffed around too much on sat morning , underestimating how much longer it would take to prepare the boat on my own (Phil couldnt make it & i had removed some gear from the boat as i have it for sale), so i dropped the mooring almost 2 hours after i had planned to do so...rounded barrenjoey at midday & made it as far as about Newport, it became clear i wouldnt make the harbour in daylight so turned back to Broken Bay around 14:30.
The decision was sealed while as i was preparing to tack around, the mainsail split from leech to luff!. It was the original mainsail(i think), & the first time i had tried the main loose footed & most likely had it poorly trimmed, it was a solid breeze too.
In the video at about 3:40mins you can see the start of the tear in the leech at a batten pocket (didnt have the battens in!), seconds after i finished filming is when it tore completely.
Still had a fine weekend sailing around pittwater/hawkesbury/broken bay under the #1 genoa.

For YouTube video click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYcVgXo2w70

cheers
Shaun

[storm petrel]

Hi Shaun,

Great video. I love the sound of the wind in the microphone. I was surprised to see that you didn't have any waves coming over the bow. The seas must have increased and/or wind freshened later, because we had waves regularly washing over the for-deck when we were closer to Sydney. Perhaps the wind was heading us more later in the day. Have you had anyone interested in Nighcap yet?

Cheers,
Mark

[Miker]

Indeed a great video Shaun, shame you did some damage when she's for sale!

Was nice to catch up on VHF on Sunday Arvo, sorry we weren't able to stay out later and meet up. A Family gathering was looming.

Michael

[peppercorn]

Very pleased to meet such a nice bunch of people. Even met 3 generations of one family. I really enjoyed the weekend and look forward to the next event. I motored all the way home on sunday constantly banging into the sea. It was wet and pounding all the way but I made good time and was having a cuppa at jibbon at 2pm. The only time I stopped on the return trip was when a whale surfeced next to me and came in so close I could have patted it. During the 10 seconds it took to grab the camera from below it dissapeared, of cause, so youll just have to believe me. Thank you to the people who organised the weekend and also to those that came,or attempted to,for making such a good weekend.
Regards
David

[Shaun]

Hi ,
The sound of the wind is better than listening to my commentry!
anyone know how you can prevent the wind making too much noise on the video mic?
heres part 2, after i took down the main & was back in Broken Bay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLmHenNxHVU

Mark, I also had a cup or 2 of water in the bilge from beating into the wind, but i forgot to close the galley sink seacock didnt notice till i went below for something & saw the sink half full of water & occasionally spilling over into the stove area (as was over on std tack) & making its way to the bilge.
My deck was frequently wetted from spray but only awash maybe two or three times, NightCap would of been lighter in total & probably not pointing as high, maybe that was the difference too??
cheers
Shaun

[Miker]

Shaun, it depends on your camera, but in my JVC Everio HDD there is a function called "Wind Cut". It works OK, but doesn't take it all out. Check your options menu in the camera.

Michael

[storm petrel]

Hi Shaun,

Yes, Storm Petrel with its old twin cylinder diesel, 50 litres of fuel and my two crew members was probably 400kg heavier than Nightcap and would have been lower in the water. The superposition of reflected waves from the cliffs always seems to produce confused seas between Manly and North Head and this is the section where the wind was strongest and we got a lot of water over the boat. It was the same on the way back. The seas after North Head were horrible for a while and required lots of tiller input to keep the little boat on the straight and narrow.

My bilge has remained dry since the sail down, so I am assuming it was water flowing into a partially closed cockpit locker due to some over zealous sailing down the harbour.

Cheers,
Mark