World Circumnavigation in "Possibilities"

[Shaun]

From: Ian579 (Original Message) Sent: 3/30/2008 11:32 PM
Jamie Mitchell in the Top Hat "Possibilities" has rounded Cape Horn and is now heading north up the Chilean Channels. Jamie departed Sydney in 1999, sailed across the Bight to WA, then to Africa, rounded Aghulas and on to Brazil. He sailed in the Caribbean and to Portugal before heading back to Brazil and then south. He has done long passages alone but prefers crew.
Possibilities has a Mark 1 deck and interior arrangement and has an outboard. The wind vane steering is a modified QME with lines direct from the horizontal axis vane to the tiller.




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From: nswsailor Sent: 3/31/2008 10:31 PM
Ian, (I think?)

This is the first news of this, can you give us information on where you found this out, as I am sure that there are a few 'round the world' sailors hiding in this group!

Your post seems to indicate that there are photos out there somewhere, is this true?

I, and others, will be looking forward to any extra information you can post.

Phillip
SEAKA

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Recommend Message 3 of 19 in Discussion

From: Ian579 Sent: 4/1/2008 12:58 AM
Peter,

Jamie Mitchell is my son.

A Cruising Helmsman "My Boat" article by him is at the fifth link on this site.

The is no other published information, apart from a couple of very short newspaper reports and a 2 minute TV interview done in Ushuia and aired recently on Channel 5 TVS Sydney on Friday 28th March 2008.

Ian Mitchell

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Recommend Message 4 of 19 in Discussion

From: peter12381 Sent: 4/1/2008 2:31 PM
Dear Ian

That is spectacular news! The Top Hat voyages of your family, as recounted in the magazine articles that Cyril posted on this site, have been inspirational. Certainly, they played a part in my decision to buy one of these seaworthy little yachts a year ago.

I read a great book a while back about a rounding of Cape Horn ("My old man and the sea" by David and Daniel Hays). They sailed a 25' Vertue from west to east in the 1980s, and thought it was one of the smallest yachts to have made the passage at that time. Their boat was from memory about twice the displacement of the Top Hat and they did it the easy way with the weather behind them.

Please do send James warm regards and congratulations from the users of this site. If there are any more details availalble of his voyage, I'm sure everyone would be fascinated to hear about it.

Best wishes

Peter
Dragonfly



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Recommend (1 recommendation so far) Message 5 of 19 in Discussion

From: nswsailor Sent: 4/2/2008 4:15 AM
Dear Ian,

As Peter said great news and I can only endorse his comments.

Bit of forward planning needed here, suggest we get together in our Top Hats to greet Jamie whenever he makes it back to Aussie. Any comments?

Ian, looking forward to more progress reports.

Phillip
SEAKA



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Recommend Message 6 of 19 in Discussion

From: nswsailor Sent: 4/3/2008 3:09 PM
Ian,

I went looking for that article of Jamie's and have reposted it here so it's easier for everybody to get at.

Phillip
SEAKA

Jamie2.jpg Jamie1.jpg


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Recommend Message 7 of 19 in Discussion

From: TalesS435 Sent: 4/12/2008 10:58 PM
Thank you Ian and bravo Jamie!
Any chance one of our web literate members can obtain the interview from Channel 5 and place it on this site?
Tom

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Recommend Message 8 of 19 in Discussion

From: Ian579 Sent: 4/13/2008 8:48 PM
Jamie intends sailing across the Pacific and arriving in Sydney in December this year.
I have just discovered that the TV interview with Jamie in Ushuia is on www.onthewater.com.au, click 2000Segments, click Round The World Top Hat 25. Well, it purports to be there, but I cannot actually run it, probably because I have no broadband.

Ian

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Recommend Message 9 of 19 in Discussion

From: Storm_Petrel_ Sent: 4/14/2008 7:12 PM
How do you get to the 2000segments from the web site I can only see 2006/7 and 2008 on the home page?

Mark

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Recommend Message 10 of 19 in Discussion

From: Keitherson Sent: 4/14/2008 9:51 PM
It's actually in 2008 not 2000. It can be found here: http://www.onthewater.com.au/Series08.aspx. Scroll down to show one.


Unfortunately for anyone with an Apple computer it appears that the video will only play on Windows. Attempts to open it on a Mac will produce the error message: “...... has content of MIME type “application/x-ms-wmp”. Because you don’t have a plug-in installed for this MIME type, this content can’t be displayed"


Apparently "application/x -ms" is crapy Microsoft DMR (Digital Rights Management software ) to prevent copying.


Keith

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From: Storm_Petrel_


How do you get to the 2000segments from the web site I can only see 2006/7 and 2008 on the home page?

Mark


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Recommend Message 11 of 19 in Discussion

From: BigLofty4 Sent: 4/15/2008 3:26 AM
Hello Ian,
I hope that you and Jan are well - I see that Jamie certainly is. I have broadband, and I cannot play the video either, I've tried various browsers: Explorer, FireFox; Safari. None of them work. I was hoping to be able to put a link to the site so that members could access the video easily, but not when it will not work as it should. I'll keep trying, and any suggestions from members would be appreciated.

Cheers
Cyril

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Recommend Message 12 of 19 in Discussion

From: BigLofty4 Sent: 4/15/2008 3:36 PM
Hello All,
I contacted Lex, the webmaster of OnTheWater, and he has kindly fixed the video link on the site - http://www.onthewater.com.au/Series08.aspx. I got it working with Firefox on my PC, but not with Safari on a Mac. It might work on Macs with Windows Media Player. I'll post the link on the Links page too. Anyway, there are some nice shots of Possibilities under sail and that daring young Jamie and his crew.

Enjoy
Cyril

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Recommend Message 13 of 19 in Discussion

From: Karl010203 Sent: 4/15/2008 3:48 PM
Inspiring stuff !!

It will be great to learn more of the adventure when he gets back to Australia...



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Recommend Message 14 of 19 in Discussion

From: Storm_Petrel_ Sent: 4/15/2008 10:44 PM

Brilliant segment. After watching it my 21 year old son said, "come on dad, lets go!!"

Mark



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Recommend Message 15 of 19 in Discussion

From: Rob Sent: 4/16/2008 4:10 AM

What a great interview! I couldn't get the video to run in Firefox, but IE did with no problems. To see footage of Possibilities rounding the Cape will be something to look forward to.

Cheers to all
Rob (Isabella II Pittwater)

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Recommend Message 16 of 19 in Discussion

From: Ian579 Sent: 8/14/2008 12:56 AM
Possibilities is three days out of Pitcain, probably heading for one of the lower Tuamoto atolls. Possibilities cleared from Valparasio with 3 POB and reached Rapa Nui (Easter Island) about 30 days later. Jamie tried to get to Juan Fernandez but the weather was not favourable. They had a look at San Felix and San Ambrosio.

Ian

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Recommend Message 17 of 19 in Discussion

From: nswsailor Sent: 8/15/2008 3:27 AM
Ian,

Many thanks for the update on Jamie.
Please keep the reports coming as we are interested in his progress!

Phillip
SEAKA

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Recommend Message 18 of 19 in Discussion

From: Ian579 Sent: 10/26/2008 4:37 PM
On 25th October "Possibilities" was in Tonga. Jamie intends to head south to Opua, then Lord Howe and on to Sydney. He aims to be in Sydney by Xmas.

Ian

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Recommend Message 19 of 19 in Discussion

From: nswsailor Sent: 10/26/2008 10:06 PM
Thanks Ian,

Please keep us informed, with the changes to this site
I would hate to miss his arrival.

Phillip
SEAKA

[Ian579]

There is some info and a photo at mysailing.com.au/news

Ian

[admin]

April's cruising helmsman has a two page story on Jamie's trip.

[Marinka]

Ian, was interesting to read about your circumnavigation and also Jamie's. If it was not too intrusive I would be interested to know some of your history following your voyage. I would also like to find out more about the QME steering on Jamie's boat as I am toying with ideas for self steering on Marinka. I had an Alberg 30 - a great boat - briefly that had a monitor windvane and have also used a fleming. I like the look of the Cape Horn, but all are expensive and I am toying with the idea of building my own. I however will be bound to coastal cruising for the next few years which I enjoy but also think about going to my wife's country - Canada and buying and sailing a boat there or in the US and sailing her back. Anyway, hope to hear from you, Cheers Peter (email phurrey@tpg.com.au; phone 0429705067)

[Ianm]

Hi Peter,
Sorry for such a slow response. I simply have not been keeping an eye on this website. Does six months cruising in NZ this year qualify as an excuse?

Very briefly:
Jan and I have owned 4 yachts since returning to Australia in "Caprice". Area cruised bounded by Tasmania, Lizard Island, NZ and New Caledonia.
The QME horizontal axis wind vane is very low tech and easy to copy. I do not think that it has been produced since about 1985. We used the standard product on Caprice until reaching South Africa, where I made an fitted a balanced auxillary rudder and took the QME controll lines to the short tiller of the auxillary rudder. The main rudder was tied more or less amidships, with some bias to balance out weather helm. This combination worked very well, roughly on par with how well our Aries controls our current yacht, "Osprey-A", a Brolga 33.

Possibillities has an outboard, which makes fitting an auxillary rudder, or rudders, difficult. Possibilities has a modified QME. This involved cutting off the top half of the plywood vane, glassing an aluminium tube frame to the remaining plywood and pulling a sailcloth sock over the frame. The frame extended twice the length of the plywood removed. It is certainly does not work as well as the set-up on Caprice, but anything beats hand steering. It was Jamie's only "crew" to cross the Great Australian Bight and an E-W Atlantic crossing. Last Saturday I sailed "Possibilities" from Sydney Harbour to Lake Macquarie. It was about 30kts Westerly for most of the way, and the wind vane did the steering 90% of the time. It took us 9.5 hours for the 50nm, with the max speed of 5.5kts. This is not particularly fast average, partly because there is a lot of stuff on board, partly because we slowed her down to allow the windvane to cope. Most of the trip was done under about 2 sqm headsail.

I am not studied "Cape Horn" pendulum servo in detail. My first impression was that it was remarkably like one that Nick Franklin (designer and maker of the "Aries") experimented with, and discarded. The problem was that the pendulum could come out of the water, and stay out of the water, in heavy seas. It is not clear to me, after a quick glance at the website, how robust the arrangement of the "Cape Horn" is in this regard.

Ian

[Ianm]

Whoops! That should have been 11.5 hours, not 9.5 hours, for 50nm.