C_H_2015_02_

10 Februar y 2015

letters

Taken down a notch
Dear CH Ed itor,
Just got the December edition in
the mailbox, read the first page (your
editorial) and you’ve got me blood
boiling already. Hope the rest of the
magazine is a lot better.
So you think that “every driver hates
(bicycle riders)”? You are so out of touch
with reality and your readership mate,
makes me think that CH is run by a
bunch of narrow-minded rednecks with
attitudes from decades ago.
Actually I suspect that the majority
of CH readers are both bicycle riders
and drivers. I certainly am, as are
most of the sailors I know. Your
magazine articles regularly feature
cruising sailors on their bikes in
faraway locations. Are these people
all hated? You’ve also been pushing the
environmental cause with your GBR
stories - do you think the people you’re
appealing to here all hate bicycle riders?
I buy CH because I appreciate the
advice from people I admire who are
living their cruising dream the way they
want to. One of the reasons they ‘get

away’ is to escape the dickhead redneck

attitudes like the one you’ve chosen to

express in your ‘editorial’. You should

editorialise about cruising sailing,

not your pathetic last-century redneck

ideas. Either reflect today’s society or

find something else to do.

Steve Davies

Service is the AMSA

Last December, my wife and I took our

Seawind 1000 to Tasmania for a few

months. The usual weather prevailed,

with there being at least one strong

wind warning every day.

On the 28th of December, as we were

approaching Cape Raoul in 30 knots of

breeze, the mobile phone rang. It was

AMSA, asking if we were in distress.

I replied that, while we were not

“comfortable”, I would not call it distress.

They said our EPIRB had gone off, and

they had us within 10mile of Storm Bay.

As I have three EPIRBS, I asked for the

hex ID and it turned out to be the EPIRB

that I keep in the dinghy, along with

spare VHF etc.

I looked over the davits, and the EPIRB

had popped its bracket and obviously

turned itself on. I pulled it off the floor

with the boathook, turned it off again

and went back to the phone.

Problem solved!

If AMSA did not have my correct

details, contacts, etc, it would have

resulted in a helicopter search, phone

calls to relatives etc. We were very

impressed with the speed and efficiency

of the service.

All credit to AMSA for a bloody good

system! Makes us that little bit calmer

when in bad conditions to know that the

whole lot works so well.

http://www.mysailing.com.au

Hi Phil,

The figures quoted by Roland

Schmidmaier in the article ‘Rope

versus steel’ are incorrect by an

order of magnitude.

The Seldon mast tuning manual

states that 1 x 19 stainless wire

stretches three millimetre over two

metres with a load of 15 per cent of

the breaking load. Therefore over 18

metres at 35% of breaking strain the

extension would be 3 x 35/15 x 9mm;

i.e. 63mm.

The article says the stretch is .01mm

which is out by 63/.01=6300.

According to the article SK75 12mm

stretch at 35% is 126mm over 18

metre. This means that SK75 stretches

126/63 i.e. two times the 1 x 19 wire. It

still stretches more than the wire but

nothing like the difference quoted in

the article.

Assuming the stretch in the SK75 is

proportional to the cross section area

a diameter of 17mm would result in

the same stretch as the wire.

Cheers,

Jim Holroyd

LETTER OF THE MONTH

Rope versus steel clarification

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