Yachting

EXPERT OFFSHORE

MAY 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 21

N

o matter how much time

is spent thinking and

preparing, there are always

things left undone. Richard

Anthony, who took up sailing five

years ago, gave himself three

weeks in Las Palmas to prepare

Why Not, but the day before the

start his three daughters came

over for a surprise visit. ‘It was

brilliant! It blew me away, but

it cost me a lot of time and I

couldn’t do those last little jobs,’

said Richard. He ordered a new

staysail in Valencia eight weeks

before setting off for Las Palmas,

and it was finally delivered the

day before they left. ‘They don’t

realise how much stress they are

giving the owner,’ he lamented.

‘But we’re here in St Lucia and we

learned a lot on our way across

• especially what to do when a

‘Check and

maintain

regularly’

M

any crews mentioned Jerry

The Rigger’s ‘three-minute

rig check’, looking at the

gooseneck, shrouds, split pins,

inspecting lines for chafe and

looking for loose screws.

‘Jerry’s three-minute check

took about 12 minutes, but

it helped us spot potential

problems,’ said Alex on

Pantalaimon II, who sailed two-

handed with wife Anna.

Some crews did it once a day,

others at every change of watch.

It paid off. Jonathan Paull on the

Island Packet 440 Seraphina of

Chichester noticed screws had

popped out of the gooseneck:

‘We tightened the remaining

screws and lashed it, just in case.’

On the Ovni 445 Nomad,

skipper Slawomir Szluc had to

go up the mast seven times after

bolts securing the spinnaker

block tore out, and he couldn’t

re-tap the holes to attach a new

fitting. ‘Instead I attached a block

with a Dyneema strop lashed

first to the mast steps either side

of the mast, then to the shroud

terminals when the steps broke.

The mast steps are set up for

working at the top of the mast

though, so I had nothing to stand

on – something I’ll sort out soon.’

Rolling downwind, chafe

accelerates rapidly. Many boats

taped pipe insulation to the

trailing edge of their spreaders

to protect their mainsails against

chafe. Jane Isaacs, aboard the

Bénéteau 473 Orion, found sheets

would last only five to six days:

‘Even a line running through

something smooth, which hasn’t

chafed a line all season, can

chafe through in days.’

mainsheet traveller explodes.’

Slawomir Szulc, 40-year-old

owner of the Ovni 445 Nomad,

did much of his preparation

before his boat was even built. He

spent three years choosing and

specifying her. ‘I must have been

the worst customer,’ he laughed.

She wasn’t commissioned until

August 2015. After buying all

his food in the UK, he sailed on

22 September for Lisbon via La

Coruña, and topped up with fuel

and water in Las Palmas.

Despite the short sea trials,

everything on board worked.

Looking at her in Rodney Bay,

you’d never guess she’s just

crossed the Atlantic. Only the

padded spreaders, a lashed repair

to a spinnaker halyard block and

the ARC 2015 flag flying high

above deck gave the game away.

‘Meticulous

preparation is key’

Sailing into the sunset

bound for the other

side of an ocean is a

rite of passage. You’ll

learn a lot about sailing

and a lot about yourself

Photo: Graham-Snook.com

Photo: Graham-Snook.com Photo: Graham-Snook.com

Photo: Graham-Snook.com

While conducting a rig check, Seraphina’s

skipper found screws missing at the gooseneck

Alex Mayor, 54,

sailed across on

Pantalaimon II,

a Rustler 42

Richard Anthony,

64 , crossed on Why

Not, a Jeanneau

Sun Odyssey 45.2

Two days in, Why not’s

traveller smashed off the

end off its track. Richard

fixed it using hose clips