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