Yachting_Monthly_2016-01

PHOTO: GRAHAM SNOOK/YM

Tom Cunliffe has sailed tens of thousands of miles all over the world and has been a Yachtmaster Examiner since 1978

36 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com JANUARY 2016

I’m not wagging the fi nger here, because I’m sure no would knowingly YM reader

commit the sort of howler of a light combination that brings us all into

disrepute. It’s easy to make an honest mistake, however. I once crossed and

re-crossed a busy harbour at midnight with no illumination at all following a

misunderstanding. I couldn’t work out why tugboats kept trying to run me down until my mate went to

switch off the lights on arrival, only to fi nd they had never been switched on. The classic horror is to fi re up

the lower lights without dousing the tricolour. From the port bow this makes you a pot boat. From

PHOTOS: TOM CUNLIFFE UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED

Flooding Dodgy lights

plan

starboard you’re a trawler with nets down. From aft you could be all sorts of things. The one thing you are not is a yacht. Unless

your switch gear renders such a bloomer impossible, the only sure answer is always to double-check, then take a fi nal look around on

deck as well.

I can’t think of anything more calculated to turn one’s insides to liquid

than discovering the fl oorboards fl oating when out at sea. First, taste the water. If it’s

fresh, you won’t drown. Dying of thirst is a long-term outcome that gives time to think. If it’s

salt, and rising, a plan is needed, especially on a fully crewed yacht going long distance.

is a skin fi tting or associated plumbing. When the skipper is the only person who knows It’s ten to one the problem

where the seacocks are and there are a lot of them, he’s going to have his work cut out. Meanwhile, the crew stands

around contemplating a short future. A better policy is to list

I learned a lot from Captain Smith at Hamble School of Yachting when I fi rst worked there as an instructor. One of his sayings was

that while you’d expect to fi nd a wind shadow to leeward of a big ship, it’s less obvious that there’s also considerable disturbance on

the windward side. His formula was, seven times the height of the ship for turbulence to leeward, and some degree of disorder at three

times its height to windward. I trawled the internet for empirical confi rmation and found nothing. I’ve found this to be sound, but

I offer it, therefore, as ‘anecdotal material that seems to work’. One thing’s sure, though. If you sail too close to leeward of a ship, you’ll

experience a strong backdraught at some stage. Many’s the gybe caused by this, so watch out in that wind shadow and keep your head down.

Wind shadow

the windward side. His formula was, seven times the height of the ship for turbulence to leeward, and some degree of disorder at three

Using tricolour and lower nav lights baffl es everyone, so

make sure youdouble-check

all possible sources of fl ooding, give each competent person responsibility for one part

of the ship, write a fl ooding plan, then make it everyone’s business to know their own neck of the woods. If the call

ever comes, everyone tends to their section, which multiplies the chances of success by the number of people involved.

Every hand must help to save the ship