Yachting_Monthly_2016-01

20 years’ worth of Tom’s cruising tips for skippers and crew have been distilled into this pocket-sized book, published by Fernhurst Books, at £11.99

SKIPPER’S TIPS

JANUARY 2016 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com 37

Flummoxed by salty jargon?Emailand we’ll explain it in print [email protected]

‘Seizing’

When splicing galvanised wire, the traditional rigger makes every effort to keep

the salt water out. First, the splice is ‘wormed’ by running a light line into the lay to give a smooth surface, then

it’s ‘parcelled’ with tarred canvas. Finish with a tightly wound ‘serving’. ‘Worm and parcel with the lay; turn and

serve the other way.’

One of the few problems with traditional wire standing rigging is that splicing tends

to damage the galvanising so that it rusts. Often, therefore, a better way to make a loop is to bend the wire back

on itself and hold the two parts together for maximum friction with a wire lashing called a seizing. Several of

these from a good rigger are as strong as a splice. They’re rust-free too.

Fine-tuning a bomb-proof

solution Fine Coarse adjustment

adjustment

‘Serving’

‘Seizing’

One of the few problems

When splicing galvanised

‘Serving’

It’s fun to look back over a summer’s cruising by way of the track my chart plotter

has recorded. The plot can be useful for insurance purposes and I’ve even seen it produced in court cases. This can

backfi re, however, so if you’re of a litigious nature it may pay to leave the function off. Where the track really

comes into its own is piloting out of a diffi cult harbour into which you have successfully manoeuvred. You know you

got in. To be sure of a graceful exit, tide permitting, you’ve

only to follow the same track out again. This works well, so long as the plotter is set up appropriately. The screen grab

shows two versions of the same track on my Raymarine unit. The coarse setting is useless, but the fi ne version leads me straight

back out through the drying banks. It’s all down to setting the instrument to record frequent data. To succeed in

close quarters, set the plot to record at shorter time or distance intervals than out at sea.record at shorter time or distance intervals

One of the benefi ts of newer shapes over the traditional is the aft bathing ladder. This really comes into its own if ever we have to retrieve a casualty from the water. Not all these are helpless basket cases, many have just taken

a tumble, the yacht is brought back in short order and they are thrown a line to secure themselves. approach is to assist them to the stern and encourage Much is written about retrieval, but often the sensible

them to climb up using the ladder. If this is your choice, don’t even think of holding the boat head to wind when there’s any sea running. That nice fl at stern can come down like a jack hammer and turn a mistake into a crisis.

Lay the boat athwart the seas instead. She’ll roll horribly which people on board won’t appreciate, but the poor soul trying to scramble up will not care. He won’t be brained for his trouble or speared by the ladder either.

No cracked skulls please. Lie beam on!

Peace will reign with a reliable throneEveryone has a yarn about being thrown from the loo when the
boat takes a dive off a wave. I’ll go one further and tell you that I once hung onto the porcelain
so tightly that the whole bowl snapped off at the thin end and ended up on the other side of the compartment still clamped to my
behind. When I bonded it back together with Araldite it kept everything in but I never got rid

of the glue line.‘bog seats’ that wobble around A commoner issue is cheap

in a seaway. My pal Mervyn has solved this by screwing in a pair of stainless brackets under his seat. The brackets secure the

seat against the bowl, so Mervyn can enjoy his morning-watch contemplation in full confi dence that he won’t be tossed ‘all

standing’ into the bilges.

Hold her athwart the seas and boarding at the

stern isn’t deadly

The end of jeopardy in the heads

PHOTO: LESTER McCARTHY/YM