SOMEONE COMMENTING the other day on the weather in my home town said: “It’s always October in Bellingham.”
It’s true. We’ve had record wet and cold weather this whole season. Not since last October have I been tempted to go sailing
However, one should not be gloomy. The wonderful thing about Bellingham weather is that it’s easy to choose a vacation destination. Anywhere you go, anywhere, it’s better than Bellingham.
I mean, if you lived in Florida or Hawaii or the Virgin Islands where would you go on vacation? What would there be to look forward to?
But we in Bellingham, why, we have the whole wide world open to us.
I mean, last year we found ourselves in Westport, an undistinguished, humdrum little fishing town down the coast a bit, a place you wouldn’t normally recommend for a holiday, not even to your mother-in-law.
One afternoon while we were there, peeking at the dripping town sights out of our hooded slickers, the town experienced what we later learned is called a “sun-break.”
For the sake of my fellow Bellingham readers who may never have seen this phenomenon, let me explain what happened. Our attention was drawn to a small hole that appeared in the heavens overhead, the center of which assumed a color we Bellinghamsters don’t normally associate with the sky. To our astonishment it was blue, matching the color of our fingers back home when we’re out sailing. From this azure ring in the sky a harsh yellow beam of light splashed down, dazzling our eyes. The buildings suddenly had shadows and sharp edges, and wisps of steam started rising from roads and sidewalks. You can imagine our alarm. My wife, who thought it might be an alien invasion, wanted to call 911, but as luck would have it a police cruiser came along the road and we flagged it down.
The officer was very nice. He explained that everything was quite normal. “This kind of thing often happens in mid-summer in Westport,” he said, “and it is nothing to worry about. It will go away of its own accord in five minutes.”
And he was proved right. The blue hole disappeared as quickly as it had come, and we were once more covered by comforting gray nimbus clouds leaking rain as they scurried north to Bellingham.
Once we had calmed down, we decided to write a letter to the local council, urging them to erect a large sign on the outskirts of the town, warning vacation visitors about this phenomenon called “sun-breaks,” lest they, too, should be taken aback and alarmed as we were. People like us need to be prepared well in advance for such unusual and disturbing weather behavior.
Today’s Thought
The rain, it falls upon the just
And on the unjust fella —
But mainly on the just because
The unjust stole the just’s umbrella.
— Anon.
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #199
With displacement hulls it pays to tack downwind in light or medium weather. In heavy weather there’s no advantage over running dead downwind. Sailing 20 degrees off the wind and then 20 degrees back to the rhumb line, adds about 6 percent to the distance covered. But you only have to increase your speed by more than 6 percent (by keeping the jib filled, for example), say from 4 knots to 4.25 knots, to get there sooner.
Tailpiece
“Okay buster, we’re going to have to lock you up for the night.”
“But officer, what’s the charge?”
“No charge, sir, it’s all part of the service.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
May 15, 2011
May 13, 2011
Taming the mast
THERE HAVE BEEN TIMES when the behavior of my boat’s mast has puzzled and even alarmed me. While lying quietly in a sheltered marina slip, with a gentle breeze from abeam, my mast has started to shake back and forth, as if the shrouds and stays had all completely abdicated their dedicated duty.
It took me quite a while to learn that any mast may vibrate in winds of moderate speeds (5 to 14 miles an hour), and the vibrations may become severe when the natural frequency of the mast coincides with the frequency of vibration.
Alternate sideways movement occurs when wind eddies shed from one side then the other. In theory, it’s possible for the mast to vibrate back and forth in any direction perpendicular to the wind direction. Almost always, however, the movement is fore-and-aft, with the wind coming from abeam, or nearly so.
Here are ways to cure, or at least lessen, vibration:
1. First tighten the stays; then tighten the shrouds if necessary.
2. Add a wire or rod inner forestay.
3. For mast with luff-grooves, hoist a stiff narrow strip of heavy sailcloth in the groove to separate wind eddies. The strip needs to be at least 4 inches wide.
4. Turn the boat so the wind is striking the bare mast less from the side, and more from fore or aft.
5. For temporary relief on smaller boats, lead a non-stretch line from a strong point forward, such as a Samson post or an anchor cleat, clove-hitch it securely around the mast as high as you can reach, take it to a winch aft, and tighten as much as you can.
Today’s Thought
The way of the Wind is a strange, wild way.
— Ingram Crockett, The Wind
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #198
If you boat has the kind of stern gland that drips water to lubricate the packing, the rule of thumb is to err on the side of too many drips rather than too few. The water flow is needed not only to lubricate the gland, but also to prevent an excessive build-up of heat. About one of two drops a minute is about right when the shaft is not turning. When you’re under power, the rate will naturally be somewhat greater. A flow of water containing oxygen is also needed to protect a stainless-steel propeller shaft from pitting corrosion in the stern gland.
Tailpiece
“Tell me, Vicar, do you believe in sex before marriage?”
“Not if it delays the ceremony.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
It took me quite a while to learn that any mast may vibrate in winds of moderate speeds (5 to 14 miles an hour), and the vibrations may become severe when the natural frequency of the mast coincides with the frequency of vibration.
Alternate sideways movement occurs when wind eddies shed from one side then the other. In theory, it’s possible for the mast to vibrate back and forth in any direction perpendicular to the wind direction. Almost always, however, the movement is fore-and-aft, with the wind coming from abeam, or nearly so.
Here are ways to cure, or at least lessen, vibration:
1. First tighten the stays; then tighten the shrouds if necessary.
2. Add a wire or rod inner forestay.
3. For mast with luff-grooves, hoist a stiff narrow strip of heavy sailcloth in the groove to separate wind eddies. The strip needs to be at least 4 inches wide.
4. Turn the boat so the wind is striking the bare mast less from the side, and more from fore or aft.
5. For temporary relief on smaller boats, lead a non-stretch line from a strong point forward, such as a Samson post or an anchor cleat, clove-hitch it securely around the mast as high as you can reach, take it to a winch aft, and tighten as much as you can.
Today’s Thought
The way of the Wind is a strange, wild way.
— Ingram Crockett, The Wind
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #198
If you boat has the kind of stern gland that drips water to lubricate the packing, the rule of thumb is to err on the side of too many drips rather than too few. The water flow is needed not only to lubricate the gland, but also to prevent an excessive build-up of heat. About one of two drops a minute is about right when the shaft is not turning. When you’re under power, the rate will naturally be somewhat greater. A flow of water containing oxygen is also needed to protect a stainless-steel propeller shaft from pitting corrosion in the stern gland.
Tailpiece
“Tell me, Vicar, do you believe in sex before marriage?”
“Not if it delays the ceremony.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
May 10, 2011
A look into the future
IT’S MY GUESS that powerboats and auxiliary sailing yachts will be powered by electric motors within 50 years. Some are at the moment, of course, but what I mean is that diesel and gasoline engines will cease to be the primary motive force for small boats. And what a pleasure that will be, when you think how quiet, reliable, and maintenance-free electric motors are.
Right now, our major problems have to do with batteries and the way we charge them. Batteries will have to become cheaper, lighter, and more efficient. Solar panels, to charge them, will have to become smaller, lighter, more flexible and more productive to put energy into those batteries. And I believe they will.
History tells us that we should believe the unlikely, if not the impossible. For example, according to the eminent engineer Benjamin H. Latrobe, there was no way that a steam engine could be used to propel boats. In a paper delivered to the American Philosophical Society in 1803, he listed the reasons why:
1. The weight of the engine and the fuel.
2. The large space it occupies.
3. The tendency of its action to rack the vessel and render it leaky.
4. The expense of maintenance.
5. The irregularity of its motion, and the motion of the water in the boiler and the cistern, and of the fuel-vessel in rough water.
6. The difficulty arising from the liability of the paddles to break, if light, and from the weight if made strong.
Well, Latrobe might have been eminent, but he was also spectacularly wrong. He lacked foresight and he lacked faith.
I don’t have good foresight, but I have lots of faith, which is why I say diesel and gasoline are on the way out. It will take a while, certainly, but the writing is on the wall and the electric motor is coming to the bilge.
Today’s Thought
The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance — the idea that anything is possible.
— Ray Bradbury
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #197
The best wire for a moveable staysail stay, or baby stay, is 7 x 7 stainless steel. It’s more flexible and less likely to work harden than the 1 x 19 rigging wire.
My Mistake
From a reader called Steve:
Here are two of the many tips I gathered from observing expert boaters launch their trailerables:
1. Many of the experts seem to agree that the popular “quick brake to jettison the vessel from its trailer” technique is most effectively executed when their under 6-year-old children are standing hands-free on the coaming.
2. Apparently the most efficient way of preparing for the launch is to wait to take care of all the details such as deploying mooring lines and fenders until it is your turn to launch. I guess this is more prudent than doing all that during the 50 minutes you are waiting in line for your turn, as it gives you more opportunity get drunk and belligerent.
Tailpiece
“You look lonely.”
“Yeah, my wife’s gone to the West Indies.”
“Jamaica?”
“No, it was her own idea.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
Right now, our major problems have to do with batteries and the way we charge them. Batteries will have to become cheaper, lighter, and more efficient. Solar panels, to charge them, will have to become smaller, lighter, more flexible and more productive to put energy into those batteries. And I believe they will.
History tells us that we should believe the unlikely, if not the impossible. For example, according to the eminent engineer Benjamin H. Latrobe, there was no way that a steam engine could be used to propel boats. In a paper delivered to the American Philosophical Society in 1803, he listed the reasons why:
1. The weight of the engine and the fuel.
2. The large space it occupies.
3. The tendency of its action to rack the vessel and render it leaky.
4. The expense of maintenance.
5. The irregularity of its motion, and the motion of the water in the boiler and the cistern, and of the fuel-vessel in rough water.
6. The difficulty arising from the liability of the paddles to break, if light, and from the weight if made strong.
Well, Latrobe might have been eminent, but he was also spectacularly wrong. He lacked foresight and he lacked faith.
I don’t have good foresight, but I have lots of faith, which is why I say diesel and gasoline are on the way out. It will take a while, certainly, but the writing is on the wall and the electric motor is coming to the bilge.
Today’s Thought
The best scientist is open to experience and begins with romance — the idea that anything is possible.
— Ray Bradbury
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #197
The best wire for a moveable staysail stay, or baby stay, is 7 x 7 stainless steel. It’s more flexible and less likely to work harden than the 1 x 19 rigging wire.
My Mistake
From a reader called Steve:
Here are two of the many tips I gathered from observing expert boaters launch their trailerables:
1. Many of the experts seem to agree that the popular “quick brake to jettison the vessel from its trailer” technique is most effectively executed when their under 6-year-old children are standing hands-free on the coaming.
2. Apparently the most efficient way of preparing for the launch is to wait to take care of all the details such as deploying mooring lines and fenders until it is your turn to launch. I guess this is more prudent than doing all that during the 50 minutes you are waiting in line for your turn, as it gives you more opportunity get drunk and belligerent.
Tailpiece
“You look lonely.”
“Yeah, my wife’s gone to the West Indies.”
“Jamaica?”
“No, it was her own idea.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
May 8, 2011
Don’t Make My Mistake
I THINK ONE CAN SAFELY SAY that people who sail are smart, sensitive, and more than normally cautious. But that doesn’t stop them from making embarrassing mistakes now and then. A British boating website has been having some fun with confessions from readers. Here are some of the gems of advice being offered on the Yachting and Boating World website’s Scuttlebutt forum.*
You will notice how each one rings with the true voice of embittered experience:
Twister Ken: If you're changing a faulty bulb in a nav light, don't throw away the NEW one and refit the OLD one. The nav light won't work.
Little Five: Don't forget to remove the oily rag from the air intake when first starting the engine after the winter.
prv: Sounds like the classic one of disconnecting a sink waste, carefully catching all the water in a bucket, and being very smug that not a drop has spilled. Then emptying the bucket into the sink.
emsworthy: Or possibly feeling smug that you have drained the sump and removed the old oil filter without a drop touching the bilges — and then you fill her up again ... Don't ask how I know!
doug748: If you ever fit a new paddle-wheel for your speed log, you will find it less trouble to replace it into the hole BEFORE you launch.
Pleiades: When the lady of your life is starting the Seagull [outboard motor] for her first time tell her not to throw the starting cord overboard in her excitement when the engine starts ...
Downsman: Just remember that if the safety valve on a pressure cooker is not hissing, it does not mean you can take the lid off ... Baby-wipes are excellent for removing gravy from deckheads and chicken drumsticks can travel from the galley to the forward cabin at really quite impressive speed ... also, half-past broccoli (according to the galley clock) is meaningless as a time-check.
Bellamica: Check the bottom of the washing-up bucket; 19 days of eating with your fingers; take spare cutlery on delivery trips ...
chinita: Avoid scrambling (unsuccessfully) around the colossal Gibraltar Rubbish Dump by making sure you have unpacked all the little boxes of fastenings from your very expensive imported self-steering gear before you throw the 'empty' boxes into the skip.
DanTribe: Wait for your power planer to stop turning before putting it down on the new worktop.
Robwhelton: A related tip: whilst standing on the pontoon, hanging onto the pulpit, in preparation for pushing the boat out and jumping aboard, ensure that you give CLEAR directions to your non-sailing mother to UNTIE THE TILLER. This will avoid a series of fenders being released from the pushpit whilst the tiller remains firmly secured.
LadyInBed: When rolling out a flat hose and walking backwards along the pontoon, ensure that the pontoon is longer than the hose.
* http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272072
► If you have any similar helpful advice, please click on the “Comments” button and send it in. I’ll use it in the main blog.
Today’s Thought
Nobody confines his mistakes to himself; people sprinkle folly among their neighbors and receive it from them in turn.
— Seneca, Epistulae ad Lucilium
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #196
It still comes as a surprise to some, but most types of stainless steel rely on a constant supply of oxygen to avoid corrosion. Uncovered stainless steel will stay bright on deck or under water, but if it’s deprived of oxygen — enclosed in a stern tube, perhaps, or holding on a keel — it can suffer severely from pitting if it gets wet. That’s one good reason why a stern gland should drip a little — to feed oxygen to the stainless-steel propeller shaft.
Tailpiece
How to tell the sex of a hippo: tell it a joke.
If he laughs, it’s male; if she laughs, it’s female.
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
You will notice how each one rings with the true voice of embittered experience:
Twister Ken: If you're changing a faulty bulb in a nav light, don't throw away the NEW one and refit the OLD one. The nav light won't work.
Little Five: Don't forget to remove the oily rag from the air intake when first starting the engine after the winter.
prv: Sounds like the classic one of disconnecting a sink waste, carefully catching all the water in a bucket, and being very smug that not a drop has spilled. Then emptying the bucket into the sink.
emsworthy: Or possibly feeling smug that you have drained the sump and removed the old oil filter without a drop touching the bilges — and then you fill her up again ... Don't ask how I know!
doug748: If you ever fit a new paddle-wheel for your speed log, you will find it less trouble to replace it into the hole BEFORE you launch.
Pleiades: When the lady of your life is starting the Seagull [outboard motor] for her first time tell her not to throw the starting cord overboard in her excitement when the engine starts ...
Downsman: Just remember that if the safety valve on a pressure cooker is not hissing, it does not mean you can take the lid off ... Baby-wipes are excellent for removing gravy from deckheads and chicken drumsticks can travel from the galley to the forward cabin at really quite impressive speed ... also, half-past broccoli (according to the galley clock) is meaningless as a time-check.
Bellamica: Check the bottom of the washing-up bucket; 19 days of eating with your fingers; take spare cutlery on delivery trips ...
chinita: Avoid scrambling (unsuccessfully) around the colossal Gibraltar Rubbish Dump by making sure you have unpacked all the little boxes of fastenings from your very expensive imported self-steering gear before you throw the 'empty' boxes into the skip.
DanTribe: Wait for your power planer to stop turning before putting it down on the new worktop.
Robwhelton: A related tip: whilst standing on the pontoon, hanging onto the pulpit, in preparation for pushing the boat out and jumping aboard, ensure that you give CLEAR directions to your non-sailing mother to UNTIE THE TILLER. This will avoid a series of fenders being released from the pushpit whilst the tiller remains firmly secured.
LadyInBed: When rolling out a flat hose and walking backwards along the pontoon, ensure that the pontoon is longer than the hose.
* http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272072
► If you have any similar helpful advice, please click on the “Comments” button and send it in. I’ll use it in the main blog.
Today’s Thought
Nobody confines his mistakes to himself; people sprinkle folly among their neighbors and receive it from them in turn.
— Seneca, Epistulae ad Lucilium
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #196
It still comes as a surprise to some, but most types of stainless steel rely on a constant supply of oxygen to avoid corrosion. Uncovered stainless steel will stay bright on deck or under water, but if it’s deprived of oxygen — enclosed in a stern tube, perhaps, or holding on a keel — it can suffer severely from pitting if it gets wet. That’s one good reason why a stern gland should drip a little — to feed oxygen to the stainless-steel propeller shaft.
Tailpiece
How to tell the sex of a hippo: tell it a joke.
If he laughs, it’s male; if she laughs, it’s female.
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
May 5, 2011
Dealing with lightning
A READER IN FLORIDA wants to know how to protect his boat against a lightning strike. “Worried,” of Fort Lauderdale, says a boat in his marina was struck the other afternoon and all its electronics were fried.
“I have a Catalina 27 and I’m concerned that I will be caught out during a day sail. What can I do to prevent damage to my boat or, lord forbid, me?”
Well, the oft-repeated advice is to get close to some boat whose mast is taller than yours, but that won’t work at sea, of course. I personally dangle a length of anchor chain from the backstay a foot or two into the water, more as a sop to the gods than anything based on scientific precepts. It just makes me feel better.
I can tell you that the general principle of lightning protection appears to involve creating a simple pathway for lighting to traverse if it does strike you, thus guiding it harmlessly to “ground” — which, in this case, is the water you’re floating in.
A grounded vertical metal conductor 10 feet high for every 17 feet of boat length will attract and divert lightning flashes, thus providing a cone of protection angled downward at 120 degrees from the top.
A sailboat’s metal mast makes a good conductor, but a wooden mast will need at least #4 AWG stranded copper wire, or a copper strip at least 1/32 inch thick, projecting at least 6 inches above the mast.
This conductor, or the metal mast must be connected as directly as possible to a lightning ground connection — a submerged ground plate at least 1 square foot in area. The whole of the conducting pathway should be as straight as possible: no sharp bends, or else the surging current will be tempted to take shortcuts, and perhaps blast through the hull.
Standing rigging, winches, guardrails, and pulpits, in fact all large metallic objects that are not tied into a bonding system, should be joined to the ground plate with stranded wire of at least #8 AWG.
As for yourself, keep your hands away from anything made of metal during a thunderstorm. If you have a metal wheel, wear rubber gloves. If it’s safe to do so, douse all sail and send all hands down below until it blows over.
Put handheld radios, phones, GPS units and any other sensitive electronics in an enclosed metal box (a primitive Faraday cage) to avoid damage.
Finally, it has to be said that lightning is very tricky stuff to deal with. It doesn’t read the human rule books, and doesn’t always behave as we think it should. But on the principle that some preparation is better than nothing, and that it will at least earn you points in the black box, the advice given above should prove helpful.
Today’s Thought
I saw the lightning’s gleaming rod
Reach forth and write upon the sky
The awful autograph of God.
— Joaquin Miller, The Ship in the Desert.
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #195
Spreaders should be higher at their outer tips than they are where they touch the mast. This not only looks more pleasing, it is also structurally stronger. The spreader should bisect the angle formed by the wire shroud as it passes over the spreader tip.
Tailpiece
“I can’t quite diagnose your complaint Mr. Brown, but I think it’s drink.”
“That’s okay, doc, I’ll just come back when you’re sober.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
“I have a Catalina 27 and I’m concerned that I will be caught out during a day sail. What can I do to prevent damage to my boat or, lord forbid, me?”
Well, the oft-repeated advice is to get close to some boat whose mast is taller than yours, but that won’t work at sea, of course. I personally dangle a length of anchor chain from the backstay a foot or two into the water, more as a sop to the gods than anything based on scientific precepts. It just makes me feel better.
I can tell you that the general principle of lightning protection appears to involve creating a simple pathway for lighting to traverse if it does strike you, thus guiding it harmlessly to “ground” — which, in this case, is the water you’re floating in.
A grounded vertical metal conductor 10 feet high for every 17 feet of boat length will attract and divert lightning flashes, thus providing a cone of protection angled downward at 120 degrees from the top.
A sailboat’s metal mast makes a good conductor, but a wooden mast will need at least #4 AWG stranded copper wire, or a copper strip at least 1/32 inch thick, projecting at least 6 inches above the mast.
This conductor, or the metal mast must be connected as directly as possible to a lightning ground connection — a submerged ground plate at least 1 square foot in area. The whole of the conducting pathway should be as straight as possible: no sharp bends, or else the surging current will be tempted to take shortcuts, and perhaps blast through the hull.
Standing rigging, winches, guardrails, and pulpits, in fact all large metallic objects that are not tied into a bonding system, should be joined to the ground plate with stranded wire of at least #8 AWG.
As for yourself, keep your hands away from anything made of metal during a thunderstorm. If you have a metal wheel, wear rubber gloves. If it’s safe to do so, douse all sail and send all hands down below until it blows over.
Put handheld radios, phones, GPS units and any other sensitive electronics in an enclosed metal box (a primitive Faraday cage) to avoid damage.
Finally, it has to be said that lightning is very tricky stuff to deal with. It doesn’t read the human rule books, and doesn’t always behave as we think it should. But on the principle that some preparation is better than nothing, and that it will at least earn you points in the black box, the advice given above should prove helpful.
Today’s Thought
I saw the lightning’s gleaming rod
Reach forth and write upon the sky
The awful autograph of God.
— Joaquin Miller, The Ship in the Desert.
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #195
Spreaders should be higher at their outer tips than they are where they touch the mast. This not only looks more pleasing, it is also structurally stronger. The spreader should bisect the angle formed by the wire shroud as it passes over the spreader tip.
Tailpiece
“I can’t quite diagnose your complaint Mr. Brown, but I think it’s drink.”
“That’s okay, doc, I’ll just come back when you’re sober.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
May 3, 2011
Goodbye copper bottoms
MY HOME STATE of Washington is close to becoming the first place in the nation to ban copper paint for yachts’ bottoms. This is largely the result of pressure from a group of activists who allege local boatyards are poisoning Puget Sound with the copper they power-wash off yachts.
As usual, the activists chose the easy target. They’re not going after the thousands of home-owners whose over-applied lawn fertilizer runs into the Sound via our storm-water drains. They’re not even going after large ships with acres of copper paint on their bottoms. The big boys will be allowed to continue to pollute the Sound. They’re only going after the little guys who can’t fight back.
At the moment there is no practical substitute for copper paint as an anti-fouling medium. It’s the most effective thing we have, apart from tin, which was banned years ago on all but a few select boats such as those with aluminum hulls, which would react very badly to copper.
I frankly can’t believe that pleasure yachts using copper do much damage to the wild life. But then, I guess I’m biased. I believe that man is part of Nature, too, and I firmly believe that we’re probably doomed to destroy the Earth sooner or later, in one way or another, despite the best (but irritating) intentions of the “green” mob.
It’s not that I would deliberately foster the demise of sea creatures, even though Nature herself has killed off thousands of different species over the years. Indeed, I have often put in a good word for such creatures as the much maligned barnacle. Barnacles are modest creatures, after all, and don’t wave their tentacles or squirt you in the eye for attention, as some of their underwater cousins do. Their main fault is that they stick to propellers and the bottom of dinghies that stay in the water too long.
The fact that copper might kill them is neither here nor there. You, too, might be killed if you chose to place yourself in the middle of the freeway without a car. The point is that both you and the barnacle have a choice.
The barnacles we would like to see succeed in the world are those with street smarts, the ones who can anticipate danger and stay out of trouble.
There are plenty of nice rocks and wooden pilings where clever barnacles can attach themselves and live long, peaceful and useful lives, contributing to the good of the community as a well-bred crustacean should.
Why would a barnacle cling to the bottom of a yacht clad with copper paint? It doesn’t make sense. And those who DO make their homes on copper surely deserve to be removed from the gene pool for the benefit of barnacles in general.
Today’s Thought
Extensive exhaustive researches
By Darwin and Huxley and Ball
Have conclusively proved that the barnacle
Can scarcely be ravished at all;
While further industrious enquiry
Has incontrovertibly shown
That this state of comparative safety
Is enjoyed by the barnacle alone.
— Anon.
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #194
The maximum speed of planing hulls is governed mostly by the power available. With 40 pounds of weight for every horsepower delivered to the propeller, the average planing hull can do about 25 knots. (Weight, of course, includes everything aboard, as well as the hull itself.) With only 10 pounds of weight for every horsepower, she should do 50 knots.
Tailpiece
Woman to husband after party: “I’m ashamed of you. You made a thundering great fool of yourself tonight. I only hope nobody realized you were sober.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
As usual, the activists chose the easy target. They’re not going after the thousands of home-owners whose over-applied lawn fertilizer runs into the Sound via our storm-water drains. They’re not even going after large ships with acres of copper paint on their bottoms. The big boys will be allowed to continue to pollute the Sound. They’re only going after the little guys who can’t fight back.
At the moment there is no practical substitute for copper paint as an anti-fouling medium. It’s the most effective thing we have, apart from tin, which was banned years ago on all but a few select boats such as those with aluminum hulls, which would react very badly to copper.
I frankly can’t believe that pleasure yachts using copper do much damage to the wild life. But then, I guess I’m biased. I believe that man is part of Nature, too, and I firmly believe that we’re probably doomed to destroy the Earth sooner or later, in one way or another, despite the best (but irritating) intentions of the “green” mob.
It’s not that I would deliberately foster the demise of sea creatures, even though Nature herself has killed off thousands of different species over the years. Indeed, I have often put in a good word for such creatures as the much maligned barnacle. Barnacles are modest creatures, after all, and don’t wave their tentacles or squirt you in the eye for attention, as some of their underwater cousins do. Their main fault is that they stick to propellers and the bottom of dinghies that stay in the water too long.
The fact that copper might kill them is neither here nor there. You, too, might be killed if you chose to place yourself in the middle of the freeway without a car. The point is that both you and the barnacle have a choice.
The barnacles we would like to see succeed in the world are those with street smarts, the ones who can anticipate danger and stay out of trouble.
There are plenty of nice rocks and wooden pilings where clever barnacles can attach themselves and live long, peaceful and useful lives, contributing to the good of the community as a well-bred crustacean should.
Why would a barnacle cling to the bottom of a yacht clad with copper paint? It doesn’t make sense. And those who DO make their homes on copper surely deserve to be removed from the gene pool for the benefit of barnacles in general.
Today’s Thought
Extensive exhaustive researches
By Darwin and Huxley and Ball
Have conclusively proved that the barnacle
Can scarcely be ravished at all;
While further industrious enquiry
Has incontrovertibly shown
That this state of comparative safety
Is enjoyed by the barnacle alone.
— Anon.
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #194
The maximum speed of planing hulls is governed mostly by the power available. With 40 pounds of weight for every horsepower delivered to the propeller, the average planing hull can do about 25 knots. (Weight, of course, includes everything aboard, as well as the hull itself.) With only 10 pounds of weight for every horsepower, she should do 50 knots.
Tailpiece
Woman to husband after party: “I’m ashamed of you. You made a thundering great fool of yourself tonight. I only hope nobody realized you were sober.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
May 1, 2011
Knowledge and its dangers
I WAS REMINDED recently of how much there is to learn about sailing, and how easy it is to make a fool of oneself. Perhaps, of all mankind’s sporting activities, this is one in which a little knowledge is the most dangerous.
This reminder came to me after I read a post on a sailboat bulletin board from one of those know-all blowhards who irritates beyond distraction.
He said:
“Cat boats develop more lift per square foot of sail area compared to sloops. This is because the (only) sail flies in clean air, as opposed to the downwind sail in a two sail rig flying in dirty air. There is a racing class (which name I can not recall) where (for all practical purposes) the ONLY thing controlled about the sail is TOTAL area. No sloop has been competitive in that class since 1964, only cat boats.”
This man has obviously never heard of the Square Meter classes that originated in Scandinavia and spread all over the world. There are about nine of these classes, also known as Skerry Cruisers, and the basic idea is that the sail area should be limited, but the design of the hull left free. And no designer, to the best of my knowledge, given the complete freedom of designing any boat hull or rig to be the fastest around a normal racing course, ever came up with a cat-boat.
The reason is very simple. A boat with a single mainsail cannot point as high as a boat with a sloop rig. As anyone who has read Arvel Gentry knows, the jib causes a “bend” in the wind ahead of the boat that allows a sloop to point higher than a cat-boat.
I once crewed on a 30-Square Meter in a Lipton Cup contest, and it was fascinating to see the ideas yacht designers came up with to create the fastest boat limited to 323 square feet of sail area, about 20 square feet less than a Catalina 27. All were long (up to 47 feet overall), skinny, and classically beautiful. All had long overhangs and all were sloop-rigged. None were cat-boats.
Today’s Thought
True knowledge is modest and wary; ’tis ignorance that is bold and presuming.
— Joseph Glanvil, Scepsis Scientifica.
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #193
The speed of non-planing hulls is governed principally by waterline length. The formula for determining maximum normal speed, in knots, is the square root of the waterline length in feet times 1.34. It is possible to exceed this speed slightly while surfing down the face of a wave, or by installing an overly powerful engine, but for all practical purposes this formula provides the average highest consistent speed for a hull that cannot plane. It is, in fact, the speed of the wave the hull has dug itself into.
Tailpiece
“Hey, look at this, I found a green snake.”
“Oh don’t touch it, darling, they’re just as dangerous as ripe ones.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
This reminder came to me after I read a post on a sailboat bulletin board from one of those know-all blowhards who irritates beyond distraction.
He said:
“Cat boats develop more lift per square foot of sail area compared to sloops. This is because the (only) sail flies in clean air, as opposed to the downwind sail in a two sail rig flying in dirty air. There is a racing class (which name I can not recall) where (for all practical purposes) the ONLY thing controlled about the sail is TOTAL area. No sloop has been competitive in that class since 1964, only cat boats.”
This man has obviously never heard of the Square Meter classes that originated in Scandinavia and spread all over the world. There are about nine of these classes, also known as Skerry Cruisers, and the basic idea is that the sail area should be limited, but the design of the hull left free. And no designer, to the best of my knowledge, given the complete freedom of designing any boat hull or rig to be the fastest around a normal racing course, ever came up with a cat-boat.
The reason is very simple. A boat with a single mainsail cannot point as high as a boat with a sloop rig. As anyone who has read Arvel Gentry knows, the jib causes a “bend” in the wind ahead of the boat that allows a sloop to point higher than a cat-boat.
I once crewed on a 30-Square Meter in a Lipton Cup contest, and it was fascinating to see the ideas yacht designers came up with to create the fastest boat limited to 323 square feet of sail area, about 20 square feet less than a Catalina 27. All were long (up to 47 feet overall), skinny, and classically beautiful. All had long overhangs and all were sloop-rigged. None were cat-boats.
Today’s Thought
True knowledge is modest and wary; ’tis ignorance that is bold and presuming.
— Joseph Glanvil, Scepsis Scientifica.
Boaters’ Rules of Thumb, #193
The speed of non-planing hulls is governed principally by waterline length. The formula for determining maximum normal speed, in knots, is the square root of the waterline length in feet times 1.34. It is possible to exceed this speed slightly while surfing down the face of a wave, or by installing an overly powerful engine, but for all practical purposes this formula provides the average highest consistent speed for a hull that cannot plane. It is, in fact, the speed of the wave the hull has dug itself into.
Tailpiece
“Hey, look at this, I found a green snake.”
“Oh don’t touch it, darling, they’re just as dangerous as ripe ones.”
(Drop by every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, for a new Mainly about Boats column.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)