Day Sail to Woodman Point

Peter and I met at 8 AM on Sunday 16 January for a short sail to Woodman Point not far from the club with the purpose of seeing how the new anchor windlass would handle the recently installed chain-rope rode. We motored out of the marina at about 9.30 AM and set sail in a brisk easterly wind with one reef in the mainsail and no jib. The boat moved well as we sailed south next to the shipping channel on a port beam reach, comfortable reaching speeds of more than 6 knots.

Peter at the Helm

Approaching Woodman Point

 

We dropped anchor in 4 meters of water off the beach and the anchor easily bit into the sandy bottom. We then successfully paid out the 30 meters of chain but when we attempted to continue by paying out the 20 meters of rope the windlass jammed, instantly throwing the electrical breaker. Even though the splice of the rope onto the bitter and of the chain appeared to have been professionally done there was enough lump in the splice to cause the jam. It was a disappointing result but we were satisfied that we had achieved our mission and were pleased that we had identified the problem in home waters rather than during the Bunbury Cruise. I had no patience for an attempt to make the chain-rode system work, possibly with a new splice of a new rope, particularly since we had not been able to perform the second test of whether a wet rope would have sufficient weight to fall into the anchor well fast enough to prevent a jam, as the dry rope had done.

After some relaxation on the boat we set sail in the early afternoon for our return to the club marina. By then the wind had shifted to a variable SE so we sailed more or less downwind with a partial headsail. After clearing the Parmelia bank we rolled in the headsail and motored directly for the club. When we switched off the engine in the pen at about 3 PM it had 600.3 hours on the clock, amazingly few hours for a engine that is now 10.5 years old (commissioned in La Paz Mexico on 16 Aug 2010). Peter and I plan to meet at the boat shortly before the start of the Bunbury Cruise on 6 Feb to replace the failed rode of 30m of chain and 20m of rope with the all-chain rode of 38m that had safely taken me around the world.

Chart Plotter Replaced

 During last year's Bunbury Cruise the Raymarine C120 chart plotter started the pattern of rebooting itself every 3 minutes or so.  Despite the annoyance I was able to use it for my return to Fremantle. 

During the winter I described the problem go Greg Hansen, a semi retired and extremely experienced marine electronics specialist.  After an inspection he deemed the unit irreparable due to its age in this era of fast turnover of models and to responsibility to long-term support.

The cost of a replacement was from memory about $2500.  It took me a few months to get over the sticker shock and bow to the inevitable so I contacted Greg to arrange a replacement.  Fortunately toward the end of our discussion I casually asked if my radar would work with the new chart plotter.  The answer was No because the new "Quantum" radar supersedes the old analogue technology. From memory a new radar would cost just over $2,000.  My choice were (1) new chart plotter and radar at probably more than $5,000 if labor was included, (2) new chart plotter only and trash the current working radar at a cost of more than $2,500, (3) get creative and find another solution.

I purchased a appropriately sized computer monitor which I would mount in place of the chart plotter to project the screen of either one of my excellent laptop software packages. I got far into this plan before realizing that there would be problems in interfacing the output from  the AIS transponder to the monitor, with a solution costing hundreds of dollars.   This failed effort cost me only $20 for the monitor and a few hours of time at the computer and in the garage.

Then I got the bright idea of searching for a used C120.  To my delight I found one on eBay out of the Sydney area for $650.  I placed the order, paid, received confirmation, and a day later the order was cancelled by the vendor, who reported that when he went to the boat to fetch the unit he learned that the owner had sold it to somebody else.

So I looked again and found one out of the U.S.A. for about $450 USD.  I ordered it knowing that I would take a hit from the currency exchange, shipment, and import duty of 10%.  All up the unit cost me about $900 AUD.  However, the unit was in excellent condition, was fully functional, and once again I had a chart plotter with radar.

I mentioned this to Greg as a courtesy and he replied that had he known he could get his hands on two used C120's for me.  (Grrrr!)  I replied that I would be very interested in the units as spares, but given that they were out of town I told him to take time to get them at his convenience because I was in no hurry.

The months passed and just before sending a query to Greg I had a look in eBay and found another C120 for sale out of Airlie Beach, Qld for $350.  I snapped it up and it arrived a week later.  The next day I mounted the unit and tested it to find that it could not see my radar, no matter what I tried.  I contacted Greg who came to the  conclusion that some sort of radar interface component in the C120 was faulty.  OK, I asked, is it feasible to get a replacement radar interface from my original and faulty C120?  Greg replied that it was worth a try.  I then contacted the vendor, explained the problem, and told him that I was happy to keep the unit with no claim from him given the modest price of $350 and at the very worst I would wind up with a backup chart plotter which is much more important to me than the radar.  I also noted that the cabling that had arrived with his unit did not include a radar cable, so who knows, the C120 had perhaps been originally supplied without a radar option.

Raymarine C120 Chart Plotter Hospital

So the matter stands, and here is a photo of my C120 "hospital", the original faulty one at the left, the Airlie Beach one that cannot see the radar in the middle, and the fully functional USA one at the right.

New Anchor

 On 28 November I attended a monthly "Topics Night" presentation by Kim Klaka and Richard Macfarlane into recent advances in anchors and anchoring.  I was so impressed with the performance of the new generation of anchors (e.g. much quicker to bed down, significantly more holding power) that after some investigation I settled on a Sarca Excel No. 5, one of the new generation of anchors at a cost of .  I chose the Sarca to replace my 16kg Delta at a price of $749 because it is Australian designed and built and has an extremely good reputation, particularly in Tasmania with it demanding conditions. One message from the presentation was the advice to purchase an anchor two sizes heavier than that recommended by the various vendors, so I purchased the No. 5 at 22kg (48.5 lb) rather than the recommended No. 4 at 16kg (37 lb) which listed 12m as the maximum suitable boat length. The extra weight of the anchor should not be a problem for me because from now on it will be the electric windlass that will raise and lower it.  The extra 6kg of weight on the bow from the heavier anchor will be more than compensated by the fact that we have replaced the previous 38m of all chain rode with 30m of chain and 20m of rope.  That shorter chain represents a reduction of 19kg in weight.

Peter helped me make the anchor change on 28 November.  

Peter tidying up extracted rode, foot on last of new rode

 I fed the Delta anchor and its all chain rode from the bow of Pachuca directly to Peter who was on the jetty and placed the tackle onto one of the club carts.  Peter then fed me the 20m of rope attached to 30m of chain (10mm or 3/8" dia) which I passed around the windlass and directly into the chain locker.  Last came the Sarca anchor, which from memory had already been shackled to the chain by Peter. The entire operation went as planned and very well. 

While  I was at it I replaced the "spare" 16 kg Swarbrick "fisherman" anchor with the heavier 20kg Swarbrick. The Swarbrick is more than a spare.  It is my "go to" anchor for unknown or difficult holding ground, and also my last-resort survival anchor.

New Sarca Excel No. 5 Anchor

The next step, to take the boat out and test the new anchor setup, particularly how the windlass handles the change from chain to rope and vice versa.  This was delayed because the anchor foot switch at the bow was not working, which surprised me because the switch was fairly new and had worked well the last time that I had used it.

Later I removed the switch and found that the electrical cabling was badly corroded at the end.  In fact, one wire broke off completely as I lifted out the switch.  This was result of my inexperience many years earlier, either I had used ordinary house wiring for the cable run between the windlass below and the foot switch which had to operate in extremely wet conditions.  It did not take me long to establish a firm policy of using only tinned marine grade wiring on the boat.

White sheath of corroded wiring replaced with marine grade

For various reasons it was 3 January before I was able to complete the replacement of the cable run.  Fortunately I had taken photographs and made a good sketch of the wiring, so the foot switch worked on the first try.

Back to Normal

After the hatch installation was completed my boating life settled down to the normal equipment and maintenance work associated with owning a boat.

In mid-September Peter Austin, a work colleague from my early years at Murdoch University who had helped me get my start in sailing in the mid 1980's, helped me with a task that involved an unpleasant climb to the top of the mast.  

The project was to reinstate the cord barrier between the mast steps and the shrouds to stop the main halyard from wrapping around the mast steps, something that could be dangerous when raising or reefing the mainsail in rough conditions. 

It's a long way to the top if you want to rock and sail

The rigger had recommended a solution using very light building cord that didn't make sense to me so I used the same system that had gotten me around the world with no problem.  In 2008 in preparation for the circumnavigation and in Mexico before departing for the Horn I had made this climb alone, but being older and wiser I now had the precaution of a harness with Peter down on the deck working the safety line.

I passed 3mm polyester cord between the mast steps and the shrouds and after about one hour of slow and methodical work the job was done.  We celebrated with lunch at the club.

Peter and I did what was my first JAM ("Jib and Main") afternoon sail on Sunday 18 October, accompanied by John, a very experienced sailor who usually crews with Jim MacBeth, a fellow sailor from my Murdoch University days. We also did a short "shakedown" sail to Rockingham and back.