Allan's trip

[allan]

A quick update about my trip.
The boat was put in the water at Totnes on Friday and we were taken to Dartmouth by Del, the local pilot. On Saturday we put on the sails and tightened the rigging on Saturday. Went out for a sail on Sunday, then back to Dartmouth to tighten the rigging. Monday sailed to Plymouth and tightened the rigging. You may see a pattern forming here! Maisey Star has high tech rope rigging (Dyneema Dux). It has almost no stretch, although the splices settle.
At present I am cold and wet in Plymouth and we plan to sail to Falmouth today and guess what, tighten the rigging!
We have to leave Falmouth in the morning to reach Cardiff for the 10.00 tide on Thursday, before the weather turns bad again.
Maisey Star was fine in up to 40kts yesterday with moderate to rough seas but when the rigging slackens off the mast moves, which is not too good. When sorted this boat will fly!
Allan

[Matt]

Post some pictures then Allan, lets see what this beast looks like!

Enjoy your tightening....

Matt

[ishtar]

Thanks for posting. I was wondering how you were getting on. Don't envy you in some of the weather we've had. Be careful!

If the dyneema doesn't stretch, what are you tightening all the time?

[brian (Blue Bear)]

I think It will be a pretty fine line Allan is Cutting but the 7 Stones observation buoy is now showing a reasonable 1.8 metres down from 3.8 but having rounded the lizard in comparably more favourable conditions I don't envy him the task...... and hopefully he can make a good way up the Bristol Channel before the Storm Force winds Tomorrow I would be extremely worried leaving the safety of Penzance/Newlyn with the next Safety being Padstow with what I would consider, untested rigging..... I realise along with very little stretch there is a lack of Elasticity but I feel the rigging should have been over tightened until the flexibility had reduced significantly then Slackened to it's correct tension, I would find it a little worrying if several attempts were made to tighten to Compensate for splicing...

[ishtar]

I texted him last night, but it may have been to the phone he doesn't use.

Hope he's back

[brian (Blue Bear)]

Yes ,I'll be good to know when he's back, didn't think of texting him I'll do the same I believe he has a free text Bundle so maybe we can get Updates but I'd be very surprised if he travelled in such conditions even if the Boat is capable, it would be very uncomfortable.

[Cardiff Yacht Club]

Got a message that Allan was safe in Watchet last night.

Here's a video of him making the entrance:








;D

The first part is true though!

[brian (Blue Bear)]

Nov 12, 2010 17:15:45 GMT Cardiff Yacht Club said:

Got a message that Allan was safe in Watchet last night.

Here's a video of him making the entrance:







;D

The first part is true though!

Early Summer Redeye left Watchet In Similar Conditions. Four left one turned Back to face a very untidy entrance and believe it or not They didn't wait for the Green Gate light!!!

[Camelot]

You had me to begin with then Martin, I even started to think the red tower must be further over than I remembered!

[allan]

So where do I start? Well the video above is not us, although the entrance into Watchet was interesting for other reasons.
Right, we set off from Plymouth, after the rig had been tightened and had a nice sail. The wind was on the Starboard quarter all the way, although it was dark, we decided we could sail right into Carrick Roads. Approaching the entrance it was interesting to see all the red and green lights but was very difficult to decide which ones were which without the repeater screen for the PC showing the chart plotter. Being sensible we thought it would be prudent to start the engine to make things safer. As James started the engine, the volt drop reset the PC so we had to rely on picking out the lights after all! Much more satisfying and scary than the Playstation navigation we had planned. After getting the sails down James sorted the fenders etc while I took us into the town pontoons, which would be empty at this time of year. Wrong again! The only betrhs we could use were all full, so we went off to Pendennis marina and moored to the same pontoon I had seen Ellen MacArthur arrive at in B&Q. Maisey Star looked quite small compared with the motoryacht Steel and Rebecca, a 140 foot super yacht.
In the morning we set off on the big bit of our trip. The passage plan was to leave at the right time to take us to Cardiff in one. It would also give us Padstow as a refuge, should things turn nasty. The Fal to Lands End, past the Lizard was done in very light winds, not good in a 14 ton boat with an 18 HP engine, which seemed to like to chew up alternator belts. Two hours past Lands End Falmouth CG put out a Securite warning for changes to the weather forecast. Instead of the 7 to 8 we had left on, it was going to be S-SW 9 to 10 veering to W 11 later. We gybed and started to plan our route to Padstow. Due to the light winds earlier, we realised we could not get to Padstow before the gate closed. Lundy would be a good refuge but only if the wind veered early. We continued up the coast, making a final gybe when we decided Lundy was not on. From that gybe, just south of Hartland, across Bideford bay was the most "interesting" sail I have ever had. The luckiest thing was that the very low black clouds, which were racing from the south, meant all around us was completely black. As the wind built we first took down the main, then started reducing the genoa. The only plan I could come up with was to head for off Ilfracombe and stick close to the north Devon coast. The theory was that, with little fetch for the south wind, the waves which were pushing us around would be lower. In the middle of Bideford bay, at approximately 3am, we saw 65 on the wind instrument, after that, it stopped giving any sensible readings. The genoa was now down to a little over a metre and we were still making nine knots. Off Ilfracombe the waves dropped and we were able to head along the coast, as planned the waves were less but I didn't dare get close enough to the coast to reduce the wind by much. By the time the sun came up we were off Porlock and could go inshore to get out of the wind. We then zig zagged along past Blue anchor, not fancying heading out into the wind again, we had decided to head into Watchet. When James started the engine he noticed that the alternator belt had shredded. We then sorted a plan for entry into the marina. I would take us to the entrance and James would then start the engine again and take in the rest of the genoa as I went into the marina. I had already spoken to the marina and had their permission to enter on red if needed.
Everything went well and we tied up to the hammerhead on pontoon B, with help from the marina staff who came down to meet us.
I went up to the office on Friday morning to get the weather forecast, when I saw it was for S-SW force 7 to gale 8 I thought, fine not a problem. I will need to get back into the Chausey mindset before I take her out next! After fitting a new belt we started to leave but while waiting for the lights to change the engine alarm came on and we went back to the pontoon. This alarm was caused by a blocked water intake but by the time we had sorted it, we decided it too late to leave.
Friday evening we set off with just the genoa and headed straight across to Cardiff in well under 3 hours. It was agreat feeling to finally tie her up just above the new footbridge in Cardiff marina.
Maisey Star is a great boat, at 19 years old she won the 2005 OSTAR with Steve White, of Toe in the water fame, at the helm. Even when being thrown about, I never felt anything but confidence that she would get us through. All in all a great trip on a great boat.
Allan
PS, I read this today www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/506889/storms-batter-britain

[ishtar]

:oForce 7 to gale 8, not a problem.

[allan]

In a boat which has been raced around the world and across the Atlantic, it is not a problem and after what we had on Wednesday night F7 to F8 seemed quite benign. In fact I don't think it was more than a F6 up this end of the channel.
Allan

[allan]

Just a few pictures.

James under a rainbow between Dartmouth and Plymouth.

Maisey Star in Watchet.

Some of the rigging which needed so much attention.
Allan

[Dave Howell]

Dyneema Dux: needs pre-stretching before use - or expect what you got!

Some stretch it by tying one end around a tree & the other end to a 4-wheel drive vehicle. Jock's 4WD yellow machine? Honest Jock, I didn't suggest this .... !
Dave

[allan]

Our understanding was that the Dyneema dux didn't stretch. I'm not sure if that meant it had been prestretched or not. We were told that they would go loose due to the splices settling. You could see a difference in the splices at the end of the trip, they looked a lot tighter. When we were winching them up it was a strange feeling, as soon as they became tight, the only stretch was in the halyards we were using. I am now a bit of a fan of the product after that trip.
Allan