Posted by Grant Headifen on September 12, 2009 under Bareboat Charter, Crew, Skipper | 
As we prepare for our yacht charter sailing vacation to the British Virgin Islands this month, I want to post a few emails that we are sending out to the group that is going. Below is one from my wife discussing provisioning. The name of our trip every year is called Bonga Bonga. Some years we do tee shirts. I’ve got one dating back to 1997 when we went to St. Maarten.
SUBJ: Bonga Bonga 2009
Hey all,
Here are a few tips we have picked up during our charter sailing trips – thought I would share.
- Towels – you get two towels per person for the week – that is for swimming and showering – I take a few cheap hand towels along, very nice to have later in the week when you towel is yuck. Some people take a beach towel along – numerous smaller ones seem to be a better bet.
- Daily I give the floor in the salon a wipe down – gets rid of the hair, crumbs and sand – best for this is wipes – either Clorox or Baby wipes, great for cleaning the counters too. We have been taking baby wipes along for years and swear by them. My used hand towel then becomes the door mat – helps tremendously with keeping the interior clean.
- Toilets – if even one toilet stinks the entire boat stinks – hang a toilet freshener in the bowl from day one and the problem is solved.
- Liquid body wash or soap – bar soap slips and slides all over your bathroom and when showering on deck it generally lands in the sea!
- BONINE – the very best motion sickness tablet – no side effects, you can drink etc. Don’t be tough and be uncomfortable – be a woosy and have fun – take a tab on day one and then if the weather gets rough you’ll be ok! Otherwise since we have a catamaran if you’re not too susceptible then you should not get sick.
- Floaties – up until our last trip you could still not buy Noodles for a reasonable price. It’s nice to have something to float on other than the boat fenders. So consider squeezing one in or a cheep blow up floatee. Vacuum suck the air out before packing since the airline will nail you for baggage these days.
- Sippy Cups – although your drink is safer on a Cat, the best bet is a sippy cup for less spills – bring the most outrageous cup – win award!
- Sunscreen – need I remind you.
- Snorkeling gear – there is gear at the charter base, so not worries borrowing any if you don’t already own.
- Zip lock bags – there is no Tupperware on the boat – zip locks are the easiest for food storage – left overs / cheeses etc. Only once have we been able to buy zip lock bags in the islands – so just in case I suggest taking them along.
- PROVISIONS – couple of take alongs – sometimes hard or impossible to get in the islands.
- Wasabi – I have bought 2 tubes as I have full confidence in my fisherman!
- Soy Sauce – for the endless sashimi
- Coffee – if you are fussy the coffee there is poor to pathetic – take your java along. We drink decaf, so we take an extra plunger as not to hog the coffee pot.
- Benadryl for any bites and /or itch ease. (Stingrays / eels – only kidding! Mosquitos/jellyfish)
- Cloth shopping bags. Use these for the freezer. Put similar things together so that you cn pull out and not find all the stuff in the bottom of the freezer at the end of the week.
Provisioning in Tortola
Don’t over stock, there are places along the way to pick up supplies.
Whenever we have bought beef – it has been the biggest disappointment – don’t waste your time. Eat fish – last trip we could not eat all G caught, and cold meats are great for lunch. But forget the steak, unless you get very lucky – then invite us over!
Chicken – the only time I am interested is if I can buy an already roasted chicken – great for salads / sandwiches – to cook on the boat takes to long, hot.
Pasta Sauce – a couple times during the week it is great to just whip up an easy pasta dish – I might take a fabulous pesto or two along in the suitcase.
We always seem to eat the most at cocktail hour, one days sample menu just to get your juices flowing.
Breakfast – FRUIT, yogurt, sometimes eggs and toast, cereal.
Snacks – chips and cookies
Lunch – Salad Nicoise
Sundowners – cheese and crackers, salmon, dips etc. (fresh bread is not easy to find – crackers rule)
Dinner – Artichoke pasta and Caprese salad. Chocolate!! Port!!
ICE is the big score every day – we go in search of it…..
Other than alcohol, nice to have iced tea and fruit juice along with lots of water.
Grant is the world’s expert on making tasty rum drinks. Rum, pineapple juice, cranberry juice, mango, passion. – ouch!
We always land up drinking wine with dinner – so stock up.
Fishing gear – we need one more Reel – anyone got a fishing reel – pls let us know.
Can’t wait - see you all in a couple of weeks. And – you all should really take NauticEd’s bareboat charter course and catamaran sailing course. It’ll make the trip much more fun for everyone.
V
Hotel reservations to follow..
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Chartering a sailing boat on a sailing vacation? Take the NauticEd Bareboat Charter Clinic
Bareboat Charter sailing Course
Chartering a catamaran on a sailing vacation? Take the NauticEd Catamaran Sailing Confidence course.
Learn to sail, handle and maneuver a catamaran with confidence
Posted by Grant Headifen on September 9, 2009 under About NauticEd, Bareboat Charter, Crew, Maneuvering Under Power, Sail Trim, Skipper |
Hot of the press today: We just launched the new Catamaran Sailing Confidence Clinic written by Nick Harvey of Lagoon Catamarans and Captain Grant Headifen.
If you want to learn to sail a large catamaran, this is the sailing course for you.
Here is an excerpt from the course.
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And if there wasn’t enough advantages to sailing a catamaran here is another.
The mainsail traveler on a catamaran is significantly longer than on a cruising monohull. Thus you can take real advantage of this. The mainsail can now be adjusted in 2 different ways: using the traveler line or by adjusting the mainsheet.
When sailing closed hauled on a catamaran in heavier air, move the traveler up wind (on the opposite side of the sail) and let off on the main sheet. This will allow the boom to rise a little and “twist out” the top of the sail. Twisting the sail allows you to let some of the top part of the sail “deflate” in case of slightly stronger winds. In light air, make sure that the top of the mainsail is not “loosing air” meaning, keep the traveler close to the center and tighten the mainsheet pretty good to make sure the main cannot open up at the top.
As soon as the breeze kicks up, bring your traveler up a bit more and ease the mainsheet so that the boom does not come past center point.
Lagoon 420 with traveler pulled to windward
Once out sailing you’ll be able to dispel one of the biggest “myths” surrounding catamarans because modern cats actually do do point pretty well!!
The flatter the water, the better they will point and it’ll be possible to sail in the high 30’s degrees off the wind and if you cat has the genoa tracks up on the coach roof, you will have a nice tight sheeting angle allowing you to go upwind comfortably.
As soon as you bare away from the wind slightly, you will want to bring the mainsail traveler down to leeward and start easing the mainsail (similar to a monohull).
Catamaran sailing on a reach
The Catamaran Sailing Confidence clinic retails for $39 but for a limited time it is priced at $27. Please enjoy.
Posted by Grant Headifen on September 8, 2009 under Crew, Sail Trim, Skipper |
When learning to sail the main thing we’re excited about doing is getting the boat moving, but as we become more advanced, we really want to understand the different forces on the boat and maximize the efficiency. Proper understanding of sail trim can help us achieve that. This post is a good example of exactly that.
What a wonderful labor day sail we had here last weekend on Lake Travis. The lake is currently 38 ft low in one of Austin’s worst droughts since the 60′s. So the sail started out by me walking out to an island – yes walking, then catching up with some friends who had already sailed their boat over for an island (now peninsular) pig roast.
At about 7pm we hoisted sails and did great westerly down wind run to a point in the lake where it turns south. About 20 minutes after the turn south the wind picked up to 15 knots and put us on a really nice beat for a 2.5 hour sail back to the dock.
We were sailing a Beneteau 373. Traditionally, my friend has had issues with this boat rounding up in higher winds and so we put some of the sailing lessons from Captain Ed Mapes NauticEd Sail Trim Course to work for us.
Rounding up is caused by many factors. One is too much wind and force aloft which tends to heel the boat over. This reduces the amount of rudder in the water and thus the rudder’s effectiveness. Another factor in rounding up is the center of pressure of wind on the sails is too far aft which then pushes the aft of the boat downwind and thus the front of the boat up wind.
What we wanted to do this last weekend was to reduce the aloft pressure from the 15 knot wind.
We must first understand wind shear. The phenomenon of wind shear is pretty easy. Wind moves faster at the top of the mast than is does at the water level because the stationary water slows the wind down which in turn slows the wind down slightly above it etc.
Additionally, if your boat was standing still the wind at the top of the mast would be the same apparent direction as at the cockpit level. However as your boat picks up in speed the wind at the top appears to come from further aft. This is also easily understood by imagining driving your car in a cross wind with your hand out the window of the car. The faster you go, the more the apparent wind moves towards coming from the front. But when a gust of wind comes from the side then the apparent wind shifts back to the side. In a boat, since the wind at the top is faster than the wind at the bottom, as the boat picks up in speed then the top wind appears to come from further aft.
This is now quite a revelation! It means that the top of the main needs to be “out” further than the bottom of the sail for it to operate efficiently.
The top of the mainsail needs to go further out so that the starboard telltale can fly smoothly
In the illustration, you can see the top telltale on the downwind side is fluttering. If you let out the main at the top the wind can reattached to the sail on the down wind side and the telltale will fly smoothly.
The way that you can let out the top of the main is to let out the main sheet. However the consequence of this is that the bottom also goes out. To bring the bottom back in again, use the traveler by bringing it up to windward.
This can also be continued to “twist out” the sail in higher wind speeds at the top to de-power the top of the sail which thus reduces the force at the top and decreases heel angle of the boat. At this point you’re using mostly the bottom part of the main sail which has less heeling moment.
So the sailing lesson here is when in higher winds bring the traveler up and sheet out the main. You’ll also need to release the boom vang a little. If the boom vang is down tight, the effect of sheeting out the main will be reduced. Letting the boom vang out allows the boom to rise which loosens the leech (trailing edge) of the sail and allows the top part to “twist out”.
All in all, our 15 knot labor day sail in the night back to the dock was a successful learning event for the boat owner and confirmation that the NauticEd SailTrim course is very much worth the $39 investment.
