Posted by Grant Headifen on February 28, 2009 under Bareboat Charter, Maneuvering Under Power, Skipper | 
This is the continued series on how to leave the dock in a sailboat
(3) Wind pushing into the dock and current from behind.
Leaving the dock
You can use exactly the same method as described in (2) above.
(4) Wind pushing you onto the dock and current coming from forward.
leaving the dock
If the wind is light you can usually get away with just pushing the front of the boat out. But significant wind may prevent this from happening.
(A)
- Once you are confident of your plan, appoint a crew member to use a fender at the rear of the boat to prevent the boat from touching the dock.
- Release and stow the dock lines but leave one spring line from the dock near the center of the boat attached to the rear of the boat.
- The spring line should be arranged so that it is attached to the rear cleat, runs freely around the dock cleat and returns back to the appointed crew member. In this manner the crew member can release the line and retrieve it by letting it slip around the dock cleat. ENSURE that there are no knots in the line to get caught on the dock cleat as it runs through.
- Keep the wheel centered and engage reverse gear.
- This will have the effect of pulling the front of the boat away from the dock.
(B)
- Once the boat has turned out from the dock, engage forward gear and have your crew member release and retrieve the spring line. Remember the rear of the boat will swing back towards the dock if you turn the wheel. Ensure the boat has swung out enough so that you can motor straight out.
(C)
- Continue maneuvering out to be completely clear before turning.
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Posted by Grant Headifen on February 24, 2009 under Crew, Maneuvering Under Power, Skipper |
This is the first in a series of blogs on how to leave a slip or end tie. Some combinations of wind and current can get complicated and some are easy. The first shown below is the easiest. Stay tuned to this series and we’ll show all.
For all scenarios – Prior to push off:
- Start engine and ensure it is adequately warmed.
- Ensure everything is stowed
- No dock lines are in the water to tangle the prop.
- Center the wheel.
- Guests that do not have assigned jobs should be seated.
- Give clear instructions to each crew member on their coming tasks.
- Assess the wind and current direction at the slip so you can be prepared to keep control of the vessel under the prevailing conditions.
The following diagrams show you how to use wind and current to your advantage.
END TIES
(1) Wind pushing you away from the dock
Leaving and end tie
This is the simplest scenario
- (A) Once you are confidently ready, release and stow docklines, then allow the wind to push the boat clear of other obstacles.
- (B) Engage the gear lever
- (C) Use enough power to overcome the effects from the wind. Head out to enjoy the day.
(2) Wind coming from behind
leaving an end tie wind from behind
This is a little more tricky. If you try to go out forwards the wind could potentially push you into other boats. Additionally as you turn the wheel to head out, the rear of the boat will swing around towards the dock and other boats. therefore it is recommended that you reverse out using a spring line.
- (A) Once you are confident of your plan,
- appoint a crew member to use a fender at the front of the boat to prevent the boat from touching the dock.
- Release and stow the dock lines but leave one spring line from the dock near the center of the boat attached to the front of the boat.
- The spring line should be arranged so that it is attached to the forward cleat, runs freely around the dock cleat and returns back to the appointed crew member. In this manner the crew member can release the line and retrieve it by letting it slip around the dock cleat. ENSURE that there are no knots in the line to get caught on the dock cleat as it runs through.
- Turn the wheel towards the dock and engage forward gear.
- This will have the effect of pushing the rear of the boat away from the dock.
- (B) Once the boat has turned out from the dock, engage reverse and have your forward crew member release and retrieve the spring line.
- (C) Continue backing out to be completely clear before engaging forward gear. Remember the rear of the boat will swing back towards the dock once you engage forward and turn the wheel to windward, so ensure there is plenty of room.
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Posted by Eric Perlinger on February 10, 2009 under About NauticEd |
Dear NauticEd,
I am happy to say that I have taken and passed all of NauticEd’s courses. I thank you for setting-up this on-line school. It would have taken me years to get through this material in a regular classroom setting. I am looking forward to your future courses and clinics.
With regards to the Bareboat Charter Clinic, I would suggest putting together a Charter-Boat Checklist that people print and use so that nothing is missed when picking-up a boat from the charter base. I have some notes scribbled on the subject for my own use. I will format them and would like to send them to you for review, to make sure I did not miss anything.
Eric P – Canada
Posted by Grant Headifen on February 8, 2009 under Storm Tactics |
1. Reduce sail to the appropriate sail plan early.
2. Make storm sails ready.
3. Secure all deck gear
4. Fill fuel tanks from jerry jugs if necessary
5. Secure companionway slides and hatch closed and sealed from the deck.
6. There should also be a mechanism ready to secure the hatch from below.
7. Batten down hatches and ports.
8. Don and clip on harness/tethers at all times while on deck, wear PFD, overboard alarm, personal strobe light, whistle.
9. Lee cloths positioned
10. All latches are secured below decks to prevent spillage.
11. Passageways cleared.
12. Prepare a warm meal, put warm drinks in thermoses.
13. Obtain position fix, communicate position and situation to land base(s).
14. Charge batteries
15. Remove bimini and secure all loose objects on the decks.
16. Ensure that a furled genoa cannot deploy or remove it from forestay
17. Determine and review storm tactics
18. Begin heavy weather watch schedule.
19. Close all unnecessary through hulls and seacocks
20. Perform the entire routine maintenance and monitoring protocol.
These were bought to you by the NauticEd Storm Tactics Clinic and by the author Captain Ed Mapes.
Storm Tactics
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Posted by Grant Headifen on February 7, 2009 under Crew, Skipper |
There has been a request for further elaboration of the wind vectors as to why the true wind is always behind the apparent wind. Previously we used this diagram and the confusion is that the true wind vector is in front of the apparent wind vector.
The following diagram explains the vectors better perhaps. The answer is to look at the direction the arrows not their relative position on the diagram.
wind vectors, true versus apparent
Fig A and B are the same. But now in Fig B it is easier to imagine standing on the boat and holding your arm out pointing to the direction of the wind that you feel (apparent wind). Then taking your arm and pointing further aft. This is the direction of the true wind. The rule is consistent. No matter which sail point you are on, the true wind is always behind (coming from further aft) than the apparent wind. Again, think of the car example in the previous blog on this topic.
This morming as I am writing this blog an intersting second example came up. A friend just called to ask if I’d like to play tennis. However, it is quite windy outside today (good day for sailing). In the mucho talk that proceeded, he said that he hits the ball so hard that the ball would not deflect very much in the wind. If his flabby muscles really could hit the ball that hard, then he is correct due to this true vs apparent wind discussion here. If the (true) wind is blowing from across the court, a faster moving ball feels less side wind and more wind from the front. A slower ball would feel more of the side wind and be affected more. As the ball travels, the true wind is coming from the cross court direction where as the apparent wind (what the ball feels) is from the direction of my flabby friend.
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Posted by Grant Headifen on February 6, 2009 under Crew, Skipper |
One issue that appears most often with new sailors learning to sail is focusing too much attention on the electronic wind meter or the wind direction indicator (the pointy arrow thing at the top of the mast).
learn to sail with a wind meter
The windmeter above which is installed on most modern sailboats shows that the wind is coming from 60 degrees off your bow and is blowing at 24.3 knots (Hope your sails are reefed in). You should be sailing on a close reach. Do you know if it is starboard or port? See the answer at the bottom of this post.
Imagine driving down the highway looking at your speedometer for more than 10 seconds. You would surely have an accident. Now relate this to looking at your wind instruments. As with a speedometer in a car, you only need to look at them for long enough to gain the information it is telling you (IE check wind instruments for about 1 second every 10 seconds). The rest of the time your eyes should be up out of the boat and looking at your surroundings and the horizon taking note of which tree, house, cloud, island etc that you are sailing towards. You make your course corrections when looking out of the boat then you check the wind instruments to see if you’re back on the desired wind angle. If not then lift your head out of the boat again and make a new course correction. In this manner you can judge exactly how much your boat is turning.
If you make course corrections while looking at the wind instruments you will tend to over shoot every time. Think about trying to drive down a highway using a compass only and stay in a straight line or make a 90 degree turn using a compass. Not really possible or practical yet the tendency to do this when sailing is high. Rid your self of any such habit from day 1.
People ask “well what if you’re on the open ocean and there are no objects to point at”. Don’t worry – by the time you get to the open ocean you’ll have the “FEEL”.
This discussion is equally similar when you give the helm over to a novice. The best thing to do to a novice is to start them out by having them aim at something so that they can get used to sailing in a straight line using small 1/4 turn max corrections on the wheel. Trying to explain to someone who has never taken the wheel about the wind indicators is pretty pointless.
As you’re becoming more confident in your sailing abilities you can test your self out on a clear steady wind day by looking at the wake you’re leaving and ensuring it is in a straight line. This will tell you if you’re tending to slightly over steer and keeping focused on the job at hand.
Remember this:
You’re a sailor if …
you can hold a course,
and hold a drink,
and hold a conversation.
And if you can do that while telling a joke – then you’re advanced.
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Starboard!
Posted by Grant Headifen on February 5, 2009 under weather |
You can get an iMap weather plugin for your website or blog. The map below is in real time.
Posted by Grant Headifen on February 4, 2009 under Crew, Skipper |
Here is an easy description of true wind and apparent wind. Put you hand outside the window of your car traveling at 60 miles per hour on a still day and your hand will feel a 60 mile per hour wind. That’s apparent wind yet the true wind is zero. What if the car was driving into a 20 mile per hour head wind? Your hand would feel 80 mph. Or if the wind was blowing from behind at 20 mph, your hand would feel 40mph.
Now what about a cross wind of 20 miles per hour? Well we need to do a little Pythagorean theorem work on this. What is the square root of the sum of 60 squared plus 20 squared? Your hand would feel 63.24 mph and mostly from a direction in front of the car. If the car accelerated to 100 mph your hand would feel 102 mph again mostly from the front. If the car decelerates to 10 mph your hand would feel 22 mph mostly from the side of the car and if he car stopped you’d feel the full true wind of 20 miles per hour from the side of the car. What ever your hand feels is the apparent wind. The apparent wind equals the true wind when your car is not moving.
When determining direction of the wind, the faster the car goes the more the apparent wind direction comes from the direction of travel of the car. Again imagine the cross wind. At 1 mph the apparent wind feels almost like the true wind from across the car. As the car accelerates the wind feels more and more like it is coming from the front.
This is similar to a boat. The faster the boat sails into the wind, the more the apparent wind speed increases and the more it feels like it is coming from the front of the boat. As a general rule of thumb then, when sailing the true wind is about 15 degrees more towards the back of the boat. IE point to where you feel the wind is coming from then point 15 degrees further back and that is about where the true wind is coming from.
The following diagram illustrates this.
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