Arlene Ocean Race

After the coldest morning in 150years (apparantely) we managed to crack the ice and set sail for just chilly start. Expecting a NE course the race commitee threw in a curly one ...North/South course. No matter all under control. Which course is that! Late off the line and 50 meters behind walk on the windows and OP. Head for the top mark. Course 5 Course 5 where does that go. Okay Campbell after The day bouy then back to Burnell all under control. The wind was a 10 knotish wind but as the wind instruments decided it was just too cold to play today we could just make it up as we wished. I decided it was going to be a north easterly and then it might go North so we should just sail to that. and we did. OP lead the way again and we tussled with walk on the wildside (great to see them back) and Sue Sea (great performance today). Pretty much a soldiers course today follow the leader but did have two tacks..... woo hoo. The only opportunity to really do anything, we took advantage of; on the last run from burnell back the the harbour clearance bouys sailing much deeper than OP before we gybed enabling us to sail a better angle and give them a scare. Pulled back a fair bit of distance but in the end we gybed just behind them and finished 50 meters behind then. Well sailed OP. I was down below packing the kite when we heard a hoot, thought it was the boat plumbing or something until I looked out the window and saw a ship, Quite close. No very close. Couldn't read the writing on the rivets but pretty close. No matter the anchor is down.....ummm boys why is the anchor chain going up. Think we might have to get out of here....Hooooot. In before midday , crap is the bar open yet. We are not used to getting in before about 4pm yet alone lunchtime in a Valmadre. Presentation at 6pm...could be messy. Anyones guess on handicap in 2.5 hour race, lt will be interesting to see who pings it. Nav Out for now

Arlene Ocean Race

The first valmadre attracted a big fleet of 50 odd yachts. The weather was fine with a light 10 knot North Easterly.

Not a bad start taking the starboard end and staying out of trouble, 10 secs or so late for the line but the Port end favoured the shifts leaving the port boats with the advantage. Light and shifty winds to the day mark behind OP but we had speed on them making up some lost ground, letting OP, NF go through before us. The marten breaker let go twice during the kite hoist (there goes another version out the window-back to the idea cabinet) causing a complete stuff up having to drop the 1 and letting a few boats through us, Alfresco, Knee deep. Up with no2 and off to hallbank.

Around Hall bank well behind and on the beat to cambell managed to get back in the race a couple of times with a fair bit of cat and mouse in the light and shifty winds. A couple of boats including us looking like legends before sailing into oblivion and out the back door. Ended up second around cambell and chasing OP with light kite run to 11 m iso beacon.

Syrenka came steaming down behind us and went high over the top of us with that roachy main but then tried to take a short cut before realizing they had missed a mark and had to turn back, putting us again with just OP to tackle Stanton and on the beat back to Hall bank.

All well making lost ground disappear to be 50 meters behind OP before going for breeze on the shore and parking up in the only hole around. Time for lunch while the sails hung off the boat and 0 knots of breeze for 20 minutes or so. Boats behind us had more north and sailed straight around hallbank and to cambell again. The breeze came back in and again we sailed back into the race but too many boats too close for any handicap visions of grandeur. After sailing back out of the race again we were about 5th behind synrenka, next factor, op, alfresco at cambell again. At one stage Southern star only 100m behind us with 2 marks to go.

Up went the kite again and we sailed past them in yet again in a very light westerly as yachts sailed in the opposite direction also with their kites up. The winds were that light that we created our own apparent. We were running blind with wind instruments calling it quits and saying the wind was in front of us while the kite was up. Think we have an loose connection somewhere. Mind you it could be the navigators brain.

So back to just OP in front again but they now had enough distance to be in a different breeze and pulled away. Gybed around hall bank and yet another kite run to burnell. Nav trying to do a radio sched but couldn’t work out why no one could hear him until he realized that he had the HF handset not the VHF (Doh!!).

We seemed to have the kite up all day in all directions with the wind circling around us. Gybed around burnell with a bit of a breeze line taking us to south mole and the final kite run home, but not before the wind died again and let alfresco sneak up and finish just behind. So OP by 30 minutes but could be anyones race but ours.

Still a great day to be on the water and a few cobwebs blown out.

Been pretty slack of late so apologies for the lack of news. Geograph race week was again a great event with over 100 yachts competing. Charlotte looked nice tied up at her new holiday home. The crew stayed mostly at Charlottes house with much drinking and plundering the name of the week. Unfortunately too many water based toys to play with so not many hard evenings in the bar, or is that good, not sure. Pool sharks came out of the woodwork to compete nightly during the sabatical rum sessions and disappear into the evening to plunder the bar. But they all strangely reappeared just in time for racing the next day. Feasts were a plenty and sailing was great.

Geograph still turns on the weather for great racing in light and shifting winds testing the patience of crews. Since its been so long it difficult to remember all the details but overall we finished third behind NF and OP with a couple of race wins during the week to keep them on their toes. Not bad for our first Geograph in the new boat. Once again the highlights for me were the night race and the long race with huey throwing everything at us in terms of wind.

Busselton feeder

The winds were a little shifty and fickle at the start causing a delay while the start boat tried in vain to set a line that would allow a start in the right direction. We chose a port end start, more by default than good planning as we weren't on the ball with the restart time. We picked the shifts quite well with Next factor first around the top mark and us close behind. Kites up and along until the wind died and back to head sails until the early seabreeze kicked in from the south. Down the channel we managed to go under Next factor and were first out the channel towards Coventrys with OP close behind. A sea breeze in from the South West and now it was just a question of what would happen as the day went on. Would it strengthen, would it hold, would it go back south. Should we go inside the reef chasing flatter water or should we go out. We had a drag race down behind garden Island with OP. They looked to have a bigger heady so when the wind pocked up we had the advantage, but when it dropped they did. In the end their sea miles showed taking us by 20 minutes but we learnt alot in our first ocean race on Charlotte. We learned that it is difficult to cook pizzas in the microwave oven when on starboard tack as they tend to jump out when you open the door. That the glass rotating plate from the microwave should be under the item being cooked not on top. We found all sorts of strange creatures during the night, one in particular that was often found foragging for food in the dark and was quite often found looking for mars bars on his hands and knees in the dark, but tends to growl and snap when woken from a nap. We found once again that the nav computer will without fail when you are in the middle of bouvard reef yet will work perfectly when in open water. And we decided that next time we may need to bring a kettle for coffee as it really doesn't weigh that much and caffiene is good. Best of all though is that we we discovered Charlotte is a dry boat even when bashing into it. It will be nice to get into a dry bunk on longer races. It turned out to be southwester until just before bunbury when it kicked left and to the south then kept bending to southeast to the finish just before 1am. OP first with us around 20 minutes behind just before 1 am then KD. Good racing with OP taking the overall win from us in second. Technically we should have won it easilly as our log kept saying we were doing between 11-25 knots ( I think it needs some calibrating) and our wind said it didn't get over 18 knots. Looks to be a good start for the lead up to race week and plans are well afoot for some serious on and offshore activities in the coming weeks. Stay tuned. Nav out

We're Back

Charlotte in her pen at Freo today.

After many months on the hard Charlotte was finally repaired. So have my ribs that were broken during the impact. The keel was sent back to sydney and rebuilt and centrecase replaced with a new one. Mast went back in this morning. She looks and feels brand new again and what a fantastic job by the guys who did the work.

The area around Fremantle has been resurveyed and our understanding is that the previously uncharted rock will become a new feature in the next chart update.

Today we went for a motor sail and tested the keel mechanism and instrumentation, then did the radio checks. All good. Safety review was completed back in the pen and all is in order for the Busselton feeder race on Saturday morning. Can't wait.

Charlotte will have the sail wardrobe refitted tomorrow and a test sail late afternoon with the boys planning a night on board to get accustomed again ready for Saturday morning.

See you on the water.

Naviguessor

August 29 - Disaster Strikes

Click on to enlarge

We reversed out of the Pen at 11:53am. The pressure was 1026 mBar and increasing, with clear skies, cool breeze on flat seas and a temperature of 15C. Conditions were near perfect for sailing. We lowered the keel, hoisted sails and were under sail. We were reaching at 60-70 TWA on a SW heading of 240degrees with full main and light heady at a speed of 7.2 knots in 8-10 knots of breeze from SSE (170-180 degrees). There was an outgoing tide at around 0.6 m with a minimum depth of 0.5 m expected at 3.28pm. We were just setting up to hoist a kite and bear away to the North when it felt like an explosion. We hit a submerged object that we presume to be rock at position 32 04.295 S 115 43.670 E at 12:08:33 hrs + 2 secs, 15 minutes after we left the pen. This about 0.8 nm SW of FSC harbor entrance about halfway between L and F mark. We hit harder than anything you can imagine. We hit once and stopped dead with nothing else felt. No bottom drag, no second hit. Watching the reply on Expedition is not enjoyable. Analysis of the track log on the computer shows the depth gauge was reading 5.3 to 5.5m depending the exact second we hit. Whatever we hit did not register. The minimum depth shown on the sounder on our track around the area was one measurement at 4.4 m about 15 secs after we hit but was generally showing in the 5.5 - 7 m mark for the minute prior and after the incident. Chart Depth indicates 5.1m and according to the tide charts we had 0.6m of tide at the time, meaning we should have had around 5.7m which is in line with what the depth gauge was showing. And yes the depth gauge is correct, it was showing 2.7 in the pen. We draw 3.6m of water with the keel fully down and therefore should have had more than 2m below the keel. We were reaching so there was very little heel. The point of impact looks like 200 mm from the base of the bulb therefore we hit an object that is at a water depth of around (3.4-0.6) 2.8 m Datum height. There is definitely no indication of any obstruction near this depth in this area marked on any chart. I have checked paper charts, CMaps, and Mapsource. Some charts suggest 3.7 near this area but with 0.5 we are still at 4.2m. There are rumours of old tall ship moorings in this area but we suspect a bit of reef sticking up here as anything else would have been destroyed with the impact 12 tonne at 7.5 knots coming to a dead stop. The lead on the bulb has been shortened by around 100mm and peeled back.

Nav was at the back of the boat and went flying into the wheel on the port side badly bruising a knee and chest and losing consciousness for a moment after being winded. My glasses ended up near the hatch and were smashed to pieces such was the force. The skipper flew through the air ending up near the hatchway. Another crewman nearly lost his head with a cut neck after flying into the hatch. Another was down below and flew the length of the galley. Another badly bruised his thigh against the winch. But overall everyone seems okay with just bruises and broken souls. We were lucky no one was seriously injured. Once we recovered from the shock we removed some floor panels and could see some water running in so we knew it was serious. We immediately rang Fremantle to start organizing the tammy lift ready for us while we lowered sails, started the motor and headed home. We were at the jetty at 12:21pm around 13 minutes after the incident and on the tammy lift shortly thereafter. The hydraulic keel lifted without any issues to full height for marina entry. The keel pin was inserted prior to the lift. The boat was taking on water we estimate at about 20Litres per minute and got to about 3 inches in the bilge by the time we got the boat out of the water. We had the manual bilge pumping as well as the auto bilge pumps. Here is a couple of downloads of our track showing where we hit, near L mark. We hit where I have marked “rock”. We have sailed within 10-20 metres of this spot many time before without any hint of a problem and previous log data shows the depth in this area to be 5-7 metres. The harbourmaster and DPI have stated they will be surveying the area to find out what we hit. The front of the keel is flat and the bulb has shunted on the skeg. There is damage to the carbon under the floor at the base of the keel. We cannot see any damage anywhere else. We will just have to wait and see. Could be a while before we are back on the water. I think I need therapy to get over this one.