nis24 bass strait preparations
by ROBERT AYLIFFE with IAN PHILLIPS
THE Bruce Kirby designed Norwalk Islands Sharpies 23, Charlie Fisher has the seakeeping antecedents, and over the past 18 years, actual experience of open -water passage making in blows of up to 60kts+.
No one should even consider attempting this passage without such experience and careful preparation.
The dangerous, unpredictable reputation of this region was confirmed by our recent experiences.
It has been the best sailing experience of my life, and stunning vindication of a Bruce Kirby's modern interpretation of an already legendary historical type. The working Sharpie of Long Island Sound.
Sounds simple enough.
Put the boat in the water at Port Welshpool, sail south south east along the string of islands that span the 200+ miles of strait, turn east around Flinders Island, catching the flow into Banks Strait and then south round Eddystone light and down the last 100 miles to Schouten Island, negotiating Marion Bar, running the tide in Dunalley Canal and, eventually after leaving Betsey Island to port and rounding the Iron Pot enter the Derwent and on to Hobart.
Easy.
The boat is seven metres long, flat bottomed and draws 200mm with the board up. It weighs a little over one tonne.
Some friends who know Bass Strait were vehcment that we should not do this. Because the boat is not a heavy deep keeler it was completely unsuited, they insisted. After one especially vigorous serve, at a friends' party just before I left Adelaide for Melbourne Bram Portas asked me how I felt. Gutted was my reply, especially since my critic is a friend whose opinion I usually respect. Bram suggested that I should not be too concerned. Fifteen years ago he crossed the Atlantic in an even smaller bilge keeler, surviving several force nine gales on the way. He said he had observed my boat and it had his confidence. In addition, he told me he had hanging up on his wall at home, something from the Atlantic trip that saved them in those Force 9s. He had, he said been looking for the right person to give it to. We left the party and went to his house. From the wall he took a bright yellow 'Seabrake Technologies' drogue. Bram said that the force nine gales resulted in breaking swells of up nine metres or more that had the potential to flip them end over end, but the drogue, with its bit of chain out the front, and 100m of warp steadied the boat every time.
THE Bruce Kirby designed Norwalk Islands Sharpies 23, Charlie Fisher has the seakeeping antecedents, and over the past 18 years, actual experience of open -water passage making in blows of up to 60kts+.
No one should even consider attempting this passage without such experience and careful preparation.
The dangerous, unpredictable reputation of this region was confirmed by our recent experiences.
It has been the best sailing experience of my life, and stunning vindication of a Bruce Kirby's modern interpretation of an already legendary historical type. The working Sharpie of Long Island Sound.
Sounds simple enough.
Put the boat in the water at Port Welshpool, sail south south east along the string of islands that span the 200+ miles of strait, turn east around Flinders Island, catching the flow into Banks Strait and then south round Eddystone light and down the last 100 miles to Schouten Island, negotiating Marion Bar, running the tide in Dunalley Canal and, eventually after leaving Betsey Island to port and rounding the Iron Pot enter the Derwent and on to Hobart.
Easy.
The boat is seven metres long, flat bottomed and draws 200mm with the board up. It weighs a little over one tonne.
Some friends who know Bass Strait were vehcment that we should not do this. Because the boat is not a heavy deep keeler it was completely unsuited, they insisted. After one especially vigorous serve, at a friends' party just before I left Adelaide for Melbourne Bram Portas asked me how I felt. Gutted was my reply, especially since my critic is a friend whose opinion I usually respect. Bram suggested that I should not be too concerned. Fifteen years ago he crossed the Atlantic in an even smaller bilge keeler, surviving several force nine gales on the way. He said he had observed my boat and it had his confidence. In addition, he told me he had hanging up on his wall at home, something from the Atlantic trip that saved them in those Force 9s. He had, he said been looking for the right person to give it to. We left the party and went to his house. From the wall he took a bright yellow 'Seabrake Technologies' drogue. Bram said that the force nine gales resulted in breaking swells of up nine metres or more that had the potential to flip them end over end, but the drogue, with its bit of chain out the front, and 100m of warp steadied the boat every time.
It's yours now, he said.
You will have a great voyage, come round and tell me about it when you get back.
I built the Bruce Kirby designed Norwalk Islands Sharpie 23 Charlie Fisher nearly 20 years ago. I was informed in my decision to attempt the return crossing of Bass Strait by years of react the type in American WoodenBoat magazine, and especially the exploits of 'Commodore' Ralph Munroe' with his legendary Sharpie Yacht, Egret in my well worn copy of The Commodore's Story'. By then I knew also of the experiences of David Nelson in his self built NIS23, Matilda in the impressive seas off the Kimberley in Northern Australia, and especially his tales of riding the tide walls into the gulches, seeking shelter along that forbidding coast. I also knew of the exploits of Chris Nye, and his self build modified Bolger Martha Jane leeboard Sharpie, who sailed his all the way from Adelaide to Devonport, Tasmania, then west east along. Bass Strait. He eventually fetched up in far North Queensland, where he now lives. Chris was bolder than I, the Martha Jane type have as it turns out, a dubious self-righting record.
I had by now my own many heavy weather experiences in South Australian waters, in St Vincents Gulf, Investigator Strait, Backstairs Passage and around Kangaroo Island. I was convinced that even though the boat was small, its design and antecedents meant that the only thing on this expedition we had to fear was fear itself, and our personal capacity to run the ship well at all times.
Over the preceding months I had been quietly upgrading and proving the reefing systems, with everything, including a line for the headboard, running to the cockpit, so that both sails could be reefed and finally struck into the lazy jacks completely, without ever leaving the cockpit, and so practiced that we could do it blindfold.
Joel Weatherald gave freely of his time, in the six weeks before the trip, helping me beef up the bulkheads, especially those that formed the cockpit framing. These became crash bulkheads, the effect of "which "was to make a series of Bote Cote Epoxy sealed watertight chambers from the transom to the companionway. In the forward part of the boat, half the under vee berth area was already fully sealed as a buoyancy chamber.
I have never trusted cockpit locker hatch lids. I do now. I procured some very strong off-the-shelf New Zealand made ABS plastic -waterproof locker hatches, designed for horizontal mounting. Th underframe we fitted to carry the hatches further stiffened the horizontal seat tops. The frames lowered the hatch lid height, so that there was smooth transition between the cockpit seat to| and the new hatch lids.
You will have a great voyage, come round and tell me about it when you get back.
I built the Bruce Kirby designed Norwalk Islands Sharpie 23 Charlie Fisher nearly 20 years ago. I was informed in my decision to attempt the return crossing of Bass Strait by years of react the type in American WoodenBoat magazine, and especially the exploits of 'Commodore' Ralph Munroe' with his legendary Sharpie Yacht, Egret in my well worn copy of The Commodore's Story'. By then I knew also of the experiences of David Nelson in his self built NIS23, Matilda in the impressive seas off the Kimberley in Northern Australia, and especially his tales of riding the tide walls into the gulches, seeking shelter along that forbidding coast. I also knew of the exploits of Chris Nye, and his self build modified Bolger Martha Jane leeboard Sharpie, who sailed his all the way from Adelaide to Devonport, Tasmania, then west east along. Bass Strait. He eventually fetched up in far North Queensland, where he now lives. Chris was bolder than I, the Martha Jane type have as it turns out, a dubious self-righting record.
I had by now my own many heavy weather experiences in South Australian waters, in St Vincents Gulf, Investigator Strait, Backstairs Passage and around Kangaroo Island. I was convinced that even though the boat was small, its design and antecedents meant that the only thing on this expedition we had to fear was fear itself, and our personal capacity to run the ship well at all times.
Over the preceding months I had been quietly upgrading and proving the reefing systems, with everything, including a line for the headboard, running to the cockpit, so that both sails could be reefed and finally struck into the lazy jacks completely, without ever leaving the cockpit, and so practiced that we could do it blindfold.
Joel Weatherald gave freely of his time, in the six weeks before the trip, helping me beef up the bulkheads, especially those that formed the cockpit framing. These became crash bulkheads, the effect of "which "was to make a series of Bote Cote Epoxy sealed watertight chambers from the transom to the companionway. In the forward part of the boat, half the under vee berth area was already fully sealed as a buoyancy chamber.
I have never trusted cockpit locker hatch lids. I do now. I procured some very strong off-the-shelf New Zealand made ABS plastic -waterproof locker hatches, designed for horizontal mounting. Th underframe we fitted to carry the hatches further stiffened the horizontal seat tops. The frames lowered the hatch lid height, so that there was smooth transition between the cockpit seat to| and the new hatch lids.
In addition, the hatches were placed so that the opening edge was in line with the inside vertical face of the footwell, which had the obvious consequence that no water should pool around the seal of the hatch, a fact that was to give us great peace of mind and reward us with dry lockers at the end of our journey. This was very important. The boat is too small to carry a life raft. Had to be its own life raft.
We made several pacts early on.
Pact One. No alcohol from the day before our trip till the boat is tied up at the end.
Pact Two: Not to step off the ship until the pintles were at least four metres below the sea.
How many times do we hear of 'person lost at sea'. Boat found next day, bobbing about.'
Pact Three. No piddling over the side.
Apocryphal Thesis. Most men found drowned at sea have alcohol in their blood, and their flies are undone.
Pact Four. Safety harness on at all times outside the companionway.
We should have included a fifth pact. Discipline about rest. Sometimes, it is all just too exciting!
John Duffield helped me set the boat up to have as little power draw as possible, we got rid of the incandescent globes and replaced them with LEDs everywhere in the boat, reducing the cabin and nav light draw by nearly 90%! We had to modify the socket contacts in most of the light units to suit the LED bulbs, not hard but a bit fiddly.
Offshore Energy's Troy Ryan found me an excellent 75 amp hour Gel battery, and solar panel. The battery was firmly locked down under the vee berth. Randall Cooper made new transom boarding steps, and the solar panel transom bracket in record time.
I bought the smallest autohelm I could, a RayMarine unit, in case we had light air down wind or complete calm to negotiate under the vast thrust of my venerable 3.5hp Tohatsu pull and go outboard.
The longest period of use, on the way home from St Helens in the north east of Tasmania to Goose Island was nearly 14 hours. The battery drain seemed zero. In addition, I knew we'd be frequently sailing through the night, which meant house lights, navigation lights and so on. It's quite instructive how much heat is generated by one 12 volt incandescent globe. Nav lights have three globes, and the house lights another two. So we changed the whole lot to LED globes.
My sailing companion was BoatCraft Pacific's Director, lan Philips, a tough, calm and resourceful companion on such an adventure. lan is also the manufacturer of Bote Cote Epoxy resins, and rationalised his decision to join me on the grounds that it was the ultimate test of faith in his product, a nearly 20 year old boat held together with no other fixings but Bote Cote, on a sustained return passage across one of the most notorious waterways in the world.
We made several pacts early on.
Pact One. No alcohol from the day before our trip till the boat is tied up at the end.
Pact Two: Not to step off the ship until the pintles were at least four metres below the sea.
How many times do we hear of 'person lost at sea'. Boat found next day, bobbing about.'
Pact Three. No piddling over the side.
Apocryphal Thesis. Most men found drowned at sea have alcohol in their blood, and their flies are undone.
Pact Four. Safety harness on at all times outside the companionway.
We should have included a fifth pact. Discipline about rest. Sometimes, it is all just too exciting!
John Duffield helped me set the boat up to have as little power draw as possible, we got rid of the incandescent globes and replaced them with LEDs everywhere in the boat, reducing the cabin and nav light draw by nearly 90%! We had to modify the socket contacts in most of the light units to suit the LED bulbs, not hard but a bit fiddly.
Offshore Energy's Troy Ryan found me an excellent 75 amp hour Gel battery, and solar panel. The battery was firmly locked down under the vee berth. Randall Cooper made new transom boarding steps, and the solar panel transom bracket in record time.
I bought the smallest autohelm I could, a RayMarine unit, in case we had light air down wind or complete calm to negotiate under the vast thrust of my venerable 3.5hp Tohatsu pull and go outboard.
The longest period of use, on the way home from St Helens in the north east of Tasmania to Goose Island was nearly 14 hours. The battery drain seemed zero. In addition, I knew we'd be frequently sailing through the night, which meant house lights, navigation lights and so on. It's quite instructive how much heat is generated by one 12 volt incandescent globe. Nav lights have three globes, and the house lights another two. So we changed the whole lot to LED globes.
My sailing companion was BoatCraft Pacific's Director, lan Philips, a tough, calm and resourceful companion on such an adventure. lan is also the manufacturer of Bote Cote Epoxy resins, and rationalised his decision to join me on the grounds that it was the ultimate test of faith in his product, a nearly 20 year old boat held together with no other fixings but Bote Cote, on a sustained return passage across one of the most notorious waterways in the world.
Comments
Post a Comment