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Event Report |
Boat & EquipmentThis section describes the boat and the equipment that we took with us, and how it performed. The Boat Take a look in the ‘Catamaran’ section of the website if you want to know more about the boat itself. The boat looked after us well; the only thing we broke was a batten (probably during the pitchpole off St Catherine's Point). Dry Storage Last-minute supply complications meant we had to think again. We used the same drybags but attached them to the spinnaker pole with some heavy duty 2” self-adhesive Velcro, and stopped them swaying around with some simple bracing lines tied back to the bridle wire tangs at the bows.
This arrangement worked very well (everything stayed dry) although it was not as convenient as the proposed stowage bag system; to get anything out you had to balance on the bow of a hull, leaning against a bridle wire, hold the bag neck with one hand and wriggle stuff out with the other. It would not have worked had we needed to access the bag contents on the move. Water Storage They were located inside foam pockets, which were glued to foam supports at the stern, with drinking tubes routed through grommeted holes in specially adapted hatch covers. To take a drink you leant over the back of the boat, opened the valve on one of the drinking lines, squeezed the mouthpiece with your teeth and sucked.
They worked very well. We used much less water than we thought (about 2.5 litres), mainly because we were so cold for most of the day. We also had some drink in cartons as part of the food allowance. Helmets To be honest we were not completely convinced that helmets were necessary (we have not heard of anyone being knocked unconscious whilst sailing any type of catamaran, let alone a Spitfire which has a small diameter, lightweight high boom) but having done the event (and sailed in a good F5 in the dark) we believe that they were certainly worth taking. Apart from anything else they give you a sense of security. Communications The major mobile phone companies all have good coverage around the Island - we took phones on the Orange and Vodaphone networks and had no problems getting a signal with either (we were reporting every hour during the day, and every half hour at night). The original intention was to use Bluetooth headsets so that we could voice-dial and report from the trapeze, and avoid having to use the phone directly from the waterproof bag. Surprisingly there is only headset on the market that claims to be anywhere near waterproof - the Blutrek X2. We tried to scrounge a couple of these free from the manufacturer but ended up buying them at the last minute and had no time to test them. They were an unmitigated disaster for 2 reasons. Firstly they lasted about an hour in the conditions (which I guess was fair enough since they only claimed to be ‘water resistant’). Secondly when they were working you couldn’t make yourself heard over the noise of the boat. Charles was reduced to listening to what the person was saying, then taking the headset out of his ear and shouting into it. Not the best £88 we have spent.... We took a handheld VHF for emergency communications and for listening to shipping movements (although it stayed off except for the couple of times we used it to talk to the support boats). It is a necessary safety item because in an emergency the RNLI can home-in on the signal. The unit (a Cobra MR HH300 EU) claimed to be waterproof but it certainly wasn't. GPS The Lowrance is a very impressive GPS with lots of useful features but sadly our unit was not as waterproof as the manufacturer claims. The Garmin worked perfectly throughout. As mentioned in the Narrative section the failure of the main GPS meant that we lost almost all our track information, but we also lost a valuable navigational tool. There were a couple of occasions at night when it would have been useful to know exactly where we were (off Bembridge Ledge at low tide in the dark for example), and the result was that we played safe and sailed further out than we needed to. Conversely we were much closer to St Catherine’s point at night than we were during the day (we wanted to give it a wide berth at night and would have sworn we were further off than the position reports subsequently showed us to be). Other Navigational Equipment Navigation Light The light was a standard 10W marine type, modified to seal it (if the boat inverts the light is subjected to a water pressure of about 1.85 atmospheres). We made a simple aluminium bracket for it, pop-riveted to the top of the mast (in case you are confused the picture of the mast top is taken in Richard’s garden with the mast on the boat trailer).
The light was powered by a battery, which we mounted at the bottom of the mast on the spanner arm (which projects conveniently from the front of the mast on the Spitfire). Because of the required power capacity this had to be a lead-acid type (sealed leak-proof design). Navigation Bag
Miscellaneous Items Since we expected to be sitting down for a long time (and we did), we took along a couple of ‘Sea Square’ foam mats, tied on of course! We also rigged a restraining line between the mast foot and the rear beam which we could both ‘clip onto’ using our trapeze harnesses when in the sitting position. From previous experience it can be hard on the lower back to stay in the sitting position for a long time especially if the boat is moving fast (you have to make rapid course changes particularly with the spinnaker up and you are continuously bracing yourself against the boat movement). Clipped onto the restraining line, you can both lean your weight against it and save your back and stomach muscles. We took a throwing line - a weighted tennis ball and length of line tied to the mast foot. A cat will drift very fast downwind (whatever way up it is) and it can be difficult for a swimmer to keep up. The throwing line can be used either as a lifeline to someone in the water, or a ‘way back’ for someone going into the water to rescue a crewmember. Toilet Matters Individual Equipment Food We also took a thermos full of hot water plus some cuppa soups and coffee. Charles was hoping that one of the Safety Boats might accidentally ‘lose’ the odd thermos full of hot chocolate and a few muffins over the side, just in from of us, but it was not to be. Eye Wear Richard ended up with extremely sore eyes as a result of getting sea water thrown into his face all night; the learning point is to take some sort of eye protection to wear in the dark if it’s windy and/or rough.
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© Richard Golden & Charles Howting, July 2006 • A Corporate Communications web site
We both carried a miniflare pack, rescue knife, torch and mobile telephone on us, in a small zip-up bag (child’s pencil case) strapped to our buoyancy aids, as modelled by Charles in the photograph. Nice hat…..