It's Americas Cup Time Again.

Well, all of the boats are now out and doing their thing.

All the boats are superficially similar, but when you get into the detail are surprisingly diverse.

I'm not that impressed by the British Boat. It looks heavy on the water and seems not to want to get on the foils as easily as other contenders. From the increased volume up front compared to the others, I assume they envisage sailing in heavier swells than the previous competition. The British boat's bow fulfils the volume requirements by having a broader skeg than most after the actual bow. Just aft of the bow there is quire a widening of the skeg area. The designer seems to have designed the skeg to cut off airflow under the hull. But not as drastically as the Swiss Alinghi/Red Bull boat. From the videos I've seen the British Ineos boat looks heavy and the skeg looks pretty much glued to the water. From videos it looks sadly as though the hull has an issue getting off the water. Did I say it looks heavy? Maybe it's nickname should be Beefy. Maybe this season's race foils will work better. Not sure why they put a skeg on it that finished almost half way down the boat towards the rudder, especially as the rudder area isn't close to the water. Instead the hull looks nose-heavy or runs in nose-down trim.

The most fair-weather design looks to be the American team. A very flat t-shape through most of the length of the hull, with a small skeg. They've fulfilled the volume required in the bow by the regulations by putting the volume up high but wide. In swells I assume they've gone for the option of getting on the foils quickly and riding the hull over the waves, rather than having part of the hull touching the waves. Certainly it already looks a light, fast boat. It certainly looks fast and light. Interestingly they've gone for recumbent cyclors I assume to get the height of the hull down. Did I say it's a very flat design? 

The Italians with Prada Pirelli, is a nice looking boat and again it looks fast and light. A deeper skeg than the American boat, but it seems to have some of the smoothest curves of the boats. I assume for aerodynamics. But nothing much aero-wise on the top of the hull. The depth of the hull is about average. Not much more to say. It seems to foil easily from videos I've seen.

The New Zealand boat seems to be in the bunch With Prada Pirelli and Ineos. However the Kiwis got the boat on the water in a matter of hours. No pussyfooting around, they were on the water and sailing straight away. Such was their confidence in the boat. And it worked pretty well. The advantage that boat has is definitely the crew. But will that be enough?

Now we get to the Swiss Alinghi/Red Bull boat. Probably the most radical in my eyes. It's not an iteration of a previous design, it's pretty much a one-off. Quite a deep design with a thin skeg, Possibly the skeg is there to block off the wind and give the hull lift. The top of the hull has had some aero work as well, with a hump under the jib. Nobody has yet figured out it's purpose yet, but as with most aero bits, it must be to change the wind speed in that area.

The differences on the boats is interesting. Most have similar lower forms to the hull as American Magic, but the upper decks are slightly different to accommodate the more upright grinders.

It saddens me that the Brit boat looks clumsy in videos I've seen. Maybe the proper foils will change that. 

American Magic looks to be the best of the contenders at the moment. But it depends on the wind and wave conditions they race in. 

I'll be watching them when they get their final race trim bolted on and dialled in. Then things might change.

Sadly Lost another Sailing Buddy Last Weekend.

As the title says, I lost another sailing buddy last weekend.

Mick had just started off on a solo Round-Britain adventure, but was lost overboard off Dover.

His lifejacket didn't inflate, I don't know whether that's because it was only a manual model, or if it was automatic and failed to activate. 

His family reported him overdue into Dover and his empty boat was found not far away. His body was recovered off Dover after a short search. 

He'll be missed, we used to discuss boaty stuff at work when he nipped in for a chat/advice. He was the person that gave me the Garmin chartplotter for Sprite.

I assume more details will come out over time, whether he died as a result of falling in the water or something happened before he left the boat. 

Those booms are always a risk, luckily I was never badly clouted by one.

I know I've been out in a gale (Force 6) just to see how Sprite performed, but I always made sure in conditions like that I was tethered to the boat. 

Mick was a really genuine, helpful and humorous guy. He always cheered you up when you talked to him. 

RIP Mick, you'll be missed and if your FaceBook profile is any judge, by a lot more people than me. 

First Yachtless Gales.

The past couple of days have been a bit blustery. It's still weird not having to worry about the boat after almost a decade of ownership. 

I hear the wind and then have to check myself thinking "I wonder how the boat is". 

I'm sure I'll get over it, but it's going to take time. 

I notice there are a few cheap boats on eBay going in Eastbourne. I really have to stop looking.

Sailing a Different Kind of Boat.

The Mrs booked us an AirBNB with a twist when we went up to Manchester last weekend to see my Mum.

I got to steer. I can't say the handling was that responsive, it took some getting used to!

Me at the Helm. Pic Courtesy of Chris from the WCBS.

Me at the Helm. Pic Courtesy of Chris from the WCBS.

Yes, we were on a historic narrowboat. On the Canal. In Winter. In below freezing temperatures.

Having a sense of adventure is a requirement!

Thanks to Chris of the Wooden Canal Boat Society for being our host. No thanks to Canal and River Trust who have forced him to make trips mandatory as part of the airBNB deal to comply with their CRT licence. 

Not easy when you have no engine, in winter, pulling/poling through ice! Yes, it's a historic Butty, an unpowered narrowboat, so no engine.

I thoroughly recommend a stay on board. But maybe not on the coldest night of the year so far. lol.

We stayed ay Portland Basin in Ashton-Under-Lyne. The area is pretty historic. 

The Museum is worth a visit and just a stroll round the area is pretty nice, The Museum has a restored canal-powered water wheel, one of the few in the country.

Water is drawn from the canal, drives the wheel and then exits via a tailrace into the river Tame, some 40ft below the level of the canal.

The WCBS have a few boats moored up at the museum, not all in good states of repair. Sadly, the charity isn't that well funded and could do with an injection of cash. If I win the lottery, they'd be the first charity I'd bung some money. They so desperately need it and they do good work with minimal funds.

The AirBNB money goes some way to helping out, mainly because the boat is already ready to use and any labour is from volunteers.

I chatted with Chris about my memories of the canal being restored. He sent me a link to a video he'd found which shows the basin and the efforts to dredge the canal in that area. 

The video is here:

Back then I was fascinated by the monorail tipper wagon they were pushing along the towpath. Being roughly 9 when the restoration was happening, sadly I didn't participate.

One gripe I have about the area is that Ashton has now seemed to turn its back on the canal. Back in the 70s, 80s and 90s there was a lot of publicity. First the restoration of the Peak Forest and Ashton canals as documented in the video above, and later the restoration of the Huddersfield Narrow canal that joins one of the three arms of the junction. There were yearly canal festivals that helped fund the HNC restoration. But once that was done in the early naughties, the canal has slipped back into some sort of quiet slumber. Just a few boats around and very few walkers.

Anyway, we braved the weather back home. Skirted the snow in London on the M25 but made it home about 11:30 at night. Straight to bed after all that driving.

Sprite Sold.

 Well, It's the end of an era. I sold Sprite 2 yesterday. In the spirit of the Skint Sailing ethos I sold her for the same price I bought her for almost 10 years ago. 

This is My last picture of her:

As you have probably noticed, I haven't been posting anywhere near as often as before. The past couple of years have been tough financially and this year has been especially tough. I'm struggling to run a car, let alone a boat on top of that. I'm just about scraping the £300 needed for mooring fees and insurance, let alone extra money for maintenance parts. The last thing I added was the new mooring block and chain back in May.

Since then I've hardly visited, just the occasional visit to pump out the bilges.

Also the previous post about the dinghy is indicative of a bigger problem down at Eastney: that the harbourmaster is removing every boat from the beach, one by one. 

There appears to be an effort to remove the cheaper end of the sailing community down at Eastney. I know some of the boats can be eyesores, but boats have been on the beach down there especially in Winter for decades and probably centuries. 

Sadly, I can't afford to run a boat now, so it's a moot point. 

Thank you to everyone that contributed comments and helped out when required. 

I'm now going to lie down in a dark room for a few days and have a good sob. lol. 

Dinghy Gone!

I went down to the boat last week, after a weekend away in Manchester celebrating my mother's 90th and my 60th birthday. Yep, I'm old!

Anyway, my dinghy had disappeared!

I noticed however, that the area where my dinghy was had been cleared. Of bushes as well as other dinghies. 

After a few emails to the Harbourmaster, I got the details of the local council clearance department.

It appears that the local council or their operatives have cleared tenders from the foreshore! 

To say I'm not happy is an understatement!

I'm currently looking for a replacement, but it's possible that this may be the final straw and I'll be looking to sell Sprite 2 in the near future.

It's a bit much to be paying a fee to the Harbourmaster which includes the ability to keep a tender on the foreshore, if the harbourmaster isn't able to prevent other agencies like the local council coming along and clearing the tenders away and destroying them. 

The icing on the cake is the local council not only won't talk to be specifically about my dinghy unless I prove ownership, but if I DO provide proof of ownership, then I may be liable for payment of the removal fees and may be open to be charged with an offence.

I don't think that the local council understand the difference between a hulk abandoned on the foreshore, and a tender that has a legitimate use.

Anyway, this has obviously left a bad taste in my mouth as I don't really have the funds to buy another dinghy. The cost of living crisis has hit hard and I don't have any spare cash to spend after bills. 

That's why I'm contemplating selling Sprite. I can't afford to maintain her and it's been bad enough over the past 12 months as I've found it hard to just pay for the mooring fee and the insurance, unlike previous years where I've had a bit of spare cash to spend. 

I'll keep you posted.

Jim's Funeral.

Went to Jim's funeral yesterday. 

One mention during the eulogy was the time his engine failed just outside Langstone Harbour and he had to be brought back in by the RNLI. As was the time his first boat sank. 

Not a lucky sailor then...

Anyway, we had a bit of a laugh at his expense, saw him off and then went down the boats to check on them. 

RIP Jim.

Now I'm helping the next generation of his family. I've been messaging online with details of how to get his boats off the beach.