Breaking Boats.

 No, this isn't a post about boat breakers and second hand parts, but a post about the broken boats of this season's Vendee Globe race.

We've had a dismasting, then Jeremie Beyou damaged his ruder and had to sail Charal back to France for repairs and restart the race, we had a mainsail tear, then we had Alex Thomson's structural failures in his bow, then he also broke a rudder and has effectively retired from the race.

But all of those pale into insignificance when you hear the tale of the past 24 hours and the sinking and rescue of Kevin Escoffier by Jean Le Cam. 

First the sinking: Yesterday morning Kevin was able to get a short message out to his team that he was taking on water and sinking. Immediately after his EPIRB was activated.

The authorities in charge instantly redirected the nearest Vendee competitor: Jean Le Cam to Kevin's predicted position. Luckily Jean was able to get Kevin about his boat last night.

Then this morning we heard the horror story of the sinking of Kevin's boat PRB.

Apparently the boat snapped in half. Kevin was on deck attending to the sails when the boat rode down one wave into another at 27 knots. He heard a crack and instantly the bow of the boat raised up at 90 degrees to the back end. 

Kevin went below and already what was left of the boat was full of water. His grab bag was 3 metres under water. He had time to send a message to his team before the electrics were overwhelmed by the inrushing sea water. He donned his survival suit, launched the life raft and climbed aboard. All of this happened within the sickeningly quick time of two minutes.

Personally I think Alex Thomson dodged a very serious bullet when he caught his structural failures in the bow. Hugo Boss could have been the first boat to lose a bow if Alex hadn't caught the cracks in his bow early. The question neds to be asked if the other Vendee skippers were asked to check they bow structure after Alex's issues, if they already do regular checks of if it was considered just limited to that boat.

This edition of the Vendee has been unique because of the boat-smashing gales encountered so early on in the race. Usually the boat-breaking happens in the Southern Ocean. One can only think that is a good thing, because as the race continues the boats get stretched out further and rescue becomes more lengthy and remote. At least in the southern Atlantic the boats were in such a position that three Vendee competitors could be diverted for the rescue. 

It just so happens that Jean Le Cam was closest, arrived first and was able to successfully find Kevin and recue him.

I'm sure several questions will be asked by the Vendee Globe authorities now on the designs of the new IMOCA boats and their ability to survive a full circumnavigation. It seems that there has been a paring away of the safety margin when it comes to structural rigidity. 

Hopefully orders will come out of race control for skippers to check their bow structure on a very regular basis and to immediately back off if any issues are detected. Especially on the newer boats that haven't been round a circumnavigation and haven't been able to put the time in at sea in rough conditions.

Best wishes to Kevin, I'm thankful that he's safe. Also the Legend of that man Le Cam grows. Not only was he sailing a non-foiling boat up with the fastest foilers, but he's been able to recue a fellow competitor as well. Payback of course for his own rescue, but still impressive seamanship all the same.

Upgrade Story Part1: A Tale of Two Duets.

 Ok, you've had the teaser, here's the first instalment of the upgrade story that will hopefully explain why i I was installing a new display board for my instruments.

So, There I was a few weeks ago, cruising eBay. Well actually checking my saved searches. I have a permanent search for NASA sailing products. Up popped a Duet display.  

The Duet is one of the most popular of NASA's Clipper displays because it combines a Depth and speed readout. Easily the two most popular readouts used by sailors. Even used Duet units can go for silly money, just because they are so popular.

This Duet unit was a bit worse for wear, missing digits on the LCD display.

Well, if it's dry solder joints I can sort that out and if it's something else..... well if it's cheap enough I won't lose much sleep. It's worth a punt.

It was cheap up until the last few seconds: there's always a sniper on eBay!. I duly won it for £21. Not that cheap. But cheap enough.

It took a few weeks to get around to testing it and unfortunately the problem was corrosion on the pins for the display itself:

Those discoloured pins were the cause. I assume the connection to the LCD in the glass had been destroyed. I tried a few remedies, but none worked. 

Consigned to the parts bin then.

For a month anyway.

Then another popped up on eBay. This one completely broken and described as such on eBay. No display but again, if it was cheap maybe I could repair or make two good 'uns out of the pair of bad 'uns.

I won it for the start price, 99p. No competition thanks to the honest description. So two NASA Clipper Duet units for £22 plus the postage (nobody counts postage on eBay bargains, right?).

So I set to for a second round with the latest unit. Dead as the proverbial dodo.

When I opened it I more or less knew why. 

All that furry stuff over the PCB is the guts of an exploded capacitor. Either over voltage or reverse voltage. But something catastrophic has happened to this unit. 

But no matter, I wasn't that interested in the electronics, the LCD display appeared flawless. No corrosion on the pins. So I dug the old faulty unit out and dismantled it.

The first thing to do was resolder the wires connecting the two PCBs of the unit together. This seems to be a weak spot of the Duet unit as both units had pretty weak connections where the wires are soldered to the PCB. Maybe NASA could put a bit of hot glue on the pcb over the wires to support them. It would help loads.

Here's the Wires, not looking good after a few years. Bad form NASA, you could fix this so easily:

So, two unit in peices, let's get them assembled hopefully into a single working unit.

Here's the creation of Franken-Duet in process:

Anyway, duly resoldered, the LCD displays were swapped over. Then the moment of truth, wuld there be missing digits?

Look here: 

Looks promising, let's wait.

Oh yeah! It works!

So with a bit of ingenuity I have a working NASA duet for £22. Not bad considering even used examples can go as high as £50 on eBay. Just needed some soldering skills and a bit of faith it would work out. Things you definitely need when on a very tight budget.

So, I can now combine the depth and speed sensors into one unit. Which is good, because the next instalment details how I needed to make some space on my instrument board. In actual fact I needed a bigger board.

Upgrades

Just a picture to show you what I've been working on this weekend. More info and a full article about it in the next few weeks once it's all done.

Nav Light Fitted

Well, I got on the boat and got the Nav light done. Took two days as I only stayed on board for about an hour each day. I'm still quite washed out from the heart attack.

Yesterday I didn't have enough stainless nuts, so a trip to Marine Superstore at Port Solent got me a few nuts. Thankfully they are open on Sundays early enough I could pick up my bits and get on the boat before high tide.

But here it is in all it's glory:

The white gel coat is spread about a bit as I used it to fill in some spider cracks that were in that area. Looks like the core had blown a bit there. 

I fitted a socket rather than use the original "wire through the deck" approach. If it ever becomes necessary to replace the nav light I can simply wire it to the socket and bolt it to the bracket. It just makes the job simpler and if necessary I can wire the lamp up ate home and take it to the boat to fit it, saving time.

The back of the light is fully sealed and being LED I shouldn't have to worry about it for a few years.

Looking around the boat, the windows are in urgent need of replacement rubbers, so I'm going to have to save up for that. I'll do one window first so I only order a quarter of the rubber I need. I don't actually know what the sizes are and Google unfortunately isn't helpful, 

So I'll order 3 metres of rubber and have a go at one of the windows. If the rubber isn't the right size then I've only ordered one window's worth.

Right now I'm back home, the Mrs is doing tea and I'm recovering. This heat isn't helping!

Fingers Crossed....

I should hopefully be able to get on the boat tomorrow!

The wife is working, so there are no shopping expeditions on the horizon, so I should be free and clear.

I have a rear LED Nav Light to fix in place and wire to finalise the hull nav lights. The mast lights will have to wait their turn.

If I have time, I may wire in the external socket for the horn too. Then all I have to do is mount the horn on the cabin top somewhere.

In other exciting news, I have a large lump of oak it the outhouse, drying. I found a place on eBay that will deliver an oak sleeper including delivery for 30 Quid. A 2.4m sleeper will be more than enough to make a mast beam. I can cock it up and have enough wood to make another if I have to. 

I also have stainless nuts to replace the ones missing off the outboard bracket. I'll fit those too.

A flask of coffee and some sandwiches for lunch will be in the bag too.

Let's hope parking isn't a nightmare.

Watching a Sinking

I was back at Eastney on Sunday. The wife wanted a picnic and what better thing to do than park up at the entrance to Langstone harbour watching the watercraft.

Much hilarity watching the Harbour Master try and control the jetskis. One unfortunate chap cam hooning into the harbour entrance, past the harbour master, then turned around and went past him again even though the harbour master was holding his hand up for the jetski to stop.

Sadly for the jetskit on the other side of the entrance was a bi Police rib. Which promptly gave chase! Those Police ribs have some acceleration! Jetski man sheepishly came back in the harbour with the Police and had his name taken by the harbour master and then endured another 15 minute lecture.

About half an hour later I noticed a boat in some difficulty amongst the fishing boats near the harbour entrance. I had noticed him go through the fishing boat moorings and thought it a bit tight to get through there. Not something I'd personally attempt. Especially after what ensued.

The yacht got pinned up against a fishing catamaran. Not a small thing. The tide was running into the harbour at quite a rate and at least once I saw the yacht tip over dangerously as it went side-on to the current.

Around the same time the harbourmaster rib noticed the same boat and scooted over to offer assistance.

By now the yacht had tied onto the bow of the cat I guess because when he was pinned to the bow of the cat by the tide, the bow of the cat holed the yacht below the water line. The second harbourmaster rib got a call and went over. But now the yacht was down at the bow.

Then the Gosport lifeboat came round the corner hopefully to bring pumps. Then 10 minutes later the Portsmouth lifeboats were launched too. I was parked next to the lifeboat station and watching the ensuing drama, so they didn't have far to go.

Unfortunately the yacht had by now gone down top the gunnels at the bow and to be honest it looked like the line to the cat was the only thing stopping it from going under.

The lifeboat guys put pumps aboard, but to no avail: the angle of the mast kept creeping further and further to the horizontal as the bow went under the surface. At one point it got to about 45 degrees.

In the end they made the decision to cut their losses and let the yacht sink in case it damaged the cat or took that down too. They cut it free from the cat and the yacht drifted maybe 50ft with just the stern above the water before it succumbed and slipped beneath the surface.

It settled on the seabed with about 4ft of mast still above the water. Such a sad thing to watch for any boat owner.

The two people on the yacht were taken to the lifeboat station and I assume at some point the yacht will be lifted from the bottom as it lies amongst the deep water moorings on the eastern side of the harbour entrance.

UPDATE: I went down the boat tonight for a couple of hours and noticed the mast of a boat at an angle over the other side of the shingle spit. I guessed it was the boat from the weekend. After coming off the boat I walked down to have a look.

Here's what I found:

Looks like the boat has been semi-floated out of the entrance. Hopefully it can be pulled further up the shingle to expose it. This was high tide, but I doubt much will be exposed at low tide.

It's a shame bu it looks a total loss.

Gosport Lifeboat have their side of the story with dramatic pictures of the sinking here: http://gafirs.org.uk/2020/07/13/collison-and-sinking-lifeboat-crews-respond-to-calls-for-help/

I went down to Eastney this week and the boat was almost floating:

One of Too Few Visits.

I visited the boat today, just for a short while to refit the solar panel. I removed it a few weeks ago when I found it had stopped charging the battery. when I checked it out at home, I found the wires in the junction box on the back of the panel had corroded and had become disconnected.

So a new sealed box on the back of the panel and cleaning of the wires ensued and the whole lot was sealed to prevent corrosion.

Back on the boat today I checked the battery voltage. It was 12.8 volts, which isn't bad for a battery that has been left on it's own for a couple of months without being charged. That's quite a healthy charge for a lead-acid battery.

Anyway, after the solar panel was connected, within 20 minutes it was up to 13 volts, so showing a healthy charge. 

Job done.

Then back to shore while the tide was still high. I had a small heart attack a couple of weeks ago (so mild even the doctors weren't convinced and it only showed up on a blood test) and I still have to take it easy. So the dinghy was winched up the beach. Slowly. Luckily I still have the tirfor style winch from when I pulled my back. So that came out to play again. 

Instead of taking 5 minutes to pull the dinghy up the beach, it takes 15 instead with the winch. But hey, I'm still alive!

When back on land I was reminded why I don't like single keelers with beaching legs.

This blue boat had one of it's legs collapse and the boat had tipped over onto Meagles next door. 

While I was winching the dinghy up the beach there was loud twanging from the rigging of the two boats as the backstay of the blue boat slid down the forestay of Meagles as the tide dropped.

I hope they get sorted without any damage, but Meagles' forestay looked under a lot of tension and the blade of the roller furler was bending from the weight of the other boat.