LEXIA & AZAB

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  • 27 Apr 2011 13:38
    Reply # 578752 on 578295
    My suggestion (untested) would be to buy a small gasoline-powered portable generator. I've seen some little bigger than one cubic foot, easily carried with one hand. When you want to top up the batteries, put it on deck and run it. Unlike your engine, it will be running at a good load.

    Probably cheaper and more reliable than a wind turbine. Not as cute, though.
  • 27 Apr 2011 13:22
    Reply # 578743 on 578295
    David, I am most grateful for the advice.  It sounds good.  I can't and don't sew having neither the machine nor the skills, but I could put a tied loop in the ends or get a number sewn  by a professional.  My perception is that the parrels might have benefitted from being longer rather than shorter.  When I get back to the boat I will get into business on them. 
  • 27 Apr 2011 12:12
    Reply # 578669 on 578622
    Jonathan Snodgrass wrote:

    Also, I would be very pleased to receive advice and suggestions from anyone on what size and type of rope to use for the batten parrels.  The current batten parrels were probably too thin and perhaps not the right type of rope and perhaps too short and tight, but they did not all survive the 500 mile passage.  I suppose that the answer is in Practical Junk Rig but I admit that I do not yet have a copy.  For information the sails are 217 and 337 square feet, the battens are stiff aluminium alloy tube and the sails have cambered panels.  Failing any more informed advice, I will just replace them with thicker rope as they fray.  However, do I recall seeing plastic tube used as reinforcing, or am I just imagining it?   

    1 inch heavy-duty webbing, as used for jackstays, is my favourite - the load is spread over a large area. Sew a loop in each end, and then lash it in place with small stuff.
    PVC tubing is not very good, because of its high coefficient of friction. Nylon tube would be good, though.
  • 27 Apr 2011 11:31
    Reply # 578622 on 578295

    Dear Robert

     

    Thank you for your comments which are of course very valid.  For good or ill I have again entered a race.  I do not expect to come anywhere other than last but I do hope to get a bit further than I did on OSTAR 2009.  I can only salute you and others who cruise enginless and with minimal electronics.  I am however required to have an engine and most of the electical apparatus that I listed. 

     

    I have considered a towing generator and as always it is swings and roundabouts.  I don't expect that it will be downwind all the way to the Azores and back.  Also perhaps my view of towed generators is coloured by my experience of crossing the Atlantic with friends when the towed generator seemed to be somewhat problematic, particularly when deploying and retrieving it.  I was always relieved to finish that exercise with all my fingers still in place.   However, I will certainly consider what you say for the future. 

     

     However, I now have only a few weeks before the AZAB and as everything always takes a long time to arrange I will have to have a purpose built solution.  My major concern with a wind vane on a Sunbird 32 junk rigged schooner is the siting of it.  I have looked at all the options including on the bow and amidships.  I keep coming to the conclusion that it will have to at the stern but if it is to be there it will have to be high to be above the Hydrovane wind vane and well to the stern to be clear of the main sheets.  This will not be easy to ensure.  Also it will be yet more weight on the stern, but that it why I am inclined to the Air Breeze because it is comparatively light. 

     

    However, I have not yet paid my money so I am very open to all comments and suggestions. 

     

    Also, I would be very pleased to receive advice and suggestions from anyone on what size and type of rope to use for the batten parrels.  The current batten parrels were probably too thin and perhaps not the right type of rope and perhaps too short and tight, but they did not all survive the 500 mile passage.  I suppose that the answer is in Practical Junk Rig but I admit that I do not yet have a copy.  For information the sails are 217 and 337 square feet, the battens are stiff aluminium alloy tube and the sails have cambered panels.  Failing any more informed advice, I will just replace them with thicker rope as they fray.  However, do I recall seeing plastic tube used as reinforcing, or am I just imagining it?   

  • 27 Apr 2011 10:36
    Reply # 578576 on 578295
    Deleted user
    The major lesson I learned over the six days was that I was having to run the engine for up to two hours per day to maintain the power for the various electronic systems:  vhf, navtex, chart plotter, Iridium phone, speed, depth, AIS, Sea Me, tricolour light, etc .  I tried to avoid using interior lights and the water pump, but sometimes forgot.  I currently have no alternative method of generating electricity.  Using the engine is do-able but it is noisy and a nuisance and I have no reserve method.  I am therefore yet again going to have to bite on the financial bullet.  Of the various options I think that I will opt for a wind generator. 
     
    I am poised to order a Air Breeze - latest technology ie half the weight and half the noise but with twice the power output particularly at low wind speeds, integrated electronic charging control and electronic brake.  However, they do not come cheap.  The list price via the importers, Barden, is £791 inclusive of VAT and delivery.  However, if one were to order two at a time the price would be reduced to £700 each inclusive of VAT and delivery.
     
    Would you therefore be kind enough to circulate this just in case there is someone else in UK who might be considering buying a wind generator who might be interested in combining on an order in order to make a substantial saving.  I am going to have to move fairly quickly to order one as I have only a few weeks left.  However, it is just possible that someone could be interested in combing to mutual benefit. 

    I don't have an engine and our electronics are primitive to say the least. On our travels long distance cruisers we have spoken to prefer a towing generator in the water to a wind generator. Downwind sailing does nothing to enhance a wind generators performance. A towing generator can be made with an alternator on the tafrail and a propeller on the end of a rope. Food for thought.

  • 26 Apr 2011 22:39
    Message # 578295
    I have just completed my AZAB qualifying voyage.  I cannot yet say that I have qualified because I have submitted my log book and charts and the qualification will be subject to ratification by the AZAB committee.  However, fingers crossed ...
     
    I went from Plymouth down Channel to get to the Continental Shelf and to look at the Atlantic Ocean. 
     
    "They didn't think much to the ocean,
    The waves they was piddling and small,
    There were no wrecks and nobody drownded,
    'Fact nothing to laugh at at all ." 
     
    Albert and the Lion by Stanley Holloway.  However, that was at Blackpool ...
     
    The theory was that the high pressure and consequent easterlies that had dominated for some days should collapse and then I could come back up Channel on the subsequent depression and south westerlies.  However, the high pressure continued, and continued and continued with clear blue skies, record high temperatures and easterly zephyrs.  There was also a massive red full moon and strong spring tides.  The south coast holiday makers thought the weather was wonderful.  I didn't as I tried to get back and tacked back and forth across the mouth of the Channel, sailing eighty miles a day to make forty towards home. 
     
    However, it is now done and there were no dramas - quite dull really, which is as it should be, although it does not make exciting reading.  The kitchen timer round the neck was again vital as I took sleep in short bursts.  On return to Plymouth I slept for nine hours, got up for a brief meal, and then slept for another nine hours. 
     
    The Man of the Match was the new AIS Transponder.  It is an astonishing system and a great aid to short or singlehanded sailing. 
     
    The major lesson I learned over the six days was that I was having to run the engine for up to two hours per day to maintain the power for the various electronic systems:  vhf, navtex, chart plotter, Iridium phone, speed, depth, AIS, Sea Me, tricolour light, etc .  I tried to avoid using interior lights and the water pump, but sometimes forgot.  I currently have no alternative method of generating electricity.  Using the engine is do-able but it is noisy and a nuisance and I have no reserve method.  I am therefore yet again going to have to bite on the financial bullet.  Of the various options I think that I will opt for a wind generator. 
     
    I am poised to order a Air Breeze - latest technology ie half the weight and half the noise but with twice the power output particularly at low wind speeds, integrated electronic charging control and electronic brake.  However, they do not come cheap.  The list price via the importers, Barden, is £791 inclusive of VAT and delivery.  However, if one were to order two at a time the price would be reduced to £700 each inclusive of VAT and delivery.
     
    Would you therefore be kind enough to circulate this just in case there is someone else in UK who might be considering buying a wind generator who might be interested in combining on an order in order to make a substantial saving.  I am going to have to move fairly quickly to order one as I have only a few weeks left.  However, it is just possible that someone could be interested in combing to mutual benefit. 
    Last modified: 26 Apr 2011 22:39 | Anonymous member
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