ARC as a way to look at how different types of boats sail

[jahzoo]

Originally Posted by Polux

and because you fell in love with that boat I agree, it is easy to fall in love by a beauty like that and is not only beautiful as it sails like a rocket

Gentlemen
thanks for the flowers, I even don't have this nice picture you posted!

I would like to add this video from our ARC start in Las Palmas on 24th Nov.
I don't know if it works, you can find it also under youtube:
http://youtu.be/p9IXuy6Bqvk

Best
Peter

[Polux]

Great sailing, great boat, nice video. Thanks for posting it

and since I am posting again I would take the opportunity to say that the Mason 44 and the Nauticat 43 arrived today, 10days after Peter's 45ft cat and that the slower boat, the Island Packet 380 still has to sail at least two more days to arrive.

[robert sailor]

Well Polux I did say we would post our crossing time, keep in mind our landfall was St. Maarten which is close to a day further than St.Lucia if my figures are correct. Almost 19 days on the head from Gran Canaria. Short handed of course and not sailing it that hard. First week was excellent but a low pressure slipped a bit further south than we anticipated and that made for the largest squalls I have ever sailed in plus we were beating and close reaching for 2 days. We kept in touch with other crossers on the SSB and the winds were all over the place depending exactly where you were even those on similar longitudes and only 50 miles apart on latitudes saw winds 5-10 knot differences. We did not motor, that was helped by contaminated fuel which eventually shut us down completely which meant the last day we were sailing in 8 knots of wind, down wind..fun! Still an OK passage. We had 2 days in the 170's, 2 more in the 160's and the last day I won't mention, LOL.

[neilpride]

Robert congratulations for the croosing, i got a question, where is your fuel tanks located in the boat? topsides? Cheers ...

[robert sailor]

Fuel tank is located below the double aft berth. Filler is on top of the rear deck. Merry Xmas!

[Polux]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Well Polux I did say we would post our crossing time, keep in mind our landfall was St. Maarten which is close to a day further than St.Lucia if my figures are correct. Almost 19 days on the head from Gran Canaria. Short handed of course and not sailing it that hard. First week was excellent but a low pressure slipped a bit further south than we anticipated and that made for the largest squalls I have ever sailed in plus we were beating and close reaching for 2 days. We kept in touch with other crossers on the SSB and the winds were all over the place depending exactly where you were even those on similar longitudes and only 50 miles apart on latitudes saw winds 5-10 knot differences. We did not motor, that was helped by contaminated fuel which eventually shut us down completely which meant the last day we were sailing in 8 knots of wind, down wind..fun! Still an OK passage. We had 2 days in the 170's, 2 more in the 160's and the last day I won't mention, LOL.

Congratulations for a nice passage...but I would have preferred if you had done it with the rest of the crowd from the ARC. You leaved from Canaries how many days after them? Anyway you did much better than the really old boats on the ARC, like the Nauticat, the Mason and the IP. The IP is still at 2 days from arriving. Anyway it was expected, your boat is faster than those oldies and certainly you are a good sailor. Again cheers for you and enjoy the sun

Merry Christmas to you and family.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by jahzoo

Gentlemen
thanks for the flowers, I even don't have this nice picture you posted!

I would like to add this video from our ARC start in Las Palmas on 24th Nov.
I don't know if it works, you can find it also under youtube:
http://youtu.be/p9IXuy6Bqvk

Best
Peter

Peter,

Thanks for the posting, and it looked like the boat is fun to drive. What was the foresail you had up in the video, and was that with full mainsail also?? How often did you use that combination, and did you reduce sail at night??

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Polux

Congratulations for a nice passage...but I would have preferred if you had done it with the rest of the crowd from the ARC. You leaved from Canaries how many days after them? Anyway you did much better than the really old boats on the ARC, like the Nauticat, the Mason and the IP. The IP is still at 2 days from arriving. Anyway it was expected, your boat is faster than those oldies and certainly you are a good sailor. Again cheers for you and enjoy the sun

Merry Christmas to you and family.

Notice: All Atlantic Crossings must first be approved by Polux!

[robert sailor]

You know its really hard to compare boats, if we had sailed south we would have shaved off a day as the boys down there had much stronger steady winds for the last week but we did have great conditions to begin with except for a couple of days. Had a Benni 47 50 miles south of us and we pretty much stayed the same longitudes for close to a week but we don't reef down at night and we do carry as much sail as we can, up to a point of course. Everyone has a different style and everyone had different winds. You would have to have sailed side by side to actually compare boats. I will say that for a first impression that part of the Atlantic is an easy sail compared to crossing the South Pacific, way less to deal with so its easy to see why everyone is so high on the lighter production boats as it is a bit like a big lake for most of the time. We really enjoyed the Med but now its time to check this place out although engine repairs are grounding us for a few weeks. Cheers, R

[neilpride]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

Fuel tank is located below the double aft berth. Filler is on top of the rear deck. Merry Xmas!

Ouch sorry Robert, i miss my real question, is about the fuel tank vents , since we have 2 boats here with fuel problems , one with few gallons of saltwater in the tanks, they have the vents in the topsides, my guess is when they sail in that tack the vents suck sea wáter, i wonder if you have the same problem?Cheers.

[robert sailor]

Hi Neil,
Thanks, been there done that, LOL. The vent is high in the stern with a big anti siphon loop in it so no issue there. My last boat, a Tartan had the vents in the cockpit, we filled it 3 or 4 times enroute to the Cooks and it ruined my engine which was brand new. Had to have it pulled and taken apart and new parts including HP pump and injectors/rings etc. I have been very sensitive ever since, LOL.

[Polux]

Originally Posted by DotDun

Notice: All Atlantic Crossings must first be approved by Polux!

What a senseless comment. Do you posted it in bold just to make even less sense?

I said that I would have preferred Robert to sail with the other boats for having the same conditions and be able to better appreciate his performance as sailor and the performance of his sailboat, since whenever direction he chose to sail, there was a lot of boats that would have chose the same option.

This seem strange to you? Or justify that comment of yours?

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Polux

What a senseless comment. Do you posted it in bold just to make even less sense?

I said that I would have preferred Robert to sail with the other boats for having the same conditions and be able to better appreciate his performance as sailor and the performance of his sailboat, since whenever direction he chose to sail, there was a lot of boats that would have chose the same option.

This seem strange to you? Or justify that comment of yours?

And he'll never improve as a sailor or human in general without your assessment of his performance. His loss!

[Polux]

Originally Posted by DotDun

And he'll never improve as a sailor or human in general without your assessment of his performance. His loss!

No, that would not be of interest to Robert, just for me.

Merry Christmas to you too.

[monte]

We crossed from the canaries 1 week before the ARC. Jaguar passed us about mid way, flying. I'm not sure when you left Robert but it sounds like you had the same trough on that low pressure system north of the Caribbean Islands. We had the most amazing electrical storm I've ever seen, one of the yachts nearby lost all it's masthead gear and electronics. We just had our watermaker turn itself on after a nearby strike. Strangely the wind was from the SSW. Squalls from the south and the electrical storm coming from the north, all converging on us. It must have been around the date of the synoptic chart posted above because we were directly under the bottom of the trough line.
Here you can see a radar image of the squall and electrical storm.

One thing I did learn during our crossing is why people say they deliberately slow the boat for comfort. We started out pretty hard, trying to out sail the low that hit the canaries just before the start of the ARC. A couple of days of enjoying double digit speeds under parasailor in 4m swells soon took their toll. Pulling down the parasailor at night in 38K isn't really fun, especially with an inexperienced crew. I found I wasn't getting enough rest being constantly on watch and arching over the other watches.
15K surfs are a fast way to get somewhere but I was tired and a bit concerned about gear damage so we spent most of the next week just under jib at night so I could get some rest and to take care of Sephina.
The three lagoon 400s all arrived within 12 hrs of each other.
I think the poorly sailed boats mentioned above are more likely to be shorter handed, non racing owners and crew that were taking it easy the same as we did. Racing for 2-3 weeks isn't everyone's cuppa.

Amazing sky's during our crossing though....