What Is The Big Deal About Single Handling?

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by hoppy

You've been sailing the seven seas since 1964? Are you my daddy? All mum said was that he was a foreign seaman

Actually my 1st ocean voyage was in 1949.. but it was a passenger ship.. Liverpool to Bombay so I did not include it...

[SimonV]

Originally Posted by hoppy

My Raymarine gear is great but one annoyance is that there seems to be no way of adding an external alarm that can wake the dead.

Yes there is raymarine make the controller it converts nema to sea talk that activates the alarm, but you add the pisso alarm, mine is 110 decibels.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by SimonV

Yes there is raymarine make the controller it converts nema to sea talk that activates the alarm, but you add the pisso alarm, mine is 110 decibels.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

But does that work for alarm from the MFD (AIS/Radar) or does it only work for the ST60 seatalk instrument alarms?

I posed the question to the RM support a few years ago and I think their best suggestion was to get the small a-series so I'd have an alarm in the cabin (originally just had an e7 at the helm)

I think with the MFD it only sends the alarms to other units on the SeatalkHS (ethernet) network

[conachair]

Originally Posted by hoppy

My Raymarine gear is great but one annoyance is that there seems to be no way of adding an external alarm that can wake the dead.

Website seems to be minimal but I have one of these, fit as loud an alarm as you like.

http://www.tech-x.com.au/files/Downl...1_Op_Notes.pdf

Got it years ago, very nice bunch.

Tech-X

edit:

I think with the MFD it only sends the alarms to other units on the SeatalkHS (ethernet) network

hmm, maybe not...

[weavis]

Been working in the clinic........ almost not wanting to look at CF and this thread. But then Colreg5 insist that I keep a proper look out.

My goodness! A clear line of vision, no JT in sight nor hearing or on the RADAR!
No small wooden boats 200 miles offshore to run into.

I can go back to doing what I was doing fairly safe in the knowledge that the immediate vicinity is clear.....

I might even stay awake and enjoy it!

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by weavis

Been working in the clinic........ almost not wanting to look at CF and this thread. But then Colreg5 insist that I keep a proper look out.

My goodness! A clear line of vision, no JT in sight nor hearing or on the RADAR!
No small wooden boats 200 miles offshore to run into.

I can go back to doing what I was doing fairly safe in the knowledge that the immediate vicinity is clear.....

I might even stay awake and enjoy it!

AHh but did you use all available means when you checked

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Rustic Charm

AHh but did you use all available means when you checked

You will never know.................

Bless him. Im sure he means well.

[Jon Eisberg]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Well, for heavens sake JT, if you had been following colregs and sounding the appropriate fog signals the kayaks would have been able to avoid you. And the lobster boat would not have been unaware of your presence.

One thing that completely baffles me, is the rarity of permanently installed horns on sailboats... Even the most pissant stinkpot willy typically have a horn installed, and yet other than a Trintella 50 I used to run regularly, I'm hard pressed to recall another sailboat I've delivered that was equipped to be sounding a fog signal for an extended period. Passing off Nova Scotia last summer, I had heavy fog once abeam of Cape Sable all the way out to Cape Breton, or a bit over 2 days of sailing... Even a boxful of those little canned air horns most folks carry aren't gonna cut it in such a situation... :-)

With virtually every full-featured VHF on the market today having an option to be set up to emit horn signals when tied into a horn or megaphone, it's an easy install to configure...

I'm using an electric horn from AFI/Marinco, called the 'International Shorty'... It's nice and compact, suitable for mounting on a mast, and it's pretty damn loud, with the highest decibel rating among the electric horns of comparable size and cost...





Having installed mine years ago before I had a VHF with a sound signal capability, I used a device called the Fog Mate... Nice little unit, highly recommended for those without a newer generation VHF:

FogMate

Sadly, with AIS having become so widely adopted, the sounding of fog signals seems to be disappearing at a rapid rate... I can't recall hearing a single other vessel last summer sounding the appropriate fog signals, even when transiting the pretty busy traffic areas such as the approaches to Halifax and Canso, and the Cabot and Belle Isle Straits... Everyone seems to be assuming AIS has completely supplanted the need for horn signals, it would appear... Last time I can recall a large vessel doing so, was a few years ago when I saw the expedition yacht ITASCA at anchor near Lunenberg, NS... When the fog was in, they were sounding the appropriate signal for a motor vessel at anchor...

[Jon Eisberg]

Originally Posted by jtsailjt

Were you REALLY singlehanding overnight and going to sleep for 30 minutes at a time with icebergs nearby?! Or were you mostly coastal cruising and dropping the anchor at night so you could sleep? I agree that if you're going to singlehand overnight that would be a pretty safe place to do it, at least from the perspective of colliding with another boat, but if you were singlehanding in the sense we're talking about in this thread, weren't you terribly afraid that you could collide with a big (or small) chunk of ice while you were asleep?

You're right, once beyond the Strait of Belle Isle, I did little sailing at night...

However, I did plenty of sailing in fog, and running days as long as I was doing, took my share of naps underway... You've just gotta pick your spots...

:-)

[Exile]

Originally Posted by weavis

I can go back to doing what I was doing fairly safe in the knowledge that the immediate vicinity is clear.....

I might even stay awake and enjoy it!

Yeah sure, but what about the dang CAT?!

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Exile

Yeah sure, but what about the dang CAT?!

I have 2x 11 year old brothers. Both love catching and eating Voles and mice and stuff.

Jerry, for tis he that was sick, does not react well to live meat. He gets vomity and out of sorts. I give him a dose of medicine for his condition and in 2 hours he is fine.......

He probably is curled up on my bed at home not appreciating the love and attention he gets and just expects it. Darned Siamese that he is.

[Exile]

Originally Posted by weavis

I have 2x 11 year old brothers. Both love catching and eating Voles and mice and stuff.

Jerry, for tis he that was sick, does not react well to live meat. He gets vomity and out of sorts. I give him a dose of medicine for his condition and in 2 hours he is fine.......

He probably is curled up on my bed at home not appreciating the love and attention he gets and just expects it. Darned Siamese that he is.

Ha! That sounds just like a couple of Siamese cats I've known. Just can't tell my wanna-be bulldog I've ever had any sort of association . . . .

[Foolish]

To me, boating, cruising, sailing is something to be shared and enjoyed with friends, family and loved ones. Personally, life is too short to spend alone....esp sleeping alone. IMHO, sailing is OK fun....not super exciting...but is a COMPLETELY different experience with my gal.....makes all the difference in the world. So again...why all the bravado about single handling?

I wrote a whole chapter that responds to this in my book, the final chapter in fact. The final paragraph of that chapter reads:

"Looking over my years of singlehanding, I really can't say with confidence whether I fall into the class of lunatic, seafarer or saint. The one thing I know is that the best chance a person has of conversing with God is to put himself in a position to do so, give deep consideration to issues of morality, and hope that God has a free moment to talk. It happened to me once, for a very brief conversation. But that is all it took. Now that I have actual knowledge of the existence of God and have received the answer to a universal question of morality, there is not much more that I need out of life. In the words of Maslow, I have achieved self-actualization; in the words of Buddha, I have achieved Nirvana; in the words of Christ, I have achieved peace. All of this thanks to singlehanded sailing.

Tandem Solus

[stevebein]

WE are now into the definition of genetic variability. Folks, we are not all the same, some do things for one reason, ignoring things others love. So, some love being alone and some love having people with them. Gosh, did anyone think it would be different? I love chocolate and do not drink, others love the 18 year old Glen Livet Scotch I keep for friends. So is one right and the other wrong, NO! There is no wrong or right, it is personal choices. Therefore, expressions of not liking something for one reason or another is just genetic, societal and enviornmental variability. Dah

[weavis]

Originally Posted by stevebein

WE are now into the definition of genetic variability. Folks, we are not all the same, some do things for one reason, ignoring things others love. So, some love being alone and some love having people with them. Gosh, did anyone think it would be different? I love chocolate and do not drink, others love the 18 year old Glen Livet Scotch I keep for friends. So is one right and the other wrong, NO! There is no wrong or right, it is personal choices. Therefore, expressions of not liking something for one reason or another is just genetic, societal and enviornmental variability. Dah

For the record, I dont like Scotch.