Atlantic Crossing - Special Preparations ?

[hoppy]

For those of you who have done or will be doing the east-west Atlantic crossing, have you prepared your yacht any differently to how you would prepare it for any other ocean crossing?

I'm just curious to know as I saw the other day two Bavaria 46's getting their rigging all padded up ready for the ARC. I'm pretty sure that this preparation was not related to the B46's not being considered BWB by some crusty old salts

[MarkJ]

INteresting because with swept back spreaders one needs to decide how much main to let out downwind.
If the main is touching the spreaders by choice then baggywrinkles would be prudent seamanship.

Wouldnt they?

Mark

[bvimatelot]

Quite likely they are being delivered for a charter company. We normally protect the sails as much as poss for a long delivery. Tony

[sabray]

Dont know what that is. Maybe reflective tape? Or they are planning on sitting up there and its a cushion. why not?

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by bvimatelot

Quite likely they are being delivered for a charter company. We normally protect the sails as much as poss for a long delivery. Tony

Spot on

The two 46's are from the same company I chartered a B39. They will be sent to the Carrib on a "mile building" journey for anyone with the cash and then will be charted there for the season before returning to Greece.

[swagman]

Most boats prepped for the conventional East west Atlantic crossing would ensure the sails are protected from chafe. As the majority of this route is straight downwind many don't even use a mainsail preferring to rig a couple of headsails set wing on wing instead.
There is even a fitting made up and called a 'thistle rig' that allows the two poles used with such a set up, but not attached to the mast.
Cheers
JOHN

[bvimatelot]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Spot on

The two 46's are from the same company I chartered a B39. They will be sent to the Carrib on a "mile building" journey for anyone with the cash and then will be charted there for the season before returning to Greece.

Ah - That'd be Horizon? Sunsail used to do a similar thing. Its a very nice way for the charter company to earn some money before the boat even gets into charter!

I did a catamaran like that for Susnsail a few years ago. Got the boat from the builder's yard to the Canaries where the rest of the paying crew joined. A bit of a lottery for the skipper and you do hear of some mis-matches which the skipper has no control over. I was very lucky and my crew bonded well, worked together well and we're all still writing to each other! Tony

[goboatingnow]

Trans atlantic checks

(a) Go over the rigging , both running and standing, repair replace anything suspect.Especially check the halyards for wear and replace, ensure spares are available
(b) check all the downwind sails carefully repair any defect. consider spares

(c) Review you tankage for diesel, if you run out of wind , ( especially on the african side) you may need to plot a route to the verdes for diesel.

(d) Review water usuage, calulate crew use, if you have a watermaker great, if not rationing pprocedures need to be in place. 4 of us went accross on 200 litres.


(e) imprtantly especially if you are using your Autopilot, review your electrical systems, what means have you to recharge, you mightnt even have enough diesel to rely in soley main engine recharges, consider solar, wind, and towed generators to subplment. Work up a plan to limit electrical usage. ( we banned interior lights, used head torches).

(f) you may be relying in your autopilot a lot ( who wanst to steer for up to 20 days), consider spares , even a complete replacement set. If your boat tends to wander downwindthen the pilotwill be working hard.

(g) Review chafe procedures, you could be on one Gybe for 2 weeks or more, protect all lines and sails where they rub.

have a great trip
Dave

[feelsgood]

Personaly I think that only a mad man would sail a Bavaria across any ocean

[barnakiel]

It is a good idea to wrap the spreaders up if you expect a lot of downwind ride. Both the swept and in-line spreaders will mark and chafe the main.

As someone mentioned the other reason can be these are delivery new boats.

b.

[goboatingnow]

Personaly I think that only a mad man would sail a Bavaria across any ocean

well my uninformed friend, theres a shed load of madmen out there, who funny that seem to arrive in St. Lucia each year.

dave

[jram]

A few other thoughts from our crossing last year.

Seriously consider your charging arrangements. ( I know this has been mentioned above). Consider that charging will be done probably with peak electrical load - Autopilot, fridge, freezer, gps/plotter, radar?, SSB, VHF, watermaker. Consider the services that you need to have on when charging - take the total electrical load (in amps) that you have on and subtract it from the battery charger capacity (generator) or alternator capacity (engine). This will give an indication of the charge rate and the number of hours necessary per day. The results can be surprising!

Consider several charging 'opportunities' per day rather than just one. We found we got a better overall charge this way.

Be careful about crew... nuff said.

Pre-cook and freeze meals. We used a slow cooker to prepare meals during the week or 2 before we left. This allowed us the freedom to be out and about and we then just popped the meal into bags and froze FLAT (quicker) every day. Frozen meals - much tastier and easier to prepare. Less opportunities to have accidents.

Bread! We had soups and bread often. When there was no soup, we had fresh bread. Even the smell lifts morale!

Fish! Get good, strong gear. Forget it above 7kt - I personally didn't have the strength to pull them in and/or their jaws didn't. Use the fishing line as a good way of increasing wind when boat speed decreases! (Put away at dusk - out at first light). Yellow/green lures or pink seem to work.

Make use of the SSB nets. Get to know others and chat frequently, you never know when they might need you or you them.

Write a text message to family along the way and send it. It will be transmitted as soon as you are within sight of land or thereabouts. A conversation with family and friends is a good way of passing the hours as land inches slowly closer.

Have a modern phone with a gps, wrap carefully in foil and waterproof just in case of lightning. It will get you through. Know how to do a manual gps fix on it to keep battery life to a maximum.

If you have a watermaker, consider a buffer tank that will contain 1 hr of watermaker output. Taste the product at the beginning and the end of each hour before pumping to main tank. This allows the following: Less emergency water. One might calculate for loss of main tank as you depart the Canaries and drinking emergency rations for the rest of the crossing. That's a lot of water! With a buffer tank, total loss of water would have to be a double emergency and the watermaker would have to die as well. We carried 20 Liters per person + liferaft emergency packs. This strategy allows you to live very comfortably and have adequate reserves.

Don't be afraid of the acceleration zones but be aware that they can exterd 50 miles to the south of Grand Canaria. It makes for a spirited start if you are prepared to reduce sail. If your on the ARC, you'll leave the south of the island about sunset so you''ll want your sail reduced anyway.

Have fun!

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by jram

Don't be afraid of the acceleration zones but be aware that they can exterd 50 miles to the south of Grand Canaria. It makes for a spirited start if you are prepared to reduce sail. If your on the ARC, you'll leave the south of the island about sunset so you''ll want your sail reduced anyway.

It is always an amazing view from the Pasito Blanco cliff - all those ARC cruisers who bob around in the lee of Gran Canaria all night. As if they never sailed in vicinity of any TALL island before ...

;-)))

[mintyspilot]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

It is always an amazing view from the Pasito Blanco cliff - all those ARC cruisers who bob around in the lee of Gran Canaria all night. As if they never sailed in vicinity of any TALL island before ...

;-)))

I haven't a clue what you are talking about - can you explain?

More for my sailing education.....

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by jram

Don't be afraid of the acceleration zones but be aware that they can exterd 50 miles to the south of Grand Canaria. It makes for a spirited start if you are prepared to reduce sail. If your on the ARC, you'll leave the south of the island about sunset so you''ll want your sail reduced anyway.


to which barnakiel said:

" It is always an amazing view from the Pasito Blanco cliff - all those ARC cruisers who bob around in the lee of Gran Canaria all night. As if they never sailed in vicinity of any TALL island before ... "

to which minty said:

Originally Posted by mintyspilot

I haven't a clue what you are talking about - can you explain?

Barnakiel explains:

Gran Canaria is a tall island. A tall island, a high island. A high island will have an area of calm in its lee. Tenerife is an even taller island - it has the HIGHEST mountain in all Spain on it (Teide). If you are a foreigner and looking for Teide from our beach, you are looking in the wrong place - PLEASE look above the clouds.

Now what does it mean to a sailor?

It means open a book and read how far the calm in the lee of an island extends related to the height of the island. Then stay away of the zone.

Otherwise you will be bobin' up and down in the swelly but completely windless area close to Pasito Blanco the whole first night of the Rally while I will be sitting on the cliff, looking at 200+ nav lights of ARC participants who did not care to notice the facts of life.

But as I said elsewhere - it is a rally, not a race: sail safe and enjoy the ride.

Cheers,
barnie
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
Spain