Ready, steady

Hanging out in the West Harbour

Are you ever truly ready? Probably not, but we are getting to the stage of being ready enough. We've been beavering away at home improvements. It has been a good thing living on the boat for almost four weeks before departure, getting used to the new paraffin cooker, stowing and tweaking things.

The paraffin heater and Jim's improvised tarpaulin vestibule have seen a lot of action. Lots of rain can be trying on a small boat, even with heating! It's sometimes been a struggle to get the washing dry.

Since we've only taken Fettler out of the harbour four times since launching in April (yes, the weather has been that bad), we decided to slip the vessel this morning for cleaning and antifouling - and it was badly needed.

Impressive barnacle growth in only three months

Extra coat of antifouling in not the best working position

And presto: a clean hull! Just the thing for the start of the voyage.

Departure next week looks distinctly possible. First port Whitby or so we intend.

Overload

The dawn of a new era (East Harbour, 0400, 03-06-11).

Life is now settling down again aboard Fettler, having passed through the traumatic period of getting out of the flat and on to the boat.

We moved aboard on the 2nd of June, the first of two summer days we've had here so far.  The boat of course was stuffed absolutely full with all the things we thought could be useful on a long voyage through varied climactic conditions.

It was immediately obvious that quite a bit of it would simply have to go and we spent the following week sorting through most everything aboard, stowing the essential items carefully away and jettisoning the rest. Not fun. Clothing we had kept to a minimum anyway but each tool, spare, rope and sail had to be weighed in the balance before deciding yay or nay. All the soft stuff, clothes and bedding, was stuffed into compression sacks and placed in dry bags. Compact and secure. Sleeping bags - too bulky, too difficult to launder, so hello duvet. On and on ad nauseam.

Once everything was stowed in reasonable order we could move on to finishing jobs and installing the last bit of equipment. The new stove required some further modification but is now performing very well. The first meal prepared in the new pressure cooker was a very welcome gift of mackerel from one of our fishing friends (an important perk of living in the harbour).

New VHF AIS, tidied wiring!

Old, redundant wiring, cleared out after much disruption in tracing it.

New solar trickle charger, keeping the start battery topped up.

Vanes have been added to the flue pipe of the paraffin heater, to reclaim some of the heat otherwise lost up the lum. Actually, despite it being 'summer' the heater has seen a fair bit of action during the unseasonably cold and windy days and nights we've been treated to. The temperature in the cabin has been as low as 11C in the morning but the good old Taylor's heater soon warms things up nicely.

It hasn't all been hard grafting, fortunately. The harbour scene is very sociable and we've had plenty of visitors to relax awhile with.

Departure is not yet imminent as other issues will keep us tied down for a week or two yet but now the more enjoyable phase begins as we finish off the preparations at a civilized pace and rest a little for the coming task.

Eider ducklings - would you steal the down from their nest?

All stations go

In Burntisland. Note the new non-skid deck paint! (Photo: A. Black)

It's becoming clear to us why probably 99% of those who dream of taking off over the horizon don't get beyond the dreaming stage. What an effort to get everything ready and go! However, all appears to be in hand as we enter the final phase of packing up the flat and finish fettling the vessel. One thing is sure as daith (as Parahandy would say): our metaphorical house will be well in order after all this.

Taking Pinkerton (the cat) away to his new home (Dad's) was a tough one, as we knew and dreaded it would be. Obviously the clearing of the flat is easier without him about but something of the soul of the place is definitely missing now. Still, it's good to know that he and Dad are going to be keeping each other company and it's already clear that he's settling in well.

It's all go go go, but we have at least managed to get Fettler out of the harbour 3 times and put her through her paces in some of the ridiculously strong winds that have been blowing here for several weeks now. There's no sign yet of this weather pattern breaking, but so long as the wind remains westerly we'll have a fine time on our way down the east coast.

New sprayhood! (Photo: A. Black)

The new Fettler Stove is installed and operational. The first test firing was going beautifully until the buildup of heat in the stove chamber actually melted the soldered joint to the vapourising tubes. A visit to the Broomhall Boatbuilding workshop was required to rebuild the stove itself and to modify the chamber (extra holes, mainly, and stove paint). Now all is well, though I have taken the extra precaution of adding a heat barrier (soldering mat) between the burner and the stove body.

Brew's up! (Photo A. Black)

Let there be light

100th post on Fettler's Voyages!

A silly little job before bed.
When we were getting the mast ready to go back on the boat, I remembered noticing towards the end of last season that the steaming light wasn't working. A look inside the housing revealed corroded terminals and the multimeter showed the bulb was gone as well. New spade terminals were easily sorted so that just left the bulb.

No problem, right? Incandescent festoon bulb, quick visit to the auto parts shop, all well.
Not quite as simple as that. The bulb ends had dimples rather than the pointed ends on all the bulbs in the shop. Now, I could have raked around online and found a direct replacement, or...

Unfortunately the multimeter is on the boat, so I've no idea if the bulb survived the soldering process. We'll see tomorrow.

Update: According to the multimeter, the bulb should still work!

The never-ending list

Things have been a bit hectic in the Fettler household of late as preparations continue. The project is a many-headed hydra and it often seems that seven new heads appear for each one we strike off.

One of the early ones to be ticked off was vaccinations and medical kit. Previously we carried nothing more than a basic first-aid kit, painkillers and some household remedies and, on occasion, we did a bit of medical improvisation, especially with super glue. However, this time we took medical advice and stocked up the ship's medicine chest:

Hopefully we won't be needing this stuff. With thanks to
Drs Becky Sutherland and Robert MacFadyen for their advice.

We invested in a few more items of equipment: a second-hand hand pump-operated desalinator (after buying this we found the exact same unit in one of our rarely used lockers! Looks like we have one for sale now), a SPOT satellite GPS messenger, which has a very handy OK button, and a VHF radio with in-built AIS.

Last month we threw a party and suggested guests bring us a tin of something tasty to consume on the broad Atlantic (it was our tin wedding anniversary, after all). So now we have lots of treats for the ocean crossing and quick meals for after heavy weather.

Let’s hope we’ll get to use all of these. Thanks to all our guests!

Jim’s also been working hard on a new galley arrangement as we’ve decided to switch to paraffin. This eliminates the risk of a gas leak and avoids the hassle of different gas bottles in different countries. We were carrying paraffin anyway, for our Taylor’s heater, so it make sense to have one fuel for everything. Besides, the vent to the gas locker was in a bad position and needed to be ‘bunged’ up every time we were under way to avoid flooding. A fond farewell to that hole in the stern!

We managed to find a pair of beautiful British-made paraffin stoves on the internet, which had been languishing in some warehouse since the Sixties. With a bit of inspiration from the Atom stove, Jim designed a new gimballed housing for the cooker, which we had made locally by a fantastic metal fabrication firm called Pentland Tech. Now it just needs to be installed in situ.

The boat was launched again on 9 April, the mast is back up and we've almost finished recommissioning. A new sprayhood should be ready shortly. Could be time to go for a sail - if we can manage to find the time...

A slightly off-topic historical interlude

Our much-loved club - the Forth Corinthian Yacht Club - has a long and distinguished history. I recently came across these gems when rummaging through the club archives.

The year is 1971. The sport of offshore racing is experiencing a golden age. Only 3 years previously, the monumental Golden Globe round the world yacht race took place. Fettler herself has only been afloat 3 years and is currently somewhere on the west coast of Scotland, based in Ardfern.

The FCYC organised and hosted the Fair Isle race, sponsored by Benson & Hedges, which was the third-longest European offshore race at 360 miles, from Granton to Kirkwall via Fair Isle, and the first of its kind to be held in Scottish waters.

My Uncle John Beattie, a Scotsman employee for most of his working life, used to regale me with his tale of meeting Sir Alec Rose in Edinburgh and would wax lyrical about the load of whisky aboard Lively Lady and the prose of Scotsman reporter John Rafferty describing the start of the race. I only wish I'd come across this material when Uncle John was still alive, as he'd have got a real charge out of seeing the photos and all the press cuttings again.

On with the photos (ah, the good old days):

Gadie, skipper Angus McIntosh, FCYC entrant and the smallest vessel (19' waterline) in the race. Gadie's rudder broke off Ratray Head (the broken piece now constitutes the Gadie Trophie) but the crew fought on before being forced to retire and run for Fraserburgh, due to stress of weather, just 10 miles short of Fair Isle.

Crowds gathered at the north end of the Middle Pier to view the start of the race. 12 vessels took part in the first race, including entrants from the Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.

Sailing mega-celebrities converge to kick off the race. Here Rear Commodore Robin Fowler shoots the breeze with Sir Alec Rose. Chay Blyth was also in attendance. These days, Robin is our very own Chief Engineer. It's hard to imagine where we'd be without him.

FCYC Commodore Bill Russell and Sir Alec Rose share a joke on the slip before the start. Why don't Flag Officers get snazzy uniforms any more?

Gadie jockeys for position on the start line. Note the iconic Edinburgh skyline, largely unchanged for centuries, in the background.

Think of it. Gadie: 19' waterline. The North Sea - capable of throwing up some of the nastiest sailing conditions anywhere in the world. Today's health and safety Nazis would never allow it.

What a drogue

There have been quite a few projects running along in parallel this past winter. We'll write up a few of the more interesting ones over the coming weeks. This one got off the ground gradually, beginning when a friend asked me if we were planning to take a Jordan Series Drogue with us. "A what?" I replied, "Probably not." Further reading convinced me that it would be a very good idea to go to the trouble of putting one of these things together.

The Jordan Series Drogue was designed by aeronautical engineer Don Jordan, in the wake of the 1979 Fastnet Race, to prevent the capsize and damage of yachts in the open ocean in the event of a ‘worst case’ breaking wave strike, improve the motion of the boat in storm waves and reduce drift. Roger Taylor, for one, reckons it saved his life.

Depending on boat size, the JSD consists of 100 or more small cones or droguelets on a tapering rope of at least 80 metres, attached to the stern of the boat by a bridle. For our size of boat, the set-up is like this:

After weighing up costs, time and effort, we decided to order the cones ready made from Oceanbrake, source the rope separately (Barry Edwards) and do our own splicing and hooking on of the cones. 

First Jim had to learn how to splice the braid-on-braid rope. Then we had a few splicing evenings with a couple of friends, one of whom was making his own JSD.

The next step was the marking of the ropes to position the cones every 20 inches, with a 4-inch gap in between. Then the droguelets were threaded on.

Then it was time for hooking! There are three webbing straps at each end of each cone, all to be attached to the line. The webbing is threaded through the braid-on-braid rope most easily using a latch hook and tied off with a figure-of-eight knot. There must be enough slack for the cones to open out in the water. We found it worked to mark 5 ½ inches between the boat end of the cone and the previously marked attachment point for the webbing and then tie the knots very close to the end of the webbing at the other end.

Some must labour that others may live at leisure

Finally, the sections are attached to one another by cow hitching the soft eyes together. Some 10kg weight, probably a length of chain, will have to be attached to the end. The fully assembled drogue will be living in our cockpit locker in a mesh bag and hopefully it won’t see too much action.

That's a whole lotta cones, John

Packing it in the right order is important too. The foreman approves.

Finished article