Is your boat ocean ready? Part two

In this article, AY editor, Barry Henson, explains how he and his crew transformed his yacht, Walkabout II, from a coastal cruiser to an ocean passage maker.

In ‘Is your boat ocean ready? Part one’ I described how Walkabout II, my Hallberg Rassy 45, was upgraded from a coastal cruiser to an ocean passage maker in preparation for the ARC Atlantic Rally. Due to space constraints the first article focused on electrical self-sufficiency and safety upgrades (see Australian Yachting, Mar/Apr 2010). In this article I’m going to address communications and downwind passage making.

Communications

We live in an age of amazing communications technologies. Think about it, only a few generations ago sailors communicated with other ships by the use of lights, bells and hand written letters. Then came radios, which dramatically extended communications distances, but still had limitations based on user expertise and atmospheric propagation. Now we have satellite phones, such as Iridium and Inmarsat, that place world-wide communications in the palm of your hand. Add to that email and data
communications including fax and GRIB files, etc. and you have a communications revolution no less dramatic than man walking on the moon.

Sounds great, eh? It is. Unfortunately, all of this capability does come at a price, so unless you have an unlimited budget, you’ll have to pick the method that best suits your needs and budget.

For coastal cruising in all but the most remote areas, VHF radio is normally adequate. Australia has excellent VHF coverage via a system of coastal volunteer radio stations and VHF repeaters. Assuming that your radio has a decent strength output (1-25 watts) and a mast head antennae, you rarely require more than the 25-30 mile range that VHF affords you. Venturing across an ocean, however, creates a whole new set of communications needs. In preparing for the ARC we identified the following communications needs:

Long distance voice, DSC and data communications for our daily radio sked, emails, weather routing and weather reports and DSC for emergency messages;

Short range voice communications for contacting passing ships/boats and rescuers (in the event of an emergency) and DSC for emergency messages;

Short range communications redundancy in the form of hand held radios should we lose our normal VHF radio communications as a result of a lightening strike or being dismasted.

 
Short range communications

I’m going to address short-range communications first as short range communications for us was a no-brainer. Walkabout II was equipped with a Sailor VHF DSC radio system with two handsets (one at the nav table and one in the cockpit) and two VHF handhelds. This gave us the short range voice communications, DSC capability and redundancy we wanted, but there was a problem. The Sailor radio was an aging unit and it was experiencing an intermittent fault. Not an acceptable situation, so our first task was to replace the Sailor VHF with a suitable high power (25 W) DSC VHF system. We chose the Raymarine 218 DSC VHF. The Raymarine is an easy to use unit with a good sized screen and the system can be expanded with a remote handset.

I also had two VHF handheld radios. An Apelco and an ICOM. Both had 1-5 watt outputs and were more than adequate for our needs. The ICOM unit was brand new with a better, longer life battery, whereas the Apelco was a hand me down from Adam and Eve, so the ICOM went into our ditch bag on the logic that in an emergency you want the longest battery life.

Next year when I retire the Apelco I’ll be buying a new DSC equipped hand held. There are a range of DSC -equipped VHF’s on the market and their cost is quite reasonable. If you need to purchase a handheld VHF radio I recommend you pick up the May/June 2010 issue of Australian Yachting which has a VHF handheld radio test report.

Long range communications

Long range communications introduces a few more options and decisions. The ARC requirements specify that each boat must have a system for long range voice and data communications with DSC capability, but how you get this capability is up to you.

Our existing ICOM M802 MF/HF radio gave us long range voice and DSC capability, and with the addition of a Pactor 3 modem we were able to add email and data at a very reasonable cost. I chose Sailmail as my email and data provider because I had used it before, but it does have its limitations. Sailmail is designed for cruisers with limited data requirements.  

Sailmail has a number of base stations around the world that you can use to relay emails and GRIB files. They allow you to use the system to send/receive data (email or GRIB files) for a maximum of 90 minutes per week. This sounds like a lot, but with slow data transfer rates, particularly if you work from your boat like I do, you can overdo it. If you over use the system, you’ll get a warning, then if necessary, they restrict your usage. I know this sounds harsh, but there are a limited number of base stations and frequencies, so if you monopolise a station/frequency by sending or receiving a lot of emails, then other cruisers will lose out. Sailmail do make exceptions to their limits for emergencies and the cost of the system is low at $250 per annum.

Satellite services

If you require unlimited email or data transfer, and you have the budget to support it, you’d be well advised to look at satellite communications via Iridium, Inmarsat, Globalstar or Thuraya. Satellite systems have come down significantly in cost over the past 10 years as their coverage has increased.

Years ago satellite systems required huge antennas and they were generally only found on big, luxury yachts. Now days you can buy data capable satellite phones that are about the same size as your VHF hand held and the costs are remarkably affordable (approx. $1,500-$2,000 for a phone).

MailASail, a UK-based company, provide both satellite communications hardware and software to support email and data transfer. Their big selling point is data compression software that enables you to transfer a larger amount of data in a much shorter period of time-thus keeping your usage charges down.

As with most phone plans these days, providers make the bulk of their money on usage fees. With fees of approximately $1.75 per minute, you can quickly rack up a significant bill if you don’t pay attention to your usage. There are a range of usage plans available, including pre-paid plans, so do your homework and select a usage plan that fits your budget and accurately reflects how you plan to use the phone.

What I learned

I was quite happy with the communications capabilities that I had via MF/HF radio. I was able to participate in the daily radio sked, get GRIB files and send and receive emails, no problem. I did find the Sailmail time limitation frustrating. The amount of data the ARC was sending: position reports, weather reports, situation reports and the slow download/upload speeds blew my time limit right out of the water.

If you don’t have a big email need, then Sailmail is fine and more cost effective, but if you’re like me and you’re running a business and receiving a lot of emails daily, then satellite is the way to go. Were I to do it again, I would keep my ICOM M802 for voice and DSC communications, but I would get a satellite phone with MailASail software for email and data.

Rigging for downwind sailing

One of the things we underestimated was the stresses that running downwind for 17 straight days in tradewinds would place on our rigging and sails. The average cruise tends to throw winds from all directions at you: close hauled one day, reaching the next and variable wind strengths as well. On the ARC we encountered 17 straight days of trades and reinforced trades from 165-180 degrees, 24 hours a day, everyday. The consistency of the winds and their strength made it critical that we have our downwind set-up right and use good chafe control practices and, frankly, here’s where we could have done better.

Sails – the Parasailor

Walkabout II’s sail inventory consists of a genoa, a main, a cutter, a storm sail, a spinnaker and our secret downwind weapon, the Parasailor. Parasailors are made by a German company, Istec, who also make Paragliders and parachutes. The ParaSailor is a spinnaker with a parasail built into it. The result is a unique spinnaker that has amazing stability and it generates forward and upward lift.

Nearly 7% of the ARC fleet was equipped with ParaSailors. They’re popular on the ARC for several reasons: they can be carried into higher wind ranges as the ParaSail opening dumps a certain amount of wind, they’re very forgiving in terms of set, and they generate a lot of lift.

One of the things I liked best about the ParaSailor was the fact that the design actually resists collapsing. When a normal spinnaker begins to collapse, you need to trim it fairly quickly otherwise it will fold in. The ParaSailor design actually resists collapsing. As it starts to fold it, the cut of the ParaSail creates a horizontal tension that pushes the leading edge back into place. It’s quite remarkable.

The ParaSail does take a bit of getting used to particularly with regard to setting and dousing the sail. Once you’ve got the hang of it, it’s quite a
powerful sail.

Running rigging

Another aspect of Walkabout II’s downwind set-up that needed attention were its sheets. Most of my sheets had many years of service (and it showed). So high on my list of things to do was to buy new running rigging. I chose Dyneema spinnaker and genoa sheets. Although we aren’t a race boat, I wanted a rig that would function just as well in light air as it would in heavy air. Using Dyneema allowed me to select lines that were 60% of the diameter and weight of my previous sheets, with a higher load strength.

Then came the chafe

Unfortunately, I learned that no running rigging, no matter how strong, can stand up to unending chafe. One of the areas we didn’t pay enough attention to was chafe control. We used duck tape to tape our shroud cap ends, clevis pins and attachment points, but it wasn’t enough.

The second day out we rigged our ParaSailor and we had a 180 mile day. The smiles on Walkabout II went from ear to ear. When we pulled the sail that evening and checked our lines, low and behold, the covers our new Dyneema spinnaker sheets were nearly chaffed through! That was a real eye opener. The strength and consistency of the tradewinds meant that any little bit of chafe is exacerbated.

A hard lesson

I should have paid much more attention to our downwind sail selection and downwind set-ups. I was thinking spinnakers for downwind work, but the strength of the tradewinds and the frequency of squalls meant there were times when it was advisable to go under white sails. Were I to do this trip again I’d equip my boat with a second genoa. Twin genoas in a gull wing formation would have given me a lot more downwind capability and deploying and shortening the sails is quick and easy on your furler.

Getting your boat ocean ready takes a fair bit of planning and preparation. There were things we knew and things we thought we knew. All in all, we came away from this experience smarter, better prepared sailors, and we have a great time!

In the next and last installment of Ocean Ready we’re going to look at navigation and weather routing.
On a long passage the choices you make in these areas can be the difference
between a quick and easy passage and a slow and painful one. Until then, happy sailing.