Plan B

I have been watching the weather intently for the past week as it rolls in across the Atlantic and over the UK. The ideal departure window south from the UK is August through September with maybe a window or two early October for the lucky few that have stopped off in Spain or Portugal.
Its now 26 Oct and the frequency of gales has increased and the temp has dropped as the cold fronts come through.

Unfortunately my weather window has now closed so on the basis of good seamanship Roaring Forty wont be coming home this year.

As you can see by the synoptic chart below its not pretty. The outlook for the next 14 days tells a similar story. Its time to regroup and and put into play Plan B so I don't chew up all my Leave waiting for a window that is painted shut, or beating myself and Roaring Forty up in conditions far from desirable. Shit happens.

View from the top - mast climb

One procedure that needs to be 100% before venturing offshore is to make sure I can safely and efficiently ascend (and descend) the 21m mast. I had plenty of opportunities to conduct a good inspection of the mast and rigging before we stepped the mast back into the boat.

Now the electronics are working it was time to remove my Raymarine Wind Transducer and Windex Windvane to ensure I have sufficient air draft to navigate the Roompotsluis (Lock) fixed bridge and exit into the North Sea. I enter the lock at low water to maximise my air draft, transit to the waiting pontoon on the seaward side, climb the mast and stick all the bits back on. Not exactly ideal but I know the mast height to be 19.850m to the water and the bridge height is min 18.5m and max 21m. Every bit counts!

Anyway, back to the climb. I use a modified TopClimber with a rock climbing 'sit' harness and a spare safety ascender. Basic process is you connect a halyard to a strongpoint (I use the Vang bracket), clip on your upper an lower ascenders, place your feet in the stirrups and then leap frog your way to the top of the mast. I clip the safety ascender to a second halyard parallel to the first. Once you clear the obstacles like radars and spreaders and get into a rhythm the going is fairly easy.
Heres a couple of videos from above.

Where the hell is Parnu?

It was very interesting tracking down the history and the skilled people involved from concept to build. I have been very fortunate to make contact with the designer, engineering team and builder.

Roaring Forty was designed by Dutchman Adriaan Konijnendijk of Lutra Design Group for Hans Plas. I understand Hans wanted a boat that could make good speed to weather and not just a lightweight downwind flier. The OSTAR race was likely in the forefront of his customer brief. Adriaan was very helpful with providing information and drawings and was excited to hear his custom one-off (Hull #1) design was going to be raced once again twenty years on.

The carbon composite structural engineering was performed on Roaring Forty by Gurit (formerly SP Technologies) in the UK in  early 1996.  The yachts that Gurit has structurally engineered reads like a whos-who of the racing yacht world...... Ellen Macarthur's Vendee Globe Kingfisher; Bob Oatley's Wild Oats; Roy Disney's Pyewackett; George David's Rambler 88; and that super fast tri-maran Banque Populaire V!

Roaring Forty was built by Akton Yachts in Parnu, Estonia and launched in 1997. (pics courtesy of Akton Yachts)

Hull and Deck

When the new saildrive was installed it was obvious the antifoul had not attached and was peeling off in large patches. Whilst I could have slapped a coat of antifoul on and sailed away, most of it would have likely peeled off long before I got home.

So the hull was stripped of the offending products and thats when they found some areas needing repair. Once completed, gel-shield was applied followed by Micron Hard racing antifoul.

I believe the 150mm diameter rudder bearings are Jefa quality and there is no movement detected of the deep spade rudder which is great.

The non-slip deck is impressive. Even walking on the cabin top the grip is excellent.

2.92m draft

Deck Hardware

Deck hardware comprises a lot of Spinlock clutches, Karver lashing blocks, Ronstan/Fredrickson big blocks; a mix of Ronstan and Holt cam cleats and Antal Low Friction rings used in the floating 3D headsail leads.
Winches are Lewmar 50, Meissner 53 and 43 with one 43 on the mast for reefing.
A Custom Facnor Code Zero furler is up front and a Ronstan staysail furler.
Spinlock helm extension connected to the carbon tiller.

Electronics and Navigation

The electronics were dated and I already had some nice gear on Rogue Wave so sacrifices had to be made. Summary of equipment:
NKE:
Gyropilot 2 autopilot with fluxgate compass driving either port or starboard Type 1 Linear Drives 1x TL25 triple display, 3x Gyrographic autopilot controllers and multi-page information displays;

remote controls for autopilot and displays, speed, depth and temperature sensors; and a NMEA output interface to get the data onto the Raymarine system and NMEA inputs to get Raymarine STng data into the NKE Topline proprietary language.

Raymarine:
e7 Multifunction Display (MFD) under hard dodger; eS78 MFD at Nav station; i60 Close Hauled Wind and p70 Autopilot control in cockpit; ACU 400 EVO autopilot with 9 axis heading sensor driving either port or starboard Type 1 Linear Drives; and a mast mounted Quantum Chirp broadband radar. I use the Actisense NGT-1 optocoupler to get all that data into the laptop.

Navigation: 
Euronav SeaPro 3000 performance sailing software running on Predict Wind Pro weather routing and GRIB data supported by Total Tide for worldwide coverage.

I have been using Navionics Gold charts since my first handheld Ray400 handheld chartplotter years ago (it still lives in my grab bag!)

Weather monitoring/planning:
Weems & Plath electronic barometer that has pressure alarms and graphical display of trends.
Predict Wind Offshore software.

Comms: 
Standard Horizon GX2000 DSC VHF at the nav station and RAM mic in the cockpit. Standard Horizon HX870 DSC VHF handheld and GX300 handheld for the grab bag or shore party. NASA HF Receiver is carried but not yet connected providing world wide SSB radio and weather info.

SATCOMMS:
Voice/SMS/Data via Iridium 9555 handset (spare handset in grab bag) running through a Red Port Optimizer data compression device (wifi/ethernet) and deck mounted marine antenna. Clientsat in Western Australia hooked me up on a Pivotel plan based on GRIB downloads every 2 -3 days offshore. Predict Wind Offshore software can generate the weather routing options and I can also use the same in the SeaPro 3000 software and now with the latest Lighthouse software I can also lay GRIB data directly onto the Raymarine MFD charts.

Entertainment:
Tunes are provided for by the Fusion RA-205 stereo that can be controlled via the MFDs using the resident Fusion-Link application or bluetooth.

Southern Spars Rigging Refit

The Southern Spars carbon triple spreader mast stands around 21m high. Originally supported by PBO fibre continuous rigging (Smart Rigging) I replaced with Rod rigging. I still maintain some fibre rigging and you can see the lashings that are used in the attached pics. Getting to do a few Brummel splices!

Rod rigging required custom spreader tips for the first 1/2 spreaders. Running backstays/checkstays are set about a metre apart close to centreline so there is a lot going on in the cockpit during manoeuvres!

A Lopo LED Light sits atop the mast with a Raymarine wind transducer and standard wind indicator. There use to be a carbon NKE wind atop the mast but apparently this was the victim of a bridge strike! The Metz Manta 6 VHF radio antenna keeps me connected.

One unique feature I had not seen before was the radar mounting that is adjustable to match the boats heel. Very simply in design; two lines are cleated to lock the radar antenna platform and when the boat heels its pull one line, release the other and cleat home. One improvement will be a couple of 'limit' leashes. This is in case the lines fail or uncleat themselves during sailing so as to not damage the cables if the platform tilts uncontrolled.

Another first for me is the the requirement to use a mast jack to tune the rigging. Having Niels around sure helped as we worked methodically to tune the rig. After adjusting the turnbuckles, pressure is applied using an Enerpac Hydraulic jack with two 38mm diameter jacking rams placed under a large steel rod placed through a hole near the mast heel. When at pressure, an alloy shim slides in between the heel and mast base and is located using two bolts. The jack is slowly released and the mast settles onto the shim. The rig tension is set.

Electrical

Before

The original system was reasonably as expected for a yacht that has done a circumnavigation. The deck mounted 50w solar panel was replaced and there are now 2 x Fullriver DC115AH AGM service batteries separated by a Mastervolt isolator and the normal START/SERVICE/EMERGENCY circuitry. The system can be monitored at the nav station using the Mastervolt Batman Pro.

The system is charged by solar, the Stealth D400 Wind Generator, a Mastervolt 240VAC charger or by the Volvo D1-30 engine 100amp alternator.

The additions were circuit breaker boxes for the water ballast system, new 240VAC wiring and deck plug and heavy duty plugs for each of the Raymarine Linear Drives.

At the time of the pic I had yet to install the Raymarine Autopilot Drive plugs and sockets

Engine and Saildrive replacement

The Sole Mini 26 installed with saildrive and bronze two blade folding prop had seen some work so the package was replaced. Originally intended on a Sole Mini 29 as I could supposedly drop the new package into the same foundation bed........wrong.

The saildrive was laminated into the hull and had to be cut in half to remove. The new Sole saildrives were different so a new foundation bed was required. That was in a way a good outcome as I wanted a Volvo D1-30 and saildrive.

So the team cut out the old bed and glassed in the new. All plumbing and wiring was replaced, new exhaust and additional bypass cooling intake in case the leg intake pump failed I could switch to the trough hull.

The 90L fuel tank was cleaned and a Racor twin switchable filter was installed as the primaries. If I get a blockage I simply switch filters and carry on. A new Wema fuel gauge was installed vice using an old sail batten to measure the level. 

Water Ballast Design

A lot of research and planning went into the design of the new water ballast system in ROARING FORTY. The baseline of the original system was a manifold of 1.5" pipes leading through ball valves to fore (600L) and aft (400L) tanks on both port and starboard sides. A large agricultural cast iron, engine/belt driven pump with a brass manifold served up the water with pressure that would make a cotton farmer happy. I suspect belts may have been an issue because there were about 15 spares! The pump hung off the front of the old Sole Mini 26 engine and a 12v clutch (like your A/C in your car) engaged to drive the pump. The whole system did not meet my requirements so we cut it all out so my design could start with a clean canvas.

Old  1.5" water ballast system.
The eight alloy blobs in the middle are handles!

The agricultural transfer pump

I used Banjo Flange fittings from the US (fortunately I was in the US at the time). This enabled me to design a system that could transfer water between tacks via 3" diameter pipes/hoses. The beauty of the flange system as opposed to pipes and hoses in tight locations is the ability to undo two clamps, slide out the fitting to replace a seal or faulty component and then insert a new one without disturbing the system up/downstream.

 Six Valterra Knife valves diverted the water....Fill/Empty/Port Aft/Port Fwd/Stb Aft/Stb Fwd. Two Rule General Purpose 3800gph pumps satisfied the fill and empty side of the system. Remote controls in the cockpit enable me to operate the system without going below deck. I have separate switches near the actual pumps below as backup.

There is 1000 litres of seawater ballast per side separated into 600L (fwd) and 400L (aft) integral tanks.

Total fill time for all tanks is 20 min so approx 6min and 4min for each tank.