The noon position reports are here: click on the marker for log entry. https://www.olmsteadwilliams.com/christians-journey/
Overall this 6,000 nm sail was characterized by aggressive trade winds in the frequent 30-knot range, and by a fair-weather gale on the return.
Cape Horn self-steering vane. Performed equivalent to my former Sailomat, perhaps not quite as good downwind. The Cape Horn is a permanent addition to the boat, and it looks elegant on the stern. It can be used for casual day sailing, which wasn't practical for the Sailomat, which required rigging lines in the cockpit. But the belowdecks components of the CH, including no fewer than 10 blocks, were a constant concern. Steering failed when a key Wichard eyebolt sheared. Later a second eyebolt broke off. Twice the pins of the shackles of the #30 Ronstan blocks came apart, causing steering to fail. On the return voyage, after departing Oahu into 30 knot headwinds, the pendulum blade fell off its mount, result of shock cord fastening worn out by the outbound voyage. Remounting the blade is extremely awkward even at a dock, much less typical offshore conditions. The Cape Horn requires switching to a smaller vane when wind velocity exceeds about 20 knots. This requires hanging out over the transom at midnight in a squall. Component failure was a surprise to me, since I installed the rig myself using recommended gear. The "working" of steel fittings during weeks of constant heavy strain is easy to underestimate. The Cape Horn is very dependent on installation, which varies greatly depending on the steering gear of the yacht. I have concluded that the Ericson design is not optimal for the Cape Horn belowdecks setup. Extensive video will further document these remarks.
Forespar Carbon Fiber Line Control Whisker Pole. Busted in half again, two feet from the base end, in 15 knots with no fouls evident and no winch being used. Complete mystery why. I sawed it up and made a 14-foot nonadjustable pole, which worked fine. I conclude that CF is simply not robust enough for my use offshore. Singlehanders use rehearsed step-by-step procedures for sail set and douse, since there is no help and the performance is often on a pitching foredeck constrained by a tether. A robust aluminum pole stored vertically on the mast, with all its blocks and slides, is in the end a better solution for short-handed crews than my dinghy-style freehand technique. But in fact, my revised CF pole, which now looks like it was designed to be a single length, will suffice nicely in future. The Forespar Line Control conception, in which the extension of the tubes is maintained by an internal line fixed to an external cleat on the main tube, is essentially flawed. Vast compression forces are placed on that line, which cannot be easily adjusted when in place and is held by a single plastic cleat out of reach from the deck. The complication is not worth the gain in convenience. Push-button length control is less prone to failure.
Roller Furling Control Line Failure. Once again, without warning and in the middle of the night, the furler line parted near the drum. The line was brand new Regatta single braid. This happened in 2017, and I could never find the cause, which was frustrating. I watched this drum like a hawk all the way to Hawaii. Then on the return, awoke to find it severed exactly as before. The air was light, so I spent hours furling and unfurling the 120 overlap genoa. I discovered that under certain circumstances, less than 1 percent of the time, the line build-up in the drum caused the control line to chafe against the sharp body of the drum. It was random and unlikely, but it happened. The furler control line, wrapped in the drum, flexes slightly as the boat bashes waves and the forestay sags and straightens. This action, should the line buildup be nonstandard, saws away at the control line. The issue was the lead block, installed by the factory, that produced an angle that could permit such a development. The solution was to change the lead angle of the control line by the addition of an interim block tied to the nearby dock line cleat.
(Continued in Post #2)
Overall this 6,000 nm sail was characterized by aggressive trade winds in the frequent 30-knot range, and by a fair-weather gale on the return.
Cape Horn self-steering vane. Performed equivalent to my former Sailomat, perhaps not quite as good downwind. The Cape Horn is a permanent addition to the boat, and it looks elegant on the stern. It can be used for casual day sailing, which wasn't practical for the Sailomat, which required rigging lines in the cockpit. But the belowdecks components of the CH, including no fewer than 10 blocks, were a constant concern. Steering failed when a key Wichard eyebolt sheared. Later a second eyebolt broke off. Twice the pins of the shackles of the #30 Ronstan blocks came apart, causing steering to fail. On the return voyage, after departing Oahu into 30 knot headwinds, the pendulum blade fell off its mount, result of shock cord fastening worn out by the outbound voyage. Remounting the blade is extremely awkward even at a dock, much less typical offshore conditions. The Cape Horn requires switching to a smaller vane when wind velocity exceeds about 20 knots. This requires hanging out over the transom at midnight in a squall. Component failure was a surprise to me, since I installed the rig myself using recommended gear. The "working" of steel fittings during weeks of constant heavy strain is easy to underestimate. The Cape Horn is very dependent on installation, which varies greatly depending on the steering gear of the yacht. I have concluded that the Ericson design is not optimal for the Cape Horn belowdecks setup. Extensive video will further document these remarks.
Forespar Carbon Fiber Line Control Whisker Pole. Busted in half again, two feet from the base end, in 15 knots with no fouls evident and no winch being used. Complete mystery why. I sawed it up and made a 14-foot nonadjustable pole, which worked fine. I conclude that CF is simply not robust enough for my use offshore. Singlehanders use rehearsed step-by-step procedures for sail set and douse, since there is no help and the performance is often on a pitching foredeck constrained by a tether. A robust aluminum pole stored vertically on the mast, with all its blocks and slides, is in the end a better solution for short-handed crews than my dinghy-style freehand technique. But in fact, my revised CF pole, which now looks like it was designed to be a single length, will suffice nicely in future. The Forespar Line Control conception, in which the extension of the tubes is maintained by an internal line fixed to an external cleat on the main tube, is essentially flawed. Vast compression forces are placed on that line, which cannot be easily adjusted when in place and is held by a single plastic cleat out of reach from the deck. The complication is not worth the gain in convenience. Push-button length control is less prone to failure.
Roller Furling Control Line Failure. Once again, without warning and in the middle of the night, the furler line parted near the drum. The line was brand new Regatta single braid. This happened in 2017, and I could never find the cause, which was frustrating. I watched this drum like a hawk all the way to Hawaii. Then on the return, awoke to find it severed exactly as before. The air was light, so I spent hours furling and unfurling the 120 overlap genoa. I discovered that under certain circumstances, less than 1 percent of the time, the line build-up in the drum caused the control line to chafe against the sharp body of the drum. It was random and unlikely, but it happened. The furler control line, wrapped in the drum, flexes slightly as the boat bashes waves and the forestay sags and straightens. This action, should the line buildup be nonstandard, saws away at the control line. The issue was the lead block, installed by the factory, that produced an angle that could permit such a development. The solution was to change the lead angle of the control line by the addition of an interim block tied to the nearby dock line cleat.
(Continued in Post #2)
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