Letters Extra

 

Extra letters

The office postbag has been brimming over with correspondence from readers: useful tips, forthright opinions, reports of good and bad service and more. A heartfelt thanks to everybody who wrote in! Here are the letters that we regrettably couldn't cram into our July, August and September issues.

No lifejacket!

I am somewhat surprised by your article on 'Dismasted' (YM August issue). Not because of the content but the photos of the man standing on the dismasted boat in what is a near gale and apparently NOT WEARING A LIFEJACKET?

I know its personal choice but I think this is pushing it and not showing any respect for the situation. So much for all the advice that is driving me mad at the front of every weather forecast about lifejackets - useless unless worn??

Steve Castle

Lip service to safety?

I'm not a regular reader of Yachting Monthly but picked one up to read on holiday, having seen the ‘Dismasted!' Crash Boat Test headline.

I found the article an interesting read but was appalled to see that, despite the test being ‘our most complex and potentially dangerous yet', Paul Lees from Crusader Sails was not wearing a life jacket. The conditions of 30 knots plus should, in my opinion, have warranted lifejackets for the whole crew, even if the intention hadn't been to stage a dismasting. Despite the article clearly stating ‘we all wore lifejackets' it is evident from the photographs that Paul didn't.

Later, in the same edition, in the article on furler versus snuffer Paul Lees is again photographed without a lifejacket in 20 knots of breeze while doing foredeck work. One photograph even had a caption of  ‘if the sail is filling when you are snuffing it away, it could lift you off the deck.'

Surely a quick risk assessment of that activity in those conditions would make you consider a lifejacket? A sudden lurch caused by the helmsman losing concentration could throw you overboard in the blink of an eye.

With both the RYA and RNLI loudly advocating the use of lifejackets, a leading magazine like Yachting Monthly lets its self down in my eyes when a member of its team pays lip service to safety.

Rob Lamb

Editor's note: The words ‘we all wore lifejackets' referred to YM staff. Paul Lees is a highly experienced sailor. He was skippering the exercise and made his own judgement. In the absence of ‘seatbelt-type' legislation, we feel that most readers do not want YM to be an agent of the ‘nanny state'. The Health and Safety Brigade's noble intention to protect people from harm has cast a blanket of bureaucracy over many activities, treating some of us like idiots: school children wearing goggles to play conkers, school adventure trips cancelled for fear of accidents. As Chay Blyth famously said: ‘Without risk there is no adventure.'

Worrying trend

I recently tried to buy a new handle for a JABSCO twist and lock marine toilet because the locking mechanism has worn, but I was told that I could only buy it as part of a kit with a complete valve cover for £26.50. I do not need this expensive extra part and the handle alone should cost about £7 (a handle for the previous model used to be available for £6.40 until recently). The practice of bundling together of unrelated   parts to force the sale of unwanted spares is a worrying trend and I feel that the culprits should be named and shamed. Have any readers come across other instances of this practice?

Chris Ranger

Dismasting the Crash Test Boat 

(Full version of a letter summarised in the magazine)

I have found your articles on ‘Crash Test Boat' very interesting, particularly the dismasted article in the July edition. I unfortunately suffered a similar incident not far from the test location. My boat at the time was a Westerly Seahawk (35ft) and we were just off West Lepe with myself and two regular crew on board . The conditions were Force 5-6 with a typical short Solent chop. I had one reef in the main and about four rolls in the genoa. In my case, the deck fitting on the starboard aft lower shroud failed, sending the rig over to port, leaving me with the main boom and a mast stump of similar proportions to the crash boat.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. I am not sure whether that was the adrenalin kicking in or just total disbelief. Fortunately no-one was hurt. I had on board good quality bolt cutters to which I had spliced a lanyard and carabineer which enabled me to clip them to the jackstays without the fear of losing them over the side. As you mentioned in your article, it was quite difficult working with the boat bouncing around.

The bolt cutters cut the rigging wires without any problems, with the exception of the forestay as it was impossible to open the handles wide enough because of the restrictions of the pulpit and furling gear. I eventually cut the bottlescrew thread with a hacksaw. We used a breadknife to cut the running rigging as this had a scalloped blade (we found that the serrated blades tended to catch and bind in the lines).

A number of things happened which I have learnt from and you may find interesting. As we were close to the main shipping lane into Southampton Water, I called the Coastguard to inform him of our position, and confirm we had no injuries on board. Reception was pretty poor as the aerial was now in the water. This should not have been a problem as I had an emergency aerial, however my radio, in common with a large number of boats, had its radio fixed into the bulkhead which meant to connect the emergency aerial I would have to remove the  radio from the bulkhead, not something I felt was a priority when the remains of the mast were slamming into the side of the boat.

The Coastguard was very helpful and dispatched the volunteer lifeboat from Hamble. This was reassuring, although I felt we were in control of the situation. My only criticism would be that he continued to call every five minutes or so, which meant leaving the deck to answer the call. I presume this again was to reassure us but did intrude into what we were trying to achieve on deck. By the time the lifeboat arrived we were more or less sorted out with the exception of the forestay.

On their arrival I handed the situation over to the lifeboat personnel. They put two big chaps on board and we all tried in vain for about 20 minutes to haul the broken portion of the mast, with genoa still attached, back on board. This proved beyond our combined strengths, even with the assistance of their RIB and my winches. It was decided that as we were now well within the shipping lane it would be prudent to release the rig and motor home, which we did. The whole experience was not pleasant but we did have the right equipment on board to cope with the situation.  Would coping offshore in bigger seas, but with plenty of sea room, have been more difficult or not? It would certainly have given us more time.

It would be interesting to know how other sailors have, or have not, managed to retrieve mast sections from the water after a dismasting. I gave it a lot of thought afterwards and came to the conclusion that providing there was sufficient sea room it might be possible to winch it in over the stern, the problems would be releasing the genoa, and the trailing lines fouling the prop and rudder.

Lessons learned:

• Lanyard spliced to bolt cutters, (was effective)
• Breadknife to cut running rigging (was also effective)
• Means of attaching emergency aerial to radio without removal from bulkhead. (Needed addressing, added an aerial socket to bulkhead to connect permanent and emergency aerial, purchased handheld radio)
• Method to recover mast from water using available crew. (Winch in over stern. Plan is still only theory I hope I never need to put it into practice)

Alan Spiers (Yachtmaster)

 

Target practice

Last weekend our 12 metre yacht was used for target practice by a larger powerboat. We were in the Western Solent, hoisting sail, when we noticed that a boat had altered course towards us and significantly increased speed. We were soon confronted by a rearing bow that obscured our view of the powerboat skipper and made visual communication impossible. Everything happened very fast and we only had time to brace ourselves for what seemed like an imminent heavy impact. At the last moment the boat sheared away and, as it passed five metres away down our port side, we could hear gales of laughter accompanied by rude gestures coming from the helmsman and sundry spectators on board. Despite being a 12 metre yacht we were violently rocked in the wake of the powerboat and a crew member on the coachroof had to cling on for dear life to avoid being thrown overboard. My question is if someone had been injured what recourse do I have in law?

Mike Dormer, Zorina

Croatia criticism letter

In your summer 2011 edition on page five you run an article about an unfortunate yachtsman falling foul of Croatian authorities. I am not in the least surprised at what Peter Naish has to say. In July 2007 I wrote to another sailing magazine telling of a less than pleasant experience of Croatian attitudes. My boat had been damaged as a direct result of Croatian marina staff in Marina Zut but they denied all knowledge and refused to do anything about it. They referred me to the police ‘on the mainland' if I wanted to take it further.

I wrote to the Croatian Minister of Tourism, whom I had met at a travel exhibition. He was most sympathetic but what did he do? Nothing. Croatia is a wonderful cruising ground but the people in any kind of authority can be less than helpful and downright unpleasant and aggressive, as Peter Naish discovered to his cost.

YM reader John McAleer wrote about an experience with a dishonest broker in Ireland (YM letters Summer issue) You ask about honest brokers?  I've found a few who are anything but. In 2001 I was looking for a yacht to buy and found three particularly dishonest brokers. So disgusted was I that I wrote an article of my experiences at the time but the yachting press refused to publish it. I wonder why? Loss of advertising revenue perhaps?

Lee Dowell

Editor's note: YM does not shirk from exposing bad practices. See our recent Safe Seacocks Campaign, where we have named yacht manufacturers with failed seacocks, including Elan, Beneteau and Hanse. Also, our news investigation (YM August) on Nick Hill's brand new Polish-built Huzar 30 yacht, which cost him £40,000 to make seaworthy. Investigating readers' claims of wrong-doing depends on the quality of evidence put forward. In Mr Dowell's case, his bad experiences were spread over France, Germany and Spain and one in Sweden, going back 10 years, making it virtually impossible to investigate without a team of ‘detectives'. YM prides itself on its editorial independence. We have never bowed to pressure from advertisers but investigating readers' grievances is never easy.

Calling all Bavaria owners

The Round the Island race is the most successful annual yachting event in the UK and owners or charterers of Bavaria yachts may be interested to know that about 5 to 10 % of entrants sail Bavaria yachts.  A few years ago the Bavaria Owners' Association donated two cups to the Island Sailing Cub for the best Bavaria in the ISCRS class and IRC class. All one has to do to be eligible for inclusion in the list of entrants is to join the association (for a very small annual fee) and charter or own and sail a Bavaria yacht.

In this year's race only 10 Bavaria yachts out of well over 100 had registered with the owners' association, and thus scores, if not hundreds of sailors, were unable to be eligible to win one of the cups. If there Bavaria owners who would be interested to try to get one of these cups placed upon their mantelpiece in 2012 please log onto the BOA website and join up.

Adrian Parker

Southerly letter

The Southerly 32 needs little defending and I think I can usefully expand on Dick Durham's review (YM Summer issue). Firstly, front-of-engine access is tight but can be greatly improved, especially for getting at the raw water impeller, by removing the rectangular teak floor panel immediately forward of the companionway. Remove four screws and tap the panel free from underneath.

 Secondly, the boat's configuration makes the bow thruster more than an ‘unnecessary luxury' for us.  With no propeller wash over the twin rudders, unless you are under way you cannot point the boat by applying rudder and forward power.  By the time you have sufficient forward speed to steer, it can be too late.  Marina manoeuvring in a breeze would be much more difficult without the bow thruster. My wife is less embarrassed than I at the noise of a thruster on a small boat and sometimes uses it to stop the bow blowing off as she drives us onto a mooring buoy.

Keith Jackson

No alcohol for hyperthermic sailors

I  read the article about the successful rescue of three French sailors (YM news, October, 2010) off La Rochelle by a British yachtsman. Apparently the hypothermic French sailors that were pulled out of the water were served wine to speed up their recovery. The yachtsman responsible for their rescue is quoted to have said, that: ‘It's amazing what a little bit of hot soup and wine can do for communication.'

While the hot soup was a brilliant idea, it has to be emphasised that it is extremely dangerous to serve alcohol to someone suffering hypothermia. Even a minor amount will cause dilation of the skin capillaries and start returning cold blood from the extremities to the core of the body, where it will worsen hyperthermia and dramatically increase the risk of cardiac arrest. I believe you should have mentioned this well established fact in your article, since it is a very common misunderstanding, that must be corrected every time it is mentioned.

Jacob Fisker, MD, SAR physician - Royal Danish Navy, Copenhagen.

Horn, not bell?

The ‘Summer Cruise' article in your Summer edition says on p.24 that a ‘bell' is compulsory in France for vessels over 12m. Can you confirm this is not a mis-translation of  ‘whistle'? IRPCS state that a bell is a requirement for vessels over 20m and a whistle is compulsory for vessels 12m and over. I find it odd that France should have requirement in 12m+ boats for an item which has no compulsory use in the IRPCS for vessels under 20m. I am particularly interested as the owner of a 12.3m boat planning a trip to France in a couple of weeks

Keith Young

Editor's note: There's a lot of confusion about this. Horns and bells are no longer required. The regulations change from time to time; to ensure you have the latest ones, download them (in French only, regrettably) from www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr (type "division 240" into the search box).

Good service from Gill

 I should like to compliment Gill Marine for their approach to customer concerns. I have a number of Gill garments that have worn exceedingly well, but a pair of their marine sea boots had split at the ankle seams after light use. I contacted Gill Marine by email and was sent a pre-paid returns sticker, and the boots were replaced, free of charge, with no quibble, by return post. I trust other manufacturers will take note.

Malcolm Brown