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| [KensOtherBlog] Whales sink a boat off Baja |
10/30/2009 |
I thought I'd pass along this article, if you haven't seen it:
http://www.10news.com/news/21457298/detail.html
The quick story is that a sailboat participating in the Baja Haha capsized when it struck a whale, leaving the crew floating at sea. This is the same route as the Fubar (which we ran in 2007), and which kicks off again sometime in the next couple of weeks. I still remember that on our Alaska trip, we started out by thinking, "Wouldn't it be awesome to see a whale?" By the time we reached Glacier Bay, we had realized that whales represent perhaps the most serious risk-factor in our entire voyage. There were several times when we narrowly escaped hitting whales, and Grey Pearl narrowly escaped having a breaching whale land on the boat. I don't even want to think about hitting one at night.... (which is certainly possible!)
As to my own boat... not much happening.
Our biggest project this week was not particularly glamorous: I swapped about 30 emails on the topic of getting new drawer slides for the boat. We've had several drawer slides fail. These are the little metal sliding rails that hold the drawers. I don't like dealing with these kinds of details, so I've been trying to find drawer rails that are strong enough that I could stand on the drawers and not hurt them.
And, a little more interesting, but still not too much fun...
I've spent the week looking at a replacement for my charting software. I currently own Nobeltec which I run on a PC, and Navnet 3d, which is a dedicated charting/radar/depth device. I like working with Nobeltec, and am accustomed to all of its quirks. However, Nobeltec was just sold to the same people who publish Maxsea (Furuno). I'm not sure what this means, and doubt I'd get the straight answer if I asked. My gut says that this means the end of Nobeltec. Surprisingly, I think Maxsea, as it existed previously is also going away. There was just a major upgrade to Maxsea, in which I suspect the only thing kept was the brand name. The newest release seems to be based on Navnet 3d, which is a good thing.
Adding to the confusion, or at least my confusion, Nobeltec does not seem to be capable of loading the charts I need for cruising in Asia. I need support for S-57 encryped charts, aka S-63. Nobeltec does have an add-in which reads s-57, but not the encrypted charts. Argh.
My current leaning is towards buying BOTH Maxsea TimeZero (their latest release) and Rose Point's Coastal Explorer, and then form an opinion. I have already installed a demo of Rose Point's software, and like it. I'll report back when I know more.
The mysterious pictures above are a bit more interesting. These are from inside the dome that holds my satellite dish, that I use for Internet. It stopped working once we arrived in Japan, and now I know why. The belt is stretched, and about to break! I had the maintenance crew at the marina in Japan pull my dome. My guess is that the constant bump-bump-bump of the Bering Sea was a bit much for the dish. It was endlessly repositioning the dish, to point at the satellite. For this next year, I'll have a fresh belt, and PLENTY of spares.
And, lastly...
I've been researching replacing my anchor light and running lights with LEDs. Prior to the start of the GSSR I swapped all lighting in the boat to LED, and had fantastic results (no bulb replacements, cooler inside the boat, and lower current draw). On Sans Souci, the anchor light is located 46 feet above the water. I'm not thinking about replacing the anchor light because of the lower power drain, although this is perhaps an advantage. In my case, I want an LED anchor light, solely because I don't want to ever be in a situation where I need to scale the mast, while sitting at anchor, at dusk, 46 feet off the ground. LEDs tend to last forever.
Thank you,
Ken Williams
Nordhavn 68, Sans Souci
http://www.kensblog.com
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| Posted by Mike G on Nov 02, 2009, 12:07 PM EST |
Ken,
For your drawer slides KV is a brand we have used in commercial cabinets for years. http://www.knapeandvogt.com/Drawer_Slides.html?page=products.1 They make slides designed for file drawers shich can get very heavy. |
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| Posted by Chris Hallock on Nov 02, 2009, 09:07 AM EST |
Ken,
You can get bright white LED's. They have started using them for headlights as well in new cars now.
Here is Aqua Signal being a large manufacture:
Main USA website:
http://www.aquasignal.info/aquasignal_us/htdocs/news_current.php?id=52
Direct LED PDF:
http://www.aquasignal.info/aquasignal_us/files/content/series_led.pdf?id=178
What manufacture do you have currently for your nav lights?
While not specifically for boats, Rigid (use to be Holder off road) makes some light bars for off road vehicles that are LED based, to replace HID lighting. They are also used by the military. Might be a good replacement for deck lighting from the mast as well.
http://www.rigidindustries.com/category_s/89.htm
Thanks,
Chris |
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| Posted by Ken Williams on Oct 31, 2009, 01:18 PM EST |
Bob:
Thank you for a great and informative post, as always.
As you mentioned, the sailboat that struck the whale off Baja was much lighter than my Nordhavn. I doubt a whale would sink my boat, although I don't want to experiment to find out. The bigger risk would be that a breaching whale would land on the boat knocking us over. One would think this would be unlikely, but Grey Pearl did have a whale breach close enough that they thought it would land on them.
Here's an interesting story from last year:
http://www.kensblog.com/aspx/blob2/blobpage.aspx?msgid=463430&beid=19073
It's a 60' brand new Viking sportfisher that was destroyed when it struck a whale in Cabo.
On the topic of drawer slides...
Do you happen to remember what brand you bought?
As to LED lighting...
Check out: www.signalmate.com
This is just one, of many companies, who claim to offer fully coast guard compliant LED lighting. LED flashlights are certainly as bright as normal bulbs, so I'd assume these LED lights are at least as bright, or brighter, but I don't really know. I'm just starting my research. Thus far, most of the websites I've been to that offer LED anchor and running lights, are fairly lame. I get the impression there isn't much of a market.
As to charts...
I will buy Rose Point's Coastal Explorer this week. As soon as I have it installed, I want to download and install some representative British Admiralty, and Japan Hydrographic Association charts. I'll compare these to the Nobeltec charts, and report back. My guess is that different charts have different strengths and weaknesses, depending on location, and that there is no one right answer.
I'm also curious to try importing Nobeltec routes and tracks into Coastal Explorer, and see what happens.
Thank you!
-Ken W |
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| Posted by Bob on Oct 31, 2009, 12:58 PM EST |
Hi Ken,
A few comments about the J 120 which sunk on the Baja Ha Ha. The J 120 was built about 15 years ago, as an ultra light racing machine--40 feet long, and weight only about 10,000 lbs! (My first sailboat at 29 feet was 10,000 lbs, and I currently own a 27 foot Catamaran which weighs close to 10,000 lbs). The construction is excellent, but the weak place in many of these racing boats is the rudder support mechanism into the hull. Basically they have a tube glassed in, and may or may not have a support bearing under the deck. From what I can read, the boat sailed into a pod of whales. I suspect that as this happened, there may have been a mother and calf which was separated, or at least something occured which agrivated the group. They did attack the boat--or at least started hitting the rudder (perhaps the keel too). I strongly suspect that the rudder tube broke, letting in massive amounts of sea water (consider a hole at least 6" in diameter). The boat sank in about 7 minutes.
There have been a number of incidents of both keels and rudders failure in ultra light racing sailboats. When you compare these boats to your Nordhavn--there is just no such weakness. Perhaps the nearest point would be the stabalizer fins and their support. But event there, the Nordhavn is massively built in the way of the mounting of the fins. The rudder is also way over built--and is much smaller. Compounding the situation is the age of the sailboat, unknown maintance (It is an area which is difficult to access, and there could be some weakness, which might not show up unless a rigerous survey was done--this is some speculation on my part).
I have a friend whose son was in a 20 foot sailboat in Scammon's Lagoon, (a breeding ground for the Grey Whales) in Baja, when he got between a cow and calf. The whale hit the sailboat so hard, that it threw the crew overboard (they were not specifically injured, nor attacked), and the boat was pushed by the whales all across the lagoon, until it was beached. Another friend's boat had been in the Antiartic, and had ice cuts of the outer layer of glass (balsa planked hull under the glass--as opposed to balsa cored boat). They were hit by a whale off Brazil, and the boat sunk, as the weakened hull was breached. We had a whale "nudge" one of our boats--no damage, but I suspect it was either a warning or the whale was "playing". We had not approached the whale, and it came up under our boat. There was no "attack"--the whale swam off, and of course we made it a point to keep well clear of the whales. On the other hand, as I suspect you have seen, sometimes whales come within 20 feet of the boat, and just seem curious.
Drawer slides: In the my current trailerable Catamaran, I wanted to have slides strong enough to support a chest type of 12 volt freezer. The one I own holds "84 quarts" which could potentially equate to over 500 lbs. The freezer slides out from under a settee. I found some slides which were rated at 300 lbs each x 2 = 600 lbs. I have used these for over 3 1/2 years and they seem to be holding up well. They have multiple ball bearings, with a double set of slides. I don't know if you want anything this "beefy" but they are available--and are most likely much stronger than the standard slides. You do have to put a positive lock on the drawer, so it will not slide as the boat rolls.
As for the lights, I had always assumed that the larger Nordhavn's had double light bulbs in the navigation lights. Since our mast was 62.5 feet off the water (although I had to go up a couple of times at sea, it was not for changing light bulbs--which is rather tedious). We had 4 different halyards rigged to the masthead, so it was easy to use the windlass for my wife to whisk me up to the masthead. But I had two separate lights, separate bulbs, fixtures and circuits on the masthead. The deck level running lights were only single. I also wanted my lights to be as bright as possible. As you know it is much easier to see the white steaming lights than the lower and apparently dimmer (filtered by the colored lenses) red and green running lights. I wonder how bright you can get the white lights in the LED. It is certainly a good idea to replace them. I have done this on the smaller boats which I now own. They appear to be brighter than the incandescent bulb, but I have not measured the actual lumins.
As for charts: I found that many times the British Admirality Charts were far better than the US DMA charts. When we were cruising, (before GPS chart plotters), we used mostly British Admirality Charts in many areas, when we were out of the sphere of influence of the US. If you are having problems getting the accurate charts, you might consider the digital BA charts. I know that I purcahsed some C Map chips for SE Asia for a friend about 6 years ago, and he was not happy with the charts. They may be much better now, and I don't know what chart base the C maps were working from. I can understand your delema!
Take care,
Bob A |
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| Posted by Martin on Oct 30, 2009, 04:26 PM EST |
| Ken, I use NavNet 3D as my primary system on board my boat and RosePoint's Coastal explorer as back-up. In many ways I actually find CE easier and more intuitive to work with. Its also proven very stable and does everything I've ever asked of it. I would be really interested to hear how you get on. |
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