Finisterra Update 11-15-13

Over the last couple of months I've been busy with mostly non-sailing issues but have found time for a few projects aboard Finisterra. In early October I made the decision to rewire the 12 volt system from the batteries to the main DC panel.  The system worked OK as it was, but over the years the previous owner had added various extras to the boat and instead of routing them through the main DC panel or installing an auxiliary DC panel, he simply ran the leads directly to the batteries and used in-line fuses on an ad hoc basis. The result was battery terminals with multiple wires leading to individual components. To further complicate matters, the house bank had been connected to the starting battery in such a way that they could not be isolated from each other. In other words, we really only had one great big bank of batteries that included six 6V deep cycle AGM batteries and a single 12V AGM starting battery. Our solution was to bring in Peter Dugan of Pacific Marine Electric to sort it all out. Together we created a new wiring system from the batteries to the main switches and installed a new auxiliary DC panel. The result is a much cleaner wiring arrangement that enables us to isolate the starting battery and provides an auxiliary panel for all the extra equipment the previous owner and I have installed. In the process we got rid of about 50 pounds of heavy gauge battery cable and have a clean and understandable system, which makes me happy.  Once the wiring was complete I fabricated a cover for the batteries so I could access the raw water pump without sitting directly on top of the battery terminals.

Battery cover is elevated to clear the battery terminals. It's a good place to sit while changing the impeller on the raw water pump. Finisterra is equipped with six 6V deep cycle battery and a single 12V starting battery.

I also finished the installation of the solar panels. They are mounted on a stainless steel tube on the aft end of the bimini and secured in place with Magma barbecue mounting brackets. This way I can adjust them through a range of about 120 degrees to align them with the sun as needed. The Magma brackets make it easy to remove the panels if necessary.

Three 50 watt solar panels. Having the ability to adjust them to face the sun  as needed vastly improves their efficiency. Since all of our lighting is LED, the primary consumer of electricity is the refrigeration system.
To augment the solar array we also carry a Honda genset.  Notice the GAM single sideband antenna on the port backstay.

Juice from the solar panels is routed through a GoPower charge controller mounted on the aft bulkhead in the quarter cabin.

One of the key elements of a good passage is having a snug, warm and secure place to sleep when you're off watch. Unfortunately Finisterra was not built with any good sea berths so I improvised with a lee board in the quarter berth. It's made of African Mahogany and slips into anodized aluminum brackets. It converts the king size quarter berth into a nice, snug sea berth.

Nothing beats a good place to sleep when you're underway.

Security is always an issue here in the States as well as abroad. To help keep ourselves and our gear safe, I installed a security system that incorporates sensors, called Pulsors, bonded to the underside of the deck and hatches in strategic locations. The Pulsors can detect slight fluctuations in the deck, such as from the weight of a person stepping aboard, and trigger the alarm. I'm not sure how well it'll work against the bad guys but I've scared myself a couple of times by not disarming it before climbing aboard.

Pulsors are about 3 inches long and can be mounted almost anywhere.

Another project was to build a seat for the companionway. This is a nice place to be when you're on the midnight watch, or when you have a cockpit full of guests. On the night watches it is the warmest part of the cockpit and provides excellent protection from the elements,  a good view forward and easy access to the sailing instruments. The autopilot remote and I-Pad are also within easy reach. Or we can turn around and face the cockpit, using a drop board for a back rest. It's made of teak and is secured in place with a couple of rigging pins.

The companionway sill on the B423 is high enough that it's easy to bark your shins when going below. This little seat makes that a thing of the past. 

I set the height of it so that a standard square boat cushion works perfectly for it.

I pondered whether to install an AIS system on Finisterra for a long time. After all, I've made many a long passage without it in the past, so do we really need it now? Well, yes we do. In some ways it beats radar for sorting out what other vessels are out there. It takes less power than a radar and we can display it wirelessly on our laptops, I-Pads, GPS and smart phones. I chose a Vesper XB8000, which includes a VHF receiver and transponder and dedicated GPS receiver. Installation was quick and easy, all I needed was to install the VHF and GPS antennas and provide 12V power to the unit. Because it works through its own WIFI network I was spared the expense and aggravation of wiring all our displays to it. I could have connected it to the masthead VHF antenna by installing an antenna splitter, but I like my systems to be stand-alone and autonomous from each other, so I mounted a separate antenna on the bimini.

Vesper XB8000 wifi enabled AIS. receiver/transponder. Very cool!

The latest addition to the fleet is our new Hobie Mirage i9S inflatable kayak. I love this thing! We've tried several different types of kayaks in the past, both inflatable and rotomolded, and none really met our needs until we found the i9S. The average inflatable kayaks are slow, track poorly and are just no fun to paddle. The rotomolded unit we had for a while paddled fairly well and was certainly rugged enough, but it was a big, bulky thing. I really couldn't accept having such a thing strapped down on the foredeck or hanging from our lifelines, so I was thinking of not having a kayak at all, which wasn't a very good solution either. Then we found this little Hobie. Right from the start I liked the propulsion system better than a double bladed paddle. It uses leg power to drive a pair of fins so it sort of swims along, leaving your hands free to do more constructive things, such as fish, or sip a cocktail, or wave to admirers as you glide past them.

Pedal powered and quite civilized, the little Hobie has earned a place aboard Finisterra

The boat comes with a paddle for emergencies, or if you want to go really fast you can pedal and paddle at the same time. But I found it to be perfect for relaxing jaunts around Alamitos Bay and I look forward to cruising it in far off places as well. The propulsion system is easy to install and comes with its own storage bag. The hull weighs about 45 pounds and fits neatly in the starboard cockpit locker when it's deflated.

Lolita becomes Cinnamon Girl.

I am pleased to report that my little wooden boat, formerly called 'Lolita', has a new home in the San Francisco Bay area and a new name that I think fits perfectly. Her new owner, Mariellen Stern has given her fresh varnish and a bunch of other upgrades and she's now ready to race. Here are some photos from her days in Newport Beach:

Cinnamon Girl as she looked in 2007.

Cinnamon Girl sports traditional lines above the waterline combined with a fast bottom.

With her deep fin keel and spade rudder, Cinnamon Girl is deceptively quick.

I designed this boat way back in 1978 for a client that wanted a traditional looking boat for cold-molded construction. I could not bring myself to draw a full keel on it so we compromised with a shallow-ish fin keel and skeg-mounted rudder. Twenty years later I found her in a warehouse in Signal Hill in a sad state of disrepair and bought her on the spot. I brought her back to my shop and rebuilt her in my spare time. In doing so I deepened the keel and put a new spade rudder on her. A few years later my plans changed and I put her in storage while I focused on other projects and went cruising.

Fast forward to 2013, it was time to either refit her again or find a new home for her. Fortunately, last April Mariellen came into her life. She had known this boat many years ago and loves it as much as I have over the years. After several years in storage the varnish on the hull and cockpit was in rough shape, the bottom paint was gone and there were a few other issues that needed attention. I had always sailed the boat in southern California where the winds are relatively light and only raced it a few times so it was very simply rigged, but for sailing and racing in the San Francisco bay area, we thought some additions were necessary. These included a new 100% jib set on a roller furler, rigid vang and improved reefing system among others. Here are some photos of  the work in progress:

Lolita survived the road trip from Costa Mesa to Richmond, CA

Topsides are prepped for new finish .

Several coats of Interlux Perfection are applied. The hull is made of cold molded fir and mahogany.

Once the topsides were finished, fresh bottom paint was applied.

With work on the hull completed, the boat was relaunched. The next step was to refinish the cockpit.

It was no small job to refinish the cockpit. Notice the old style Barlow winches.

Mariellen stands proudly with her new Cinnamon Girl

Cinnamon Girl in her element.

America's Cup Observations

It's clear that the AC/72 boats represent the most significant advances in yacht racing in a generation. While small boats like the Moth have been foiling for years and other large multihulls have been using foils that are adjustable for cant and rake, the 72's are arguably the first to combine foils, wing masts and sophisticated foil control systems in in a truly competitive package. It is also important to note that there were no significant gear failures during the regatta. That is a testament to the highly developed design, engineering and testing programs of both teams. I think this bodes well for the future of the Cup competition. Once again, I have to confess that before the event I was among those who felt that this event could very well be a dismal failure. After witnessing the spectacular racing I changed my mind in this regard.

I watched every minute of the racing on TV and think it was extremely well presented. Journeyman sports announcer Todd Harris did good job in spite of having no real yacht racing experience. Sure, he made a few goofy comments but he also frequently acknowledged his lack of experience in the sport and didn't try to come across as an expert. I thought that was a refreshing departure from previous AC announcers. NBC relied on a cast of true sailing experts to deliver insightful commentary and I thought they all combined to deliver a quality sporting product.

What about the crews? Without access to the inner workings of each team we can only speculate on what occurred within them as the regatta progressed, but the indications are that the American team had not spent nearly as many hours on the water, in the boat they would race in the finals, as the Kiwis did. This became glaringly apparent when a Team Oracle crewman fell overboard before the start of the first race. Another interesting facet of the American team was the body language of two key members of their afterguard, John Kostecki and Tom Slingsby. We don't know what that interpersonal relationship was like but it was obvious that things improved when Kostecki was replaced by Ben Ainsley. This is not to take anything away from Kostecki as he has had  a long and illustrious career as a professional sailor. But sometimes personalities don't mesh regardless of the skills and talents of the individuals and perhaps that's all there was to it. In any case, the shift from Kostecki to Ainsley made a significant difference and in my opinion was a key factor in Oracle's eventual victory.

It was compelling personal drama to see the juxtaposition of confidence in the two crews as Oracle began racking up wins against the Kiwis who came within a few puffs of wind of winning the event when race 13 was abandoned with the ENZ ahead with less than a mile to the finish line. When that race was re-sailed later in the day, the Americans began their improbable march to 9 points and the Cup. As the Kiwis suffered loss after loss their confidence was replaced first by concern, then worry and finally desperation. At the end of the event the strain and despair were evident on the faces of the ENZ team, especially that of Dean Barker, whose helmsmanship could not be faulted except on the starting line where he was frequently bested by Spithill. The Kiwis made few tactical errors and only one glaring boathandling error when they nearly capsized.

It was also interesting to see how the Americans continued to improve daily while the Kiwis seemed to remain constant in terms of boatspeed. I can only attribute that to the fact that Oracle was the faster boat and it took several races for the Americans to learn how to sail it to its optimum potential, while the Kiwis had the slower boat and couldn't get much more out of her.

In the aftermath of the event, Team Oracle accepted the challenge from an Australian group for the next America's Cup competition. We don't know what kind of boats that regatta will be sailed in, but given the spectacular racing we witnessed in AC XXXIV, I'm looking forward to some incredible technological advances and exciting racing in the event to come.

America's Cup: Lessons Learned

Apologies for the long hiatus from this blog. It's been a very busy six weeks since my last post, with several projects completed on Finisterra. But first we need to consider the AC regatta and lessons we can take from the racing and the boats themselves, and what this incredible event might mean for the future of the competition.

The boats:

1. It appears that Team Oracle really did have the better boat. I had thought that the bows might be too fine, lacking sufficient buoyancy to support the wing mast. But the designers and crew were able to keep the boat on it's feet throughout the event. The Kiwis chose another route with fuller, more buoyant bows. Perhaps in a bit more swell that would have paid off, but it is clear that the Yanks had the faster boat for the conditions they encountered. This is an indication that Team Oracle's designers had a better feel for the expected conditions on the bay and did a better job of targeting their boat for them, while the Kiwis opted for perhaps more of a safety margin in their bows and paid the price with more weight and windage up forward. This would cost them speed especially on the upwind legs.

2. Deck layouts for both boats showed significant differences. The most striking of which were the airfoils mounted on the aft cross beam of ENZ. There was a price to pay for them in terms of weight and drag and I think it's doubtful that they did enough to smooth out the wind vortices swirling off the boat to offset the negative factors. The Kiwis seemed to have a more efficient winch layout, but I noticed in the later races there were times when grinders weren't in the cockpit but grinding from a position on the trampoline instead. This was an indication to me that the crew was getting a bit rattled as they racked up loss after loss.

3. Much has been said about the fact that the tactician aboard Oracle had to grind winches on each tack or jibe while his counterpart on ENZ was able to keep his head out of the boat more and focus exclusively on tactics and strategy. This was more than offset by the addition of a strategist aboard Oracle. The early races showed that communication between tactician, strategist and helmsman would be crucial and it looked like ENZ had the better operational arrangement. However, once Ben Ainsley replaced John Kostecki those lines of communication improved drastically and it was beautiful to see how well Oracle's afterguard worked together, and this was a key factor in Oracle's string of victories.

4. There were other design features in the boats that probably made a difference. For example the helms on Oracle were angled inward a few degrees. This probably resulted in better ergonomics for the helmsman than the directly forward facing helms aboard ENZ.

5. As far as I could tell, the daggerboards were roughly the same but of course I don't know what the actual foil sections were. Another area of vital importance is the board control systems. We don't really know what the differences were and which worked best at raising and lowering them. Nor do we know which system worked best for adjusting cant and rake of the boards. Of course we can infer that Oracle's worked better since they won but it would be fascinating to see side-by-side comparisons of these systems.

I'll write more about the actual racing in a later post.

Americas Cup: The Plot Thickens

Just when we thought the Kiwis owned this regatta, the Yanks stepped up. As I mentioned previously, team Oracle is still on the steep part of the learning curve. They apparently took a giant stride forward over the last few days and the race results show it. Of course they still have a very steep hill to climb if they want to keep the Cup, but they are definitely improving their boatspeed, tactics and boat handling.

In race 8 team Oracle showed improved upwind boatspeed, but more important than that, they tacked much more efficiently than before. In previous races Oracle lost out to the Kiwis on nearly every tack but this time they held onto them on leg three. Near the top of that leg ETNZ, on port tack could not cross the starboard tack Oracle and attempted to tack under them, nearly capsizing in  the process. This rare boathandling mistake cost them the race and came near taking them out of the regatta altogether. No one knows if they would have won this race if not for the blown tack but the key point of this race is that Oracle managed to up their game and breathe some life into their chances.

With the next race canceled due to high winds, both teams retired to their respective corners, one to review what went wrong, the other to continue their climb up the learning curve. When race 9 got underway the next day, the Yanks showed that 8 was not a fluke. They won the start and led ETNZ at every mark.

Race 10 was a spectacular display of yacht racing. The American boat won the start but couldn't quite slam the door on the Kiwis at mark one and trailed on the run. It was on the next beat that we were treated to a tacking duel that no one prior to the event would have predicted. It was an awesome spectacle of high speed sailing, split second timing and superb boathandling. Rounding opposite marks at the windward gate the two boats split to opposite sides of the course and jibed back toward each other with ETNZ on starboard. This was a situation that has never happened before, two boats hurtling down the course at 40 knots, approaching each other on a collision course. Oracle opted to slow down and take the stern of the Kiwi boat. At this speed, the result was a 200 meter advantage for ETNZ and that was all they needed to take the race. Was the slowdown the right choice? I think that, given the situation, it was probably a better option than gybing on top of the Kiwis and getting pinned outside at the leeward mark. The question is how far ahead does the tactician have to think in order to make this the right decision. At 40 knots, the Kiwis were a long way off thirty seconds before the cross, but that's about when the decision to take their stern needed to be executed. This is sailing on a whole new level, the ultimate high speed chess game where the stakes include putting the lives of the crew on the line. Intense!

Installing a Chain Stopper

A while back I installed a Lewmar chain stopper on the foredeck to make anchoring a bit easier. It was a simple job to fashion a mounting block out of teak, make a backing plate out of apitong and bolt it all together. The job was done in a day. Then I went out and anchored and discovered that if I left it as is, the stopper would soon knock all the galvanizing off the chain. This is a standard flapper type chain stopper, rated at 5,000 lb SWL and sized for 5/16 chain. I had used this unit on my last boat, which had 1/4" chain and a vertical capstan windlass, and it worked well. The problem is that there is barely enough clearance in the stopper for the chain to pass through, and only if it is perfectly aligned and set at an angle that matches the angle of the chain as it passes from the windlass to the roller. On top of that, the deck in that area is only about half an inch thick. It is made of a fairly heavy fiberglass laminate and a bit of wood core.  This isn't really enough structure to simply throughbolt the stopper to, so I added a carbon fiber top plate and a larger wood backing plate to bring it up to snuff. The photos below outline the process.

Mold. 

First I measured the amount of crown in the deck forward of the anchor locker. It's nearly flat but I wanted the edges of the top plate to fit tightly to the deck so I created a bit of extra curvature in the mold, which is made of a piece of old 1/4" Starboard.

Paper pattern with pre-cut carbon fiber

I took a template off the deck and drew the shape in AutoCad. I wanted the top plate to be fairly large so I could attach it to the deck with several widely spaced fasteners to spread the loads out as much as possible. The rectangular shape is the outline of the teak mounting block.

Laminating the carbon fiber

I used four layers of Vectorply C-LT2200 carbon fiber cloth for the laminate. This fabric is made of carbon fiber bundles aligned along the 0 degree and 90 degree axes of the roll and stitched together. This architecture is stronger than traditional woven fabric. The four layers amounted to about 88 ounces/sq yd of material for a total thickness of about 3/16" when it was finished.

Second layer is rotated 45 degrees 

I oriented the first and fourth layers so the fibers run at 0 and 90 degrees to the centerline of the boat and rotated the second and third 45 degrees to provide strength in all directions. I used WEST systems resin which works really well for hand laminating projects.

Finishing the top plate

After the plate was laminated and cured, I glued another copy of the paper pattern to it so I could precisely locate all the holes. It was a simple matter to drill and countersink them exactly where they need to be.

Top plate ready for finish sanding and paint

Check fitting the hardware

Finished part installed

I made a backing plate out of 1" thick apitong that extends out to the bulwarks to help spread the loads as much as possible. The 10" cleat allows for a snubber to be run out over the port bow roller. I found that if I take a turn around the roller with the snubber, it won't jump off if it when the boat swings at anchor.

Chain and snubber geometry works

It took a couple of tries to get the alignment and angle of the stopper to match up perfectly with the chain. It would have been nice to have a larger stopper, but there was just enough clearance between the shank of the anchor and the hatch for this smaller unit.

55 LB Rocna just fits

America's Cup Day Four: Removal of Doubt

It was no surprise that Kostecki got the hook. Team Oracle has nothing if not a lot of depth on their bench and Ben Ainslie is certainly a qualified tactician. But it was also no surprise that they achieved the same result with the new guy. Oracle is sailing scared. If they get ahead of TNZ they are nervous that they'll get passed. If they get  behind, they have no confidence that they can pass. This sets them up for mistakes, and they have certainly committed more than enough to send the Cup back to NZ.

In race 6, Oracle won the start and the first run. But then they were so concerned about getting rolled that they failed to stick to a winning strategy. They went around the wrong mark at the leeward gate and that pretty much sealed their fate. Out of phase with the tide and their competition, they struggled to get back over to the right side of the track only to have TNZ pummel them all the way to the weather mark. By then it was over.

It was only a matter of time before TNZ would win a start. In race 7 they did that and simply never looked back. I don't know exactly how many practice days team Oracle has had, with or without Ainslie, but it's pretty clear that they have not had the same amount as the Kiwis. It looks to me like the Oracle crew is still on the steep part of the learning curve while TNZ is certainly well beyond that stage. Perhaps Oracle's crash last October took too much of a toll in terms of sailing days for the crew. Perhaps there is too much internecine friction within the command structure at team Oracle. Whatever it is, this team is not living up to its potential. The betting now is whether Team Oracle can win even one more race before the Cup is shipped to Auckland.