Boating chit chat thread.

An absolute beauty, and a sight to behold under sail.

Hopefully she can be repaired and get back in action.

Well the Striker Plate arrived today, and of course the bolts & holes in it are 8mm, and the holes in my P-Bracket are 10mm!!

I’ll be able to chase out the holes to 10mm easily enough, just need to pick up a HSS drill bit, but I’ll need to try and source the M10 stainless Allen head bolts.

Marine Parts don’t look like they have them on their site, but I might give them a call tomorrow.

Excellent service once again Fergal.

A pack of bolts & spring washers just ordered.

Muchas Gracias

And meanwhile the Round Britain and Ireland fleet are (mostly) on the last leg, and are lolling around the place in no wind and shedloads of tide, the two leaders were anchored off Brighton for a few hours last night. They seem to have got going again, slowly, now.

Must be an absolute killer!

Hats off to the 19- and 20-year-old girls doing it two-handed, in the smallest boat. They're paddy last, on handicap and the water, but that is some achievement (assuming they'll finish).

Shoutout to the 2 lads that launched their Jet Ski on the slip in Skerries this evening, then started it without clipping the kill cord onto one of themselves and the jet ski proceeded to toddle itself around in circles before one of the lads was able to intercept it and pull the kill cord!!

They are currently out there now bombing around in between all the moorings noise polluting what is an otherwise lovely evening!!

I want a go on a jetski and then they should be immediately banned 😜

Drama at wiora

https://www.taigamotors.com/products/orca

She is/was for sale…

Dont think she was for sale from what if seen. Think that's just her photo being used for publicity to sell new hulls, they seem to have been putting push on to get new orders built. They're a bit late to the market with a good 2 hander. Might be a few nervous owners wondering if it's too late to cancel an order

....

It’s just another serious gear failure to add to a growing list of several dozen of the exact same type at this stage, stretching waaay back…. Remember Drum in Fastnet ’79 ? It’s not just Farr – Beneteau (Cheekyrafiki among others) and several designs notably Bavaria also have lost keels through drop-off. It will be interesting to read the Marine report – the two crew were sitting on the hull and reported by a passing merchantman. The ladies were lucky there was a look-out on watch. It’s time people woke up.

Round Britain & Ireland started last Sunday from Cowes. 1st boats only north of Mayo today and the retirals are starting already. Good few mid 30 footers racing which could be a long slow & rationed race

SY Eleanora has been declared a total loss. She is still fully submerged alongside the quay in Tarragona. The captain of the Spanish rescue that rammed her has been cleared, cause apparently was a mechanical fault. It will be interesting to read the accident report, as there is conflicting info from witnesses (e.g. allegedly dropping anchors to stop way). The insurers went to tender to lift/refloat her - there was pressure from the Port. Most salvors proposed cutting her up and lifting, the winning bid will raise her using airbags.

Maybe a project for Fergal?😁

I've had close to zero interest in it since probably the 90's...

Tried watching a few of the races in the last series but they are just so boring, and that really annoying droning noise (I presume it's the hydraulic systems?) was head wrecking.... reminded me of the vuzulveza's from the world cup in South Africa...

There's just nothing to remotely be excited about watching 2 boats racing when one of them is doing 24 knots, and the other one is doing 35 knots..... And you spend more time watching the computer generated graphic of the race course to actually get an idea of how each boat is doing.....

Cork (& Ireland) dodged a massive bullet there....

It’s decades since I followed the AC for the reasons outlined. That article is short on detail of past rancour. The rules were problematical even in the 1890’s when there were major rows between Lord Dunraven (Valkyrie) and the AC committee / NYYC.  He unsuccessfully tried on two occasions to win back the Cup. In that era the Americans were shameless in their determination to win at all costs, constantly stacking the rules in favour of the defender. He was very upset by what he considered to be the ‘cheating tactics’. He resigned as an honorary member of NYYC before his membership was revoked following his negative comments. He then gave up Americas Cup racing.. One of Dunraven’s bugbears was spectator boats that crowded the course, particularly in his line and following a minor collision with one he was found responsible and penalised. Setting the course offshore would have been fair, but the NYYC refused to allow this for many years. Later the NYYC again changed the rules, requiring entries sail to the event.  In motor racing terms it would be like asking every international F1 team to drive their cars 3000 miles to the circuit before racing. This drew accusations of cheating by the NYYC and responses from them of bad sportsmanship. Dunraven is supposedly the originator of “Britannia rules the waves, but America waives the rules."

American designer Herreshoff came up with a fairer set of rules (the Universal Rules) but the NYYC refused to accept them fpr more than a decade, which is why Lipton delayed his challenges.

As a result of the ill-feeling towards Dunraven, NYYC only recently (5 or 6 yrs ago) accepted him into the AC ‘Hall of Fame’ founded c1990

FWIW Cork did not dodge the AC bullet: there never was a possibility it would come to Ireland. It was a marketing stunt for tourism, fed by media hype and political fluff.

Never submitted his celestial navigation logs from the 2000 mile qualifier so find and made to do a 300 mile sail

Had great craic gluing magnets back onto flywheel today using 100e tube of glue & activator

Whos liable for that? Tug boats who would have the TS under control or the TS insurers

But if you're being pulled by a tug, are you not "not under command"? Different to a pilot on board, I'd have thought....

The first casualty from the Golden Globe Race.

Guy de Boer on the rocks on the north coast of Fuerteventura.

Pat Lawless is still trucking along in 3rd place.

They’re doing this race with zero modern technology aren’t they (except for emergency situations), so it could have been something as simple as sleeping too late or misjudgment of his position by a mile or so…

And Pats not in the best shape either