Sailing and Camping

The internet is a great and wonderful thing where you can find out just about anything you want to know and purchase anything you want.

However, when it comes to investing in your dream sailboat, it pays handsomely to be very cautious and thorough before going ahead with a purchase. And remember, that boats like cars, often look much better in a photographic image than in reality!!

The following is very much a cautionary tale of a real life situation I came across in Papeete, French Polynesia.

...'It is at this point our crew are joined by an Australian yachtsman slowly working his way back to New South Wales. They first met him at the Balboa Yacht Club in Panama. His is an excruciatingly painful account and worth repeating here as a cautionary tale.

Some eighteen months previously he had purchased a sloop, by private sale, on the internet. It was 'laying up' on Mystic River, Connecticut, in the USA. He arrived there to discover that the boat was in far worse condition than he had been led to believe. He spent the whole winter working and living on board in freezing conditions preparing it for the voyage.

Imagine waking every morning with ice hanging from your mustache and having to crawl out of your bunk, climb down the ladder, trudge through a foot of snow to the ablution block, re-climb the ladder, and begin the days work with fingers that will hardly move, and brain numbed into lethargy from the cold. For an Australian raised in the warmth of NSW it must have been soul destroying.

During that period he spent more on the craft than what he had originally paid for it. This was not part of the plan! Finally setting sail, his trip to date had been one disaster following another - too many to repeat here, and too depressing to contemplate. The last news our crew had of him was here in Papeete. He had arrived under sail as his engine had seized up completely several days out of Tahiti, and he had been told the required parts would be five weeks in coming. He was fast running out of funds and still three thousand nautical miles from home.

Visiting him aboard his boat the next day, our captain and sibling crew could not believe the appalling conditions in which he existed. The boat was dark, damp, and quite chilly, despite the warmth of the Tahiti sun. The smell of mould and dry rot was almost overpowering and after a short chat and looking around at his many problems, our crew manage to winkle him ashore to a warm and sunny café for an obligatory Hinano. Here, his glum outlook brightens somewhat as the amber liquid takes effect.

A respectable time later, they make their departures, waving cheerily as he disappears back down the dock toward his boat, no doubt to stare once again at the overwhelming number of things to be fixed before he sets sail again.

As at the time our little ship departed Tahiti, his parts had yet to arrive and he was never heard of again - he had a vhf radio on board but it was ineffectual at best.

From time to time his name came up in conversation as to his possible progress and whereabouts, but not having any means of contact, our crew could only suppose what and where.

There being no reports of vessels sinking or missing during the next six months or so,they could only assume that he finally did make it back to Australia - any prayers that went up to 'the one who made us', for the safety of sailors at sea, would hereafter have his name on the list.'

The moral of this story is never part with any money on the internet for any vessel before an inspection by yourself and also preferably by an authorized marine surveyor. If you are going to go cruising offshore for extended periods you want to know that she meets your criteria and is going to be able to stand up to the sometimes tough conditions you are going to meet along the way.

Best practice would be to use the internet only as a search tool to locate the vessel which fits your needs and then put into motion a detailed and strict procedure which you follow rigidly.

This will ensure that when you are completely happy and arrive at a point to negotiate a price, you are comfortable with your position. Ideally, you will agree on a price with the seller, pay a deposit, with the balance payable on delivery.

By following this procedure stringently you will finish up with a well found vessel that will give you many happy years of sailing and that will take you to many of the wonderful cruising grounds of this earth of ours.

Setting sail in your own sailboat and voyaging across the many oceans of our planet and visiting the myriad fantastic destinations en route is the easy part of your adventure.

Planning ahead of time to get it right is the more difficult of the two, so you need to begin well in advance of your actual departure date. Depending on your own situations, that period could be months or even years. No matter what your time frame is, the more detailed your planning is, the better you will cope with all the situations that the sea, Mother Nature and human elements will throw at you (and they will) during your odyssey. In the event you will be amazed at the variety of events you will encounter along the way. They will range from the fantastic to the bizarre, monotonous to exhilarating, scary to exciting, and sometimes downright challenging. This is all part of the experience, but in the main these experiences will be wonderful and uplifting and once again you will surprise yourself at just how simply, many adversities you will overcome with your own gathered knowledge and ingenuity.

An 'Old Salt' once said to me when I was in the early stages of planning my odyssey: 'You may not be fully qualified/experienced when you set sail for the first time and leave port, but you sure as hell will be whenever it is that you return!'. Never truer words were spoken and I can assure you that the unbelievable storehouse of knowledge and experience that you will build during the time you are away will be a constant source of amazement to you and on which you will forever be able to draw upon.

So, now is the time to begin. It does not matter whether you actually own your own sailboat yet, that will happen as part of the process. This a good place to start - draw up a thoughtful and lengthy list of your criteria for the sailboat of your dreams.

A few headings could be:

Class - sloop, ketch, schooner etc.

Size - length, beam and draft.

Keel - long, deep, bulb, retracting etc

Deck layout - aft or centre cockpit, single forestay, cutter rig, running backstays etc.

Cabin layout - how many berths, master cabin fore or aft.

Electronics - radar, GPS, plotting, hf radio, computer with weather software, and now, AIS.

These will keep you busy for a time.

Depending on the level of your sailing skills, you can take any number of sailing courses, however, make sure they include more practical sessions than theory - you can read all the books on sailing technique etc. in the world, but nothing beats getting out on the water and putting sailing miles under your belt. Go down to the local sailing club and get yourself a regular crew position on a club racer. If you live by the water you can buy a small and inexpensive sailing dinghy and get all the fun and experience you can poke a stick at.

Then you can go on and book yourself into a 'safety at sea' course.

Also, during this time, book yourself into a local 'First Aid' course. From my own experience of a crew member fracturing a couple of ribs mid Pacific, I can tell you it is invaluable knowledge to have. It will also assist in deciding the make up of your medical kit.

Next, study navigation. With all the electronics nowadays, this is an area that tends to be left aside more and more, leaving the electronics to take care of it. This fine as they do a wonderful job, but what if they all go down for some reason? lightning strikes, knockdown, flooding or other damage. You need to have navigational skills to be able to navigate if this adversity strikes. Also, include a course on astro navigation as this is a marvellous feeling, when mastered, being able to use a sextant and make a plot within a nautical mile or two of your GPS readings.

You will need to take a course and get your ticket for HF radio. Along with this you will get call signs etc. for your boat.

Get a two metre length of supple line from your local chandler and set it up on a convenient bar/rail at home somewhere - in your office, the bed end, back of a chair and constantly practice your knot tying until you can tie them automatically. The knots you will use the most will be bowline, clove hitch, fishermens bend, rolling hitch - become proficient at these and as many others as you can.

Study charts and all their markings, buoys, rules of the road and ships lights.

Flags of all nations is a fascinating subject, along with nautical flags and what they mean.

You are going to be busy fitting all this in and my suggestion is to start as soon as possible and get as much out of the way prior to actually purchasing your dream sailboat. As your 'set sail' date moves closer you will find a myriad other things need your attention and it is easy to put learning some of these other skills aside - so get as many under your belt as you can well ahead of time.

Finally, when you do have a few minutes to spare, read any sailing material you can get your hands on and especially don't miss 'Sailing Alone Around the World' by Capt. Joshua Slocum.

Good luck and exciting and safe sailing.

A well-prepared yacht with a prudent skipper would have avoided the accident at sea described below. Read the scenario, based on a true story, and think about what should have been done differently.

While traveling under motor at night, the yacht's engine failed. Efforts to restart it failed. The skipper and crew of two were unable to raise a sail before the yacht struck rocks of an island. Fortunately, they were able to get ashore safely, apart from the skipper injuring his ankle.

What happened next? They were unable to make an emergency call until next morning, when one of the crew climbed up the island and found mobile phone coverage. After the call was made, a helicopter was dispatched to rescue the trio.

What can we learn from this?

When motoring at night the skipper should allow extra sea room around obstacles to avoid the risk of running aground.

As a matter of practice except in very heavy conditions, the main should be hoisted although not necessarily to its full height. Most experienced skippers would agree that this leads to a far more comfortable ride than motoring without a steadying sail.

Skippers delivering yachts usually underpower them by having a reef permanently in the main and by using a headsail smaller than the conditions normally would call for. That way the boat is ready for any sudden increase in wind or the failure of the engine.

In any case - if you don't want to rig a headsail - one should be ready for use in an emergency. If not on a furler, it should be rigged with its sheets and halyard attached and tied down on the foredeck.

A VHF radio and EPIRB should have been part of the yacht's basic communication and safety equipment. The skipper would then make a 'Mayday' call and set off the EPIRB. Rescuers would have been notified that evening, i.e. 13 hours earlier than was the case.

While they were fortunate to have a mobile phone to make contact, one wonders how long it would have been before they were found if there had been no mobile coverage on that island.

The most disturbing thing about the whole report is the apparent lack of any attempt to equip the yacht with even the most basic safety gear for going to sea.