Sailors with Disabilities entered in the 2011 RSHYR

Sailors with Disabilities has entered their yacht Kayle into the ORCi division of the RSHYR 2011

The challenge is now to prepare the boat and crew in time, complete all documentation and safety equipment requirements and complete a qualifying race.

The Online Calendar has been updated in preparation for the RS2H.  New training dates have been added and the name changed from Wot Eva Training to RS2H Training.

If you have all your qualifications (SSSC, First aid and Radio) up to date and are interested in applying for a crewing position login to the SWD calendar and update your availability. The first hurdle is to get Kayle up to Entry specification for the Cabbage Tree Island Race on the 18^th November as an official RS2H qualifier.

Wot Eva Update

Wot Eva is currently at Sydney Boatworks in Nowra and the rebuild is well underway. The first official outing is planned for the 17^th Feb 2012.  Thank you to all our sponsors and the yachting industry for supporting SWD through this time.

SWD announces its plans for a Lord Howe Island Challenge in 2012

The challenge will be to start in  2012 Gosford  Lord Howe Island Race, continue through the finish line and circumnavigating the island and Balls Pyramid and return to Sydney Heads to complete the challenge.  SWD will be completing the challenge in their TP52 yacht Wot Eva and hope to set a record for this event.

Recruiting for this challenge is now underway so if you think you have the skills for 1000+ Nautical Mile challenge we’d love to hear from you.

Thanks to our friends at St George, SWD were the grateful recipients of a cheque for over $30,000 from the St George Foundation.  Check out their article around the Sydney Golf Classic in August on the St George Foundation's Facebook Page for more information and photos from this event.

Flinders Islet Race

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It is the mechanism that allows us to look back at a set of circumstances and work out a better way of doing it. That is what this article attempts to build a better mouse trap.

Sailors with disABILITES left on he evening of Friday 10^th October for Flinders Islet on WOT EVA. The race started well and all things seemed to be in order. I should point out that this is not a report about the incident. A full report will follow when we have had more time to look at this situation in detail.

All things were running well on the boat, we approached the Islet just behind Ragamuffin and Brindabella on a dying breeze. Rounded the Islet without incident, Pretty Fly III some 600m behind us heading North. No breeze #1 light up. John Hearne at the helm, yours truly on deck.

Shortly after this we brought the Seeker on the deck. The breeze lifted to about 2-3 knots allowing the 0 to be launched. We settled down creeping along at 4 knots boat speed. The wind shifted further North, we launched the A1 and rolled up the 0. Wind seemed to be unstable so decided to leave the Code 0 hoisted. We are now steering anywhere between 355-010magnetic, mostly around 005. Hearney had gone below and I was at the helm. 

This was a Hobart training exercise and we had a watch change just after the Islet. We had on approach to Flinders Islet noticed the instruments were flashing indicating lower house batteries. We started the motor but there was no charge going into the house battery. This had caused us to switch on the hand held back up GPS and go to paper charts. Check that the hand held VHF was operational and shut down all unnecessary electronic equipment on board. I believed at this point we had a charging problem.

A lookout yelled “surf”. After some expletive I looked under the boom and saw breaking waves on our bow, wheeled the boat to starboard in an attempt to get into deep water. The first wave caught us and dropped us on the rocks.

I yelled “all hands”. The crew were coming on deck, Kirk Watson one of the guys coming up from downstairs was thrown over board by the violent wave. Crew got a line to Kirk and got him back on board in a matter of seconds. I will discuss this in more detail at a later date.

Kirk’s recovery on board was one of the slickest things I have seen in difficult circumstances. It is hard to bring a man on board at any time. The crews’ experience and training gave us the best result.

This was a low swell, poor visibility evening, although at times the visibility improved to almost good. The boat continued to be pounded across the reef. All the crew on the deck of the boat. By now the boat had flipped over and had starboard rail down. The bulb had become detached and we were being washed into deep water. The boat slid off the reef finally into safe water. Safe being a relative term.

We anchored the boat and set about clearing the mess and checking for leaks and sea worthiness. A mayday had been radioed with the MOB incident. The helicopter turned up. I have never experienced the power of that light before it was good to see them. We were all ok and they left.

One of the impressive things was the speed that the crew set about their tasks. We had fouled the engine, so this had to be cleared, the key had come out of the engine start panel, so had to be jumped and started.

So we are looking pretty good, no leaks, some steerage, no bulb but the boat riding well and appeared to have a reasonable amount of stability. Some damage to the keel pan, damage to the boom, sails lost over the side, A1 shredded, amazingly the crew had saved the Code 0 but not my wet weather gear!

The water police instructed us to take a tow from Marine Rescue to Port Kembla. These guys turned up out of the dark, tossed a line, did a fantastic job, said goodbye at the police mooring at Port Kembla and disappeared into the morning.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank these volunteers for their time effort and professional seamanship.

I would also like to thank all those involved who assisted us throughout this problem. A very special thank you needs to go out to other competitors in the race in particular Brindabella, Balance and Pretty Fly who stood by through the entire operation.

The boat is currently in Nowra and being assessed. There are lots of things I am unsure of for the immediate future, a couple of things for sure, one Sailors with disABILITES will do its best to be on the start line for the Sydney to Hobart 2011 we have been there 17 times now and we ain't missing this one.

The second and most important, I must thank my crew. I could think of a million superlatives, that’s probably not true I couldn’t think of a million but a shit load anyway!  They performed perfectly, fought way above their weight and I would be honoured to go to sea with anyone of them or all of them anywhere anytime. Thanks guys.

So where to next? In the short term don’t know, lots to do, and no time to do it in. As I have said you can be sure of one thing . We will be on the Sydney to Hobart start line.

Pesky / David Pescud

Skipper Wot Eva

17 October 2011 Read more

Reminder from David Pescud for all crew members of Wot Eva.

Please log in to this website and make your intentions clear through the process.  Go to the calendar and follow the prompts to register your availability (or lack of availability) to each event. 

Sydney Southport

Sailing is always magic for me, there is some mystique.  On some days, sometimes, some nights it’s extra special, for instance, when you‘ve got a nice light head breeze, with slightly cracked sheets on a darkened sea under a black velvet sky, highlighted by a thousand stars.  So it was in this year’s Sydney to Southport.  It was a beautiful race, beautiful conditions and Wot Eva performed very well.

We had a great start, came off the line well, fifth out of the heads.  Straight line to Seal Rocks seemed to be the order of the day and we had no trouble laying that.  Seal Rocks would be our first decision making point.   There’s little to no current across Stockton Byte normally, so Seal Rocks for a TP is probably your first Way Point.  And then the question, stay in or go out?  With today’s technology and yacht trackers, every boat is watching their competitors.  Where’s Ragamuffin, Shogun, Pretty Fly, etc?  Are they in or out?  Where are the big boats?   What do we think we should do and what does our weather man tell us we should do?  Our course north is about 010, currently laying 030 so it seems very obvious it’s the making leg – so we head north.

There are several boats out further than us and Shogun, one of our competitors, is five miles wide.  Rags and Hooligan appear to be in shore.  Currents not too bad and we’ve got good wind so we stand on.  About lunch time we were waiting for the nor’easter to come in and capitalise on this decision.  We’re about 30 miles off the coast by now and praying for that nor’easter.  We’re now sailing alongside Shogun, matching her boat speed which is very encouraging.  Shogun tacks off and heads west steering about 280-285.  This is a big price to pay and she’ll give up a lot of ground if the nor’easter reaches out to us.  We decide to stand on a bit longer.  Unfortunately, this was a mistake and by the time we reached back to the coast the other TPs are now 15 miles in front of us.  As is so often the case in yacht racing opportunities opened to the leaders and closed for the back runners.  We had to settle to come in several hours behind the position we would have chosen.

That’s the bad news, the good news – we had a fantastic crew.  The work we’ve done on the rig has given us good boat speed and I can see the forming of a very strong race crew.  My personal congratulations to all those that took part, especially those that helped in pre-race organisation.  It was a fun sail and personally I enjoyed it very much.  The beer was cold and the hospitality was warm at Southport Yacht Club.

Brisbane – Keppel

It started with a delivery from Southport to the Marina in Brisbane River.  Buzz and Brad sailed the boat up with help from crew members and yours truly, eating and sleeping and eating and sleeping.  They did a top job.  We arrived at 4am to a full running tide in the Brisbane river.  To anyone who saw those photos of the floods I can well imagine what would have happened with flood water running down there on a run out tide.  We parked the boat and got ready for the next race.  Doyles Sailmakers helped us repair some headsails.

We dropped the lines at 9am, race day -  down the river and across Moreton Bay to the start.  Storm jib and try sail up, reporting 14POB, storm gear down and headsail and main up, asymmetric on deck.  With three minutes to go for the start.  Rolled in on the start line - Good Start.  The big boats are clear of us and we’re away!

Heading across the bay for North Stradbroke, I don’t know if John Hearne had something for breakfast that day but as we arrived at Stradbroke the weather shifted to the north and allowed us to retain the asymmetric and head down the harbour for Mooloolaba.  A couple of headsail changes later saw us clear Moreton Bay with a way point set on Indian Head at Fraser Island.  Again, it was a beautiful night - we have a half moon on a starry sky with the lights of the Sunshine Coast and Glasshouse Mountain abeam as Wot Eva slides north.

Breaksea Spit held its normal challenges.  Finally, around Breaksea and set course at 280.  Lady Elliot to port, Lady Musgrave to starboard, we’re now on our own and haven’t seen another boat for about 12 hours.  We’ve lost internet range so it’s guessing now.  The wind’s holding steady at around 090 at about 10 knots.  We’re trying to move ourselves to the left hand side of the field so we can get a better angle for the Keppel approach.  A threatening black squall is developing in the east which could be just the ticket to move us south a little.  It does the job well, although with the introduction of the tropical rain, crew numbers seem to thin on deck.  We got our south in, jibed over and made a course of 295, bang on.  So we finished the race at about 3am on Sunday.  Third over the line, first PHS Division A, first PHS overall, fourth IRC.

Best boat speed on the trip went to John Hearne with 20.  Tom Murphy was awarded Man of the Match.  All in all, a good result.  A good crew and lots of fun!

By David Pescud

  Read more

SWD are pleased to announce that the Northern Campaign is now underway.  Kayle will run the first of many Try Sail Days on Saturday 12th August in Hervey Bay.  For more information on the other centres Kayle will be visiting go to the Calendar tab on this website. 

Wot Eva is competing in the Brisbane - Keppel Island Tropical Race - good luck to all on board!

SWD have deferred their 2012 fundraising regatta for 12 months.

SWD are committed to a 40 boat regatta which is planned for Friday, March 1st 2013.  Registration and departure will be at CYCA.  Post-event drinks and other activities will be held at the Opera House.  This will be SWD's major fundraiser to help us run the Try Sail Day kids program.  We will be looking for sponsors for the boats for what we hope will be a celebration of sailing on Sydney Harbour. 

Gold for Australian Paralympic crew at Miami OCR
Craig Heydon, Yachting Australia

28-Jan-2011

Thoughts from Hobart 2010

People often ask me what did I do, before I retired. Well, I was a truck driver really and owned several business’s over a period of 30 years. But now, I go yachting a lot and my time is spent helping the Sailors with disABILITES committee to organize upcoming Sailors with disABILITES  events.  So what am I doing with diesel on my hands and my head in the bilge just north of Eden?

As any good truck driver will tell you, 40 litres of diesel inside a boat ain’t fun. But really the diesel and the split tank and why we withdrew from the Sydney to Hobart race are just footnotes to the Sailors with disABILITES 2010 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Campaign.

I think it was in July or August, perhaps, that one evening I was driving up to the bush, when I received a call from Graeme Woods. I must admit I wondered what it was about. Anyhow, those of you who know Graeme will know that he gets straight to the point. He said” how is the Sailors with disABILITES program going and could we use a TP52 “WOT YOT” for the program.?”

To be honest I wasn’t sure what he was proposing, but he said “I’d like to give you the boat”  Have you ever asked anybody exactly what they mean by the word ‘give’ when they are making such an extremely generous offer. I have got to tell you… you feel like dill! It’s enough to say, that Graeme’s definition of the word give is the same as mine and yours.

Remember, this is in the time of the year, in the lead up to the Kids Northern Campaign in Queensland, Southport Race team selection and lots of other stuff including a trip overseas for Deb and I. However, with the help of a lot of people we managed to get through the detail and paperwork. The Sailors with disABILITES committee took the bold decision with no funding to capitalize on the situation and do the Rolex Sydney to Hobart 2010 race. We were not going due to lack of funds. With this new boat a unique opportunity presented itself. So then it was throw on the Hobart switches and let’s go ! on the phone to whose available etc.

Hobart is not only about ocean racing, hard men and women doing amazing things in Bass Strait. It’s really about organization, safety, rules and regulations, complying with all the red tape attached to this race. For help in these matters, I must thank our new sponsors RFD for making the safety issues go away. They were fantastic thank you Mark !

Karen Hawkett took on the crew management role. It was an extremely difficult job, due to the recalcitrant behviour of some of our crew. She handled it all with her calm skill and true organization and was a key to the crew.

For those of you who know me, you will know that my dyslexia while not the biggest impediment at sea, but it can really tie me in knots in these situations.  So to all those who helped many thanks. One firm who was outstanding in this, whilst our arrangement is a commercial one, they went far beyond the task specification. I am referring to Olectric ..thanks Simon. Brett Pearce took excellent charge of this relationship. 

Wot Eva’s wardrobe is significant and made all the more difficult by sorting out the sails in a short time. John Hearne of Doyle Sails took on this role and Doyle’s generously contributed a significant sum to the campaign on a pro bono platform.

Cathy Josling, Brad Allen and Richard Wulff all tipped in and provided  a huge number of hours to the pre race preparation of the boat as did many others on board and on shore.

You know, I can still smell the diesel on my hands; it’s probably from the truck, the tractor or the boat. God I hate the stuff.

I am often asked before Hobart, how is the campaign going? My standard answer is, ask me in Hobart because you don’t really know until you get to Hobart. We have failed because of a broken boom one year, a rotating mast in 2000, and a failed top rudder bearing in 2006. In 2007 we won and so on. These are the vagaries of yacht racing.

There is one thing for sure, we will not compromise safety. If we are going to ask someone to save you, to jump out of a perfectly good helicopter, you better be damn sure that you have done everything possible to keep your boat safe and in good working order. That’s what safety is all about. Good yacht management and prudent seamanship.  So our circumstance left us with no alternative this year but to withdraw. Yes, we are a sailing boat and if push had come to shove we could have sailed to Hobart and back again. I have doubt about that. However, it wasn’t the case. This situation caused us to turn our head north, cop some amazing rides, as seen on the website and start planning for 2011. Yes, we will be back in 2011 and we will fight like hell as we want to win this bloody race.

The irony of the 2010 campaign in real terms comes down to 2 hose clamps. A couple of months before Hobart we had taken on 60-70 litres of diesel not a full tank, but a significant one and we had diesel in the bilges. So I had gone looking for the cause, it had to be in the filler pipe I thought yeap the two bottom hose clamps were loose. Ah ha got you you little buggars thought I. Went home that night and announced to Deb fixed !

Television is an amazing thing ….well I think it is! I don’t ever get to see it or see me or the Sailors with disABILITES team when it’s happening. But that’s not important somebody else did! Terry Agnew did from Great Keppel Island Resort who saw the Today show program on Channel 9 on International Day of Disabilities and rang and offered his support and sponsorship. Thank you Terry…thank you, thank you. The only thing I can say to you is that it WILL make a difference today and tomorrow.

The Hobart training and race program continued all good… boat sailing beautifully, quite surprising given our time constraints. Wot Eva is a good boat and sails well, for example Cabbage Tree Race, we had Ragamuffin behind us, a maxi in front and another maxi behind us. We had beaten Quest in our one and only outing.

So it was with reasonable level of optimism, that we crossed the start line. I think we were somewhere just through the heads, when Cathy said she could smell diesel. Cathy does strings and is right on top of that area of the boat. Somewhere off Cronulla, we had the boat back to some sort of normality, be it smelling like a diesel workshop. I assessed the situation and decided we had fuel in a reserve tank and we still had 50 % in the main tank. If the weather did not get any rougher and whatever was causing the problem did not get any worse would we would be ok. 

Yacht racing is about being in the right place at the right time particularly Hobart.

To this end the race management team and our excellent navigator John Hearne esquire had positioned the boat well.  

My job on a race yacht, well I do not know what it is anymore! It’s more like the CEO of a company. I get really good advice from the Department heads we have a little sit down, which in this case, means standing down the back of the boat hanging on tight and come to a decision on strategies for the next 6-10 hours. We have drivers that drive, trimmers and decision makers sometimes, some of us do multiple things. So when push came to shove and the wind is now 40 knots and rising, here I am with my head in the bilge, watching the fuel tank discharge its contents into the bilge AGAIN.

So, after all the effort everyone has put in, we are now down to significantly reduced diesel capacity. Our boat is impaired and while I have no doubt about the sailing ability of this yacht, in fact I think this is a very good yacht, it’s strong and fast. But there are a set of race rules that are in place which we accept when we sign our entry form. While I may not agree with every one of those rules, there is a spirit and purpose for their existence. You can fiddle with the fine print and you can always find examples as to why, but there is an essence and a truth here and to my mind that must be obliged. Because remember if something goes wrong they are going to ask someone else to put their life at risk to save or help you. It only remains for me as the bilge rat / skipper to say thanks to everybody for their help.

Thanks to those I have not mentioned above -

George Johnston for putting up with my shit, he is a great sounding board and a good yachtsman,

Marky Thomson is one of those guys that great things are build on, he is one of the foundation stones that Sailors with disABILITES is build on, quiet unassuming and these days a passenger in aero planes how good is that ?    

Lloyd gets bigger everyday! Those shoulders of his are enormous; they lift sails, just UP! But he has the best smile, almost as big as his shoulders and he is kind and a nice man to have on board.

Tom Murphy sails his Laser in Rose Bay I think, you can see the difference each day he gets on board. The support and help in the Sailors with disABILITES management team and website in particular is greatly appreciated

Stuart our stainless steel specialist, wave and wind caller is part of the mast team and is a strong and competent sailor

Cathy Strings what can you say about Cath? She has done it all before. Probably one of the toughest individuals I have ever meet, enthusiastic, enquiring and does it all in a very conciliatory and inclusive fashion. If anyone wants to see what a true team player is all about she is the best thing I had very seen.

Brad came on board latish, with a semi trailer load of enthusiasm; he understands Sailors with disABILITES purpose and works that massive heart out for the team. Nothing is a problem and he was chief in charge of diesel removing systems. Yuck what a job.

Bretty Pearce /don’t you worry about that I will bring my own milk crate. Unfortunately had an injury and couldn’t make the race. But Brett is one of those guys that I just throw problems at and he comes back with it done. He communicates in that process and we get a great outcome. I think Bretty Pearce is one of Sailors with disABILITES greatest finds and assets.

Richard headsail trimmer and deck boss good man good sailor, good team man, fix anything, great disposition, he is Sailors with disABILITES now sorry Richard your stuck! and by the way you can bring Row along anytime.

Kirky Watson I am sick and tired of telling the world how good Kirk is! He is my mate and I love sailing with him.

Buzz mainsail trimmer, quiet, unassuming, contributing, often late, fitted in well on our team, good sailing skills. Hope Buzz stays around, we all like sailing with him and we reckon your Mum and Dad are good too!

Simon our little Irish leprechaun came on board late and reminded me of the expression good things come in small packages. It was a pleasure to sail with Simon he knows his stuff I hope to see him on board soon.

Travis also a late inclusion to replace Brett Pearce. A good yachtsman has good sailing skills and a good working knowledge of yachts engines and stuff, a handy man indeed.

Di Litherland our blonde Pommy bombshell she just takes it on and gets it done. I am not game to ask how she does it. Di is the Sailors with disABILITES administrator, managing the kid’s days and all that stuff. All that stuff being 4,000 kids last year. We threw her a million jobs at the last minute before Hobart and miraculously they got sorted!

Its good news and bad news… the good news is we are up for Hobart in 2011, but this is not set in cement, it depends on lots of things, most importantly the crew and Sailors with disABILITES capacity to mount a successful program. Wot Eva has the potential to win, it’s a really good boat and it deserves a good crew, no it deserves the best team, we can put together to demonstrate the capacity of the disabled to go places, where nobody thought we could.

There is a whole program between here and there…so lets focus on the now, lets build a team. If anybody has recently seen the re run of Sailors with disABILITES on SBS, this is something I am very proud of, because we had a big task, a massive task, in a short time, we achieved our goals and we did it as a team. There is an expression around that’s says there is no “I” in team, that’s bull shit and I know cos I cannot spell! A team is made up of individuals with their own aims, goals and aspirations and that’s a good thing but there are also some responsibilities about the team you owe each other to deliver a product that the individual wants. 

I cannot say any more except that the responsibility of Graeme’s gift is not one that I take lightly and I am going to do my best to give the best to the team I can. So if you are up for this years program send an email to Sailors with disABILITES and Brad or Tom will call you and remember there are lots of sailing days and good times. It’s not all about Hobart. Its good fun on the twilights, be it Kayle or Wot Eva, the winter series is not far away and don’t forget the kids program in Sydney and Queensland.

I would like to conclude by saying thank you.  Sailors with disABILITES is the most amazing adventure that I have been on and for all those who have contributed to that THANK YOU see you on board. 

David Pescud

January 2011

Spinal Injuries Association of Queensland - Best Sporting Facility

Mim Kane, our Treasurer, travelled to the Gold Coast to collect an award  for Sailors with disAbilities from The Spinal Injuries Association of Qld. 

The award was for "The Best Sporting Facility".  This was in appreciation for the great days of sailing enjoyed by many of their members.  Spinal Injuries Association of Queensland cannot wait for the boat to return to Qld next year and they are all lining up for another sail.

Thanks to all our volunteers who gave up their time and travelled to Qld to crew on the boat.  Your work is very much appreciated.

Mim Kane, our Treasurer, travelled to the Gold Coast to collect an award  for Sailors with disAbilities from The Spinal Injuries Association of Queensland. 

The award was for "The Best Sporting Facility" .  This was in appreciation for the great days of sailing enjoyed by many of their members. 

Spinal Injuries Association of Queensland cannot wait for the boat to return to Qld next year and they are all lining up for another sail. 

Thanks to all our volunteers who gave up their time and travelled to Qld to crew on the boat.  Your work is very much appreciated.

Promotion now available click here to view info - the Brokenwood Wine Fundraiser will be available from June 13th.  This is your chance to help yourself and us at the same time.

Information about this campaign will be emailed shortly.  In the meantime, if you would like to join our mailing list, please do so via the Contact Us tab on this website.

Newcastle to Sydney, May 2011

$25,000 down the drain, it is up to us whether it is?

Since man climbed out of the caves, he has been making mistakes and learning from them. The easiest way not to make mistakes is to not to do anything. Sailors with disABILITES’s kid’s program, over the last 12+ years, has probably had in excess of 20,000 children, and various crews and skippers. They have always brought the boat home, our guests and crew. I am very proud of this. So the purpose of this document is to look at the recent delivery from Newcastle to Sydney, what went wrong, what went right, and how we might have done it better. I am very proud of the crew and they have my total support. $25,000 down the drain? It’s up to us whether it is.

It seems to me that the first thing we need to do in these situations is to get out of the situation. That’s to say, take a step backwards and look at the whole package. For example, we had a weather situation developing on the Friday night, there was no doubt about that; we had 2 good weather forecasters telling us the same thing.

The first thing we might have done, might have been to leave on the Thursday night. The cost of that is the children’s day on the Friday cancelled. Nobody wants to cancel anything ever, however sometimes, needs must and we have to make those decisions. Had we taken this course of action, if you pardon the pun, it would have been smooth sailing home. Or left on Saturday pm when conditions were more favourable, or if that did not suit, we could have left Kayle tied up at Newcastle until circumstances enabled her delivery home. This may have incurred a cost of kids days in Sydney.

So let’s look at why the decision was made to depart Friday pm. Obviously kids days were important, crew were coming to Newcastle, and the forecast was for 25 knots gusting to 30 knots at times.

This is significant wind and Kayle has sailed many times in much more. So at face value it wasn’t really a problem, providing everything goes well. But we had 2 problems. The attachment point for the No. 2 reef line broke the mainsail (I will talk about this later.) There seems to have been, at some point probably early on, before the boat left Sydney, a failure in the clutch pack in the gear box which impaired the engine to the point that it was useless.

So now we have a broken main, no engine and lazy jacks that have shattered and jammed the main so it can’t go down. I will talk more on this later.
The storm stay sail was now set on the forestay. I say the storm stay sail was now set on the forestay. I am curious as to why it was. It is a stay sail and should have been set on the inner forestay whilst the boat was under control reaching backwards and forwards on a course SE, then jibing and sailing NW (I will talk more about this later.)

It was apparent to the skipper of Kayle and the crew that they needed assistance—a tow to Pittwater was their option—a good decision in the situation. There seems to be some confusion about radio procedure we need to deal with (I will talk about this later). The water police arrived in due course and towed the boat to a safe mooring in Pittwater where the crew set about tidying her up and left her there for other people to come back and sort out the issues.

Kayle needed an antifoul and Pittwater is cheap so Jeff Thomas at RPA kindly organized some slip time and we painted her bum and polished the topsides, fixed her engine problems, and the crew delivery went up and brought her home.

Some years ago I was the skipper of Kayle when she went on the Lady Elliot or maybe it was the Lady Musgrave. I don’t know if you know them but they both have huge lighthouses on them, yet my boat went up on the reef. I was skipper and I was responsible. My problem. I am ashamed of it but I have to live with it and get on with it. If anyone wants to know what I did wrong, I would be more than happy to tell you. In fact I would like to tell you. It may save you one day.

Sailing and sailing boats can bite you, especially 54 foot racing yachts. SO lets look at this in more detail and see how Sailors with disABILITES can learn from it and create a better program for the future.

I wasn’t on board so I don’t know so this is an assessment on discussions and reports from the skipper and crew. SO let’s look at this in more detail and see how Sailors with disABILITES can learn from it and create a better program for the future.

1. Sails and sailing
Sails today are extreme pieces of technology and they need to be looked after and we need to understand they need to be looked after. They cannot be left to flog. This is what happened to the main sail on Kayle after the incident resulted in the need for a new main. All the component parts of a sailing boat are inter connected. To look at what happened is a good example of this. The crew were beating into a 30 knot southerly. They pulled down the headsail and put in a double reef in the main, lazy jacks displayed. The boom was brought onto the centerline and I believe the board was motor sailing quite nicely. SO what happened? The No. 2 reef kringle broke on the main. What caused this to happen? I bet that there was excessive main sheet pressure which in turn put too much load on the leech of the sail causing the kringle to fail. At this time the lazy jacks had been deployed probably too tight. There was no safety strop around the boom and main sail so when the reef failed the lazy jacks broke and jammed the main from coming down. Lazy jacks are an assistance to tidying the main.

Learnings:

1. Deployment of the inner forestay could have been done before leaving the dock
2. Storm stay sail could have been lashed on the deck before leaving the dock
3. Perhaps early in the evening a drill could have been performed with all the crew as to how the system that is likely to be needed operate. This is a good procedure as when the wind gets up and the sea rises it is no time to be working out these things.
4. Whilst installed the storm stay sail on the outer forestay gave the boat limited direction it basically turned the boat into a square rigger, by creating massive amounts of lee helm. In this document I will not go into detail about lee and weather helm, it is enough to say that they are the first principles of any yacht. To control the boat in the configuration that was used you had to turn away from the wind to your reciprocal course. The problem with this is that you bring your beam to the seaway. Very dangerous in high winds. This is how boats roll over. Had the stay sail been set on the inner forestay the boat would have been balanced and quite comfortable to sail. A demonstration of this is if anyone has seen the photos of Carpe Diem in the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race she had her stay sail set and was handling a 10 m sea quite comfortably. So we all need to understand the physics of sailing and that physics on a sailing boat is a dynamic force and moves around.

Motors
It is always a good idea to check the performance of your motor, that is to say at what revolutions, what speed both through the water and over the ground. What is the water temperature ? oil pressure ?  and how much water does the boat appear to be pumping through the exhaust at nominated rev ranges?  It is a good idea for the whole crew to understand and become familiar with these procedures.

Oil and water levels should be checked at all times, fan belt tension, engine mounts and the sumps should be kept clean so that is there is a discharge of oil of any sort you know about it quickly.

Radio

There are 4 kinds of radio calls,
1. normal traffic type call,
2.a securite call the most important call this is reserved for a situation that is not normal and important.
3. Pan Pan call which is reserved for medical emergencies only
4. May day which is to be used when life is at risk

Learnings
I believe the appropriate call on the evening would have been a securite call, we went out on a pan pan.

Perhaps it would be a good idea if we all had a revision of radio procedure and their purpose. All radios operate on basically the same platform but their operating procedures are different for example Kayle has a Barrett HF radio with an icon VHF Wot Eva has an icon HF and an icon VHF. None of these radios operate the same. These are our life line and we need to understand them well.

Crew
I have always found it handy to give my crew specific jobs and to help them understand their responsibilities so I know they know. So when we get into a position when something goes wrong the skipper has a pretty good understanding of who knows what etc.

Learnings
We need to know that the crew is familiar with setting the stay sail, appropriate halyards, sheeting arrangements etc. We need to know they can put in a reef quickly. We also need to know if they cannot do any of the above it is just as important. We need to know about sea sickness and all things that may assist us or impair us e.g. if someone has a medical condition or needs regular medication.

The good thing for everyone to bare in mind is what can be achieved. In Sailors with disABILITES 03 Around Australia Trip sailed 6,500 miles and the only thing that was broken was the loo handle. Part of this involved the southern ocean in the middle of winter, a 60 knot gale blowing us down to Antarctica and freezing cold weather. Through all this we had hot food and kept the boat chugging towards our target. Attention to detail and the level of honesty on the boat facilitated this fantastic outcome.

So in short when discussing this Friday night delivery from Newcastle there was pressure on to get the boat home, crew turned up late, crew turned up without a full understanding of how things worked and some of the crew did not understand the power of 30 knots + wind.

So as I said in the beginning why were we there ?
We did not need to be.
We need to understand our skill range improve and gain new skills and always keeps the boat sailing in an environment commensurate with the skill range we have on board.

David Pescud

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There will be a boat and boat systems familiarisation morning from 9am till 1pm on Sunday, 24^th July.  You are invited to join us to discuss how the boat works and get to know each other over a coffee.  We would really appreciate it if you can find the time to come along.