Tag Archives | Nordhavn

,During the night of 2 August there was a massive blow in Auckland causing quite a bit of havoc ashoreincluding fallen trees and downedpower lines. I recall lying in bed listening to the gusts thankful not to be out on our boat.

Hobsonville marina emailed us the next day advising of gusts up to 67 knots in the marina with some vessels suffering damage to canopies and hatches. Di and I went thereto check on Rapport, fortunatelyfinding everything was fine.

Sir Peter Blake’s former 36 metre alloy expedition yacht Seamaster, now called Archangel, which has been anchored for a long time off St Heliers Beach dragged her anchor, but fortunately beached withapparently no damage. Her current owner says Archangel had a heavy anchor and 100 metres of chain out, but there are two issues of interest here:

1. Her owner was not aboard, but able to tell remotely that Archangelhad dragged and therefore able to go and investigate. I don’t know what technology the owner was using, but see our lastposting re Anchor Watch HD as it shows how valuable this free app canbe.

2. Her owner says Archangel dragged her anchor due to a 180 degree wind shift. This is a point I have mentioned many times, that is with adequate ground tackle set (as Archangel had) you are most unlikely to drag in a consistent wind. However when you encounter a 180 degree wind shift – which often happens during storms and/or as fronts pass through, all bets are off. This is because your boat’s movement following the wind shift can pull your anchor out from its set position and just drag it across the seabed. In other cases as your chain moves in the opposite direction it mayfoul the anchor and drag it across the seabed preventingit from resetting.

But wait there’s more. You have almost certainly anchored on a weather shore, that is with your bow pointing to the shore and no matter how hard the wind blows you are unlikely to see wavelets more than about 25cm high. After the wind shift you will be on a lee shore, that is with your stern pointing to shore and in shallower water. Now the wind has much greater distance to create waves and these can quickly rise to a metre or more. Waves cause a jerking motion placing further strain on your anchor and compromising your security.

Lesson: a 180 degree wind shift is always a case for concern and for close monitoring of your situation.

,During
the night of 2 August there was a massive blow in Auckland causing
quite a bit of havoc ashore
including fallen trees and downed
power lines. I
recall lying in bed listening to the gusts thankful not to be out on
our boat.

Hobsonville
marina emailed us the next day advising of gusts up to 67 knots in
the marina with some vessels suffering damage to canopies and
hatches. Di and I went there
to check on Rapport, fortunately
finding everything was fine.

Sir
Peter Blake’s former 36
metre alloy
expedition
yacht Seamaster, now called Archangel, which has been anchored for a
long time off St Heliers Beach dragged her anchor, but fortunately
beached with
apparently no
damage. Her
current owner says Archangel had a heavy anchor and 100 metres of
chain out, but
there
are two issues of interest here:

1.
Her owner was not aboard, but able to tell remotely that Archangel
had dragged and therefore able to go and investigate. I don’t know
what technology the
owner
was using,
but see our
last
posting re Anchor Watch HD as it shows how valuable this free app can
be.

2.
Her owner says Archangel dragged her
anchor due
to a 180 degree wind shift. This is a point I have mentioned many
times, that is with adequate ground tackle set (as Archangel had) you
are most unlikely to drag in a consistent wind. However when you
encounter a 180 degree wind shift – which often happens during
storms and/or as fronts pass through, all bets are off. This is
because your boat’s movement following the wind shift can pull your
anchor out from its set position and just drag it across the seabed.
In other cases as
your chain
moves in
the opposite direction it may
foul the anchor and
drag it
across the seabed preventing
it from
resetting.

But
wait there’s more. You have almost certainly anchored on a weather
shore, that is with your bow pointing to the shore and no matter how
hard the wind blows you are unlikely to see wavelets more than about
25cm high.
After the wind shift you will be on a lee shore, that is with your
stern pointing to shore and in shallower water. Now the wind has much
greater distance to create waves and these can quickly rise to a
metre or more. Waves cause a jerking motion placing further strain on
your anchor and compromising your security.

Lesson:
a 180 degree wind shift is always a case for concern and for close
monitoring of your situation.

 Here’s an edited version of an article to appear in Pacific PowerBoat’s next issue.

FOUR GREAT PRODUCTS TOENHANCE WINTER CRUISING – AND ONE’S FREE!

We really enjoy our winter cruising, but when it’sdark from before 1800hrs until first light arrives about 0700 the dynamics are quite different to summer cruisingwhen we’re still on the beach or BBQing until much later. These four products have helped keep us safe, warm and entertained during those 13 hours of darkness aboard Rapport.

See the light– Techlight hand-held spot

In days gone by our hand-held lights were usuallya 12 volt spotlight with a halogen bulb connected through a cigarette lighter socket anda trusty battery powered Dolphin . Whenusing these duringnight searches as Coastguard volunteers we often found the boat’s wiring to the power socket was too light for sustained use of the spotlight, due to the heat generated, while the Dolphinhad limited range and runtime plusexpensive batteries to replace. Also if the Dolphin hadn’t been used for a while we needed to remove and replace the (same) battery, presumably to provide a better connection. 

But a technical revolution has been occurring during the last 15 years or so not only with LED bulbs, that provide brighter light, give a higher quality beam and consume less power, but with rechargeable lithium batteries that continue to improve as well as becoming lower cost. I can distinctly recall when I first became seriously aware of this. Technical guru Chris aka MacGyver, our most frequent visitor to Envoy made his first visit in late 2010. We were sitting in the cockpit after sunset in a bay near Bodrum when Chris showed me a black aluminium flashlight about 130mm long, with an LED bulb and powered by a rechargeable lithium battery. This compact light easily illuminated trees on the foreshore, which I guess was about 250 metres away. By comparison the light from my largest flashlight – a clunky unit with 4 x D cell batteries and conventional bulb couldn’t even reach the shore. Flashlights using conventional dry cell batteries lose their brightness early on as the batteries start to lose their charge, however lithium battery powered lights can lose much more charge before their brightness reduces. We now carry one of the new generation MK 7 Dolphins with an LED bulb aboard as one of our low cost general purpose flashlights together with a rugged, no-nonsense looking TeklightST-3329 we bought from Jaycar Electronics for $159. The Techlight has an incredible 480 metre rangeand its 4,500 lumens of light (the Dolphin has 200 lumens) provides amazing brightness. It’s waterproof and floats, has a convenient wrist security strap and its lithium battery pack is rechargeable using either a mains charger orUSB cable, both supplied. Its full power option provides 75 minutes use while its still very bright low power option increases this to 150 minutes. If the proverbial hits the fan the unit can also emit a continuous SOS signal. In essence the Techlight provides the power of a hard wired spotlight with portability and we love it.

User tips: it takes about 40 minutes for human eyes to completely adjust to darkness so using low level red lighting at the helm and reducing brightness on navigation screens helps maintain night vision. Don’t try to use any spotlight through windows and avoid directing the beam on reflective surfaces.

Have we moved – Anchor Watch HD app for devices

When the wind is howling at 40 knots with the boat moving around during squalls as we encountered during early July’s “weather bomb” it can be difficult to tell if your anchor’s dragging during the night, especially as distance is far more difficult to estimate during night time. Most plotters incorporate anchor alarms, but as with our boat these may be on the flybridge and difficult to hear below. Enter Anchor Watch HD – a free app allowing you to maintain anchor watch from below or even while away from your boat.

When you open the app while connected to the internet it shows a Google Earth view of your current location and while Google Earth is not essential to use the system, being able to see your position on a map provides additional reassurance. This view is historical, so boats shown on the map will not be there now. You can change the scale using normal two finger zoom.

After your anchor is set press the anchor button and an anchor icon with an orange circle around it appears at your position. Now while the anchor icon remains in the original anchored position a blue/white/blue circle shows your current position. There are two on screen buttons to the right of the anchor button that increase and decrease the alarm range, which would typically be about 15 metres to allow for some sideways movement. The actual range displays on top centre of screen together with the distance and bearing from your current position to the original anchored position. If your vessel moves outside the set alarm range a volume adjustable (seriously loud at full volume) siren sounds and a dialogue box appears allowing you to ignore the alarm for 30 seconds while you adjust the scale or “raise the anchor”. The app can also send an alarm message by sms or email allowing you to monitor your anchored position while going ashore.

User tips: the app consumes a lot of power so keep your device charging when it’s using this app. Make a note of your GPS position after anchoring so that if you suspect dragging you can compare that with your current GPS position.

Stay warm as toast – Gasmate heater

Even on cold nights,once we start cooking the boat warms up quickly and when using ourgenerator we can also run our 2.4Kw electric fan heater. At other times we use our Gasmate portable heater with its ceramic burner providingan atmospheric warm glow. We bought ours from Bunnings costing $140 and usingdisposable 220gm butane gas canisters costing about $1.40 and lasting about 90 minutes. It’s very safe as a simple lever disconnects the butane cartridge when not in use and gas supply automatically stops if the unit should be accidentally knocked over, the oxygen level becomes too low or the flame goes out. It’s piezo ignition works well and it’s compact and smart with the butane cartridge housed within the casing.

User tip: when using the Gasmate allow some fresh air into your boat and never use it while sleeping.

Gasmate butane cartridge heater and Techlight spotlight

Entertainment during those long nights – RSE Mini-Lite Plus

We promised ourselves our next boat would have Sky TV capability to watch favoritessuch as Super Rugby. When we bought Rapport she already had an Avtex flat screen and a TracVision TV5 satellite dish enabling us to watch free to air TV. Our friend Chris suggested buying anRSE Mini-Lite high definition digital satellite receiver enabling us to plug in our Sky card from home.Theunit is easy to install, attaching to the rear of the flat screen and wired to our AC power supply. It’s performed welland accessesSky channelswherever we are, except for some unknown reason Oneroa.The RSE unit costs $199 and can be bought through RSE in Takanini orproviders of caravan accessories.

User tip: the power to the Mini-Lite and screen must be off beforeyou insert and remove the Sky card. If you don’t do this the Sky card will no longer work until after it’s used again in your box at home.

Enjoy your winter cruising!

 Here’s an edited version
of an article to appear in Pacific PowerBoat’s next issue.

FOUR GREAT
PRODUCTS TO
ENHANCE WINTER CRUISING – AND ONE’S FREE!

We
really enjoy our winter cruising, but
when it’s
dark from before 1800hrs
until first
light arrives about 0700
the
dynamics are quite different to summer cruising
when we’re
still on the beach or BBQing until much later. These four products have helped keep us safe, warm and entertained during
those 13 hours of darkness aboard
Rapport.

See the light
– Techlight hand-held spot

In
days gone by our hand-held lights
were usually
a 12 volt spotlight with a halogen bulb connected through
a cigarette lighter socket and
a trusty battery powered Dolphin . When
using these
during
night searches as
Coastguard volunteers we
often found the boat’s wiring to the power socket was too light for
sustained use of
the spotlight, due to the heat generated, while
the Dolphin
had limited
range and runtime
plus
expensive batteries
to replace.
Also if the Dolphin hadn’t been used for a while we
needed to remove and replace the (same) battery, presumably to provide a
better connection. 

But
a technical
revolution has been occurring during the last 15 years or so not
only with LED bulbs, that provide brighter light, give a higher quality beam and consume less power, but with
rechargeable lithium batteries that continue to improve as well as becoming lower cost. I can distinctly recall
when I first became seriously aware of this. Technical guru Chris aka MacGyver, our most frequent
visitor to Envoy made his first visit in late 2010. We were sitting in the cockpit after sunset in a bay near
Bodrum when Chris showed me a black aluminium flashlight about 130mm
long, with an LED bulb and powered by a rechargeable lithium battery.
This compact light easily illuminated trees on the foreshore, which I
guess was about 250 metres away. By comparison the
light from my
largest flashlight – a
clunky unit with
4 x D cell batteries and conventional
bulb couldn’t even reach the shore. Flashlights using conventional dry cell batteries lose their brightness early on as the batteries start to lose their charge, however lithium battery powered lights can lose much more charge before their brightness reduces. We now carry one of the new generation MK 7 Dolphins with an LED bulb aboard as one of our low cost general purpose flashlights together with a rugged,
no-nonsense looking Teklight
ST-3329 we
bought from Jaycar Electronics for $159.
The
Techlight has an incredible 480
metre range
and its 4,500 lumens of light (the
Dolphin has 200 lumens) provides
amazing brightness. It’s waterproof and floats, has a convenient wrist security strap and its lithium
battery pack is rechargeable using either
a mains charger or
USB cable, both
supplied. Its full power option provides 75 minutes use
while its still very bright low power option increases this to 150
minutes. If the proverbial hits the fan the unit can also emit a continuous SOS signal. In
essence the
Techlight provides the power of a hard wired spotlight with
portability and
we love it.

User
tips: it
takes about 40 minutes for human eyes to completely adjust to darkness so
using low
level red lighting at
the helm and
reducing brightness on navigation
screens
helps
maintain night vision. Don’t try to use any spotlight through windows and avoid directing the beam on reflective surfaces.

Have
we moved – Anchor Watch HD app
for devices

When the wind is howling at 40
knots with the boat moving around during squalls as we encountered
during early July’s “weather bomb” it can be difficult to tell
if your anchor’s dragging during the night, especially as distance is far more difficult to estimate during night time. Most plotters
incorporate anchor alarms, but as with our boat these may be on the
flybridge and difficult to hear below. Enter Anchor Watch HD – a
free app allowing you to maintain anchor watch from below or even
while away from your boat.

When you open the app while
connected to the internet it shows a Google Earth view of your
current location and while Google Earth is not essential to use the
system, being able to see your position on a map provides additional
reassurance. This view is historical, so boats shown on the map will
not be there now. You can change the scale using normal two finger
zoom.

After your anchor is set press the
anchor button and an anchor icon with an orange circle around it appears at
your position. Now while the anchor icon
remains in the original anchored position a blue/white/blue circle
shows your current position. There are two on screen buttons to the
right of the anchor button that increase and decrease the alarm range, which would typically be about 15 metres to allow for some sideways movement. The actual range displays on top
centre of screen together with the distance
and bearing from your current position to the original anchored
position. If your vessel moves outside the set alarm range a volume
adjustable (seriously loud at full volume) siren sounds and a
dialogue box appears allowing you to ignore the alarm for 30 seconds
while you adjust the scale or “raise the anchor”. The app can
also send an alarm message by sms or email allowing you to monitor
your anchored position while going ashore.

User
tips: the app consumes a lot of power so keep your device charging
when it’s using this app. Make a note of your GPS position after anchoring so that if you suspect dragging you can compare that with your current GPS position.

Stay warm as toast – Gasmate
heater

Even
on cold nights,
once we
start cooking the boat warms up quickly and when using our
generator we can also run our 2.4Kw electric fan heater. At
other times we use our Gasmate
portable heater with
its ceramic
burner providing
an atmospheric warm glow.
We bought
ours from
Bunnings costing
$140
and using
disposable
220gm
butane gas
canisters costing
about $1.40 and lasting about 90 minutes. It’s
very safe as
a simple
lever disconnects the
butane
cartridge when not in use and gas
supply automatically
stops if
the unit should be accidentally knocked over, the
oxygen level becomes too low or
the flame
goes out. It’s
piezo
ignition works well and it’s compact
and smart with the butane cartridge housed within the casing.

User
tip: when
using the Gasmate allow
some fresh air into
your boat and never use it while sleeping.

Gasmate butane cartridge heater and Techlight spotlight

Entertainment during those
long nights – RSE Mini-Lite Plus

We promised ourselves our next boat would have Sky TV capability
to watch
favorites
such as Super Rugby.
When we bought Rapport she already had an Avtex flat screen
and a
TracVision
TV5 satellite dish enabling us to watch free to air TV. Our friend Chris suggested buying
an
RSE Mini-Lite high
definition digital
satellite
receiver
enabling
us to plug in our Sky card from home.
The
unit
is
easy
to install, attaching to the rear of the flat screen
and wired
to
our AC
power
supply. It’s
performed well
and
accesses
Sky channels
wherever
we are, except
for some unknown reason Oneroa.
The
RSE unit costs $199 and can be bought through RSE
in Takanini or
providers
of caravan accessories.

User
tip: the power to the Mini-Lite and screen must be off before
you insert and remove the Sky card. If you don’t do this the Sky card will no longer work until after it’s used again in your box at home.

Enjoy
your winter cruising!

 We sold Envoy in late 2019 and her new owners, Larry & Catherine Wood from Queensland, planned to start some cruising in Spring 2020. However the world changed in early 2020 with covid and that plan changed along with it. For one thing G…

 We sold Envoy in late 2019 and her new owners, Larry & Catherine Wood from Queensland, planned to start some cruising in Spring 2020. However the world changed in early 2020 with covid and that plan changed along with it. For one thing G…