gear test: rope clutches

The rope clutches have created quite a revolution in the world of sailing gear. They can take quite a load, they are easy to handle and by now there are different suppliers, so prices are coming down. Mostly, they are used for the halyards or reefing ropes.

By now I have two generations of Lewmar rope clutches and one set by Spinlock. I use them for the sails and for the reefs. One old Lewmar rope clutch I use for the tension of the backstay.
They work perfectly, although the older Lewmar ones, which are nearly 15 years old. The old ones are starting to show their age and nearing the end of their useful lifetimes. The levers to open them no longer stay open, so you have to put them down manually and hold them down. But this is after a long life... 
The Spinlock and the Lewmar have two different holding down designs for the ropes. 

The Spinlock uses one bracket to hold down the rope, upper picture. The Lewmar ones have 6 to 8, picture below. There are technical discussions in every yachting magazine or forums about them. I don´t wanna start another one.

But there is two key reasons why I prefer the Spinlock design. 

1. Every spring I fiddle the ropes through them. And there is the difference. The Spinlock just has one clamp to hold down the rope, the Lewmar 6.  So it takes some time to get the rope through it.
2. Simple maintance. With just one clamp the maintance is quite easy.

 

As mentioned before there are many tests in magazines and forums where the holding strength and damage to ropes is discussed, here are some of them.

PBO June 2012 issue 
YBW Forum 
Sailnet

Honestly,  I can´t see any reason to complain about the different methods for holding down the rope.

I never recognized slip of the rope or any heavy damage to the rope. So I think it is all about a peronal opinion of the yacht owner.

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Merry Christmas

I wish you all a Merry Christmans

 

A frozen Geronimo

Why I like to work with wood

Personally, I like wood as a material. Many people call it a warm material, not like cold steel. I also like to work with steel or aluminum, but what I favor about wood is the whole atmosphere it creates.

I started to work on the rudder for the wind vane, which is built out of marine plywood. Let me tell you a bit more about the process: 

So there is this piece of wood.

 You draw your design on it. Then you take your saw and follow the lines you’ve just drawn. Wood chips are flying around you and you first recognize the smell of wood. You keep focused and finish the cut. And in the background there is this nice smell. To achieve the profile of the rudder you then have to plane it. For this you move with the sander, brushing away the woodchips with your hands. One by one you reshape this piece of wood to get the profile you desire. By that time you are likely to start tasting the wood on your lips. What is this taste …?

Then you take the sandpaper to get an even nicer surface. You inhale more of this scent. With your hand you go over the surface, to see if it smooth enough. You feel the texture of the wood under your fingertips. You forget time. You go on with the scrubbing, until you are happy with the texture of this surface. You scratch your nose and you smell the wood in the dust on your hands. 

You get thirsty and then there is the idea of a good old whiskey, which is stored beneath the working bench. You take a glass and pour a good shot of whiskey. And then you admire your work, with this beautiful taste and smell of w.......

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A glimpse on the Walt Murray wind vane

I finally construct the wind fane in a 3D CAD model. Here is the first glimpse of it.

I´m planning to change the wood design to an aluminium construction, for a longer life time. 

Coming up next

Yeah it´s been a while, quite busy,

But coming up next:

• my personal test about rope clutches

• and my winter building project a self build wind steering by Walt Murray design I will blog about my progress. For a short information look at this website

A charttable on a Delanta 80

What I always missed on Geronimo was a charttable. Yes you have the table in the main cabin, but you have lunch,diner on it,at night you have to lower him, to get a bed. Not very handy, if you want to do your chartwork.
So I came up with the idea, to build a portable charttable in the aft cabin. I am able to hang the table at the roof of the aft cabin and I fix it by two clamps at the bottom. I stabilize the plate with aluminium profiles.

If I have guests, it must be easy to store, to get one more sleeping place in the aft cabin. I simply hang it over the bed. Up to now I never get complains from my friends or guests.

Totally this charttable costs me 20 €.

Part Three " A trip to London and back"

Day 6 A day off in London (0nm)

The crews had two days off in London. The skipper of the Freedom spent the day searching for the fault in his engine. My father and I went over and asked him what the problem was. After he explained it to us, we were able to give him a hint: “You have run your engine dry of fuel and you are likely to have an air bubble in your system. Just follow the fuel line and pump the air out.” He didn´t take our advice. On the second day, he got a mechanic to have a look, who just pumped the air out the system. Well,……

Do It in the Limehouse Basin

So here is a short summary of the day: Greenwich, nice, National Maritime Museum, very nice…

 The Meridan

Day 7 Second day off (My Birthday)(0nm)

 Well it was my birthday. For dinner, all crews came together in a nice pub. Not just because of my birthday, but also because the plan is to separate after the jump back to the mainland, so we celebrated our small fleet. I´m  not a fan of yelling out “It´s my birthday”, I like to have my peace. What I didn´t count on was Hank, he organized for the whole fleet to sing “Happy Birthday” in the pub, in Dutch. Imagine the scene: over 20 Dutch people, singing “Gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag”, in a British pub, for a German guy. It was one of those moments you never forget.

Another funny story is that my father and I tried to find a fuel station, wandering around with fuel canisters under our arms in Canary Wharf. Well, funny is the fact that we took the London Underground with our fuel canisters. On the way back I realised that all people in the Tube kept their distance from us.  Ooooppppsss. We are quite lucky that we weren´t shot dead, really. 

Day 8 and 9 London to Grevelingen (190nm)

Another early start to catch the tide. Many boats of our fleet first went up the Thames to Tower Bridge to get fuel and we were already on our way down. 14kn over ground, we were flying down the Thames. 

 Coming up the Thames : Grouprama  

As the sun melted into the sea once again, we reached the TSS. Nice timing, a crossing of one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, in the dark. And then the rain started. So I switched on the radar. A freighter there, an echo there, is it a fishing boat, give him a call? Yes, it was a fisherman, and he was passing right in front of us. A freighter then passed directly behind us, you could only hear his engine running.

And then a Mayday, a ferry with a fire in the engine room, 40nm away. Now the adrenalin started running through our veins. Sleep impossible, for everyone on board. I took the helm, it was still drizzling and there was no wind at all, in fact none since we entered the TSS. Our neighbour in the fleet, “Blue Peter”, mounted his 2 colour light upside down, funny. The rain water kept running down my feet and they got cold and wet. And my boots still onboard Geronimo, better planning next time, baby. A cup of soup and a cup of coffee, to raise the mood. Still this drizzle and from below on the VHF Ch16 the rescue  coordination for the ferry. You could hear the noise of a big engine somewhere out there, no lights, checked the radar, an echo passing behind us. Blue Peter suddenly changed her course directly towards us. Yelling at them, they yell back to us to keep our course. Guys, you have lost your course. They change course again, silence, no more argument. Had they fallen asleep ?

Then my father took the helm, still drizzle. After 24 hours without sleep, my feet were cold and shoes were wet, no opportunity to change socks. A kingdom for my boots. So I went down below, opened up the engine hatch, threw my shoes in it, a nice warm air stream came out of the hatch. A look on the watch, 5 in the morning, 6° C in the cabin. The warm air streaming from the hatch, so I lay down on the cabin floor, my feet in the hatch, they started getting warm, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I woke up in a rush, one of my socks caught by the engine belt, my feet ripped from my leg. What a nightmare!!  7 in the morning, my heart still hammering, cup of coffee, a small sandwich and I took the helm  again, now with dry feet. The drizzle had stopped. A grey day, no wind at all. A look on the GPS and the map, another 30nm until Roompot. My father tried to get some sleep and so did my mother, but she couldn´t find sleep either.

As we reached the lock to enter the Oosterschelde the sun broke through the grey clouds and gave us the heat to warm our bodies again. Marina Roompot, but no, we wanted a nice shower so we decided to keep going, still no wind, but sunshine. A look at the tide, yes it is with us. If not, it wouldn’t have mattered. So the engine kept running. 4 hours later we were back in our marina, a nice lunch and a shower. Journey over . More than 500nm in 5 sailing days , we were happy and very exhausted.

Would we do it again ?

 Absolutely

With the Oceanpeople? 

Not Really

Why ? 

Because they demand a minimum speed of 5kn all the time at sea. So mostly you have to run your engine to keep pace with bigger yachts. Not our style of sailing.

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