INteresting Small Boat - Long Distance Tale

[BobW]

While this isn't exactly cruising, it is pretty amazing.

From today's 'Lectronic Latitude"

Italian Crosses Atlantic Alone on 20-ft Beach Cat

April 30, 2008 – Guadeloupe

Italian sailor and adventurer Vittorio Malingri arrived in Guadeloupe April 28, 13 days, 17 hours and 48 minutes after leaving Dakar, Senegal. What's remarkable about the non-stop, unassisted 2,545 mile trip is that he did it aboard Royal Oak, a 20-ft purpose-built, beach cat — alone!

"From a physical point of view, it was much less difficult than a leg on an around the world race in a larger boat," Malingri said upon reaching Guadeloupe. "Now I am going to sleep in a bed. See you later."

His attempt represented the first singlehanded beach-cat crossing on this route. The 47-year-old Malingri has a lengthy and varied resume that includes Orma 60 sailing with Italian sailing superstar Giovanni Soldini, a Vendeé Globe Race attempt in 1992, the Dubai Motorcycle Rally, and driving 10,000 miles through Mexico in a '61 Chevy Malibu. At one point during this latest adventure, he was actually ahead of the outright reference time set by Frenchmen Pierre-Yves Moreau and Benoit Lequin in December of 11 days 11 hours and 25 minutes. Only a weakened Azores high and power generation issues prevented him from maintaining that pace.

"It was a wonderful experience regardless of the difficulties and problems that I encountered," Malingri added. "The boat worked marvelously, apart from the problems I had with the solar panels that affected my energy supply and therefore the functioning of the automatic pilot and phones. The biggest problem is that I had to do everything with only one hand; with the automatic pilot out, my other hand was needed on the steering. At night, for short intervals, I tied off the rudder in order to rest."

There are a couple of pics with the published item at:

http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/lectronicday.lasso?date=2008-04-30&dayid=107

[CapnK]

Neat story, Bob, thanks and a Grog. :)

I had a friend who was going to TransAt a Hobie 16 west-east back in the 80's. He and another guy lined up sponsors and everything. They got the boat all configured, loaded it up, put on their drysuits, and left the NJ shore for an short test of what the next few weeks would be like.

They came back after 36 hours, and started selling off the gear they'd accumulated. Seems the reality was going to be a whole lot more than either had imagined... ;)

I think the fellow in this story chose the better route, too. Much warmer wind and water, cpnditions better suited to exposed living. :D And a tropical destination, as opposed to a cool wet European one... (no offense to our members over on the Continent... ;D)

Did you read the story below, about the fellow on the 40'er who's abandoned his E-W solo circumnavigation? Bummer. And leaving his fine boat to founder, even moreso...

[Tim]

Did you read the story below, about the fellow on the 40'er who's abandoned his E-W solo circumnavigation? Bummer. And leaving his fine boat to founder, even moreso...

It was a nice looking boat, very sad  :(

[AdriftAtSea]

I read the story and didn't see that it said the boat was left to founder.  In fact it didn't say anything about the fate of the boat, whether he scuttled it, left it adrift, or towed it back.

[oded kishony]

He did an extensive refit of the boat and one item caught my eye. He changed from a wheel to a tiller. Seems a strange choice for a 21,000lbs boat.

I would have thought such a large and heavy boat would need to have a wheel.

Oded

[AdriftAtSea]

Oded-

A properly designed boat, even a large and heavy one, should be able to be tiller steered.  You might need a longer tiller for some of them, but even some of the larger (60'+) boats have been tiller steered. This is particularly true if the rudder in question is a semi-balanced or balanced spade design.  If the rudder is an unbalance, skeg/keel hung design, then the size of the boat that can be handled using a tiller is much smaller. 

[Captain Smollett]

Interesting discussion - how big is "too big" for tiller steering?

The square riggers were indirectly tiller steered - or could be directly.  The wheel on the weather deck led lines to blocks that pulled a LONG tiller.  In battle, if anything happened to the helm station on deck, the ship could be steered "by hand" using relieving tackles shipped to the tiller itself below decks.  Helm commands were shouted down to the crew below pulling on the tackle falls.

So, let's say they were 170-200ish feet LOA, couple thousand ton displacement (I'm too lazy and tired right now to look up some actual numbers, but these are ballpark).  That's a purty good size boat for tiller steering.

;)

[CharlieJ]

I used to crew occasionally on a 50 foot Pinkie schooner- 50,000 pounds dry displacement, plus the owners live aboard stuff- and with 2 teen aged daughters there was a LOT of stuff.

That boat was tiller steered- the tiller was 9 feet long. We did have relieving tackles led from each bulwark so when the helm got heavy we could clap a guntackle on the tiller from the weather side.. But usually we could balance the boat and have it sail itself, tiller unattended. Only when we were jammed up hard to weather did we need the tackles- and then only when the winds were in the mid 20s.

Down wind we HAD to steer. A schooner isn't MADE to go DDW  and doesn't much like it;D

Oh- and that tiller used to get about a foot of curve in it when driving hard to weather, and a tackle clapped on and set up hard.

[Captain Smollett]

Oh- and that tiller used to get about a foot of curve in it when driving hard to weather, and a tackle clapped on and set up hard.

;D

[AdriftAtSea]

Of course, if you're steering one of these with the tiller, seeing becomes  a problem. :)   

The square riggers were indirectly tiller steered - or could be directly.  The wheel on the weather deck led lines to blocks that pulled a LONG tiller.  In battle, if anything happened to the helm station on deck, the ship could be steered "by hand" using relieving tackles shipped to the tiller itself below decks.  Helm commands were shouted down to the crew below pulling on the tackle falls.

So, let's say they were 170-200ish feet LOA, couple thousand ton displacement (I'm too lazy and tired right now to look up some actual numbers, but these are ballpark).  That's a purty good size boat for tiller steering.

;)

[CharlieJ]

 ;D

Yup- story is that's why the Santa maria went aground. The helmsman could not see and the watch didn't. 

[CapnK]

I read the story and didn't see that it said the boat was left to founder.  In fact it didn't say anything about the fate of the boat, whether he scuttled it, left it adrift, or towed it back.

My conclusion is based on his own personal state, and that of the boat. He was taken off the boat with a concussion and other injuries, including some damage to his torso/ribs where a lifeline had slipped between his ribs when the boat lurched as he was leaning between the lines. The weblog said he thought possible ligament/cartilage damage, or something like that. OUCH. The fate of the boat had become relatively unimportant to him.

From his site, Day 218 | Sunday April 27, 2008:

He described in more detail the extent of the damage to Kim Chow including severely damaged self steering, inoperable engine and discharged batteries. In addition, Kim Chow was starting to take on water through the damaged hatches and companionway.
...
The fate of Kim Chow is uncertain at this point. The Navy are considering the options.

That he abandoned (with little other in the way of options, yes) a damaged and leaking vessel with no working automatic bilge pump at those high latitudes, I think that fits the bill of 'left to founder' pretty well.

His 24/hr runs for the days prior give an idea of sea state/conditions in the area: 35, 45, 25, 31, 22.

I doubt it will be afloat much longer on it's own, I don't think any Argentinian Coast Guard member is gonna get permission (or want to) jump on her and save her, and I don't think towing is a very likely option, either... ;)

On another note...

I have a huge interest in the boats that go down there (since I plan to), so I read through most of his site yesterday, and looked at the pics of the refit in particular. Beauty of a boat, but I noticed she also has a darned large cockpit, and nowhere was any mention made of him having enlarged or added additional cockpit drains. The one picture where you can see the drains, they look like standard cockpit drains, maybe 1.5", and we all know that builders seemingly give little attention to making sure if a cockpit gets filled fast, that it will drain faster. I'll be interested to find out what effect that had, if any, on the trip overall, and her eventual fate.