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Ladyhawk

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Posts posted by Ladyhawk

    Solo figure-eight around NZ for Kiwi kids

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

     

    Elana Connor is an amazing solo sailor from California, aboard a 34ft sloop called ‘Windfola’ she was embarking on a solo circumnavigation of the world- raising awareness for kids in foster care, (as this is her story) when Covid19 hit and she found herself stranded in Tauranga for Lockdown level 4. She very quickly became part of our Family here at Tauranga Bridge Marina and has under gone some significant revamps to her vessel and her plans.

     

    With no ability to continue her mission to circumnavigate for a while, due to international restrictions, she has turned salt water into champagne, by turning her focus to Kiwi Kids in care. She has partnered with ‘Voyce’- Whakarongo Mai and is starting a fundraising campaign where she is going to complete a figure eight navigation of New Zealand.  Voyce and Elana have decided the money raised will offer kids in care the opportunity to fully funded youth development voyages with the ‘Spirit of Adventure Trust’ aboard the Spirit of New Zealand.

    The campaign officially kicks off in Auckland, TODAY at 10am... 14th October, from Princes Wharf with the Spirit of NZ tall ship escorting her out of the Auckland Harbour, her voyage will see her visit many ports around New Zealand as she raises awareness towards kids in foster care and hopes to inspire them to dream big! She expects to complete the figure eight in February before the start of the America’s Cup Race.

     

    The campaign is gaining some great momentum with Voyce Whakarongo Mai proactively in charge of the marketing and media, Spirit of Adventure Trust, Sir Michael Fay, Yachting NZ, kids in care and their caregivers all over the country in support of her voyage.

    Mike Delamore, (SV Cavatina) who has just completed his own round NZ voyage, has helped Elana with advice and some of his safety gear is making a second circumnavigation, this time on Windfola

    This is a great opportunity to help kiwi kids get onboard the Spirit of New Zealand for a life changing experience.

    https://www.peregrinasails.com/

     

    elana.jpg

    • Like 1
    • Upvote 2

    Tauranga Shipping Channel Screw-Up

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

    I remember the day it happened, those weather reports are grossly exaggerated, it might've been 20knots, gusting 25 at the most, nothing unusual for Tauranga. Have a look at the pictures in the Sunlive articles, that's not 50kts and 5m swell anywhere.... sounds like the article in the mag is looking for anything else to blame...

    Antifoul - options

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

    RedLine, a part time racer down here in Tauranga, had FlowSilikon applied 3 years ago I think it was. One of the owners of the boat is the owner of the hardstand, so it always got a waterblast at the beginning of race season, and was looked after pretty well. They've removed it as they've found they cant go fast enough for it to self clean, it used to slime up pretty quickly. I think its got normal old hard antifoul on it now. To be fair, I think if you can dive and wipe your hull every 3 weeks or so, then it'd be a great product, but it wont look after itself....

    Trimaran - Now Found!

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

    On 7/07/2020 at 8:45 PM, Blaydon Racer said:

    Was interesting to Google Blaydon Racer and find this thread.  We bought her early this year and have her out of the water adding some love to her.  Looking forward to getting her out for a sail in the coming months.  If anyone has any information on Blaydon racer I'd be keen to catch up for a yarn as the couple we bought her from has very little information and the owner before isn't contactable.

    Hey welcome aboard guys! Great to see someone finally bought Blaydon Racer, very cool boat. I had the pleasure of talking with Nick Wilson, the original owner as he was prepping her for sale, he had it beached on the sand outside his home up the harbour, great guy, with a lot of love for his boat, I got the impression he was very sad about having to let her go.

    Where do you have her on the hard? I'd be keen t come by and say hi, and if you're ever at a loose end near Bridge Marina, pop in and have a coffee, C-pier. we're easy to spot, the only boat there to take up two berths! 😆

    Ignoring a user

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

    Just now, Island Time said:

    Or you can just ask and I can change your account to the marine topics only group. All except small talk.... There are quite a few members in this group already.

    Hah!, yes that would work too! 😄

    Ignoring a user

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

    About the only other option is to filter out the Small talk topic from your "unread" results, the following technique is used on Sailing Anarchy forums to great effect.

    click the following link...

    http://crew.org.nz/forum/index.php?/discover/34/

    It will take you to a "Stream" I created and shared. You can then make it your Default instead of the "Unread Content", and/or you can add it to your own profile to save and customize it further. This wont stop you seeing spammage of other topics, but it will stop you seeing anything posted in Small talk

    See attached picture.

    NoSmallTalk.jpg

    • Upvote 1

    course master auto pilots

    in TechTalk

    Posted

    Yup I have the same intermittent issue with my old school CM750, although mine will only go off-course to port. I found that doing a automatic compass calibration fixes it for a while, it tells you how to do this in the manual that you can download from Coursemaster website. I also noticed that when you engage the pilot, it veers off course about 15-20 deg then slowly comes back on course. Fixed that by correcting the poor installation of the rudder transducer, the link arm was the wrong length and had almost no travel at each end of the 'throw" of the transducer arm. Works better now, until it decides to "chuck a u-ee" whenver it feels the need :roll: Saving up for something newer/better.....

    Solar panel doesn’t appear to be charging.

    in TechTalk

    Posted

    Matt, that sucks they wont pay up for replacements, that's pretty shitty customer service, I was considering these same panels....not now.

    The new 145w ones, are the the so called Gen2 ones? Will they replace these if they crap out in 12 months? after all you've mounted them as per their instructions...

    Fatality - Northland

    in MarineTalk

    Posted

    I don't subscribe to the Herald either, but there are ways to read an article if you really want to, here it is copied and pasted.. we should all learn from this tragic accident :|

     

    Exhausted but overjoyed, Bruce Goodwin thought they had made it.

     It was Monday and there were grey skies. He went to take over watch from Pedersen above deck while Pedersen's wife, Pamela, and her brother-in-law Steve remained below.

     Sea conditions were reasonably calm. The wind was 20 knots. It was the sailing group's last day on board the 47-foot yacht travelling from Fiji to New Zealand. The four had a big breakfast planned before going through Customs.

     But as they crept closer to the Bay of Islands, the winds became stronger and the seas got "steeper and steeper". Soon, gusts grew to beyond 40 knots and massive waves had begun breaking on top.

     "It's a really hard thing to think of what size they were," Goodwin said. "The 6m thing was mentioned but it wasn't the size of the waves that was the problem. It was the size of the break.''

     At 1pm and about 30km from Cape Brett in Northland, a surge of water broke over the yacht. Goodwin, 66, and Pedersen were swept off their feet, and off the vessel.

     "I went under water. I'm sure Stu went under water as well. I was pulled along at a very painful rate. I was stuck in my harness for some time under water until I just felt Stu pulling me back on board," Goodwin said.

     "The deck was a mess at that stage but most things were still functioning. We checked down below to see how the other two were and saw they had their own dramas."

     Pamela and Steve were knee-deep in water. The yacht's windows had been sucked out from their frames, and water from the waves was repeatedly rushing in at a rate beyond what the vessel's pump system could handle.

     "That's when I said we need to put out a mayday," Goodwin said.

     Radio contact was made while Goodwin searched for the yacht's Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPRIB) and liferaft "but they must have gone out the windows, they were nowhere to be seen".

     Everyone went into survival mode, keeping cool heads the entire time. Goodwin who had his own personal locator beacon activated it.

     "We were encouraged. We were saying 'we can do this'," he said.

     The four gathered in the yacht's cockpit for about 20 minutes preparing to abandon ship. They collected a grab bag, life ring, Dan Buoy flotation device and had planned to click together their harness ropes once overboard to stay together.

     "It's just amazing how we all did bits and pieces when Pamela came on deck, she brought a big block of chocolate and a bottle of water. We knew we needed energy and we scoffed the chocolate as fast as we could."

     Goodwin said Pedersen and Steve, whose surname he did not know, took turns at manually pumping the bilge pump "to try to give us extra time". "But unfortunately it got so low in the water, the bow went under."

     With water rising around them, Goodwin was first to leave.

     He unclicked his harness from the yacht and dived through the water. He pulled Pamela along with him. The two other men followed moments behind and only just escaped.

     "The guys only just got clear ... When it [the yacht] went under. It went so, so quick."

     Alone, in the ocean, the four sailors clicked their harnesses together and waited.

    And then the strangest thing happened. "An albatross came and sat beside us," Goodwin said. "I saw it as a sign from God. I do have trust in God and I have a personal relationship with God. [i thought] we can make it."

    Goodwin did not see the seabird fly away. The sea conditions were still horrendous. "We struggled with waves coming at us. We took on water and spat it out. We tried to keep each other warm and encouraged." 

    About 2.45pm, through the sea spray and waves, Goodwin spotted sight of the PC3 Orion above which dropped a liferaft. "Oh boy, when we first saw the Orion I thought 'you beauty!', 'We are going to do it guys, we are going to do it.'  "I saw this big, long, long rope with flags on it coming down. It landed quite a way from us, maybe 50m away. I swam for it as hard as I could."  Tears well as Goodwin recalled: "I really didn't think we were going to make it but the rope would get picked up and placed closer each time. Those guys in the [rescue] team knew just where to place it."

     Goodwin said their rescuers' skill at getting the raft closer to them when they did "absolutely" saved his life. With barely any strength left in his body, Goodwin eventually managed to pull himself on board. After another exhaustive effort, Steve was next. 

    The two men pulled on their harness ropes to help get Pamela and Pedersen in but against the surging seas, high winds and a tangle of knots in the ropes, the mission became impossible. "There was nothing left in us to get them in."  Goodwin said he and Steve were reluctant to cut the ropes because of the risk of Pamela or Pedersen being swept away in the rough seas.

    Instead, they each held them.  "I took Pamela and Steve held Stu along the liferaft. We had to wait for the helicopter to come and we knew it would come."  Goodwin doesn't know if it was seconds, minutes or hours later when he saw the rescue helicopter arrive. By this stage, all four were too exhausted to talk. But they were still conscious and alive. "I got a smile from Pam," Goodwin said.

    A rescue helicopter swimmer came and took Pedersen and his wife away from the raft and got them winched up one by one. Steve was next up, then finally Goodwin. "It was just great to get up to that helicopter."  Wrapped in a thermal blanket and given some water, Goodwin reached out to his skipper.

     "I tried to get a smile from Stu." He didn't get one.

     Pedersen had died before making it onboard the helicopter.

     His wife was taken to hospital but has since been discharged. Steve was discharged with Goodwin this week.

     Back home in rural Waihī, Goodwin's voice cracks as he looks back on the fateful voyage.

     Both he and Pedersen shared a mutual love for sailing. As members of the Tauranga Yacht and Power Boat Club, it's how they met about four years ago.

     "To do something like this, we do it for pleasure. And to have such an outcome, it's just devastating."

     But he remains incredibly grateful for the efforts of their rescuers.

     "To be living in a country that can throw so much resource without a moment's thought at four people who need them the most ... there must have been no hesitation when they got our mayday and they were so prompt.

     ''We feel so positive and honoured to live in such a country that cares for people.''

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