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Post by seattle519 on Jul 31, 2016 20:01:21 GMT
One of the things that we ran out of time to do was to start a post on the board for the three Jeanneaus that participated in the 2016 Vic Maui race, 2308 miles. The race is over and the partying is finished. Their respective elapsed time, finish place in class and overall: Canard, a SO36i. 16 days, 13:07:59 2nd of 4 and 14th of 22 Miles, a SO439 15 days, 03:30:05 7th of 8 and 13th of 22 Equus, a SO519 12 days, 05:40:16 2nd of 8 and 8th of 22. First to finish of the 16 displacement boats. Race web site: www.vicmaui.orgEquus blog: equus60919.com We sailed over 200 miles per day for the last 7 or 8 days in 15-35 knots wind. Relentless sailing 24/7 with the strongest wind always at night. Our maximum surfing speed was 22.0 knots (at night) and I had a wave break over the stern and my head and completely bury me and the cockpit in green water. Learned a ton since this was my first ocean crossing of any type. Sounds like we will be back in 2 years. Dean |
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Post by MartyB on Aug 2, 2016 4:44:29 GMT
SOunds like fun, or is that PHUN!
Where is crew, boat etc at the moment. Would swag boat is still in Hawaii or on the way back.......or are you heading farther south for a bit?
marty
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Post by hoppy on Aug 2, 2016 7:29:38 GMT
Congrats on a big effort coming 2nd. Looks like you have gone pretty serious about making your 519 more than just a cruiser with performance sails. The site of the large cockpit without the table is strange  I must ask, what is the round thing with the green cable? A speaker?  Nice looking sail  |
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Post by seattle519 on Aug 5, 2016 23:06:05 GMT
The boat is moored at the Waikiki YC waiting for the return crew around September 10th. Ran out of time to put together a crew that would satisfy the insurance company any sooner. Would of rather had the boat return with all the others...
We removed the table because it quickly became apparent you could not race with it in place. It was in the way and lines were always getting tangled in the legs. We will build a custom unit that is easily removable.
The round can with green wire is indeed a speaker. The problem with the built in units is that they were too loud below for the sleeping crew. Sleep deprivation was a problem anyway since the boat wake was loud and the seas were confused.
Dean |
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Post by MartyB on Aug 19, 2016 5:07:18 GMT
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Post by vsergio on Aug 19, 2016 5:22:11 GMT
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Post by MartyB on Aug 19, 2016 5:30:38 GMT
Tracker etc shows them about where this report is saying they are. At least the water ingress has been slowed with a pump......wonder what is letting the water in. Hopefully a simple fix per say.......
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Post by MartyB on Aug 20, 2016 4:28:09 GMT
Miles is inside the straight of juan de fuca. Not going to say totally safe, but safer than offshore! Hopefully they can get to BC in one piece. Conard/36i will probably be home about daylight in Seattle. Looks like just hitting the port townsend area. doing 6 knots. will swag motoring, as the wind 30 miles south but north of Seattle is non existent for the most part.
Marty
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Post by seattle519 on Aug 20, 2016 19:52:33 GMT
I'll reach out to the owners and the return skipper to see if there is a valuable lesson for all of us. I learned a lot before the race by studying all the official reports of major accidents such as '79 Fastnet, '98 Sidney Hobart, "Bounty" and others. The official reports read just like a FAA report for an airline accident.
Race organizations obviously also study and learn. You can tell by the much improved safety equipment that is required now in the different ISAF categories compared to in the past.
A link to the USCG video. If you register you can download a high resolution copy:
www.dvidshub.net/video/479833/coast-guard-aircrew-delivers-dewatering-pump-offshore-wash
Dean |
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Post by MartyB on Aug 21, 2016 4:32:14 GMT
Dean,
That would be good. Altho I am recalling the owner of Miles does and has posted here. Not sure about Canard. They stopped a bit after my post last night in PT, appear to be close to Bremerton after a stop a shilshoal.....
Miles stopped in Neah Bay for a bit during the night, now showing stopped in Victoria.
Hoopefully at the end of the day for the Miles crew, nothing more than a fun experience that could have been worst.
marty
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Post by puravida35 on Sept 6, 2016 14:17:54 GMT
Glad to see "Miles" made it to port. Any word yet on the cause of the flooding?
It appears they had propulsion and steerage. Guessing not a rudder problem. The decision to stay with flooding boat in those conditions seems to point to something other than keel issue. Maybe a sail-drive seal?
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Post by MilesCAN439 on Sept 7, 2016 23:16:42 GMT
Miles..... All good in the end at least for now. The return delivery crew experienced water in the bow area about 200 miles off the coast of Washington when beating into the 30+ knots and large seas. As the boat was heeled over the multiple bilge pumps could not keep up as the water was in the centre of the boat where the pumps were all located. (There are multiple pumps as per race rules over and above what was previously installed) Once the boat turned downwind towards Grays Harbour as the closest safe haven the water stopped and they managed to pump the boat. As it turned out the pump provided by the coast guard they could not get working as the bilge area was too shallow for the pump to prime properly. In daylight the crew turned the boat towards Juan de Fuca again to see if they could locate the leak however they could not but were satisfied that things were ok and continued on as the seas and winds had lessened. They pulled into Neah Bay a day or so later to re-fuel and breathe. This years return was in heavier winds then previous years based on reports from most of the boats. There was more damage on the return then the actual race. People were exhausted from the trip and the constant high wind. In hindsight we only had 5 return crew and probably would've helped having another one or two. After some of the crew left in Victoria the next issue was that the impeller went on the engine shortly after leaving Victoria towards the homeport in Vancouver. After replacing the impeller it was found that there now a hole in the water lock which would then leak water into the bilge when the engine was running.... Long story short a part had to be ordered from Jeanneau America which was shipped from France overnight to the boat once it was then moored in Royal Victoria Yacht club. The part was installed a few days later and now Miles is back in Vancouver. Cleaning and repairs underway and searching for the water issue still. Ideas were possibly thru the anchor locker somehow but that appears to be fine. Another idea is thru the bow hull window seals possibly. It is certainly above the water line as the water ingress stopped once heading downwind and there was no more water coming over the bow. However we still search. A fantastic adventure shared by the 9 racing crew on board including myself and my father. I'm already looking forward to the next one. However certainly a symmetric spinnaker would make a big time difference for us on this race vs. only the asymmetric ones that we carried. We really couldn't point towards the finish line as well as the other boats in our division without the symmetrical. It would've put less stress on the rudder and steering mechanism as well. We did have to monitor the steering cables daily. Oh and maybe not having to come in behind a tropical storm would've saved us at least a day as well. Terrific time though. As Dean said though, the noise of the water off the transom is crazy loud as well as the "fireworks" from winches grinding in the aft staterooms. You can read more on our blogs www.sailblogs.com/member/svmiles439/Tim |
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Post by puravida35 on Sept 8, 2016 16:19:48 GMT
Good to hear "Miles" and crew are safe and sound now. Sounds like an awesome adventure (both directions).
Good to know water ingress was not below waterline. On our previous boat (older and smaller), we did see some leakage around forward hull windows while beating in choppy conditions, but it was very minor. Granted, we were not in such rough conditions. It was easy to spot on our boat, but I could see how it would be harder to locate on newer models with the interior liner and shelving.
Thanks for sharing your story. Having just put a deposit on a 439 with plans to cruise, I was very interested in the outcome of the water ingress issue.
Regards,
Thomas
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Post by svsendit on Sept 9, 2016 21:11:22 GMT
Afternoon, I raced on Miles and am pretty familiar with the boat after 2 years of prep, a bunch of racing and the Vic Maui race. Whomever just put a deposit down on one, good job. The boat can be a seriously fast family cruiser as Miles showed. We stopped flying kites a night for a long stretch, we had old dacron sails, and as Tim said we had asyms in a DDW race- that aside we had speeds in the 9s and 10s CONSTANTLY and saw speeds into the mid teens all the time.
I disagree with the table being removed, but each has their own preference. We did leave it in on Miles because it was a great brace at sea, held our lifelines in cockpit and made it easy to swap wheel to wheel. Also was a good place to hold other equipment like binocs, snacks, electronic data displays, and lets face it....beer. I definitely liked it where it was, we had enough crew and a system in place to deal with sheets and winch management.
I will say the addition of two extra full size harken winches on top of the sheet grooves in the cockpit coaming was a necessity. Absolute necessity. You would be very hard pressed to sail this boat fast with only 4 winches. Also a sprit made kite flying pretty d**n easy.
Super comfortable, really fast. The water in the boat is still a mystery, otherwise it was pretty impressive out there. As a family cruiser I say you would be hard pressed to have more fun, and this is from a beneteau guy...
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Post by seattle519 on Sept 11, 2016 19:15:59 GMT
Tim,
Other than the water ingress it sounds like your issues were a series of small things. I'm heading to Oahu next week with the return crew. A few repairs, some crew training and they will head out around 9/18 weather permitting (unfortunately I have to work). Think I will change out our impeller and check for any wear on our water lock. Any idea how it got a hole? How old is your boat?
A few comments:
A friend has a Beneteau 35s5 and we have competed on his boat several times in the Swiftsure Race. On one particular windy race while beating into rough water he was taking in a quite a bit of water. The final solution was finding a hard to access area where the anchor locker was not sealed properly to the deck. Water was leaking in above the head liner and then leaking out into the cabin in strange areas. For you perhaps someone blasting the boat with a strong fresh water hose and someone inside with a phone to find the leaks. Anchor locker, toe rail, hatches, windows.
With our shallow bilge depth the pump pick ups are not going to effectively remove water unless the boat is sitting fairly level side to side. Not sure what to do about that. I am going to look for limber holes under the forward V berth as it sounded like you didn't have some in a couple areas. We have a sail locker forward of the forward stateroom and we replaced the small factory bilge pump that directed it's output further back into the boat with a 2000 GPH pump that dumps overboard. I like the idea of being able to pump a lot of water directly overboard if we poke a hole in the bow by running into something. The chance of seeing something even as large as a container at night is almost zero. They are out there.
We got a good look at Miles and how they mounted the two addition primary winches and did the same thing. The factory layout is fine if you are short hand sailing but for racing you need more room for all the extra people to work.
As you said table in/out is a personal preference. For cruising it is nice but after racing with it both installed and removed the entire crew liked it better off. We are going to build a smaller removable table. We added extra clipping points and used rock climbing Quick-Draws to help mitigate the width of the cockpit. And most importantly we found some nice aftermarket beer holders that we have added in several locations. 
We only had asymmetric spinnakers but we also have a spinnaker pole. It allowed us to run deep with apparent wind angles of 145-155 degrees when it was blowing 20+ knots. We really couldn't run any deeper because of the confused sea state. Our sail maker Ullman Sails was adamant that the new asymmetric spinnaker designs are faster than the old symmetric designs even running ddw. All my previous experience has been with the symmetric spinnakers so this has all been new to me.
Why were you monitoring the steering cables daily? Did you see or experience any problems? I checked three times and never found any issues. Did squirt some grease on them though they didn't look like they needed it. One thing I have considered is mechanically disconnecting the autopilot from the quadrant. Would save a lot of wear and tear on the hydraulic cylinder during the race.
One thing I was not prepared for is how much wear and tear occurred. Obviously not just from lots of miles but the excessive rocking and rolling in all axis that worked everything really hard. It must account for 5X or 10X wear rate compared to what we are use to.
Dean |
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Post by MilesCAN439 on Sept 14, 2016 23:02:50 GMT
Dean,
I think that the water lock melted from the impeller going and the crew not noticing fast enough. At least that is our guess from the situation. The boat is hull #5 of the 439 model, 2011 vintage. I don't think that it would've melted from normal wear and tear. We had issues with the steering cable jumping off the pulleys. It had happened during another race in heavy weather when we noticed that there was excessive play in the steering. During VM we monitored this early on as we noticed the play again. We monitored the bolts. They had loosened initially but once tightened essentially stayed this for the rest of the race. The cable did jump the pulley again on the return which had to be repaired. This issue might of been resolved on later models. I'd need to take a look at a newer 439 and compare. I'd be interested in seeing one. Removing the autopilot ram would be a smart idea. Hadn't thought of that although if the steering cable had gone this would've been a quick solution to getting steering back ASAP.
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