Yachting and Boating World forums: JAC08

Hi 'Pye-end'

Interesting to hear from some one else who has also sailed a Sonata singlehanded.

Overall my campaign suffered from completing my boat preparation too close to the event to do any signifiacnt long distance testing due to other pressures/commitments. The net effect of this was two fold.

Firstly whilst the boat preparation was 80%+ there and what I had done worked well and was complimented on in Plymouth there was still some areas of weakness and these would have been exposed on a longer trial. Overall the boat was well prepared and in good shape but not quite there.

Secondly I was insufficiently prepared relying on my 'lifelong' sailing experience which included previous singlehanded sailing but not on as longer passages as this. As a result I was well up to the 'technical' aspects of the voyage but not sufficiently experienced for the level of sleep deprivation I suffered in the first four days and the mental challenge the scale of which escalates with the lack of sleep.

The boat actually performed very well and gave me confidence in her. As you know a Sonata is not a boat tracks naturally and certainly is not a boat you could lash the tiller and balance the rig. The Seafeather self-steering, however, controlled the boat extremely well keeping in on track and working better and better the stronger the wind provided the sail area was 'appropriate'. The only problems were in very light winds when the Simrad Autohelm 220 was better and when close hauled in stronger breezes when a course 5 degrees plus more off wind had to set otherwise the self-steering would be caught out every now and then and the boat would tack into a hove-to position. Setting a course more off wind worked fine but, of course, meant even more ground lost to leeward on top of significant leeway when singlehanded due to the sail area either been too little or the boat being on it's ear with no one on the rail. The boat did do some minor broaching when going downwind in significant swell but nothing the self-steering couldn't catch though had the wind got stronger towing warps or a drogue would probably have been needed to control this.

I had two problems with the self-steering. Firstly the lower supports come out of their mountings - probably an installation/maitenance issue for me rather than a design problem. This may in part have initated the second more serious problem where the self-steering stopped working with the wind on one side of the vane with the servo blade just maxing out on one side and locking there. The problem appears to be a bent connecting rod between the vane and the servo blade plus the bracket that stops the vane going too far either side is bent. Other cause of this could have been the boat going backwards onto the servo blade when I was reefing or when the servo blade caught on the outboard twisted the wrong way and jammed (after that I took the outboard off). The designer, who is very helpful, has said to bring the unit and he will sort it out. Overall I am very impressed with the Seafeather. It is sensitive to the wind changes without excessive yawing and powerful enough to control a boat that doesn't easily track and one that can develop significant weather helm on the tillar.

I also had problems with the Autohelm in that I bought a new one but the mounting in the deck from the previous owner looked good so I left it and it came out on the second day! Not having a big enough drill to re-fit it I bolted two pieces of ply to the deck and drilled a hole just big enough for the 'sprigot' of the Autohelm and this got me home but the movement of the Autohelm was naturally elongating the hole and it wouldn't have lasted for every.

Overall the Autohelm was better in light winds (but used an 1 to 1.5 amps) and the Seafeather was better in moderate to strong winds.

On the issue of sleep it is very much about sleep management and handling the mental challenge when sleep deprived. I was unlucky to get four nights of no sleep. I only expected 1 or 2 plus I can't sleep in the daylight. At the end of the day there is no substitute for experience to cope with this and I feel so much more experienced as a result of my 600 miles and, indeed, coped much better coming back in through the Channel with a sleepless night. I will also try a 'blindfold' to see if I can get sleep during the day. The 'lively' movement of the Sonata didn't stop me sleeping once I could get some and I slept well on nights 5 and 6. However, the constant movement does add to the overall increase in tiredness.

Regarding equipment/boat prep as you have to be totally self-sufficent I try to build in duplicate systems. So for ship detection I had AIS receiver linked to the chartplotter (with alarm), CARD radar detection (with alarm) and radar though the latter had to used sparingly due to the power consumption. These worked well particularly CARD where I kept the ariel low so that it just triggered the alarm whne ships came with around 6 miles. The CARD is also very frugal on consumption. I gained sufficient confidence in these alarms that I was able to sleep later in the trip confident that they would wake me if anything big came close. I also had Seeme active radar reflector which worked well.

For power generation I had a solar panel, a towed generator (Aquagen4) and a petrol generator. The panel worked well producing a amp in sun but direct shadow is a killer and another time I would also have a panel I can move around the boat. The towed Aquagen was superb once the boat was doing over 3 1/2 knots. Above 4 knots and it produced all the power I needed. As a result the petrol generator wasn't tested. The Aquagen does have a little drag and is prone to collecting sea weed and plastic bags! Watching the charge produced tells you when to clear it.

On communications/sfaety alert I had an Eperb (McMurdo FastFind PLB) permanently on the harness plus a SPOT tracker and sat phone. The SPOT was very useful when I lost use of the sat phone for three days enabling me to send a position twice a day with an 'I'm OK message'. It worked perfectly.

For nav I had a charplotter (Standard Horizon 1000CP) which worked perfectly part from nearly an amp on power plus the back up of a handhelm GPS and a GPS function on the sat phone.

For safety I had jackstays running the length of the boat and usually clipped on when going into the cockpit in all but the lightest weather and always when working forward. I also had a set of jackstays running outisde of the stanchions as someone else pointed out that if you go over the side clipped on you end up suspended over the guardwires unable to do anything. With two lifelines you can clip the second one on the outside jackstay, release or cut the first one, and slide to the back of the boat where there is a boarding ladder.

The one system I couldn't duplicate was me!

Overall I got so much from the trip but it should have been a training run rather than the real thing. As a 'training run' I gained a huge amount of experience and learnt what else I need to do the boat and what further experience I need. I already have a lsit of work to do on the boat and look forward to the next challenge.