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[Nikitas]

Kalahari, ouch! The wire rope could cut off more than ears! A case for unstayed masts if I ever saw one!

[Kikapu]

Kalahari,

The other thing you need to watch out sailing around high peaks is, a rush of wind coming down the hill at full blast which what I call the "funnel effect". Even if wind conditions are fine where you are, if you do not read the surface of the water ahead of you and you enter into this "funnel effect" wind, then you are likely to either break something if you have full sails up, or at the least, get "knocked down" if in a mono hull. If you are on a small Hobie cat and are on a beam reach, then expect to capsize also. I broke my main boom coming around a island on San Francisco Bay because of such a force of a "funnel effect" winds, because a large cat could not be "knocked down", but knock the crap out of the boom instead. I was able to sail back with the Mizzen and the head sail back to the Marina.

A good friends of mine sailing on a Dart Catamaran in the UK, which is around 19 feet or so got hit by a strong wind from the bow and the wind got under the trampoline and caused the boat to do a "back flip". Exactly the opposite to what you have seen in the pictures on the opening post. They believe they are unique in achieving that. They can keep it.

[kalahari]

Kikapu I've had it – I was sailing a 46ft yacht out of Palairos on the Ionian, going west at a pretty brisk pace with my wife (Niki) and girls below getting a meal ready. I had not sailed the area before, so was completely unprepared for what happened next. The wind just suddenly switched from south east to north, and with the force of a train hitting us. The boat went from a gentle list to the right to a full nearly flat out list to the left and went into a violent spin. Below deck there was chaos, as water and vegetables flew everywhere and I narrowly missed being knocked out as the boom went over.

It turned out that we had just entered the funnel effect as the wind came down the Levkas straits.

It was a very scary experience for everybody, especially on such a big and otherwise very stable boat.

[Kikapu]

Kikapu I've had it – I was sailing a 46ft yacht out of Palairos on the Ionian, going west at a pretty brisk pace with my wife (Niki) and girls below getting a meal ready. I had not sailed the area before, so was completely unprepared for what happened next. The wind just suddenly switched from south east to north, and with the force of a train hitting us. The boat went from a gentle list to the right to a full nearly flat out list to the left and went into a violent spin. Below deck there was chaos, as water and vegetables flew everywhere and I narrowly missed being knocked out as the boom went over.

It turned out that we had just entered the funnel effect as the wind came down the Levkas straits.

It was a very scary experience for everybody, especially on such a big and otherwise very stable boat.

You were luck that you were on a mono hull that by listing so much, that you did not break anything on deck. Had that been a large Catamaran, you would have lost few things. Being knocked by a boom going from one side to the other in a fraction of a second has to be my worse fears, which is why when I have a lot of people on the boat who are not experienced, I tie a "preventer" to the boom, just to avoid having to fish people out of the water with a fractured skulls due to unexpected tacking.

[Kikapu]

Kikapu,

Reading your text, before seeing the photo sequence, you almost shook my faith in multihulls. Then I saw it.

Too much sail, too high a mast, too high center of effort, too little seamanship. These guys should have read what cat designer James Wharram has to say about overpowering cats. It is fun to do that stuff when racing, kind of a bummer when cruising.

I still plan to sail from Rhodes to Cyprus on a cat someday. With a fine northerly at about force 5, a broad reach all the way and enjoying it with a glass of wine in hand. No heeling and no heaving!
Nikitas

Nikitas,

Back to sailing again.

How much sailing experience do you have.??

The trip you are thinking on making is a good 2-3 days sail with good winds.

It will take you longer to get back however.

[kalahari]

My friend Duncan once took off a four week sabbatical to sail a leg of a voyage from San Fransisco to New Zealand. He didn't need it – the winds were clean and unaltering the whole way from the Pacific isalnd he joined the crew on to Auckland. He didn't even have to steer. He arrived two and a half weeks early with sun burn on the right hand side of his face!

The moral? You can never predict the winds!

I'm sailing my Laser out of Limassol Nautical Club at the moment, and although there is no visible reason for it, the winds always squall about half a mile out. Why is this Kikapu? Any ideas?

[Kikapu]

My friend Duncan once took off a four week sabbatical to sail a leg of a voyage from San Fransisco to New Zealand. He didn't need it – the winds were clean and unaltering the whole way from the Pacific isalnd he joined the crew on to Auckland. He didn't even have to steer. He arrived two and a half weeks early with sun burn on the right hand side of his face!

The moral? You can never predict the winds!

I'm sailing my Laser out of Limassol Nautical Club at the moment, and although there is no visible reason for it, the winds always squall about half a mile out. Why is this Kikapu? Any ideas?

Are you sure you did not get your friends sabbatical leave time a little bit wrong Kalahari. There's no way in this world, that your friend could have sailed from San Francisco to New Zealand in 1 1/2 weeks, unless the name of the "flying boat" was called "China Clipper".

To be fair to you, you did also mention about some "Pacific islands" as to where he joinned, so I'm a little confused where he boarded and where he sailed to in 10 Days.

Winds from San Francisco start first with the North-West winds and as you go further South they become North-East winds which will take you to Hawaii in 2 weeks for an average boat with sea currents in your favour all the way. Coming back will take about 3-4 weeks.!!! New Zealand is still a long ways from Hawaii, so there is something wrong with these dates I'm afraid.

As for your little problem in Limassol, I'm only going to give you an educated guess here, since I only spent 3 nights there, as to know how the winds behave.

If you are having off shore winds, which is blowing from the land, you may have some protection from the building close to shore and as you go further out, then you will get more exposure to the wind, and depending what kind of seas you have, for instance, you will have wave action coming towards land and wind is going the opposite direction, which means, that the wind will cause the waves to be rougher. So basically, the buildings along the shore will "blanket" the wind until you go further out to get away from any disturbance to the wind. This will always happen, when ever you sail on the "leeward" of anything, like big tankers on anchor, which I saw several in Limassol.. It is always best to sail on the "windward" side of any object or land mass. If the wind was blowing from the South, you will not have this problem, obviously. But then again, they may be pretty strong winds since a storm may be brewing up.

[Nikitas]

Kikapu,,

My saling experience is close to zero. I have built a boat on my own, a wooden (varnished please, 5 coats, bronze fittings) kayak with which I meandered up and down the beach.

Boats and ships for me are more than transportation. I can sit and admire the lines of a boat, even a working caique, for hours. And being a fearful flyer I always travel by ship to Cyprus and Italy because I have to.

The above explains why I want to sail to Cyprus from Rhodes, to avoid the Karpathos channel, in good weather, steady force 4-5 northerly, because southerly at that area would bring in a swell from Africa and that is not nice. And I want to be sitting on deck while others do the sail trimming and the steering. Although I guess that as the charterer I might be allowed (if sober enough) to touch the tiller or the helm.

Now, for pottering about, I would love to build a small craft, with an UNSTAYED mast, (hate stays!) a single lateen sail, and sail far enough away from the beach so I dont have to hear the disco beat and other noises of civilsation. One of Iain Ooghted designs might do me. Notice that Onassis had such a boat, which he sailed on his own, leaving the Christina and noisy guests behind.

[Kikapu]

To tell you the truth Nikitas, I only had a weekend sailing course before setting out to the big ocean. Others around me knew some but mostly coastal sailing, so basically I learned while doing it "on the job" as it were. I did do various navigational courses before going sailing, but once you are out there, you learn pretty well, even if it takes a lot of "tries and errors". But once the "light came on" by gathering information, from there on, one can sail anywhere.

I just took a look Iain Oughtred design, which I was not familiar with, and I can see why you are excited about it. It does have a lovely lines to it and seems to be a strong built also.

Here are couple of examples for others to see.



I'm afraid I will not sail this boat to Cyprus from Rhodes however, not unless I was trying to escape from Rhodes, but it's great to sail close to shore, I'm sure..

[Nikitas]

And in Kikapu's last post ladies and gentlement you can see a true sailor who appreciates the fine lines of a good boat. In contrast, a power boat enthusiast to whom I mentioned Onassis' small boat gave a look of disdain and said "what is so good about that, it only has a lateen sail, wont do more than 3 knots!". Yes 3 knots in total silence, and no diesel fumes.