All our plans for this weekend have come to nothing as we have found water in the gearbox.
While the boat was back in Lymington this week at the Scorpion yard, I asked Dave Crawford to give the engine its first service and to change the gearbox oil which several people had advised.
Dave was very busy and thought that he might not get to do it, but on Thursday he did. With hindsight, it was just as well he did because he found the oil was contaminated with sea water.
This could have been very damaging. The unit needs a careful rebuild and checking in order to see how this happened after only 23 hours of use and never knowingly having anything tangle around the propeller.
We have lost a week in the schedule, but it is worth finding things like this before we start the race.
- Gavin April 26
Saturday 26 April 2008
Thursday 24 April 2008
Prep for Plymouth (again)
Our two main issues from last weekend look likely to be solved by tomorrow. The aft locker floor, which holds our spare 18hp Tohatsu outboard motor (41kg) and its 25 litre fuel tank (25kg), is being replaced in the moulding shop by Scorpion as we speak. The strain that the floor takes when we land from a wave is enormous. It is unusual to store an engine of this size here.
The fault that triggered our alarms and 4% power restriction last weekend has been identified by Dave Crawford - a loose cap on the oil tank. Not sure how it would cause this problem, nor even how it happened. Scorpion's Graham Jelley suggests that we ask the engine people for some instruction just in case something like it happens again. Graham had a similar experience near the top of Scotland once.
Meanwhile at home, MarineTrack has just delivered the satellite tracking transponder which we need to install and which ultimately should feed our position to this site during the race. And we now have the PC Planner software and card reader so that we can navigate with our laptops at night. We know how to have a good time!
The weekend's forecast looks much better than previous weekends. I'm looking forward to our first long passage.
Gavin April 25th, 2008
The fault that triggered our alarms and 4% power restriction last weekend has been identified by Dave Crawford - a loose cap on the oil tank. Not sure how it would cause this problem, nor even how it happened. Scorpion's Graham Jelley suggests that we ask the engine people for some instruction just in case something like it happens again. Graham had a similar experience near the top of Scotland once.
Meanwhile at home, MarineTrack has just delivered the satellite tracking transponder which we need to install and which ultimately should feed our position to this site during the race. And we now have the PC Planner software and card reader so that we can navigate with our laptops at night. We know how to have a good time!
The weekend's forecast looks much better than previous weekends. I'm looking forward to our first long passage.
Gavin April 25th, 2008
Monday 21 April 2008
Gearhead stuff
It's amazing how much gear we accumulate for each new participant activity. 
Offshore sailing, dinghy sailing, ski-ing, hill walking, cycling are just a few before we get to ball sports. And, I have 26 sails stored in my garden shed. Part of the "fun" of going round Britain in a rib is planning how you can equip yourself to cope best with what you might have to face. Needless to say it means buying a whole lot of new stuff!
Clothing. People whose advice we respect have said you must do it in dry suits. I even have one in the wardrobe for board sailing. We have decided to go the summer comfort route and after some discussions with Henri Lloyd have gone for their TP2 Shadow smock and salopettes without the collar.
The smock as a neoprene waistband and a soft collar which tightens round your neck. June should be sunny and warm, but with a permanent headwind of circa 50 to 60 mph, different rules apply.
Gloves. You do get knocked about a bit in a rib contrary to what it says in the brochure. I don't suffer from cold hands but on a two hour run found I'd got a blister somehow from the Italian suede covered steering wheel. We will have thin sailing type gloves in the future.
Footwear. We are using toe straps with the Ullman seats so we need shoes that are smooth on top. Roger has a preference for boots so we may go that way although I hope we don't get too much water in the boat.
Helmets. We first talked to Gecko who provide the RNLI. Unfortunately their helmets aren't approved for the race and we have to have motor cycle ones. I have heard of the bucket effect if you fall out going fast with a full-face helmet so we have gone for open-face helmets with visors and separate sun shades.
Intercoms. Driving a Caterham 7, you realise how communication could be improved with an intercom system. I had looked at the ones on the lifeboats which are industrial quality. We are going for a battery-powered system which reduces hole drilling in the boat and which was developed for rally cars but which will have to live in a polythene bag.
Life jackets. We race with 13 on our sail boat. We have eight life jackets for cruising on the rib. But for the race, we need another design. We have gone for Austrian Grabner jackets which look okay and have a lot of power boat followers. The main difference for power boating is that you need foam rather than air.
Camera. We hope to take a Panasonic video camera but after just a couple of trips, my Nikon Coolpix compact has given up and I have ordered an Olympus 850 SW. The S stands for shock and the W stands for water down to 3 metres. It's great to have a camera at hand and I hope the Olympus doesn't go the same way as the Nikon! I'll still have my D200 Nikon SLR in its padded bag with me, but it's not at all easy to use under way.
Back Support. On our first runs, I used a ski back brace which has an
articulated support right up the spine. This is less than perfect in the rib as it tends to push you forward in the seats.
Roger experimented with an industrial type of garment which has plenty of elastic and Velcro and can be tightened in use. I am getting the same now. Of course, you never know whether these really help, but we both recognise that a back injury could take us out of the event and once a back goes slightly wrong, ribbing is not a lot of fun!
Underwear. Last but certainly not least, early rides have demonstrated the need for getting this right. The Ullman jockey seats have a narrower part at the front which you grip with your thighs. After a couple of hours, it gets uncomfortable so I plan to use undershorts with chamois running down both legs.
We will keep you updated as we discover new needs. Gavin 21.4.08
Offshore sailing, dinghy sailing, ski-ing, hill walking, cycling are just a few before we get to ball sports. And, I have 26 sails stored in my garden shed. Part of the "fun" of going round Britain in a rib is planning how you can equip yourself to cope best with what you might have to face. Needless to say it means buying a whole lot of new stuff!Clothing. People whose advice we respect have said you must do it in dry suits. I even have one in the wardrobe for board sailing. We have decided to go the summer comfort route and after some discussions with Henri Lloyd have gone for their TP2 Shadow smock and salopettes without the collar.
The smock as a neoprene waistband and a soft collar which tightens round your neck. June should be sunny and warm, but with a permanent headwind of circa 50 to 60 mph, different rules apply.
Gloves. You do get knocked about a bit in a rib contrary to what it says in the brochure. I don't suffer from cold hands but on a two hour run found I'd got a blister somehow from the Italian suede covered steering wheel. We will have thin sailing type gloves in the future.
Footwear. We are using toe straps with the Ullman seats so we need shoes that are smooth on top. Roger has a preference for boots so we may go that way although I hope we don't get too much water in the boat.
Helmets. We first talked to Gecko who provide the RNLI. Unfortunately their helmets aren't approved for the race and we have to have motor cycle ones. I have heard of the bucket effect if you fall out going fast with a full-face helmet so we have gone for open-face helmets with visors and separate sun shades.
Intercoms. Driving a Caterham 7, you realise how communication could be improved with an intercom system. I had looked at the ones on the lifeboats which are industrial quality. We are going for a battery-powered system which reduces hole drilling in the boat and which was developed for rally cars but which will have to live in a polythene bag.
Life jackets. We race with 13 on our sail boat. We have eight life jackets for cruising on the rib. But for the race, we need another design. We have gone for Austrian Grabner jackets which look okay and have a lot of power boat followers. The main difference for power boating is that you need foam rather than air.
Camera. We hope to take a Panasonic video camera but after just a couple of trips, my Nikon Coolpix compact has given up and I have ordered an Olympus 850 SW. The S stands for shock and the W stands for water down to 3 metres. It's great to have a camera at hand and I hope the Olympus doesn't go the same way as the Nikon! I'll still have my D200 Nikon SLR in its padded bag with me, but it's not at all easy to use under way.
Back Support. On our first runs, I used a ski back brace which has an
articulated support right up the spine. This is less than perfect in the rib as it tends to push you forward in the seats. Roger experimented with an industrial type of garment which has plenty of elastic and Velcro and can be tightened in use. I am getting the same now. Of course, you never know whether these really help, but we both recognise that a back injury could take us out of the event and once a back goes slightly wrong, ribbing is not a lot of fun!
Underwear. Last but certainly not least, early rides have demonstrated the need for getting this right. The Ullman jockey seats have a narrower part at the front which you grip with your thighs. After a couple of hours, it gets uncomfortable so I plan to use undershorts with chamois running down both legs.
We will keep you updated as we discover new needs. Gavin 21.4.08
Sunday 20 April 2008
Not a Good Day!
As usual a poor weather forecast preceded a "lets go anyway" trip to the coast. 
First issue was that the number for Hamble Point's dry stack service. It went straight to voicemail. I tried 118118 to check the number but it was the same. So when we got to the Hamble how good to see Black Gold waiting in the water with her cover off.
After topping up Black Gold's oil tank, daughter Emma and I loaded up an odd collection of cleaning kit and were set for a mission to spring clean our sail boat moored in East Cowes. We started the engine. Almost immediately an alarm sounded. I looked at the two screens that we have - system view and the gauges on the GPS screen fed by Smartcraft. All looked okay so we pottered out into the Solent at 32 knots. I couldn't resist watching some of the sail racing - a big and competitive Laser SB3 start and the usual Hamble Spring Series. We continued to Cowes slowly. The alarm was still sounding and the engine didn't want to run fast.
We turned everything off in Cowes and, being the eternal optimist, I assumed a re-boot might restart the alarm system in normal mode. We cleaned the teak deck on Black Tie for the first time this season and had a good lunch in the Lifeboat in East Cowes. Back in the rib ready to go home, the alarm gremlin hadn't gone away. I found a crack in the false floor that supports the spare outboard so we decided to return to Lymington so that the Scorpion team could have a look.
I'm sure that there is nothing wrong with the engine, but I can't have it going into engine protection mode in the race. Our cruise to Lymington was down to 6.2 knots as we made use of the 4% power that the engine management system allowed.
By next weekend I hope we have dealt with the gremlins. It would be good to practise the first leg to Plymouth on Saturday.
Not a great day, but at least the sun was out and the sea calm.
First issue was that the number for Hamble Point's dry stack service. It went straight to voicemail. I tried 118118 to check the number but it was the same. So when we got to the Hamble how good to see Black Gold waiting in the water with her cover off.After topping up Black Gold's oil tank, daughter Emma and I loaded up an odd collection of cleaning kit and were set for a mission to spring clean our sail boat moored in East Cowes. We started the engine. Almost immediately an alarm sounded. I looked at the two screens that we have - system view and the gauges on the GPS screen fed by Smartcraft. All looked okay so we pottered out into the Solent at 32 knots. I couldn't resist watching some of the sail racing - a big and competitive Laser SB3 start and the usual Hamble Spring Series. We continued to Cowes slowly. The alarm was still sounding and the engine didn't want to run fast.
We turned everything off in Cowes and, being the eternal optimist, I assumed a re-boot might restart the alarm system in normal mode. We cleaned the teak deck on Black Tie for the first time this season and had a good lunch in the Lifeboat in East Cowes. Back in the rib ready to go home, the alarm gremlin hadn't gone away. I found a crack in the false floor that supports the spare outboard so we decided to return to Lymington so that the Scorpion team could have a look.
I'm sure that there is nothing wrong with the engine, but I can't have it going into engine protection mode in the race. Our cruise to Lymington was down to 6.2 knots as we made use of the 4% power that the engine management system allowed.
By next weekend I hope we have dealt with the gremlins. It would be good to practise the first leg to Plymouth on Saturday.
Not a great day, but at least the sun was out and the sea calm.
Sunday 13 April 2008
HIGHS AND LOWS
We knew that the forecast was bad for Saturday, but having gone through the last checks at the Scorpion HQ in Lymington we headed out into a hailstorm to try the passage to Plymouth - an important part of our race preparation.
First lesson: my head was freezing in the hail so we shot over the Yarmouth and Roger slipped ashore to buy me a hat.
Off down the Needles Channel, the seas were large and surprisingly very large and steep fronted outside. After an hour of pushing on West, and after a minor nosedive and a couple a tail stands at very low speed, we decided reluctantly that bashing on like this to Plymouth was futile.
We rationalised it this way: The race committee wouldn't start a leg with Forces up in the eights, so why should we practice for it! And we decided a circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight would be good, so we turned downwind and trimmed the nose out and opened up.
Lesson 2: The difference between the conditions that a rib can work well in and the opposite is more extreme than a sailboat.
We spent the night in Cowes on Black Tie with Black Gold alongside. We made a call to one of our new ribnet.com friends, Phil Boarer, who is also doing the Round Britain Race in a Scorpion.
Phil has a new 8.1 metre with a 300hp Suzuki. We quickly agreed that subject to the weather being sane in the morning, we'd meet him in Chichester and do a fast run to Brighton and back.
The weather was good and we met Phil at East Head and were soon following him as he leapt out of the harbour in a F4/5 with some big lumps on the bar. What followed was a great run with two well matched Scorpions past the bank where Ted Heath's Morning Cloud sank with loss of life and then on to Brighton for a coffee and croissant.
It was great watching another boat with a similar hull work through the waves and Roger and I were very glad of our Ullman seats although we found the toestraps essential in quartering seas which sometimes caused us to lurch sideways.
Coffee done we went out past the Brighton race fleet and buzzed Jonty Layfield's J39, Sleeper, which had many of our team from Black Tie on board. That done we had an uneventful upwind leg back to the Solent in company with Phil's striking Syncro and start to discuss what we'd learned from this good day out.
Even though he had me screaming for mercy at one point, he was doing a good job. The boat did great and Phil commented on how level she flew.
We need to reschedule Plymouth, but we learnt a lot this weekend and logged 180 miles.
Gavin Sunday April 13
First lesson: my head was freezing in the hail so we shot over the Yarmouth and Roger slipped ashore to buy me a hat.
Off down the Needles Channel, the seas were large and surprisingly very large and steep fronted outside. After an hour of pushing on West, and after a minor nosedive and a couple a tail stands at very low speed, we decided reluctantly that bashing on like this to Plymouth was futile.
We rationalised it this way: The race committee wouldn't start a leg with Forces up in the eights, so why should we practice for it! And we decided a circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight would be good, so we turned downwind and trimmed the nose out and opened up.
Lesson 2: The difference between the conditions that a rib can work well in and the opposite is more extreme than a sailboat.
We spent the night in Cowes on Black Tie with Black Gold alongside. We made a call to one of our new ribnet.com friends, Phil Boarer, who is also doing the Round Britain Race in a Scorpion.
Phil has a new 8.1 metre with a 300hp Suzuki. We quickly agreed that subject to the weather being sane in the morning, we'd meet him in Chichester and do a fast run to Brighton and back.
The weather was good and we met Phil at East Head and were soon following him as he leapt out of the harbour in a F4/5 with some big lumps on the bar. What followed was a great run with two well matched Scorpions past the bank where Ted Heath's Morning Cloud sank with loss of life and then on to Brighton for a coffee and croissant.
It was great watching another boat with a similar hull work through the waves and Roger and I were very glad of our Ullman seats although we found the toestraps essential in quartering seas which sometimes caused us to lurch sideways.
Coffee done we went out past the Brighton race fleet and buzzed Jonty Layfield's J39, Sleeper, which had many of our team from Black Tie on board. That done we had an uneventful upwind leg back to the Solent in company with Phil's striking Syncro and start to discuss what we'd learned from this good day out.
First: I need cycling pants or something to stop saddle soreness.
Second: I had cut my hand on the wheel and some sailing type gloves would be good.
Third: We will go for intercoms in our helmets.
Fourth: I need a direction-to-waypoint display in my direct line of sight.
Fifth: Our experiment with Roger on the throttle and me on the wheel worked really well.
Even though he had me screaming for mercy at one point, he was doing a good job. The boat did great and Phil commented on how level she flew.
We need to reschedule Plymouth, but we learnt a lot this weekend and logged 180 miles.
Gavin Sunday April 13
Monday 7 April 2008
SNOW SCORPION
Not sure why we deserve this weather in April. Terrible driving conditions and 
deep snow at home didn't stop us from heading to Lymington for the next stage in our preparations. Joy from Scorpion www.scorpionribs.com had come in to see us on Sunday (thank you Joy) and Matt at the Haven Boatyard was ready to help get the snow off the cover and launch Black Gold.We now have new straps everywhere: more in the aft locker securing the spare engine and its full fuel tank, straps in both directions in the console locker and most importantly of all, foot straps for the driver and navigator!
We had drawn round our feet last weekend with a pencil and we now think our feet are in the right place according to the instructions from the seat designer, Dr Ullman.
The big interest for this trip, the last before our big run to Plymouth
and back next weekend, was to evaluate another propeller. Last week we had done six runs on the measured mile in Southampton Water, fed the results back to Scorpion. This is not perfect science, but there are several web tools to help you with these decisions and one "propslipcalculator" at www.mercuryracing.com was helpful for me as a guide.
The reason it isn't an exact science is that there are so many variables (changing fuel load and boat weight, atmosphere, wind and sea conditions, height of engine on transom, engine leg angle and more).
What we were trying to do was reduce these variables and run at similar boat weights,
constant shaft angle, two way runs on the same water and of course, noting everything. We also decided to stay with the same make of propeller as we were happy with the boat's behaviour and just wanted to evaluate the pitch (angle) the prop. Needless to say our snowy weather meant that Southampton Water was bitterly cold as we ran one way into a 20 knot plus NW wind and the opposite effect the other way. The sea had also become lumpy which adds another set of variables. Two runs in the freezing cold and lunch in the Jolly Sailor in Bursledon with friends seemed like a good idea.
The promise being that we came back to finish the job when the wind and tide were going in the same direction (this makes the water smoother).
We completed the runs after our roast lunch in the pub and then coffee on
board our friend's well heated Oyster sailing boat.
I wouldn't say the results were of great scientific merit, but we had knocked 300 rpm off our previous weekend's top end runs and gained some knots while still being able to reach peak power on the engine's power curve.
Another good day's work and Paul, Nicholas and I drove home on less snowy roads with the car heater set at 22 degrees...
Next weekend we go on our first big run, which I guess for Roger and me will be more of a test of the crew than the boat.
Gavin
April 6th, 2008
deep snow at home didn't stop us from heading to Lymington for the next stage in our preparations. Joy from Scorpion www.scorpionribs.com had come in to see us on Sunday (thank you Joy) and Matt at the Haven Boatyard was ready to help get the snow off the cover and launch Black Gold.We now have new straps everywhere: more in the aft locker securing the spare engine and its full fuel tank, straps in both directions in the console locker and most importantly of all, foot straps for the driver and navigator!We had drawn round our feet last weekend with a pencil and we now think our feet are in the right place according to the instructions from the seat designer, Dr Ullman.
The big interest for this trip, the last before our big run to Plymouth
and back next weekend, was to evaluate another propeller. Last week we had done six runs on the measured mile in Southampton Water, fed the results back to Scorpion. This is not perfect science, but there are several web tools to help you with these decisions and one "propslipcalculator" at www.mercuryracing.com was helpful for me as a guide.The reason it isn't an exact science is that there are so many variables (changing fuel load and boat weight, atmosphere, wind and sea conditions, height of engine on transom, engine leg angle and more).
What we were trying to do was reduce these variables and run at similar boat weights,
constant shaft angle, two way runs on the same water and of course, noting everything. We also decided to stay with the same make of propeller as we were happy with the boat's behaviour and just wanted to evaluate the pitch (angle) the prop. Needless to say our snowy weather meant that Southampton Water was bitterly cold as we ran one way into a 20 knot plus NW wind and the opposite effect the other way. The sea had also become lumpy which adds another set of variables. Two runs in the freezing cold and lunch in the Jolly Sailor in Bursledon with friends seemed like a good idea. The promise being that we came back to finish the job when the wind and tide were going in the same direction (this makes the water smoother).
We completed the runs after our roast lunch in the pub and then coffee on
board our friend's well heated Oyster sailing boat. I wouldn't say the results were of great scientific merit, but we had knocked 300 rpm off our previous weekend's top end runs and gained some knots while still being able to reach peak power on the engine's power curve.
Another good day's work and Paul, Nicholas and I drove home on less snowy roads with the car heater set at 22 degrees...
Next weekend we go on our first big run, which I guess for Roger and me will be more of a test of the crew than the boat.
Gavin
April 6th, 2008
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