NINJOD is still being refitted in Priors of Burnham.

Work completed so far includes:

Toe rails and stanchions have all been lifted sorted and reinstalled correctly.
Ballast tanks have been rebuilt.
Sea Cocks replaced
Anti foul and hull prep
Engine overhaul

We are still waiting on some bits, specifically

Replacement P bracket, prop and drive shaft
Self aligning rudder bearings and associated stuff steering stuff.

She should have been launched this Friday however delays and unforeseen issues have meant at least a week as been put on the delivery date. Currently we are unsure if we will make the Triangle race

P

Plans have been put into place for this forthcoming year and next. The big news I guess is I am a paid up entry for the 2009 OSTAR, A solo race from Plymouth to Rhode Island. You can read all about this here.

To qualify for the OSTAR I need to sail 500nm offshore alone. Later this year I will plan on sailing from Lowestoft to Oslo.

In June NINJOD, Jan and I will attempt the Royal Torbay Triangle Race. The event is split over 3 legs with a fair amount of partying happening in between each one.

Later this week NINJOD will be handed over to Priors Boatyard for a 4 week programme of work.

Finally say hello to DINAH, a new water ballasted JOD35 (http://www.dinah.sail.ie/)

First off in August I took the week off for Burnham week and sailed with the crew and chums of Nick Poole’s Gambit aboard NINJOD. We had a fun week, drank far too much and I guess I secured my spot as the best dancer in BOC (probably !)

In September we set of for Southampton, the boat show and the AZAB prize giving at Royal Southampton yacht club. It was fantastic to catch up with people. The turn out for the prize giving was spectacular. On a personal note I was very surprised and emotional to hear NINJOD called as one of the nominations for the trophy voted by the competitors.

Deborah Fish spotted us on route back to Burnham-on-Crouch and snapped some fantastic pictures.

So I arrive back from the Azores on a Friday morning. In the evening I head off for a meal with JB. During our meal we receive a text message from Gaynor enquiring if we are up for some racing the following morning. The wonderful CYC were putting on a race to West Mersea and the owners of Harvest Moon (Gaynor and Paul) were keen for some additional crew. In a moment of weakness after some wine I said I was up for it.

Paul and Gaynor own Harvest Moon, A Beneteau First 29. One other ( higher rated and faster) exists in CYC so a race within the race ensued. Needless to say we did rather well, 2nd in the race itself behind Nick and team on Gambit and well in front in our little match race. With a video camera in hand I captured the moment it all went our way. Follow the link below:

Harvest Moon Video (13Mb) - Quicktime required.

During the race back home the following day we improved our performance and won overall.

Many thanks to Paul and Gaynor for inviting me along…

I took a fair bit of video while sailing (when conditions permitted). A montage of stuff can be found below (Quicktime required).

Low Quality Version (17Mb)
High Quality Version (74Mb)

I finally got around to plotting my daily position reports and am appalled by my outbound leg. I will have to do the race again at some point in the future if only to improve on my line.

Outbound Route

Home Run

It would be fair to say that the AZAB is by far the hardest thing I have done so far. I found that the difficult bits were always when conditions fell light and nothing could be done to get the boat moving. We had spent all night pushing hard only to be slowed almost to a stop for 10 hours by lack of wind. Grrrr... On a few occasions I would have happily been airlifted off of the boat, the frustration was that intense…. I found the only remedy was an encouraging chat with my girl friend and some sleep.

It is very difficult to describe the point in time when you realise that you are completely and totally screwed if something significant breaks. This moment of clarity for me came when the vang exploded overnight (twice) and we lost a kite. This stuff bouncing around my head became a natural brake that slowed our pace to something I felt more comfortable with. Interestingly enough as we approached land we tended to push a little harder.

On the outbound leg we passed through a deep low. As we went into it we experienced 50 knot gusts and a mean true wind strength between 40 and 45 knots. As we the passed through the middle it became lovely. Then, during the exit we sat in 40knots plus for 24 hours. In the worst of it the seas were huge and emotions ran high. We flew a storm jib, let the pilot take the brunt of the helming responsibility, switched the seame on and went below.

A lot of discussion was had about the correct end of the island to use for approaching and departing. Our choice in both instances was to opt for the west end. This decision served us well as those in the east sat in the wind shadow and lee of the island.

The arrival was a fantastic relief. Once through the various officials we were given a berth and began to take stock of what we had just pulled off. It was a super feeling. Partners arrived and our holiday started. Then, 3 days before the start of the 2nd leg we said goodbye to partners and the comfort of our hotel rooms and went back to NINJOD to prepare for the 2nd leg.

Our start for the 2nd leg was fantastic; we were the 3rd boat (almost 2nd by a length) to the rounding mark before heading west. After that we seemed to sail into wind hole after wind hole until finally we broke free of the high that had consumed a lot of our efforts for very little gain. The final days of the return leg home saw large rolling seas and force 6/7 winds with strong gusts.

We crossed the finish line and improved on our outbound time by a good few hours. This made me exceptionally pleased. We then without stopping headed back to Burnham-on-Crouch. The Azores to Burnham-on-Crouch took 9 days and 20 hours.

We finished 7th in class and 16th overall. Our total elapsed time for both legs was 15 days, 16 hours and 9 minutes. Our corrected was 16 days, 2 hours, 40 minutes and 56 seconds.

Many thanks to all of those super people who helped me out !

Paul

The preparations and effort required to get to this point have been tremendous, frustrating and tiring. The list of jobs completed includes a new pilot and rewiring, new mast, rig and boom, new sails, new Sat phone etc. To date this project has taken at least a year up to this point.

The support received from friends old and new has been very flattering. A special mention should go to:
• The Stanbury’s (I include Naomi in this crowd) for being lovely
• Winch Master Whatley for his servicing skills (Carrie for making me tea)
• Jerry Freeman, Paul Peggs and the Petit Bateau crowd for lots of good advice
• The TBYC and CYC elite
• Dave H for chillin
• JB for giving me another good reason to get there.. See you in the Azores JB!

The AZAB website (www.azab.co.uk) is supposed to also be publishing the official position reports so be sure to check that out. I had originally thought I would opt out of the position reporting but so many people have said they would like to track our little adventure it would be a shame to disappoint. In addition to the content found on the AZAB website I will post as much content via Iridium SMS here (www.ninjod.org/azab2007/) . Note.. I only finished writing this gateway today so fingers crossed.

If your are one of the special few who have my Sat phone number then the URL you need that will enable you to send my father and I SMS type messages is here.

Finally a number of race participants are also attempting to raise cash for a number of different charities. Take a look at the bottom of the entries page on the AZAB website and if any of the stories/charities take your fancy pledge what you can afford. I must say I find it admirable that these people have found the time to both prepare themselves and their yachts as well as raise cash for good causes…

Content (picture’s and video) should be available at the end of the 1st leg, until then happy thoughts to you all.

Paul

Shortly after taking these things on the boat he was on started breaking. Unfortunately they were forced to retire.

On Saturday my father and I were due to race in the newly formed short handed division of EAORA’s Ralph Herring race. With a starting line off of the Nas beacon near West Mersea we left a little after 20.00 Friday evening and arrived for some much needed sleep at about 02.00 Saturday morning.

The original forecast I had seen was for Saturday to be a fairly reasonable force 3 or 4 from the east. However much of the course was sailed in the high end of a force 6.

View image

Our course took us on a wind over tide beat up the Wallet, around the Gunfleet sand by way of Medusa and then back down the Kings channel and into the River Crouch.

This was my first official shorthanded EAORA race as the organization now support this class of entry. Consequently I was able to use my shorthanded IRC certificate along with the water ballast.. Thank heavens.. I don’t suppose I would have got very far on the beat without it.

The reaching back down towards the River Crouch for me summed up why I like to go sailing. Our boat speed peaked out at 16 knots on one colossal surf and for most of the run back down our boat speed did not drop below 9 knots.

VIDEO. You can enjoy some of what I managed to capture during the easier moments here.

Please note. You need Quicktime or some other application that enables you to watch MP4 videos.

Paul

Paul

I have had a bit of a frantic time for the past few months both on and off the water. Accept my apologies for not updating sooner. I will try to remain on top of stuff a little better as we move into the start of the 2007 season.

End of last season.

We sailed last years EAORA Buckley Goblets shorthanded, a race from West Mersea to Ostend. Our elapsed time was 10 hours 42 minutes and 11 seconds and by the time corrections were done we were 48 minutes off of 1st place. Again I was pleased given we were shorthanded, there were retirements from others with many more on board and the winning yacht had a crew of 10.

Change of club, address, and many many bits on the boat

Having parted company with the ex I moved to Burnham-on-Crouch and joined the Crouch Yacht Club. Wanting to get involved I signed up for their Autumn and Winter series but didn't get very far into it before the call came in from Mark (my local NKE specialist.) With new chums from CYC we sailed NINJOD to Levington where she was due to be fitted with an NKE Gyro pilot (supposedly the best!!).

While Mark started work on the pilot system I took advantage of my location and got Rig Magic to check the rig out DISASTER.. Basically on 1st inspection many things were either broken or worn. The rig came out and on 2nd inspection cracks and other nasty things were found. The result of all of this was that a new rig was ordered. OUCH !

With my winter activities now constrained by the fact that NINJOD was many miles away awaiting a new rig I decided to contract more stuff out to the local Levington experts. Given the marina has an Awlgrip shed I figured they were best place to apply my antifoul.

With some serious ocean miles to be covered in 2007 I decided to get an Iridium phone. Mark's work on the pilot and other bits was so good I got him to sort the phone. I have ended up with a fixed unit after reading that the data cradle on the 9505A was very fragile. The unit I opted for is the Beamcomm RST620

Launch Date.

The plan is to have everything sorted and be back in the water for March... Fingers crossed.

The route to Weymouth

I was due to depart on the morning of the 16th of August at the top of the tide enabling me to benefit from the tide as it fell out of the River Crouch. However when I arrived at the boat I was faced with my first problem, my onboard GPS had failed!! Yes... I had a backup but the idea of leaving port on a solo mission with broken stuff seemed stupid. I delayed my departure for 12 hours, took a drive into Maldon and purchased a new GPS from the nice people at Mansbrite.

The delay meant sailing through the night down "The Downs". I figured this was fine as I needed to do this as a qualifier for the event anyway.

I pulled into Brighton late during the evening of the 17th without too much trouble. I managed to sign myself in, pay and plug into the shore power before dashing up the ramp and getting a solo table in Pizza Express 3 minutes before they closed.

On the 18th I departed from Brighton and headed towards the Solent and Lymington. The plan was to hook up with some other race participants there before having a pre-race race the following day to the start at Weymouth. All this seemed fairly sensible now, after all I was a single handed skipper who had a belly full of Pizza and an appetite for more adventure.

My enthusiasm was about to get a kick in the teeth. One of the really great benefits about sailing shorthanded is that your co-skipper, while sitting opposite you in the cockpit can say things like "I don't like the look of those clouds behind you" OR "Can I make you something to eat" (the 1st being the most relevant here). The weather took a turn for the worse with rain and wind hitting me at the same time while I was not very prepared. A reef or 2 later and the boat was fine.. I was very damp and wishing I had put my wetgear on.

As I sped through the Solent I heard 5 maydays. One chap's rigging had failed and, while his mast was still upright, he felt sure that it would not remain like that for long. Then there was a barrel of something nasty. This along with the constant barrage of radio checks kept Solent CG fairly busy. As I reached the top of the Island and started to head down towards Lymington I was faced with the arse end of a force 5 pretty much on the nose. I tacked back and forth and with the entrance to Lymington in sight switched the plodder on and chugged in.

The evening of the 18th was very pleasant. A number of skippers including my chum Tony 2 names on Big Dorris 2 dined at Royal Lymington YC and were entertained by Hannah White, her shore crew and lovely mother.

The pre-race race from Lymington to Weymouth gave me my 1st clues as to what the other skippers were all about. Paul on Audacious, a boat the same as mine disappeared before my very eyes..wooosh.. The beat through the needles was a painful process and the quick tacking demonstrated how poor my pilot performed. Nonetheless I got out and wasn't the last boat (but only just).

The rest of the run to Weymouth was fairly straight forward. I arrived a little after the J's in the afternoon having departed at 0800 that morning. Everything at this point seemed to be ok

I met all the other skippers in Weymouth. The race organisers handed out various bits and bobs including my much treasured PB06 flag. Then it was back to the boat for a recharge before leg 1's start the following morning.

I sat and sipped a beer while watching some fireworks. I was exhausted yet these other skippers, many of whom were considerably older than me all seemed fine. They had all managed to pack up, put their sails to bed and perform all manner of jobs while Ninjod looked a bit of a mess.

Leg 1

The morning of the start for the 1st leg arrived and one by one the fleet left Weymouth harbour. I arrived at the start sporting a full mainsail but shortly before the start popped in reef, I was not alone. We all headed off toward Portland and as we did the wind increased. The sea was fairly lumpy off of Portland and shortly after I saw the 1st retirement.

I had a wet fast sail to Alderney and covered the leg in 7 hours and 16 minutes, just a few minutes behind Xtrikate, an X332. I was over 30 minutes behind the closest water ballasted JOD Going Grey and, frustratingly, nearly an hour behind Audacious

When secured in Alderney harbour on a mooring I headed ashore to the local yacht club. The club management had kindly changed their bar opening hours to ensure the fleet could be well looked after.

Leg 2

On the morning of the 21st the fleet dropped their moorings and headed out to the start of the leg that was scheduled to take us to St Peter Port.

Moments before the start of leg 2 my autopilot packed up. The alarm kept ringing out off course. The autopilot compass heading would jump erratically and, on further investigation the ram stopped moving. I swore a lot, jumped up and down and then subsequently decided to retire. There was no real way I race to St Peter Port single handed without a pilot.

I was then faced with what to do next. The easiest point of sail was a reach so I headed back towards England. As you can see from the track above the route was not as straight forward as it could have been. I tried giving the pilot ram some love with a can of WD40 and a hammer half way across the channel but it let me down almost as fast as I switched it on. With the aid of my new handheld plotter and many bottles of water I pulled into Lymington before the sun set.

Tony (Big Doris 2) had hooked me up with Nigel of Sea Ventures who got his Raymarine chap to call me on the 22nd.

22nd August

The morning came and I awoke a little depressed. The Raymarine guy could not help me out, he had no spares!! I then decided to head home via the Solent and get a good kick from the tide.

I heard a Mayday relay on the VHF from Solent CG. They had found a body in water, it turned out to be the 1st of a number of bodies and a news item that grew in coverage for the rest of the week.

The Mayday relay and discovery of the body upset me so I decided to head into Brighton and call for crew (my father) before heading home.

23rd August (Shorthanded)

My father and I left Brighton on the 23rd at 0500. We arrived in Burnham 17 hours later having had a fantastic sail that included a 10 hour kite run....Awesome..

Summary

While it had not gone entirely as planned I did end up doing a fair amount of single handed miles. I learnt a lot about the boat and myself. I am now in the process of trying to organise a new autopilot and some more sails.

A demonstration can be found here: http://www.ninjod.org/static/Maxsea12.5.3bugs.pdf

I have strongly suggested on a few occasions now that Maxsea write something up on their website informing users of the issue. To date they have done nothing so I am posting this.

NOTE..To be clear this is only relevant for users of 12.5.3 that use CMAP charts.

As a result of this bug Maxsea have sent me a few thousand pounds worth of replacement Mapmedia charts free of charge. This gesture aside I believe that Maxsea have a duty of care and should ensure that clients exposed to this bug understand that what they see on their screen is not accurate.

If you use Maxsea 12.5.3 and CMAP then you can either downgrade versions (and loose other functionality) or hassle them and try and get some free Mapmedia charts.

Rant over..

Paul

The forecast for the weekend was for lots of sun but very little wind.

St Katherine Race

Our start on the Saturday morning in no wind involved us (and many others) kedging to remain the correct side of the start line. Searching for the occasional 2 or 3 knot puff we crept out of the Crouch. On route into the Thames we stuck with full main and no. 1 while others opted for a kite hoist. Neither sail plan seemed to offer any advantage until Blacktail Spit was rounded. At that point the wind dropped to 1/2 knots and kites were hoisted by everyone. The course was then shortened and finished at West Shoebury.

Our corrected time was 6 hours 08 minutes and 55 seconds. We were 31 minutes and 49 seconds off of the 1st place pace. I am fairly happy with this given JOD's are a little sticky in less than 10 knots and my light weight foresail is very old. I will now be ordering a new sail..

2006 Nore Race

After a pleasant evening on a mooring in Queenbrough we crept out of the river Medway on Sunday morning. As we made our way to the pier head under engine we hoped sea breezes would not be far behind. Alas this was not the case.

The big boat bit of the Nore was due to be the 1st to start at 10.30. Some 40 minutes later in around 1 knot of breeze we started. We were the 2nd boat to the 1st mark by about 10 seconds. We opted for a kite hoist on the 2nd leg that cost us valuable time because it was a bad call. Basically as the kite site our apparent went up and we were headed. We eventually took the lead during the 2nd leg and by the time the finish came we were a fair way in front. The only larger boat to beat us to the finish was a trimaran.

We were the first monohull home and as you can see from the corrected times below we were seconds away from 1st place.

Yacht - PY - Elapsed Time - Corrected Time
Morning Song - 1000 - 02:59:01 - 02:59:01
Avrio - 1100 - 03:17:12 - 02:59:16
Ninjod - 880 - 02:38:48 - 03:00:27

We ended up 2nd in class to Morning Song and 3rd overall. Blasted bad kite choice... Still like the Murphy's I am not bitter… There is always next year.

See here for more info:

http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/news/?article=22057
http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20060520105438Sailpower.html

On Thursday the 25th the 2 of us left Burnham and headed for Shotley point marina at Harwich. We ended up doing a combination of sailing and motoring in sunshine. It was an easy passage.

On the day of the race Friday the 26th we woke up and locked out of the Marina. The starting area was busy and confusing and the 1st start was subject to a recall.

We got the 1st few marks out of the way, albeit slowly. As we started to reach towards Trinity Light Vessel and Long Sand Head we closed ground on the bulk of the fleet.

While things were ok Ian had lost a little colour and felt queasy, specifically when he ventured down below. Then, during a big jibe, Ian's hand got caught between the main sheet and a hand hold in the cockpit. Ian's hand became swollen quickly and he grew a large 6th knuckle.

While reaching towards South Galloper at 9 knots STW with No 3 and 1 reef in the main the wind briefly shot up to 30 plus knots and our in use reefing line snapped. Lots of flapping later everything was finally secured however with Ian still pale and his hand still very swollen (and bleeding) I thought it best to retire at get him home.

We made our way to Burnham and arrived at 0130 on Saturday morning.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but what a pity you can't buy it in the shops.. I made an appalling judgement call in taking Ian into the race with only the previous day's passage from Burnham to Harwich as his entire time spent training on NINJOD. Sorry Ian... Gosh.. What a plonker I am.. Nothing else needs to be said.. Rest assured, lessons have been learnt.

EDIT 01/06/2006

I recently discovered this link ... http://www.maib.dft.gov.uk/cms_resources/SB2%2D06%2Epdf