It was nice to climb on board and see the new Harken radial winches and bowsprit installed. The secondaries have been upgraded from 2 speed 42’s to 2 speed 46‘s and all winches are now self tailing.

Between us we set about replacing the main compasses, relocating the water ballast pump to avoid the air locks I kept getting last year, installing a new sound system and speakers, re-securing batteries, upgrading bilge pumps, removing the toilet (ahead of installation of the new one), re-routing the heater output and racking out the new Tow-A-Van race trailer (required to reclaim much needed space in our house and shed).

The sound system, a Fusion MSIP-600, will hopefully resolve the issues I had when ipods and iphones went flying across the cabin on lumpy days. With this product the waterproof control panel opens and the ipod/iphone sits inside a secure housing; it’s very cool.

So far it looks as though everything is going to work out very well. It's all very exciting.

Congratulations to Brave for their win and many thanks to Peter Cockayne for these fabulous pictures.

The plan for the new year is to run a shorthanded IRC certificate and a fully crewed IRC certificate. In both cases the jumpers are coming off and the mast head kite is being put into storage. The cost of these items in terms of rating could never be justified against their use.

For fully crewed racing the water ballast is being dropped and we are going back to fractional symmetric spinnakers.

For shorthanded and solo stuff Ninjod will be configured as a bowsprit only boat. A new Selden on deck retractable carbon bowsprit will be fitted sometime between January and March 2010. To make use of the sprit new sails and hardware have been purchased. A Code Zero, and larger Asym will both make use of a Facnor FX2500 furling system. My existing smaller and heavier Asym will run off a tack line from the sprit. To make all of this work properly a new 2:1 halyard will be installed .
The result of all of this is a reduction in IRC rating from 1.024 to 1.012.

If you read this blog or have sailed with me then you will know that NINJOD has a waterproof toughened laptop from GETAC that contains lots of CMAP charts and runs Expedition navigation software. This system connects to all of my instruments, manages my sat phone and email, raises alarms when specific things happen, looks at AIS targets and allows me to quickly ascertain if I am heading in the right direction. The system is fairly important,especially when offshore.

A challenge is faced when trying to ensure that my computer system has a suitable backup. Yes, I can carry another machine however it isn’t that straight forward.

The 1st problem is that much of the software used on these systems is either locked to a specific computer, requires a dongle or both. CMAP chart management is a good example of something that is painful to move from primary system to backup system.

Then once you have spent hours reinstalling everything and setting everything up again on your backup machine your 2nd problem is keeping the 2 systems up to date and in sync. Any waypoints or courses defined on one machine are not automatically transferred to the other. Software versions and electronic charts all change fairly frequently and keeping them up to date ensures you get all the latest bug fixes, corrections and features. Doing this on multiple machines quickly becomes depressing.

The Solution

I think I have found a good solution to these problems and one that allows me to create an instance of Ninjod's computer system whenever I require it using something called Virtualization.

Simply put virtualization allows you to run a complete computer system as a program on any normal computer. This virtual machine is to all intensive purposes a fully functional computer system; you can install software on it, plug USB devices into it as well as read and write your emails.

One of the key benefits of virtualization is that once setup your virtual machine can be run on pretty much any device. For example I use Windows XP afloat, it is required by Expedition. With virtualization I can copy my Windows XP virtual machine to my Mac running OSX and run it, accessing al the features and functions as if it were a standalone machine.

The Result

The result of all of this is that I now no longer need to worry about keeping backup machines up to date. I keep my virtual machine on a memory stick (128GB ) along with the software required to run it. I can plug the memory stick into any reasonable computer and be up and running in no time at all. Gone are the hassles of synchronization and license management as everything is all installed on the same virtual machine.

I use products from VMWARE to achieve virtualization; there are other products available.

On the 11th of September I took part in the Buckley Goblets, an EAORA race from West Mersea to Ostend, Belgium. I, unsurprisingly was the only solo entry. I did pretty well however 50 minutes from the finish it all went wrong.

A heavy squall of between 30 and 35 knots true came through and I jumped up to put a reef in. As I looked up my top full length batten had come away from its slider and wrapped itself the wrong side of one of my spreaders. I could not get the sail down ! I could not get it back up. I tried all sorts of things to get it free however in the end I had to turn the engine on driving ahead into the weather, winch in reef 2 a bit to pull the sail backwards and stand of the boom ( very hairy ) yanking and swearing at it. The mainsail split and, having used the engine, I promptly retired and motored in.

Thanks to Will for popping on board and bringing her home with me!

Future Plans

I have entered to 2011 AZAB (Azores and Back Race) and plan to race the event solo as a warm up for my next attempt at the OSTAR.

Jan and I are planning to do the 2010 Triangle Race, I will send the entry form off today.

We set off on the morning of Sunday the 23rd of August aiming to get our qualification done. Poor weather and lack of a cat sitter meant our trip would start and finish and our home port of Levington. When out of the river and in Dovercourt bay we logged our intentions with Thames Coast Guard and sped towards Nord Hinder.

The tide was fairly strong and constantly lifted us North. Not a problem, it didn’t really matter where we ended up, what was important was the distance that we covered.

It had been fairly windy and we had been getting true wind speeds between 20 and 25 knots. Our sail plan was 1 reef in the mainsail and a number 3. Ninjod liked the sail plan and the weather, our speed rarely dropped below 7 knots and we had peaks above 10 knots.

We reached our turning point in the middle of the North sea just before sunset, turned and headed for home. During the final throws of our outbound leg we had shaken the reef out as the true wind speed dropped to 12 knots.

The night was great although not without problems. The 1st came shortly after Jan had gone down to sleep. It was dark and I was at the helm when a searchlight was shone at the boat. It was all very alarming, we were not in any TSS or lane. I called for a torch and we shone a light back. We are still not sure what the ship in question was doing, we were transmitting AIS, had our mast head navigation lights on and were painting a radar reflection the size of a supertanker thanks to SeaMe. As fast as the ship had arrived he changed course and vanished.

Our 2nd problem came as the wind built. The wind built and the true wind speed went up to between 20 to 25 knots. Ninjod’s speed sat between 9 and 10 knots. She felt out of balance, it was reefing time. As the reef line was wound on the btt of plastic in self tailing winches that stops the rope going through on itself popped and the worst happened. Our reef line, partly on had wrapped itself around itself and the winch a few times. After a quick chat it was decided that getting the reef on was more important than freeing the winch so we wound on a bit more.

By 0400 in the morning on Monday the 24th we were making our way up the river towards our berth. We called Thames Coast Guard at the request and let them know we were back. We had been sailing for 20 hours, clocked up over 140 nm and maintained an average boat speed of over 7 knots constantly.

On Tuesday of this week Peter, our local RORC measurer, arrived at Suffolk Yacht Harbour and started the process of measuring and weighing the boat. The Sunday before Emily, Jan and I had packed everything into boxes and at 0630 on the day in question I took everything off of the boat, the pontoon was covered with sails and gear.

The results of this were quite interesting and all made sense. The trim had shifted aft with the bow overhang up and the stern overhang down. This is most probably due to the permanently installed hydraulic ram system and beefed up water ballast bits and bobs at the rear of the boat. Weight wise she had understandably put quite a few pounds on.

In terms of my IRC certificate this was all good news and my rating came down by 10 dots to …. [drum roll please] 1.024

Jan and I are competing in the next two EAORA races as a shorthanded entry.