Repairs

What we learned crossing the Med

/ Doug / 20 Comments

On this last trip, we crossed the Mediterranean sea from the south coast of France to the north coast of Africa and back again. We sailed for 30 days, and encountered a variety of conditions from dead calms to 35 knots of breeze and everything in between. We were at anchor for 29 nights and in a marina for 2 nights, and since it’s just over 1 year since we took delivery of Wildling, we are still learning how she behaves in different situations. Here are a few things we learned on this trip:

We need storm sails

The current sailplan is great up to about 30 knots, but over that things get out of balance. Since I posted about the sailplan balance, I have been in contact with the Outremer factory and with Philippe Escalle at North Sails in Marseille. I’m closer to a decision about changes to our sailplan, and I’ll cover that soon in another post.

Our anchor seems a bit undersized

We have a 35 kg Spade anchor, which if you follow the sizing guidelines published by Spade is the correct size for our boat. Our Spade set and held well in most conditions, but during this trip I had two issues with the Spade.

  1. In shallow water (5-8 meters) if the scope is less than 4:1 it will not set. This is part of the design of the Spade, and it makes it very easy to retrieve, but in crowded anchorages, 4:1 is sometimes a bit difficult to achieve as there’s not enough room to swing.
  2. We had an experience where at 5:1 scope in shallow water on a sand bottom the anchor would creep backwards in gusts over 25 knots.

There’s a lot of windage on the 5X, and it is lighter than most boats of the same size, so maybe sizing the anchor based on boat length and weight alone is not sufficient. If I go through the sizing process with a Rocna anchor it tells me I need a 55 kg anchor for our boat. The Rocna and the Spade are very similar designs, so I’m not sure why there is so much difference in their sizing recommendations. Rocna says their sizing is conservative and is based on 50 knot winds and moderate holding bottoms, so perhaps that’s the difference. In any case, I feel like we need to go up to at least a 45 kg Spade for our primary anchor and I’m inclined to go to 55 kg to be safe. I need to do more research on this and also see if I can fit a larger anchor on our bow roller.

One engine is usually enough

I experimented more with engine speeds and combinations during this trip, as we had a few days of dead calms and some days of very light headwinds where we had to motor. There is not much difference between running one and two engines. Here’s what I recorded in calm conditions:

  • single engine at 1,900 rpm = 5 knots
  • single engine at 2,500 rpm = 5.8 knots
  • both engines at 1,900 rpm = 6 knots
  • both engines at 2,500 rpm = 7 knots

If we add the sails and use the apparent wind created when motoring, we pick up an extra 0.5 to 1 knot, so even with one engine at 1,900 we were doing 6+ knots most of the time. I found 1,900 rpm to be the best setting for our engines as they are running smoothly with no vibrations and are quiet, and they use much less fuel. We used less than 1 tank of diesel per engine for our entire trip.

Don’t arrive in “unknown” destinations at night

We crossed into Tunisian waters late at night, and spent a lot of energy and stress avoiding fishing boats before reaching land at sunrise. It would have been better to time our arrival for the afternoon, when there are few other craft around, and visibility is much better. Sometimes this can’t be avoided, but I could have planned better on this trip.

Furl the gennakers by hand

Our Code-0 and Code-D gennakers are removable sails that attach to a continuous line furler on the bowsprit. The furling line is run back to the cockpit and can be driven by a winch, but I have found using the winch to furl and unfurl is not a good system. It’s too easy to put too much stress on the furler, the sail and the halyard when furling, and its more difficult to unfurl at the correct speed when unfurling. When the join in our continuous furling line was damaged by too much winch force, I started doing it by hand, and found it was very easy to operate and worked much better than using the winch. The sails also furled much more cleanly and evenly when furling by hand.

I also rigged a pulley block in the cockpit to keep constant tension on the end of the continuous furling line. This made it much easier to operate the furler by a single person. I’ll post some photos of how this works soon.

Carry more spares

I’m still organizing my spare parts inventory, and didn’t have the things I needed to fix a few of the problems we had onboard. Both of our pump issues (seawater and shower drain) could have been easily fixed if I had some spare parts. There are very few places to buy parts once you leave the mainland, so we had to go the entire voyage without some of our systems working.

We love our boat

I know I write a lot about problems we have, but the fact is, we really love our boat and we trust her more and more as we get to know her better. A 59 foot catamaran is big, and it’s pretty cool that a regular family can sail her without the need of a large or professional crew. We got a lot more practice at sail-handling maneuvers of all types on this voyage: reefing, gybing, tacking, raising, lowering, furling, helming, etc. and it was great to see how well we were working together as a team by the end of the trip as we all learned our roles for each maneuver. This was also the first trip where both Lindsay and Gavin were doing night watches (2 hours for Lindsay and 3 hours for Gavin), which gave Robin and I a lot more sleep during passages.

Although Wildling is not a difficult boat to sail, it is really important to think through each maneuver, anticipate conditions and be conservative when cruising as a family. The forces onboard this boat are massive, and you can do a lot of damage very quickly if you’re not careful!

Return from Tunisia

/ Doug / 6 Comments

Sheltering from the westerlies in NE Sardenia. We have plenty of company!


This photo is looking to the south of us in the anchorage


We left Tunisia on Friday morning, after making a donation to the border police’s drinking fund! We had a nice sail back to Sardenia with fair winds and smooth seas. We decided to stop for the night on Saturday after making it to the NE coast of Sardinia. Strong westerly winds 25-30 knots were forecast to arrive by midnight, and we decided we didn’t want to deal with those until morning. 

This morning was dead calm so we motored for a while until we rounded the cape and hit the westerlies. By 2pm we had gusts up to 35 knots, and since they were forecast to drop early the next morning, we decided to find shelter for the night (again) before heading across the straight between Sardinia and Corsica. 

And then the fun began!!!

We had a double reefed main and single reefed jib and we were scooting along at 10+ knots, then when I went to turn to starboard to tack, the boat would not come up into the wind. Damn! 

I tried everything I could think of to turn us, but the helm would not respond. I turned on the port engine, furled the jib and tightened the mainsheet to create some weather helm, but nothing worked. The 30 knots of pressure against us was too much. We were fast running out of room and we had to either tack or bear off before we hit the coast. 

The last thing to try was to drop the mainsail and use the engines to turn us. Since we were at 45 degrees to the wind, I had Robin put the traveler down to leeward and I rotated the mast. We could then drop the main and I was finally able to get turn us to starboard using the engines, but the steering was all messed up! I could turn just to port but not at all to starboard. 

I aimed us at the right hand side of the anchorage, which was jam packed with boats, so I could turn up to port and try and find a place to anchor. We found a spot inside the mooring field between two super yachts. As we moved into position, the mooring field police came up in their Zodiac to tell us we were not allowed to anchor here. I told them I had no choice because we have lost our rudder. I would need to anchor long enough to fix it and the we would move. 

After illegally anchoring, I worked on the rudder problem and found the rudder linkage had slipped on the rudder shaft, so full starboard helm was giving us a centered rudder! No wonder we had problems. I thing the rudder linkage was not tight enough, so I realigned everything and tightened it up REALLY well. With our steering restored we could relocate out of the super yacht moorings, which made the mooring police dudes very happy!

The winds should calm down tonight so we will be able to continue on to Corsica tomorrow. 

Corsica to Sardenia and lots of wind

/ Doug / 5 Comments

Our anchorage at Porto Frialis on the east coast of Sardenia. We are sheltering from a NNE gale that has been blowing for 2 days now.


Problems in Ajaccio

We left Ajaccio on Tuesday. To keep on schedule we want to get to Tunisia by the middle of the month, so we had to keep moving. Things didn’t go so well for us in Ajaccio, our port engine driven 110 Amp Mastervolt alternator that charges our main lithium battery bank stopped working. Outremer arranged for parts to be sent to Ajaccio for us, so we waited there 3 extra days, but they never arrived and we needed to keep going, so we had to leave without them. Our starboard alternator is working fine, and pretty much all our power needs are handled by the solar panels and the hydro generator, so it’s not a huge issue to be without half our engine charging capacity. 

We had an accident at the Ajaccio fuel dock before we left. I was pulled up well forward of the dock and we had the fuel fill hoses extended out to top up our tanks, when a power boat came in behind us and lost control of his boat in a wind gust and smashed his anchor into the back of our transom. The damage isn’t severe, but we exchanged insurance info and he called his insurance company to tell them it was his fault. We will have to deal with the repairs and claims once we get back to Marseille. 

Our port transom handrail took the brunt of the impact. He hit us pretty hard so we are very lucky there was not more damage

This accident happened the day after Gavin and I had to push off another boat that was about to run into us in the anchorage as they were pulling up their anchor. It’s just too crowded here and too many of the people have very little experience. 

We stopped on Tuesday night in another crowded anchorage 20 miles south of Ajaccio, and after having to adjust our rode twice during the night so other boats wouldn’t swing into us, we decided we had had enough of crowded Corsica and it was time to move on to Sardinia. 

The passage to the NE coast of Sardinia involves traversing the Bonifacio straight which was pretty sporty as we had 25 to 30 knot winds and 3m seas. We had a very fast sail over to Sardenia and found a nice anchorage just south of the islands. 

Another 25 knot wind from the NNE yesterday brought us to Porto Frailis on the SE coast of Sardenia. It’s one of the only anchorages we could find that gives protection from northerly winds. We are staying here an extra day as it’s blowing a gale from the north again today. The strong winds have given us some excellent, fast sailing days, but the crew is getting a bit tired of all the motion. 

Things that have broken

Ocean cruising boats have literally thousands of systems and components and for the most part everything works great, even in such a harsh environment of wind, motion and salt water. But stuff breaks all the time and that’s just part of the experience when cruising. The trick is to have enough spares, tools and MacGuyver skills to fix or work around the problems as they occur. 

I’ve really benefited by talking to other sailors about problems they have experienced and how they solved them, so I’ll do the same and list the problems we encounter on Wildling as we go along. 

Mastervolt alternator failure. I’ve already talked about this, see above. 

This is the error code we get simce the alternator stopped working. There are also a lot of small plastic particles on the floor in the engine room. I’m assuming they arrived when the alternator died!


Sea water pump failure. The pump stopped working because the internal pressure switch broke. I can’t find a replacement switch so this remains out of action until we get back to France. 

Starboard shower drain pump failure. It looks like the pump got stuck and the nylon gears stripped out. There was nothing unusual about how we were using the pump so it’s a fault in the pump. We can’t get a replacement until we get back to France so we are all sharing the port side shower. 

The water level gauge in the port fresh water tank is broken, it constantly reads 100%. I will need to get Outremer to look at this as it’s the second time it has happened. 

The top batten on the mainsail has snapped at the back of the fitting that attaches to the mast track. This is not a new problem, I think it happened during the Outremer cup, but I didn’t realize the issue until yesterday. We can still sail but I’m a bit worried about why it happened and how we can fix it to be sure it won’t happen again. We will have to talk to Incidences, the company that made the sail. 

We removed the batten fitting from the luff of the mainsail to see what happened. It is snapped about 3/4 of the way along


Getting Ready for Tunisia

Corinne, our guest for the last week, is leaving tomorrow morning to go back to London. She has been a lot of fun to have on board and we will miss her a lot!

Once the winds ease a bit we will continue on to Tunisia. It looks like the weather will be good the next few days, so we will hopefully  leave tomorrow. 

Calvi, Corsica

/ Doug / 1 Comment

Arriving in Corsica


We arrived in Calvi just after 21h00 and anchored in crystal clear water with a sandy bottom 9m deep. It is incredibly beautiful here! There is a field of mooring bouys on the south side of the bay close to the entrance to the Port of Calvi, but we decided to anchor to the north as there was more room and it was quieter. 

Gavin helping to drop and stow the mainsail


Lindsay getting ready to raise the Corsican flag!


We’re exploring the town of Calvi this morning then will be sailing to the south this afternoon. 


We found a pressure switch in the Accastillage Diffusion chandlery this morning, that I’m hoping I can use to bypass the faulty switch on our seawater pump!

Ultralight fenders, watermaker problems and dinghy security

/ Doug / 6 Comments

Next Generation Fenders

When we were at the multihull boatshow this April in La Grande Motte, we were introduced to a company called Fendertex that is making boat fenders using an entirely new material and process. The new fenders are very light, have a cover built-in and are much stronger and more abrasion resistant than standard fenders. I ordered 4 of them to try them out and they are fantastic!

Old generation Polyform fender on the left and the new superlight Fendertex fender on the right

Old generation Polyform fender on the left and the new superlight Fendertex fender on the right. It doesn’t look like it in the picture but they are almost the same size, the polyform fender was too heavy so I couldn’t get it to stay in place for the photo!

The big advantage of these new fenders is the weight. They weigh 1.5kg (about 3lbs) each. Compared to 5.1kg (11lbs) for the old fenders. On a boat our size this really adds up, so switching to Fendertex fenders provides a weight savings of almost 50kg! But even better is how easy they are to use. They are so light, it’s no trouble at all to pull them out of the lockers and put them out, a job that we all hated with the old fenders because of how big and heavy they are. Now that we’ve been using them for the past month, Robin has told me we have to replace all of our old fenders with Fendertex!

Spinnaker Fittings

Since we moved Wildling over to Marseille, we have been trying to get some projects done before our trip to Corsica, Sardinia and Tunisia in August. Our spinnaker isn’t ready yet, so we will be sailing with just our Code-D downwind gennaker this trip. We did get the padeyes installed on the bows, so now we can fly either a symmetric spinnaker or an asymmetric spinnaker tacked to the windward bow when we have one. It’s a bit disappointing because I really wanted to try the spinnaker on this trip.

Bow padeye installed so we can attach a spinnaker

Bow padeye installed so we can attach a spinnaker

Carbon Boarding Bridge

When we got to Marseille we had a fitting manufactured and installed on the forward crossbeam so we can attach our boarding gangway (called a passerelle in France which sounds much nicer). We need this because we have to dock bows first at our new marina. I also replaced the folding passerelle that came with the boat with a lighter, non-folding carbon passerelle, because the old one was heavy and difficult to use. A carbon fiber passerelle is ridiculously expensive (of course, because it’s carbon fiber!) but it’s half the weight of our old one and MUCH easier to rig and stow.

Our new carbon fiber pasaerelle and attachment point on the crossbeam. We use the spinnaker halyard to hold it up.

Our new carbon fiber pasaerelle and attachment fitting on the crossbeam. We use the spinnaker halyard to hold it up.

Fighting Rampant Dinghy Theft

I’ve been a bit concerned about the rise in reports of dinghy theft coming from the cruising community, particularly in the Caribbean. There’s a very useful reporting service for all areas of the Caribbean that keeps track of burglary, assault and theft incidents reported by cruisers. It seems there’s a dinghy or outboard stolen every few days, and most of these are chained and locked in some fashion.

I did some research into the security of different locking devices and it’s pretty scary to see how easily most of the common locks and chains in use can be cut or broken. And while it’s  impossible to stop a determined thief with the right equipment, you can make it damn hard for them to steal your dinghy. I went to a motorcycle store in Marseille and purchased a bolt cutter proof, boron steel chain, and a massive lock that fits around the base of the outboard motor.

ABUS outboard motor lock

ABUS outboard motor chain and lock. Should stop all but the most determined thief. The only problem is if I lose the key I don’t have any tools onboard that can cut off this chain or lock!

I still need to get the ABUS lock for securing the outboard to the dinghy, but most thieves are only interested in the outboard motor, so I decided to secure that first.

Sailing from Marseille to Bandol!

Last weekend, we had some friends visiting us from Austin, Texas. Kevin, Ruthie and their  children Bennett and Audrey who have been friends with our kids since they were babies. It was great to see them, and we spent the day on Sunday sailing Wildling from Marseille to Bandol. A very nice trip, and although Kevin had never sailed before he has a lot of powerboat experience, and most importantly, he knows how to tie a bowline knot! Bennett was really interested in helping us sail the boat as well, so they were both a big help and gave Robin a break to “socialize”, while we sailed the 35 nautical miles over to Bandol.

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This is the look of satisfaction that comes from successfully gybing the gennaker. Thanks for the help Kev!

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Keeping a lookout for traffic is a tough job. Luckily the crew has some seats to make it a bit easier!

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At the anchorage in Bandol

Wildling in the anchorage in Bandol

I was a bit worried how much sailing we would be able to do in the light weather conditions, because we had less than 10 knots of wind most of the way coming from dead astern of our destination. We gybed back and forth with the Code-D to build some apparent wind and sailed between 7 and 8 knots the whole way. It wasn’t until the wind dropped below 7 knots that we had to drop the sails and motor, but by then we were only a mile from the anchorage, so no big deal.

What the heck is that strange critter?

It seems that each time we sail in the Mediterranean I see a Sunfish. They rest at the surface and then flap off slowly when we disturb them as we sail by. I’ve never been quick enough to photograph them, but they are really strange looking creatures! Bennett and I were lucky enough to spot one on our trip to Bandol.

An Ocean Sunfish or Mora Mora. Apparently they can weigh over 2000kg! The ones we see in the Med aren't this big though.

An Ocean Sunfish or Mora Mora. Apparently they can weigh over 2000kg! The ones we see in the Med aren’t this big though.

Watermaker Problems

Before we left Marseille, I removed the sterilizing cartridge from our watermaker and flushed it, then when I went to run it, nothing happened. I checked we had power everywhere, then opened the panel to see what was happening. The fuse on the circuit board was blown, and the spare fuse blew immediately when I inserted it. I called Stéphane at Outremer and within 15 minutes he had figured out the issue and ordered a new board to be sent to the Dessalator dealer in Bandol so it would be there when we arrived.

The control panel for our Dessalator Watermaker. The circuit board shorted out from moisture damage.

The control panel for our Dessalator Watermaker. The circuit board on the left of the picture was shorted out from moisture damage.

We took Wildling into the port of Bandol on Monday, and tied up at the welcome dock so the Quick Service folks (the Dessalator dealer in Bandol), could replace the circuit board, control switch and LED card. It took them less than 1 hour, then they tested everything was working just fine. Stéphane had also told them to install a rubber gasket around the access panel lid, which they did, so we would be sure to not let any moisture into the panel in the future.

A big thanks to Outremer and Dessalator for the super fast service on this!

Back to Volvo & Adventures in Corbières

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On May 23rd, Outremer had arranged a crane to lift a new 5X into the water, so we were able to take advantage of that to lift Wildling out so we could check to see if the saildrives were damaged when we changed over to the EWOL propellers.

The smaller diameter, replacement EWOL propellers weren’t ready in time for the crane lift, but we decided to lift out anyway because I needed to know if the engines were damaged, and the only alternative was to take the boat over to Canet-en-Roussillon which is a 3 day round trip journey, and a major hassle.

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The lift out was very easy, the guys have done this many times, and you can tell. They have it down to a well organized process. The Volvo engineers came and removed the EWOL propellers, then inspected the drives and used some instruments to measure the  shafts to make sure there were no problems with the bearings or the shaft geometry. Everything checked out fine, so they put the original 4 blade folding Volvo propellers back on.

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Our Volvo props back on and ready for action

As soon as we lifted out we noticed that there was a large misalignment between the two rudders. Since the boat was hauled out the previous month in Canet en Roussillon, the misalignment must have been present at that time, but nobody noticed? In any case, it’s another reminder that you should always be there in person when your boat is being worked on!
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After correcting the alignment of the rudders, we put Wildling back into the water, and the following morning we took her out for a quick test drive to make sure the engines were OK. All the vibration and noise that we had with the EWOL propellers was gone, and our engines were back to their previous smooth and quiet operation. A huge relief, but also a disappointment that our EWOL propeller test didn’t work out as I had hoped.

I discussed next steps with Xavier at Outremer, and we decided to wait until the next scheduled haul out to try the new model EWOL propellers, so we will be using our Volvo props for the rest of this sailing season.

The following Sunday morning, Robin, Gavin, Lindsay and I left La Grande Motte, to sail over to Marseille. I had called the Port Cobières marina the Friday before to make sure they had our place ready, and they told me everything was fine. Turns out, not quite!

We left at sunrise (or at least at the the time of sunrise, because the weather was nasty) in a cold drizzle, with very little wind. The forecast called for 15 to 20 knots from the South West by mid morning, so we hoisted the main and jib, and motor sailed for about an hour until the wind picked up.

After an hour, the wind lifted to around 10 knots, and later built to the foretasted 18 to 22 knots, so we had a beautiful sail over to Marseille, sitting between 10 and 13 knots boat speed. The wind was coming from dead astern of our intended course, so we gybed back and forth the entire way, keeping the boat between 150 degrees and 160 degrees to the true wind. This is a nice point of sail for Wildling, with comfortable motion and decent speeds.

I really like coastal cruising like this when we’re tacking or gybing back and forth along the coast. The only tricky part is to not wait too long to come about when we’re on a course that will intersect the land. It’s deceptive how much ground you cover at over 10 knots and a couple of times, I cut it a bit close!

Robin and Lindsay were not feeling too great on the trip over, so they took some seasickness meds and had a sleep, so I was single handing the whole way. This is when I love the self tacking jib! Gybing the mainsail is easy also, so single handing is pretty simple on Wildling, and for me, it’s a great way to spend a day on the water.

We arrived in Port Corbières just after lunchtime, and went to our designated dock, but there was another boat already there, and no places free! Damn! We ended up tying up to a concrete pier near the public boat ramp just next door. Not very safe, but there were no other choices.

I called the emergency numbers for the port, and a guy came over and found a temporary place for us. Robin and I started over, but just as we were arriving at the new place, another catamaran came in ahead of us and took it! Damn! And then another catamaran came in behind us and took the place on the pier we had just left! So we were stuck, and had to hold position in the channel while we negotiated with the port after hours staff and the other boat to let us take their spot.

After about half and hour, the interloper agreed to move to another spot. He was smaller than us, so he had more options of where to park, so we could finally go in and tie up at the dock. We were positioned at the dock in between two rows of boats, which meant we were blocking 4 other boats from leaving their slips, so not an ideal situation, but OK for the night, and we were told the guy who manages the port would sort it out in the morning.

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Finally tied up in our “temporary” spot in Port Corbières

The next day we met the port manager and he assured us he would find us a place that afternoon. He said the same thing the next day, and the next, and the day after that, but finally he moved the boat out of the place he had assigned us, and we were able to move Wildling into her new home on Saturday morning!

It seems the sense of urgency we are used to doesn’t really exist here. People are pretty laid back, which mostly is a really good thing, but Robin and I were getting pretty anxious by the end of the week, so we’re happy to finally have Wildling tied up in a safe place.

Propeller Update and Regatta Photos

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We have been working out a plan with the Outremer engineering team to sort out our propeller problems. We have decided to lift Wildling out of the water by crane on Monday next week and will have Volvo engineers check the saildrives to see if there has been any damage from the malfunctioning EWOL propellers. EWOL is still making a replacement set of propellers that will not be ready in time for the crane service, so if the saildrives are OK, we will remove the EWOL propellers and put the original Volvo folding propellers back on.  Based on what we find during this process I will decide if we will do another test with the new EWOL propellers, but this will have to be after we move Wildling over to Port Cobières in Marseille.

I’ll take video and photos of the replacement process and will post as soon as I can next week.

Matthieu has posted a bunch of photos from the Outremer Cup regatta on the Outremer Yachting Facebook page. Here are some of Wildling in action:

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Boat prep and propeller tests

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The big project that we have been planning over the winter is replacing the Volvo folding propellers with EWOL feathering props. I’ve been anxious to see if we could get better motoring performance, not because I plan on doing a lot of motoring, but rather because the speed under engines seemed very slow to me, 5-6 knots at 2,000 rpm, and I was worried there might be something wrong.

The new propellers were fitted during the haul out at Canet, so Stéphane was able to try them during the run back to La Grande Motte on Monday. Unfortunately it didn’t go so well. The engine rpm was limited to 2,000 and there was a lot of vibration that increased with the rpm.

The limited engine speed could be corrected by reducing the pitch of the props, but the vibration was a bigger concern. We were fortunate that Sergio from EWOL is in La Grande Motte this week for the International Multihull Boatshow, so he joined us onboard Wildling to supervise the testing. Let me say how impressed we have been with EWOL, they truly stand behind their propellers, and have been very involved in helping us find the best propeller solution for the Outremer 5X.

We had a scuba diver go under the boat to change the propeller pitch, which is a very simple procedure on the EWOLs, and then we took the boat out for some test runs at different engine revs and wind directions. The reduced pitch allowed us get the revs up to the design max range, but the vibration was still present. The consensus of the team is that the diameter of the propellers is too large, which is leaving too little space between the blade edges and the hull surface. This causes cavitation and turbulence, and that causes the vibration. A smaller diameter prop with the correct pitch “should” eliminate the vibration while still keeping the performance.

That’s the bad news. The good news is the performance is much better with the EWOL props. Instead of 5-6 knots at 2000 rpm we were getting around 8 knots, and over 11 knots at full speed. EWOL is making us some smaller props now, and we will fit them and retest in a few weeks time.

Although it would be nice to have everything perfect the first try, it usually takes some trial and error to get the right propeller match for a new boat, so this is to be expected. One of the main reasons I selected EWOL for this project was because they were willing to work with Outremer to find the right solution, and they have certainly been true to their word on that count!

Other than the propellers, Wildling is pretty much all ready for the sailing season. After her delivery back from Canet-En-Roussillion, we went over everything with Stéphane. The wind angle sensor stopped working during the trip back from Canet so we replaced it. It was a bit intermittent last July during our first voyage, but then worked fine since, so the gremlins that caused the original problem must have returned.

 

 

Checking in on Wildling

/ Doug / 10 Comments

I spent a weekend with Wildling in La Grande Motte to check on a few projects that were being done before the sailing season begins again.

A beautiful winter's day in La Grande Motte, France

A beautiful winter’s day in La Grande Motte, France

Wildling is looking awesome! She has been moved to a marina berth further inside the marina, which is a bit more protected than where I left her last visit. She was spotlessly clean and all the stainless steel had been polished, which is a monthly service that Stephane at Outremer arranged for me.

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Pretty much all the projects we needed done were completed, we’re just waiting on some parts to replace the holding tank gauge that is not reading correctly.

The main items to finish were replacing the goose-neck bolt that attaches the boom to the mast, and the installation of the HF radio.

Lorima, the rig manufacturer, fitted a longer bolt and replaced the old locknut with a larger nylock nut, which should not work loose. They added a locking grub screw, just to be extra sure.

Lorima, the rig manufacturer, fitted a longer bolt and replaced the old locknut with a larger nylock nut, which should not work loose. They added a locking grub screw, just to be extra sure.

Nav station with the new HF radio installed to the right

Nav station with the new HF radio installed to the right

Our new ICOM HF radio was i nstalled. The HF allows us to communicate much longer distances than the VHF, which is important when we are far offshore.

The ICOM HF radio allows us to communicate much longer distances than the standard VHF radio, which is important when we are far offshore.

HF radio antenna tuner installed on the starboard engine room

HF radio antenna tuner installed in the starboard engine room, right below the transom mounted 8m whip antenna.

2016-02-04_WildlingCleaners

We also made some progress on our propeller project. EWOL will be bringing the new props over and working with Outremer to run before and after tests. I’ll post results as soon as I have them.

A Wildling Weekend

/ Doug / 2 Comments

It’s almost winter in the Mediterranean, so no sailing, but since I was in Europe for meetings, I had the chance to spend the weekend with Wildling. There was a cold and strong Mistral wind blowing when I arrived (40 knot gusts in the marina) and 4 Deg-C by Sunday, so it wasn’t as pleasant as last time we were here. Now I see why the sailing season in the Med shuts down between October and April!

Wildling is doing great! The Outremer folks are taking good care of her. A big thanks to Stephane, who runs their after sales division for all his care and attention while we are away.

On our last trip, we were delayed sailing from Barcelona to La Grande Motte due to weather, so we didn’t really have time to get everything tidied up onboard and ready for the winter, so it was good to take care of that this weekend.

I had also left a small repair list with Stephane to take care of before next season, so I was able to see how things are progressing.

COVERS

The new sailbag is installed. It's a slightly different design than the old one, and looks great! It has a bit more volume at the boom end, which is nice because the old one was a bit tight, so it was hard to get the zipper started when closing up the bag

The new sailbag has been installed, and looks great! It’s a slightly different design than the old one, and it has a bit more volume at the end of the boom, which is good because the old one was a bit tight, and it was hard to get the zipper started when closing up the bag. You can also see the new cockpit table cover that Atelier Bilbo made for us, which fits perfectly.

I put all the covers on the winches, steering wheels and instruments.

covers

And I fitted the cover to the dinghy.

I also removed the outboard electric starter battery from the dinghy, and charged it up and stowed it inside for the winter

I also removed the outboard electric starter battery from the dinghy, and charged it up and stowed it inside for the winter

ENGINES

Stephane arranged to have the Volvo engines serviced. They changed the oil in the engines and the saildrive gearboxes and they replaced the oil and fuel filters.

The idle speed on the port engine has been a bit low since delivery (600 instead of the recommended 800 RPM) so I adjusted it this weekend.

DODGER FRAMES

On our last passage, the dodger frame on the port side pulled apart at the forward stainless steel fittings when we encountered a strong wind gust. The original design used connections that had grub screws to hold the tubes in place, but they weren’t strong enough. Outremer fixed this by removing both frames and welding every single joint. We shouldn’t have this problem again!

Outremer modified both dodger frames. All joints are now fully welded so they are super strong!

Outremer modified both dodger frames. All joints are now fully welded so they are super strong!

SEA WATER PUMPS

There are two sea water pumps on Wildling. One for the sink and toilets, to save freshwater when on passage, and one for the forward and stern deck wash hoses. Both pumps are controlled by a single switch at the switch panel in the salon. A problem we had is that the deckwash seawater pump loses it’s prime and starts running continuously on longer passages. This happens because we don’t use the deckwash pump much when underway, and with all the motion, the water drains out of the suction side of the pump, but since the discharge is closed (because we don’t use the deckwash hoses) the pump can’t get enough flow to re-pressurize, so it just keeps running.

I fixed this by installing a waterproof isolation switch at the pump, so we can keep the pump for the sink and toilets running, but turn off the deckwash pump when we aren’t using it. A better solution would have been to have two sea water pump switches at the control panel. If you’re building a new boat that has this feature, it’s something to think about.

This switch allows us to isolate the deck wash sea water pump when we are on passage.

This switch allows us to isolate the deck wash sea water pump when we are on passage.

BOOM CONNECTION FITTING

I posted during our trip to Ibiza that the pin that connects the boom to the mast worked loose and almost allowed the boom to separate from the mast, which would have been a major disaster.

Outremer discussed this with Lorima, the company that manufactures the masts and rigging for Outremer yachts, and they said that all that is required is that the grub screws that hold the nut on the pin need more Locktite to make sure they don’t come loose! The response from Lorima was a big surprise to me, and since ours is the 2nd 5X (that I know of) that has had this happen, and in fact the other 5X had a full boom disconnect in the open ocean, they seem to me to be not taking this issue seriously.

Stephane proposed they fabricate a longer pin with enough shaft to fit a split retaining pin and washer below the lock nut, which they have agreed to do. This hasn’t been done yet, but hopefully they will get this taken care of in the next few weeks.

SSB RADIO

I have ordered our ICOM HF radio to be installed during the winter and I left the counterpoise for it onboard. We are using this counterpoise system instead of a traditional grounding plate for a couple of reasons:

  • The ground plate is a maintenance issue and always fouls with sea life when sailing which adds a lot of drag
  • Over time the grounding systems on boats tend to corrode which degrades the performance of the radio

I have tested the counterpoise on an amateur radio ground station at our home in Brisbane, and it works very well, but the real test will be to see how it works on a sailboat. There are plenty of positive opinions posted online, but since it is a different approach than the traditional grounding systems, there are also a lot people that are skeptical. We shall see!

Counterpoise ground system for the HF radio. This system is basically a collection of tuned length wires that sit inside the boat and allow the antenna tuner to match the different frequencies used in marine HF radio.

Counterpoise ground system for the HF radio. This system is basically a collection of tuned length wires that sit inside the boat and allow the antenna tuner to match the different frequencies used in marine HF radio.

It was great to spend time with our beautiful Wildling, and I’m happy with how she is being cared for while we were away. We’re looking forward to the sailing season next year, and are busy planning the itinerary for our next trip!