Civil Service Sailing Association – Channel Sailing Division
SKIPPERS NEWSLETTER – Yacht Sea Essay of Hamble

Newsletter No 02 /13

Introduction

This is an occasional document issued by the Yacht Secretary, which will be placed on the CSD website and/or sent to all CSSA approved Skippers in CSD when there is new and/or important operational information to promulgate.  There is no intention to produce newsletters on a regular basis.  Each one is numbered in sequence every year so recipients can identify if any are missing.

Inner (Storm Jib) Forestay

There appears to be some confusion on the methods to be used for stowing and rigging the inner forestay. It is used to attach the piston hanks fixed to the luff of the storm jib and support jib’s tack. The length of this forestay has been set for both the stowed and rigged positions and should not be adjusted.

Warning: The power provided by the Highfield lever can cause serious structural damage to the foredeck if over tightened.

The following photographs show the arrangements for stowing and rigging:

Fig. 1 Stowed Position.

Note the drop latch pin attached to the bow shackle. The shackle is not removed from this position as it forms the fixed length for stowage. The inner forestay wire is also held away from the mast and radar scanner by the open clip (not shown) on the upper stbd. spreader.

The wire must be replaced into this open clip after use.

Figure 2: (Left)

Forestay removed from stowage and ready for attachment to wire strops.

Figure 3 : Above Inner Forestay attached to wire strops with the lever loose.

Figure 4 Above. The Inner Forestay in the rigged position

The principles for this arrangement are for it to be as simple as possible with all the parts attached to each other for rigging in adverse conditions.

FUEL: The fuel contents gauge is unreliable and until a permanent solution can be installed it is recommended that the fuel tank is refilled after 50 engine hours running. To enable skippers to monitor the engine hours it is vital that the engine hours run are recorded in the deck log and when fuel is taken on, the engine hours, the amount of fuel filled and the fuel gauge reading is recorded in the Fuel Log. The fuel tank contains 200 litres which should be sufficient for about 60 hours engine running. The cabin heater also consumes diesel at the rate of about ¼ litre per hour and this consumption should also be born in mind. It is vital that you do not run out of fuel.

Horseshoe (MOB) Light: One of the horsehoes is fitted with a sealed automatic light which will operated when the two metal connections moulded in the plastic body come in contact with the water. It is possible to test the light using a length of wire kept in the blue electric toolbox stowed in the drawer under the forward berth. Place the bared ends of wire onto the metal connections and the light should illuminate. However each test reduces the battery life so the testing should be kept to a minimum. This test will be part of the Yacht Husband’s monthly maintenance day routine.

Adrian Barnes Yacht Secretary
07 April 2013