us rolling up all sail in a hurry. It lasted for around an hour kicking up a vicious wave pattern
in a wind over tide situation. As this blew itself out it slowly got dark. We were steering
the boat from the comparative comfort of the wheelhouse. We found if we boiled a kettle
or allowed the cabin area to get noticeably warm, all the internal windows succumbed to
condensation and steamed up, reducing our visibility to zero. We had around 20nm still
to run to Queenborough, where we would take a buoy for the night. For navigation we
were using my laptop with Raytheon chart management system on it. A Garmin handheld
GPS gave us the boat symbol on the chart display. This proved useful in the marginal
conditions. We followed the red buoys, keeping out of reach of the large ships using the
channel, monitoring the depth contours as we went. We were harassed by rain, sleet and
thunderstorms, which made the visibility very poor at times. At around 19.30hrs we felt our
way into Queenborough and picked up a visitors buoy. As soon as we were secure, we had
a meal and went to bed for well
earned rest.
(Similar boat)
Dawn the next morning found me using the laptop with a mobile phone modem to check
out the changeable weather. Using the inshore forecast and Met Office isobar charts I felt
we could take on the next leg to Dover, around 40nm. The inshore forecast gave ENE 5-6
of the Thames estuary to contend with. with rain and thunderstorms. We topped up the 10 gall diesel tanks from the on board
At 11.00hrs we untied to enter the lock. diesel containers, and left about 07.00hrs. We would be using the available daylight as
Controlling the boat from the wheelhouse best possible. Tidal currents were secondary to us, except around the Dover headland.
I put the engine controls in forward. The As we headed out we struggled to liberate the mainsail, as it had been rolled in a hurry in
boat went backwards. Trying not to look yesterday’s squall. Eventually persistence won the day, and we turned to motorsail along
confused I looked over the side to confirm the coast to North Foreland. A huge black thunder cloud enveloped the headland. The
that the engines were indeed in reverse. Catalac was not exactly a fast sail boat, she also had a weedy bottom, which slowed us
The water flow confirmed this. The cockpit considerably. We ran engines to cover distance as fast as we could. Around mid morning
steering position also had steering controls, we were treated to the sight of an offshore wind farm on our port side, with the coast
these appeared to be in neutral but were to starboard.
actually engaged in reverse gear, thus
cancelling out the wheelhouse controls. I We had main and genoa out when the thunderstorm moved in to threaten us. As the wind
made a note to double check in future. rose above 20kts I made a move to roll the sails. Earlier in the morning, the genoa sheet
retaining cam cleat had fallen apart and was now useless, so the genoa sheet had been
Once though the lock, without further left on the control winch and made off to the genoa reefing line cleat. We would need the
incident, we entered the Thames, John same winch for mainsail handling, so consequently the genoa had to be rolled before the
tried his hand at helming the boat, trying mainsail could be dealt with. Whilst rolling the genoa the wind gusted above 20kts and
to keep well over to starboard to cheat the the mainsheet car gave way and shot off the end of the traveller track. The boom, sail
strong flood tide still flowing against us. It and mainsheet were left swinging wildly out to starboard. Fortunately John had some
is not every experience of helming oil rig lifeboats, and by now had
day you get a
chance to see
the London Eye
from a boat. “
We had main and
mastered his new vessel’s steering. He was happy to steer
a compass course, while I spent some time gaining control
genoa out when the
of the errant boom and lashing the mainsheet back onto
VTS, the port
thunderstorm moved in to
the traveller.
control, gave
threaten us. As the wind
To add to the fun, heavy rain severely reduced visibility.
us permission It was probably the proximity of the thunderstorm that
to pass through rose above 20kts I made a caused the handheld GPS to loose its signal. This meant
the Thames
Barrier at ‘B’
move to roll the sails.
that our laptop displayed a chart with no boat on it.
passage on the
starboard side.
John was still getting used to the steering
and strayed a little to the port side. VTS
”
Fortunately the boat’s chart plotter could manage a lat and
long (if nothing else).
Bill, the seller had mentioned that the Autopilot had needed calibration, he looked a bit
concerned as he said it. We had tried it yesterday and found it steered to port when it
called us to confirm that the ‘B’ passage should be steering to starboard and vise versa. It would then sound an off course alarm and
was on the starboard side. We made the give up.
excuse of avoiding a sandbar marked on
the chart for our errant behaviour. Yachts The thunderstorm left us just before we rounded North Foreland, the wind easing down.
must pass through the barrier under power, We gained permission to enter Dover harbour around 18.30hrs, getting fuel from the dock
so once passed the barrier we unrolled the before tying up in the tidal marina.
mainsail from its in mast stowage. It proved
a little difficult to handle, with the three We had a meal ashore that evening, during which we discussed the next day’s forecast,
control lines plus the mainsheet. It had one which was cyclonic 5-6 increasing gale 8 with rain, and a moderate to rough seastate.
outhaul line and a continuous line for rolling Not really ideal for us. I proposed a day in port to avoid the rough stuff. We could usefully
and unrolling. spend the day on maintenance about the boat.
We motor sailed onwards towards the Next day, while in port we discovered various leaks in the hydraulic steering system. Bill
vehicle bridge that is part of the Thames the old owner must have known, as there were rags placed in strategic places to soak up
River Dartford crossing. Shortly after the oil. He had also epoxied closed the normal top up point for the steering pump, and
we passed under the vast bridge, the installed a gravity fed top up header tank (not recommended). He mentioned this at the
skies darkened and we were hit by a handover, and warned against overfilling. The oil level in the wheel pump should be about
thunderstorm with 30kt winds, which had half and inch below the normal filling point, which has an air breathe hole. Epoxying this
»
  JANUARY 2009 : MULTIHULL REVIEW  7
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