Marion to Bermuda live tracker

[Jim Walsh]

https://yb.tl/MBR23#
This is a link to the Marion to Bermuda live tracker for those interested in the progress of Tiara, John Ring’s Cape Dory 36, and his illustrious ocean racing crew well known to many on this forum. Fair winds and following seas, Tiara!

[Steve Laume]

Any news on what went wrong? The boys turned around to anchor in Onset. Hope everyone on board is okay and the boat is not damaged. Sailing to Bermuda is not a cake walk. There is a lot that can go wrong.

[tjr818]

All that the tracker says is " equipment failure, crew is fine"

[jbenagh]

I'll let John weigh in further if he would like but here's what I heard from him. They went out with a crew of four which was fewer than the 5 or six in prior races. The furler got jammed in squalls when the front went through Fri evening. They tried through the night to get it unstuck but were not successful. At that point they were exhausted and John decided to retire from the race.
Jeff

[John Ring]

At the start of the race, it was all sunshine & soft wind, really nice for a change beating out of Buzzards Bay in 12-15kts. We cleared Sow & Pigs about 7:00 pm, but couldn't hold the rumb line for Bermuda due to SE wind, so we slacked off a bit, reaching toward Noman's Island. After sunset the wind started to build and we were now beating into 15kts, then 20kts. When I saw 25ts, I went forward to put in a second reef in pouring rain with a large sea running. Friends of ours on the yacht Alchemy reported a gust of 50kts a few miles south of our position, but I don't think we had that much where we were. With no moon it was incredibly dark on deck. I then went to roll in some of the 140% heavy #1 racing genoa, but no luck. It wouldn't come in. I struggled, pulled, cursed, and struggled some more, eventually getting about half of the big genoa in. About this time the squall (front?) passed and wind dropped off sharply. I manged to roll up the rest of the genoa, but wind went to zero for the next twelve hours, parking us within sight of Gay Head Light on Martha's Vinyard. There was a large swell from the SE that rocked Tiara gunnel to gunnel all night long without a breath of wind.
The forecast suggested there would be another, more severe becalming event later in the week. We can generally survive one becalming in a race and still do ok, as in 2017, but being becalmed twice would ensure we didn't make the finish line in time for the big party. Also, we're really not comfortable sailing 600nm and crossing the Gulf Stream without the ability to roll up or control the genoa.
After a lot of thought and "what if" scenarios, we decided to pull the plug & retire from the race. We notified the race committee, and fired up the old Perkins, dropping the hook in Onset. We we fired up the grill and enjoyed the remarkably calm anchorage and got some rest before working our way back home.
All good,
John Ring
CD36 Tiara

[Steve Laume]

Glad to hear everyone is okay.
Being becalmed and just flopping around in larger seas is a miserable situation. I often think about people who race, when I fire up the engine and try to make some headway towards a stronger breeze. You are not doing this for some giant corporate sponsor or big prize money. If it is not going to be at least a bit of fun, then why continue? It seems like you made the right call to turn back before you invested too much in a losing game.

There is always next time, or you could just give up and enjoy cruising on a nice fast Cape Dory. Knowing when to quit is an admirable quality.

Enjoy the rest of your summer, Steve.

[John Stone]

At the start of the race, it was all sunshine & soft wind, really nice for a change beating out of Buzzards Bay in 12-15kts. We cleared Sow & Pigs about 7:00 pm, but couldn't hold the rumb line for Bermuda due to SE wind, so we slacked off a bit, reaching toward Noman's Island. After sunset the wind started to build and we were now beating into 15kts, then 20kts. When I saw 25ts, I went forward to put in a second reef in pouring rain with a large sea running. Friends of ours on the yacht Alchemy reported a gust of 50kts a few miles south of our position, but I don't think we had that much where we were. With no moon it was incredibly dark on deck. I then went to roll in some of the 140% heavy #1 racing genoa, but no luck. It wouldn't come in. I struggled, pulled, cursed, and struggled some more, eventually getting about half of the big genoa in. About this time the squall (front?) passed and wind dropped off sharply. I manged to roll up the rest of the genoa, but wind went to zero for the next twelve hours, parking us within sight of Gay Head Light on Martha's Vinyard. There was a large swell from the SE that rocked Tiara gunnel to gunnel all night long without a breath of wind.
The forecast suggested there would be another, more severe becalming event later in the week. We can generally survive one becalming in a race and still do ok, as in 2017, but being becalmed twice would ensure we didn't make the finish line in time for the big party. Also, we're really not comfortable sailing 600nm and crossing the Gulf Stream without the ability to roll up or control the genoa.
After a lot of thought and "what if" scenarios, we decided to pull the plug & retire from the race. We notified the race committee, and fired up the old Perkins, dropping the hook in Onset. We we fired up the grill and enjoyed the remarkably calm anchorage and got some rest before working our way back home.
All good,
John Ring
CD36 Tiara

Much respect John for keeping your crew and ship safe. Furlers. Damn. Every time I think I have made a smart decision to finally install one (yet to use it) I once again learn about another furler malfunction offshore.

Glad everyone is OK. Sometimes you have to live to fight another day. Best regards.

[John Ring]

Update:
I'm starting to think my furler failure was operator error. It's a brand new Harken MkIV that I just installed a few months ago, complete with halyard restrainer on the mast to keep the jib/genoa halyard from wrapping the swivel/foil up top. I'm thinking it was actually the spinnaker halyard that got wrapped at/near the top swivel, and prevented me from rolling in. I'll send the drone up there to film while I try to recreate the failure while on my mooring this week, but I'm thinking that's what the problem was.
The solution is to be sure a restrainer is installed on the mast to keep the jib/genoa halyard back a bit from the headstay/foil, but also be sure to keep the spinnaker halyards well away from the furler's top swivel too. I had the spinnaker halyards running straight down the front of the mast, way too close to the top of the furling gear. A better solution is to take both ends of the spinnaker halyard, flip them out & aft of the cap shrouds, and secure both ends to the aft side of the mast or handrails along the cabin top just aft of the mast for storage when not flying the spinnaker.
Best,
John Ring
CD36 Tiara

[Jim Walsh]

Update:
I'm starting to think my furler failure was operator error. It's a brand new Harken MkIV that I just installed a few months ago, complete with halyard restrainer on the mast to keep the jib/genoa halyard from wrapping the swivel/foil up top. I'm thinking it was actually the spinnaker halyard that got wrapped at/near the top swivel, and prevented me from rolling in. I'll send the drone up there to film while I try to recreate the failure while on my mooring this week, but I'm thinking that's what the problem was.
The solution is to be sure a restrainer is installed on the mast to keep the jib/genoa halyard back a bit from the headstay/foil, but also be sure to keep the spinnaker halyards well away from the furler's top swivel too. I had the spinnaker halyards running straight down the front of the mast, way too close to the top of the furling gear. A better solution is to take both ends of the spinnaker halyard, flip them out & aft of the cap shrouds, and secure both ends to the aft side of the mast or handrails along the cabin top just aft of the mast for storage when not flying the spinnaker.
Best,
John Ring
CD36 Tiara

Glad to hear you and the crew made it back safely.

I’ve seen several boats with the spinnaker halyard flipped aft of the spreaders as you described. I chose to install a pair of rings, to act as as an attachment point, to the forward-most section of my bow pulpit, with the tails running down the mast to their respective cleats. Since this is my first season with an asymmetrical and the associated rigging I will find out if this was a good decision, or not, by trial and error.

[Steve Laume]

I have had issues with the spinnaker halyard/furler. I now take, both ends, of my spinnaker halyard to my pin rails on the shrouds. You could take them down to a stanchion base as well. I would not feel comfortable with the possibility of chafing where the halyard wraps around a cap shroud. It is amazing, what will eat through a line, when given some time offshore.

I hope your problem is that simple and you can get it sorted out. Problems with the furler only seem to happen when it is blowing hard and you really need to wrap it up, Steve.

[John Ring]

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While it was good advice, the spinnaker halyard may have been wrongly accused. I pulled the spinnaker halyard down and it was clean, no scars at all. A closer look at the roller furler's top swivel tells an entirely different story that does not involve spinnaker halyards. That first image clearly shows metal on metal contact on the swivel and a torn out spring clip on top. I'm now thinking the clusterf#k of shackles on the swivel itself is to blame for jamming the system. The second small shackle was there to accommodate an old halyard snap shackle that was too large to clip on without rubbing the swivel, so I flipped it 90* by adding a second small shackle to the swivel top - bad idea.
The solution was to toss the old halyard in favor of a smaller halyard with a smaller snap shackle, and ditch the second small bow shackle on the swivel. This looked better, but I soon realized the single small bow shackle on the upper swivel allows me to remove smaller snap shackle too. After replacing the damaged spring clip, and cutting away the new smaller snap shackle on the new halyard, the result is a much cleaner looking top swivel. This really should resolve the jamming issue, and the spinnaker halyard is hereby acquitted.
Best,
John Ring
CD36 Tiara