Time to start again and a new direction

In true boring blogger fashion, this online diary now has a new direction to follow.

Since the last time a lot has changed and we now have a new home and, in particular a new boat.

Sarah Giddings is a beautiful dark blue Rival 34. As well as now having our dream boat (or as close as it gets anyway) we are also down to enter the 2011 Azores and Back Race starting from Falmouth on 04 June 2011.

This should be a chance to keep a diary of the run up to this auspicious event.

The entry was easy enough but the rules have started to prove a bit onerous. These sorts of race are classified as Offshore Class I by the International Sailing Federation which means you have to comply with a whole raft of rules and such like. Most of this is non contentious and is all good sense. Fundamentally, you have to have a soundly build seaworthy boat that is capable of completing the event in which you are entered.

There is however one bit that is causing me a lot of annoyance and others as well I think. Basically, there has been an update to the ISAF Class I rules which states that the carrying of an AIS transponder is now obligatory rather than merely recommended. While AIS is probably going to be a very good thing and I have been thinking about fitting a receiver I do not feel that sending broadcasts of your speed, course and such like is going to be of much use in the middle of the Atlantic. The expense is considerable with £500 odd for a transponder. Then, there is currently no way for me to display the AIS data on any of my instruments so we are looking at an upgrade of the radar or fitting a new plotter - all of which will cost quite a lot of money :-(

Anyway, I will endeavour to keep updates of how things go here.

At present, Sarah G is laid up at Emsworth and we have a bunch of more mundane work to do.

The big project is to get the antifoul stripped off and coppercoat applied as we had very good experiences with this on Kemara. The zinc anode needs attention, the guard wires need adjusting or some such so that they are not so slack. Finally, we are going to refurbish and fit the Aries windvane that she came with. I hope that is all we have to do this year though.