Use of an autopilot on a sailboat doesn't even remotely make you a passenger.
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14 years ago
O/T: Jessica
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14 years ago
============================== She has a Fleming (One of her sponsors) mechanical servo autopilot (See servo control mounted on stern).
It is wind powered.
Electrical autopilots are just not reliable for open ocean sailing.
Hand steering a boat for extended periods is simply out of the question.
Lew
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14 years ago
--------------------------------------- Toys designed to fail in the open ocean.
Probably has radio contact with her base for scheduled check in purposes, but little else.
Sat phones are still expensive and power hungry, so usage is limited.
Lew
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14 years ago
Those toys are probably the only reason her parents are letting her do this.
Some of her sponsors are a satellite communications company Satsomethingorother, Iridium the satellite phone maker and Rutland which markets wind power generators. I would also hazard a guess that she has some solar power setup as well.
R- Vote on answer
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14 years ago
Those toys are probably the only reason her parents are letting her do this.
Some of her sponsors are a satellite communications company Satsomethingorother, Iridium the satellite phone maker and Rutland which markets wind power generators. I would also hazard a guess that she has some solar power setup as well.
--------------------------------------------- Didn't see either solar or wind power electrical regeneration on board, but an alternator on an 18 HP Yanmar would not be my choice as the primary recharging device.
Either way, communitation with home base would still be on scheduled times.
Point is there is no "Triple A" or 911 service at sea.
She obviously has spent a lot of time not only developing a well thought out game plan, but also the equipment needed and her reqired personal preparation.
Lets face it, she has been sailing since she was a rug rat, this is not just any 16 year old kid being thrown to the devil, but an experienced sailor.
Lew
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14 years ago
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:05:32 -0600, the infamous Morris Dovey scrawled the following:
Oh, yeah, most definitely. Nobody steers their own ship any more.
I remember the time a friend's dad took us down to Ensenada, B.C. Mexico in their 40' concrete-hulled fishing boat. The trip down was nice and we did some fishing. The bluefin and dorada (IIRC) were running and we were using 5-gal buckets of gory, bloody chum and something strung on a long trolling line. Anyway, they were coming right up to the boat and we were hauling them in every couple of seconds with unbarbed hooks. What a total hoot that was. I caught a nice little bonita and was happy. Everyone else said "Ewww!", but I preferred bonita to albacore at the time. We rode the autopilot down the coast and the weather was great, the seas smooth. After 2 days down there, we cruised out of Ensenada harbor and hit the really rough waves. What the hell? They were coming at a bad angle for heading north, so we headed out a couple miles. As soon as we got out there, we could hear the small craft warnings from San Diego. There was a large hurricane coming up Baja. We started heading for the States and were riding these peaks and troughs. I went up and found her dad at the helm. It was 26 or 28' over the water. What a difference that made in the rocking motion from the deck! The peaks were over our heads, even at that height. He told me not to worry, that both he and the crew member were ex-Merchant Mariners and had plenty of time in rough seas under their belts. Then he told me that the rough water had broken the auto-pilot, that the crew member was attempting a fix. He ended up manually steering all the way back. We all started thinking about the concrete hull and the 2 miles to swim in those seas if anything happened, and unsoiled shorts were not to be found anywhere on the boat. It took something like 6 hours to get back. It sure felt nice to pull into San Diego harbor's nice, calm waters.
The next ship I was on was the wooden-hulled Pilgrim. She pulled into Oceanside Harbor and was offering working 3-hour cruises for $20. I didn't even know she was going to be there so I jumped at the chance. We got to hoist the sails (that's work, guys!) and climb some of the rigging once we were at sea (a mile out.) Even in light seas, you're really moving around on that rigging. I imagine the crew in the crow's nest got extremely tired during their watches. You can do 12' circles in mild seas! If you ever get the chance to go on a sailing ship, _jump_ at it! You won't forget it. Remember, with Global Warming, we may not see much free, liquid water in the future. It may all be ice!
-- What helps luck is a habit of watching for opportunities, of having a patient, but restless mind, of sacrificing one's ease or vanity, of uniting a love of detail to foresight, and of passing through hard times bravely and cheerfully. -- Charles Victor Cherbuliez
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14 years ago
Autopilots are better than thought. GPS has really made them functional. And they are used for periods of sleep and rest. They can be checked up on from time to time - and if an off course line is taken, soon it is turned back either automatically or manually when time permits.
When I was on-island mid pacific - the island was 1.5 miles long 500 yards wide and 6 feet tall over mean high tide.
Missing it was easy.
An engineer stationed there was a blue water sailer and so was his wife. When his tour was over - she brought the sailboat from California to the date line and equator by her self. This was in the mid 60's. So GPS wasn't there - LORAN was.
Mart> "Morris Dovey" wrote:
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14 years ago
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 12:15:56 -0800, the infamous "Lew Hodgett" scrawled the following:
If so, how is her blog being filled and how are her videos getting out? Hmmm...
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14 years ago
Messenger pigeons.
R- Vote on answer
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14 years ago
If more young people had her gumption to meet a goal I'd sure feel a lot better about the future. Just nice to see someone so young driven to meet their goal.
Mike M
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14 years ago
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Trusting electrical devices in the open ocean is akin to signing your own death warrant.
Sea water, salt air and electrical devices are at best, a mixed marriage.
There isn't a whole lot of tolerance involved.
Wind vanes OTOH, do an excellent job, don't drink beer or electrical power, and don't plug up the head.
Just a few of the reasons Jessica has a Fleming wind vane.
Another might be Kevin Fleming, designer of her windvane is also an Aussie.
Had a good friend with a Mariner 40, a definite blue water ketch boat, equipped with a honking big autopilot, a medium size battery bank, and a big alternator.
I tried to warn him he needed an alternate, but he way career navy, and had the answers.
Left L/A in 1998, headed for OZ and the 2000 Olympics.
Took a green wave over the bow, on the first leg of the trip headed for Cabo, fouled out the alternator and spent 30 days bobbing around before managing to hobble into Cabo where the crew abandoned ship.
(No electricity, no engine either, thus a no wind area got them.)
Never got to OZ.
Spent far to many years in the electrical business not to realize is has rather limited reliable applications on a small boat.
Electric autopilots for day sailing is one thing, offshore is quite another.
Lew
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14 years ago
Geez, you auld fartes. She's a teenager and it's the 21st century. She's posting to her blog and putting videos on youtube. And if she's a typical singlehander she has a wind generator and solar panels--people have been circumnavigating singlehanded since 1898--this isn't something new or novel--the technology to do it is very well established.
Regardless, she's crossed the Pacific and passed through the Straights of Magellan. What have any of the folks posting here done that make them bigger experts than she is?
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14 years ago
First, many boats will steer themselves for long periods without any kind of autopilot. Second, wind-vane autopilots are nothing new--they were commercially available in the '60s. Third, modern electronic autopilots have been used successfully on many circumnavigations.
As for navigation, celestial worked fine for the Royal Navy in the late
1700s and for the US Navy in WWII. Loran and GPS and the rest are nice but one does not _need_ them. Joshua Slocum circumnavigated using dead reckoning and no autopilot. Someone attempting a nonstop circumnavigation, in any case, does not need to find places, just avoid them.- Vote on answer
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14 years ago
Ah yes, sailing "uphill" from Ensenada or even Cabo, can be a very nasty experience.
They start the sailing season here on the left coast with the "Ensenada" race in late April.
The race starts in L/A and finishes in Ensenada with some serious parting afterwards.
When it comes time to return, many captains hire an "uphill crew" to bring the boat back to L/A.
Lew
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14 years ago
On Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:40:14 -0500, the infamous "J. Clarke" scrawled the following:
Average resolution for GPS is six feet. What's the average resolution for celestial navigation, 1/2 to 1 minute? Both usable, point to GPS.
While we're here, HF has solid brass alidades for $26. now we can navigate our big backyards! And their solid brass sextants are $19.99, including a detailed 2-page product manual! Trust 'em?
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14 years ago
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:41:04 -0800, the infamous "Lew Hodgett" scrawled the following:
The small craft warning (which we couldn't hear in Ensenada Harbor) had something to do with our distress that day.
I guess the partying has something to do with the uphilliness of the whole thing, too, doesn't it?
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14 years ago
On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:56:37 -0800 (PST), the infamous RicodJour scrawled the following:
Of course. The ever-ready Antarctic Carrier Pigeon Service.
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14 years ago
-------------------------- Maybe, but a couple of days out takes care of that.
If you start from Cabo, it's almost worth sailing to Hawaii then back to the left coast just to avoid that uphill climb.
Lew
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14 years ago
If you check out her picture from the top of the mast you will see a couple of solar panels and a wind generator hanging off the stern.
Lew
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14 years ago
RE: Subject
As of 01/21/10, she as passed the Falklands and is headed for the Horn of Africa per her blog.
Even in these isolated waters word of the events in Haiti have reached her as well as getting a flyover from an RAF pilot who is probably based in the Falklands.
Lew