The Roaring 40s on a 30 Foot Sailboat - Episode 170
Those of you that followed along on the live tracking link would have seen that we were making good time as we left Southern Tasmania. This episode shows the ups and downs of the first half of our trip to South Australia. The video doesn't show it very well but we had a 2 and half meter south-west swell and 3 to 3 and a half meter north-easterly sea. The result was quite often we had one of these waves steepen up and climb aboard. Mirrool handled it well but it was quite a wet ride indeed.
Thank you all for making these videos possible.
Your friends, Troy and Pascale.
The Roaring 40s on a 30 foot Sailboat - Free Range Sailing Ep 170 (YouTube)
Comments (39)
Thanks Pascale - was not a very clever question was it?
Hallo guys ! Great video again -thank you - Is it possible to point me to the live track link please? Or if anybody else can help it will be greatly appreciated- thanks Louis
Hi Louis. We put that link up at the start of our voyage to Perth so it is no longer active since we have arrived, but you can go to the website and see exactly where we went. https://www.clientsat.com.au/sv-mirrool-free-range-sailing/
That was exhilarating!
What a great episode. You two are amazing. Came for the sailing stayed for the awesomeness 👏👏👏👏👏
Great sailing guys! I really enjoyed watching your heavy weather abilities!
Pasky’s editing make it look like a wonderful trip, but you can’t fool us old blokes mate. That was a rough ride. I’ll bet you loved putting your boat to the test after all that work. All smiles I bet.
Yes, she couldn't edit out the bags growing under the eyes but successfully removed a few ungentlemanly phrases!
Hi Troy & Pascale... Great video.. Quick question..Mirools anchor locker has no drains and the access is through the V-Berth ... Our Clanny is October 1971 and came with a self draining anchor plugs to the external hull not the bilge and a access hatch through the deck and the v-berth access sealed.... I always wondered if was factory or after market . I can send some photos if you like?
Our locker was modified to give greater fall for an anchor windlass so it ends up under the waterline. We used to be able to plug it with an expansion plug but this hawse is not round and of a very irregular shape. We have made a nice Sunbrella cover that performs quite well.
Great to see all the systems are working well after your refit guys. Mirrool certainly performs well is those conditions. Troy - What do you keep in the white bag attached under the boom?
That boom back is for halyards and reefing lines. Also a bit of PVC pipe I use to tweak up loose shroud purchases whole bedding in the rigging.
Brings to mind non-stop riding a Brahma bull at a rodeo ! Certainly get plenty of exercise for all your muscle groups while under way .
A bull under an agricultural sprinkler!
Nice! Good lesson on the anchor locker but I think Capers is isolated with her own drain. I am particularly interested in the cutter rig. Capers has a deck attachment at about the same location. She also was rigged for a spinnaker. I wonder if I could rig a cutter off that point? Understand a rigger would check the connection point. But that would help on the really windy PNW days.
Yes, a rigger taking a look below sounds prudent. Our reinforcement is a metal bracket spreading the load on a 1" thick bit of wood under deck and picking up the forward bulkhead as well. Plenty of strength there.
You two are amazing, I'm scared getting out of Brisbane Waters on the Central Coast let alone that passage from Tazmania, you did so well. That boat is beautiful now and wow can it perform.
Oh, we had some of our wildest sailing getting to Gosford and even in the river mouth separating Gosford from Pittwater. Perhaps the Clansman design to be suited to that region makes her capable in most seas!
Wow! That looked like tough conditions! But Mirrool looks just fantastic sailing through the heavy seas and strong wind! Disconcerting to have so much water pouring into the chain locker, and very little sleep between pumping it out! I envy Mirrool's tracking going with wind and seas. My little boat puts up a heck of a fuss in conditions like that, and will hardly track at all!
Yes, we paid the price for the loss of the winch cover but we will address that today to keep the water out of the locker. It isn't such a big deal normally but Mirrool really punched through the seas on that point of sail and shipped a lot of water. Her traditional hull shape really is very safe in a sea and as well as tracking well, has never slammed no matter what we are in. A very nice compromise between comfort and performance.
I'm back to finish from 12:30. I have watched 100's of hours of sailing over the years, and the second half of this had me ... my internal gyro was firing as if I was there on board, I felt the adrenaline spikes, and the end balanced hands off ride. Brilliant. ✍️)
Haha, yes Pascy was complaining of motion sickness when sorting some of the footage :)
Very encouraging to see the rig perform well like that. I would have watched this episode sooner but I had to go to dinner with some odd people last night :-)
Yes, some strange things aboard Mirrool.
Mirrool looks beautiful after all the hard work you put into the refit! And the new rigging and sails seem to make her very manageable in heavier weather. Congratulations on a successful first trip.
Thanks Greg and yes, she rewarded our efforts by looking after us when the sea got a bit wild. We felt quite safe out there and made some great time.
Stellar performance for the new “Old Girl”! You are artists with your Marrool refit! Dealing with new projects, but my new auto helm and solar panels are working well. I need to increase my battery bank and rewire the newly replaced wind generator and deal with some other wiring issues. I have the same issues with the anchor locker. I’ll be moving my anchorage in a few days to provision, top up diesel & water and get with some local cruisers to hopefully find a crew-mate.
Sounds good Doc. We didn't show it but we connected our wind genny to the boats wiring with an Anderson Plug rated for 50 Amps so it could be easily removed for cleaning/service. It may be something to consider with the upcoming work?
I guess that was a fine "shake down" sail! It was almost too exciting for this landlubber ;-)
We were relieved that none of the major systems showed any failures and the odd thing that needed to be sorted put waited till the light of day to demand attention. We were both a lot more vigilant for the first signs of failure than usual because everything had been in pieces so recently!
There's that big check mark in the track that has to have it's own exciting story, hahahaha 🤣😂😁 Great video again!
It will be revealed in the next episode but it is not a point of too much drama...
Refreshing in more ways than 1 !!
Thanks guys, good effort. That was a lot of hard work. And more to come on the next part I suspect. How you prepare for that effort would be an interesting subject...going from slumming about on land, getting 6-8 hours of sleep, 3 squares, to 24/7 boat ops in choppy seas. Anyway, best wishes.
We were actually pretty tired going into that passage because of the pace of getting the boat ready and meeting our various obligations but I think that is pretty commonplace for sailors going on a long voyage. As we said before, the biggest thing was being aware that our natural anticipation of the ship's movements would be dulled by time on land but it came back quicker than expected.
It's 3:30 am... and I have been meaning to take a swan dive into bed for the last 3 hours... so what's a few more minutes to say that I've made it to the 12:30 point and absolutely loved this video so far. Troy I could feel the both of you steering the feedback from the tiller enjoying the surge surfing down the following waves...barefoot.......It just doesn't get any better!!! Thanks Mate..my dreams are going to be awesome. ✍️ ))) Good-Night 😴 I'll finish watching when I wake up. ** BINK **
Cheers Robert. Hope you got some sleep because during the filming it was hard to come by! That said, we did have some very exhilarating sailing and affirmation of our refit choices.
Great episode, great sailing at least during daylight. The wind always feels & sounds stronger at night. Looking forward to the next episode...no pressure :)
Yes, those moonless nights on a moody sea can play on your imagination. We were very happy that Mirrool tended herself through the worst night and that there was no shipping.