ORCV Safety at Sea

I'm inclined to see your point!

Over the weekend, a number of boats got very inclined to meet the new stability rules and underwent inclination and freeboard measurements to prove it.

The water walks the plank.

Six yachts arrived at Melbourne's Docklands on Sunday, which turned out to be an ideal spot with its large floating marina, clear space to manoeuvre boats and gear, flat water and virtually NO WIND!

Get your gear off! Boats are virtually empty for the tests.

Yachts are virtually empty for this test. Each yacht then fixes two spinnaker poles so they are perpendicular, at full length from the beamiest part of the yacht. A  halyard at the pole's tip takes the weights that are then affixed to the ends.  Several water filled drums with total weights of up to 90kg were deployed for the larger yachts, which are then inclined with these weights on one side and then the other. A series of sample measurements is taken for each inclination. The yachts are certainly not pulled over to any extent. The amount of heel may only be two to five degrees.

The team managed to crank through three yachts in the first three hours. That is pretty cool as all the gear has to be arrnaged and the measurements taken. Importantly, the weather managed to last that long as well! We did this once with 'Helsal II' and it took at least two hours.

The measurer was John Duffin, who can be seen in the pictures. The computer is attached to an inclinometer device on the deck of the yacht via some very long leads. The inclinomoter is a box about the size of a couple of cigarette packs (not that we condone smoking any way, shape or form!)

You can read the YA approved 'Bible' on stability HERE (well it's more like the Exec Summary actually...)

Flat water (no flat whites around by the looks of it) was the order of the day and graciously received...

It's always Safety First at the ORCV!!!

By Don Fraser and John Curnow