Enjoyed Your Sailing Blog Eyore

[Grip Fast]

Title says it really. Read it yesterday evening; interesting and well written.

Magic Calabasse is a nice looking boat too.

[eyore]

Thanks very much Glad you like it. Dunno really why I started it, kind of like a sailing log book, but glad that it has been well received , and found by far more people than I ever imagined. I suppose if I linked it into Facebook and Twitter it would get far more exposure, but I cant bear all that rubbish.
People think I am mad with an old wooden boat of that age, but these days modern boats are all so alike ,hence the derogatory term AWB (any white boat) that something with character and provenance is a rarity.
Oddly enough sailing and motorcycling have an awful lot in common other than the speed and I myself was surprised by the amount of sailing bikers there are about. Its the sense of independence, the dealing with the weather and the ability to get yourself out of trouble among other things.

[Grip Fast]

I confess that I am not a sailor (I got into flying gliders instead), but I have always enjoyed any chance to get on the sea, or river estuary; usually in a canoe.

My old school friend has a yacht that I occasionally help to crew. On the last trip, the sea state was just wrong for me, and I did the "feel sick - hope I don't die - please God, just let me die" thing. But usually it's a lot of fun.

Gliding, like riding a motorcycle, has some similarities with sailing; there must be something good about leaning over to go round corners

[eyore]

Gliding, like riding a motorcycle, has some similarities with sailing; there must be something good about leaning over to go round corners

Gliding sounds fascinating . If you are out at sea or up in the sky you can't just pull into a layby, you are stuck and have to use the wind and weather to get home. I can certainly see the similarities.

[Blackal]

Engines are your answer................

Big engines, and lots of them!





Al

[eyore]

The answer to what? That would be cheating ,I am quite happy to dawdle around waiting for the wind with the sound of silence.
Mind you I do have an ancient Perkins under the floor but we will say nothing about it.

[Blackal]

The answer to what? That would be cheating ,I am quite happy to dawdle around waiting for the wind with the sound of silence.
Mind you I do have an ancient Perkins under the floor but we will say nothing about it.

In truth - I know what you mean. Being so used to ships with engines - it is fantastic to make progress through the water - with no sound at all.

Al

[Grip Fast]

I wonder if anyone has tried fitting one of them in a bike frame, Blackal??? That would deliver some serious torque!

[Blackal]

I wonder if anyone has tried fitting one of them in a bike frame, Blackal??? That would deliver some serious torque!

They're 9,600 BHP each

[Grip Fast]

I wonder if anyone has tried fitting one of them in a bike frame, Blackal??? That would deliver some serious torque!

They're 9,600 BHP each

That'll do nicely!

[Grip Fast]

Gliding, like riding a motorcycle, has some similarities with sailing; there must be something good about leaning over to go round corners

Gliding sounds fascinating . If you are out at sea or up in the sky you can't just pull into a layby, you are stuck and have to use the wind and weather to get home. I can certainly see the similarities.

I believe a sail is similar to a wing in generating low pressure on the convex side and high pressure on the concave side.

With us, height (altitude) is fuel, and we top-up in lift (thermals or air going up a hill/mountain). When the lift runs out, we are inevitable going to end up on the ground. So quite often, we are looking for suitable fields to land in. But wind and weather and sun are all important to us.

[eyore]

They sometimes go gliding on the beach in Brandon Bay in Kerry, absolutely acres of sand at low tide , I presume the nearby mountains make a towed launch work with great thremals. if you were gliding over a flat landscape can you do a towed take off or do you need an aeroplane to bring you up?

Incidentally yes, a sail works exactly like a plane wing.

[nab 301]

interesting read , I had to research shoal draught though.... . The boat must take up all your spare time !

[Grip Fast]

Even over a flat landscape there can be plenty good lift. That comes from large pockets of warm air breaking away from the ground and rising like great invisible bubbles. We circle in those bubbles to go up with them, as do soaring birds like buzzards, eagles etc. if you are sitting in the garden on a warm sunny afternoon, you can tell that a thermal has broken free because there will be a sudden gust of cool breeze. That is the cooler surrounding air rushing in to replace the warm air bubble that in now ascending.

Depending on the weather conditions, these bubbles (thermals) can carry you up to 3,4, 5 or more thousand feet. So, to get to your question, you can be launched by a winch to say a thousand feet, which gives you a few minutes to find the first thermal to get you on your way.

Or, as I prefer, you can take a tow behind an aircraft to say 2000 feet. This costs more, but the aircraft can tow you towards favourable soaring conditions, and you have more height to search for lift.

Short question, very long answer - sorry - I can be a gliding bore.

[eyore]

Short question, very long answer - sorry - I can be a gliding bore.

Not at all,its fascinating.

Yes Nigel,there is a fair commitment required to keep any boat going, and more so with an old wooden one, but its a labour of love which I feel I owe to the previous owners of 18 and 28 years respectively and no great hardship as I have plenty of time.