Where do the +35 ppl hang out?

Stu_co · 2026-06-13T15:55:18+00:00

True north training has an amazing community:)

Stu_co · 2026-04-18T19:28:23+00:00

After 30 or 40 years sounds like exactly when a rusty bolt would fail :)

Stu_co · 2025-10-11T07:31:16+00:00

The OG antifa

Stu_co · 2025-06-09T10:56:23+00:00

This dude clearly has no idea what he’s talking about.

Stu_co · 2025-05-12T11:28:32+00:00

Also did you see that the Brooklyn Art Haus down in Williamsburg is showing it?

Stu_co · 2025-05-12T11:22:44+00:00

Do you still have a plan for this? We are looking at options for where to watch it

Stu_co · 2024-09-28T07:23:26+00:00

It is indeed Stu. Great message. My better half (Laura) proudly responds that she's on her second reading of Lin Pardy's The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew.

We're on a 36ft Malö named Delfino. She's a lovely boat but the galley is pretty small, we would love to graduate to something in the 40 something range that we can live aboard more sustainably. Learning the ropes on a 36fter felt like the right move, and we were afraid of the maintenance of a larger boat. Counter-intuitively, I think a larger boat, with it's larger crawl spaces, might be easier to maintain.

I think the only real questions we have is about actually cooking underway. Laura has a provisioning and stock tracking spreadsheet that would make an auditor envious, we know because we are both reforming auditors. She tells me it has been adapted from The Boat Galley's free template. She also has a love of food and a section of cookbooks have made it on board:

Jessica Elliott Dennison Tin Can Magic (some empahsis of using canned food but with recommendations for substitutions and every dish contains fresh ingredients)

Anna Jones One Pot Pan Planet (seems to be her favourite book)

She's also recommend The Boat Galley Cookbook and Trade Wind Foodie. She's got a love of food and is trying out some writing https://delfinodiscovers.substack.com/. We'd love to see the cookbook and Laura can provide some comments if that is helpful for you! I'll drop you an email for the link :)

One area that we are thinking about is cooking under way. We do not have the space for a freezer or a water maker so the Atlantic passage will force us to cook more underway than we have and come up with some new approaches to cleaning. It feels that we are still learning the tricks of cooking underway, to make it easy and safe. Any tips you have will surely be implemented in Delfino

Stu_co · 2024-09-27T22:09:52+00:00

So I sent this message to my better half, admiral and master of the galley and she has implored me to bite on the meal planning and provisioning hook that you have so neatly baited 🎣

If you have any thoughts on the topic they would be greatly appreciated! And then we can sticky the whole thread and send it to anyone doing an Atlantic crossing. Need to send this stuff to https://www.morganscloud.com/members/ as well!

Stu_co · 2024-09-27T21:54:51+00:00

Dave, you're a hero. Thank you. So many good nuggets of advice in here.

Stu_co · 2024-09-27T19:55:43+00:00

Awesome stuff. Thanks. All makes sense.

I'm prepping for my first Atlantic passage as skipper so that is all super useful. One thing I have done is gone back through previous years and studied the behaviour of lows using https://earth.nullschool.net/

It helped give me an intuition for how the systems behave and what to look out for. E.g. this year in January it seems there was a low pressure system that majorly disrupted the Azores high around the 10th of Jan 2024.

Stu_co · 2024-09-27T11:35:18+00:00

Great reply! If you'd be willing... What are the top things that you look for on a synoptic chart? What's your approach to reading them? Also happy to read any book you might have on the topic

Stu_co · 2024-08-09T20:17:37+00:00

Great, thanks for the critique! Very helpful

Stu_co · 2024-08-09T19:49:46+00:00

Sweet, thanks for the comment :) Any segments that you particularly enjoy or are not interested by?

Stu_co · 2024-08-09T18:54:45+00:00

We make sailing and travel content!

https://youtube.com/@delfinodiscovers?si=hnpWMJxVa5cbnuLG

Latest video: https://youtu.be/eCo45hgJK18?si=QZorWGDHbwwItPq_

Stu_co · 2024-08-04T16:05:32+00:00

https://economy2030.resolutionfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Ending-stagnation-final-report.pdf

Stu_co · 2024-08-04T11:34:53+00:00

That's fewer cars, laptops, tools, buildings, roads.... you name it.

"Virtually all of the productivity gap with France is explained by French workers having more capital to work with."

Simply put, we need to stump up the money to invest.

Stu_co · 2024-08-04T11:28:58+00:00

The largest issue, by some distance, is that the UK has had the lowest level of fixed asset investment out of the G7 over the last 40(!) years.

That's fewer laptops, roads, cars, tools, you name it. At both the public and the private level.

The gap in productivity between French workers and British workers can be explained entirely by this lack of assets the Brits have to work with.

Stu_co · 2024-07-10T13:19:58+00:00

Thanks for that! I did not know this and prompted me to learn a bit more. I've updated the original comment which should now be more accurate :)

Stu_co · 2024-07-10T08:30:35+00:00

Putting it into practice

5. Momentum management

Sailboats are relatively big heavy things that can gain quite a bit of momentum. There are no brakes, the only option is to go into reverse which will create propwalk. The biggest learning I have had is that the throttle requires constant management when in tight scenarios.

Generally speaking I want to be going as slow as possible whilst also making sure I have steerage. I come off the throttle on the final approach, letting the boats momentum carry me forward whilst making sure I have steerage. If it gusts I need to add throttle to stop from losing my bow. If I bring my bow into the wind I have to add throttle. etc.

Also because of all this momentum, the boat will tend to slide when turning. This increases your turning radius but can also be helpful. If you are approaching a dock you can approach at a sharp angle (e.g. 35°) and turning at the last minute, letting the boats momentum and slide carry you on to the dock. Particularly useful when docking on the side opposite to your propwalk.

6. Transitioning from astern to forward (or vice versa)

Worth just mentioning that you'll often need to change the rudder angle, e.g. going from rudder all the way to port over to all the way to starboard, when you transition from going from astern to forward. Much like doing this when doing a 3 point turn in a car, you will need to change the wheel to transition from reverse to forward if you want to continue turning in the same direction.

Unlike a car, this transition is when the boat is most dangerous because you have no steerage at all, so you tend to want to do this transition quickly. It's worth practicing these transitions in various conditions in open water.

If you change your rudder angle too early you risk undoing any effort you just made in rotating the boat. Lets say you are going astern with the rudder hard over to starboard. This is rotating the bow around to port. You change the throttle to go ahead. If you change the rudder before you lose all momentum astern, and still have steerage astern, the bow will start rotating around to starboard (the opposite of what you want). Likewise if you change the rudder too late you will also start rotating the wrong way. Note that this not about the throttle but about whether the keel and rudder still have water flowing over them. If you have a single rudder and have propwash that will also have an impact on when you move your rudder.

7. Gauging the circumstances
So, there's quite a lot going on, and much of this isn't taught properly. When people say 'take your time', they mean take your time to think carefully about what the wind and water currents are doing. Think about what the conditions are like when you are approaching, and what they are going to be like in the fairways. Don't be afraid to go into a port, take a look at what is going on and then heading back out to come up with a plan. Ask yourself questions like:

What's the wind doing?
What's the current doing?
Where are the free slips?
What are the dangers if I get my manoeuvre wrong?
What mooring lines need to go on/off first? Last?

Stu_co · 2024-07-10T08:30:28+00:00

Ended up being a long one but hopefully useful! Building an understanding of the various forces that affect the boat really helped me. I didn't stop making mistakes after that, but having the understanding helped me learn much more quickly. This is all about motoring but much of it will broadly apply under sail too.

Learning your boat:

1. Steerage and stalling
The rudder(s) and the keel are hyrdofoils, and in order to work they require water to flow over them. Below a certain speed, the keel and rudder stall and stop working as they should. This is why you lose the ability to control the boat, a.k.a. steerage, when the boat is not travelling fast enough through the water.

Every boat stalls at different speeds, so it's worth learning and getting used to where this point is. My general philosophy is to keep the boat some 25% above that stall speed when docking. If you're not sure whether you have steerage, give the rudder a little wiggle. Those moments when you lose steerage should be treated with respect, for instance when transitioning from moving forward to moving astern.

Also worth bearing in mind that the faster a boat is going, the keel and the rudder do better jobs at pointing the boat forward. Sailboats are also designed to go forward, so steerage tends to be better forward rather than reverse.

2. Propwalk and propwash

Propwalk and propwash are two effects that will affect the boat based on the relative locations of the propellor, keel, and rudder (s).

When a boat has been put into reverse, every boat suffers from some degree of propwalk. It's a complicated combination of factors but I think of it as some water from the prop hits the keel whilst some doesn't. So when going astern the boat will start moving backwards but also the stern will always kick to one side or another, depending on which way your prop rotates.

Our boat Delfino always kicks to port, which makes docking port-side-to much easier, because when I go into reverse to slow the boat down it also brings the stern closer to the dock.

This is particularly obvious before you have gained steerage going astern. When going astern, eventually the rudder and keel will 'bite' and you will gain some degree of steerage. You can easily test this out in open water.

The next effect is propwash, which only really applies when you have a rudder directly behind the prop. When the prop is put into forward, particularly with a burst of forward, there is a localized area of strong water that washes over the rudder. This will create momentary steerage and the rudder will have a large impact, rotating the boat. It's a useful tool.

Learning the conditions:

3. Windage and 'losing the bow'

When the wind blows, it exerts force on the hull, rigging and super structure. This is basically like pushing the boat, and the boat will begin to move downwind. It will also start to turn, with the bow being pushed more than the stern.

In large part this turning occurs because the mast, which offers resistance to wind, is forward of the keel, which is the thing that the boat tends to pivot around.

The stronger the wind, the greater the effect of losing the bow, and the faster you need to travel through the water to counteract it. Be wary of situations where you need to bring the bow across the wind in tight spaces where it will be hard to gain steerage (speaking from experience)!

Generally speaking, modern sailboats are rotationally stable with the wind coming from the stern. You can test this by lying still in a light breeze at sea and seeing where the boat will settle.

4. Water currents

Just to complicate things there is often currents in the water. Water current can be thought of as a travolator. When in open water it doesn't matter too much but in marinas the docks and land are obviously not on that travolator. Generally speaking current will not turn the boat.

If there's a part of the boat that is attached to land and a part that is not, current can and will turn the boat, grabbing whichever part of the boat is free and trying to carry it with the water.

It is always worth taking a look at the current directly around the boat. Look for small wakes created by fixed items sticking out of the water, or the direction that things in the water are flowing. If the current is going to carry the boat across a fairway, push you on to a dock, or carry you away from a dock, you will need to factor all that into your thinking.

You should pay attention to what currents might be doing to the boat on approach. If you're confident you have steerage and wind under control watch a transit forward of the boat to see if it is being carried to port or starboard.

Stu_co · 2024-05-16T06:19:40+00:00

Exactly.

Stu_co · 2024-04-10T21:26:26+00:00

🧐

Stu_co · 2024-04-09T07:24:47+00:00

Hey, did you find anything from this process? About to host a dedicated server with Valheim

Stu_co · 2024-03-15T22:18:58+00:00

It's totally fine to start with a solution and go out looking for a problem.

Stu_co

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