{"id":2300,"date":"2008-06-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=2300"},"modified":"2009-04-15T08:51:51","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T13:51:51","slug":"s_logs-dashew-dashew514","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/s_logs-dashew-dashew514\/","title":{"rendered":"View from the Bridge: Visibility Tips for Yachts from a Ship Captain"},"content":{"rendered":"
In Lunenberg the Dashews met Evans & Becky Hoyt. They’re world cruisers, and Evans is also the captain of a 1000-foot passenger liner. Here’s an interview with Evans about how to maximize your boat’s visibility from the bridge of a ship – plus, details about their own fascinating sailboat equipped for long-distance high-latitude cruising.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Becky<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

We met Evans and Becky Hoyt in Lunenberg, Nova Scotia. In the small world of distance voyagers, we had a number of friends in common. They have a fascinating boat, aboard which they have cruised far and wide for the past 25 years (more about this later).<\/p>\n

What we want to concentrate on first is Evan’s background as a ship captain – his current gig is a 1000 foot long (300m) passenger liner – and his comments on ship watchkeeping and staying visible from a yacht. His perspective is unique because it combines experience at both ends of the size spectrum.<\/p>\n

We’ll start with Evans’ comments on bridge personnel.<\/p>\n

"Typical commercial ship at sea bridge manning would be a deck officer and a quartermaster (lookout). Under some flags it is not uncommon to see the quartermaster sent down to work on deck with a radio to be on call in daylight and clear weather. At night both deck officer and quartermaster would be up there with the quartermaster more focused on the visual lookout and the deck officer at the radar and navigating the vessel. It is not uncommon, depending on the company and trade that the deck officer will be doing some administrative tasks on watch in clear weather. In pilotage waters (on approach to port or in close navigation, for instance,) the watch would be augmented by the Master and perhaps one other officer and all would be focused on the navigation of the vessel. <\/p>\n

"Passenger vessels are a little different with the luxury of increased manning. Many mainstream companies have two officers (a senior and junior watch officer) and a seaman at sea and one to three additional officers when in pilotage waters."<\/p>\n

And what does the norm tend to be on the second and third world ships?<\/p>\n

"The norm might not be so different than the first world ships. Oversight, however, can be more limited and crewing and economic pressures sometimes result in ships which are substandard in manning levels and operations. There are cases where the deck officer may lay below and leave a lookout to call if he sees anything. There are also the urban legends of ships with no one on the bridge. It may happen, but this would be, luckily, a very rare occurrence. Coasters and tugs often have a Captain and Mate standing a challenging six hour on and six hour off solo watch schedule."<\/p>\n

To make a small yacht more visible, what do you suggest?<\/p>\n

"Orange paint at the top two meters of the mast helps. We have an international orange storm staysail for rough weather. The upper panel of the main or foresail having color would be even more visible when those sails are set. Essentially any color other than white or dark colors will help. Most times a sailboat will be seen, it will be from a higher elevation with the sea as the background. With breaking waves around you, white tends to blend in. Color definitely helps. For instance, if you could stomach canary yellow sails and hull, it would definitely have the best chance of being seen. Smoke is a good daytime emergency signal.<\/p>\n

"A powerful flashlight on a sail at night is the best and simplest tool I know of to illuminate a yacht at night. I do not recommend a strobe unless you are in distress. If you set off a strobe light, you have a very good chance of causing a ship to change course towards you as they would look upon it as an emergency signal. A VHF radio close at hand is always good around traffic. A SART radar transponder would also get a ship’s attention as a last resort (with the same downside as a strobe as it is an emergency signal). <\/p>\n

"In areas where you are dealing with multiple ships, chances are much better that you have been seen. In that situation, there is also a good possibility that they are committed to a course of action by other vessels and the channels they are in (not always apparent from a 10-foot height of eye aboard your yacht). A solitary ship far offshore may have less chance of seeing you, but should also be a small hazard to a boat which is keeping a watch. Remember that a sailboat nav light is a small illumination at sea. You have to be proactive about staying clear. Ships watches will also not always understand the limitations on a sailing yacht imposed by winds or seas."<\/p>\n

And now to their yacht.<\/p>\n

\"Finnrose<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Becky and Evans have lived aboard a Finnrose 45 since 1983. In this time they have cruised the US East Coast, Atlantic Islands, around Europe from the Med to the West Coast of Ireland. They have also circumnavigated South America, from Brazil, through Tierra del Fuego, and back to the East Coast of the US via the Panama Canal.<\/p>\n

Their Finnrose 45, of which only eight were built, is a fascinating design by Angus Primrose, with what must have been a lot of assistance from very experienced cruisers. She is undoubtedly a motor-sailor, with a six cylinder Perkins and thousand mile range under power. <\/p>\n

\"Finnrose<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

With her high freeboard, smallish rig, and fixed prop she is not going to be fast in light airs or to weather, but she will get you there. And she can do it under sail or power. There is an inside steering station, huge amounts of storage, and a very clever interior layout.<\/p>\n

Waterline length is 38 feet (12m) beam is 14.5′ ( 4.15m) and draft is six feet (1.8M0. She carries 250 US gallons of water and fuel (the Hoyts figure 1000 miles of range under power).<\/p>\n

When we visited aboard, time was short, as they were getting ready to head out on a cruise, so we only took photos of a few details. If you ever get a chance to look at one of these boats, do so. They have a very nice interior layout.<\/p>\n

\"propane<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

A couple of things which caught our eye. First, an instantaneous propane water heater in the shower. It has a vented flue, and its own gas shut off valve. Risks with this would be similar to the stove, and to our way of thinking acceptable (assuming propane was turned off when not in use). This is light, and simple.<\/p>\n

\"dish<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

Next, dish storage above the sink, with drains through the cabinet bottom so that dishes can be put away wet, and then drip onto the stainless sink counter below.<\/p>\n

\"shorefast<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

And finally, the nicest shorefast rope handling reels we have seen. These lines are used in anchorages where it is too deep to get a good bite and the wind is often off the land – as in Tierra del Fuego. The stainless reel is a simple design, with a standard winch handle used to rotate the drum. The Hoyts had four of these in Tierra del Fuego, but have two aboard now.<\/p>\n

Comments about the Evans’ boat, sent by the designer after he read this article (added July 7, 2008)…<\/h3>\n

I enjoyed your piece about the Finrose 45. Took me back a bit! I worked for Angus Primrose for a number of years before I worked at S&S, and I did all the drawings for that boat. She was build by Turun Viviestamo in Turku, Finland. An interesting sideline (for 1970\/71) is that I supplied no offsets, but the careful ink tracing was projected off a high rolling tower full size onto the loft floor. The owner supposed a lot of the “clever detail” was supplied by advisors. The drawings included the layout and arrangement but the yard incorporated a lot of their own detailing. However that was simply the contractual scope of supply on the design budget. Make no mistake Angus was a highly original thinker, particularly with layouts, and a highly experienced and capable sailor to boot. <\/p>\n

You and Linda really seem to be enjoying your “motor” cruising! <\/p>\n

Best Regards, Angelo <\/p>\n

Angelo Lavranos – Lavranos Marine Design – 33 Jellicoe Rd, Murray’s Bay, Auckland, New Zealand <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Lunenberg the Dashews met Evans & Becky Hoyt. They’re world cruisers, and Evans is also the captain of a …Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}