Blogging again

Haven't been blogging for almost a year now. The last post was on the crossing to Lowestoft in England. We managed to set to sea the morning after we were surposed to leave. However the waives were still extremely high and the sea was rough. We managed about an hour out of IJmuiden after which we didn't feel comforable enough to ride it for another 23 hours and then returning for 24 hours of the same.
We decided to turn back. After coming back into port and we reported in to the organizing comittee. It turned out two yachts had sunk that night, one of which was in our club and attempting the same crossing. It got hit by a freighter in the night. Everyone was resqued after a while in the liferaft.
A good decision on our part! We turned to the IJsselmeer and had a fantastic week of sailing to Hindeloopen, Enkhuizen, Stavoren and some other ports. Great fun!!!
I will try to keep blogging this season :-)

Looks like it's going to be a rough crossing

Still keeping a close eye on the weater. It looks like it's going to be a bit rough. They are predicting about 20-24 knots of wind so that's about a 7. If this stays on we may have to delay for a couple of hours in IJmuiden but we can't delay for too long. If we stay in IJmuiden too long we will arrive in Lowestoft in the dark. This is possible but not favorable. In front of the cost are the Holm Sands and we have to pick up the south holm cardinal boy that marks the beginning of the stanford channel behind the banks. If you miss this you may end up on the sands, as my dad has experienced years ago. So we would like to arrive in the daylight but we also want to have a calm crossing. A bit of a catch 22. We'll figure it out when we arrive in IJmuiden.
Tomorrow is Koninginnedag, a big festive party in Holland. We are going to sell some old junk and I have arranged to meet at the marina at 16.00 hours. We leave at 17.00 for amsterdam and IJmuiden.
Will keep you posted!
Cheers
Nick

Ready to go!

She FLOATS!! Two weeks ago Dannick was refloated and set back into her bearth in Muiden. While she was on dryland I polished the heck out of her so you need to wear sunglasses as not to be blinded by her shiny topsides.

I have mouted all her sails and have made everything in order for the first real trip of the season. All her provisions have been restocked so there is plenty of booze and today I have filled her diesel tanks.

The weather for the trip looks alright. We are leaving in the evening of the 30th and there is a low forcast just over the UK with strong winds near landsend. Hope they stay there. Further up the channel at the height of our crossing, winds of around 15-23 knots are forcast. Lets hope the waives are low. It looks a bit rainy but that's not going to stop us. This is the GRIB file for the 30th at 18.00 hours:

Still lying high and dry

She is still lying indoors, her hull and topsides clean and polished, fresh antifouling below the waterline... Just waiting for her first dive in the cold spring water! She can't wait, just like me!

Cheers
Nick

Updating links

I am continualy updating the links sections on the left of this blog with interesting and relevant links to sites that are related to sailing, dufour, my sailingclubs, races, weather or other yachting related stuff. I like to use this myself als a bookmark to other pages I frequent. Don't forget to check to see if there is something in here you like!

Cheers
Nick

Muiden - Lowestoft - Muiden

On the 30th of April we are leaving for Lowestoft. Here is a quick snapshot of our projected route! Click on the image for a better, more detailed overview.


Cheers

Nick

Zilt TV at the Hiswa Boatshow

Part 1


Part 2

Preparing for Fastnet 2009

I have one great wish in the racing arena (well maybe two) and that is to sail the Fastnet Race. This is the titan of races in the northern hemisphere. Together with a friend I am preparing a campaign to see if this is something that can be realized. Also to find out if I will enjoy such a long time at sea racing.
The plan is not do sail in Dannick but in my friend Johan's yacht Sundance II which is a C&C designed Baltic 42. We are now mustering a crew and are going to do some preparation races. The main prep race will be the Colin Archer Memorial Race to be sailed in july. This is a 4 day challenge of around 400 NM. We have to sail this as a requirement for the Fastnet. Also Johan is and some other of the fastnet and camr crew will be sailing the Vuurschepenrace and the NorthSea Race in preparation.

To get Sundance ready and fit for these challenges Johan is repairing some old damage including removing the keel. This is an exciting thing to see!

Also he has ordered new sails, an E-PIRB and navigational equipment. All in all it's looking to be a great project! I will probably make a separate blog for this project!

Start of the season in sight

The buzz has started! Getting ready for a fantastic 2008 sailing season!

We have registered for the "Hemelvaartstocht" to Lowestoft. This year will be the first time I will officially enter in the organized trip to Lowestoft.

The idea is to take Dannick to IJmuiden where from where we will start on the 30th of April in the evening. We hope to arrive in Lowestoft in the afternoon of the 1st. The trip back will be on the 3rd. This time my uncle Philip and cousin Mark will crew together with my dad Dan. Mark and Philip will come from the UK, sail back to Lowestoft on Dannick and sail back to Muiden and head back to the UK after that. But we will have some fun!

The boat is now lying indoors with her hull in a sinlge coat of wax. I will give her another coat of special UV protective wax before she is launched. Also she needs a good scrubbing of het topsides. Important for our Lowestoft trip is the new radar reflector that is going to be mounted. Apart from a much better visibility the old reflector was collecting moisture so I had it replaced for this smaller but much more effective model.

Cheers

Nick

Made a trip in the tender

Great weater this weekend. I made a trip in the dingy today. Nice little tour of the harbour with the dog. I will need to find a new cover for the dingy when she is on deck. I will have to see a sailmaker to make this.
Cheers

Nick

Dufour 34 broach under spinnaker

Copied from http://sailorman-blog.blogspot.com/

Test post via mobile

This is a test of a post from my mobile Phone.
Cheers
Nick

Electronics

This winter I am revamping the whole instrumentation on board. I have drawn up a diagram of the entire navigation and communication system. This will include the onboard pc.

Information comes from the sensors Windspeed and angle, Depth, Log (speed), GPS, AIS, SeaTemp and feeds via SeaTalk Network and NMEA into a multiplexer. This feeds in to the DSC VHF, into the AutoPilot and Plotter and also into the PC. On the PC at the nav station I will be running various software tools like a simple chartplotter program, instrument repeaters, a tactic tool for speed optimization, weater routing software (GRIB files), internet, this BLOG and more. Also I will be logging my performance data for later analyses to see what works and what doesn't.

It's just for fun because the serious navigation will be done from the Raymarine C70 plotter which has all the information already but this will be a nice and fun addition. Currenly most of the installation has been done. It's now up to testing and refining the various software components. A report will follow!

Cheers
Nick

Winter work...

Over the course of the last weekends I have done some essential winter tasks. This included the obvious polishing of the outside of the hull. She was pretty dirty but because I do this regularly the black rainstripes and other dirt came off easy enough. I still have to do her topsides and set the whole in a layer of UV resistant wax to keep her going next season.

Another job was with the bed matrass in the owners cabin. To get some more ventilation I found a great solution on the Dusseldorf boatshow. It is a special weave of polyester fleece that lets air pass underneeth the matrass. It is very stiff to a spread load but compresses rather softly to a point load so it makes the bed a bit softer as well. Here are some pictures of what it looks like. I just cut it into shape with a pair of scissors. Looks nice, no?

They are doing lots of work in the harbour this winter. They are dredging the entire area to 3.2m deep at wither level which is great because with my 1.95m I do touch the mud sometimes in my birth. I took the dog out for a look at the dregework and he liked it so much that he leaped from the jetty into the Vecht River about 1.5m below four feet first with an amazing jump. No fear! I managed to drag him back by his neckcolor.

Another strange thing to see was divers and officers from the Dutch Crime Investigation Unit. They were looking on the IJsselmeer and diving in the 30m deep dredgepits for a body that went missing some time ago. Never a dull moment at the harbour!

New Years Drink in Muiden

Yesterday we had our New Years drink in the yachtclub in Muiden. It was nice to see everyone again and it made me think a bit on the coming season. I have posponed my wish to sail to Cowes for yet another year. With all the skiing, the yachtracing and the family responsibilities it's going to be hard to fit in anyway.
I will be pursueing my great wish to sail the Fastnet race in 2009. In order to do this we are going to have to make a number of miles racing with part of the fastnet crew. As we are going to be sailing with Johan's ship Sundance (a Baltic 42) we will be sailing the Colin Archer Memorial Race this year from Lauwersoog to Larvik.

On Dannick we are going to do a quick hop to Lowestoft in May and probably take her to Zeeland for a month in June. There we are going to make a few daytrips and a number of holidays on board. Hope we get some nice sunny days.

Cheers!
Nick

Clubkampioenschappen 2007

Last season we entered the Club Championships with Dannick, just for the fun of it. My dad and sister Sam were crew for the weekend. We had a great time with absolutly no wind and coming in allmost last in most of the races.
This was our first race together and we wanted to use the gennaker. However the upwind-downwind racecourse made this tough so we flew her of the spinnaker pole. I don't believe this helped our speed of handling much but it was fun trying. It also lead me to become sure that I want a real spinnaker for her which I will use much more than this reachingsail.
In the last race we lost the spinnaker halyard up in the mast and because there was absolutely no wind at all and therefore noting else to do we decided to go aloft to get it. My sister Sam was the chosen volunteer and she went up like a trooper, camera in hand to make some great pictures. Here are the results of her efforts. The results of our efforts in regards to the races I would like to keep to myself.

Cheers
Nick

2007 Liveaboard trials?

In June of 2007 I bought my new house. I had to vacate my old appartment on the first of may and we needed to do lots of work in the new house. All in all this meant that I had to live on board from the first of may until somewhere in August. I must say that I realy loved it!
Yes it was a bit cramped, especialy when Mariska and Mika were there in the weekends. But I was on board, had wireless internet in the marina so I also had live tv (www.uitzendinggemist.nl), I had a restaurant/bar within 100m and I could take her for a sail whenever I wanted to. In the first months I did so regularly but when the house came in to play it got a bit too much.
The room on board was fine, I had hot water and a shower available and I managed to stow allmost all my belonings on board. All in all I had a great three months living aboard and I wouldn't have missed it for the wordt. I don't know if it would have been as much fun without all the shore facilities in Muiden.

Cheers
Nick

Sailing to Enkhuizen with Chris and Anita

The weekend of the 5th of August this year was the most amazing weekend of the year. We sailed to Enkhuizen on Saturday where we met our friends Chris and Anita with their First 31.7. It was a good sail there and we met them going through the naviduct at Enkhuizen. We moored in the old port of Enkhuizen along the keyside about 5 boats in and with Chris on our other side. Next to us was a brandnew Elan with friends of Chris on board. We had a few drinks and lots of laughs. We had dinner outside a steakhouse in the sunset and we went back on board for some latenite deckchat. It was loads of fun.

The next morning we had breakfast together and we left port, Chris heading back to Lelystad and Maris and I back to Muiden. There was about a force 5 wind blowing due east which made for a fantastic sail back at an amazing speed. The great thing was that the sun was extremely hot so we had thrill, surf and sun. What more could you want. We were back way to early to head back into port so we ancored in the luff of the island of Pampus where we sat in the sun for some well deserved drinks and bites.

What an amazing weekend it had been.

Cheers

Nick

Lowestoft 2007

Earlier this year two friends and I crossed over to the UK with Dannick. Michiel and Daan were my shipmates for this trip and it was the maiden crossing for both of them. We departed from Muiden late in the afternoon after a safety briefing and motored across the IJsselmeer through the locks of Amsterdam onto the northsea canal. We had our dinner cooked by Michiel.

We went through the locks at IJmuiden at dusk and set for sea. The sea was a bit choppy and it took a little bit of getting used to but we settled in quickly. We tracked quite a few targets with our new AIS system. This works really great and I would recomend it to everyone. We hardly used the new radar system because AIS gave us far more detailed information. What helped best was the "Closest point of approach" which means how close are we going to cross (under a mile was a red light for us) and the time to CPA which means how long will it be until we need to take action. Sometimes this was pretty quick as some large cargo vessles sail at an alarming rate.

At one point we were hailed on the VHF by a Dutch submarine from the Dutch Royal Navy. They were looking for a missing yacht and wanted to know our sailnumbers. This made us think a little more of the magnitude of this little trip of ours. The autohelm did most of the work once we were at sea. We checked our headings and checked and rechecked the AIS and Radar every so often until first light. The wind turned a bit to our aft quarter which made it possible to set the gennaker.

We had breakfast and lunch and before long we had the British coastline in sight. We navigated around the banks, which years before my father had stranded upon in the fog. The chop became heavier than before as we entered the channel between the banks. We sailed towards the harbour entrance, started the engine and doused the mailsail. We hailed the harbour patrol who gave us permission to enter On genua alone we entered the port and moored in the marine. We set foot on English soil for the first time ever after making the journey on our own keel. What a great feeling this was for the three of us. After calling home to take away the worries of the homefront we headed into town for a well deserved beer.

The town of Lowestoft was a bit of a dissapointment. I hope I don't put anyone reading this down but the ugliest people in the world live there. Unbelievable. We thought the name might be derived from Lowest-of-the-low. But we had a great time in the pub and had a well deserved shower in the yachtclub and a good sleep. We woke at 8pm and checked the weather report. I use the most amazing weather reporting tool called U-Grib (check out the link on the main page of this blog). There were two stormfronts, one circling the northsea near iceland and moving south. The other was near landsend and moving east. Bad news for sailing back home tomorrow. We decided to stay another day in lowestoft so we went to the pub for dinner and drinks. We had a great time in the Lowestoft nightlife and straggled back to our bunks at closing. The next morning, expecting some harsh weater we checkt the weatercharts. To my surprise the northsea front had blown out and the landsend front had stayed near france. This meant there was a nice gap of clear weather between Lowestoft and IJmuiden.

We decided to go for it. We left port and headed for sea. We were immediately sorry. Because of the stormfronts there were very high waves but there was hardly any wind. This meant that there was no means of pinning us in one position and we were lolled back and forth. Last nights beers soon came back to haunt us. The only one stable was Daan who stepped up while Michiel and I were moving from our bunk down below to the rail and back. Not a pretty sight. All in all Daan stood watch for 14 hours before we made it back up on deck.

Through all this rolling and mainly using the engine we were running low on diesel and suddenly the boom came loose from the mastfitting. The rolling had caused the selflocking nut to come undone and we had to go and fix it. Somehow we had very poor AIS reception which we soon found had something to do with us loosing the masthead antenna, also caused by the heavy swaying.

Our final task was trying to sail into IJmuiden because we were so low on fuel we were afraid we wouldn't be able to use the enging trough the locks. We tried to sail for a few hours but there was absolutely no wind at all. It turend out to be the fuelgauge that was the problem because when we enterend IJmuiden Marina and filled her up we could just get around 50 liters back in. There was plenty remaining to get to Muiden and halfway back to Lowestoft if we needed to.

All in all is was a fantastic maiden crossing and we enjoyed allmost every minute of this great adventure. We will certainly do this again next year!

Nick

Adding pictures

Welcome to the new Dannick.net

This is the brand-new dannick.net website. I have moved the site from my own server, hosted at home, to blogspot. I hope this will be much better for the availability of the blog. The Blog has been offline for a long time and with this move there will be no more interruptions. Plus I will be able to upload pictures easier.

So all in all a good thing for everyone!

See you on the water!

Nick