<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Malta Boating News - Insideout]]></title><description><![CDATA[Articles]]></description><link>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/</link><copyright><![CDATA[Copyright Malta Boating News - Insideout]]></copyright><generator>sNews CMS</generator><item><title><![CDATA[Our Mustang 40]]></title><description><![CDATA[  Hello everyone, firstly let's introduce ourselves. My wife is called Sue and I am Steven.
Recently we purchased a Maltese built Mustang 40 motorsailor. We know very little about the Mustangs, so any information will be gratefully received. I will allow comments on this section so any information can be posted on here.  

  We will be giving Deep Devocean a complete refit and over the coming months will be making a new Bimini top, sail cover, wheel cover and winch covers for the outside   
  We will also be refitting below deck as well. We will completely refit all the new cushions and covers, we plan to practice what we preach by having Memory foam mattresses and a full set of curtains to match every room on board.  
  We are starting with the Head first, we are having a new sink top and stainless steel sink plus new marine mixer shower taps. Of course we will be updating the decor as well. We will be posting pictures along the way so you can see our progress and of course the standard of work we do at Insideout  
  As we are refitting the head we are also installing a hot water system which is what the Mustang is missing, so it is not a lot of extra work to install hot water to the head being as we are refitting the sink area and it's always nice to have a hot shower in the mornings.
  

  The old sink, definitely needs bringing up to date  

  
 ]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 23 Nov 2007 14:36:23 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/inside-out-project/our-mustang-40/</link><guid>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/inside-out-project/our-mustang-40/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Storm Alert]]></title><description><![CDATA[  There is no end to the marvels of technology, we all love it, otherwise we would not be here.  





  Yet there are times when something comes along that pushes the boundaries, but not always for the good, pushing the boundaries can work in the wrong direction too. Take the personal lightning detector from Strike Alert; this pager sized device warns you when there is a thunderstorm heading in your direction, now how handy is that going to be?  

  
]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:27:02 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/sailing-product-reviews/storm-alert/</link><guid>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/sailing-product-reviews/storm-alert/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Gadgets]]></title><description><![CDATA[  As we all know, it is very much the growing trend of shelling out quite a bit of dosh on our designer sunglasses. I also know that if worn when swimming, they have a tendency to sink to the bottom of the pool! This is not so much of a problem when in the confines of a nice free-form freshwater pool where you can just dive to the bottom to grab them, but could be a real issue if you’re out at sea (either swimming, sailing of just lazing on a lilo).   



  Help is now at hand with the Gill floatable sunglasses retainer – a very simple device which clips to your sunglasses, ensuring that if inadvertently dropped overboard, the retainer will float, allowing you to snare your expensive shades without having to get the diving gear on.  

  Available from Gill Marine in either black or fluorescent yellow at a very reasonable £3 and suitable for all glasses.  


   ]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:10:38 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/sailing-product-reviews/gadgets/</link><guid>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/sailing-product-reviews/gadgets/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Humble Winch Handle, or Not !]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Humble Winch Handles.

  The winch handle is something that most sailors take for granted on their boat, did you know that
You can greatly add enjoyment to your sailing, by choosing the correct winch handle  


   It is time to turn our attention on to this vital piece of equipment.



  What is the item of equipment you handle most when sailing your yacht? If you're not the one holding the wheel or the tiller, the answer is almost certainly “winch handle.”  

  

  You can spend anything from £20 to £100 on this vital piece of kit. Is it worth investing in the best? Or, bearing in mind that sooner or later they may go over the side, flipped over by a wayward spinnaker sheet, or dropped by a fumble-fingered crewman, is it more sensible to go for the cheaper end of the market, and regard them as semi-disposable?  



  There are floating winch handles, intended to prevent this all-too common loss, but in practice they are hardly suitable for any but the smallest craft: the plastic handles tend to bend under load, absorbing the user's energy rather than transferring it to the winch. And some have been known to break.   

  In any case, just how practicable would it be to retrieve a floating handle? It would be impossible to snare with a boat hook, so unless your boat has very low freeboard, so that you could grab it with your hand, it would be as good as lost anyway.  


    Price    


  When we were doing a lot of racing, we used cheap handles, so that it wasn't a disaster if crew lost them over the side. But we had better ones we used ourselves when cruising. There really is a difference. 

For one thing, the cheaper handles tend to wear more quickly. (This isn't a problem if they are going to go over the side before long!) They are less robust, with less durable bearings, and the locking plates tend to wear and distort under heavy use, so that eventually they become wobbly and therefore less efficient in use.  

    Weight    


  How heavy do you like your handles? It's a matter of personal preference, probably related to the size of your boat and winches. Some people prefer the lighter aluminium ones, like the Antal, which has weight-reducing slots in the arm. 

 Others prefer the heavier chrome or bronze models because they feel more powerful when working with heavier loads - they seem to develop their own momentum. It's a question of experimenting to find which works best for you.  


    Locking mechanism    



  
Last year Lewmar won the Dame award, the marine trade Oscar, for the One-touch locking system, hailed as “an extremely clever rethinking of a piece of equipment whose formulaic design most people take for granted." 

Instead of the familiar thumb catch at the winch end, the One-touch has a lever pivoted at the grip end, which disengages the handle wherever it is pressed along its length. This makes it truly one-handed in operation, although it is heavier than the "formulaic" system. 

But the “formulaic” locking mechanisms are by no means identical. On some, the catch flips one way only to lock and unlock. It pays to look for two-way catches, which are easier to use, whether right ot left handed. 

Also check how substantial the square locking plate on the bottom of the handle is, and how well it is fixed. It can cause problems if it becomes distorted or out of true - possibly jamming the handle in the winch at an inconvenient moment.  


    Handle style    

  How comfortable the hand grip feels will have quite a bearing on the efficiency of the handle in use, so it is worth finding the style that suits you best. Most handles have simple, one-handed grips, but they differ in size, shape and feel. Antal's rubber-covered grip is particularly comfortable. 

On bigger boats, two-handed grips are useful, enabling users to put more power into their grinding. There are two main styles, the traditional double-hander, which has two vertical grips, one above the other, and the Speed or Power grip (depending on manufacturer) - which has a horizontal knob above the standard vertical grip. 

This design is less cumbersome than the traditional double-hander, and more versatile in that the horizontal knob works well one-handed as well as double-handed. This is my handle of choice, especially for winding the skipper up the mast.  

    Length    

  The law of the lever says you get more power with a longer handle, but at the same time, you have to push a longer handle further for each revolution. Theoretically, a shorter handle should therefore mean quicker trimming. In practice, the user will probably struggle with the load and wind more slowly, so a longer handle will be more efficient. 

Most people will therefore opt for the 250mm (10 in) winch handle as standard. But it often pays to have at least one smaller (200mm, or 8 in) handle, for use in confined spaces (for example where winches on the coachroof are impeded by the sprayhood) or where winding the reefing winch on the mast results in rapping your knuckles on the underside of the boom. It can also be used for speedy trimming when conditions are very light.  

    Spares    

  As with all boat gear, there's an element of “you get what you pay for.” But since you'll be handling the winch handle a great deal, it will pay to find the one that's right for you. It will make your sailing more enjoyable. It won't necessarily be the most expensive. But it probably won't be the cheapest, either. 

If you like a lightweight handle, the Antal model at about £40 is highly thought of. If you prefer something heavier, the Harken Speed grip in chrome at about £70 might be the right choice. If you want to keep up with the latest design, take a look at Lewmar's One-touch range, from about £50. 


Whatever handle you choose, you should always carry spares. Two on deck and two stowed below is a minimum. Even if it's years since you last lost one over the side - or it's never happened to you - it's something that can never be ruled out. And a winch handle is something you really can't do without.  
 

InsideOut can make you cutom covers for your winches, see out   inside section   of out main site]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:11:22 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/sailing-product-reviews/the-humble-winch-handle-or-not-/</link><guid>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/sailing-product-reviews/the-humble-winch-handle-or-not-/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rolex race near disaster]]></title><description><![CDATA[ Two stories of dramatically contrasting fortune have unfolded over the past 24-hours of the 2007 Rolex Middle Sea Race. Both stories ended happily. Both could have ended quite differently. 

In one, an American crew defied the elements to destroy a seven-year-old course record. In the second, an Australian crew were rescued from their yacht as she threatened to founder on the wind-lashed northern coast of Sicily. The crews of Rambler and Loki will remember this race for years to come



For George David and the crew of the 90-foot Rambler (USA) it was a dream come true. Hardly in their wildest dreams could they have believed they would eclipse so comprehensively the Rolex Middle Sea Race course record at their first attempt. Remember Neville Crichton had two goes in the exact same boat and did not come close; such was the cruel nature of the conditions during his assaults.

  The weather was cruel for Rambler too. Ken Read does not strike one as someone prone to hyperbole, and when he describes the race as ‘really windy’ you get the feeling he is not letting you in on the whole truth. This is confirmed when he continues, “when we went around the north west corner of Sicily heading out to the islands we actually took the mainsail down for almost 12 hours. With a storm jib and mainsail in 45-knots it was white out, you couldn’t see. The boat was literally just flying off waves. We found a really nice rig a bit unexpectedly, it was a storm jib on the front-stay and a genoa staysail on the middle-stay.”


Rambler’s record breaking run was exceptional. She did the first half of the course to Favignana in one day 5 hours 26 minutes, having had a great run all the way to Messina and beyond to Stromboli. The second half of the course took 18 hours, with a drastically reduced sail plan – for good reason as Read explained, “ the hardest part of the race was day two, waiting for the front to come. The anticipation, that nervous feeling in your stomach (when) you know 50-knots is coming. We had squally weather all day. We got through it and were reefed down enough that when the front finally hit and we saw 40 knots straightaway we were storm jib and triple reefed so we did not have that panic that we’ve got to get stuff squared away…waterspouts were forming all around us and we had one fully coned waterspout pass about a half-mile away from us.”  


  The preparation was 20/20 vision because at this point that trouble really hit, as Read continued, “then the forward hatch blew off for the second time. The guys got it bolted back on, literally through bolting it back on again. It was leaking like a sieve and had a big crack in it. My big fear was if that hatch went. It was only a matter of time before that thing came loose again and if it did we had a couple of plans but I’m not sure any of them were going to work.


“We were taking tons of water over the bow every time it goes down a wave and without a real hatch we had to back off. The waves would pile up on these shallow shelves that go from very deep water to quite shallow water so the waves were big and breaking. You just start down into the tunnel and there is no way out. If you are going too fast you can’t steer through it. So that’s when we backed off and made sure we had steering ability to be able to keep the bow from burying in. We sailed under storm jib and staysail for probably10 hours, through most of last night. I’m glad we had the preparation.”  

  Read was impressed they had taken so much time off the record given the conditions and the circumstances of the boat. “I think for a record pace run we had too much wind, you cannot effectively sail the boat in that much wind and at some point you are going to have to pull back for the safety of the boat and the safety of the crew.”  


  For Loki the drama was truly life threatening. Sailing along in 35-knots at 15/16 knots of boatspeed there was a sudden bang and the crew saw the rudder floating away behind the boat. 

Talking to owner Stephen Ainsworth earlier today he explained how they brought the boat under some semblance of control and made contact with Race Control to report their circumstances at 17.30 on Saturday evening. Tommaso Chieffi, a last minute addition to the crew of Atalanta II, the Italian mini-maxi of Carlo Puri Negri, made the seriousness of the situation absolutely vivid.  


  On hearing of Loki’s distress, Atalanta diverted back to see what assistance she could offer, as Chieffi explained, “sailing along side with Loki, Lucas Brown finally was able to get in contact with them over the phone. We heard that the rudder blade was broken. The first idea was to tow them but we did not have a rope that was strong enough to do so. Furthermore, the sea was so high that sometimes the waves were breaking over the mast. It was very difficult to go too near to Loki, the rolling motion was so huge that it was absolutely too dangerous.”

The Italian Coastguard scrambled two boats, but even the larger of the two was unable to do more than standby the wounded Loki. With the lee shore of Golfo di Castallammare fast approaching and the weather conditions atrocious the decision was eventually taken to evacuate the crew by helicopter.  

  The Italian Airforce Base in Trapani sent a Sikorksy HH3 F from 15 Wing to undertake the lift. Such was the motion of Loki and height of her mast that the crew had to get into a liferaft for the lift. 


The first eight crew members were picked up at about 10.20pm and the second batch at midnight. Before leaving the stricken yacht an anchor and about 200-feet of rode were laid and this morning it appears that the anchor had held with Loki spotted floating off the coast in reasonably deep water. Ainsworth reported that attempts to get back out to the boat were being hampered by the continuing bad weather in the region. 

That everyone was taken off Loki unharmed is testament to the skill of the Italian Airforce Crew who were flying in peak winds of 45-knots and reduced visibility due to the intense rain and thunderstorms. The height and motion of Loki’s mast meant a lift straight from the yacht was untenable. A rescue diver, Antonio Di Domenico was dropped into the water to manage the transfer from yacht to liferaft and then to the helicopter. Twice.  


  Loki’s crew is all safe ashore in Palermo and were able to contact their families to reassure them of their circumstances. Now all they can do is wait for a window to recover Loki.

At time of going to press with this report, 15 yachts are still in the race. Rubino (GBR), Roaring Forty (BEL) and Vineta (GER) have passed Pantelleria, and the leading Maltese boat is perhaps unsurprising Arthur Podesta’s Elusive. Podesta’s wife Christine reported having spoken to the crew this morning and found them all in good spirits. Remarkably, Slingshot (GBR), one of the two double-handers to set off on Saturday, is still racing and currently is approaching Favignana.  ]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:22:02 +0000</pubDate><link>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/home/rolex-race-near-disaster/</link><guid>http://www.insideout.com.mt/news/home/rolex-race-near-disaster/</guid></item></channel></rss>