Fender Whips

Fender whips are the ropes that hold a fender in position. They attach to the ends of fenders and allow them to lay against the hull at the appropriate position.

The questions that circulate around fender whips tend to involve length and material.

Length is a rather simple you need enough line to lower the fender into position and tie it to the boat. This may sound like an over simplification, but that is the goal of the length. Each boat is different and therefore needs a different length. Keeping this simple target in mind will take all the guesswork out of selecting your fender whips.

The lowest position you will tie a fender is sea level, so the whip needs to be long enough to lower the fender into the water. The other end of the whip needs to tie to the boat. If you have a toe rail that can serve as an attachment point, this will be your upper mark. If you have a smooth rail or teak rail, you will probably need to attach to the railing or lifelines. Now that we know how far the whip must travel to connect the rail to the waterline, we need to add in enough line for the knot. I personally prefer to have 2 feet for the knot, allowing me flexibility and ease of tying. If the line is too short, the knot can be hard to tighten.

In conclusion, the length of the fender whip should be the distance from the rail to the waterline plus two feet. 

If you have a low freeboard sailboat, this distance might only be 1 or 2 feet; making the whip length 3 to 4 feet respectively. If you have a high freeboard boat, such as a Kadey Krogen 58, you will need a much longer whip for the midship fenders.

Sadly, there is no hard and fast rule for fender whip lengths. They need to be made in accordance to what is needed. A whip that is too short is worthless, and a whip that is too long is cumbersome to deal with. The ideal would be the distance from the attachment point to the waterline plus 2 feet.

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The next decision to make involves fender whip material. Once again, the choices are plentiful and ambiguous. Any rope can serve as a fender whip, even spare line you have lying around. 

The common choices are Three Strand Nylon and Double Braid Polyester. Both of these choices are easy to purchase and widely available in any length. Some "dedicated fender whips" come with eyes spliced into one end, allowing you to easily connect it to the fender. These are nice, but a bowline works just as well if you don't have a spliced line and don't feel confident performing the splice yourself.

Both of these choices are easy to come by, but can be rather bulky when you tie them. This is where another alternative material comes into play. You can remove the core from double braid polyester lines and make your fender whip out of the cover. These whips will be plenty strong to hold a fender in place and will not form bulky knots, allowing you to tie them up through small holes in the toe rail with ease. These whips are easy to splice if you wish to make eyes for the fender end.

Now you know how to select the proper length and material for your fender whips.

Transoms in a Following Sea

While some might think the only importance of a transoms shape is to properly display the yachts name and hailing port, the truth is the transoms shape can decide your fate in a following sea.

Imagine running in breaking seas, crests so tall you can't see over them. When you are in the trough, you are surrounded by walls of water with no glimmer of the horizon. The wave behind you begins to approach your stern and is going to hit you, sending your yacht into a broach. The stern of the boat is pushed to the side by the wave as you lay beam to the sea, awaiting a breaker on the beam that will send you into a capsizing roll! 

The larger the area presented to the wave, the more force the wave will be able to exert onto your vessels transom. A large flat transom will present a large surface to be pushed by the wave. The polar opposite exists in the form of a Double-Ender. These boats have a stern that comes to a point just like the bow comes to a point. If a wave were to hit their transom, the stern would cut through the wave the same way the bow cuts through every wave it encounters while sailing.

The modern trend of Sugar Scoop transoms is very convenient, people can easily climb aboard or jump into the water from the cockpit. The back of the cockpit is missing and everything simply flows right into the water. When a large wave hits from the stern, this wave will just as easily board the boat through the large open stern scoop, swamping the aft part of the sailboat. Boarding waves can become a very wet ordeal in a hurry.

The other option is the long overhanging stern common on older CCA boats. This will help pick the stern up as the wave approaches while the small area on the transom (which serves to hold the name) will offer little push from the wave as it gets hit.

Which stern would you rather have as you get hit by a following sea? 
Large Flat Stern
Sugar Scoop Stern
Double ender Stern
CCA Stern

Reading the Wind

Sailing uses the energy from the wind to propel the yacht through the water. In order to navigate towards our destinations, we need to know which direction the wind is coming from so we can plot our appropriate course.

There are various different ways to tell wind direction, some use fancy gadgets, others do not. The most common gadgets to detect wind directions are:

Electronic Masthead Wind Sensors
Windex

The other end of the spectrum does not involved fancy gadgets or instruments:

A wet finger
Wind on your face
Tuft of yarn or line
Reading the sails
Reading the waves

Lets begin with the fancy gadgets, as they are usually marketed as "Must Haves". Electronic Masthead Wind Sensors are simply a wind vane connected to a potentiometer. As the wind vane turns to point into the wind, its position is converted into an electrical signal which is then displayed on a gauge in the cockpit. These gauges can be as simple as a needle pointing the wind direction over an illustration of the vessel, or a digital screen that calculates true wind and apparent wind direction. These instruments will take all the guess work out of sailing, telling you exactly where the wind is coming from in relation to your boat. Sailing to windward is a matter of looking at the screen to see where the wind is coming from and setting your course to the appropriate wind angle for your boat.

The alternative to an electronic instrument is a device known as a Windex. This highly sensitive device works via the same principle as the wind point, but without the added complexity of electronics. Many boats actually use both, the wind point mounted on the front of the mast, and the Windex mounted on the back of the mast. This provides a wonderful mechanical backup in the event that your electronic unit were to fail. Windex has a wind vane with high visibility paint on the boxes and the wind vane. This allows you to see where the wind is coming from without any guesswork. 

Both of these instruments work wonderfully, but they have their pitfalls. Electronic sensors will be exposed to the elements and will eventually fail. This is why the combination of wind point and Windex is so popular. Windex has the pitfall that you have to look at the masthead to read it. If you have a stiff neck, looking up can be quite the chore; if you have a bimini, you will need a window cut in it to allow visualization of the masthead from the helm.

Worst case scenario, you are in a storm and the masthead sensors get blown off. Now there is nothing to tell you where the wind is blowing from! Truth be told, sailing is much older than masthead sensors. This brings us to the "other ways" to figure out the wind direction.

One of the easiest ways to tell wind direction is to wet your finger and hold it up! The side of your finger that faces the wind will dry faster and feel cold compared to the rest of your finger. The cold side faces the wind.

The next way to figure out which way the wind is coming from is to stand up and turn around. As you turn around, you will be able to feel the wind hitting your face and you will know when you are face into the wind. When you find the wind hitting your face head on, you will have a rough idea of where the wind is blowing from. To fine tune your wind reading, you will need to rely on your ears. If the wind is hitting you more from the left side, your left ear will hear more wind noise than your right ear. Turning your head to the left a bit until the wind noise between your ears evens out will fine tune the wind detection. When you hear the same amount of wind noise in your left and right ears, you know for certain that you are facing directly into the wind. While this sounds simple enough, it doesn't work if you are behind a dodger or a lee cloth. If you find yourself behind a wind block, you will have to move to a clear area where you can feel unobstructed wind on your face.

While the first two options listed involve using your body as the sensor, this next one does not. It involves tying a small strand of yarn to various places on the boat. Common places are the shrouds, lifelines, and the backstay. The yarn will stream in the wind and point out the winds direction. This option is very inexpensive, which is why some people will place them everywhere! Instead of yarn, I use bits of line tied to the lifelines. I tie them with a larkshead knot in places where I typically need a bit of line to tie up random things on deck. They are very small and don't stand out as much as a brightly colored bit of yarn, making them less noticeable from passing yachts; but I know where to look for them so I can read the wind from them.

The first three methods will help you figure out where the wind is coming from so you can start moving, the next method will help while you are already sailing along (without looking at the tell tales). The sails use the wind and also reveal how the wind is blowing. When pinching too hard, the luff will curl towards the boat. This will create a large area on the luff which is bulging in rather than out. If you are sheeted in all the way, that would mean that you are aiming as far upwind as possible (and honestly should fall off the wind a bit).

Lastly, (and my favorite way) is to read the waves. Waves are (usually) created by the wind and roll in a form perpendicular to the winds direction. This means that the waves will come at the boat 90* to the wind. 

When the waves come at you from the side (beam on) this means you are on a beam reach and the wind is coming from the beam.

When beating, the waves will be coming from the front quarter, and this would indicate the wind is coming from that same direction. I don't typically read the waves when beating because the sail will begin to luff if I point too high.

Safe sailing

Sailing by the lee

When running, this will work wonderfully and I rely on this trick more than I do my wind instruments! The waves will be coming at your stern with a slight angle. If they are perpendicular to your sides, you are on a dead run. If they are coming at your boat on the same side as your boom, you are sailing by the lee (and should rectify this immediately). If they are coming in from the side opposite to the boom, you are on a broad reach. 

When sailing Wing on Wing, I make sure that the waves are perfectly perpendicular to the boat. If they change their angle slightly, I will alter course to keep the wind directly on the stern. The waves will give instant and accurate information, other methods may have a slight delay in the information delivery. 

Lastly, the final reason I prefer to read the waves is it also gives you an indication of wind strength and direction off in the distance. Boat mounted wind sensors will only give you information about the wind that your boat is currently experiencing and no information about the surrounding wind. On windy days, this is not such a big deal, as there is plenty of wind to go around and keep you moving. On calm days though, reading the waves will tell you where there is wind and which way it is blowing.

On a calm day, the water will look like glass with isolated areas of ripples. These areas are where wind is present and the ripples run perpendicular to the wind. You can sail through calm areas by using these wind puffs. When you reach one, it will propel your vessel ahead. Once you leave this wind puff, you will be coasting along until you run out of momentum. By aiming to the next closest wind puff, you can actually "jump" from windy spot to windy spot. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the waves will alert you to approaching storms. When whitecaps appear in the distance, they indicate strong wind approaching (and the need to reef your sails now). Strong storm fronts will also bring a change in wind direction and keeping an eye on the waves will tell you how to position your sails for the blast of wind that will be coming.

While none of these systems work perfectly, when used in conjunction they can help you figure out how the wind is blowing and aid your navigational decisions in plotting your desired course. Taking all the information you have available will help you sail better and safer in any wind condition.

Higher Education

Is higher education really worthwhile? I have been in school for most of my life, and as I look back at it all, I wonder if it was worth it?

What are the pros and cons of higher education?

Pros:

Better paying job
Better working conditions
Greater social acceptance
Greater flexibility with private life

Cons:

Immense student debt

It is a know fact that salaries increase proportionately with education achievements. According to PBS, the numbers are dramatic. 

Highschool dropout: ~$20,000 per year
Highschool graduate: ~$30,000 per year
College graduate: ~$56,000 per year

These numbers seem impressive and can make a good argument for finishing school. The larger jump is when you get into professional schools. 

Average Dentist Salary: ~$124,000 per year Source

That may seem like a significant jump in salary, but so is the amount of student debt. I completed my freshman and sophomore years of college in Puerto Rico at UPRM, costing $76 per semester (if you had a very high GPA, they would only charge laboratory fees). I moved to Maryland for my junior and senior years, and that totaled to $8000. My college education cost roughly $8,304 and I would be set into the average salary bracket of $56,000.

I then went to dental school where I tried to spend as little as possible. The average graduating student debt from dental school is $250,000. I managed to get out with only $160,000 of student debt. 

This debt costs will cost me $2,000 a month for the next 10 years, costing $240,000 to repay it (making minimum payments). Imagine what the monthly payments must be on the $250,000 student debts!

Making more money is great, but then you end up in a higher tax bracket. You have to pay taxes on the money you made to pay the student loan, and in the 28% tax bracket, the $2,000 monthly student loan payment will cost you $560 in taxes. 

This means that the first $24,000 you make per year is already spent on student loans and will have an additional $6,720 in taxes to go along with it. $30,720 of your yearly income is already spent on student debt and taxes. This leaves $93,280 for you at the end of the year! Not really, the $93,280 will carry along another $26,118 in taxes.

At the beginning of the year, you need to earn at least $30,720 to pay your student debt, that's more then a high school graduate makes in a year! After taxes and passing your student debt payments, your $124,000 has now been reduced to $67,162.

If you have a job, you need somewhere to live and you need to get to work. Due to social pressures, you might feel inclined to buy a fancy house and car to impress people you don't know. The house and car payment will have to come out of the remaining $67,162. Don't forget that you also need to pay property tax, as well as insurances. Soon enough, you will have less money leftover than what the college graduate is earning! Luckily, you live close to work and can work everyday until you die to pay off these debts and try to save for retirement. 

Once you're old and stop working, you can try to sell everything and buy the boat you have been dreaming of to sail over the horizon to new lands! Hopefully your health is still good enough to enjoy cruising for a few years before your body can't take it anymore!

The other option is to not follow the system! I have friends that cruise on sailboats in the tropics, everyday is warm weather and beautiful beaches. They don't have much money, but they do have their happiness. When they need some cash, they work as a bartender; otherwise, they just enjoy life for barely no cost!

There is no doubt that cruising has significant startup costs. First, you need to buy a boat! That can be a pricey ordeal. Next, you need to outfit the boat and stock up with provisions, also costly. Lastly, you need to cast off and sail away; not costly!

Having completed my higher educational studies, I have the disposable income to do the first two steps. The problem lies in the last step! It is not costly to cast off, but I have these massive anchors called student debt that are keeping me here! I work to pay them off, but I also need to save up money to cover my student loan payments for a time while I am cruising around. 

As it stands right now, paying the minimum, I will finish paying them off in 2022; that is a serious anchor! It is a project to not form any other anchors to shore during those years that will prolong our departure. Maddie grew up with the land based mentality of "Buy a house, buy a car, buy buy buy" and it is a struggle to not buy anything we don't need or want. 

When we first met, her sole goal for the future revolved around having a house on land, where my sole goal was to get away from land as quickly as possible. After many discussions, we have come to agree on not buying anything with a loan. If there is no debt, there is no anchor; once again, the third step becomes "not costly" and you can cast off to explore anytime you want!

Zeno Paradox and Boat Projects

Zeno's Paradox of the Dichotomy proposes a situation where you are going to travel from A to B.

Each step you take will be halfway between where you are and B. The first step will take you half the distance, which is the midpoint.

Your next step will take you half of the remaining distance.

The next step after that will be half of the remaining distance again.

The next step after that will be half of the remaining distance again.

The next step after that will be half of the remaining distance again!

As you approach B, there is still a remaining distance left to cover and each step will again only advance you half the remaining distance. The process of taking steps that only cover half the remaining distance will continue on forever, as there will always be a next step and you will never reach B.

What started out as a quick trip from A to B has become an unending ordeal where progress has slowed and you will never reach the end! 

Boat projects are the same way. What starts out as a quick and easy project becomes more and more complicated as there is always one more thing that can be done to make it more perfect.

When I was building the sculling oar, I could have faired the junction of the laminated handle a bit more. I could have sanded it a bit more. I could have put plugs in the screw holes. I could have polished the wood to really bring the grain out. I could have done engravings on the handle. I could have done mother of pearl inlays on the blades. There is always another thing that could be done to make them more perfect, but instead I went sailing.

The purpose of all this work is to grant you the ability to go out on the water and enjoy the wind in your face as you cut through the seas! Boat projects are to enable you to take your yacht out sailing, not to work infinite hours on minute details that keep you from sailing.

Next time you find yourself sweating about minuscule details, step back and look at the big picture. Remember what the goal is and know when to stop the project before you begin to obsess about the unimportant details that are keeping you from enjoying your boat.