Dauntless Crosses the Atlantic Again

[Art]

Originally Posted by Lou_tribal

I am sure verything is fine. Richard sent a message 30 minutes ago and everything was ok.

Dauntless in predicted squall when message sent?


God bless the Dauntless and aboard. Best luck too!

[Lou_tribal]

Some news from Richar at 4:30 AM EST

The storm are not so bad. They got sustained wind of 18knt to 25knt with gusts of 30kts and more so the storm are just boosting the wind a bit. They rinse off Dauntless!
Birds are in since leaving Hierro to stop Dauntless from getting in rythmic oscillation in the following sea. However one of them broke.

[hollywood8118]

Good grief you guys are like a bunch of old women worrying about everything. Richard prepped for his crossing, and it looks like a fine trip so far.
The only comment I could add is he appears to have more trouble with his paravanes than I ever did.. they must be rigged a bit light.

I drug a 30' tree in 6'+ waves with one of mine in boisterous conditions for some time with no issues.. I cannot figure why he has had so many problems.

HOLLYWOOD

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Capt.Bill11

Of course he's seeing some larger seas. That prediction is for 70% of the seas.
Some will be larger then that. And some will be much larger.

When Richard said the wave size was X, I was taking that to be the average size, not the maximum he was seeing.

Later,
Dan

[Capt.Bill11]

Originally Posted by hollywood8118

Good grief you guys are like a bunch of old women worrying about everything. Richard prepped for his crossing, and it looks like a fine trip so far.
The only comment I could add is he appears to have more trouble with his paravanes than I ever did.. they must be rigged a bit light.

I drug a 30' tree in 6'+ waves with one of mine in boisterous conditions for some time with no issues.. I cannot figure why he has had so many problems.

HOLLYWOOD

The last time he crossed he had an issue with one of the paravanes because he didn't get it repaired before he set off as I recall.

Perhaps this this could be a similar issue.

[Lou_tribal]

Richard told me his issue was with one that has been repaired in Ireland. It broke on the solder. He had 2 spares so it still have 1 spare now.

[kmacdonald]

With 450 hours of motoring for the crossing, isn't a motor breakdown a distinct possibility? You can only carry so much in spares and tools.

[kmacdonald]

Originally Posted by hollywood8118

Good grief you guys are like a bunch of old women worrying about everything.

HOLLYWOOD

Nope. It's not my boat or me out there.

[Jonza]

Now I would have liked to have had this done. Does it count if ones daughter did one, at all..?

[BIG CAT]

Originally Posted by kmacdonald

With 450 hours of motoring for the crossing, isn't a motor breakdown a distinct possibility? You can only carry so much in spares and tools.

its always a possibility. location doesn't change that. the biggest advantage to a trawler is the load/stress put on parts is significantly less than a higher hp boat. so that helps reduce wear and tear on stuff. also he does have a back up to the main.

[MurrayM]

These are weird days. Imagine being in the middle of the ocean and having dozens of people peering over your shoulder, second guessing every move you make. I'd give satellite updates every 12 hours or so for family (or in emergencies) and just try to comprehend the immensity of it all.

[Larry M]

Originally Posted by BIG CAT

...also he does have a back up to the main.

I don't believe he does. Dauntless has a single Ford Lehman SP135.

[BIG CAT]

Originally Posted by Larry M

I don't believe he does. Dauntless has a single Ford Lehman SP135.

its posted in this thread. he has a hyd drive coming off his generator.

[twistedtree]

There is certainly more risk of an engine issue in a 450hr run than in a 10-20hr run. But we are talking about engines that routinely run tens of thousands of hours with nothing more than routine maintenance.

Probably the biggest risk is a cooling pump bearing failure, or an alternator bearing failure. But both are pretty easy repairs as long as you have the parts and tools.

I know when the Hamilton's crossed from St Helena to Barbados which was a 3650nm passage, the big debate was whether or not to shut down along the way to perform an oil change. James decided to do it, and of course everything went fine. I think they have around 8000 hrs on Dirona and have not had any engine break-down that I'm aware of.

[bilge53]

201.7g

[Lou_tribal]

The biggest risk could be to collide with a floating object during the night, this would be my worst fear.

[BIG CAT]

Originally Posted by twistedtree

There is certainly more risk of an engine issue in a 450hr run than in a 10-20hr run. But we are talking about engines that routinely run tens of thousands of hours with nothing more than routine maintenance.

Probably the biggest risk is a cooling pump bearing failure, or an alternator bearing failure. But both are pretty easy repairs as long as you have the parts and tools.

I know when the Hamilton's crossed from St Helena to Barbados which was a 3650nm passage, the big debate was whether or not to shut down along the way to perform an oil change. James decided to do it, and of course everything went fine. I think they have around 8000 hrs on Dirona and have not had any engine break-down that I'm aware of.

do any of you guys that make these long runs have filter asy that can be bypassed and swap filters while underway?

most all newer cats can be ordered with the option for both fuel and oil. the only thing that would be harder to do with out stopping would be oil. you can extend the run time through capacity also. going by the expected travel time he will still be under 500hrs which is not a real long run. in the generator world when you get into a continuous duty(prime power) application it normal to run them 500 to 1k hrs between services.

[BandB]

With a well maintained engine in good shape, the engine itself is one of the least likely things to fail on a trip like this. Think of times when the engine itself has failed and stranded you. It doesn't happen much if well maintained. Now, components and attachments and steering and autopilots and fuel and shaft and propellers are all potential points of failure. Plus he does have a backup plan for that. Probably spares for most everything else. Only thing that there is no backup plan for is fuel.

[twistedtree]

Originally Posted by BIG CAT

do any of you guys that make these long runs have filter asy that can be bypassed and swap filters while underway?

most all newer cats can be ordered with the option for both fuel and oil. the only thing that would be harder to do with out stopping would be oil. you can extend the run time through capacity also. going by the expected travel time he will still be under 500hrs which is not a real long run. in the generator world when you get into a continuous duty(prime power) application it normal to run them 500 to 1k hrs between services.

You mean fuel filters? If so, yes, they are very common. Racor makes dual filters with a single valve lever that selects filter 1, filter 2, both, and off. There are also centrifugal fuel cleaning systems.

Oil treatment is less common. There are scrubber devices, and additive replenishment devices, but I think they are only in the world of continuous operation machines. I know very little about them other than they exist, and saw one on a 300' boat once.

The "don't stop to change the oil" argument is that in a straight run, even though you are exceeding the 250 hr oil change interval (or whatever your interval is) by 2x or 3x, the usual sources of contamination are eliminated. You are not stopping and starting, warming up and cooling down, creating condensation then heating the oil to evaporate it off, etc. I suspect this is the same argument for running 24x7 generators for similar lengths of time between changes.

[Capt.Bill11]

Originally Posted by BandB

Probably spares for most everything else. Only thing that there is no backup plan for is fuel.

The back up plan for loss of fuel in this case would be prevailing winds and current.