Bahamas vacations . sailing in the abacos

Abaco, which is located in the Bahamas, is a true world class sailing destination, and is located less than 200 miles East of Florida. The mainland of Abaco is lined with a string of outer cays that run north and south. These cays protect the miles and miles of turquoise waters off of the mainland, making them safe to explore. This particular area is known as the Sea of Abaco, and is referred to as the sailing capital of the Bahamas. Here, the trade winds are steady, and private secluded anchorages are plentiful.

Abaco boasts numerous beaches, coves, and islands to explore. The reef network, which serves as a barrier for the outer cays, is known to be the third largest in the northern hemisphere. Stretching nearly 100 miles, this natural wonder should be taken advantage of. Snorkeling and Scuba diving is a must, as the underwater wildlife is very diverse and colourful. Abaco offers many dive sites, which are perfect for the beginner or experienced diver.

Planning a sailing vacation in the Bahamas is easier than most would think. If you plan to charter, you can bareboat with general sailing experience, or relax while enjoying a captained excursion. With a captain, learn the ropes while on vacation, and take advantage of his local knowledge. This knowledge will able you to explore the path less traveled. Travelers can also take advantage of Abaco by bringing their personal sailboat to cruise the area.

Abaco offers modern conveniences, such as grocery stores, marinas, hotels, and the internet, without losing the old world charm and warmth of the islands. Each island in the chain offers something different, whether it is the landscape, beaches, restaurants, activities, or local people. A sailing vacation within the sea of Abaco gives you the opportunity to explore and experience each individual cay. Since you are not stuck in one location, you will have complete freedom to sail into a new anchorage every night. People tend to fall in love with the area, or even a particular cay, and return year after year to vacation.

The Bottom line is, when planning how and where to base your sailing vacation, consider what the unique water and cays of Abaco can offer. The key is doing plenty of research and making preparations. Planning the perfect sailing vacation is not hard -- it just takes a little time and effort. In the end, it will all pay off, and you will have many memories that will last a lifetime.

Start planning your sailing vacation in the Abacos. With a little research, you are one step closer to being surrounded by breathtaking landscapes, and relaxing on the turquoise water. Learn more about the cays and visit Hope Town, Elbow Cay and Great Guana Cay in the Abacos.

The history of american sailing

The history of American sailing ships is an exciting journey into American history, starting with the world's most famous explorer Christopher Columbus.

The Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria are probably the most well known American ships in history. Christopher Columbus sailed these ships in 1492, to try to discover a trade route across the Atlantic Ocean. He ended up discovering the New world on October 12, 1492.

Another important part of the history of American sailing ships is a sailing ship named the Godspeed, which in 1607, carried settlers to the Jamestown colonies.

One of the most famous sailing ships is the Mary Celeste, which on November 5, 1872, was set to travel from New York to Italy to deliver alcohol. The ship was seen heading to the Strait of Gibraltar about a month later. The entire cargo of alcohol was still on board, and in good shape, but there were none of the ten passengers to be found. Many people believe that the alcohol on board began to leak, and the captain must have ordered everyone overboard because he thought that the ship would explode. The exact account of what happened on the Mary Celeste will probably never be known.

Different kinds of ships in the history of American sailing are:

1. The Sloop- It had one mast, and cut sail. This type of ship could be very large, and some were quite small.

2. The Brigantine- It had two masts, and a topgallant sail. The foremast was rigged square, but the mainmast was not.

3. The Barkentine- It had three masts and square sails on the foremast structure.

4. The Three Masted Schooner- The maximum masts ever used on a three masted schooner was seven.

5. The Topsail Schooner- Its rigging and masts are much like the Brigantine.

6. The Bark- Usually had four rigged sails.

7. The Brig- It was a two masted square rigged ship.

Some more in the history of American sailing ships include:

1. The Wanderer- A sixty foot long fishing schooner, that was built in 1903.

2. The Wanderbird- Built as a North Sea fishing trawler in 1963.

3. The Wawona- One of three, three masted schooners still in the U.S.

4. The Welcome- A schooner built in 1795 for collecting customs.

5. We are Here- Built in Massachusetts before 1888. It was captained by Edward Byard.

6. Westward- A 125ft. Steel schooner.

7. Wendemeen- This is a schooner that was built in 1912.

8. Windy- Four masted Gaff schooner made in Chicago.

9. Wolf- A 74ft. top sail schooner that is made with a steel hull.

Throughout the history of American sailing ships we have had many different types of vessels to lead us on the grandest of all sailing voyages.

Sailing with a spinnaker

It seems to me that many sailors, particularly beginners, are quite frightened of sailing with a spinnaker. There's no need to be. But there are some basic traps to be avoided.

I have sailed in scores of ocean races, including 14 Sydney to Hobarts, and the best way I can illustrate what I mean is to tell you about an incident when I sailed as Navigator and local knowledge for a Russian crew.

They were from St Petersburg - and they were very much the modern Russian, smart, self-assured and commercially aware. Though they were 20 years out of date in their sailing techniques they were almost arrogant in their belief that they were not. This was to lead to some firm discussions between us.

We were running before a good hard northerly on the second day of the race. The wind had been blowing for some time so that the seas, even though they were running with the current, had become significant although not big.

I pointed out to the skipper that the big spinnaker was four or five feet from the top of its hoist, which naturally was causing the boat to get into a heavy rolling pattern. Also the crew had not fitted a choker to the sheet, which was not helping.

At first he pretended not to hear me. Then he said, "This is not the Russian way." I insisted that not only was this heavy rolling slowing the boat down but that there were very great pressures being put on the mast. He insisted, still, that this was not the Russian way.
I snappily replied he would lose the mast - but it was no satisfaction to me when that happened only half an hour or so later. We were out of the race.

(By the way it is something to see when 12 fit strong young Russians, who don't have much money but a lot of incentive, recover from a broken mast. They had the whole thing back on board within 2 minutes and then had the problem of about 15 feet of overhang bow and stern. It didn't matter much at the bow, but with the mast in the steep seas at the stern the helmsman had a struggle to counteract the sweep effect. The mast was trying to steer the boat.)

A better way to sail under spinnaker

If that's the wrong way what is the right way? For a start, never, ever (to coin a phrase) fail to pull the spinnaker halyard, and the spinnaker, right to the top of its hoist. The moment the spinnaker starts to sway from side to side the forward drive of the boat is lost. That's bad in its own right, but as I pointed out, that puts strains on the boat that are far too dangerous. For instance the steering comes under enormous pressure as the side of the boat starts to take control and the helmsman has to use all pressure to try to counteract. If he fails the boat broaches, of course.

The choker, which I mentioned to the Russians, is another way of preventing the death rolls. It is a simple arrangement which may be as basic as tying a line over the sheet, tying a bowline in that line and pulling the standing part through a block and to a winch so that the sheet is pulled down and in to the side of the boat. On some boats a special open-sided block is used which sits over the sheet and then goes through another block in the same way. As tension is put on the line, and the sheet pulled down again, the spinnaker is held firm and any tendency to roll is counteracted.

While the main way to learn how to sail with spinnakers in heavy weather is to practice, there are a couple of good basic rules to learn. In the first place always keep the boat under the spinnaker. This apparently silly little phrase is actually the best rule to know. It means that if the boat rolls to starboard steer 'under the spinnaker' to starboard and counteract the movement of the hull. By this I don't mean giving a big swing on the wheel and making the boat turn to 45 degrees. It is more a little kick.

The next rule is to reef down. When the boat starts being hard-pressed when running it is because the pressure in the mainsail is trying to turn the boat to the side opposite the main. At its extreme the helmsman won't be able to counteract this and the boat will broach. For this reason it is best to take a reef in the main (not always easy when the sail is pressed against the shrouds) but nevertheless take a slab out of the sail and so reduce the turning moment. Of course, in the end, no amount reefing is going to allow you to keep the spinnaker up.

But all is not lost. Even without the spinnaker the boat can be kept moving very fast and safe by using two headsails.

Learn more about sailing with spinnakers in The Boating Bible Manual of Seamanship, http://www.theboatingbible.com

There are also free articles and a blog and a newsletter with tips and advice from a very experienced sailor. See you there!

Catboat

A catboat (alternate spelling: cat boat), or a cat-rigged sailboat, is a sailing vessel characterized by a single mast carried well forward (i.e., near the front of the boat).

Although any boat with a single sail and a mast carried well forward is 'technically' a catboat, the traditional catboat has a wide beam approximately half the length of the boat, a centerboard, and a single gaff-rigged sail. Some catboats such as the Barnegat Bay type and more modern catboat designs carry a Bermuda sail. A jib is sometimes added, but this may require a bowsprit, and technically creates a sloop sail-plan.

It is generally accepted that the origin of the catboat type was in New York around 1840 and from there spread east and south as the virtues of the type - simplicity, ease of handling, shallow draft, large capacity - were discovered.

Historically, catboats were used for fishing and transport in the coastal waters around Cape Cod, Narragansett Bay, New York and New Jersey. Some were fitted with bowsprits for swordfishing and others were used as 'party boats' with canvas-sided, wood-framed summer cabins that could be rolled up.

Around the turn of the 19th century, catboats were adapted for racing, and long booms and gaffs, bowsprits and large jibs were fitted to capture as much wind as possible. The decline of racing and advent of small, efficient gasoline engines eliminated the need for large sailplans, and catboats today are used as pleasure craft for day sailing and cruising, and have the virtues of roominess, stability and simple handling, though many catboats have poorer upwind performance than well-designed sloop-rigged craft.

The Breck Marshall is a 20-foot (6.1 m) Crosby catboat design that is open for public use at Mystic Seaport

One of the most well-known catboats is the 12-foot (3.7 m) Beetle Cat daysailer. Fleets of these one-design boats are found in harbors all across New England, often competing in races. In the 1960's, Breck Marshall based his 18-foot (5.5 m) fiberglass Sanderling upon an existing, wooden design. The Sanderling has since become a very popular boat, with more than 700 built, and it has helped to rekindle interest in the catboat. To honor Marshall and his contribution to the type, the Catboat Association funded the construction of the Breck Marshall, a 20-foot (6.1 m) catboat built and berthed at Mystic Seaport.

The terms catboat and cat-rigged are often confused with catamaran. Catamaran describes the hull structure of a boat (specifically, it refers to two hulls side-by-side) whereas cat-rigged and catboat describe the sail plan and vessel type, respectively. To add to the confusion, some small sporting catamarans are cat-rigged and both terms are abbreviated cat when no ambiguity is foreseen.

Trimaran

A trimaran is a multihulled boat consisting of a main hull (vaka) and two smaller outrigger hulls (amas), attached to the main hull with lateral struts (akas). The design and names for the trimaran components are derived from the original proa constructed by native Pacific Islanders.

history

The first trimarans were built by indigenous Polynesians almost 4,000 years ago, and much of the current terminology is inherited from them. Multihull sailboats (catamarans and trimarans) gained favor during the 1960s and 1970s. Modern recreational trimarans are rooted in the same homebuilt tradition as other multihulls but there are also a number of production models on the market. A number of trimarans in the 19 - 36 foot lengths have been designed over the last 30 years to be accommodated on a road trailer. These include Catri, Farrier, and Corsair folding trimarans and Quorning and Elan Series swing wing trimarans. Many sailboat designers have also designed demountable trimarans that are able to be trailered.

The trimaran design is also becoming more widespread as a passenger ferry. In 2005 the 127 metre (417 ft) trimaran Benchijigua Express was delivered by Austal to Spanish ferry operator Fred.Olsen, S.A. for service in the Canary Islands. Capable of carrying 1280 passengers and 340 cars, or equivalents, at speeds up to 40 knots, this boat was the longest aluminum ship in the world at the time of delivery.^[1] The trimaran concept has also been considered for modern warships. The RV Triton was commissioned by British defense contractor QinetiQ in 2000. In October 2005, the United States Navy commissioned for evaluation the construction of a General Dynamics Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) trimaran designed and built by Austal.^[2]

Construction

2 types of trimaran exist: the regular trimaran and the open trimaran, which features a trampoline between the hulls instead of plating.

Trimarans have a number of advantages over comparable monohulls (conventional, single-hulled sailboats). Given two boats of the same length, the trimaran has a shallower draft, a wider beam, less hull area, and is able to fly more sail area. In addition, because of the wide beam, trimarans do not need the weighted keel required in monohulls. As a result, the trimaran offers much better straight-line performance than a monohull, is able to sail in shallower water, and maintains its stability in stronger winds. However, its wider beam makes it a little more cumbersome to maneuver, so tacking and gybing can be trickier, and the narrower hulls provide less living space than an equivalently-sized monohull.

As the righting moment (the force that resists the opposite torque of the wind on the sails) is produced by a float on either side called an ama and not a heavy protruding keel, trimarans are lighter and faster than a monohull of equivalent length. A lightweight retractable keel, referred to as a centerboard is often employed to resist lateral movement, making many models easily beachable. Most trimarans are nearly impossible to flip sideways given a reasonable degree of caution, however, trimarans can reach speeds so great in a storm that they can plow into a wave and flip end-over-end. This hazard is especially dangerous for a multihull because of their wide beam. The front of the boat, often covered by trampoline, acts as a giant paddle rather than a narrow monohull would. To avoid this unfortunate scenario trimaran sailors are advised to use trampolines with a large weave and employ parachute drogues and sea anchors whenever appropriate.

The father of the modern sailing trimaran is Victor Tchetchet, a Russian émigré and a strong proponent of multihull sailing. Mr. Tchetchet, who was a fighter pilot during the First World War in the Czar’s Air Force, lived in Great Neck, New York from the 1940’s until his death. He built two trimarans while living in the US, Eggnog 1 and 2. Both boats were made of marine plywood and were about 24 feet long. Mr. Tchetchet is credited with coining the name trimaran. Aside from boat design Mr. Tchetchet earned his living as a landscape and portrait painter.

advantages

Although it is possible for a trimaran to capsize, this is less frequent than with monohull boats because of the greater resistance to rolling that the amas offer. Most trimaran designs are considered nearly unsinkable because even when filled with water, the flotation of one ama is enough to keep the entire vessel afloat. Because of their stability and safety, trimarans such as the Challenger class have become popular with sailors who have restricted mobility.

The greater speed compared to monohulls can become important for safety when weather conditions are bad or threaten to deteriorate because the boat can faster leave the area of danger.

Potential buyers of trimarans should look for one that is designed with amas with multiple sealed partitions, controls that all run to the cockpit, a collision bulkhead, partial or full cockpit coverings or windshields, and drain holes in the cockpit that can adequately drain the cockpit quickly, among other things.

Disadvantages

Trimarans capsizes are more likely to be of the pitch-pole type than a roll to one side due to their higher sideways stability and speeds. Capsized trimarans are harder to turn upright than monohull boats. A capsized trimaran should not be righted by sideways rotation as this usually causes heavy damage of the mast and rigging. Harnesses pulling on the stern toward the bow, or from the bow toward the stern of capsized trimarans have been shown to be able to successfully turn them end-over-end. Several design features reduce the chance of pitch-pole capsize. These include having wing nets with an open weave designed to reduce windage and decks and nets that shed water easily. The best way to avoid capsize is to reduce the efficiency of the sails in heavy weather conditions.

In their early days, multihulls including trimarans ran a greater risk of material damage than monohulls. For ocean-going trimarans, even some trimaran sailors still considered this to be true.

Trimarans at anchor or mooring may follow the wind due to their light weight and shallow draft while monohulls usually follow the tides. This can cause collisions if the trimaran is close to another vessel and the swing circles overlap. A bridle to the anchor line may assist in reducing this swing.

Ketch

A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft (rearward) of the main mast. Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward. If a ketch is not rigged for jibs it is called a cat ketch, sometimes called a periauger. On older, larger ketches the main mast may in addition carry one or more square rigged topsails. A ketch may also carry extra sails, see below.

The lowest fore-and-aft sail on the main mast is called the mainsail, while that on the mizzen is called the mizzen sail. These may be any type of fore-and-aft sail, in any combination. The Scots Zulu, for example, had a dipping lug main with a standing lug mizzen.

The ketch is popular among long distance cruisers as the additional sail allows for a better balance, and a smaller more easily handled mainsail for the same overall sail area. It also allows sailing on mizzen and jib only without introducing excessive lee helm, and in an emergency can be quite well steered without use of the rudder. The ketch is a popular rig in northern European waters where sudden increases in wind strength sometimes requires a rapid reefing: the mainsail can be dropped, reducing sail and leaving a balanced sail-plan with jib and mizzen set.

Running before the wind or reaching across the wind, a ketch may carry extra sails such as a spinnaker on the main mast, and a spinnaker.

Similar rigs

The ketch rig is often confused with a yawl. The difference is that the ketch has her mizzen mast forward of the rudder post or waterline thus having more sail area, which contributes significant forward propulsion, whereas the mizzen on a yawl is aft of the rudder post and is used primarily to balance the sail plan (and as a riding sail while at anchor). This is often a matter of intent rather than a physical difference.

The ketch rig can be distinguished from the similar two masted schooner rig by the shorter aftermost mast on the ketch. A schooner has the shorter mast forward. In the case where both masts are approximately the same height, the rig with the larger sail forward is usually called a ketch, while the rig with the larger sail aft is a schooner.

Catamaran

A catamaran (From Tamil 'kattumaram')^[1] is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas. Catamarans can be sail- or engine-powered. The catamaran was first discovered being used by the paravas, a fishing community in the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, India. Catamarans were used by the ancient Tamil Chola dynasty as early as the 5th century AD for moving their fleets to invade such Southeast Asian regions as Burma, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Catamarans are a relatively recent introduction to the design of boats for both leisure and sport sailing, although they have been used for millennia in Oceania, where Polynesian catamarans and outrigger canoes allowed seafaring Polynesians to settle the world's most far-flung islands.

In recreational sailing, catamarans, and multihulls in general, have been met by a degree of skepticism from Western sailors accustomed to more "traditional" monohull designs^[2], mainly because multihulls were based on, to them, completely alien and strange concepts, with balance based on geometry rather than weight distribution. However, the catamaran has arguably become the best hullform for fast ferries, because their powering characteristics and spacious arrangements are valuable.

History

A Polynesian catamaran

A present scull training on catamaran

While the English adventurer and buccaneer William Dampier was traveling around the world in the 1690s in search of business opportunities, he found himself on the southeastern coast of India, in Tamil Nadu on the Bay of Bengal. He was the first to write in English about a kind of vessel he observed there. It was little more than a raft made of logs.

On the coast of Coromandel," he wrote in 1697, "they call them Catamarans. These are but one Log, or two, sometimes of a sort of light Wood ... so small, that they carry but one Man, whose legs and breech are always in the Water.

Although the name came from Tamil, the modern catamaran came from the South Pacific. English visitors applied the Tamil name catamaran to the swift, stable sail and paddle boats made out of two widely separated logs and used by Polynesian natives to get from one island to another.

The design remained relatively unknown in the West for almost another 200 years, until an American, Nathanael Herreshoff, began to build catamaran boats of his own design in 1877 (US Pat. No. 189,459), namely 'Amaryllis', which immediately showed her superior performance capabilities, at her maiden regatta (The Centennial Regatta held on June 22, 1876, off the New York Yacht Club's Staten Island station^[2]). It was this same event, after being protested by the losers, where Catamarans, as a design, were barred from all the regular classes^[2] and they remained barred until the 1970s.

This ban relegated the catamaran to being a mere novelty boat design until 1947^[5]. In 1947, surfing legend, Woodbridge "Woody" Brown and Alfred Kumalae designed and built the first modern ocean-going catamaran, Manu Kai, in Hawaii. Their young assistant was Rudy Choy, who later founded the design firm Choy/Seaman/Kumalae (C/S/K, 1957) and became a fountainhead for the catamaran movement. The Prout Brothers, Roland and Francis, experimented with catamarans in 1949 and converted their 1935 boat factory in Canvey Island, Essex (England), to catamaran production in 1954. Their Shearwater catamarans won races easily against the single hulled yachts.

The speed and stability of these catamarans soon made them a popular pleasure craft, with their popularity really taking off in Europe, and was followed soon thereafter in America. Currently, most individually owned catamarans are built in France, South Africa, and Australia.

In the mid-twentieth century, the catamaran inspired an even more popular sailboat, the Beach Cat. In California, a maker of surfboards, Hobie Alter produced the 250-pound Hobie Cat 14 in 1967, and two years later the larger and even more successful Hobie 16. That boat remains in production, with more than 100,000 made in the past three decades.

The Tornado catamaran is an Olympic class sailing catamaran, with a crew of two. It has been in the Olympic Games since 1976. It was designed in 1967 by Rodney March of Brightlingsea, England, with help from Terry Pierce, and Reg White, specifically for the purpose of becoming the Olympic catamaran. At the IYRU Olympic Catamaran Trials, it easily defeated the other challengers.

Other important builders of catamarans are Austal and Incat, both of Australia and best known for building large catamarans both as civilian ferries and as naval vessels.

Usage and Application

Sailing Beach Catamarans

A catamaran sailboat

Although the principles of sailing are the same for both catamarans and monohulls, there are some "peculiarities" to sailing catamarans. For example:

• Catamarans can be harder to tack if they don't have dagger boards or centre boards. All sailboats must resist lateral movement in order to sail in directions other than downwind and they do this by either the hull itself or else dagger boards or centre boards. Also, because catamarans are lighter in proportion to their sail size, they have less momentum to carry them through the turn when they are head to wind. Correct use of the jib sail (back-filling the jib to pull the bow around) is often essential in successfully completing a tack without ending up stuck in irons (pointing dead into the wind and sailing backwards, see: No-Go Zone).
• They have a higher speed than other sailboats of the same size. This is because they can have a much larger sail area due to the larger righting moment. They can reach over 1.5 times the speed of the wind.
• Catamarans are less likely to capsize in the classic 'beam-wise' manner but often have a tendency to pitchpole instead - where the leeward (downwind) bow sinks into the water and the boat 'trips' over forward, leading to a capsize.^{[citation needed]}

Teaching for new sailors is usually carried out in monohulls as they are thought easier to learn to sail, a mixture of all the differences mentioned probably contributes to this.

Catamarans, and multihulls in general, are normally faster than single-hull boats for three reasons:

• catamarans are lighter due to the fact there is no keel counterweight;
• catamarans have a wider beam (the distance from one side of the boat to the other), which makes them more stable and therefore able to carry more sail area per unit of length than an equivalent monohull; and
• the greater stability means that the sail is more likely to stay upright in a gust, drawing more power than a monohull's sail which is more likely to heel (lean) over.

A catamaran is most likely to achieve its maximum speed when its forward motion is not unduly disturbed by wave action. This is achieved in waters where the wavelength of the waves is somewhat greater than the waterline length of the hulls, or it is achieved by the design piercing the waves. In either case pitching (rocking horse-like motion) is reduced. This has led to it being said that catamarans are especially favourable in coastal waters, where the often sheltered waters permit the boat to reach and maintain its maximum speed.

Catamarans make good cruising and long distance boats: The Race (around the world, in 2001) was won by the giant catamaran Club Med skippered by Grant Dalton. It went round the earth in 62 days at an average speed of eighteen knots.