Member of Shore Crew in the harbour of San Sebastian
After an „interesting“ trip with the Auto Train from Altona to Lörrach, the shore team of Zora drove two days and explored two French camp grounds before crossing into Spain and finally reaching the Atlantic ocean. This was celebrated with an excellent pintxos lunch and a bath in the beautiful bay.
Die nächste Crew ist auf dem Weg nach Lissabon. Gesa hasst das Fliegen und so verbinden wir Schönes mit Nützlichem und machen einen Roadtrip um Zora an ihrem letzten geplanten Hafen auf dem Europäischen Kontinent noch einmal zu versorgen. An Bord unseres VW Busses sind außer der Campingausrüstung allerlei Großes und Kleines das an Bord zumindest noch nützlich sein könnte. Unter anderem ein überholter Wärmetauscher für die grüne Eminenz. Vielleicht ist das nur notwendig um die Paranoia von Tobias zu beruhigen, der der Reparatur aus Ramsgate nicht so richtig traut und sich auf einer einsamen Insel (Selvaghem Grande – wer kennt das und weiß wo das ist 😛) mit einem leckenden Wärmetauscher sieht…
Am Sonnabend gegen 18:00 läuft Zora in Cascais ein – fast eine Woche früher als geplant. Am Sonntag hatte ich die Gelegenheit länger mit dem Skipper zu telefonieren. Die gesamte Reise verlief entspannt und nach Plan. Alles an Bord hat gut und zuverlässig funktioniert. Alle Crews haben sich wohlgefühlt. Über die Reise gäbe es viel zu berichten. Hoffentlich wird einer der Teilnehmer den Weg zum Stift oder zur Tastatur finden…
One of the things we added to Rode Zora was a wind generator. In my view a wind generator adds a level of independence. I hate having to connect to shore power or, even worse, starting up the engine just to charge batteries. In Northern Europe there is generally not so much sun but plenty of wind and when sailing it almost always comes from forward of the beam! So, a wind generator is a more logical solution than solar cells.
There is quite a variety of models on the market to choose from starting at 200 € up to several thousands. There are also good reviews to be found on youtube covering most models that are commercially available. From the review it becomes clear quickly that buying one of the cheap models is a waste of money and effort. The work and/or cost for Installing one of these units on the boat should not be underestimated. In fact this outweighs the generator itself.
In our case we quickly converged on the SilentWind. It has good reviews, the cost is in the mid range and the fact that it comes with a voltage regulator that allows to add solar cells made it even more attractive. SilentWind also advertises that their generators are being used in the Volvo Ocean Race. So, our reasoning: If it is good enough for these guys, it should be good enough for us. SilentWind is a German-Portuguese company based in Porto. And this is why I write about it here.
After the unit arrived the first observation was about the size: A 400 W wind generator is a sizeable object. The diameter of the rotor is in excess of 1m and hence the mounting point must be high enough so that the blades cannot harm anybody who might be standing below the thing. In our case, the mast on which the generator is mounted is about 3m above deck level and correspondingly heavy. Nothing that I could bricolage together. Definitely a job for the yard which delivered beautiful work for a not insignificant amount of money. The mast has a hinge a the bottom because with the mast up, Zora would not fit through the door of the boat shed in Wedel. (Note that the mast cannot be laid down with the mast up since it interferes with out double back stay, unless you are willing to remove the backstay…)
During our first season with Windy we had a lot of trouble with vibrations. No effort of ours could remove them and they were so bad that the massive stainless steel mast developed a crack close to one of the welds where the support struts are attached. During the winter we sent it back to Portugal and SilentWind worked on it. In fact, when we got it back, we noticed that they had machined the support flange where it is attached to the axle of the generator. They also gave the generator a new coating as the paint was coming off in places and aluminium oxidation was setting in. After this the vibration problem was a lot better. It did not completely disappear though. But it was so much reduced that we have had no more trouble with the mast
After this second season, Zora stayed in the water during the winter with her mast up. I decided not to take down the generator as it is rather difficult to do this with the mast up, balancing on a ladder that is hard to set up on the deck. I dismounted the blades though. When trying to recommission the generator again this spring for our tour d’Atlantique, the bearings in the generator were seized up. Apparently water had entered into the ball bearings.
I contacted SilentWind again and they reacted very quickly and shipped spare bearings from Portugal by express mail. They arrived in Hamburg within 24h. Amazing! However, I decided not to install them. An engineer friend looked at the bearings and recommended to install fully sealed bearings from SKF. These are standard ball bearings one can order from dedicated web shops for ball bearings for approximately 4 Euros a piece. There is a video on youtube about how to install them. Now Windy is spinning again and making electricity on board. Time to sum up our experience:
First observation: A 400W generator is a sizeable beast and significant forces are involved requiring good support. The effort to provide this support is not to be underestimated. Second observation: 400W is a bit of an exaggeration. At 12 V, 400 W would require 33A. Even when it is windy I typically see maximum currents of 10 A and the most I have seen is 20. There might have been 30, but under those circumstances I would typically not care so much about how much the generator is charging. Third observation: Sailing across the North Sea, our batteries are kept well charged as there was always enough wind and typically from ahead. You notice quickly when the batteries are full because you notice the brake of Windy setting in. Fourth observation: The SilentWind is a reasonable unit with some deficiencies in the design. I think the most serious is the flange that holds the blades. Both the way it is attached to the generator axle and the way the blades are attached is not defined well enough for the requirements. Things can be fiddled but it takes a lot of effort and time. Finally, the support from the company in Porto, Portugal, has been very forthcoming and friendly. Had I been on board, I would definitely have take the time and visited them. I actually exchanged a number of emails with a guy called Edgar and even met him during Boot Düsseldorf. Would have been nice to chat and exchange experiences…
Gestern früh wurde die Crew durch lautes Krachen geweckt. Der Blick nach draußen enthüllte, dass eine Niederländische Segelyacht beim Manövrieren im Strom auf dem Heck der Zora gelandet war. Der aus dem Schlaf gerissene Skipper konnte noch feststellen, dass sich der Unfallgegner nach etwas Zögern aus dem Staub machte.
Anfängliche Sorgen, dass Ruder oder Windsteuerung beschädigt seien, konnten rasch zerstreut werden. Nur eine Tiefe Macke am Spiegel zeugt von dem Vorfall. Das kann natürlich mit Farbe und Spachtel repariert werden. Aber es ist doch sehr ärgerlich (und rechtswidrig) dass der unbekannte Segler nicht wenigsten längsseits gekommen ist um sich den Schaden zu beschauen und seine Daten zu hinterlassen.
Jakob hat sich dann entschlossen bei der Policia Maritima eine Beschwerde zu hinterlegen und ausserdem den Hafen in Bayona informiert, wohin der Segler vermutlich unterwegs war. Mal schauen, ob dass dazu führt, dass er sich meldet…
Strong Northerlies pushed Zora south today. With a brisk breeze on her back she covered approximately 35 NM in 5h reaching Viana do Castelo, the northernmost port in Portugal. Viano do Castelo is one of the old seafaring towns on Portugal’s Atlantic coast. From here many of the Portuguese explorers and traders left for their overseas voyages. Many buildings in town date back to this period. Viano do Castelo also appears to be a good surfing location. Even a surfcam is set up that monitors the buzzling activities of kiters making use of the strong winds and almost ideal surf:
130.185.85.5:1935/live/viana.stream/playlist.m3u8
There is the first hints of sailing in the trades. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, Zora rounded Finisterre and anchored off Vigo in the morning.
This night Elias from Poseidon Waterpolo joined the crew and with three on board Zora is off heading south for Porto and Lissabon
On 6 July at 12:00 I had a chance to speak to Jakob. The crew of Rode Zora v. Amsterdam had just woken up after arriving in La Coruna around midnight. Zora had taken 4d 16h from Falmouth. Winds had been from the W for the first 24. On the second day there was hardly and wind. The wind came back during the night from Monday to Tuesday, this time with up to 6 Beaufort from the East. This meant rapid progress with speeds up to 9kn. The wind died down almost instantaneously on Tuesday evening and left Zora banging around in 3 – 4m swells. A thunderstorm moved through and the wind came back this time from W. This allowed to set a direct course for La Coruna where Zora arrived around midnight…
On 18 June Rode Zora left Ramsgate with Crew No 2, Ben, Gerrit, Boris and Skipper Jakob. Two members of Crew No 1, Rahel and Tobias unfortunately had to fly to Hamburg again. Crew No 2 used the high pressure system over the British Isles and sailed in two hops in 3.5 days from Cowes all the way to Dartmouth. It was important to the skipper to round Portland bill with the infamous Portland tide race and Lyme bay in good weather conditions. After two days at anchor in the river Dart and enjoying the beautiful English countryside, Zora left for Plymouth for another crew change. This time Ben and Gerrit left and Henrik and Felix Zachariassen joined. Plymouth was a good place for this crew change as Felix had spent 1 year there as a student and could introduce the rest of the crew to the local haunts.
With a stop in Falmouth, Zora went on to the Isles of Scilly. The high pressure system was already on the way out but the weather was still reasonably quiet to allow this visit. The Scillies lie almost 50 miles off Lands End in the Atlantic and visits in strong winds are generally not recommended. Most island in the archipelago have no proper harbours and the anchorages are exposed to various wind directions.
The weather was reasonably stable during the visit, unfortunately not sunny, but the crew was impressed with the almost Mediterranean atmosphere. 
As the next depression finally cleaned out the remains of the high pressure system, Zora came flying back with 7 Beaufort on her heels to Falmouth. Another day was spent exploring the area and finally crew No 4, Skipper Jakob with only one other crew set off for Spain. The distance from Falmouth to Finisterre is 460 nm and we had foreseen 4-5 days. Weather forecasts get uncertain after the third day. In addition the forecast in this period was showing a small depression forming over the Iberian peninsula towards the end of the forecast period with winds of more than 30kn from SW around Finisterre.
Jakob just sent a whatsapp message… Zora is 22 NM north of Spain. Almost 1000 nm from home. Quite unbelievable
