I'm going on an international diesel hybrid race (OK... tall ship race)

[bbjsw10]

Awesome, wish you best of luck. That is a beautiful ship. Wish I knew how to sail.

[Tango Charlie]

Building a schooner is on my post-retirement to-do list.
Have a great time, Darin!
Take pictures!

[MetroMPG]

Greetings from on board the Mist of Avalon!

We're five on board for the first leg of the trip from Ivy Lea to Quebec City. (A little short-handed as six would make three pairs for 4 hour watches.) It's traditional for the crew to meet on the ship the night before to get settled in.

The weather forecast is for light westerly winds tomorrow, so we'll likely be motor-sailing with the foresails up when we can (blended hybrid mode ).

The trip starts bright and early tomorrow morning, and the skipper says we may try to go straight through to Trois-Rivieres, Quebec (200 nautical miles / 366 km) in one shot of around-the-clock sailing, rather than day-sailing our way down the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Talk to you again somewhere down the river...

Pics will be posted, if I can find somewhere to connect.

[MetroMPG]

The beginning of our first day found us cloaked in heavy fog. We went to bed in the 1000 Islands and woke up in Newfoundland! But confident on our home turf, and with 5 sets of eyes, paper charts, radar, GPS, electronic plotter and a fog horn sounding every minute, we cast off at 8 AM as planned.

The fog burned off by a brilliant sun within a couple of hours, and hot, clear weather followed. Sadly, the wind was AWOL. We've been motoring, ocaasionally (hopefully) checking the telltale we raised to the top of the mainmast. Here's hoping this long diesel powered "pulse" will be followed at some point by a satisfying wind powered "glide".

EcoModder members may be interested to know that another member of the crew is none other than the son of Harry Stevenson, who built his aerodynamic Ford Model T in the 1930s:


The end of the day finds us just east of Cornwall, Ontario, approaching the Ontario/Quebec border. With no wind, and clear skies, we've decided to push on and make up as much time as we can, so we'll have some in the bank to spend if & when the winds show up, or tuck in to safe harbour should too much wind show up...

Our next stop will be Trois Rivieres, Quebec.

[almightybmw]

Wow. It's like looking at a dream of mine, to sail around. I'm partial to a full on clipper from the 1700's, but a schooner would be still awesome.

this is what I'd like to commander with a crew some day....
http://www.caphorniers.cl/preussen/preussen01_b.gif

big pic, so I didn't embed.

[MetroMPG]

The ship's out of the bottle!

We exited the last lock in Montreal just before 8AM, 24 hours after leaving the dock in Ivy Lea. Another hot, sunny... windless day.

[tasdrouille]

I woke up with a perfect day for good mpg in front of me. It just shows that once again one man's meat is another man's poison.

I love reading the updates, keep us posted.

[Tango Charlie]

I know next to nothing about sailing, so please excuse my ignorance.
What are the horizontal rows of tufts attached to the sails? Are they in a perpetual state of tuft testing?

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Tango Charlie

What are the horizontal rows of tufts attached to the sails? Are they in a perpetual state of tuft testing?

In the picture in the first post? I'm scaling up from sailboard/landsailer sails here, but I think those are battens: small strips of fiberglass or similar that help the trailing edge hold its shape, rather than flapping in the breeze. Tufts on the sails might also be used to tell how close to the wind it's pointing: if it's at too steep an angle, a sail will stall much like an airplane wing.

[Tango Charlie]

No, I don't think you can see them in the photo. You can see them in the video. If you pause at 1:35 they're right there. It doesn't look like they're moving with the breeze much.