Sydney to Hobart 2011

What a great day at the races on Boxing Day! Walked the CYCA docks for a few hours and watched and listened to final preparations by the crews, checked out the competition between the older class of yachts similar to RW and basically soaked up the atmosphere. At 1100 h I boarded Majestic II, the CYCA chartered cat that was the only vessel (other than the start boat) permitted inside the exclusion zone. It was a beautiful sunny day with a good breeze for a beat to the heads. We followed the first start line to the first turning mark and managed to stay out of the way for the second line of starters....well mostly! Our skipper only had one indiscretion where he forced a yacht to tack early.....very colourful exchange from the foredecky who thought he was about to face plant a huge catamaran......not happy little vegemites. The pic below shows how intimate we were...I stopped taking pics as I need to peer over the rail to see if there stern cleared the side of our hull as they tacked!!

Hugo Boss was on the docks and looked magnificent. Goes to show though, Australia is also at the top of the ocean racing game with Wild Oats leading this grand prix ocean flier. 

Spectra Speed Core-to-Core Eye Splicing

I have never spliced Spectra Speed braid or any braid for that matter, only 3 strand silver or nylon mooring/anchor line. To date, the trusty old bowline has done the trick for just about any situation.

Now that RW is getting her makeover and the running gear is being upgraded to Spectra and Dymeena braid, I thought it was time to broaden my skill set just a tad, so onto the net to search for demo splicing videos. Southern Ocean Ropes had a great video on Core to Core splicing that was much more informative than their written instructions. So, tools in place I gave it a crack. A couple of crap attempts as I tried to get the measurements spot on.....short cover long core....short core long loose cover.. and so it went for about 3 beers. Finally, it all came together very well......mind you, my hands copped a flogging....who would have guessed looking at my soft office worker hands I was once a mechanic!

Once the splice was in place the hard part is milking the cover back in place. The trick being to exercise the cover before you commence the splice by sliding the cover back and forth (4-5 times) along the core for about 3-4 metres. This loosens the 32 braid cover and it is the difference between success and failure. The hard rubber mallet and 5kg dumbell are used during the milking process. After milking the cover over the splice as far as possible, beat the splice on the floor with the mallet then hook on the dumbell and shock load the eye to straighten the core.....milk the cover and so on until it all sits neatly just like this one.

 Donaghys Spectra Speed 10mm Core-to-Core Eye splice