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starr-fall-knight-rise · 5 years ago

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Humans are Space Orcs,”The Nexus Falls.”

Sorry about the weird formatting. It was a hectic morning, but I hope you enjoy.

The entire room blinked in unconcealed shock as the Commander turned off the monitor and returned to the captain’s chair. A completely different mad stood before them now. He could have been ten years older, eyes burning, back straight jaw set.

“Lieutenant, what do we know about the Burg weapons capabilities.”

“Well, sir, it doesn't look good for us. They have….. Some sort of heat gun that the GA has not yet been able to reverse engineer. If they hit us directly enough they could cook us all like sardines in a tin can.”

“Well, let’s make sure they don’t hit us.” He pointed across the room towards the systems specialist, “Call down to the engineers and tell them to pull power to the coolant system. I want it to be a winter wonderland in here by the time we are done. Let the crew know to wear gloves. Until the GA gets here with those extra shields, we are flying balls out naked, and I’m not a big fan of that picture.”

He turned back to the original crew-member, “What are their shield capabilities.”

“GA database says they are at a level two, energy resistant, but….. Well look at this. They have no impact on projectile weapons.”

“What’s the point of having a shield in the first place if it can’t protect you against projectiles.” One of the crew members muttered.

The commander leaned back in his seat single eye flashing, “Because, projectile weapons are considered barbaric and out of date, all of the advanced GA weaponry runs on energy pulses. If they have those weapons it would act like an EMP to our ship and we would loose power. Don’t question the usefulness of their equipment.”

He tapped his fingers against the armrest, “After all, their equipment would be useful…. If they were fighting against anyone but humans. This levels the playing field,” he turned in his chair to the Comms officer, “Open comline to our other ships.

It didn’t take her more than a moment to do as told, and he spun in his chair back to face forward, “Commander, have the Burg surrendered, yet?”

A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of the Commander’s mouth, “Not yet, but we are working on it. Captains Ho, Silva and Bassi, peel off to protect the plants defence nexus. The rest of us will stay here to take care of the burg fleet as much as we can until GA backup arrives. Use only projectile weapons, and not anything energy found that the GA may have given you. Make sure to up your coolant systems. They have a one charge heat ray that could potentially cooks us where we sit.”

“Commander, the burg ship is moving.”

“Get to work everyone!” The commander ordered, “Tell the pilots to launch, and start targeting their engines. Take care of any other ship that tries to do the same to us.”

“Yes, sir.”

“The burg ship is targeting us, sir.”

“Sunny, Preprair lateral rail guns.”

“Yes sir.” The small blue Drev turned back to her console and began working furiously.

The commander grabbed the controls, which responded to his touch. The chair morphed around him giving him a place to insert his hands and his feet for better steering.

A curved holo-projections dropped down over his eyes casting his skin into shades of blue and white.

“Sir, the Burg have almost reached lock… sir.”

“Remain calm.” The man ordered

The new recruits stared out the front screen of the ship as the burg ship dropped into position. It was a massive thing all spikes and pincers painted in colors of black orange and red, dressed for war. And between two of those pincers, they watched as a bright purple light began to grow up, targeted right towards them.

“Commander, if we don’t move now there will be no TIME to move.” One of the crew members yelled in agitation.

“Thank you lieutenant, I am very aware of the movement capabilities of my ship now TRUST me to fly her. Sunny! Are the rail guns charged.”

“Yes sir.’ She shouted back

The crew member paused mid argument, through they wriggled in their seat with panic. The bigger the flash of purple light grew the more agitated they became until everyone on the bridge crew was muttering and cursing to themselves. Outside a swarm of F-90 Darkfire jets rolled out from under their ship sweeping through the center of space.

Silently, little bolts of white light leaped across the intervening space, and little red explosions, like the blossoming of flowers appeared against the burg hull.

The large purple orb grew in power and strength

The bridge crew was in an uproar.

Commander Vir remained still and silent looking down the barrel of death without so much as flinching hands remaining relaxed around the controls.

The purple beam fired.

And suddenly, they were gone.

All around them the world warped caving in on itself imploding and then expanding in an instant. As soon as they appeared in space, nothing but a field of stars in their view, the commander pulled a hard left, slowly turning their hulking ship backwards.

There was a gap from the crew as the burg ship came back into focus though at a wildly different angle than before.

The commander had micro warped the ship BEHIND burg defenses, though they wouldn’t have this upper hand for long. Even now the burg ship was turning on its axis to face them.

“FIRE!” The commander ordered.

And sunny pulled the trigger.

All through the ship, they could felt the massive ca-chunk ca-chunk as two rail guns fired. The space was lit up between them, and then space was lit by a massive blossoming explosion of red and orange alone the left side of the burg ship completely snapping off a few of the pincers and sending space debris out in all directions.

Little fighter jets, like a swarm of bees around the head of a bear continued to harass the burg shi

“Contact!” Captain, it was a good hit

“But they will be prepared for it next time, he muttered. That maneuver won’t be so unpredictable.”

Just then a light blue holo-projection appeared to the side of the captain’s chair. Nairobi from engineering stood before him, “Captain, whatever you just did DON'T do it again, or you will overheat the warp core, and cook us all.

“Damned if I do damned if I don't.” THe man muttered, “Don’t worry, that was just giving us a bit of a head start.” Her projection disappeared and the captain tilted their ship slightly to the right, “Fire!

That same sound reverberated through the ship, rocking them in place as they sat. The burg ship was a little more prepared this time, pulling to the side managing to dodge one entirely while the other merely strafed their starboard side, though it still left a red hot gouge against their hull

“Burg targeting us again commander.” There was no purple light this time, which partially assured him they were not in danger of being cooked

Behind the Burg, the second UNSC ship had been pulling to a flanking maneuver, only to be blindsided by a second incoming burg ship

They watched as the purple beam cut across intervening space and caught her a glancing blow along the port side.

“Shit.” The commander muttered

“Check on captain Eklend.

“Charging again, commander.

The ship jolted to the side, just as a volley of red hot beams burst towards them. THe entire hull rocked and shook. The crew grabbed onto their seats crushing as the entire room rocked and thundered nearly throwing them out of their seats

“They hit, hull breach on cargo deck E, sir.

“Containment.

“In effect sir, though it won’t last for long.

“Casualties.

“No casualties, so far though four were injured.

“Commander, Captain Eklend is alright, through their core is dangerously close to overheating. He can’t take another hit like that, and his warp capabilities are disabled for the time being.

“Tell him to adjust course and put the Bur ship between him and their command ship, I have an idea or two that might just help us.

The crew looked on from where they sat, rigid in their seats while behind them, the commander relaxed back into his chair. Again his hands were steady on the controls, his single eye was sharp

And there was a glimmer of something hungry in that bright green eye.

“Lieutenant, how long can we polarize the gravity field on the outer hull?”

“It would be dangerous sir, no more than a few seconds or risk pulling the ship apart, or pulling us apart

He closed his eyes for a moment searing mentally for Conn, who was preparing to exit the airlock

“I need you to do one last thing before you leave.”

Their conversation was quick

“ I just spoke with engineering, sir. It won’t be healthy for anyone, or for the ship but it can be done for a few seconds. How long do you need.”

“Long enough to deal with Newton's first law.”

***

“Your Glory our instruments are detecting a hull breach.

The burg commander hissed in pleasure, “Puny human ship will stand no chance at the rest of our attacks.” The human may have followed her once with that micro warp, but he wouldn't be able to do it again.

The ship shuddered and rocked as those tiny, pesky nits continued to batter their outer hull. One of her ships broke through and hurtled towards the human ship, catching it a glancing blow along its dorsal side before being blasted into oblivion

Didn’t matter to her, those ships were unmanned, and she always had more, “Charge the energy cannon.

“Yes your glory.

The human ship fired back not a moment later, and they were only just able to maneuver out of the way, sending a volley of rounds over their upper fins. One of their dorsal antenna was blown straight off, but it was a loss she could take. Warfare in space was slow especially between ships as big as theirs, though outside the nits rocketed past in groups of four or five.

The ship continued to rumble as ordinance battered against their hard outer shell

She ordered another volley, which seared through the void battering against the human hull. There were no breaches this time, as they were aimed towards center mass, but large portions of metal and siding came peeling off like shell peels off a corpse.”

In that intervening time, the humans had charged up their large opposing weapons and sent two more rounds straight for them. She tried pulling to the side to avoid them, but the human had maneuvered his ship in a sharp turn between the firing of the first and the firing of the second cannon, moving the trajectory of the second directly into her line of movement. There was an eruption on the deck below her, and she was almost thrown onto her face.

“We have a hull breach, your glory.

“Would you like a casualty report.

“I do not care about casualties.” She snapped gripping hard onto one of the ship’s interior rails, hooking around it with one of her pincers

She looked up at her screen, watching on radar as a second human ship rolled into position behind them. She was not worried though. Another one of the burg ships had maneuvered to cover her from the rear, and they seemed to be having marginally more success than she was

The human ship had taken multiple hits, including one from a heat beam, which seemed to have crippled it’s movement ability.

She was pleased, though not pleased enough about their current position against the main human ship.

“Fire energy cannon!” She ordered, but as she did the humans dropped some sort of volley of their own. A thousand lights burst into shape before the ship, like a million tiny sparks shed from a fire, they erupted around the hull and out into space catching the energy pulse mid flight.

The little dots of light erupted through it dispersed her energy shot.

She would have been angry for her plan being thwarted, if that had been her plan to begin with. As the night around them was lit up by a thousand tiny sparks obscuring her vision and that of their ship she roared, “Fire Central cannon.”

The missile erupted from their dorsal side trailing gas and fire as it went.

***

His vision was partially obscured by smoke, and he had difficulty seeing the burg ship through the remains of their flares, though something in his gut told him not to rest easy.

Which is why he, unlike everyone else, saw the sudden eruption of flame through the cloud of dying sparks sucked clean by the vacuum.

“Reverse polarity!” He ordered.

And in response, the lieutenant slammed her hand down on the button.

He felt the change as soon as it came. The entire ship squealed and groaned. Metal pulled against metal popping and cracking as rivets and screws snapped. He was thrown against his harness pulled in multiple directions at once as the outer hull’s gravity was polarized backwards into space.

Objects all across the ship exploded with the intense power of gravity being pulled in all directions.

Blood pooled stuck still in veins and hearts.

Movement became impossible.

And the burg missile soared from the cloud, before slowing, stopping, and then wildly reversing direction. Spurred by a pre programmed secondary explosion which sent a wave of compressed gas outwards to propel the thing faster before dissipating.

There was a loud SNAP. as the polarity was reversed back to normal. And the entire crew gasped.

A few people fell unconscious against their harnesses

Commander Vir wiped his face on his sleeve, blood trickling down from one nostril.

“Conn? Conn are you there?”

“Yes commander, I am here. The doctor is safe, and so are your little pets. Be lucky, I just managed to get gravity belts to them in time. I wager to believe the doctors head might literally have exploded otherwise

“Good work.”

“I’d say it’s my pleasure, but I honestly don’t care/”

***

The burg commander crowded in delight.

The human couldn't have seen that coming.

But behind her the shiplings squealed. She saw it before she could demand to know what was going on, watching as her own missile came soaring back at them from space. The shiplings reacted faster than she could have, and the ship jerked upwards narrowly missing the projectile as it roared past cutting under the lower side of the ship.

It felt as if they were safe for a moment, but then she looked up at the screen and watched as their second ship erupted.

She only had enough time to curse before the debris began pelting their ship tearing into metal, screeching and vibrating through the hull.

The human ship had known what was coming and maneuvered to dodge the debris.

“We’re flanked!”

***

“Got you now bitch.”

Outside in the vastness of space, little blue dots began erupting against the star field.

“Captain, GA backup is arriving.” Their comms specialist said.

“Casualty report.”

“Three dead, sir.”

That was three two many, but he couldn’t focus on that now, he had to deal with what was at hand.

“Fire on the burg.”

“Sir, she’s retreating.”

“To where!” His question was answered as she dropped towards the ace of the planet. At some point, the three human ships had managed to get rid of most of the incoming Burg, though the defense nexus had been shredded.

“Sir, she’s heading planet side.”

“What good will that do her.” one of the crewmembers asked

The Commander knew exactly what it meant, “We can’t use any of our weapons if they go planetside for fear of killing the civilians…. They are taking this war ground level because they know they cannot win in the sky.”

“That’s fine.”

“No its not, they could dig in, take hostages….. This is about to get a whole lot more complicated.”

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365daysofsasuhina · 5 years ago

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[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day One Hundred Sixty: Stopped in the Road ] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata, Hyūga Neji ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: Best Years of Your Life ] [ AO3 Link ]

Gripping the edge of her car hood, Hinata stares at the steaming engine.

You’ve got to be kidding.

She just started this road trip...and now it’s already cancelled. Because something with her engine has gone wrong. UGH!

Head hanging between her shoulders as she clings to the hood, Hinata gives an entirely uncensored sigh. This...is the biggest bummer ever. So much for going to see her cousin and his fiance. At least it’s not their wedding...then she’d be having a full-blown temper tantrum.

Well...time to call a tow truck. And then Neji to apologize. Maybe next time she’ll make it there. Digging out her phone, she checks her car junk in the glove box, dialing the proper number. Thankfully it’s a basic enough conversation. Give her insurance info, say where she’s stranded, and ‘a truck will be with you in an hour’.

An hour?! She’s not that far out of town, for Pete’s sake!

Groaning once the call’s ended, Hinata just...plops herself into the driver’s seat. At least she got off the road, and there isn’t a huge amount of traffic. She’ll just...wait.

Nothing else to do.

Then thinking to dial Neji, she puts the mobile back to her ear. “Hey, Neji? Um...so about me coming to visit…”

“What’s wrong?”

“First, don’t panic: I’m not hurt or anything, but...my car decided to c-call it quits on me.”

There’s a sympathetic sigh on the other end. “Oh no, Hina…”

“There’s a truck coming, so...I guess I’ll just have to get it fixed. But I’m willing to bet it’ll be something that’ll take a while, so...consider me coming over there cancelled.”

“I’m so sorry - and don’t worry. We’ll be sure to see you another time. Are you far out?”

“Not too far, no. I’ll be fine.”

“Well...at least it won’t take you long to get home. And you aren’t hurt, or stranded without signal.”

That earns a wince at the thought. “Yeah...I’m all right. But I wanted to let you know.”

“I appreciate it. Do take care, Hinata - let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“I’ve got pretty good insurance. We’ll see how it pans out.”

Letting the call end, her head thuds back against the headrest. Well...now what?

Rummaging through her purse, she pulls out her mp3 player and slips in an earbud. Door ajar and seat reclined, she lets her eyes close and decides to just...doze. But she keeps one ear open to listen for anyone pulling up. Hopefully it’ll be the truck, and not anyone looking to cause trouble…

Good thing she went to the bathroom before she left in preparation for infrequent rest stops.

Checking her phone for the time a while later, Hinata glances up to her rearview mirror at a slowing car. Oh thank goodness, it’s the tow truck. And nearly half an hour earlier than she’d been told! Putting away her music, she hopes she seems...presentable. Her long road trip outfit of a tank and shorts isn’t the most...publicly appropriate thing she could be wearing. But she’d figured she’d be in her car or her hotel room for ninety-five percent of her drive.

Pulling up ahead of her, the truck maneuvers into place before the driver hops out. He’s wearing a blue mechanic’s coveralls, slightly stained with old oil spills and sporting a tear in a knee. Otherwise he’s got basic boots on, and a backwards cap.

And...oh. He’s cute.

Oh no.

Blinking as he approaches, Hinata shoves the thought faaar back into the recesses of her mind. That is not what she needs to be thinking about right now!

“Hey there,” he calls in greeting.

“Hi…”

“Having some trouble?”

“More than some,” Hinata mumbles, hugging herself a bit. “I have...no idea what’s wrong. I’m not a car type of person.”

“No worries, we’ll take it in and see what’s going on. Got anyone coming to pick you up, or…?”

“Oh, uh...n-no. I thought I’d go along and...hear what the damage is.”

“All right, no problem. Let me get this hooked up, and we’ll head back to the shop.”

Feeling awkward just...standing there watching, Hinata pretends to busy herself with her phone. In reality, she’s watching this guy out of the corner of her eyes. He’s got messy hair that’s even darker than hers - rather fair skinned, pretty tall...though his build is a bit hard to see in his baggy outfit.

Then he bends over to pick up some chain, and she blooms bright pink, spinning around.

...he’s got a nice butt.

Fiddling with her phone a bit longer, she turns as he announces he’s done. “Ready to go?”

“Yes, please...the heat’s been unbearable.”

“Well, I’ve got air conditioning in the truck,” he assures her with a hint of a smile. “I’m Sasuke, by the way.”

“Hinata. Thanks so much for getting here so fast. I think I would have baked alive otherwise.”

“Yeah, I figured. Didn’t want anyone battling the heat for too long.”

With that, he gets back into the driver’s seat, Hinata opening the passenger door. The truck is...a lot cleaner than she’d anticipated. Glancing into the mirror as they start moving, she bites her lip, watching her poor car trail behind them.

“Well, hopefully it won’t be too much to fix,” Sasuke offers, giving her a brief look.

“Yeah...me neither. Not sure I can afford a huge bill right now…”

“Were you heading out of town?”

“I was going to go see my cousin - he’s about eighteen hours from here…”

“Oh wow - at least you didn’t get too far.”

“That’s what he said. I just feel bad I had to cancel…”

“Better safe than sorry.”

The trip passes in an ebb and flow of conversation, the pair occasionally going quiet. In her head, Hinata tries to think of ways to gently approach her father with a request for help if the fix is too expensive. She hasn’t paid this car off yet...she can’t afford to replace it. And it’s been such a good little car until now!

Pulling up to the shop, Sasuke lets Hinata out to head into the office as he brings her rig in to start being looked at. Huddling in the waiting room, she takes a cup of free coffee to pass the time. All the while she prays for a basic fix.

Half an hour later, Sasuke finally comes back. “Okay, so...I’ve got good news, and bad news.”

She wilts. “...o-okay.”

“Good news is, there’s not a lot of serious damage. Your thermostat was busted, which wasn’t letting coolant, in, and caused the overheating. That’s easy enough to fix. The problem comes in from it having been an issue for a little while. Your head gasket’s been cracked.”

Hinata just blinks at him, having...no idea what that is.

“It’s also an easy part to get, but unfortunately, all the time to get things fixed up is going to be a lot of labor cost.”

“Oh…”

Considering her for a long moment, Sasuke sighs, rubbing at his neck. “...since I’ll be the one taking it on...I can get the parts within a few days. And I can probably get it done quick enough, it won’t add up to much. Maybe give you a small discount per hour.”

Wide eyes blink. “You...you would do that…?” Funny, she’s always heard of mechanics taking advantage of anyone - though especially women - who don’t know their cars well enough to know better. Is he just playing her…?

“I feel bad your trip got so interrupted. And I don’t want to run you into the ground with a big bill. I can let it slip, just this once.” Glancing to her, he gives a hint of a smile.

Her cheeks go ever so softly pink. “...thank you...that’s a h-huge relief…!” Maybe she won’t have to ask Hiashi, after all.

“Here - I’ll give you my number - if you want to check in on the progress, just let me know. I’ll try to keep you updated, and let you know when we’re about done.”

“Oh! T-thank you.” Shyly handing over her phone, she lets him input his digits into her contacts.

“You got a way to get home?”

“Oh, um...I’ll call my sister.” Thankfully Hanabi’s old enough to ferry her older sibling home. As for how Hinata will get anywhere else...well, she’ll figure it out. “Thank you so much, Sasuke.”

“No problem. We’ll get you fixed up, Hinata.”

Giving Hanabi a ring and waiting to be picked up, she can’t help a few furtive glances into the shop. From here, she can see him rooting around in the engine block.

...did he really need to give her his own number? Can’t he use the shop phone…?

...not that she’s complaining, but...that seemed a little...smooth.

Seeing Hanabi pull up, she puts the thought aside. Maybe she’ll just...check in tomorrow. Tomorrow won’t be too soon, right?

Maybe her car was doing her a favor.

.oOo.

Looong day, so I'll be brief xD I know...nothing about cars, lol - Google helped me a bit, but idek if this is...realistic or anything. I don't get paid enough writing these to research into how cars work enough to make something more detailed xD I found a few random snippets of info and just...pretended they'd make a real scenario. If it's wrong...whoops! Anyway, I am...e x h a u s t e d, so I'm gonna call it a night. Thanks for reading!

#sasuhina #uchiha sasuke #hyūga hinata #hyūga neji #best years of your life [ au ]#365daysofsasuhina

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smoothshift · 7 years ago

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Coolant leak question via /r/cars

Coolant leak question

I got a 2003 Chrysler Concorde and for the past few weeks have been noticing i have no heat and white smoke/steam coming from the engine. Checked my coolant yesterday and it was pretty low, looked nearly empty honestly. Refilled it and it seemed to run fine, the heater started working just fine again. Checked it this morning and it's back down to the same position it was before the refill. No visible leaks under the car or around the engine.

After driving it the white smoke isn't that bad but it seems to be coming from here. The car photo isn't mine as it's dark outside right now, but it's in that exact location and it's the same car model.

Just looking for some suggestions and way's to test what it might be before dropping any serious money on the car. Haven't been overheating yet or broke down.

Edit: My temperature gauge also seems to take a few minutes to go up. It's never gone over the half way point though but last time it took 5 minutes before it even moved at all. Again it's not getting anywhere close to the red.

#reddit #autonews #auto #cars

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rnrmarineservices-blog · 7 years ago

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What are the most common repairs at sea for yachts sailing across the Atlantic? ARC survey results tell all

We surveyed nearly all 290 yachts in the 2016 ARC transatlantic to find out what broke and how it was fixed; what worked and what didn't.

You cannot presume to be able to sail across an ocean without experiencing some problems or breakages with your equipment. We issued the 290 yachts sailing in the 2016 ARC and ARC+, transatlantic rallies with a survey to detail their breakages and solutions.

The first thing you notice from the results is that there were few empty columns for yachts without problems. In total, 167 yachts, or nearly 60 per cent of the fleet, had a breakage.

Problems are of course to be expected, but breakages can spoil voyages. One of the best ways to avoid them is to learn from others' mistakes.

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We collected all the data and questioned the skippers that had relevant issues to understand how they fixed them and the lessons they learnt.

The most common casualties were ripped sails and breakages caused by chafe which, going on past feedback, is nothing new. But prudent seamanship, plus routine checks and maintenance will limit these.

A worrying number of yachts had problems and breakages with their vangs and gooseneck fittings something we see time after time, so we have dedicated a large section of the results report to this.

There were also a number of steering problems, which we followed up on with the relevant skippers.

Ten toilet blockages or breakages reported

Eight watermaker malfunctions.

Ninety-three yachts suffered sail damage, 62 of which were ripped or damaged flying sails (spinnakers, gennakers or parasailors). The majority of damage was caused from the yacht being overpowered, or when hoisting, furling or dousing. Some skippers admitted that they were using old sails or that it happened during poor gybes.

Thirteen yachts had batten problems or breakages (mainly from flogging in light winds), which were replaced, removed or repaired. The simple message coming from the majority of these cases is to carry spares!

There were 68 reported rig problems or breakages mostly broken halyards with chafe being listed as the primary cause for over half.

There were multiple failures to preventers, blocks, and furling lines, again largely through chafe or overloading.

See the previous Yachting World ARC Surveys

95% of participating boats completed the survey. Click to enlarge.

Generator and battery problems on ARC 2016

Twenty-one yachts had problems with their generators. These mainly involved cooling issues, including coolant water, impellers, and salt or fresh water pumps.

A few changed impellers and filters to resolve the issues, but the majority had to switch to the main engine for power. The trend here showed a lack of routine maintenance.

Out of the 15 reported battery issues, the majority were charging problems put down to old batteries, which required more regular engine use to charge.

The starter battery exploded aboard the Ovni 365, Zigzag de Villeneuve, which skipper Mike Midgley put down to overcharging on a corroded terminal. They replaced the battery in Mindelo, which caused a delayed restart.

The crew aboard the Sweden 50 Scarabaus was unable to charge the batteries until they fashioned a new fan belt. The result was the loss of all fresh food.

Charles Chambers said that they were unable to charge the batteries aboard their Grand Soleil 50 Mk2 Betelgeuse. We had to run the main engine continuously to maintain the boat's systems, the battery charger overheated due to high demand when run off the generator and stopped working. This resulted in a diversion to Cape Verde. The boat does not have any wind, water or solar generation, which might have helped.

Wind, water and solar power: how alternative energy has been transformed

Damage to booms, preventers, goosenecks and vangs on Atlantic crossing

The broken gooseneck bolt aboard the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43 La Capitana

Another serious issue we've seen many times on ARCs concerns poorly led or set-up preventers. This happened aboard a Maxi 1300, resulting in a broken boom. No more details were given, but this generally occurs when the preventer is led to the boom's midsection rather than the end of the boom.

The Moody 425 Pierina, meanwhile, broke three preventers during crash gybes.

When the rivets of the gooseneck worked loose on the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 42i, Serenity, Roy Matheson used webbing straps for a temporary fix. He put the problem down to general wear and tear to his seven-year-old yacht, even if it happened a lot earlier than it possibly should have.

Matheson points to being caught in a storm for two days of slamming into waves on the way to Gran Canaria. And that, during the first week of the ARC, there was a lot of light wind and the boom was swinging around a lot, causing stress on the gooseneck.

Matheson now carries a large pop rivet gun with the correct rivet sizes to repair everything on board. He also now rigs a boom preventer in lights winds from any direction.

I now have a more permanent setup to secure the boom at all times when at anchor or in a marina. In the past I would only secure the boom in severe, rolly conditions. This should help a lot to reduce long term stresses on the gooseneck and other parts.

Tested: boom brakes and preventers, including Walder boom brake and Wichard Gyb'Easy

The gooseneck bolt broke aboard Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43, La Capitana during the ARC+ disconnecting the boom. I just noticed the boom hanging lose under the main sail, Jan Lindroos reported. Nothing alarming or special happened during that moment or just before. The grinding and wear and tear had somehow loosened the nut on the bolt and then the bolt dropped off its position.

We lifted the boom back into its slot using the spinnaker halyard and tied the boom in position by means of rope as there was no suitable bolt or pin material (The original bolt was bent).

Lindroos explained that the picture now shows the boom with a bolt in it, but that the whole boom end still needs to be changed and the mast connection looked into before their next crossing. He says the biggest take-home lesson is to inspect critical points more often.

Both the gooseneck and vang mast fittings broke aboard the 72ft Southern Wind Far II Kind. Heavy-duty ratchet straps were used as a temporary repair and the bolts needed to be retightened regularly. Skipper Will Glenn explained that the boom and vang had been removed prior to the ARC during rig survey work.

Heavy-duty ratchet straps (a wise spare to carry) secure the vang on Far II Kind.

The holes for bolts needed to be re-tapped or Helicoiled before putting the boom back on, but it turns out this was never done; therefore the bolts weren't tight enough and pulled some threads out.

Glenn said in hindsight they should have checked that the riggers did what was asked of them properly and that they should have trialled the boat in stronger winds than the 7-8 knots they had post rig survey.

L.I.A. of Sweden, one of four new More 55s on the crossing, damaged their mast track and pole during an accidental gybe, which also damaged the vang. A rope vang was made up as a repair. Fredrik Olsson reports that they were using a preventer at the time. Heeling to windward one night, the spinnaker pole dipped in the water to windward, breaking its attachment point at the mast. This also disabled the cable which runs on the outside of the vang.

The goosenecks also failed on the Lagoon 450F Calypso 166, the Solaris One 42 Albatross and the Archambault A35 Argentum, the latter when the vang fixing came loose. All were successfully secured with Dyneema/Spectra.

The gooseneck bolt/pin came out aboard the Leopard 48 Jolly Dacha and the Nautitech 542 Hugo. The vang pin worked loose and the vang detached on the Beneteau Sense 50 Jayana and the vang mast fitting ripped off when it was over -tensioned aboard Reliant 49, Rogue Trader once again Dyneema came to the rescue.

Video installing and testing a rope preventer and boom brakes to safely manage accidental gybes

Steering problems on the ARC 2016

Problems with steering linkage give cause for concern. David Dabney had some valuable advice after the cable broke aboard his Chris White designed trimaran, Juniper, despite upgrading it from 5mm to 6mm before the ARC after noticing broken strands.

The steering on Juniper is all exposed so the cables and sheaves can be observed at all times, Dabney explained. Twelve hours out from St Lucia I noticed the cable had broken strands so the emergency tiller was fitted. Six hours out the cable broke and we completed the rally with the tiller.

The 6mm cable I fitted in Denmark lasted approximately 5,000 miles. In my opinion the quality of the stainless steel available is of a lesser quality than in previous times. Most 316 cable is manufactured in Korea despite being marketed as German steel.

Rudder failure 1500 miles to sail across the Atlantic without a rudder.

Talking to other skippers that have experienced cable failure they have gone over to Dyneema cables. We have now fitted sheathed Dyneema to Juniper that has lasted 500 miles from St Lucia to Puerto Rico. Will it get us home to Denmark? I will let you know.

The steering cable broke on the Beneteau Oceanis 58 Boni Venti, which was put down to a combination of chafe and the block not articulating. The crew replaced the wire with Dyneema and it then worked fine.

The Baltic 51, Gatsby, also broke the pulley and cable to their steering system, which needed to be replaced in Cape Verde.

There were also a couple of sobering incidents with rudders. The crew of Endorphine II, a Bavaria 47 AC, found a leak in the rudder shaft, which they put down to wear and tear. They applied epoxy to the leak and were able to steer using the windvane rudder.

And in one of the most serious incidents, the outer casing of the rudder broke off aboard More 55 Lady Nor. They put the cause down to possibly striking a floating object. It took 20 hours to fabricate an aluminium sleeve from a floorboard.

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The underwater video footage the crew sent is alarming, clearly showing the bare foam innards of the rudder and how they dived and strapped plywood around the rudder to secure it.

Deck and rig fittings

What would you do if hardware, hatches or fittings ripped out of the deck or rig? When the mainsheet track car broke on Harmony 38 Oginev, the crew was quick to jury rig solutions. Pavlin Nadvorni told us that the Lewmar car suffered metal fatigue (and that their 2005 boat is 'not exactly spring chicken'). However, we'd run a soft shackle as a security measure, so when the aluminium casting broke, the mainsail and the boom didn't fly out of control.

We then made a stainless steel backing plate under the car with an off-the-shelf stainless steel 12mm ring bolt. When that started showing signs of dying on us, we replaced it with a 20mm thick D-shackle secured to the track with 20-30 wraps of 5mm Spectra. That kept us going for roughly 300-400 miles and we would just replace the chafed-through Spectra and keep going.

Nadvorni says that fatigued hardware remains a chief concern even on a recent IMOCA 60 delivery in the South Pacific (3,500 miles) so it is something to be expected even on a high-tech carbon fibre boat.

The traveller car broke during a crash gybe aboard Oyster Reach, an Oyster 54. This was also then lashed with Spectra. Jose Roberto Arruda confirms they were using a preventer at the time. The preventer helped to reduce the impact when the unexpected gybe occurred but the problem arose when the person on the helm tried to correct the route and gybed again in the other direction, which had no protection from the preventer.

The lesson here he says is not to try to correct the route when a gybe occurs stay on the same side until you return control to the boat.

The bowsprit pulled clean out of the deck aboard the Elan impression 434, Ocean Diamond 2 when it was overloaded, damaging the anchor stem, but they too managed to lash it using Dyneema.

The crew of Betelgeuse had more serious issues when the decklight set into the sail locker hatch on the foredeck of the Grand Soleil 50 tore out between Gran Canaria and Cape Verde in rough conditions. The decklight is approximately 25cm x 60cm, skipper Charles Chambers reported. This left a large hole in the foredeck potentially allowing serious water ingress.

We were able to make a suitable blanking plate from a locker cover in the saloon. It was a perfect size and did not need cutting down and it even had a suitable hole for the locking bolt. We also managed to fit a seal all the way around the blanking plate by using a length of cockpit locker seal. They successfully fitted the blanking plate and avoided serious water ingress despite the conditions.

The importance of carrying Dyneema for running repairs

X-562, teamgeist broke the connection between mainsheet and boom. Philipp Schubert says they tried replacing the four screws with Dyneema and attached that to the mainsheet, but that this chafed through the carbon of the boom in swell.

The second solution was a big M12 screw with an eye-shaped female screw in which we put the mainsheet again. Fortunately it lasted for the rest of the crossing but had to be replaced in St Lucia because the screw had bent at least 5-10 from the pressure.

The cause he cites as the banging of the sails in low winds and big swell while the preventer wasn't tight enough. We will really tighten the preventer in future.

The crew tighten up a new fixing point for the mainsheet on the boom after the original connection broke aboard the X-562 teamgeist.

One of the more significant rig issues happened aboard the Hanse 505, Hanse Sailor. The D1 & D2 shrouds failed on the starboard side and they had to reinforce them with Dyneema and 'sail conservatively'.

The breakage led to them requiring assistance from the cruise liner Costa Magica to obtain enough fuel to get to St Lucia, says Andy Brock. They sent us by long line 100 litres, which is all we needed. The reason for the breakage is unknown.

The Fortissimo 33 HavAnna also broke strands on their shrouds during squalls and used bulldog clamps jumped with new wire. And the Beneteau Oceanis 41, Endeavour of Cork broke a spreader bolt, which strained their spreader. They supported rig and sailed cautiously.

Richard Downing aboard his Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 509 Caledonia Spirit, showed resourcefulness when his spinnaker pole tang broke into three pieces. He repaired it using resin and machine screws. The holes were drilled and tapped, then loose assembled, Downing explained. Resin was then poured into the joints and the machine screws tightened up squeezing the resin out.

Chafe and ripped sails sailing across the Atlantic

As mentioned, by far the most common breakages are to flying sails. The Lagoon 52, Cat'leya experienced more than their fair share. They blew their spinnaker out and broke their bowsprit early into the crossing. They then chafed through their spinnaker furler line, before breaking both the mainsail halyard and the head of the mainsail six days later.

Impressively, however, they succeeded in fitting spares for halyards and repaired all breakages at sea.

The Hanse 575 Siberia also had a catalogue of sail repairs, including two ripped gennakers, a ripped Code 0, halyard chafe and breaks, masthead block breaks, and a broken batten. And the Nauticat 40, Pureblue chafed through their genoa sheet three times and despite buying new sheets in Cape Verde, these failed in 24 hours.

Torn sails and broken halyards are one thing, but what happens when you can't get a sail down? The spinnaker snuffer aboard Betelgeuse fouled and jammed at the top of the mast. We were unable to get the spinnaker down in the snuffer for six days, said skipper Charles Chambers.

We lashed the snuffer to the mast and rig as high up as possible to prevent it flailing about. We tried to send a crewman up the mast but the conditions were never calm enough and we did not want to risk injury. Our concern was as the weather deteriorated and squalls of 35+ knots hit us that the snuffer would fail and the spinnaker would launch and potentially bring down the rig.

Chambers' solution was to monitor the top of the snuffer by lying on the deck and using a 400mm telephoto camera lens, which enabled me to review the images on my laptop rather than try and remember what I could see through binoculars.

In hindsight he says: We should have followed 'Jerry the Rigger's' advice and fitted a block to the mast ring.

The post What are the most common repairs at sea for yachts sailing across the Atlantic? ARC survey results tell all appeared first on Yachting World.

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jessflewitt · 8 years ago

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ROAD TRIP ( 3rd Jan-29th Jan)

Since we brought the van it's a struggle to keep the phones charged never mind find wifi! I've been keeping little notes on my phone if what we've been up too so that we don't forget in a few years time... BLOG 3rd January- Abbie gone :( we brought a van! Battered and bruised with a cracked window screen but we had a little test drive and all seemed fine so we took the risk - spent the next couple of days after that doing admin! We had to get the van kitted out and open a bank account to be able to get the car registered Bla Bla .... few hiccups along the way including a little scare at the registration office where we were led to believe we had actually brought a stolen car.... But turned out the paper work was just wrong and it was all fine. We had our last night at the hostel on the 4th - and in the 5th morning went to move into our new home - only to find the battery was dead - great start. Some lovely guy jumped us and we spent the rest of the day cleaning the van and buying a few more bits - drove back to the blue mountains. Parked up in a free campsite and crashed! Slept like babies too - Blow up mattress worked a treat :) 6th Jan = Worst day ever Battery was dead again in the morning- got jumped again. Went to a garage to get it checked out and they couldn't work it out and sent us to another garage. He couldn't work it out ether ... Said there was nothing wrong with the battery. Next thing the engine overheated - there was no water in the radiator ( life lesson ) managed to get it filled up which was really messy with the engine so hot! ... Drove a few miles down the road back to the electrical mechanic who fixed the cigarette lighter and a few miles down the road after that the engine is over heating again. It's nearly half 5pm on a Friday at this point ... So we rang the garage again ... And he was about to tell us he couldn't see us till next Wednesday until he must have recognised our accents ..and asked if we were the English couple from this morning with the van. Told us he thought the battery dying in the morning and the engine over heating were linked and to bring the car down straight away. Another scare ..... Told us he thought it was the engine that had gone! But turned out it was just the hose that had disintegrated and he fixed it all for free. Said he wasn't going to charge two young people on their holidays... Amazed by the people out here once again <3 that night we brought a bottle of wine and met some fab Irish people travelling the opposite way down the coast . Had a right giggle with them and got some great tips so great end to a horrific day! 7th- Jan Got the van started without Jump leads woop! Did an amazing walk through wentworth falls. Really tough walk which we loved and I got to swim in my first waterfall pool :) we climbed up the rocks and stood right beneath it - started a trend and everyone started copying so funny. Parked up by a lake that night in a massive field - hot showers and everything for free:) I got behind the wheel for the first time in 3 years and had my first driving lesson round the sites- went well ! 8th - Jan- drove an hour down a steep clifftop to a place called nunes where we had planned to see some glow worms in a cave. Turned out you had to park up and do an hour and a half traverse to get there and it was just far to too hot so we had a swim in he river down there and I drove back. Oli took over when we hit the main road and we went to dunns swap national park camp site. Beautiful campsite it reminded me off the one in America at the end of parent trap. We had about 2 litres of water left which is nothing and asked someone where the water tap was and they laughed and pointed at the river! Rationed the water enough so we could stay the night and do a walk in the morning ( amazing ) and we had a swim in the river to cool down before we drive back. I had another practice but couldn't get quick enough to do the main roads so we swapped again! So nervy on the road after the crash. This was just a really HOT day in the van - lots of miles and 38degrees so just too hot to even function. We ended up in a town called Bulga poured water over ourselves to try and cool down , and had our first sweaty horrible night in the van we just couldn't cool it down. Everytime we trying to open it up for breeze we got swarmed my mozzies! 11th HOT day again - but we learnt from our mistakes the day before - got up early and drive to Newcastle and hid out in an air conned shopping centre all day getting some shopping bits done. Went to the tuck wells for dinner - the couple that we met in Bali and had a lovely evening with them. Met their kids and their bfs/ gfs- they had food ready and we ended up getting quite tipsy! Tania kept feeding me champagne and rum! 12th- has a great night sleep in the lovely cool house because they refused to let us sleep in the van . They gave us towels and a key and even had two bikes left out for us on the drive. Amazing people treated us like family. We took the bikes and got the ferry over to Newcastle. Cycles the 10k coastline ( which was really hilly) jumped in the Bogey Hole which is an ocean pool on the side of a cliff - awesome and freezing! We thought Newcastle reminded us of a British coast - maybe even Newcastle at home. We had some chips on the beach and realised that we'd both been fried! So went back for a swim. We made home made burgers on the bbq and ended up having more drinks with tania and Paul that night. Next day we got up and went to a nature reserve - wasn't what we expected ( more like a zoo) so we didn't stay very long but got to see our first koala. Went back to the house for lunch and another swim and then packed up and got on the road again. We couldn't believe how generous they were they gave us a cooler , packed it with ice, beers, washing powder, sun shields , coolant- they just couldn't do enough for us so sweet. We only managed an hour up the road because it was so hot again - still 38 degrees at 6pm at night! Our air con doesn't work at that temperature feels like a hair dryer is blowing in your face! Found a really cute campsite and went for a swim in the bay to cool down before dinner. 14th HOT SWEATY night again- impossible to sleep. Ol got up for sunrise ( I just opened the van up and watched from bed too early for me) another long day driving - I did my first proper stint which felt good. Had a quick swim in the sea half way (seal rocks) and it starred to pour just before we got to port Macquarie but we're glad to have a break from the heat - the van had finally cooled down woohoo. Amazing sunset after it rained all day at Lake Campsie. Camped on the side of a lake - brought some chocolate and watched a film. Next day we walked the 10k walk along the coast of Port Mac - gorgeous walk and not too hot. Got the bus back went to the shop and brought some chicken to bbq and some beers- camped in the same spot. Next day - we did the national park - sea acres board walk. Had a lovely guide (graham, leave a review?) telling us all about the rainforest was great. Drove half way to Coffs Harbour and camped out early - gorgeous campsite near a river. Rice and eggs for tea. Dorrigo National park - wonga walk the next day . Amazing - followed by wine tasting and pasta for tea. Same campsite. Next morning we got up and drive to Coffs Harbour - had a swim in the sea when we got here -went to the big bananas - lunch on the beach - mutton bird island walk at sunset - coffee and then drove half way to Byron bay. drove late because it was cooler - nightmare getting there in the dark though. Boiling hot , loads of mozzies - neither of us could sleep! Ended jog erring our the van and pouring water over ourselves in the middle of the night! 19th - got up and drove to balina- half way to Bryron bay - had a coffee - drove into the centre had a pootle around ( cool place ) brought a bikini- parked up in a car park about 25 mins out for free ( faffy day) 20th Hired boards went surfing- chilled on the beach- back to the free car park - I made pasta in a thunderstorm 21st- rain - miserable day - Oli got his hair cut 22nd- booked all our trips for the eat coast with travel bug - Frazer island -Whitt Sunday's - skydive and Everglade canoe and sea kayak with dolphins! Walked to the most easterly point of aus and did the national park walk alone the rainforest beach - tallow beach - found a little surf paradise spot at the far end of byron bay beach - beans and eggs and avo for tea 23rd gorgeous day - got up at 4.50 pm for sunrise - amazing - drive out of town to have brekfast and camd back in for our sea kayak with dolphins at 9 but missed it because our travel agent gave us the wrong time! They booked us into the afternoon one instead so we just chilled in the beach and went to a nice restaurant called dip for lunch. Sea kayak in the afternoon was cool - saw lots of turtles but no dolphins so they Said we could go again for free u till we did . Popped to the library to seal some charge and had a early night. 24th - surfing fail - too windy - then walked tallow beach - gorgeous - met some car park friends 25th - went sea kayaking again- didn't sea anything - went swimming at Brunswick in the afternoon - then we picked up a long board - had a lovely dinner by the river and the camped - illegally in the national park ready to get up at 3 am to hike to the top of the volcano for sunrise. 26th - woke up 3 am - hiked to the top of a volcano - awesome. - went swimming in a river - changed time zones and long boarded the surfers paradise board walk - shopping - found an awesome little camp site just outside the city - paid 25 dollars between us but so worth it. Hot shower / power / kitchen - lush 27th - rained all day but went to the library and sorted loads of jobs out - admin day - booked a couple of trips/ fixed the car - low on transmission fluid / sent a load of postcard / sorted out money - student loan ect - went to springbrook national park in the evening to see the glow worms - cool . Amazing drive- went past a vast river with loads of dead trees in it - so cool - hairy drive back nearly ran out of petrol / car skidded in the rain and there were tons of dead frogs all over the road. 28th Washing day ! Sorted pictures - drove to Brisbane. 29th Day drip into Brisbane city centre. Nice enough city but we weren't blown away. Thank god it was Sunday because parking would have been $80 a day otherwise. Luckily it was only $17 for us. We did the south bank walk which was cool - very sexy skyline. They have a man made pool and beach looking at the skyline too - cool to see but moved on swiftly. Found a really gorgeous campground and met a lovely German lad that night.

#firstmonthroadtrippineastcoast

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rnrmarineservices-blog · 7 years ago

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What are the most common repairs at sea for yachts sailing across the Atlantic? ARC survey results tell all

We surveyed nearly all 290 yachts in the 2016 ARC transatlantic to find out what broke and how it was fixed; what worked and what didn't.

The first thing you notice from the results is that there were few empty columns for yachts without problems. In total, 167 yachts, or nearly 60 per cent of the fleet, had a breakage.

Problems are of course to be expected, but breakages can spoil voyages. One of the best ways to avoid them is to learn from others' mistakes.

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We collected all the data and questioned the skippers that had relevant issues to understand how they fixed them and the lessons they learnt.

The most common casualties were ripped sails and breakages caused by chafe which, going on past feedback, is nothing new. But prudent seamanship, plus routine checks and maintenance will limit these.

A worrying number of yachts had problems and breakages with their vangs and gooseneck fittings something we see time after time, so we have dedicated a large section of the results report to this.

There were also a number of steering problems, which we followed up on with the relevant skippers.

Ten toilet blockages or breakages reported

Eight watermaker malfunctions.

There were 68 reported rig problems or breakages mostly broken halyards with chafe being listed as the primary cause for over half.

There were multiple failures to preventers, blocks, and furling lines, again largely through chafe or overloading.

See the previous Yachting World ARC Surveys

95% of participating boats completed the survey. Click to enlarge.

Generator and battery problems on ARC 2016

Twenty-one yachts had problems with their generators. These mainly involved cooling issues, including coolant water, impellers, and salt or fresh water pumps.

A few changed impellers and filters to resolve the issues, but the majority had to switch to the main engine for power. The trend here showed a lack of routine maintenance.

Out of the 15 reported battery issues, the majority were charging problems put down to old batteries, which required more regular engine use to charge.

The crew aboard the Sweden 50 Scarabaus was unable to charge the batteries until they fashioned a new fan belt. The result was the loss of all fresh food.

Wind, water and solar power: how alternative energy has been transformed

Damage to booms, preventers, goosenecks and vangs on Atlantic crossing

The broken gooseneck bolt aboard the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43 La Capitana

The Moody 425 Pierina, meanwhile, broke three preventers during crash gybes.

Matheson now carries a large pop rivet gun with the correct rivet sizes to repair everything on board. He also now rigs a boom preventer in lights winds from any direction.

Tested: boom brakes and preventers, including Walder boom brake and Wichard Gyb'Easy

We lifted the boom back into its slot using the spinnaker halyard and tied the boom in position by means of rope as there was no suitable bolt or pin material (The original bolt was bent).

Heavy-duty ratchet straps (a wise spare to carry) secure the vang on Far II Kind.

The holes for bolts needed to be re-tapped or Helicoiled before putting the boom back on, but it turns out this was never done; therefore the bolts weren't tight enough and pulled some threads out.

Video installing and testing a rope preventer and boom brakes to safely manage accidental gybes

Steering problems on the ARC 2016

Rudder failure 1500 miles to sail across the Atlantic without a rudder.

The Baltic 51, Gatsby, also broke the pulley and cable to their steering system, which needed to be replaced in Cape Verde.

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The underwater video footage the crew sent is alarming, clearly showing the bare foam innards of the rudder and how they dived and strapped plywood around the rudder to secure it.

Deck and rig fittings

The lesson here he says is not to try to correct the route when a gybe occurs stay on the same side until you return control to the boat.

The bowsprit pulled clean out of the deck aboard the Elan impression 434, Ocean Diamond 2 when it was overloaded, damaging the anchor stem, but they too managed to lash it using Dyneema.

The importance of carrying Dyneema for running repairs

The cause he cites as the banging of the sails in low winds and big swell while the preventer wasn't tight enough. We will really tighten the preventer in future.

The crew tighten up a new fixing point for the mainsheet on the boom after the original connection broke aboard the X-562 teamgeist.

Chafe and ripped sails sailing across the Atlantic

Impressively, however, they succeeded in fitting spares for halyards and repaired all breakages at sea.

In hindsight he says: We should have followed 'Jerry the Rigger's' advice and fitted a block to the mast ring.

The post What are the most common repairs at sea for yachts sailing across the Atlantic? ARC survey results tell all appeared first on Yachting World.

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