Cyprus-Forum.com

[Kikapu]

Anyone interested in reading this young man's sea adventures over the last 13 months during his historic Solo Circumnavigation, should find it very interesting with his experiences on the high seas. I'm sure Nikitas will along with myself. I will be very happy to try and explain anything that you may not understand from Zac’s adventures relating to all aspects of life on the boat and under different weather and sea conditions. Feel free to ask about anything.!

Zac's Blog

"My name is Zac Sunderland and I am 17 years old. I departed June 14th from Marina del Rey, California in an attempt to become the youngest person to circumnavigate the world alone by yacht. On July 16th, 2009 13 months later, I successfully completed my mission. This blog is the record of my year at sea alone. ©2009 Zac Sunderland All Rights Reserved"

http://www.zacsunderland.com/blog/

[Nikitas]

Kikapu,

Thank you for the link, I put it in my favorites. A new circumnaviation attempt by a British 15 year old is underway already.

[Kikapu]

Kikapu,

Thank you for the link, I put it in my favorites. A new circumnaviation attempt by a British 15 year old is underway already.

You're welcome.!

In all honesty, Nikitas, I'm not too crazy about very young people being pushed to set such records, because it increases risk taking more than otherwise. I believe 15 years old is way too young to deal with all the elements out there as a solo sailor. Granted, with today’s communication and on board safety and navigation equipment goes a long way to give assistance to a solo sailor, but at times, the weather can turn nasty at a moments notice and all the best laid plans just goes out of the window. There ought to be discouragement made of such attempts as the case was with this child pilot few years ago in the USA.

House-Passed Bill Would Keep Child Pilots from Competition

Posted: Jul 22, 1996

WASHINGTON (AP) — July 23, 1996 - 5:43 a.m. EDTBy DAVE SKIDMORE,Associated Press Writer

Three months after 7-year-old Jessica Dubroff died trying to become the youngest person to pilot an aircraft cross-country, Congress is moving to forbid a licensed pilot from turning over a plane's controls to a child trying to set such a record.

The House voted 395-5 and sent to the Senate on Monday a bill prohibiting anyone who does not hold a valid pilot's license and medical certificate from attempting to set a record or engaging in an aeronautical competition or feat. Seventeen is the minimum age for obtaining a pilot's license.

Licensed pilots who turn over the controls to a nonpilot trying to set a record would have their licenses revoked by the Federal Aviation Administration.

``We cannot legislate good judgment into the minds and hearts and souls of pilots but we can erect some strong barriers,'' said Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, the senior Democrat on the House Transportation Committee.

The bill was prompted by the death of Jessica, whose single-engine Cessna went down April 11 after takeoff in an icy rainstorm near Cheyenne, Wyo. Her father, Lloyd, and flight instructor, Joe Reid, died with her.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/149299/

[Nikitas]

Kikapu,

It is not the weather and the sea I am worried about when it comes to such a young person, but his ability to deal with the solitude of a circumnavigation. Remember when Sir Francis Chichester touched land after his solo circumnavigation and had trouble speaking? He had gotten out of practice being alone for a year.

I did like his comment on Cape Horn though: "it was disntinctly overcrowded" a nice British style comment on the RN flotilla they sent to accompany Gypsy Moth around the cape.

Still, these feats are way out of my league- the goal still is to sail (upright preferably) with a mild breeze from Rhodes to Cyprus. The kind of weather I want is the one that will not upset a gin and tonic glass resting on the coachroof.

[Kikapu]

Kikapu,

It is not the weather and the sea I am worried about when it comes to such a young person, but his ability to deal with the solitude of a circumnavigation. Remember when Sir Francis Chichester touched land after his solo circumnavigation and had trouble speaking? He had gotten out of practice being alone for a year.

I did like his comment on Cape Horn though: "it was disntinctly overcrowded" a nice British style comment on the RN flotilla they sent to accompany Gypsy Moth around the cape.

Still, these feats are way out of my league- the goal still is to sail (upright preferably) with a mild breeze from Rhodes to Cyprus. The kind of weather I want is the one that will not upset a gin and tonic glass resting on the coachroof.

The thing about today's "solitude" is not the same solitudes of yesteryears as Sir Francis Chichester found out on Gypsy Moth due to advanced technologies of today. When I was cruising, for communication we had only the VHF for "line of sight" communication with others which the antenna was atop the main mast to any other vessels, which meant we can only talk to anyone who were just over the horizon. Our Single Side Band (SSB) radio was only used for receiving weather reports and nothing else. No Radar, GPS or any other too much power consuming devices. We did however have SATNAV which was the primitive version of today’s GPS which only gave you a “fix” (maybe) when ever we were under a passing NAV satellite, and hardly any use to us around land, when you most needed it. I was not complaining of being in "solitude" however, because the last few months of the cruising, I was alone with two other young ladies.!

No, I was not in the same league as James Wharram, but close second.!

We only met very few single handler during my cruising days and one of them was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean after leaving Hawaii for San Francisco where early one morning I noticed a light following us on almost at the same track as we were making. I tried to raise someone on the VHF but no luck. As it got a little lighter, and the boat was getting ever so closer on our stern, I manage to raise a response to tell him that we were directly in front of him, to see the sailor climbing out of his cabin and looking straight at me. This is another bad thing about being a solo sailor, that you are always short handed when going to sleep. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I gave him a line to tie to his boat so that we were about 50 meters apart in a fairly calm sea, launched my dingy and went and picked him up from his boat to have breakfast on mine in the middle of the Ocean. He was heading to Oxnard, California, therefore we were sailing on almost the same track, except he was on a monohull and we were on my cat, which meant that he could sail much closer to the wind than I ever could as we were heading north from Hawaii to find the Westerly winds heading to the US, which for us, wasn't until around Latitude 42 North. I have a picture somewhere of the two boats in the Pacific. I'll see if I can find it and scan it for you.

[Nikitas]

Kikapu,

You have a point there, with all the instant communications links lone sailing can be really well connected. I recalled the webcasts of the Macnamara lady as I read your posts.

Would love to see the pics of your mid ocean social visits!

Now that you mentioned California let me ask you. Have you come across anything regarding Trehantiri, (the traditional Mediterranean small craft) built by the Italian immigrants in San Francisco in the early 20th century? The Wikipedia entry calls them Feluccas, but the lines are similar to Trehantiris, rather than Nile river craft which is what I knew as Felucca. Apparently the Italians built these craft from memory, and they used them succesfully in the Pacific, something you would not expect from a typical Med craft.

[Kikapu]

Kikapu,

You have a point there, with all the instant communications links lone sailing can be really well connected. I recalled the webcasts of the Macnamara lady as I read your posts.

Would love to see the pics of your mid ocean social visits!

Now that you mentioned California let me ask you. Have you come across anything regarding Trehantiri, (the traditional Mediterranean small craft) built by the Italian immigrants in San Francisco in the early 20th century? The Wikipedia entry calls them Feluccas, but the lines are similar to Trehantiris, rather than Nile river craft which is what I knew as Felucca. Apparently the Italians built these craft from memory, and they used them succesfully in the Pacific, something you would not expect from a typical Med craft.

"Feluccas"

Hi Nikitas,

I don't think there has been any boats built in San Francisco or the Bay Area in general for a very long time, I'm afraid. I have just noticed that you had this conversation with CopperLine here on this thread 2 years ago, regarding the Feluccas and Trehantiri boats.

I have not seen any boats resembling Feluccas in the San Francisco Bay Area. It would have been wonderful to see them, as I saw some in Egypt last year. They sure do look beautiful.

By the way, I have found the pictures of the solo sailor in the Pacific Ocean whom we had breakfast with. I'll post them soon.

One place where they still build small sail boats to hunt whales with a hand thrown harpoons (legally), is on one of our most favourite small islands in the Caribbean, is the island of Bequia. Made 2 calls there but I do not have a picture of the hunting sail boats, but I do have a picture of another larger sail boat that is used for between Bequia and the larger island in the north, St. Vincent. The picture was taken as she was under sail between the two islands. I'll get that one for you also, soon.! And by the way, I also have a picture of a whale being butchered while one was caught on our second call there, first catch in 2 years.! Major celebration by the island's people.

[Nikitas]

Kikapu,

That is a sleek looking boat. I wonder if tacking means lowerng the that long top boom and swinging it round the mast, in which case I would not want to be sitting under it!

Re the SanFran feluccas, I retrieved an article from a past issue of Woodenboat and got some interesting info. These were built by the immigrants for fishing, but since they were not noteworthy boatbuilders their work was not saved by maritime museusm. To be fair to the curators though, there were no plans to save, these guys built from memory not plans. One boat has been saved in a museum in San Francisco and its lines recorded. SOme day I will get a copy of the lines and compare them to a typical trehantiri to see how close they are.

[Kikapu]

Kikapu,

That is a sleek looking boat. I wonder if tacking means lowerng the that long top boom and swinging it round the mast, in which case I would not want to be sitting under it!

Re the SanFran feluccas, I retrieved an article from a past issue of Woodenboat and got some interesting info. These were built by the immigrants for fishing, but since they were not noteworthy boatbuilders their work was not saved by maritime museusm. To be fair to the curators though, there were no plans to save, these guys built from memory not plans. One boat has been saved in a museum in San Francisco and its lines recorded. SOme day I will get a copy of the lines and compare them to a typical trehantiri to see how close they are.

There is a Maritime Museum at the water front of Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco and I'm hoping to be in San Francisco in October this year, so I'll pay a visit and see what's in there. My last visit to the museum was over 20 years ago, so I do not remember too much what was in there, I'm afraid.!

As for tacking the sail on the above picture, is like any other boat really. Just tack as normal.!

[Kikapu]

Nikitas,

Here are couple of boats built locally in Bequia and St. Vincent islands. They both have a very classical lines, a small pleasure sailing boat and a large sailing workhorse ferrying people and cargo between the two above islands. Both pictures taken from my boat. The small sailing boat was in the protected waters of Bequia and the large sailing boat was under sail was in the channel between Bequia and St. Vincent.