The Voyage of Harmony - sailing across the Pacific Ocean in 88 days
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- čas přidán 29. 12. 2023
- 🏕️ Kohutt™ - my work & craft @ www.kohutt.com.au
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Sailing my Aries 32 named Harmony, from San Francisco to Sydney via French Polynesia, Cook Islands & American Samoa, in 88 days with my old friend, Chris. A successful voyage comprises of keeping the mast upright, the water out and the rudder on - on this voyage we managed to nearly do the opposite of all three.
Dedicated to Stephane Tremblay - 1980 to 2023.
Shot a long time ago on a Canon 7D and now vintage GoPro. Finally edited together into something before the clock ticks over into 2024. Bon voyage!
What a pleasant surprise and fun watch, thank you!
I have to say this was like watching national geographic. Beautifully narrated very enjoyable to watch. And I like the 3 rules that you have for successful voyage. 😀👍🏴☠️
We are slowly connecting the dots on who you are and your amazing life! Let us know when you’re in Tassie next and come by our shed.
I now actually live about a 40 minute drive from you guys, and I spend 99% of my time in Tassie - I've been meaning to reach out to you and come see your work and possibly shoot some video if you're up for it!
What a voyage and documentation! Very inspirational.
Thank you!👍🏻
Excellent production. Cheers.
Way ta go with the Stan Rogers chanty!
Well sung the song! Great video!
This is such an underrated channel. Amazing story and beautiful footage.
Thanks so much 🙏
Wow, that is amazing!
Long overdue and thank you! Been inspiration since Between Home and now I catch myself having a sailboat for 8 years now and spending second year in French Polynesia.
Absolutely awesome, Alby Mangels would be jealous! I am!!
When I grow up I want to be just like Alby!
Stuff of great memories. Thank You :)
What a voyage. Awesome memories for your friend & you. Fishing skills become better & better during the video ! haha.
inspiring. thanks
Loved your movie on the voyage, thank you so much for sharing
another incredible journey. i wish i could do something li8ke this.
You can, if it's what you really really want!
It's so essential to know you can land for water and repairs without those horrible fees.
I don't usually comment on these but I wanted to let you know I really enjoyed Between Home and it found me at a point in my life when I needed something like that. I enjoyed how down to earth and unglamourous you portrayed the reality of sailing. Your book arrived today and I'm looking forward to reading it. Thanks for sharing all this stuff, it's changed my view of what's possible in this lifetime.
Thank you so much, that’s a very kind comment and I’m so glad my sharing has some meaning for others - fair winds my friend!
Thank you
You are most welcome! Cheers!
Cracked vid!
fantastic and LOL. ;)
WHAT.....Right on.
Thanks for posting this. I've been looking forward to seeing it since I found your blog about the boat. My partner and I are refitting an old Roughwater 33 to cross the Pacific and this is great motivation.
We had a really close look at our rudder on our last haulout and had a local fabrication and rigging shop guy come and check it out. It was showing a bit of fiberglass delamination around the Bronze pintle bands, just on the leading edge. It seems to have been fairly superficial, we ground the glass out around the bands and dried the rudder foam out as best we could with the short time we had, and re-glassed. The Tech that had a look at it said we would always have problems getting the glass to stick long term to the bronze but he couldn't see anything structurally concerning with the rudder. So we glassed it back up and will keep a close eye on it. He said it would be 7-10 grand for them to build a new rudder. Which is almost half of what we paid for the boat.
We had water slowly leaking into the boat from one of the Gudgeon blocks that is fastened through the stern. There was hardly any sealant between it and the boat, and we found that the old reinforcement in the hull, which was a block of teak that had been glassed in had turned to mush. Dug all that out and replaced it with a block of laminated G-10, and re-sealed the gudgeon.
We are definitely at risk of falling into the trap of the boat never being set up or refitted enough to actually make the crossing. I hope we can make it happen. I atleast want to replace the chainplates, and their supports, and fabricate a new standing rig.
Firstly, sorry it took so long to get this video up after the blog/voyage!! On every boat I've ever owned, I've always been a stickler about the state of the rudder, because without it, the outcome is catastrophic. On Harmony, the rudder had been professionally rebuilt just a few years prior (before my ownership), and visually it looked perfect, so I accepted that it was in good order - it's a hard one to diagnose without being destructive. What I honestly think, is that on the Roughwater/Aries boats, the rudder is definitely a weak spot - the loads on the rudder have felt quite heavy in certain conditions - generally a windvane/autopilot is less forgiving than human steerage, meaning, a human will feel when it's too heavy and let go a bit and then correct - but under mechanical steerage, I think on these long voyages the rudder is repeatedly stressed, becoming problematic. $10k is a lot for a rudder rebuild - I would personally either undertake a new rudder rebuild myself, or, remove the rudder in-water (dive to remove pins, then use winches / tackle on boom etc to get out) and substantially re-enforce. It's so much easier to do these projects at home with access to help, tools, materials etc than trying to do it on some remote island/atoll with nothing, or worse. That and a re-rig and you're ready to go! Bon vent!
@@NickJaffe thanks Nick. Yeah I think w’ell put her on the hard for a year coming up and really dig in to the rig and rudder. The rudder on these boats definitely seems like it gets very heavily loaded. Seems like she develops almost more weather helm than she should. I’ve tried flattening the main, but my main is old and a bit bagged. If I reef pretty early it’s not so bad but then she’s underpowered.
If she would balance out a bit better maybe the rudder loads could be mitigated.
@@squarerigapprentice yes, it could certainly be a weather helm / balance issue. Or a rudder design issue, I'm not sure. The rig on these things is already pretty short, experiments with balance may mitigate things, perhaps a bit less main and a bit more jib, not sure... Been a long time since I've sailed my Aries!
@@NickJaffeAny idea of contributing factors that led to your boom snapping? Was there any corroded or visible weak spots in the boom? Was it shock loaded by a big gust or something?
From what I can see our rigs are almost identical. I always thought my gooseneck pin was a bit on the wimpy side and considered that as the potential failure point.
@@squarerigapprentice yes it was the gooseneck - It failed because of dissimilar metal corrosion, the fitting being stainless against aluminium without adequate protection. The weather was unsavoury with a lot of cross swell. Very quickly the wind died off, which led to shock load.
thats cool ..thanks :)
Cheers Don hopefully see you again in tassie sometime soon ⛵️
What a voyage and what a film to share with us!! Many thanks and congratulations too. s/v OoLaLa Westsail32 #81
Chris, in the video, bought a Westsail 32 not long after this voyage - it was in Palau, we sailed it together down to Darwin!
The little blue boat looks so beautiful against the blue sea and sky - boat, man and elements merge. What an adventure. The deck leaked like a sieve but with a little TLC - possibly a complete deck rebuild she will be quiet comfortable.
I gave her a deck and floor refurb over summer - all new paint - she’s looking amazing 💪
@@NickJaffe hopefully we'll get to see more adventures. Stunningly beautiful anchorages in your part of the world. I bought an old Royal Cape One Design in my mid 20's and learnt to sail around Cape waters South Africa. Your adventure reminded me of those carefree days 😊👌
Bro 88 days crossing pacific man I gotta command you for this it’s extraordinary for a person like me who grew up in New York City to watch this and realize there are people who do this kinda stuff which I perhaps will never do lol just enjoy watching, how much do does these kinda trips cost?
Well, NYC is a pretty wild place in itself, and likely much more dangerous a place than crossing the Pacific in a small boat! A boat like this would cost you about the equivalent of a Toyota Corolla. A well found boat of the right design and proper care, needs very little to do such a crossing - once self-steering is added (a form of automatically steering the boat, because, you can't hand steer for 88 days!), the boat is basically sorted and the rest is all you. As for how much the rest of such a trip costs, that is entirely variable and also entirely up to you. I met a couple in the anchorage outside of Hiva Oa, who were briefly in the above film helping me cut some stainless rod. They lived on $500/m USD, and had enough money in the bank to live that way for 5 years without needing to make any more. I would say this is the absolute lowest end of living - it goes up from there. I'd estimate this trip cost me perhaps $700-1000/m USD once the boat was prepared for departure. I've lived on less before, and also met young guys quite literally fishing for food or scavenging mussels off break walls for their dinner. What things might cost, is really more about what you can endure, rather than what you can spend. Generally, we humans suffer a lot from 'lifestyle inflation' - the more we earn, the more we spend, and spending more often makes very little difference to our overall health or well being. Once out on a small boat in the wilderness without an income, the cost of things becomes kind of secondary to staying alive and living in the moment. Fair winds my friend.
👌🏼
Great job. Easy for me to say but when it comes to a voyage like that long, I would have to have all new rigging and through hulls.
Standing rigging was less than 10 years old, and through hulls were all good - the one that came loose was not because of a failure, but rather human error in that it was not adequately seized, with a lot of tinned food moving against it underway. The boom failure was due to corrosion on the gooseneck fitting, impossible to see without prior removal of the fitting for inspection. Other than better inspection of seizing wire, I am not unhappy with the prep - when sailing, things go wrong, it's just the way it is.
loved the pirate flag
Great voyage. Funny how one person is compossed when becalmed, and tge orher goes bartty. Didnt help that the fish were baiting your friend.
Fabulous - done the proper way with typical British bravado!!!
😂😂 lucky u made it 😂 classic pissed up tryin to unhook treble hooks on kicking fish😅 on ya
Well, she's no Contessa 26, but looks like you had a great adventure anyway. Thanks!
Philosophically close to a Contessa, really. Minimal, full keel, transom hung rudder, etc. Advantages included being able to stand up down below and comfortably sail with two! The Contessa is obviously still closest to my heart (and literally tattooed on my leg), but, every boat has a time and a purpose!
@@NickJaffe 100%. I'm glad to see you back on the water in any boat and I enjoyed the visuals of your trip. Good work, keep at it.
@@NickJaffe What sort of boat is Harmony?
@@tomhaney5186 Aries 32
A Wok the only pan ya need
Love it. What did you shoot this with?
It was shot a long time ago on a 5D.
Fantastic video, what a voyage! But.....did you really throw the rum bottle into the ocean?1? @21:10
It was a message in a bottle 🍾
When you cross oceans everything goes overboard except plastic.
Harmony looks like a Southern Cross 31 or an Aries 32, both Thomas Gillmer designs. Whatever the case, I’d love to know…
She’s an Aries 32 ⛵️
Great vid right up till ya threw the bottle and the bamboo in the water.
Bamboo's okay but I sure noticed the bottle.
@@AirstripBum The bottle would be the least of the problem for a sailor but the longer bamboo stays in the water the heavier it gets due to absorption that could lead to a thru hull fitting failure if hit...just saying.
15000miles in88days 7.1,it's wow 32 footer ! impressive?
Love the new channel I’ve found❤ one question, no spear gun?
Since Harmony was in the USA, and I live in Australia, she had nothing onboard. So, when I flew over to prep and sail back to Australia, I basically only brought what I could fit in my luggage..
I would like to ask you
(since you have experience and i am interested to do it)
do you have to register the boat in your name in some way, or can you do it as simply as:
buy the boat, sail away?
Greetings Fabio
@@fa7842 the vessel must be registered somewhere and you need to clear out of the country of departure with your passport and ships papers.
@@NickJaffe Understand, thank You!
Great video,! At 9:29 Aren't you supposed to numb it with alcohol? Poor thing..
10:20 take the fish inside or cover... at night.
What make of boat is she
Aries 32
It is definitely unacceptable that they have gotten rid of the bamboo pole and thrown it into the ocean, that trunk could hit another boat, that is definitely disapproved and if they do not like the reprimand then let it hover over their heads and they will be guilty and responsible. very bad action.🚫
How many oceans have you crossed? These guys have nothing to be reprimanded for.
i dont care how many oceans anyone has crossed thats called punk shit@@joshwright2396
there is a lot of driftwood that's washed down rivers and into the sea naturally. this piece of bamboo is nothing!
Great video until the singing
Shame you think that - it was a wonderful moment, at sunset on a remote Pacific island with just a handful of people, when one of them, an ex navy sailor, breaks into a traditional whaling song. Can’t please everyone!
You like throwing your rubbish in the ocean, thats wrong.