April 2026, Vol #46, no #4. Editor: Gerald Nicholls
Porto Katsiki, Lefkada, Greece
Jenni Lincoln
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Captain's column
G’day Cruisers
Well it’s been another incredibly busy month with lots of activities and our cruisers spread across the world travelling and doing what they do.
Dallas and Salina returned from their trip to Italy, Sanna and Niclas were in Sweden meeting their new Granddaughter, Martin and Anna returned from Sail Port Stephens and travelled to the UK and Europe, Chris and Jo headed to the Kimberley coastline for a cruise and Jenni and I have snuck off to Greece for a quick trip. I’m currently looking over the rooftops of Lefkas Town on the island of Lefkada. Jeremy and Kristin also welcomed a new grandchild in late April.
I mentioned in last month’s column that the weather had stopped Niclas and I getting together to take Rara north but I’ve included a post he created for his website on how that trip eventually worked out.
Jeremy Clarke has had the keel removed and refixed on Kai Rani to address any concerns with the keel bolts. He’s written an article and provided some pictures as the work progressed.
Gavin Randall on Viking III has continued his cruise now heading west rather than north. I’ve included a brief update which I’ve stolen from his Instagram page.
We had a terrific presentation at our May meeting from David Traynor on the circumnavigation of Australia with his wife Anna and many others who joined either for all or part of the trip. We had more than 40 people along to hear David speak, some of whom had been aboard and others interested in the trip generally. I wasn’t able to get a copy of David’s presentation before I travelled but will do so for our next newsletter and post a link to it. I also videod the presentation and will edit that on my return also. Thanks to Bryan Moore for arranging for David to present, much appreciated.
At our June meeting (17th) Jeremy has arranged for Phil from Sydney Diesel Marine to talk to us. They are specialists in Yanmar and Volvo marine diesels, which I’d say covers the majority of our boats and they’ll talk to us about the pros and cons of each, how to look after them, what to look out for and troubleshooting when things do go wrong.
The next Cruising Division event is the King’s Birthday Cruise over the June long weekend of 6th, 7th and 8th. I’ll still be here in Greece so won’t be able to attend but I know others are keen and have added their names to the Cruising Division calendar. If you’d like to come along either let me know by phone or text or you can use this link to let us know you’re coming. Destination will be decided based on weather with the forecast looking Southwest on Saturday and then Northwest on Monday. We’ll set up a whatsapp group for those attending.
Look forward to seeing everyone at the June meeting at the club, if not before on the water.
Cheers
Gerald Nicholls, Serenite
Cruiser happenings
Off with his keel
On purchasing Kai Rani, I did the sensible thing and had a proper marine survey carried out before finalising the deal. This was done by Rob Dagleish of Boat Spec Marine Survey.
Rob found that a couple of the keel bolts were a little ordinary but the rest were ok. The rust on the bolts and rusting of the backing plates was a concern.
The suggestion from Rob was to get them done in 5 years’ time as this will also be the time your insurance company will ask for another survey to be carried out. That 5 years’ time has gone and it’s due now.
On asking around I spoke to a sailing buddy of mine who had just had a survey done and was also to have his keel bolts replaced (86 model Moody).
We sailed Kai Rani up to Newcastle, dropped her off and brought Cava back to Sydney, after Port Stephens Race Week.
Kai Rani was lifted out on the Monday and the keel came off without any trouble. New stainless studs were replaced as were the backing plates. The plates were quite bad as they were rusty, delaminating and flaky.
While she was out of the water, I gave the bottom a clean to be rid of small barnacles everywhere (must be lots of nutrients in the harbour). I could also see where the last dive clean had missed spots.
The shipwright also checked my through hull seacocks so I know she’s water tight and ok for a survey.
Kai Rani is now ready for her next adventure north in 2027
Jeremy Clarke
SV Kai Rani, 42 DS Jeanneau
Gavin Randall on Viking III left Sydney earlier this year and the cruise continues. He's now crossed the top of Australia, been through Darwin and going by Instagram he's moved into the Indian Ocean. If you'd like to follow along on Instagram he's svviking111 or on noforeignland, Viking 111 (link here).
Racing in Sweden
Niclas and Sanna were in Sweden and shared some pictures of close quarter race manoeuvring under spinnaker.
Not much room for error with this fleet.
Martyn and Anna were in Venice with some even closer quarters racing, although rowing this time in the Vogalonga Rowing race. Although some don't take the racing too seriously, stopping for drinks around the halfway mark.
Chris & Jo Kelleway cruising on a small cruise ship, not Dreamaway in the Kimberley region.
Jenni and I are in Lefkada, Greece seeing if we can find Serenite II to fulfill our long-term cruising plans. These pics are from Porto Katsiki, a lovely beach with some very blue water.
During the past month a Marine Rescue vessel was lost on the Ballina Bar while heading out to assist a vessel in trouble. Several Marine Rescue volunteers drowned, as did the skipper of the vessel they were trying to assist. We will start with some questions on bar crossings.
1. What state of tide should you prefer to cross a bar on, and why?
2. Is it mandatory to wear a life jacket when crossing a bar?
3. Apart from lifejackets, what other preparation is recommended prior to crossing a bar?
4. Have any MHYC Cruising vessels been lost on coastal bars?
Back to our more usual questions now.
5. What is the lay of a rope?
6. What is “prop walk”?
7. Is prop walk useful or a nuisance?
8. Your steering compass reads 320 degrees. If you are in Sydney (variation 12 deg east) and your vessels deviation on this course is 3 deg west (from your deviation card – you do have one don’t you?) what is your true heading?
9. You are watching a lovely cumulus cloud approaching, and it seems to be increasing in size and turning green. What should you do?
10.One of our crew is keen to have a drink, but is waiting until “the sun is over the yard arm”.Where or what is the yard arm?
Going North - with help from friends - RARA MHYC 41
by Niclas Westling
22 March – 9 April 2026
With Sanna being away in Sweden I (Niclas) took upon the task of getting the boat to a suitable location from which we could easily sail her to Whitsundays when back from Europe.
With Dallas and David to Southport
The initial leg from MHYC to Port Macquarie was done in varying conditions, but mostly reaching or downwind. I think we made two tacks near Broughton Island. The East Australian Current was quite strong at times, with up to 3kn against us, and we hence ventured quite close to land to reduce the impact. We did use the motor for maybe half the time.
We spent a couple of days in Coffs Harbour waiting for the ocean swell to subside (a strong low pressure system NE of us was bringing this on). The Coffs race was actually abandoned as the BOM was forecasting up to 6m swell for the day the racers would likely arrive. In the end it wasn’t that bad, but better safe than sorry I guess. Due to the Iran/Israel-US conflict there was no Diesel to be had in the marina, and we had to take the courtesy car a couple of trips to fill up jerry cans. We celebrated David's birthday too.
Once leaving Coffs we had a fantastic 24 hour passage to Southport with clear skies, and not too bad swell. The wind was at times getting up to around 30kn, so we had to reef the sails quite heavily for a gentle ride.
Reefed sails a lot of the time, especially at night.
The headsail UV cover took some beating, mostly due to the threads being dissolved by the UV, and needed repair in Southport. Who do you find at a weekend when the one and only sailmaker is closed? We found a marine trimmer operating out of his garage a short Uber trip from Southport Yacht club, a very nice guy who did a stellar job at a very reasonable price (Tim Simmons, 0410 848 851) – recommended if you need any canvas work done!
Single handed sailing to Moreton Bay
As David and Dallas had to fly back home, I continued the trip solo – I quite enjoyed seeing how I could handle it on my own and the wind was mainly from the south, 10-20kn, so I could sail most of the way from Gold Coast to Moreton Bay. It was enough wind for headsail only, which felt comfortable since there’s quite a bit of navigation to do. A first night stop was made at South Stradbroke Island, and then I continued past Jacobs well and anchored at North point of Mackley Island where I found some shelter for the fairly strong SE. Drizzly rain most of the day.
1 April. From Mackley Island I continued to the Big Sandhill on Moreton Island, which although this was coming up to Easter was almost empty – I guess the weather was a deterrent. I had a quick swim followed by lunch, but didn’t feel like venturing ashore in the wet weather.
The morning after I sailed on to Newport Marina north of Brisbane where I met up with Phil & Julia on their Catalina “Catch The Wind”, and they kindly treated me to dinner Thursday night.
We visited the Bee Gee street in Scarborough (where they started their career)
Last leg to Hervey Bay with novice crew joining
The original plan was for Gerald to join me Friday morning to do the sail on to Hervey Bay, however, with a forecast for 2.5-3m swell and over 25kn SE at Wide Bay Bar I decided to delay this part of the trip waiting for a better weather window early the week after. Gerald unfortunately had to work the following week, so I had to find another solution as I didn’t really want to solo sail 24 hours and go through Wide Bay Bar alone. Hence I posted an ad in a Facebook crew group, and found a very enthusiastic and willing young english bloke, George, who wanted to join me. The only slight problem was that he had no previous sailing experience.
In order to ‘try him out’ I brought him and his lovely girlfriend on a cruise Easter Monday to the Tangalooma wrecks on Moreton Island. We had beautiful weather and good wind, and George learned the ropes very quickly (and didn’t get seasick). Decision was made that the two of us would continue the day after and do an overnight sail to Inskip point. On Tuesday morning when we left early Moreton Bay was dead calm, but soon the wind filled in from SE, enough to put the sails up and turn the engine off. We continued sailing all through the night and went through a very calm Wide Bay Bar Wednesday morning. After a quick swim at Inskip we slept most of the day.
Thursday morning we continued north, again sailing, and timing the tides to reach Sheridan flats at high tide. This meant we had the current with us all the way. We even managed to sail through Garys Anchorage, which I think impressed some of the anchored boats there. It was rather shallow at some spots.
When passing the Sheridan Flats we used the new “shortcut” route which is also recommended in Navionics. The depth was fine all the way through.
We reached Great Sandy Straits marina in Hervey Bay by sunset after another beautiful day of sailing.
I’m pleased to say we only used around 25 litres of fuel from Coffs Harbour to Hervey Bay.
After a few days of hanging out in Hervey Bay, packing the boat up, I flew back to Sydney. We plan to be back end of July to continue north.
Photo of the month
Send your photos to Mike McEvoy to enter into the 2026 Cruising Division Competition. Each Month the best photo received will be published and, in the running, to win a new Mystery Prize at the end of 2026.
Send your best photos (as a JPG / JPEG) - Remember … to be in the running to win the prize you must be in it. Hint …. Give your favourite photo a Title and Place taken. Submit your photos to mmcevoy@bigpond.net.au
Good Shooting …!! Mike.
Cruising Quiz answers
1. You should cross during the second half of a rising tide. Apart from giving a bit more depth, the main reason is that the incoming water tends to smooth breaking seas. On the other hand, during an outgoing tide the water tends to increase wave height and also increase the tendency for waves to break.
2. In NSW, if it is a “declared” bar (listed by NSW Maritime) you must by law wear a lifejacket. It is a good practice on any bar.
3. I would strongly recommend closing all hatches, tethering on to a jackstay or strong point on the vessel, checking in with Marine Rescue, and checking the webcam for that bar (if available) to evaluate the conditions. Do not be afraid to call it off and go elsewhere (or stay at sea) if the conditions are too rough.
4. Sadly yes – a previous Chairman of the group and his wife got into trouble crossing the Port Macquarie bar. The vessel sank, and one of them ended up in hospital after nearly drowning.
5. The direction of twist of a laid rope.
6. Prop walk is the tendency of a propeller to push the stern of a vessel sideways. It is usually more pronounced in reverse, especially prior to the vessel starting to make way backwards.
7. Once you understand how your vessel reacts, prop walk can be very useful. It can be used to swing the stern of the vessel into the dock as you prepare to tie up, and also to manoeuvre the vessel in tight surrounds such as a marina.
8. Using the old rhymes “deviation east – compass least” and “deviation west – compass best”:
· Adjust for variation first – 320 plus 12 gives 332 deg
· Next adjust for deviation – 332 less 3 gives 329 – so our true course is 329 deg.
9. Either head for shelter or prepare for a severe (but possible short lived) storm. The green colour probably indicates a thunderstorm with hail.
10.Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards, the term is usually used to describe the horizontal spars used on square rigged sails.
Opinions expressed in the Compass Rose are those of the contributors, and do not necessarily reflect opinions of either Middle Harbour Yacht Club or the Cruising Division
