A few people have contacted me about the choice of a gyro for stabilization and I thought they may be interested in this. I have just received a copy of an email from a crew member on a Seahores 52 on a non-stop delivery run from Malaysia K-K to Darwin. This vessel was built in 2004 and had a gyro retro fitted at the boatyard in China just recently. He reported that after 7 days of relative calm conditions they encountered 3-5m breaking seas while crossing the Arafura Sea. While needing to hand steer the maximum roll was around 40 degrees. While I know that we all tend to think those seas are bigger than they really are and that in reality we would very rarely encounter these sort of conditions, I believe his estimate to be reasonably accurate based on the weather reports at the time. The vessel was equipped with twin 120A alternators with the gyro being powered by an invertor. He also reported that they did not have to run the generator for the entire trip. Also, as an aside, for those interested the first couple of construction photos have been uploaded to our web-site. Anja & Don m.v. Kekada SH54#33 (under construction) www.kekaka.com

So, you spend multiple boat units on a gyro and you don't roll more than 40 degrees? Even with 5m seas I'm not going to roll more than 15 degrees with my dumb paravanes, unless I'm trying to go the wrong way. The fellow that did the northwest passage in the diesel dud talked about regularly rolling 30-45 degrees until they fitted paravanes. Those guys were manly. I don't understand the fascination with the Buelher designs, with the exception of the cost. John Sirens Call ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Richards" <don_richards@hotmail.com> To: <passagemaking-under-power@lists.samurai.com> Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 4:07 AM Subject: [PUP] Gyro feedback >A few people have contacted me about the choice of a gyro for stabilization > and I thought they may be interested in this. > > > > I have just received a copy of an email from a crew member on a Seahores > 52 on > a non-stop delivery run from Malaysia K-K to Darwin. This vessel was built > in > 2004 and had a gyro retro fitted at the boatyard in China just recently. > He > reported that after 7 days of relative calm conditions they encountered > 3-5m > breaking seas while crossing the Arafura Sea. While needing to hand steer > the > maximum roll was around 40 degrees. While I know that we all tend to > think > those seas are bigger than they really are and that in reality we would > very > rarely encounter these sort of conditions, I believe his estimate to be > reasonably accurate based on the weather reports at the time. The vessel > was > equipped with twin 120A alternators with the gyro being powered by an > invertor. He also reported that they did not have to run the generator for > the > entire trip. > > > > Also, as an aside, for those interested the first couple of construction > photos have been uploaded to our web-site. > > > > > > Anja & Don > > m.v. Kekada SH54#33 (under construction) > > www.kekaka.com > _______________________________________________ > http://lists.samurai.com/mailman/listinfo/passagemaking-under-power > > To unsubscribe send email to > passagemaking-under-power-request@lists.samurai.com with the word > UNSUBSCRIBE and nothing else in the subject or body of the message. > > Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World > Productions.

Hi John, I could not imagine encountering 5m breaking seas when off-shore. In 40 years+, 1.5 circumnavigations and 2 storms (one in which another yacht was lost) I have never encountered those conditions - in one we did have huge waves with 1-2m cresting and falling off them was scary enough - if they had been fully breaking I just couldn't imagine it. Even a non-breaking 3m wave on top of a very large swell when they are towering over you would be worry enough for me to make sure I avoided it if at all possible. Thankfully made easier with the availability of weather forecasts nowadays. I suspect we are interpreting these conditions differently. Always a problem when trying to compare sea states. Also the vessel mentioned was not a George Beuhler design so I have no idea why your comments about those boats. Don