In case I am sailing, this page contains the latest information needed to find me.
Vessel Details
- Name
- Chiara Stella
- NSW Registration
- AEW611N
- Callsign (ACMA allocated)
- VJN3212
- Callsign (Coastguard)
- ENA2012
- Home Port
- Sydney
- Sail Number
- MYC64 (Manly Yacht Club)
The best description of the vessel is as follows: 42 ft LOA steel hulled cutter rigged sailing boat. Red hull, white topsides, blue antifoul. Distinguishing features include a hard topped teak doghouse, red stanchions either side of the mast, and owls (fluffy bird scaring devices) in the rigging. The mainsail is all white, the foresail has a red sun protection band around all three sides.
Photos can be found here: http://www.babel.com.au/del/gallery2/v/Sailing/chiarastella/
Where to Find The Boat
Manly Boatshed, North Harbour ph: 9948 3473
Manly Boatshed is at the end of Bolingbroke Parade in Fairlight:
http://maps.google.com.au/?ie=UTF8&ll=-33.79937,151.271009&spn=0.010734,0.015557&z=16&om=1
If you park on the street somewhere and go down to the end you will see a pathway (this is the harbour walkway, also shown on the map). The walk down to the boatshed comes off that pathway down to the boatshed. If you are there on a weekend between 9am - 5pm then there should be a tender driver who will take you out to the boat.
The boat is Chiara Stella and it's on mooring 25. This is the furthest east of the orange moorings in the northern half of North Harbour, there are a few larger boats further out on yellow private moorings. The boat has a distinctive red hull, easily seen from either the shore or the wharf.
If there is some kind of emergency, Tina at the boatshed should have all of the details about when I left and where I was headed.
On Board Equipment
The vessel is equipped with the following emergency / electronic equipment:
- HF Radio, ICOM M600, callsign VJN3212. Known working, maintain a listening watch while offshore on 4125kHz except during weather broadcast periods when I am usually listening to the HF weather stations (VMC or VMW). Note that I don't turn the HF radio on while in the harbour.
- 2 x VHF Radios, main is a West Marine (US) and the other is a Shipmate-Robertson RS8100 (Danish), maintain a listening watch on VHF 16 except in designated shipping channels where I listen to the channel authority's designated frequency. Usually I can be contacted on VHF 16 with the call "Sailing Vessel Chiara Stella, Sailing Vessel Chiara Stella, Sailing Vessel Chiara Stella, do you copy, over", although you're welcome to try the formal call sign VJN (Victor Juliet November) 3212.
- Radar (Raytheon), and radar reflector. The radar is usually switched on offshore only.
- EPIRBs (2): One Australian registered, with the ID code BEED40E8A80022D and the other USA registered with the ID code ADCE0222E4C0801. Both tested annually, known working, 406MHz band, with a 48 hour battery life. Also one 406MHz PLB with the ID code 3EF623163F81FE0 with a 24 hour battery life and inbuilt GPS. The Australian registered EPIRB is in a float-free housing on the stern rail, and is automatically activated in the water. The USA registered EPIRB is manually activated (presumably by us when the batteries on the Australian EPIRB have gone flat) as is the PLB.
- Flare Kits as required by the YA Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) to category 3.
- Life Raft -- one 4 man life raft, and a 3 man inflatable tender with outboard as well as oars.
- Air horn, spare compressed air cannisters, and one bottle of fluorescent water dye.
- 2 x 15L and 5 x 5L water cannisters. 1 x 15L diesel cannister.
- First Aid Kit to cat 3, spare first aid kit to cat 7.
Am I lost at sea?
Probably not. My usual route plan sailing south down the Australian coast (I have done this several times) is to follow the East Australian Current due south from a point just off the coast of Ballina, and then to a point approximately 32 deg 15 minutes longitude south, at which point a turn directly towards Sydney (depending on wind direction and speed) could be expected. This route plan takes us outside of the VHF range of VMR and Coast Guard stations along the NSW coast, and in the past this has caused Coast Guard to incorrectly report the vessel as missing. This is not the case -- VHF radio has line of sight range only, and the VMR stations are not equipped with HF radios that I can communicate with, therefore my communication with the coastal stations may fall out for a day or so on this southward journey. Contact with Coast Radio Adelaide and Coast Radio Gladstone, as well as Russel Radio (New Zealand) in the past, on HF channels, has proven to be unreliable and has not in any case prevented Coast Guard from raising the alarm.
As noted above, the vessel is equipped with more electronic gadgets than one can comfortably poke a stick at. This includes the above radios and EPIRBs, two separate electronic autopilots, one manual (windvane) self-steering device, depth, wind, water temperature, and speed gauges, three separate GPS systems and a ruggedised/waterproof navigation computer. The likelihood of the vessel actually coming to grief without at least one of the EPIRBs being activated or us being able to make an emergency call via VHF or HF is very slim.
Next Planned Journey
Sydney Harbour, inshore waters only.
Leaving mooring at North Harbour (Treharn's Manly Boatshed) at a time and date to be decided, over the June long weekend 7th - 9th June 2008.
Returning to the mooring at approximately 16:30 on the same day, or possibly the next day (to be decided).
Expecting 3 persons on board.