Randall Reeves: An Interview Aboard Moli

[Philpott]

Randall Reeves: Interviews Aboard Moli

Years ago I ran across Randall Reeves on the internet as he wrote about sailing aboard his boat Murre in the Pacific. Then he came by the Island Yacht Club and talked with us about his plans to do what he was calling The Figure Eight Voyage.

I followed him online as he started off on that voyage, and felt bad about it when he crashed and came home.

But then.

He went out again. This time Skip was getting excited. Then I got excited. Lots of people got excited. And Randall made it through all those oceans on that splendid boat of his, Moli. And they even returned home. Who. Knew?

So I emailed him and asked if I could interview him. And he said, "Yes."

Find here the first of several videos, for your viewing pleasure: https://vimeo.com/381922907

 

[AntsUiga]

Great video - of course, the subject made it easier.

Jackie, send me a mailing address. I have an overwinter book in high latitudes for Randall.

Ants

Oops! Never mind about the address. I found one online that seems reasonable.

 

[sleddog]

Wonderful interview, Jackie! RR has a great sense of humor, history, and expression. "Don't tell my wife!"
Looking forward to further editions. Happy New Year everyone!
~sleddog

 

[Philpott]

Randall Reeves: An Interview ABOUT Moli

Whether or not you followed Randall as avidly as I did, there's a lot of great information here about singlehanding in Big Seas.

https://vimeo.com/383136199

Lots of technical stuff, sailor-specific information, sailing lingo. Yikes! Maybe I should include a glossary?

 

[Intermission]

I just finished watching both videos. Great job Jackie!
Great questions Skip!
So now I have a question for Skip.
Could the monitor wind vane chafe problem be modulated with two small shackles through the polished holes, attached to appropriate sized thimbles on the dyneema line ends?

 

[sleddog]

Could the monitor wind vane chafe problem be modulated with two small shackles through the polished holes, attached to appropriate sized thimbles on the dyneema line ends?

From my point of view, off the boat, most certainly your solution of shackles with thimbles would have likely eliminated that source of chafe on the Monitor wind vane. Those nicely polished holes obviously weren't as line friendly as supposed.

The chafe of the pole end on the jib sheet is normal operation without remedy except for cutting off the jib sheet and re-tying every so often. Just make sure the sheets are extra long if running under twins in the Southern Ocean.

Why did MOLI's roller furling jib reef lines chafe? RR had no explanation as there was no obvious sign of what caused the chafe. This has been a similar issue on other boats..My theory is that a highly loaded line around the roller drum will chafe the inner core against the outer cover as the core and cover stretch and rotate differently. As Christian Williams experienced on his return from Hawaii, sometimes the roller furling line will break even though there is no sign of (external) chafe. When that happens, the scandalized (reefed) jib suddenly explodes into a full sized headsail, endangering the mast.

 

[WBChristie]

The Aries has the same problem with tiller lines chafing where they go through the holes at the rudder. Plastic tubing helps, but the easiest way to deal with it is to tie a loop in the end of the line at the stopper knot, and use the loop to pull the line back into the cockpit with a boat-hook or something convenient...(lines need to be long) and then tie another stopper knot in, shifting all the chafe points slightly.
The boat-hook means you don't have to do a handstand on the transom to get to the end of the line.

 

[Intermission]

The Aries has the same problem with tiller lines chafing where they go through the holes at the rudder. Plastic tubing helps, but the easiest way to deal with it is to tie a loop in the end of the line at the stopper knot, and use the loop to pull the line back into the cockpit with a boat-hook or something convenient...(lines need to be long) and then tie another stopper knot in, shifting all the chafe points slightly.
The boat-hook means you don't have to do a handstand on the transom to get to the end of the line.

What frequency did you shift the chafe points? Hourly, daily, weekly? Depending on conditions?

 

[WBChristie]

What frequency did you shift the chafe points? Hourly, daily, weekly? Depending on conditions?

About every 1500 miles... I was using cheap double-braid. It tended to wear the outer cover at the turning blocks even though they had perfect fair-leads.