S2K

Tout récemment, Ibon a posté un simple commentaire sur l’un des articles de ce site, posant la question de la faisabilité d’une traversée de La Manche en Sun 2000… Le contact est aussitôt pris, débouchant sur l’enregistrement de son Sun 2000 Cacahuete (basé à Getxo en Espagne) et à l’envoi d’un beau témoignage: le récit d’une traversée aller-retour de Cantabrie jusqu’en Biscaye. Ibon a d’autres projets de navigations plus lointaines, et fait un appel à témoignages sur le site, notamment sur les limites du bateau en terme de sécurité. Très intéressant. Merci à lui.

Au passage, j’en connais qui envisageraient un Arcachon - La Rochelle en  Sun 2000… jouable selon les conditions météo?

Morceaux choisis:

Regarding the trip (crossing the Channel, ndr) , I have not properly planned it but I do enjoy the idea of sailing from Bilbao to Arcachon and later in the future to Portsmouth. So far I have only managed to sail my boat from Bilbao to San-Sebastian. I read in another web page that the Sun 2000 has stability problems although I have to confess that I did not notice it. I used to sail smaller open dinghy boats J.

My only experience with heavy (at least for me) conditions was sailing back from Laredo (Cantabria, Spain) to Bilbao when we unexpectedly encountered 35 knots wind a 2 meters waves, both from the North-West so we sailed in their direction. Me (and my sailing mate) had the feeling that the boat behaved pretty well on those conditions only with ¼th of the Jib. We were both wearing life jackets and closed the main entry door. We registered in the GPS a maximum speed of 10 knots after some very impressive surfing. In any case we did not feel it was unsafe, perhaps just on the limit.

Any similar experience? Were is the safety limit (if I may ask)

Extrait du journal de bord envoyé par Ibon:

Getxo (Bizkaia)-Santoña (Cantabria)-Getxo (Bizkaia) in Cacahuete (Sun 2000)

08/04/20011 Sailing from Getxo to Santoña
With very nice NE wind (force 3 to 4) we pleasantly sailed to Santoña. Just before sunset we were approached by 10-15 Dolphins on their way to the beach of Islares. This was a very exciting moment!
We arrived in Santoña at 22:30 with a clear sky and semi-full moon.

09/04/20011 From Santoña to Getxo
We left Santoña at 9:30 with a forecast of NW wind force 4-5 and a swell from 1,5-2 m. While leaving the bay we realised that the wind was SW already blowing force 5. We were doing 5.5-6 knots only with the jib. By 11 o’clock the wind was already blowing hard from NW so we decided to use only 1/3 of the jib. By noon the wind was blowing 30 knots (as announced by Bilbao port Sea Recue Service). Suddenly a piece of plastic the size of a music CD came down from the mast. That was really shocking so we decided to take all the sails down and run on the engine for a while assuming that the mast was suffering too much. (Later in Getxo, after carefully checking the mast, we realised that it did not belong to the mast but to a light that we usually hang from it when sailing at night; and that we had used the night before in our approach to Santoña ?).

We thought about stopping in Castro (halfway from Santoña to Getxo) to wait for the softer winds but once we realised that Cacahuete could sail in very decent conditions with 1/3 of the jib, we decided to sail back home. One steering the boat and the other one letting the skipper know when bigger waves were approaching. Two hours later we were sailing in to the protected waters of Bilbao port.

It was the most exciting sailing I have ever experienced, indeed at the limit of our sailing capacities and I wonder whether of Cacahuete too (?). She behaved extremely well, I have to say!
The GPS recorded a maximum speed of 10.1 knots while surfing down a wave. Quite impressive for a 21 feet boat!

Best wishes to everyone!

Ps: I have to confess that I was a bit surprised to see the photos and videos. It seemed much serious that what it can be seen in them. I wonder if it was our imagination!

Tout commence par un mail de Manu de Cassy (Makila, Sun Fast 20):

“Bonjour à tous,
Je vous joins cette photo que j’ ai prise fin mars 2011 du haut du phare du Cap-Ferret. Je me suis amusé à tracer un passage qui semble être en principe la meilleure route pour aller à Arguin depuis Le Ferret , en pleine marée basse, même avec un fort coef…!  Je n’ ai pas eu l’occasion de tester cette route…!
Je n’ ai donc pas encore eu la possibilité de relever les deux positions GPS, permettant de passer au travers de ces bancs . Je vais essayer de le faire prochainement, pour voir si depuis le mois de mars , les bancs ont changé de place. Je vous tiens au courant.
Si quelque chose vous choque dans mon estimation de route, n’ hésitez pas à me le dire, afin de pouvoir améliorer….!
Attention, dans ce passage entre Le Cap-Ferret et le Moulleau, tant que nous n’ aurons pas de position GPS, le fameux pylône situé entre Le Moulleau et Pyla sur Mer ne peut être aperçu que dans le sens Cap-Ferret /Le Pyla, car dans le sens inverse Le Pyla/Cap-Ferret, ce pylône est caché par les pins…!
Si l’ un d’ entre vous peut tester, et éventuellement faire des relevés Gps…. ? Et de nous les communiquer….
A bientôt sur l’ eau j’ espère.
Manu “

Belle initiative. Donc que ceux qui s’y rendront avec un GPS, propose leur trace ou quelques WP.
sun2k 2.0