Donald M. Street Jr.

First and foremost no plastic should be thrown overboard under any circumstances. Food that has come in plastic wrappers, rinse the wrappers in salt water store in a plastic bag until port us reached and the plastic can be properly disposed. If the bag that the plastic is being stored in begins to smell pour in a little Clorox or other bleach and seal bag tightly. Plastic water bottles crush and pack for disposal ashore.

 

In the galley there should be three garbage receptacles, bio degradable, sinkable and plastic.

 

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• DON'S HURRICANE EXPERIENCE
• TROPICAL HURRICANES AND THEIR INTERNAL TORNADOES
• TRACKING HURRICANES
• LAYING UP AFLOAT IN A MARINA OR STAYING IN A MARINA IN A HURRICANE
• HURRICANE HOLES
• HURRICANES: BOATS IN THE WATER IN COMMISSION
• LAYING UP ASHORE PICK AREA AND YARD CAREFULLY
• HURRICANES: PROPERLY LAYING UP ASHORE
• LAYING UP ON A HURRICANE MOORING DURING HURRICANE SEASON OR SURVIVING A HURRICANE AT ANCHOR
• SECURING FOR A HURRICANE
• SURVIVING KLAUS
• THE ULTIMATE INSURANCE POLICY

Why spend a fortune on restoring a dragon when Fafner, Johannsen 1935, winners of the first Gold Cup in Sweden, 1937, is available and ready to race?

 

Except for new laid beautiful teak deck and new mast step, Fafner is all original. She has full length pine planking secured to frames with copper rivets.

 

She has been upgraded:

• new keel bolts
• all iron centerline bolts holding floors to stem and horn timber have been replaced with bronze
• bulkhead and hanging knees installed
• fore and stainless tubular chain plates installed carrying shroud and diagonals to mast step
• other or improvements see attached survey with 10 photos.

 

Enter the Concours d'Elegance event and race competitively against other classics.

For 23 years Fafner has been extremely well maintained. Varnish inside is first rate. The teak deck is set off by beautifully varnished mahogany covering board, king plank and cockpit coaming /cabin sides which are original.

Racing under classic rig, she has an excellent mainsail specially cut for a limber wooden mast. After carefully measuring the bend in the wooden mast, the main was specially made by Des McWilliam of McWilliam/Ulmer Kolius sails Crosshaven.

Or, with the aluminum rig, with all the twigs and jigs , including mast ram, reconnected, enter Dragon Classic regattas. Given good sails, skipper and crew, Fafner should always finish at the top of the class.

Before D3 sold Fafner, she was so well set up, that racing in the hot Kinsale Dragon fleet in light and moderate weather with good crew, Fafner was just as fast as the modern Pettigrows

 

Download more information about Fafner https://www.street-iolaire.com/attachments/fafner_survey.pdf

INSURANCE and the beginning of yachting in the Caribbean, and its expansion to its present state, why it is now so difficult to obtain insurance coverage in the Caribbean, Don Street’s insurance experience, and advise as to how to obtain insurance coverage.

I arrived in St Thomas in 1956. I bought the engineless 46’ cutter Iolaire, built 1905. In Iolaire and then L’ll Iolaire, and other boats, for the next 63 years I cruised, raced, chartered ,explored, charted and wrote about the Caribbean.

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My great grandfather Col.Hugh McQueen Street was in the insurance business in Vicksburg Mississippi. He sent his son Charles Richard Street at age about 18 north to Chicago to learn the insurance business. This he did and became one of the leaders in the industry. He was famous for the fact that he could smoke a cigar, have a conversation on the phone and with the man sitting at his desk all at the same time.

He was also famous for saying”there area few brilliant people in business who are from the south” stressing the word From!

Digging thru his papers I came across an letter that was sent out to all his agents. “all risks submitted do not have to be prime risks. Describe the proposed insured and the risks. I will evaluate and come up with a premium that the insured can afford and we on the long term basis can make a profit”.

Unfortunately at the present time this does not appear to be the situation in the yacht insurance industry in the Caribbean.

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Yachting in the Caribbean began as a trickle in the 50s, which was the beginning of the charter industry in ST Thomas and Antigua. It got rolling in the 60s, accelerated in the 70s, sky rocketed it in the 90, and has undergone an exponential yearly growth in the 21st century.

In the early years many of the boats were uninsured. Insured boats, some insured in the state, some with Lloyd's. Almost all English boats were insured in Lloyd's.

There was no one in the eastern Caribbean who specialize in marine insurance.

I arrived in the Caribbean in St Thomas the end of November 1956, and bought in March 1957, Iolaire a 46' engineless sloop, later converted to a yawl, built in England 1905.

After working at various jobs I ended up in the charter business skippering Iolaire.

While I was teaching sailing at City Island YC the summer of 1961 I felt that I might not want to spend the rest of my life as a charter skipper so I took a three night a week course in insurance brokerage that would lead to taking an exam for NY state insurance broker license.

I completed the course, passed the exam but did not stay for the NY State Insurance brokers exam. Rather I sailed Iolaire south to St Thomas.

I discovered in my absence that a newcomer had set up an insurance brokerage office, basically general insurance but also marine. I was quickly hired and combined chartering Iolaire and selling insurance, marine , but also house car and motor cycle!!!!

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When I arrived in St Thomas yachting had just barely begun in St. Thomas and Antigua. In St Thomas there were on more than a dozen and a half boat in the Charlotte Amalie anchorage. The industry was supported by the fact that the USVI court was a federal court. A divorce granted in a VI court could not be contested. Divorces could only be granted to VI residents. Six weeks and you became VI resident. Hotels catered to gals establishing residence, yachts entertained bored potential divorcees. Young unattached males had a field day.

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It is much better to send too much information than too little. If the broker or underwriter needs information not in the original request it delays everything a couple of days while e mails fly back and forth.

 

• Name
• nationality
• age
• occupation resume of sailing experience including description of boats owned.
• Marine insurance claims record.
• Description of boat.

If a standard production model:

• date of build
• designer
• engine make,hp and age.
• years of ownership of boat to be insured

If a one off:

• designer
• builder
• date launched
• dimensions
• rig
• engine, make, hp, age

All boats If the boat is more than three years old Copy of latest survey with all surveyors' ESSENTIAL recommendations complied with or stating the essential recommendations will be complied with before insurance attaches. If no survey is available will they be willing to quote subject to sight of satisfactory survey with all essential recommendations complied with before insurance attaches.

This is important as you do not want to go thru the expense of hauling and paying for a survey only to discover they are unwilling to quote because of valuation, age, or some other factor. Value of boat, basically what you paid for the boat, plus money spent on capital improvements. The insured value must be close to the approximate re sale value of the boat.

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Prior to the early 90s there was little difficulty organizing insurance with companies in the states, UK or Europe to cover boats in the eastern Caribbean. However, starting in the 90 s yachting in the Caribbean expanded on a steep curve. Since about 2010 yachting has expanded exponentially causing huge financial losses whenever a hurricane hit a yachting center.

 

Starting in 84 with the late season early November wrong way traveling hurricane Klaus which caught the St Thomas Chart Boat show, 17 hurricanes have hit the islands of the eastern Caribbean. This works out to one hurricane every other year. In most cases, the hurricane hit a major yachting center causing catastrophic damage.

 

As a result, Panteneas and virtually all Lloyds yacht underwriting syndicates have decided that theie reserves will earn a better return if they cease insuring yachts in the eastern Caribbean

With the two major players pulling out, it has become difficult to insure boats based in or cruising in the eastern Caribbean.

 

In the states when trying to obtain coverage you may find yourself dealing with both brokers and agents for large insurance companies. Brokers obtain quote from insurance companies. Some agents for some of the big companies ,to use the insurance term, to hold a pen, ie they can set a rate and insure a boat without going to head office. As long as they have a good win loss record, head office leaves them alone. Thus, head office may tell agents not to insure yachts in the eastern Caribbean while an individual agent may continue to do so.

 

In the Caribbean you are usually dealing with either a broker who tries to find a company to insure your yacht, or a local insurance company who will insure your yacht. Often sailors will say they are insured with LLoyds, thinking they are insured with a Lloyds yacht underwriting syndicate .but they are not. The local insurance company insures the yacht paying claims out of their reserve fund they have built up over the years. The local underwriting company's reserve fund is backed by an excessive loss policy usually in Lloyds, so they tell the customer they are insured with Lloyds

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Many sailors go uninsured saying they would rather spend the money installing good equipement, checking it replacing when necessary thus avoiding breakdowns and replacement

Some sailors have done this and spent a life time sailing and never had any problems requirng a large outlay of cash to solve damage or gear failure. The Pardeys are a prime example, twice around the world in two different boats, both engineless yet no problems.They were skillful but also lucky, read the below five stories.

November 8 1984 Charlotte Amalie harbor was crowded with yachts assembling for the VI Charter Boat Show.

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(Tow boat and lighterman hitches)

 

A Tobo hitch is the proper way to secure a line around a Samson Post. A Clove hitch is not the way to secure a line around a Samson Post. If there is great strain on the clove hitch it will bind up tight and the only way to get it loose is to relieve the strain on the line to the Samson Post or, use the Universal Knot Opener - a sharp knife.
In contrast the Tobo Hitch can be untied under load and more line can be veered. A Tobo Hitch is not only useful for securing a line around a Samson Post but works perfectly on winches.

On Iolaire there is very little space for winches and cleats, so we dispensed with the cleats. All lines leading to winches are secured with Tobo hitches. 

 

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Double Studded 2 speed Winch Handle

Hitches, knots, line, chafing gear, cleats on docks, ring bolts, chain, shackles, swivels anchors vs sand screws

When securing lines it is not only a case of securing but also a case of being able to unsecure and re adjust the line.

When securing to a sampson post, bollard, or a winch, Do NOT use a clove hitch. Once a clove hitch is heavily loaded the only way it can be unsecured is with a good sharp knife.

Use a tow boat hitch, to the Americans, lightermans hitch to the English, as this hitch can be unloaded under heavy strain and line veered.

Lines that are on heavy load may have to be moved. Learn to reliably tie a line to the loaded line with a rolling hitch so that the load can be taken on the line secured by a rolling hitch and the loaded line moved to a better tie off point

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Donald M Street, who arrived in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands in November 1956, is the compiler of the Imray Iolaire charts which cover all of the eastern Caribbean east of Aruba, and is author of guides covering the same area. Over the past 70 years he has built up a tremendous knowledge of how hurricanes affect the yachting industry in the eastern Caribbean

 

COULD YOUR BOAT WITHSTAND A HURRICANE?

 

DON'S HURRICANE EXPERIENCE
Don Street's first experience with hurricanes was the 1938 hurricane that cleaned out the yachting fleet of Manhasset Bay(where street grew up and learned to sail) by putting ashore or sinking 400 boats. Further east in the Watch Hill, Westerly RI area, it killed 485 people and caused in modern dollars 1.4 billion in losses. It wasone of the most destructive and expensive Atlantic hurricane of all times until Sandy2012 tore New York city and suburbs  apart
Sandy did  more  damage so was  more expensive but  the loss of  life was  lest than 10 % of the  loss of  life  in the  38 hurricane.

 

Then the 44 hurricane , which NOAA refers to as "the great storm" hurricane force winds in a 600 mile circle sinking a US navy destroyer, a light ship, two coast guard cutter and ? cargo ships carrying supples to Europe. Well more than 300 seaman  must have lost there lives as 276 were lost  when the  destroyer sank. Thus in loss of  life these two hurricanes were the most destructive atlantic hurricane in  history.

 

Damage  ashore  was not that bad It severely damaged but did not clean out the Manhasst Bay yachting fleet. Snipe number 3 owned by Don Street and his three older sisters survived, but damaged. Street at age 14 filed his firm marine insurance claim as a result of hurricane damage.

 

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TROPICAL HURRICANES AND THEIR INTERNAL TORNADOES
Tropical hurricanes start as a low pressure wave in the region of the Cape Verde islands. Some lows pick up a circular motion and are almost immediately noted by NOAA satellite and given a name. They are then carefully tracked by NOAA/hurricanes with the positions given every six hours.

 

Tropical depression , have winds to 34 kts/39mph/18mps and a bit more .

 

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TRACKING HURRICANES
 

After being caught in 1984 on the north side of St Martins by late season , mid november hurricane Klaus and surviving using six of Iolalire's seven anchors,(click here for full story) I decided that I had to do some research. Klaus was the first hurricane anyone could remember that headed NE in the low latitudes.

 

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Hurricane Whole (6.39 MB) 

Article from Hands On Sailor - Hurricane Whole

 
TROPICAL HURRICANES (16 KB) 

click the above link to down load the file tropical hurricane, their tracks the antilles, their strength and internal tornadoes

 
BEFORE THE HURRICANE (Click Image to Enlarge)

AFTER THE HURRICANE (Click Image to Enlarge)

 

SHARING KNOWLEDGE
2017's hurricanes devastated boats both in and out of the water. If your boat is in the Caribbean, Don Street advises on how you can keep it safe and continue to sail during the hurricane season
An area from west of St Barts to the east coast of Puerto Rico is often called Hurricane Alley, because the islands in the area have over the last 35 years frequently suffered either a direct hit or major damage by a hurricane that has passed close by.

With two exceptions, none of the yard managers have laid up boats during hurricane season in such a fashion that they would stand a very good chance of surviving a hurricane.

 

The yard attached to Marina Puerto Del Rey had 237 boats properly laid up: tied down, well supported by screw jacks, masts out, no total losses: just three per cent suffered major damage during 2017.

 

In St Martin, Sir Bobby Velasco says: "I lay up my boats the way my daddy taught me: wooden cradles, everything tied to together with cross spalls, well nailed together and masts out". Boats in Bobby's marina survived undamaged except for sand blast damage from hurricane-blown sand. Elsewhere in St Martin, where boats were hauled ashore there was massive destruction.

 

In marinas in hurricane alley in 2017, outcomes varied from massive destruction, to many boats sunk, to no sinking but major damage, except Marina Puerto Del Rey. Puerto del Rey with its 12ft-high 1,000ft-long breakwater was specifically built so that boats would survive a direct hurricane hit to the marina. The marina has a total capacity of 950 boats, of which 552 were in the water. Just 4% suffered major damage, 2% were total losses.

As a resut the marina became very popular and  filled almost to full compasity.In 2019when Dorina approached therewere only 45 berths aailable to boats wishing  to shelter  from  Dorian.

 

In the islands to the south of Hurricane Alley – Antigua, St Lucia and Grenada, where large numbers of boats lay up ashore for the hurricane season – the marina managers claim they have learned their lessons by observing the disasters: Antigua as a result of Hugo, Grenada as a result of Ivan in 2004. They lay up boats properly so that they will survive a hurricane.

Fin-keeled, deep-draft boats have their keels in a pit, boats are in specially built steel cradles or are very well chocked by numerous screw jacks, and boats are tied down with straps to either dead men buried in the sand or sand screws.

But the vast majority of the boats are stored with their masts in. Wind pressures go up with the square of the velocity. When the wind gusts to 180mph the wind pressure is astronomical: 83lb per sq ft. That means that on a 60ft mast with the wind gusting 180 mph, the load exerted 30ft above the deck is 5,450lb. When the wind is fore and aft, or near to it, this load really does not matter. But with that load on the beam, will the boat stay in the cradle?

 

Every time a hurricane passes through hurricane alley, boats pour into supposed safe havens, such as Ensenada Honda on Culebra, Hurricane Hole St Johns, or inner Benner Bay on St Thomas. In every major hurricane they are disaster areas with a total of well over 100 boats sunk, and a similar number suffering major damage.

Plenty of good anchors and a large capacity hand operated 35gpm diaphragm pump

When cruising the Caribbean all boats should have a minimum of three anchors. The military always desires to go into battle with a mix of weapons. Similarly when cruising the Caribbean you should not rely on one type of anchor. Different bottoms require different anchors.

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In October 1984 one low after another blasted thru Antigua. Iolaire was hauled on the north side of Antigua in Crabbs, no screw jacks, just wooden A frames jammed against the boats, then wedges driven in to hold the boats tight. 

 

When lows came thru the boats shook so much the wedges would fall out so we finally re drove them and nailed them in place.

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After being caught in 1984 on the north side of St Martins by late season , mid november hurricane Klaus and surviving using six of Iolalire’s seven anchors,(click here for full story) I decided that I had to do some research. Klaus was the first hurricane anyone could remember that headed NE in the low latitudes.

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Kinship place 4th in our division of 19, fantastic crew most have raced with Ryan Kinship's skipper for 20 years, the newcommers have all raced on board for ten or more years

 

At prize giving when they called for Kinship, Tom 92 lead, myself 89 second then Ryan and crew, the crowd let out a roar that could be heard all the way to St Johns. The roar was unique at the prize giving.

Another thing I do is load up the boat with spare fuel filters. I get a couple of 5-micron elements for the engine and at least half a dozen 30-micron elements for the Racor filter. You might run for years along the coast on the same filter, but once you get offshore and the seas start bouncing the boat around, any crud in the bottom of the fuel tank gets shaken up, and you’ll find yourself having to change filters until your tank is clean.

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In 1997 the 60th anniversary race of the Dragon Gold cup was being raced in Dunleary (theyacht harbor of Dublin). The Street family owned two old dragons Fafner built 1937 one of the 13 dragons Johannsen built to create the Belfast dragon fleet and Gypsy built by Anker and Jensen in1933. My son and namesake D111 had done a magnificent restoration of Fafner making her look like a modern Perttigrow. We trailed both dragons to Dunleary.

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The majority of modern cruising boats do not carry spinnaker poles as cruising on the east and west coasts of the states and Canada there is seldom a dead down wind run of hundreds of miles. The cruising man feels that with the modern asymmetric spinnaker he can sail deep enough that he does not need a spinnaker pole. For short dead down wind runs, the smart skipper rigs a strong main boom fore guy/preventer. Then he takes the windward genoa sheet out of its normal lead and runs it as far aft as possible. He then sails slightly by the lee and genoa, or asymmetric sheeted the same way will fill on the opposite side from the main.

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Everyone dreams about the perfect trade-wind passage — 15 to 18 kts of wind, light puff- ball clouds overhead, long swells rolling up from astern, perfect sailing day after day, and little necessity to do anything more than make minor adjustments to sheets and halyards to minimize chafe by changing the nip.

 

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Any single headsail rigged boat with headsail on a roller furling/reefing system should have a removable staysail stay and a heavy weather staysail that can be EASILY AND RAPIDLY set up when it blows up and headsail sail area has to be reduced. This is essential if it is desired to preserve the windward going ability of the boat and keep the boat in balance .

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The original Dorade ventilators were designed in 1932 a year of two after Dorade was built in order to bring in air when the spray was flying and the decks awash(Dorade and boats of her era, the freeboard is so low that from the modern RIB you step DOWN on to Dorade’s deck) and all hatches were dogged down. The ventilators (photo from Mat Brooks) stood a full 3’ above the deck. The dorade box only had to adsorb and get rid of rain and spray, no problem as the drain holes in the dorade box were adequately large.

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When entering harbours and exploring coves in any area where the water is clear rather than using GPS navigation, electronic charts using that wonderful navigational instrument given to us at birth eyeball mark one backed up with a hand bearing hockey puck compass and the chart of the area on deck will save the boat from many groundings. Eye ball navigation is greatly improved if there is a bow lookout whose range of visibility is greatly increased if the bow lookout is standing on top of the bow pulpit. If the lookout is on the lower spreaders everything becomes crystal clear.

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This article is strictly for the cruising sailor who uses good old white Dacron or one of the long lasting off shoots of Dacron developed for classic yachts. It is often said experience is the best teacher, but lessons learned are often a painful and expensive. This article is based on my personal experience, of more than 70 years of maintaining sails often under difficult circumstances backed up by information from Graham Knight of Antigua Sails. He has been repairing sails in Antigua since 1970. He has probably repaired or supervised the repair of more sails than anyone else in the world. Staying on top of the situation, and moving with the times, as described below I extended the life of Iolaire's sails to the point that often sailmankers/repairers said to me "it is good that everyone does not take a good care of sails as you do because if they did it would really cut into our sail repair business!!"

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On boats that have wheel steering there should be an emergency tiller that works. All too many emergency tillers are useless. Go out in heavy weather, test your emergency tiller, not only going to windward, but also on a broad reach and dead down wind, two points of sailing that require a lot of steering. Alternately install the emergency tiller, go out of harbour well clear of other boats, run in reverse at 5 or more kts and try steering a zig zag course for one hour using your emergency tiller.

 

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About twenty five years ago Peter Hayward, the inventor of the safety harness, who was considered by Llyods the top delivery skipper in the world, wrote a one page article in Yachting Monthly.

He stated that good delivery skippers seldom lost a wooden boat on delivery as if it was in poor condition the good delivery skipper would not deliver it. If the wooden boat hit something and began to leak, since all wooden boats tend to leak to some degree, they have pumps that are big and work.

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When sailing the Windwards and Leeward the majority of the time is spent on a close, beam or broad reach. To maximize the time on a beam reach the sailor should study the tidal information on the back of all Imray Iolaire charts.

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The vast majority of boats sailing today are single headsail rigged with the headsail on a foil that the headsail can be reefed when it blows up without any member of the crew having to leave the cocpit. This has practically revolutionized sailing. No longer is it necessary to have a couple of young tigers on board that are willing and able to work on the foredeck in heavy weather changing hanked on headsails.

Now the geriatric ma and pa can sail a 45’ boat with little problem. It is possible to reef a headsail and preserve its shape if the headsail sheet is moved forward so that it is in the correct position for the reefed headsail. To take the guess work out of as to where to move the staysail lead, most sailmakers will put two stripes on the luff of the sail parallel to the luff. (see note side bar) The smart skipper will in moderate weather reef the headsail to the first stripe, ascertain and note the correct sheet lead then reef it to the second strip and do the same.

When reefing to the second stripe it is essential to not only move the sheet lead forward but also inboard as if the lead is left out on the rail cap once the lead is moved forward enough to make the sail efficient when reefed to the second stripe, making it into a G3 the sheet lead to the rail cap is too wide much wider than the normal 10 degree sheeting angle .

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