GSA/BSA Docking Skills Development weekend. Celtic Flame II  , Dufour 34, Yacht Haven, Plymouth, Thursday 20 to Sunday 23rd October, 2022  – report by reg Morris

Ian Collins   was skipper for this trip with Kate Wilkins (GSA) and Reg Morris  as crew.

The weather forecast was grim. Thursday afternoon was predicted to be fine with moderate winds but a Force 8 with 40 knot gusts was due to arrive overnight and continue through Friday. Rain was also forecast on Friday and Saturday and a Force 7 was predicted for Sunday. Fortunately, the gales were going to be southerly so we would be quite well protected in the Yacht Haven.

Added complications were that the impeller had broken and been replaced with the spare on the previous trip and the head was blocked.

On the brighter side, I was working and staying in my flat down in Plymouth so was able to arrive early at about 1200 on Thursday. I rang Les Dixon, the bosun for Celtic Flame II, and agreed to hop over to the Mountbatten Boathouse chandler to get a service kit for the head and a new spare impeller.

Ian arrived at about 1300 and we started on servicing the head. It was a very awkward space to work in and we needed to pop over to the chandler again for a longer screwdriver to reach the screws at the bottom of the pump. We disconnected and dismantled the pump to discover that it was full of a hard brown accretion that needed to the hammered off. Later we Googled to discovered it was the precipitate of a reaction between uric acid and salt water. That explained why the cuts on my hands were stinging. I wished I had brought gloves but fortunately I did have some tincture of iodine which kills everything, despite not being mentioned in either of our first aid courses. No pain no gain!

Anyway, we cleaned out the pump, fitted the service kit parts and washers and put it all back together. It pumped in and out just fine until we connected it to the outflow pipe when pumping out jammed. So clearly the problem was in the pipe. Unfortunately, the pipe was welded fast onto the seacock and the adaptor at the pump end and would have needed a heat gun to dislodge it. So, we logged it as a job with the chandler and let them know the pipe needed replacing but the pump was OK. Kate arrived at about 1400 just as Ian found a bucket to substitute for the head. I noticed Kate eying bucket rather suspiciously; we decided to stay in the marina each night, which we would probably have done anyway given the weather.

Repairs over, we made the most of the bit of fine weather by taking Celtic Flame II out to practise boat control and mooring using the motor. This is really useful since there is little opportunity to practise these manoeuvres on commercial courses or normal charters where there are several crew and we moor up only once each day. We started out mooring doing bumps and circuits on the visitor pontoon north of Mountbatten peer. This has a large rubber buffer on the north, leeward, side. The wind was blowing in the low teens of knots, so we had to be assertive in approaching the pontoon to avoid being blown off. However, the rubber bumper and a file of fenders along the side were reassuring. After the hard leeward mooring practice, we decided to have a go at the easy windward side. I was first and duly stalled the boat a few feet of the pontoon and let her drift in---- easy. However, we were doing circuits without mooring, with no opportunity to spring off. So, getting her unstuck from the pontoon with a fair breeze on her beam became the challenge we had to undertake.

After half a dozen attempts each, we had pretty much nailed the technique from leeward so headed back to the mooring for cocktails and then dinner at the Clovelly arms which is only about 300 metres from the marina along the coast path. But the coast path had a closed sign on it so Ian very kindly drove us round to the car park above the pub. The pub was busy for a Thursday evening and had a good menu choice, including several vegan options and there was some real ale. When the food arrived, the portions were enormous---almost scary. So, we re-booked for Saturday night to prove we weren’t intimidated. On the way back Kate and I decided to test the closed coastal path while Ian drove back. Ignoring the signs saying closed, danger to life, landslip, etc. we ghost walked down the now overgrown path without mishap or any sign of a landslip. Until the end, which was closed off so that we had to climb over a rather sharp 2-metre-high wire fence with brambles growing through it. More cuts and more iodine needed.

The wind came up as predicted during the night and I found myself wedging myself into the berth with holdalls to avoid rolling around. Like being on a passage but on a pontoon. There was a full orchestra of creaking and rubbing mooring lines with banging and squeaking fenders combined with the wailing of the wind punctuated by the random rattle of driving rain. Not a good night for me and I felt envious of Ian who snored on in the saloon oblivious to it all.

On Friday after breakfast on board we headed back to the visitor pontoon for more practice. The wind was gusting up to 40 from the south and the pontoon was bucking up and down. The rain was horizontal and indistinguishable from the spray. In the distance the sea was breaking all round Drake’s island and on the exposed south facing shore of the Hoe. But behind Mountbatten breakwater we were mercifully protected from the swell. Not surprisingly, we were the only yacht out. A passing police launch even stopped to watch our first faltering attempts to run up to the pontoon almost at right angles at 4 knots, turning at the last minute with anchor hanging over the edge of the pontoon through the turn, to briefly arrive close enough for two hypothetical and extremely athletic crew members to leap into the gale and reach the pontoon. However, with Ian’s patient and skilful guidance and encouragement we grew in confidence and accuracy; if we are ever unfortunate enough to need to moor up to a pontoon in a Force 8, we now have the required skill. We decided not to try mooring form the ‘easy’ windward side since the main challenge would be getting off again. There was a consensus that leaving a nice safe berth when a Force 8 was blowing was probably a skill we didn’t need to develop.

We then began to put our skills into practice on the fuel dock and on an outside pontoon near the reserve lifeboat, where we also moored up for real and had lunch. The wind began to abate and we eventually made our way back to the pontoon and cocktails before heading down to the Mountbatten Inn for dinner. No acrobatics needed to get there and back but the setting was modern and soulless, the menu was limited, the portions unimpressive, some of the food awful and over spiced and the willingness to accept customer feedback was restricted. We decided we would not be going back.

That night was much quieter, and we woke refreshed on the Saturday for a day of mooring on finger berths. Ian was as patient and encouraging as ever and we soon mastered getting into open berths These are where the berth is on the opposite side to the entrance to the fairway and on the outside of the turn as the boat comes into moor. I remembered commercial instructors telling us never to moor on to a blind berth, where the berth is towards the entrance to the fairway and its sharp corner is on the inside of the turn. However, I’d seen plenty of boats doing it successfully and asked Ian if we could try it. He noted that there was a big plastic buffer on the sharp outside corner so said OK. I went first and docked perfectly to which Ian said, ‘OK show us you can do that again’. Which of course I couldn’t, well not without more practice attempts. Kate did much better. Over the day we practised mooring on fingers from every direction, forwards and backwards until we had it nailed. We also practised turning and reversing in tight spaces with hugely expensive yachts on either beam. Then it was time for cocktails again and back to the Clovelly Inn to face those massive portions. No coast path this time.

On Sunday Ian wanted us to practise ferry gliding onto a mooring. So, we headed off across the sound to Devil’s Point where the Tamar enters the sound and tides are strongest. We found a large steel starboard-hand mark and, after ensuring there was no naval traffic coming out of the dockyard, started to practice ferry glides up to it. This turned out to be straightforward after the exercises of the days before. So, looking to improve our boat control even more we practised doing 360’s round the buoy trying to keep within a boat hook of it up tide and down tide. No so easy, and I managed to put a small green stripe on the Celtic Flame’s stern which Ian assured me would rub off with a magic potion he brings on such trips. Fenders are no protection against round buoys!

Then it was back to the Yacht Haven, packing and setting off for home after thanking Ian profusely for a super weekend and leaving him to stay on board another night before visiting his own boat in Polbathic across the Tamar.

Thank you again Ian.