BRISTOL SAILING ASSOCIATION

Newsletter April 2010

Contacts:Gordon Ogden (Commodore)01275 462473

Jock Playle (Secretary)0117 973 8855

Jane Jenkyn (Treasurer) 01275 880318

Future Trips

1.1Bryan Thomas will skipper a weekend from Plymouth on May 14 – 16. This is fully booked and paid. Information has been sent to all crew, who should note that the skipper will be working in France in the week leading up to the charter so all arrangements need to be made well in advance.

Alan Howells will skipper a long weekend over the late May Bank Holiday from Plymouth, on May 27 – 31.This is fully booked and will cost £152 per person. All deposits have been paid, and the balance of £102 is now due.

1.3Round the Island Race, June 19th. The Sunsail package of a Sunfast 37 for 3 days, including berths in Cowes, fuel and race entry, plus an extra day for practice starting at 1200 on Thursday June 17th, has been booked. Jeff Birkin will be arranging a meeting for all the crew before then.

The balance payment of £269 per person for the package and the extra day was due by April 23rd. Two payments are outstanding – we need these now as the club has paid Sunsail the full £2650 for the package.

1.4Alan Howells will skipper in the Helford – l’Aber Wrac’h race (confirmed as June 25 – 27). A boat with racing insurance has been chartered from Cornish Cruising at Falmouth. The total charter period will be from Wednesday June 23rd to Wednesday 30th and it will cost £1350 for the week, including insurance. We have five people confirmed at present and would like one more crew member. Will anyone interested please let Alan (tel. 0117 944 2618) or me (Jock) know. One deposit payment of £70 is still outstanding.

1.5Gordon Ogden and Chris Watts will skipper two boats for a midweek boat-handling trip on June 20 – 23 in the Solent. This is fully booked and will cost £133 per person. Two boats have been booked from Port Hamble Charters, and all going are asked to pay a deposit of £50 now.

1.6At the April meeting a charter for the weekend of August 14/15 was requested. This is potentially fully booked, and will be confirmed at the May meeting.

1.7Several members have suggested a charter in the eastern Mediterranean in September. Phil Steele may be available to skipper, and this will be followed up. A similar charter with Phil as skipper will be arranged for next year; this is potentially fully booked.

2Date of June meeting.

Sabrina will be closed from June 6th for most of the month for rewiring and installing a new bar area. Our June meeting would have been on Monday 14th. The only date available to us in June is Thursday June 3rd. Rather than have no meeting at all in June, it has been decided that the June meeting will be on Thursday June 3rd, on board Sabrina at the usual time.

3.First Aid Course. We will hold a course on Sabrina on Sunday May 2nd starting at 10.00 am until about 4.45 pm. This is now fully booked, and will cost £25 per person. The club will pay the total to the instructor, Brian Howell (who took our courses 3 years ago). Those who have booked may either send a cheque, payable to BSA, to the Treasurer or pay on the day.

4.Recent Trips

A summary of all trips reported at meetings is given here, or a full report, if available. Members reporting at a meeting are reminded that a full version of the report should be provided, either written or emailed. If this isn’t available, then only a short summary will be given in the newsletter. Full reports will be included in the next newsletter following receipt.

At the April meeting there were reports by Mike Berry on a midweek sail on the Phoenix YC yacht “Spellbinder”, which is illustrated by the tracks recorded by John Hartland’s GPS, and by Bob Hayes, sailing on Becca Hayward’s yacht “Lady Emma”, skippered by Bob Buchanan. Malcolm Price gave a short account of two trips in Sydney Harbour.

These reports follow.

Trip on Spellbinder, skippered by Gordon Ogden

Solent sailing 9th to 11th April 2010 – report by Bob Hayes

The crew: - Bob Buchanan (Skipper), Becky Goddard, Foggy Fogdon, Rob Hayes (all BSA), Kevin and Colin (Lady Emma regular crew).

Boat - Lady Emma a 42 ft Barberis built in 1985, home mooring - Ocean Quay Southampton.

Friday

We travelled down to Southampton on the Friday, three of us during the afternoon and three later. When we arrived in the afternoon Fred, the engineer, was fitting the refurbished cooker. We sorted the boat and ourselves out and Becky tested out the cooker by producing a scrumptious meal of steak and ale pie, which we all washed down with a few bottles of wine.

Saturday

After Becky had fed us all again, we set off at 1000 hours in a light easterly wind. Bob selected the No 1 genoa and after motoring out we set of across the Solent on a broad reach. We had been discussing using the cruising chute the evening before which resulted in a debate about how many wine glass twists it takes to make a sail into a wine bottle (I suggest about 5 twists make a bottle).

Anyway, we dropped the main and genoa and hoisted the cruising chute. She went up a treat and we ghosted off to the west heading for Lymington. I was lucky enough to be on the helm at the time. I thought she flew beautifully, and I just loved it. After about half an hour the boats ahead started drifting in circles as the wind dropped. So to avoid the same fate we switched the engine on and dropped the chute. By the time we arrived off Lymington the wind had come up a little, so we carried on further and then turned to sail back to our destination on a reach. In the channel on the way in Becky was on the helm and managed to negotiate two crossing ferries the masters of which were clearly on their final warning about arriving on time.

Bob had called ahead earlier in the day to book a mooring in Berthons Marina. We tied up and switched the engine off at 1645. Then, in to the town for Colin to buy a train ticket as he had to jump ship to get home before the Sunday, and off to a curry house in the Main Street. An excellent meal served with a military briskness. I think our waiter was recruited direct from the Pakistani army. After the meal Colin boarded his train, Bob, Rob and Kevin staggered to a pub and Becky and Foggy went to find Lady Emma again.

Sunday

Having been fed by Becky we slipped our moorings at 1100 hours set off into a force 2. Again, what wind there was, was from the east. We beat about a bit with Foggy on the helm. Then he thought he’d race the boat ahead of us. While Foggy was concentrating on his race we were considering the large buoy to our leeward. Foggy said it was only plastic. We were convinced that it would have sounded like Big Ben had we hit it.

With Foggy’s race over and all obstacles avoided we decided that with time, tide and wind against us we’d best motor towards Cowes for a pint and some fuel. On the way to Cowes the wind increased. We decided there was no time for the pint so we’d go direct to the fuel barge. When we got to it there was a big Challenge yacht taking up the whole of the mooring. We asked if he’d be long. “I expect so, she’s taking on 2000 litres” was the reply. That decided it; we’d make our way back to Ocean Quay.

When we came out of Cowes the wind had increased to force 5. We put up just the No 1 Genoa but it was not long before we took it down and put in a reef. With the reefed Genoa she was much more stable and her speed increased. For a while we had to carefully edge our way away from the shallows to the west of the channel. When things freed up she got going and for a while we were doing 6.5 knots, on the one sail. It was great ride. When we got back to Ocean Quay Kevin slotted her into her mooring very nicely. It was 1900 hours. A feed from Becky and into the cars.

A most enjoyable weekend. I got home at about 2300 hours. My wife said that she had been able to do lots in the garden without me in the way, so I fell asleep a happy man.

Malcolm Price said that when he was in Australia recently he had the opportunity to have two short sails in Sydney Harbour.

The first was a sail around the harbor in an old America’s Cup yacht, which had come 4th 20 years ago. The area of the mainsail was greater than the area of an average house, but had no facility for reefing – these yachts don’t sail if the wind speed is greater than 20K, nor if the sea state is more than 2m.

His second sail was in a boat from the Sydney Sailing Association, the organizers of the Sydney – Hobart race. This was a Twilight Race on a Beneteau 421, a race round the cans for an hour and a half in which they came second.

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