BRISTOL SAILING ASSOCIATION

Newsletter April 2015

Contacts:Kath Liddiard (Commodore)01443 227928

Jock Playle (Secretary)0117 973 8855

Becky Goddard (Treasurer) 01749 346818

Future Trips

1.1Alan Howells and Jeff Birkin will skipper two boats for a week from Hamble on May 8 – 15th for skippering experience. This is fully booked, including ‘non-skippering’ crew. All payments are complete, and crew details have been sent.

1.2Jeff Birkin will skipper a week’s trip from Milford Haven, aiming for the east coast of Ireland on Sunday July 5th – Sunday 12th. A Jeanneau 36i ‘Kalel’ (which Jeff has sailed before and really liked) has been booked. This is fully booked, and deposits paid. With six on board (the maximum allowed by Pembrokeshire Cruising) it will cost £232 per person – a final payment of £172 will be due by June 2nd (ref. Jul5MH), but the Treasurer asks that payments are sent to her (or bank transfers arranged) a week earlier, as she will be away by June 2nd.

1.3Gordon Ogden will skipper the Bavaria 44 ‘Bertie’ from Plymouth for a long weekend on July 16th – 20th. This is fully booked and will cost £235 per person. All deposits have been paid and a final payment of £165 will be due by June 1st (ref. Jul16P) – again, please notify the Treasurer a week before this date so that she has time to deposit payments.

1.4Having successfully arranged to charter a yacht from Plymouth Sailing School for racing, Alan Howells will skipper the Helford to l’Aber Wrac’h race on June 26/27th. As in previous years there will be a cruise in Brittany following the race, so the charter will be from Wednesday June 24th to Friday July 3rd. The race crew is complete, and deposits paid. A final payment of £325 per person will be due by May 27th (ref. Jun24P).

1.5A weekend trip has been requested for early September, this may be from Plymouth, skippered by Alan Howells, who will confirm a date in due course.

1.6BSA members have been offered the opportunity to sail on the PYC yacht ‘Quartette’ during her summer cruise on the east coast. Two weeks are available, July 25 – Aug 1 and Aug 1 – 8. These will be based at Woolverstone marina on the River Orwell, and could be skippered by PYC-approved BSA skippers between the River Blackwater and Orford. Full details have been emailed to all members and we will consider it at the meeting on May 11th. Costs are £35 per weekday and £55 per day at weekends.

News and Notices

2.1Charter payments - reminder. As announced in last month’s newsletter Becky has asked that when members pay for charters that the payments are identified by a code specific to the particular charter. Each charter will be given a code which references the date and the initial letter of the location – see Future Trips 1.1 – 1.4 above. This code should be used as the transaction reference when paying by bank transfer, or written on the back of a cheque payment.

3.Recent Trips – replaced by video presentation of MoB recovery system

All reports of trips in March were postponed until the May meeting, to allow the remainder of the April meeting to be used for Jeff Birkin’s presentation of sea trials of OSCAR, a MoB recovery system he has been developing for some time.

As well as showing a video of a recent test of the system Jeff rigged the dummy used in the tests, weighing 100 Kg – heavier than those used in the majority of rescue practices. The dummy was wearing full wet weather gear and a lifejacket fitted with the recovery device, as in the sea trials.

The device is in a pouch which can easily be incorporated within an existing lifejacket. When the lifejacket opens a triangular float within the pouch inflates automatically. The float has an internal line attached to the lifejacket D-ring or lifting strop. To recover the casualty the float is picked up with a boathook and immediately placed over a strong point such as a winch or cleat. On the line there is a strong point near the float to which a halyard is then attached. On winching the halyard the line contained in the pouch within the casualty’s lifejacket is pulled up until the casualty can be swung over the guardrail back on board.

Compared to systems now available, this one works in a rough sea and with a short-handed crew. The inflatable float is much larger than other solid ones and therefore much easier to secure with a boathook from a pitching or rolling boat. Until winching on board commences the float is attached to the casualty by only a short line, so there is no danger of the casualty being injured by being entrapped by a long line due to the motion in a heavy sea.

Sea trials have been undertaken eight times over the last few months in a variety of conditions. The most recent, which was shown on the video, showed the dummy successfully recovered under sail in 30K of wind and rough seas by Jeff acting single-handed and carrying out all the boat and sail handling and MoB recovery, in 18 minutes. With a full crew and less stormy conditions recovery has been achieved under engine in 4½ minutes. A single-handed recovery was also achieved by Becky Goddard who had not seen the system used before.

A patent is pending for the device, and manufacturing planned for next year. Jeff ended by thanking all those BSA members who had helped with the sea trials, and treated all present to wine and nibbles as a thank you.

During the trials two other defects in safety procedures came to light. These were described by Alan Howells, who has been involved with the tests.

It is worth checking that the MoB position and navigation function of the boat’s GPS is working – it wasn’t on the yacht in one of Jeff’s test sails.

During one recovery the buckle of the lifejacket crotch strap broke. On inspection this proved to be no better than the cheap plastic buckles found on a small rucksack. I would seem that the crotch strap is not included in the lifejacket certification and many are quite simply not fit for purpose. One solution is to take the tail of the strap and secure it to the belt with a couple of half hitches, so that it is still attached if the buckle breaks.

Bsa April 2015 1