BRISTOL SAILING ASSOCIATION

Newsletter August 2009

Contacts:Gordon Ogden (Commodore)01275 462473

Jock Playle (Secretary)0117 973 8855

Jane Jenkyn (Treasurer) 01275 880318

At the meeting on August 10th we welcomed new members Jeremy Powell and John Hartland. We were also pleased to welcome back long-standing member Colin Holbrow.

Future Trips

1.1Gordon Ogden will skipper a midweek trip, Monday September 7th to Thursday 10th on the PYC yacht “Spellbinder” from Plymouth, where she is temporarily berthed at Plymouth Yacht Haven, before returning to Gosport after a west country summer cruise. All places were booked at the August meeting. No advance deposit is required, and those going should pay Gordon the fees of £30 per day while on the boat, which he will forward to PYC.

1.2Phil Steele will skipper a week’s Med charter in Sicily on September 5th – 12th. Peter Wakeling has arranged flights and, with Phil, booked a Beneteau Oceanis 423. All balance payments have been paid. Phil and Peter will make all the arrangements with the crew.

1.3Phil Steele will skipper a charter from Falmouth on the weekend of October 2nd - 4th. There may be one place available, as one member who booked now has uncertain work commitments. This will be confirmed at the September meeting. BSA has now paid the full charter fee, so will those who have booked please send the balance of £20 (or full £70 in one case) to the Treasurer, Mrs J R Jenkyn, Edgecliff, 12 Marine Parade, Clevedon, Bristol, BS21 7QS.

1.4Following Alan Howells’ charter of a GK 29 from Plymouth for training and boat-handling practice (see report in this newsletter) some members have asked for a repeat on the same boat. Alan hopes to do this at the end of October. Will all those interested please let us know at the next meeting on September 14th.

1.5Gordon Ogden hopes to skipper a midweek Solent trip on “Spellbinder” in early November. Details in due course.

1.6Phil Steele will skipper a “Xmas Lights” trip on the weekend of December 19/20, probably from Plymouth to either Fowey or Dartmouth. This is potentially fully booked.

2.Announcements

2.1Insurance. From time to time we remind members that they should have appropriate travel insurance, including cancellation cover, for sailing trips. We have also warned members that most standard travel insurance policies no longer cover sailing, except perhaps in coastal waters only or if it is incidental to the main holiday. Peter Wakeling has now found some policies which do cover all sailing activities at lower cost than the RYA policy. Peter gave details at the August meeting and has supplied the following information:

Cover for over 65s is much more limited and expensive and also cover for sailing more than 12 nm offshore is extremely rare. The RYA policy is excellent for offshore sailing and other hazardous pursuits but cost climbs steeply over 65 (however to their credit there is NO upper age limit)

The insurance company I found most favourable for sailors over 65 is www.insureforall.com/. They also happen to be listed as a best buy in Which magazine for annual multi-trip travel insurance and cover a very wide range of activities. There is a sister insurance company www.travel-insurance-web.com which caters for people up to 65 and is also listed as a Which best buy. This is significantly cheaper and offers increased limits of financial cover but I believe the same conditions for offshore sailing are applicable.

Because of conflict between their policy wording and the general exclusions attached, I had to obtain written clarification from their underwriters as to the cover provided. I received the following -

“I can confirm that the following will be recovered in regards to sailing trips;

a maximum of 10 days Europe / Worldwide with a maximum boat size of 40 feet (with experienced staff)

or a maximum of 14 days Europe only with a maximum boat size of 55 feet (with a professional / qualified skipper)

** Sailing is also only on a recreational basis, and no cover is provided for Offshore Rescue or Personal Liability cover.

Under the General Exclusions applicable to the whole policy we do exclude cover for crewing a vessel. However, our underwriter has decided that the following types of sailing trips can be covered as long as the criteria are met;

The trips with a maximum of 10 days Europe / Worldwide with a maximum boat size of 40 feet (with experienced staff) do need to have people on board with sailing experience. This does not mean that you need to have experienced people on the ship that are employed to do the sailing. However, for trips with maximum of 14 days Europe only with a maximum boat size of 55 feet you will need to have a professional or qualified skipper on board. We do apologise for the confusion caused by the use of wording by our underwriters.

Please also note that we do specify that for a maximum of 14 days within Europe (boat size of 55 feet) you must be professional / qualified skipper. The Royal Yachting Association (RYA) sailing qualifications would be enough as they are normally able to charter sailing yachts within Europe and Overseas with this qualification.

You will need to contact us in the event that you do have a sailing trip that falls outside the underwriter's criteria as detailed in my previous email. We would ask you to provide us with the following details;

Destination, Duration of trip, Type of boat, Size of boat, Any crew on board (e.g. professional staff, skipper, etc.)

We will then refer this to our underwriters and once we have had their response we will contact you with the outcome.”

This appears satisfactory for my anticipated sailing requirements. My impression from talking to them is that with adequate qualifications and experience the underwriters would also look favourably on specific trips outside the criteria. Anyone taking out this insurance would be advised to seek similar confirmation of the cover.

3.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 August meeting the reports included three from PASAB. These were:

“Chantan II”, skippered by Malcom Price, report by Antonia Pemberton

“Enigma of Tamar”, skipperd by Phil Steele, report by Sue Fowle

and “Not the PASAB”, report by Ros Bennet of her alternative cruise in “Demelza”.

Alan Howells reported on a charter from Plymouth in a GK29 as a training weekend,

Bill Thomas reported on a Cowes Week cruiser race on Tim Sandford’s boat, and

Becca Hayward has sent an account of sailing on the Maxi “Drum” in Scotland.

We have also received the second report from Julia and Chris Wallace of their round-Britain sail.

This report and the three PASAB ones are included with the posted copies of this newsletter, and have already been sent to the email recipients.

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Trip on Westerley GK29, skippered by

ICC Race, Cowes Saturday 8th August – report by Bill Thomas

In an effort to attract/retain as many boats as possible on the Saturday of Cowes week, the organisers put on an extra race for Cruisers. This attracted interest from a wide spectrum of boats from a Hunter 27 at one end of the scale to a 53 foot Oyster, at the other. Tim Sandford’s Dehler Optima 101 Dehlerious was just about in the middle of the range. The crew consisted of Tim, Dave Lloyd, Chris (Hannah’s partner) myself and my son Huw. Sarah Foster (Co-owner) and her daughter Hannah opted for the delights of the Cowes shops and were christened the ‘Retail Crew’

Huw and I made our way to Cowes, by train and Red Jet, on the Friday evening. Everyone else met at the RAFYC on the Hamble, where Tim and Sarah keep Dehlerious and brought her over to East Cowes. It was the evening of the Fireworks and Cowes was absolutely crammed. We finally met up in the beer tent by the Royal Yacht Squadron and watched the Fireworks, which (despite the lack of a sponsor) were brilliant.

Saturday morning, as forecast, was sunny with no wind. We were due to start at 1140, but there was a general postponement announced. We decided to get out on the water and motored out of Cowes and picked up a visitors’ mooring buoy between the Green and Gurnard. Providentially, we thought, there was a line already made onto the ring at the top of the buoy and we picked it up quite easily. We decided to lasso the buoy as well as the tide was zipping through – it was just after Springs. We relaxed in the sun and about 1215 the General Postponement was replaced with a specific postponement and we were to start at 1325.

We came to cast off from the buoy, but the lasso was jammed under the buoy. We motored forward and tugged it from different angles, but it wouldn’t budge. To Tim’s chagrin, we had to cut his favourite long warp.

With the delay, the tide was now flowing west and the breeze filled in from the West. Our course was a beat down to a buoy inshore of the Gurnard Ledge cardinal, a sausage up to another mark off The Green and back, and then a final long run back to the RYS line.

Before the start we made a conscious effort to get well to the eastward of the line. The wind was about 6-8 knots due West and we were the 6/7th class away. When our 5 minute gun went, we were dismayed to find that we were inexplicably 200 yards downtide of the line. We pegged back up into the tide but were making only 0.5-0.7 kts over the ground – compared to a reasonably healthy 2.8-3.2 kts through the water. The starting gun fired and we were still about 150 yards on the Course Side of the line. We decided to fly the Spinnie, which went up very promptly and filled well. The Retail Team, who were watching these manoeuvres from the shore were unable to work out why we were the only boat flying a spinnaker and all the other boats were going in the opposite direction!

We finally got back above the line, whipped down the Spinnie and headed for the windward mark, approximately 16 minutes late. The wind was constant in direction, 8-10 kts and little or no sea – conditions that Dehlerious really revels in. We started to catch up and reel in the competition. On the last run we had slackish water inshore and we could see the fleet (Including the bigger boats who started before us) bunching as they started to plug the stronger tide off Egypt Point. We had some really exciting racing overtaking a number of boats with dinghy-like tactics and finished like a train - ruing our bad start.

We had a couple of Mojitos to drown our sorrows, when we moored up in East Cowes and then into West Cowes, which was much more civilised than the previous evening, and had a very good meal in the Island Sailing Club. We were all still a little subdued and after a couple of drinks retired.

Sunday morning was a cloudy and we decided to go out and watch the start of the Fastnet Race. While we were breakfasting and generally getting ourselves together, Tim went up to the Marina Office and checked the results online and to everyone’ amazement, we had come in 3rd!! We were only 3 minutes behind the winners on corrected time and so there was still a question of what might have been.

We motored out and picked up another visitors’ mooring buoy about 100 yards east of Saturday’s. Initially we rafted up with a small Beneteau and with all the ribs and other boats charging about, there was quite a swell and luckily they had to push off back to Chichester and left us much more comfortable on our own.

The start was extremely impressive as it was down wind and the Solent was a mass of colour as everyone flew their spinnakers. Especially impressive were the Open 60s and the really big boats, who went off last, and accelerated like E-types as they got out into the breeze. Dave was able to ask one competitor whether they had checked the marks of the course, as they came steaming within about 20 yards of us. With some very loud expletives, their skipper hardened up immediately, crossed about 5/6 feet from our stern and just made the Gurnard buoy before bearing away again down the Solent. Dave was convinced that they would do well and he would be in for a large drink. Unfortunately, they didn’t get beyond Falmouth!

We made our way back into Cowes and Dave and I were dropped off on the pontoon at West Cowes to get the Red Jet and train back to Bristol. The result had made a good weekend into a great one and next season’s racing is awaited with keen anticipation.

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Drum sailing weekend around Clyde 31st July – 2nd August 2009 – report by Becca Hayward

Crew: Stuart Cook (skipper), Suzy, Cammy, Becca Hayward (BSA), Paddy Beatt, James Beatt, Charles Davis, Ian McKinnon, Judy and Douglas MacColl, Fred Hart, Simon Durk

I am sure most of you reading this will have heard of Drum. She was commissioned by Simon Le Bon for the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race in 1985. On August 10th of the same year, to assist with crew training and to test the boat’s equipment in advance of the race, they entered the Fastnet Race. However, during this race they encountered serious gale force weather conditions which caused the 14-ton keel to fall off, capsizing the yacht with all 24 crew members still onboard.

The team only had one month to get the boat back to racing form; salvaging her, fitting a new keel, mast and sails, and replacing all electrical systems. Drum successfully competed in the 1985/86 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, scoring 3rd overall. Because of her history, and being the only British Maxi, she generated huge publicity with more than 10,000 spectator boats turning out to welcome them back to Britain. She still has many of her original features and is still a stunning boat.

We all made our way up to Ardrossan and waited for the 98ft mast to appear the other side of the breakwater. Sure the enough the 4 sets of spreaders eventually made their way into view, clearly affected by the massive swell. The crew explained they had 25 knots of wind on the nose so they had to motor which was very uncomfortable. So we all climbed on board and decided on a plan.

We had originally intended to sail overnight to Port Ellen but due to the sea state and wind strength we decided to have fish and chips and an early night – particularly as some of us had been up since 3.30am!

6am the next morning we all got up, had bacon and sausage butties (no-one warned me about square sausages!) and put our oilskins on for the trip ahead. We headed WSW around the Isle of Arran and across to Campbelltown for lunch. I discovered no-one wanted to grind with me because of my short arms; people kept banging their knuckles against my lifejacket! Two long tacks with 20-25 knot winds and a considerable amount of water over the foredeck.

Lunch was a buffet; we stopped for an hour and then headed back out again. We had a broad reach up to Tarbert where we had to do a quick pit stop to pick up some gas and then up to Largiemore for some lovely Chicken Casserole previously made by Judy followed by homemade marmalade and lemon drizzle cakes.

James wanted to get some night hours in so we then headed back to Tarbert, tacking all the way. Poor vis and hammered by rain but another good sail. Went to bed around midnight.

Up again at 7am. more butties and a beam reach south or Brodick on the Isle of Arran for lunch. The sky was clearing and by the time lunch was over it was glorious. Oilskins came off and a couple of people even changed to shorts! We then had the kite up on the way back heading East back to Ardrossan for us all to catch our flights home.

124 miles in total and 1.5 night hours.

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