BRISTOL SAILING ASSOCIATION

Newsletter February 2014

Contacts:Kath Liddiard (Commodore)01443 227928

Jock Playle (Secretary)0117 973 8855

Jane Jenkyn (Treasurer) 01275 880318

Mike Berry

Today, February 28th, we heard the sad news that Mike Berry died last night. Mike joined BSA 18 years ago and was one of our active members, sailing on many cruises and races. He was not only a most competent and experienced sailor, but a delightful crew member with a great sense of humour. Those who sailed with him will greatly miss him – you could not wish for a better sailing companion.

We welcome Morton Williams as a new member.

Future Trips

1.1Gordon Ogden’s midweek trip planned for February 24-26 on the Phoenix YC yacht ‘Spellbinder’ was cancelled as the boat (after maintenance at Totnes including major keel repairs) was stuck in Dartmouth by the recent bad weather. (Force 10 recorded at Kingswear Marina, with the pontoons waving like the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.) This has been replaced by….

1.2….Gordon and Chris Watts will skipper a midweek two-boat trip on both the Phoenix yachts on Monday March 17 – Wednesday 19th. This is now fully booked as most of the crew of the cancelled trip have joined this one. I will send the usual contact details to all going, and Gordon and Chris will allocate crews to the boats to achieve a good crew balance.

1.3Since the last meeting there has been a flurry of activity chartering for both the Round the Island and Helford – l’Aber Wrac’h races. Details of the proposals by Jeff Birkin and Alan Howells were emailed to all members in January and the response has allowed us to arrange three charters, all fully booked. These are:

1) A practice weekend for the Round the Island race on June 13-15.

2) The race on June 21 (charter from Thursday evening the 19th – Sunday 22nd ).

3) A cruise from Hamble to Falmouth, June 22-26, the l’Aber Wrac’h race on June 27/28, and a cruise back to Hamble by July 3rd.

1.4One of the conditions for getting a charter for the Round the Island race for less than £2000 was that we booked two weekend charters on the same boat before June 19th. One of these will be the race practice weekend on June 13/15.

Two possibilities for the other were proposed at the February meeting:

Jeff Birkin proposed another of his boat handling training trips, possibly on the weekend of April 25/27. We now know that the boat is being used for a Sea School course that weekend and is not available to us. Jeff hopes to offer this later in the year.

A long weekend (with the opportunity for a cross-Channel trip) around the weekend of May 17/18 (i.e. Thursday evening – Monday). The boat has been booked for this. Jeff will skipper, and will those who gave their names at the February meeting please confirm. There are one or two places still available – please let me (Jock) know if you are interested. The cost for this 4-day cruise will be about £160 per person.

1.5Alan Howells proposed two future trips.

1) After last year’s successful sail training weekend he is offering to skipper another one at any time this year.

2) A week’s cross-Channel cruise from Plymouth in August.

We have some interest for these proposals. Will all those interested please let me (Jock) know.

News and notices

2.1Talk by Dougal Matthews on divers’ safety with respect to other vessels in the vicinity

At the February meeting Dougal Matthews gave a very interesting talk on a diver’s perspective of boating. He said that, as well as the dive boat showing code flag A (except in the USA) which shows that divers are down, each pair of divers will probably deploy a surface marker buoy, a tall, thin orange buoy. The one Dougal demonstrated was activated by the submerged diver with compressed air and retained by a line on a reel. This type would remain upright on the surface as the gas bottle acts as ballast just below the surface. Dougal warned us that a surface marker buoy is wind-borne, not tide-borne, so that we must not assume that the divers are downtide of the buoy, and we, in a yacht should keep at least 50m clear of the buoy in any direction. The divers use the buoy to aid location by the dive boat and the deployed line gives the diver an estimate of depth. When a group of divers dive on a wreck, they all go down to a fixed point but may become well separated, perhaps half a mile from the dive boat.

Dougal then talked about decompression, which he likened to opening a bottle of fizzy drink in stages to release the gas. Nitrogen is dissolved in the diver’s blood, more at high pressure. The diver needs to go through staged decompression after going to a depth greater than 5 metres. When surfacing, the diver will stop for a minute every 2 - 3 metres from a depth of 10 metres to allow the dissolved nitrogen to escape from the blood, so a diver could be near the surface for some time and at risk from vessels passing too close.

2.2Shirehampton SC ‘Try Sailing Day’

Bill Barnes has sent the following note from Shirehampton SC.

Last year, several BSA members helped out at Shirehampton Sailing Club "Try Sailing Day".We are running another one this year, and would appreciate some help again.

“Try Sailing Day” at Shirehampton Sailing Club. Saturday 10th May, 1200 – 1700,

Clubhouse, Station Road, Shirehampton, BS11 9XA (off the Portway)

We would also welcome any members/friends/relations/etc. who want to try dinghy sailing.

Bob Hayes (tel. 0117 942 2906) has offered to coordinate BSA assistance for TSD2014

New rules at Cowes

When entering Cowes all yachts must now have their engines running.

The chain ferry has priority over other vessels.

2.4Greek Tax

Greece has introduced a tax for visiting yachts, even for just transiting Greek waters without anchoring or berthing. It starts at €200 for a 7m yacht and rises to €400 for 12m. Presumably this wouldn’t apply to a yacht chartered in Greece, as it would be registered and berthed there, but would apply if you sail from outside Greece.

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3.Recent Trips

At the February meeting Phil Steele reported on his December ‘Jane’s Xmas Party’ and ‘January Sails’ trips. Bernard Smyth has sent a short report on sailing at Christmas sailing in the Canaries.

Trip on Quartette, skippered by Phil Steele

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Trip on Quartette, skippered by Phil Steele

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Trip on Hanse 300e., skippered by

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