BRISTOL SAILING ASSOCIATION

Newsletter February 2018

Contacts:Kath Liddiard (Commodore)01443 227928

Jock Playle (Secretary)0117 973 8855

Becky Goddard (Treasurer) 01749 346818

At the meeting on February 12th we welcomed Colin Dooley as a guest.

Future Trips

1.1Alan Howells will skipper a weekend in late April from Plymouth, and asks that anyone interested contacts him with available dates (tel. 0117 944 2618, email alanhowellsandco@gmail.com)

1.2Alan is also proposing a cruise from Plymouth to south Brittany in May, probably for two weeks from Friday May 11th. This has replaced the previous proposal for a longer cruise with a mid-cruise crew change. Several members have expressed interest; now that we have a more definite proposal will they please confirm their interest by emailing the secretary (jockplayle3@waitrose.com).

2.Recent Trips

Trip reports –A reminder that Chris Wallace has asked for all members who provide trip reports to include the type and name of the boat, and the names of all crew, so that the reports can be completely listed and referenced on the website.

At the February meeting we had the reports of sailing in December last year (held over from last month as the January meeting was our social evening). Alan Howells and Ian Collins shared the report of their Canary Islands cruise (with an addendum by Don Hirst), and Bob Buchanan gave Andy Gordon’s report of Phil Steele’s ‘Christmas Lights’ trip from Plymouth.

Trip on Lagoon 380, skippered by Alan Howells

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Phil Steele’s Christmas Lights Cruise 15th-17th December - report by Andy Gordon

Plymouth Sailing School Bavaria 36 – ‘Phoebe’

Skipper – Phil Steele. Crew – Becky Goddard, Bob Buchanan, Andy Gordon

We arrived at Plymouth Yacht Haven around 3pm on the Friday. The plan had been to get the boat loaded and then motor up the river still in daylight to find a mooring where we would eat dinner onboard. Unfortunately, Richard from the sailing school was uncontactable (it turned out he had been delayed teaching in Falmouth in heavy weather) and by the time we had arranged for someone else from the sailing school to bring the boat alongside it was getting dark so the decision was made to stay put in the Yacht Haven that night.

We set out for Fowey at 09:40 on Saturday. Wind was N 10 kts. We set full main and genoa. By 12:20 wind had increased above W 20 kts so we doubled reefed the mainsail and then triple reefed the genoa as the wind increased to 29k kts. Whilst we were reefing we were visited by a school of dolphins. We continued sailing close hauled towards Fowey needing to put in some tacks as we neared the entrance. Christmas lights were spotted as we motored in. Approaching the town quay, we were surprised to find that we had to be the outermost boat on a raft of 3. This was due to space being reserved for a Navy Patrol Vessel arriving later. Safely moored by 17:10 we enjoyed mulled wine and mince pies onboard. We had an excellent dinner ashore at the Lugger Inn.

On Sunday morning we had to move to allow an inside boat to leave early so we picked up a mooring on the Eastern side of the harbour where we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. We finally set off for Plymouth at 10:10. With a SW F5-6 wind forecast the decision was made to set off under full genoa only. This worked well with the boat sailing very comfortably making 5.5 – 6kts. We gybed into Whitsand Bay for a closer view of the coastline and then back out to pass Rame Head and into Plymouth Sound. We were moored in the Yacht haven by 15:10. Total distance sailed was 55nm.

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