BRISTOL SAILING ASSOCIATION

Newsletter March 2010

Contacts:Gordon Ogden (Commodore)01275 462473

Jock Playle (Secretary)0117 973 8855

Jane Jenkyn (Treasurer) 01275 880318

Future Trips

1.1Jeff Birkin will skipper a Solent weekend on April 23 – 25. This will be from Port Hamble Marina and will cost £105 per person. It is fully booked, and payment of the balance is needed by April 9th (cheques to the Treasurer, Mrs J R Jenkyn, Edgecliff, 12 Marine Parade, Clevedon, Bristol, BS21 7QS.)

1.2Bryan Thomas will skipper a weekend from Plymouth on May 14 – 16. This is fully booked and will cost £91 per person. Full payment (£41 for those who have paid a £50 deposit, £91 for those who haven’t) is due by April 16th – either pay at the next meeting or send to the Treasurer, address in 1.1 above.

1.3Round the Island Race, June 19th. Following the decision at the December meeting to opt for the Sunsail package of a Sunfast 37 for 3 days, including berths in Cowes, fuel and race entry, a firm booking has been made. By booking at the Boat Show we were able to get a discount of £100 so the cost for this package, with a full crew of eight, is £282 per person. Jeff Birkin will skipper, and seven others have sent a deposit so we have a full crew.

Jeff and the crew asked for an extra day’s charter for training. The boat has now been booked from 1200 on Thursday June 17th for an extra £400 (again with a discount of 15%, and at a cost of less than 20% of the 3-day package for the extra day). The total balance payment for the package and the extra day is £269 per person, and will be due by April 23rd.

1.4Alan Howells hopes to skipper in the Helford – l’Aber Wrac’h race (confirmed as June 25 – 27). Unfortunately, the insurers of the Dufour 35 berthed at Saltash have refused to insure a bareboat charter for racing, despite the owner’s agreement. As an alternative we may consider the GK 29 at Saltash, or a boat from Cornish Cruising at Falmouth. The total charter period would be from Wednesday June 23rd to Wednesday 30th. We have five people interested at present, so need another crew member. Will anyone interested please let Alan (tel. 0117 944 2618) or me (Jock) know. We need to make a final decision at the meeting on April 12th.

1.5Alan Howells will skipper a long weekend (4 days, Thursday evening May 27 – Monday 31) from Plymouth over the late May Bank Holiday, aiming for Tréguier. One more crew is needed, so please let us know at the April 12 meeting, when a final decision will be made.

1.6Training. Alan had offered to skipper another training long weekend (Thursday evening to Sunday) from Saltash. Originally this was planned for March or April, but a date suitable for those who were interested could not be found. If required, this could still take place later in the year.

Gordon Ogden has offered to skipper a different type of training trip, concentrating on boat-handling, in May or June. This will be discussed at the April meeting.

1.7Looking ahead to next year, one member has suggested a charter in the eastern Mediterranean, and asked for this to be discussed at the April meeting.

2.First Aid Courses. In March 2007 25 members attended one-day RYA First Aid courses held on board Sabrina on two successive Sundays. The RYA certificates are valid for 3 years, so these are now out of date. We will again hold a course on Sabrina on Sunday May 2nd. Will anyone who wants to repeat this to maintain their certificate please let me (Jock) know by the meeting on April 12th. We may be able to have another one later for those who can’t make this date.

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 March meeting there were reports by John Hartland on a Solent weekend skippered by Bryan Thomas on February 12-14, and by Phil Steele on a midweek sail on the Phoenix YC yacht “Spellbinder”, nominally skippered by Gordon Ogden but effectively skippered by Phil as his assessment for appointment as a PYC skipper for BSA.

Phil also reported on a day sail in the Severn Estuary from Portishead, and Jeff Birkin gave a cautionary tale of crewing on a charter boat positioning trip in the British Virgin Islands. Bernard Smyth has also sent a report on sailing in the BVI.

These reports follow.

Solent weekend February 12 – 14 -Report by John Hartland.

Skipper: Bryan Thomas. Crew: Wendy Parker, Joe Buxton, Xavier Uldry, Stuart Lees, John Hartland.

Boat ― Shropshire Lady ΙΙ. ― Bavaria 350. Chartered from the owner Kathy Cole.

We arrived at Mercury Yacht Harbour on the Hamble just after four on Friday afternoon and found Kathy waiting for us. After going through the handover check list, she left us to transfer provisions and our kit from the car. On board we stowed everything away and opened a bottle of wine while getting dinner ready. With good timing the last of the crew arrived as the chilli-con-carne Bryan had prepared at home was ready to serve. The onboard central heating was more than a luxury as the temperature dropped outside.

The following morning after a leisurely breakfast of bacon butties, porridge and fruit juice, Bryan gave a safety briefing, putting special emphasis on what to do if the skipper fell overboard. (We did manage to keep him on board all weekend.) The weather forecast predicted a North to North Easterly wind, force 5–7, with a moderate sea for Saturday. This would be followed by heavy showers overnight into Sunday when the wind would drop to 3–4, sea moderate to slight.

We left the berth and motored down to the fuel pontoon, having agreed with Kathy to top up with diesel. Leaving the pontoon, we had to spring off and turn down river, dodging two training boats doing their best to get in the way. The winds were in reality more force 4 and sea state was slight to moderate. We had difficulty raising the mainsail, as the reefing lines were not travelling easily and the runners in the mast were a bit sticky. As soon as the sails were set we sailed on a broad reach into the Solent, then south westerly before gybing again north of Gurnard on a course to Cowes, we motored up the Medina and tied up on a visitor’s pontoon. Slightly chilled, the heating was switched on full blast and we got down to the serious business of lunch. Warmed and refuelled we made ready for sea, while Wendy plotted our course for Lymington. With wind and tide in our favour we had a fine sail down the Solent arriving off Lymington just on low water. With depth sounder alarm bleeping, we cautiously followed the channel in with barely half a metre below the keel. Bryan pointed out a transit light in the channel was still not working. Once tied up at the Berthon Marina we could relax, the skipper went ashore, negotiating and paying a preferential rate with the marina office, they insisted he took a paper slip with the code number for the gate, how could we possibly forget 1111. After making use of the excellent facilities it was time we headed for the Kings Head, where we more than sated our appetites with a delicious meal for about a “tenner” a head. Mulling over the events of the day, Bryan wondered if anyone would like to go up in the world, but alas, there were no volunteers for a trip in the Bosun’s chair to lubricate the mast runners.

Sunday morning was frosty but bright and after a hearty breakfast of eggs and bacon we motored down river with plenty of water below us. After attempting to hoist the mainsail Joe found one of the runners had come unscrewed and despite our best efforts to fix it we had to remove the sail batten to get the runner in place. We discovered the plastic fixture on the sail had a fine crack in it and someone had attempted to tighten the screw by using a fine nylon line wound around the thread. Once the sails were up we managed at first to make reasonable speed up the Solent, however after a brief heavy shower the wind dropped and despite the skipper’s best efforts to find the least current against us, our speed dropped to 0.8 kn. Slowly passing a yacht on our starboard side we were convinced we were making headway when the skipper came up from below to say we were going backwards, still at least we were not going backwards as fast as they were. With the engine started we motored the rest of the way back to the Hamble. As we approached the entrance to the river we noticed a small Westerly yacht with its stern out of the water, it was attached by a tow rope to a Rib. The Rib with engine on full revs was swinging to Port then Starboard in an attempt to free the yacht from the mud. Much to our amazement they actually succeeded just as we passed by. The two ladies on board were lucky, as initially, it looked as if they were stuck fast on a falling tide.

The crew worked well as a team to get Shropshire Lady spick & span and transfer all our gear ashore, while Bryan wrote a report for the owner regarding the problems we encountered with the mainsail. An enjoyable weekend was had by all and our thanks to Bryan for seeing us safely back onto “dryish” land. Approximately 50 nautical miles was travelled over the two days.

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Trip on Spellbinder, skippered by Gordon Ogden

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Sailing Daytrip River Severn 31.01.2010 – report by Phil Steele

The weather report promised a NW F3 and sunny but turned out to be SW variable F2 –F4 throughout the Day. Geoff Louch is a new owner of a 1973 Achilles 24 called Phungus which has a furling genoa and a around the boom furling main, auxiliary powered by a 4hp sail-drive inboard/outboard engine.

The scurvy crew consisted of master helmsman Don Hirst and pilot/galley slave Phil Steele. The plan was to go sailing on the outgoing tide down the Severn returning on the flood late afternoon.

We locked out of Portishead Marina at 10:00 and commenced sailing close hauled at about 5 knots in the lumpy brown stuff. The deck crew apparently became quite chilled in the biting below zero head wind despite it dropping off for a while, whilst down in the navigator’s cabin it was quite comfortable sipping coffee. When we locked out we were accompanied by another much larger yacht that also declared to the harbour master that it was intending a local trip. We stayed well ahead of this boat despite my expectations of it being a faster vessel. Our courses diverged at Weston Super Mare.

The navigation was basically pilotage with strong reference to tidal flow and depth outside the marked channel resulting in a plan to sail around the Holms anti-clockwise. This meant leaving the main Channel and negotiating the many navigation obstacles on a fast and falling tide.

When we were south of the islands we crossed paths still ahead of other boat that had obviously taken the clockwise route. The tide was still ebbing so we stemmed the tide as we sailed easterly towards Hinkley Point rounding Steep Holm and heading NW to the main channel to avoid the treacherous sandbanks. On approaching the main channel the other yacht was spotted approaching on a NE course spinnaker flying.

As the wind dropped again whilst on a broad reach, having consumed the boiled ham sandwiches and Cornish Pasties, we now started on the cheese salad sandwiches and ship’s biscuits. With the tail wind and the tide just turning both boats lost boat speed taking some of the spinnaker yacht’s advantage away; although now in the lead position but she was not widening the gap. Phungus was down to less that 2Knots over the water but SOG had risen to over 7Knots.

The wind came up again off Clevedon increasing the gap between the boats but a tardy drop of the other boat’s spinnaker off Battery Point caused them to overshoot and having to fight tide back to the marina. This allowed Phungus with its slick crew to enter the lock at 17:16 ahead of them, putting a big grin on Geoff’s face. The return was one of those experiences that arriving back in harbour experiencing the impact of the cold land temperatures was dramatic. This was compounded when the lock was flooded putting a fine wet spray into the chamber.

It was a good winter sail achieving in excess of 40nM in unforgiving waters. All the crew are used to dinghy sailing this area but appreciate the difficulty that visitors experience.

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Not All That Glitters Is Gold - BVI report by Jeff Birkin I opened this email from BOSS late on the evening of 10th Feb. ‘Crew Wanted Please let us know if you are available to go sailing in the Caribbean for an 11 day cruise from St Lucia to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Tuesday 16th to Saturday 27th February. The cost is just £100 to help cover expenses and includes breakfast and lunches on board, moorings and immigration taxes. If you are interested in joining "Ocean Wanderer", our 41' Oceanlord, on this amazing trip through the Caribbean - please reply to this email with up to date details of your sailing experience. Prices do not include flights. If you are UK based, flights are available through Virgin Atlantic London to St Lucia 16 Feb and Antigua to London 27 Feb. Currently, the return fare is around £600. You will also need an inter Island flight from Beef Island, Tortola to Antigua on 27th Feb around $95.’I sent off an email and rang the following morning. One space left so I took it and paid the £100. Now I had to hope I could get flights, time off and Gordon’s approval – unfortunately, this clashed with a Phoenix trip. Gordon gave his blessing – carefully disguised with a helping of abuse - and work were glad to get rid of me, so I began phoning for flights. Virgin wanted £1250 to fly into St.Lucia and out of Antigua so I booked the return from St.Lucia for £600. The internal flight to St.Lucia was £160 (£30 extra). Total cost now £860 – Still a bargain. I didn’t bother with a hotel for the night of the 27th hoping to hang round the marina before the early flight on 28th. On the Friday evening I got a call from BOSS checking I was packed and telling me they’d made a mistake and the cruise was now finishing on 26th – a day early. This meant I had to get a cheap hotel – cost £260. Total £1120. I was starting to get a bad feeling about this but it would have cost £430 to cancel and stay in the UK. On 13th I received details of other UK crew and made a few calls. Two (who were related) had seats on the St.Lucia returning Antigua on 26th for £630! I rang Virgin again who now had a seat so I was able to pay £90 and change the return flight to Antigua and alter the date to 26th. The internal flight was changed for no cost and I didn’t need the hotel. Total cost back down to £880.Arriving in St.Lucia with the other 3 Brits we made our way to Rodney Bay Marina, just north of the island capital of Castries and met the skipper, other 2 crew and Ocean Wanderer.In brief, the skipper is extremely experienced for his years and really knows his stuff – a credit to BOSS. The boat was not. It also transpired that we were actually not sailing until 18th and had to be in Tortola for early afternoon on 25th for one person to catch his internal flight – effectively we had to arrive on 24th. Thus the 11 days cruise is now 7 days for some 420 miles with the average rising from 42 miles to 60 per day. We then learnt this would be 4 legs of 50 (ish) miles and a 185 mile leg to the BVI’s. Still, that’ll give some time for exploring!!We spent the 17th trying to clean barnacles off the waterline, doing a few repairs and provisioning. At 07:00 on 18th on a windless sea we headed out and north for Martinique. Clearly, all was not well with the boat as it could only just reach 2000 rpm and that equalled under 4 knots but overheating so the revs were reduced to 1800 and 3.6 knots. When the wind did arrive we struggled to reach 5knts and the boat felt utterly dead in the water. This was going to be a long trip. Added to this, for safety we all had to wear life jackets on deck, all the hatches had to remain closed and the bimini had to be taken down. The bimini situation was resolved after a few hours in the scorching sun and it remained up for the rest of the trip.Arriving at St.Pierre on Martinique, a dive on the hull revealed the prop covered in barnacles. Chipping off the worst gave a few more revs and about 5 knots maximum. Leaving the next day at 06:00 we headed for the N West of Dominica, and had the frenetic welcome of boats vying for our business. Having paid for the mooring some of the crew went ashore – I stayed aboard fearing the chances of theft. When the statutory ‘second boat’ arrived demanding the mooring fee I refused and strangely, he eventually offered the name of the boat that took the fee. Although they had a good meal assure the crew came very close to being robbed and were saved by the intervention of the water-taxi boatman.Leaving at 06:00 for Guadeloupe we again headed for the N W corner of the island and the bay of Deshaies. This was a lovely little town and well worth a visit but we ate aboard the boat feasting on a tuna caught on route. On route, the skipper re assessed the safety protocols – so life became a lot more comfortable.The next day (Sunday) we were away by 06:00 and headed to Antigua passing east of (upwind) of Monserrat, still gently erupting almost daily. Arriving in English Harbour we made arrangements for the boat to be hauled out and cleaned on Monday then anchored in English Harbour bay. A tour of Nelson Dockyard and the super yachts in Falmouth Bay marina (including Mirabella V) was followed by a good meal in one of the local bars.By 07:15 and had the boat at the quayside and Ocean Wanderer was pulled from the water. Heavily encrusted with barnacles and weed over her hull, prop and rudder it was clear what was responsible for the lack of speed. Indeed, later that evening as we set off for Tortola, the difference was immediately obvious. Soon after, we were motor sailing at 7.5 kts with just 1600rpm in 12 knots of breeze. Unfortunately, the decision was that we would not try to make the 185-mile passage in 24 hrs as it meant entering the BVIs at dusk. We then slowed and sailed, continually trying to slow the boat below 6 knots. At times this meant, in 18 – 20 knots of breeze, with 3 reefs in the main and 2/3 of the foresail furled, we were still struggling to get below 6 knots.We arrived at Virgin Gorda on the Wednesday morning and after a day resting we briefly visited The Baths before dropping a member of the crew at the beach just 50 yards from the airport – surely the coolest way to arrive for a flight? Finally arriving at Road Town, Tortola mid afternoon, the ‘Cruise’ was over.This was a delivery trip and little else. We had no time to see any of the islands and, for the majority of days, the sailing was hard work. The overall final cost was over £1,100 - a lot to pay for a delivery trip. However, had the ‘cruise’ been advertised as what it turned out to be might I have still gone? Probably, probably not! I just wouldn’t have been so disappointed.

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BVI Trip in Canadian-registered Jeanneau 42i 'A Million Vacations', Feb/March 2010

- report by Bernard Smyth

Sue Fowle and I were in the crew of six for a hot two-week cruise in the BVIs in February/March. We were skippered by former BSA member Dave Price. The journey was made a bit tiresome by having to call at Barbados on the way (and on the way back) and all the queuing and form- filling on Antigua, but the stay in the islands was magical. We had some good sailing with winds on most days, at apparent speeds of up to 25 knots in gusts (we had no true wind speed indicator). We stopped off most days at small beaches for swims/snorkels and lunch, and usually anchored or found a buoy for overnights.

One treat was being told about a cafe/store up Frenchman's Cay, a couple of hundred yards in the dinghy from a Pussers store in Soper's Hole. It was like a different world - locals noisily playing pool in little more than a shack with a veranda, where we had drinks and lunch.

One day we saw a water spout in the distance but luckily it didn’t come our way. Other treats were the wildlife. Everywhere we went we saw pelicans soaring and diving for fish but we also caught glimpses of turtles and exotic fish and birds. In places, shoals of small fish were leaping out of the water to escape some predator.

Dave gave me a day as skipper and our other yachtmaster on board, Roger Bone, gave Sue and our other lady crew member, Carole, some sailing tuition.

Other highlights were a pirates' party (oooh arrrr!) and seeing stilt dancers perform.

Food prices seemed high because they were based on US$. There was also a lack of choice of items and few shops. We had ad hoc salads but there was a distinct lack of vegetables although it was obviously the same for local people. We ate on board a lot of the time but found it difficult to find BBQ meat. Meals ashore started at $20 each for simple items and the prices went into the stratosphere. It was disappointing not to find Caribbean food on offer.

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