SPRING AND SUMMER EVENTS FOR 2009:
25th April-1st May – The Commodor’s Spring Cruise
Following the 2008 successful cruise, Peter Jones and Ian Sampson planned another cruise to cross the Channel. The plan was to meet up at Haslar Marina in Gosport on Saturday 25th April and yachts coming in from other ports were greeted with sunshine and brisk sailing breezes to make the rendezvous. By the afternoon, five yachts were assembled – Aurora, Border Reiver, Hotch Potch, Overlord and Puffin (still assembling her rigging!).
The planning and briefing meeting was to be held in the convivial atmosphere of the Castle pub which was attended by about 24 skippers and crew (plus some who had driven down to bring last minute supplies) but only after some earlier hospitality had been offered by both Overlord and Border Reiver.
With a forecast of 4/5 SW, various options were considered by the skippers, including St. Vaast, Cherbourg and Alderney. The Caribbean was rejected as being a little far! By 2300 hrs. the consensus was reached to head for Cherbourg the following morning. For most boats, this meant a 0530 start, although Overlord, being considerably larger and faster, was sensibly opting for a later start.
Aurora, Border Reiver and Hotch Potch all left around the target time and remained in sight of each other for a large part of the journey. Puffin set off but soon came to the conclusion that a combination of the conditions (with the wind almost right on the nose) and her untried rigging meant that the sensible decision was to stay this side of the Channel, so we did not see her again until we arrived at Poole on our return three days later. Overlord enjoyed a few extra hours sleep before setting off and still arrived in Cherbourg at a similar time to the rest of us.
On Hotch Potch, we found that we just managed the whole trip on one tack although we admit to using quite a bit of motor to assist during the light wind periods.
Some ate out and some on board but certainly a very good drinks party was held aboard Overlord in Cherbourg and the following day was decreed a rest day – someone must have heard the forecast! It poured with rain almost the whole day! So Monday became the day for stocking up with all the things one usually stocks up with in Cherbourg.
Tuesday morning brought light winds and all boats, by agreement, headed for Alderney with a sensible starting time of around 1000 hrs. The winds were not strong but the seas were lumpy (as always) around Cap de la Hague. Arriving in Braye at different times, communications went a little astray, however everyone eventually arrived at the First and Last restaurant in the evening. It was here that we heard about Overlord’s encounter with an underwater object (later found to be a container) just East of Braye harbour, causing some minor personal injuries and significant damage to the hull. Fortunately, Chris Saint assessed that she was seaworthy for the return Channel crossing and they made plans for a return to their home port the next day. Chris has promised to tell us the story of this encounter and its implications thereafter at one of our Club meetings – so watch this space!!
Wednesday was Alderney to Poole. This required an early start around 0600 hrs and a lot of motoring as there was very little wind. The calm seas made for a very relaxing trip and the opportunity to discover how bad the crew was at crossword puzzles!
Just North of the Traffic Separation Scheme our passage was made more interesting by the appearance of the “Vos Sympathy” on our AIS screen. She was virtually on our track and stationary in the water. We held our course and planned to pass close to her. She turned out to be a red ship with all sorts of cranes and davits on board. When about one mile away she gave one very long blast on her horn, which by my book is just making us aware of her presence. I was aware of it!! Shortly after this I suddenly realised that a ship was calling our sail number on Channel 16! When I replied, she told us that she was a diving support vessel carrying explosives and needed a clearance of half a mile! She was not carrying any flags or identification of this as far as I could see (and we were quite close by now!), but we did decide that it was prudent to give her more room!
Aurora, Border Reiver and Hotch Potch all anchored up by Goathorn in Poole Harbour at about the same time and were joined later by Puffin. Dinghies were inflated and all came aboard Hotch Potch for drinks and nibbles.
Thursday – the final day – saw a force 4 Southerly for the trip back to Lymington. A good reach across Poole Bay brought us into Lymington for a late lunch, showers and then a final dinner together at the Mayflower pub, before all returned to their home ports feeling that they had enjoyed a very convivial few days.
Mike Bassett
PARTICIPANTS
Aurora of Hamble: Peter Jones, Chris Jones, Ian Sampson, Bridget Randall, Richard Selwood.
Border Reiver: Peter Hetherington, Ros Hetherington, Leslie Lowenthal, Fraser Simons.
Hotch Potch: Mike Bassett, Jo Bassett, Alan Dawes, David Stoneman.
Overlord: Chris Saint, Peter Bates, Henry Jefferies, Betty Jefferies, Ron Howard, Elizabeth Howard, George Bucknell, Roger Bourne, Mark Ritchings.
Puffin: Mike Dickens, Dan Kilty
Saturday 23rd May – Dinner at RAF Yacht Club, Hamble
The first rally of the summer was a tremendous success and as usual our Rear Commodore Offshore had arranged fantastic weather for us. There were one or two murmurs about lack of wind but after the gale force winds of the previous weekend some members were quietly relieved.
A total of seven boats and 22 members gathered at Port Hamble during the course of Saturday afternoon. Martin and Sheila invited us all to a delicious cream tea aboard Smartie and later for pre-dinner drinks. Low water caused a last minute change of plan as by 6.30 drinks; Smartie had no sun and a rather uninteresting view of a large marina wall. Bruce and Jane came to the rescue and invited everyone to collect aboard Emma Keturah which was bathed in sunshine. There followed a first class meal at the RAF Yacht Club a convenient walk away.
Next day it was off across the Solent to West Cowes were berths had been arranged at Shepards Wharf. Smartie’s crew had another engagement that day so our Rear Commodore had deputised Mike Dickens to organise Sunday’s events. This he did admirably by setting us a challenging quiz. Some may say a little too challenging but it certainly kept us all occupied for the afternoon. There was a tie for first prize between Aurora and Hotch Potch with the other crews all close behind.
Evening drinks aboard Hotch Potch were most welcome by those of us who had walked the length and breadth of West Cowes searching for quiz answers. This was followed by a great pub meal in the Duke of York under the shadow of a 50ft gaff spar from the former Royal Racing Cutter, Britannia – you’ve guessed, it was a quiz question!
Bank Holiday Monday saw another great NYC Rally ending with the fleet gradually dispersing to their home ports.
Saturday 11th July – “A Tour of Old Portsmouth”
Report on Old Portsmouth Rally 11/07/09 from Mark Turnnidge
This was the first club rally that Laura and I had been on. We were looking forward to it even after we had looked at the weather forecast!
It was an early start from home and we left Town Quay, Southampton at about 8.30am. With a strong breeze from the west we had a great but damp sail down Southampton water and across the Solent to Portsmouth. We followed Chris and Peter on Aura into the harbour entrance and managed to avoid the harbour master unlike them!
Once everyone arrived it was decided that we would postpone the Spinnaker trip until Sunday morning as we had seen enough cloud for one day. Later that afternoon we made our way to the Square Tower to meet Madeline and the other members who had driven down. The wet and windy tour of Old Portsmouth was very interesting and brought the area to life. As one would expect Madeline shared her excellent and enthusiastic knowledge for the area with her usual level of tacked and subtlety! The evening drew to a close with an exceptionally good meal at the Still and West on the sea front.
The walk back to Hazlar was very wet and everybody decided to call it a night. The wind and rain continued through the night, I was up and about checking lines, (much to Laura’s disgust as I returned to bed cold and damp).
The next morning brought the pleasant surprise of clear blue skies. All four rally boats resembled Chinese Laundries as everyone tried to dry their soaking clothes from the previous night. Everyone enjoyed the trip up the spinnaker tower and it was well worth the wait as the views were exceptionally good. At the end we went our separate ways some for food and some for shopping!
On our return to Southampton the wind picked up and we crashed back in force 8 winds with Laura singing nursery rhymes to calm her nerves!
We had a fantastic time, were made to feel welcome by everyone and will hopefully be able to make the next cruise. Thanks to Chris and Peter for organising the event and to everyone else who made it so enjoyable.
Thursday 10th September – Member’s Evening with Cheese and Wine
Our September gathering on Thursday 10th is once again a Member’s Evening with Cheese and Wine, where everyone can meet up and swap notes or horror stories of the past season and catch up with friends or meet new members. Your new card with details of all the season’s meetings will be available to pick up at that meeting or posted on to you afterwards if you cannot make it.
Meetings are held in the meeting Room Room at the Newbury British Legion Club,
Pelican Lane, Newbury, Berkshire, starting at 7.45pm.
Saturday 19th September – Dinner at Bembridge Sailing Club I.O.W
Report by Mike Turnnidge
The day started out early for us, we needed leave home at about 0730, partly to catch the tide gate at the bar in Bembridge latter on, but also to get clear of the traffic going to the Newbury Show.
We left the mooring in Southampton Town Quay with warm sun but little wind from the north. The cruising Shute went up, in the hope that it would get a good airing rather than to gain us much in the way of speed. With the high wind speeds we have had most of this season it doesn’t feel like we have had much use for it!
We drifted on the tide until it turned at about 1100 then the ‘iron topsail’ went on. Bucking the tide all the way to No Mans Land fort, it felt like we would never make it on time. I was pricking out distances on the chart and checking the log as we crept passed Ryde pier. Slapping the sun cream on as we went (Laura can be a little forceful on this point, quite rightly!).
After what felt like a very long time and some phone calls to our very supportive fellow club members, we made the turn around the end of Ryde sands, the tide had gone slack and we arrived at St Helen’s fort at 1400. It was the first time in 20 years of sailing around the Solent that I have been into Bembridge. So watching the echo sounder carefully and following a bigger yacht in, we made it in. Once moored, we met up with the other club members, paid our harbour dues and had a well earned cup of tea and sit down in the sun.
Drinks and nibbles were laid on, on the pontoon at 1800, it was good to catch up with everybody and swap stories of the trip over. The topic of conversation got round to the water taxi that was to take us across to Bembridge sailing club, many of the ladies were concerned by the amount of mud that had been exposed as the tide went out and that they may have the wrong shoes on!?! The more enterprising of them were trying to talk the men into laying down their coats. In the end the taxi delivered us to a rather wonky pontoon (some weren’t sure if it was normally like this or that they were suffering the effects of the pre dinner drinks!) on the sailing club foreshore, where we were met by the commodore, who gave us a tour of the building and a run down of the clubs past. The club is one of the oldest in the country and is steeped in history with some fantastic pictures and paintings on the walls. There are also several intricately carved tillers around the walls, the history of which seems to be a bit of a mystery.
After a drink at the bar, we were seated for dinner, the commodore handed us over to the excellent restaurant staff, who served us an exquisite meal in wonderful surroundings.
All too quickly it was time for the taxi to take us back to the pontoon, so well fed and watered we made our way back to the boats and said our good nights.
Next morning we woke to a grey sky and light NE winds. Most of the members made a move by about 1000. Toggs edged over the bar at 1100, I still find it a little disconcerting to be in 6 metres of water and only 6 feet from the beach! In the light winds we motored all the way home, having had a very pleasant rally with good weather to mark the last of the season.
LAST SUMMER’S EVENTS 2008
The Commodor’s Spring Cruise 26th April to 2 May
This was a great success, an excellent week. 19 members attended with 6 members boats, but due to the uncertain weather, only two braved it to France and the remaining 4 elected to stay and cruise the Solent with various other members joining the fun in the evenings. The cruise concluded with a dinner at Bucklers Hard on the Beaulieu River.
Meet at Gin’s Farm on the Beaulieu River 24th May
This was a most enjoyable event with 10 boats and 28 members attending in brisk but sunny weather. Jane and Bruce Mayhew provided a splendid afternoon cream tea aboard their beautiful boat with pre-dinner drinks on Smartie and Nightlife. This was followed by an excellent dinner at Gin’s Farm. On the following day members visited Exbury Gardens.
Lymington Rally and Walk 20th September 2008
10 boats made their way in light airs and sunshine from their various home portsi Southhampton and the Solentto take part in the last rally of the year, joining club members who keep their boats at Lymington and others arriving by car. The assembled party enjoyed a cream tea at mid afternoon on the Pirate Ship ‘Tin Tin’. Many dressed for the occasion in pirate hats, eye patches and other apparel. The boats were berthed two abreast on the excellently wide Dan Brann pontoon which provided easy access to each of the boats. Amongst those making her first appearance at a Newbury Yacht Club rally was ‘Justine’ owned by Rob and Anne Chicken, mostly built and fitted out by them. Particular interest was taken in Rob’s ‘own design’ steering gear.
Following a lively but chilly Pimm’s party on the pontoon, members enjoyed a meal at the Royal Yacht Club in Lymington and night caps on various boats! The following morning many of the members took part in guided walk of the Keyhaven marshes lead warden Peter Durnell who had talked to us earlier in the yearat one of our shore based evening meetings. Following this most members slipped their lines to catch the remainder of the East going tide.
