September 2002

Editor's Comments

There was no newsletter last month because all meetings were cancelled as many committee members were on holiday. Now it suddenly surprises me that the season is almost over although the weather has finally picked up. Several boats have already hauled out and a lot of work is necessary in the yard before more boats go on their trailers. There is still one race to be sailed, The Last Chance and it really is! We then turn to the social side of the club and that can be as good or as bad as members choose to make it. Look at the list of forthcoming events and you will find at least one innovation this year. If your have any ideas for club activities for the winter season, in or out of the club please let us have them.

The General Committee Meeting last night was quite a busy one with discussions about present and future plans. The end of this year will see a change of leaders ship as Peter 's term of office comes to an end. If you read the Hon Sec's report to the committee you may begin to wonder who on earth thinks up all the new rules, which we are expected to follow. In the end perhaps they will begin to cancel each other out. As I have been typing this about the change of seasons I was astonished when a skein of pink-footed geese passed over the house and it is only the 12th of September. Below is a summary of my notes from the meeting.

Sadly, the death of Ron Williams was reported. Ron was the Commodore of Crosby Sailing Club. When he joined us he bought Mystic and he had done a lot of work on her before he became ill

There were apologies for the absence of David Griffiths, David Rowles and Trevor Roberts.

The Commodore began by thanking all the people who had helped in any way this year with club activities and commented on the success of the RNLI day and our good fortune with the weather. Thanks also to Birkenhead Lifeboat, their visit contributed greatly to the event. Peter stressed the need on such days as this for a Public Address System as communication is difficult when the activities take place both inside and out

Peter is willing to continue type setting the club diaries and has given much thought to changing the format. However he feels that the format of the present system encompasses all that members need and therefore that will continue, with a few minor changes.

During his summer cruise Peter visited Wicklow and whilst attending a function in their sailing club he was presented with their club burgee and of course he reciprocated with ours. He is still waiting for the newspaper reports. Peter also attended Liverpool Yacht Club for their Commodore's Cup event along with our Hon Secretary. They were entertained to lunch at Harry Ramsdens.

Peter expressed satisfaction with the way the club has grown and the part that members play in the running of the club. He hopes that the future club officers will be considered and identified early. The Last Chance Race will be sailed on Peter's birthday 22nd September. As this is also the last race that will be sailed whilst he is Commodore he will present a bottle of wine to the winner and will also provide a buffet for club members. The buffet will be at about two o clock and all members are welcome to attend.
.
The Vice Commodore. Mike's report on the sailing activities now cover his own report, the report of the Hon Sailing Secretary and also that of the Yard and Berth Master. Mike spoke of the success of the Bank Holiday Races. There was a very good turn out each day for the three races. The Ladies Race was very enjoyable and was won by Louise Kennan.

There was much discussion at the Sailing Committee Meeting about the amount of space available in the laying up yard. As members buy bigger boats this is going to produce problems for the future. The boat belonging to Jim Henderson has not been moved and therefore the committee have decided that stringent measures will have to be taken to get the situation resolved.

This has not been an easy year for the Yard and Berthing Master in that members have been ignoring the bye laws about the use of the yard and the moorings. As Bill is responsible for these, members must notify the Y.B.M if they are going away for any length of time and also if they are proposing any change of use of moorings.
Please read bye-laws no 5 and 7 (all parts of each) These state the position very clearly, they are now under scrutiny and will soon be amended. Any change of boat or size of boat must be given to the Y.B.M in writing If any extra space is required it must be applied for in writing,e mails will be acceptable and Bill's e mail address is: w.woods04@blueyonder.co.uk

It is proposed that more mooring will be laid in the Alt around the bend by the laying up yard. It is also proposed that work on completing the slip be carried out this winter with Pope Bros doing 50% of the work and club members doing the rest. This will be looked into with Pope Bros.

Alan Roe has suggested that club members may wish to take part in a day out which he will organise on Saturday 2nd November
The arrangements would be to leave at 9 00am and travel by coach to Ingleton Falls. There would then be a 5mile moderate walk returning to Ingleton village for food and free time before returning to Hightown by about 6 or 7 o'clock. Those who don't want to walk can stay in the village. The cost will be just under £10 per person. If you or your friends are interested please ring Alan Roe. (If he is away you can ring me. Pat)

Stan Warren asked the Vice Commodore to have a discussion with the sailing committee and others with a view to the future and larger boats using the yard. It is thought that the constraint will be the size of the slip as well as the limits on the winch. Mike promised that this will be done.

The Sailing Committee has also discussed prize giving night. Dates have been fixed for handing in logs for the Travellers Trophy and also for the Cruising Cup. Please look on the notice board where the dates are posted and also the outlines for what is required of your log. (Will anyone with cups at home from last year please let me have them as soon as possible. Pat)

The Rear Commodore asked if we could have Christian names in the diary list of members. He also thinks that it will be necessary to speak with some one from the range about the proposed new moorings.

The old scaffold poles and rubbish left on the shore will be removed when Popes come to do the other work. Some will be used for bonfire night. Dave said that fenders should not be needed on the new slip, wave action shouldn't bother it but floating timbers might. Dave outlined how he envisaged the rest of the slip would be built. Phil Wright would have liked it without a gap but the cost of that would be prohibitive.

In house Dave said that the bar takings have been well down lately but that is probably due to people taking holidays. A kind and willing member has agreed to complete the fitting of the shutters on the bar in the near future. Thank you to John Heyworth for reframing two new charts, They are at the back of the club house (in the committee room)

On 27th October the Tall Ships will be starting their race from Liverpool. They will be seen from the clubhouse and David suggests that we could have an event with bar food whilst watching. Look out for the notice.

On 17th November there will be an auction in the clubhouse of any sailing related bits and pieces. Items can be brought in from 11.00am. Viewing will be possible from 2.00 o'clock and the auction will take place at 3.00pm. If you have anything to sell, this is your chance.

The Hon Secretary reported that he had received correspondence that he has put on the notice boar d or dealt with as appropriate.
The RYA has realised that windfarms are going to be built around us and are asking questions. The Proposal to build a windfarm on Shell Flats will not go ahead permission has been refused.

Cedric Loughran has pointed out that we are obliged to have A Waste Management Scheme. This raised quite a lot of discussion as we members are all expected to remove all our own rubbish and take it home. If anybody has Practical Boat Owner the new rules are explained on the next to last page, It would seem that from Sept 28th we, as a club, have 12 weeks to implement a scheme

The RYA Magazine has published the new mandatory requirements for recreational craft users. Mark has made copies available.

The Hon Treasurer David Warren read out the Hon Treasurers report. Mainly that the Club is solvent. He also reported that Arthur Mount had started stock-taking but it was incomplete. Arthur was taken ill again but is now recovering at home. We all send him our best wishes.

The Hon Membership Secretary told the committee that there will hopefully be three new members next month. Their details are on the board.

The Social Chairperson. Peter read a message from Doreen reminding us all that there will be a Jazz Evening on 5th October. The last evening like this was very well supported. Please put your names on the list for tickets. It will make catering easier.

A.O.B. Phil Wright said that the sea wall has been in place now for two years. His attention has been drawn to the fact that it needs some maintenance. Phil therefore suggests that there should be a wall working party to fill in a few holes and to erect some experimental poles with boards to use instead of gabions The work needs to be done before the January gales arrive. Watch out for the notice.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

22nd September. The Last Chance Race and Buffet.

5th October. The Jazz Night

27th October The Tall Ships Race. Bar Food

2nd November A Club Outing to Ingleton Falls

5th November Bonfire Night

9th November Prizegiving Dinner

17th November Auction of Sailing Stuff

8th December The Annual General Meeting

14th December The Christmas Party

31st December The New Year's Eve Party

1st February the Fitting out Dinner (Bobby Kaye Comedian)
The Ladies Dinner

Some of these dates are in your diary but some have been recently arranged. Please make a note of them all

ARTHUR GELDER REMEMBERS

Arthur very kindly sent me some of his memories along with his club diary from 1954. There were not very many club rules about seven sailing regulations and a few sailing notes (racing instructions).If you would like to see it ask me. I thought that as we are coming up to the A.G.M I thought this memory would be appropriate. Arthur also sent me a small drawing of two huts which he did in 1934 when he was 15 years old.

"The two boat houses belonged to the McCulloch family. They were also members of the Sailing Club. The club may have been called The Altmouth Sailing Club. Inside the larger hut I once saw a rowing tender and a canoe. On the big tides the huts were surrounded by the sea. Both the Sailing Club and these huts were much further south than the present club. (The huts were on stilts)

In the 1954 booklet you will see 21 Tyrer O.Ds and the number of G P 14s was growing. Racing was very keen with a course usually from the slipway to C16 and then to the North Stick (thelandmark opposite the coast guard at Hall Road) and back to the slip.

The most hilarious A.G.M I ever attended was in the year that three members went in the water at Altmouth and ended up in Waterloo Hospital.

At this AGM Peter Daws proposed that new member dinghy sailors should not sail beyond the outer mark until the sailing committee declared them competent. Guy Wilkinson,Eric's dad shouted "That is not in the spirit of Nelson!" Much laughter. Jock O'Reilly chaired the meeting, he rarely smiled but he caused even more laughter by saying "Is Nelson a paid up member of the Club?" We all shouted "NO" He then said "The motion is therefore out of order"

The bar had opened one and a half hours before this meeting began and later the opening time was changed was changed and from that time meetings were much shorter and much less noisy.

Many thanks to Arthur for taking the trouble to let me have this article If anybody would like to send anything for the forthcoming newsletter I would be delighted.

Moongazer's Cruise - Holyhead to Milford Haven 26th-28th May 2002

On Saturday the S. W. gale 8/9 was due to moderate to W 4/5 with the sea state due to moderate from very rough to rough. There appeared to be a possible window in the weather for Sunday. Paul returned on Saturday from Liverpool so we were now a crew of three.

The forecast on Sunday was
Lundy- SW 5 veering W4 or 5, occasionally 6 Squally showers.
Fastnet- W5 to 7, occasionally Gale 8 at first easing to force 4 in the NE.
Irish Sea- Cyclonic 3 or 4, Squally Showers.

Sunday 26th May.
We departed at 10.15 to get the first of the ebb off the Stacks. We kept close inshore, close to the wall, to avoid the adverse tide and take advantage of a swirl on the last of the Southwesterly flood. Paul was making cheese toasted butties for breakfast.
We passed the Stacks at about 12.00 with wind shy on the starboard bow. We set all sail, including the mizzen on a course of 185 degrees true and continued under engine at 1500 revs, making 8.4 knots over the ground. The sun was up and there was a slight swell.
We stopped the engine at 15.30 due to a high temperature reading. There was considerable back pressure at the filling cap. ( I now check the engine water level at the header tank on top of the engine instead of the separate header tank in the deck locker. I have never had any trouble since.) Due to a broken negative connection on the starter solenoid we had to short out the soleniod to restart the engine.
The wind was heading us at 17.30 but all was still satisfactory, the sun still shone and we were making 5.4 knots at 1200 revs. With an aparrent wind of 12.4 knots. This later increased to 17.2 knots by 19.00 and the outer port jib fairlead pulled out of the deck capping rail and snapped in half. We repositioned the sheet on the inner fairlead, bolted down to the deck and continued at 4.4 knots over the ground with the log showing 6.0 knots.
At 20.30 we were headed again by a Southwesterly wind which forced us to tack north west on a course of 311 degrees true, across the lay line, ready for the expected Westerly that was forecast. Both Paul and Norman had been sea sick all day and niether were feeling too well. We were some 40 miles away from The Smalls, which were on a bearing of 200 degrees true.
We tacked on to to a course of 193 at 21.45 but were only making 2.4 knots over the ground. The speed inceased to 3.5 knots during the following hour until we had the ebb with us and could get a little more westerly in our course to 202 degrees.

Monday 27th May
By 01.30 we were making 8.3 knots over the ground and having hoisted the mizzen this increased to 10.00 knots by 02.30., as the wind was strong from the North West. Having made a very fast passage we were still running at 9.6 knots and approaching the South Bishop Lighthouse at 03.30 and an hour later The Smalls were 2.3 miles away. At 05.30 the mizzen was taken in and we continued on a course of 192 degrees at a speed of 6.2 knots.
It was a fine day until 10.30 when the Autopilot packed in. We had been on watches of three hours on and six off, as there was very little to do, with the engine running and the autopilot in operation. ( the autopilot was to cause problems until I reached Peniche, in Portugal. By that time I had obtained a photostat copy of the manual and the trouble was traced to a remote lead and corroded switch. The lead and was located in the wet winch box on the port side. The remote switch overrode the system so that the desired course could not be set).
With the autopilot down, both Norman and Paul were unhappy at the thought of spending another night at sea. They were both still feeling sea sick and could not be persuaded that steering the boat would give them something to concentrate on. We were in a superb position to carry on for Lands End that night but the lads were not happy. When I pointed out that there was no safe harbour, in a Westerly between the Bristol Channel and Lands End, except Milford Haven, which we had already passed, they quoted that "Tilos" was doing the trip to Plymouth, on day sails.
(In fact, "Tilos" sailed from Holyhead to Douglas, then to Kilmore Quay in Ireland, where they were storm bound for a further 3 days. They missed out the start of the Rally at Plmouth and sailed from Kilmore Quay direct to Bayona and had a very stormy crossing).
At 11.48 I was initailly persuaded to alter course for Padstow, as I was assured that it was a safe anchorage. Having got the chart up on the other computer, checked the tide situation and read the pilot, I was not at all convinced and agreed at 16.05 that we should sail 40 miles back to Milford Haven.
For the next 8 hours I helmed the boat to the entrance at Milford. By this time it was dark and I had considerable difficulty with the set of the currents. Its not a good place to be in daylight. ( I had been in twice before). It's a leeward shore and the tide was running very swiftly out towards St. Davids Head. It is one of those places where waves just leap up from nowhere, with some considerable strenth and height, which fortunately I could not see. In an open cockpit it would have been a very different story.
The lights were clear but the distance to them was difficult to judge, with the eye. With the boats position on the computer screen I crabbed my way in. The boat was being thrown around all over the place. I had to point the boat at the Refinery (some 7 miles to the east) before I could make any headway towards the West Cardinal Buoy and the two entrance Channels. I chose the East Channel to avoid any shipping in the West Channel. The approach took a further two hours and we waited, up river, for the Irish Ferry to pass by in the West Channel. This was followed by a smaller Tanker and a Pilot Launch.
Having swung round to port, to get out of the way of the Tanker astern, the Pilot launch followed us round and led us to a new pontoon that has been provided within the lock, leading into the Marina, within Milford Dock.

Tuesday 28th May
We were all very tired and thankful, at 02.30 on Tuesday morning, to moor up to the Pontoon and get some sleep until 07.00, when the inner lock gate would open for through traffic into the Marina.
Milford Haven, having a railway station is a good place to change crew and Norman and Paul both decided, as they had been so unwell, to head for home. My new crew were not due to arrive until Saturday in Plymouth, so I had a few things to sort out.
Both Norman and Paul were convinced I had an exhaust leak on the engine and that was the cause of their mal de mare. There had been no more problems with the engine, which I had nursed getting into Milford. I could have used a lot more power but then I could have had overheating problems.
This is all taking some time to put together and time flies if you only do so much a day. I shall write of my further adventures from Milford again soon.
My Kindest Regards Carl

My Return to England to get my Car from Plymouth

Dear John and Pat,

I know I promised to send to send you some notes of my voyage and I will as soon as I have looked back through my log. As I said over the phone, sending e-mails failed because the messages from the Internet Café's were too long and were lost in transit or before I got the message completed.
As far as the last two months are concerned everyone on the rally admits its become one blur of events. Too many enjoyable days to recall at a moments notice and most of us have made many notes. I have written the following as it completes my move, for a year at least to Logos, where I now have both my car and the boat.

If anybody wants a good sailing holiday I will be very pleased to put them up and indeed pick them up at Faro Airport. Its certainly wonderful sailing at any time here and there are some beautiful beaches only a Hilbre Islands sail away. Not to mention the local beach, sun and a steady wind from a predictable direction with no rain, clouds or nasty Irish Sea waves.

Well, I've made it back to the boat after a three day 2147.5 Km., car journey. The sky is wall to wall blue. The sun shines through the open skylights, scooping up the 16 knots of breeze, that blows constantly from the stern, making the 26 degrees centigrade most comfortable.

I have started the engine to get the Freezer temperature back down again to something like 20 degrees below. It was just on zero degrees when I got back.
It was 37 degrees yesterday crossing the Spanish plains. Thank goodness I had some air conditioning in the car. The air conditioning seems to affect the amount of water you have in the radiator because the temperature suddenly shot up to boiling point, after I had been travelling at 80 to 90 m.p.h. for most of the day. Fortunately I was just approaching a Service Station at the time so I was able to pull in and cool the engine down.

Getting some water for the engine took some considerable time, after I had dismissed bottled drinking water and distilled water. In the end I had to be satisfied with a bottle of anti-freeze and use the empty bottle to put another pint of tap water in.

Anyway that is enough about temperatures. The journey back to England started with a taxi journey to Faro Airport at 8.30 a.m., on Thursday morning. The flight was not until 2.30 p.m. but as I had invited the people who had ordered the taxi, to my drinks party the night before, I had a free ride.
They had trouble with their boat when the gearbox blew up half way through the cruise. Apparently, their engineer's assistant had forgotten to replace the diesel oil, used to clean out all the old gearbox oil, with new gearbox oil. As their boat was an elderly Nicholson, they had to have the mangled gears remade by a Portuguese Engineer. Fortunately they were able to get the bearings required off the shelf.

It took the plane 1 hour to fly from Lagos back to Bayonna. The whole coast of Portugal was quite clear. Two weeks hard cruising, of 50 to 70 miles every other day or so, flashed by, as each thumbnail sized marina appeared below. The clouds appeared over the Bay of Biscay.
I arrived back in Bristol at 4.30 p.m. and with no luggage to collect, I just caught the Bristol Flyer bus to the railway station, in time to catch the train to arrive Plymouth at 8.0 p.m.

Peter Compton met me, a friend of Charles's, on another rally yacht called' Mogul Maid' and transported me the ten miles or so out to Cargreen, to pick up my car at the Yacht Club. It was raining good-style by this time and I had not seen any rain since Bayonna. Yes, it poured down for two days after we had crossed the Bay of Biscay on the way down and none of the rally yachts were too happy about that, especially after four or five days of force six and seven, not that we got wet in Moongazer's deck cabin.

Anyway, I was very pleased to accept Peter's offer to stay at his house for the night.
Friday saw me queuing for the ferry to Roscoff, which departed at 2.30 p.m. and arrived at 8.0 p.m. I had not bought a road map of either France or Spain and Portugal because with my Microsoft AutoRoute 2002, I thought I would have had a very clear readout on my computer of the journey back to Lagos.

It was a definite mistake to make such an assumption and it was 02.30 a.m. before I had found a Hotel that actually had a receptionist up at that time in the morning.
Most Hotels, when you find them in Lorient, are in a row, outside the town. After say 10.0 pm. They lock the door and you are left to the mercy of a (hole in the wall) computer outside the front entrance. This wonderful device can be used in most languages and asks a lot of questions, before finally stating that the hotel is full or it refuses to accept your credit card. However by a combination of pressing the emergency button and a mobile phone, one can get information on vacancies at any time of the night and I was lucky to get in the hotel next door.

The computer map in my laptop was good, but you can't read a computer screen and drive on the right hand side of the road, in the dark. The main problem was that there are no road numbers on Brittany road signs (O.K. the ones I did see were not on my computer map) and you only get the next Town on the signpost, or Brest. As I did not want Brest, I spent the early hours of the morning criss-crossing the Ushant Peninsular.

I had not worked out how the computer program operated either. If I had only clicked the cursor on each line, of the line-by-line description, I would have obtained a very detailed map of each and every junction. Road junctions are not too English either. The French idea being that if you have a new road layout, why give up the old one. Parallel roads at junctions abound in Brittany and the only good thing that can be said of my nights driving was that there was not a car on the road after 9.0 p.m.
Saturday was a much better day as I was right at the beginning of the motorway system and I bought the maps I needed at my first fuel stop. The toll roads were fine because you just stick your Master Card in the slot, recover it and drive on. Other than the road bridges crossing some very good yacht harbours, moorings and of course the vineyards for mile after mile there was not a lot to see from the motorway.

As I wanted to get on with the journey, I did not stop until I was very near to Biarritze. A wonderful place with magnificent surf and beaches. The sea was a that turquoise colour and there were hundreds of people swimming in the waves in the evening sunshine. Price wise, it looked a bit out of my budget, so I drove on to Bidart, the next town south, where I booked myself into a studio apartment and went to a good French restaurant. Asparrowgrass wrapped in ham with a cream sauce, followed by Roast Duck breast encased round an apple with a honey base, a garlic and potato pie and salad. With pears in red wine, to follow, with crushed almonds, on top of a dark chocolate, that was a memorable meal.

Sunday was a day of mountains and twisting motorways in and out of tunnels and not just a few hairy bends if you took no notice of speed restrictions. From the marks on the concrete ramparts in between the carriage-ways, quite a few had been caught out. Thankfully most of the lorries were off the roads, in and adjacent to France, so there were not a lot about, until much later in the day, after Madrid. Passing through any major Town or City is a dream but you can't afford to take the wrong motorway out. I had cracked the computer program by this time. Its 50 and 70 mph for most of the time and I never got in to a traffic hold-up until I was an hour out of Lagos, (pronounced La Gosh) the following day, in Portugal.

Overnight I stopped in Anjudar, just short of Cordoba, in Spain leaving me some 500 Km tomorrow, Monday.
Having set off at 8.0 a.m today I was into the Lagos Marina by 12.30 p.m having put the clock back 1 hour, as Portuguese time is the same as England.
It's getting late and I have just switched off the engine, only to hear the sound of water pouring in to the engine room. I switched off the main sea-cock and found a small water drain plug had unscrewed itself from the rebuilt oil cooler and fallen on to the engine room floor. It could have happened at any time but it did'nt. I leave you to guess whether I shut off all the sea- cocks before I set off on the above journey?

Please pass on my regards and best wishes to all at Blundellsands Sailing Club.

Kind regards Carl.

August01 September01 November01 December01 January02 February02 April02 May02 June02