Dear Member,
I
had occasion in the Autumn to borrow a copy of the ROUNDUP No 19 for 1991 from
Jane Ashe, our President who holds the archive copies of our in Association
journal. Although I had read it before, it made fascinating reading just like
old newspapers do.
It was a vintage issue. There were logs of cruises from the Mediterranean, the
Atlantic, Scotland (and beyond), the Baltic, Iceland, Pacific coast of the USA,
a cruise up the Chateaulin river and technical articles on alterations to a R38
and mounting a wind generator.
Two of these articles struck a particular chord with me. The first was a non
stop trip to Perth, Australia and back via Cape Town by Mike Clarke in R32
LONTANO, to visit his auntie. I’m sure that many other boats of the same size
would be suitable for the trip but as he says he definitely chose the right
boat.
The second article by Brian Fitzparick was about an encounter between R34 WAVE
DANCER and a finback whale, a wholly delightful article about the wonderful
things that happen to us when sailing. I have reproduced the cover of that
Journal on the front of this newsletter (drawing by Jane Ashe) to show the
relative size between the R34 and the whale.
Awesome!
The point of this letter is to say remember the ROUNDUP and the web site this
summer. We need articles and website input otherwise these will die on their
feet. Your input need not be of daring do, just interesting write ups of day
sails and pictures of things that catch your attention.
My thoughts on height records for RIVALS brought a response from Canadian member
Carol Wernsdorf that boats which are trucked across from the Great Lakes to the
Pacific would surely achieve the record in some of the romantically named
mountain passses in the Rockies. But I don’t think that that counts, as the
boats wouldn’t be floating. (Do you?)
ANNUAL DINNER AND AGM
We had our usual good turnout for this function and the dining room was full to
capacity. The Peter Brett Trophy was won by Jane and Ernie Rowe for their log of
R34 TENACITY II in the Mediterranean and round the Atlantic circuit. Jane gave a
delightful talk about their trip as we sipped our coffee and munched chocolates.
Our President introduced a new award to be called the President’s Trophy, to be
awarded from time to time to members who have, through their efforts made a
significant contribution to the Association. On this occasion she was very
pleased to make the award to Andrew Gardener for his major effort in the
production and running of the website.
The AGM passed off peacefully, but the Hon.Treas. pointed out that if we went on
overspending as at present we would be having to disband in three years! The
following minor austerity measures were introduced:-
a) The cost to members of the Annual dinner to be the cost of the previous year.
(we had been lagging behind in raising the price, so the subsidy was out of
proportion. Which no doubt accounted in part for the popularity.)
b) Replacement flags to be charged at £10, (not to be issued free as the initial
flags are on joining.)
c) The subsidy to all other functions to be restricted to £5 per head,
(excluding speaker costs)
COMMUNICATIONS
The Vice Presidents are increasingly using email to promulgate details of the
various events so if you are connected please let your local VP and the Hon.
Sec. know your address, and thus keep in the swim.
Apologies to those members who were omitted from last year’s Members List due to
a technical glitch. I hope we have done better this year.
NEW MEMBERS
We welcome the following new members.
Andrew & Caroline Carnegie R41
RIVAL STAR Bristol
Stephen Couttie
R41 SHERIDAN
Hamble Point
Stan Daciw
R34 LIBERTE
Burnham-on-Crouch
Stephen Homewood
R38 SHOONA
Cardiff
Peter Norton
R32 LARA
Amble/Lowestoft
Bob Sheffield
R38 LYNN RIVAL
Lefkas (part
owner with Rachel Chandler)
Mark Rees
R32 SANTA CLARA Cowes
NEWS FROM THE AREAS
EAST COAST – Eric Orme (01394 386 511,
ericorme#audience.co.uk)
Eric arranged a very nice (and cheap) lunch at the Lightship restaurant at
Levington Marina on the Orwell, on a cold but bright day in February. No boats
had sailed to the venue but there was an excellent turnout (21 members and
friends). Elspeth, Eric’s 7 year old daughter declared the puddings “the best
ever”.
The only RIVAL in the Marina is Charlene Bargeron’s R36 SHAMAL II, and it was a
pleasure to go aboard after lunch and view the varnish work she had just
completed. Charlene had also had some success with the replacement of circuit
breakers which had broken the through panel retaining boss. Although these were
old original breakers from Southern Boatbuilders she found a replacement from
Index Marine that did not involve any alteration to the panel.
Another recent joiner David Foreman was able to talk about his trip last year to
the Lofoton Islands. How he missed John Duff on RB40 ARETHUSA in the same area I
don’t know! But there are lots of nooks and crannies up there. David bought R41
TUESDAY in 1998 and has spent the intervening time in a major refit. Amongst
many alterations done is to fit the taller USA cutter rig with a special home
designed staysail boom. It is hoped he is persuaded to put his thoughts on the
website and write an article for the ROUNDUP.
Eric and his family are off to the Mediterranean through the canals this summer
so he will not be organising a Summer Meet. Good luck and plenty of water to
them.
SOUTH COAST – Barry Thunder (01793 826697)
mail#barrythunder.freeserve.co.uk
This year the Folly Meet will take place on Saturday17th May 2003. If you would
like to come by road/foot/bicycle etc please let Barry know and he will try to
arrange a berth on board one of the boats for you. If you are coming by boat and
have a spare berth also let him know. For
everyone coming there is a form for completion
here.
Barry is intending to have a boat team quiz (for a large bottle), hot and cold
food plus the odd free drink or two. Barry is also looking for someone to
organise an informal “round the cans” for Sunday morning. ANY VOLUNTEERS?
WEST COUNTRY – Michael Smith (01684 772128,
michael#msmithassociates.co.uk)
Mike is exploring two options at present for an early Summer Meet:
A) Fowey, May 17/18th with dinner at the Royal Fowey YC.
B) Charlestown, which would be a three day event during May 3-5 or 17-19. Boats
would lock into the inner harbour where the square-rigged ships are based, with
a buffet on board one of them, either under an awning on deck or below decks if
wet. On the Sunday, perhaps a day sail on one of the tall ships, or a visit to
the Eden Project which is nearby.
Mike will keep you informed. To this end please let him have your email address
if you have not already done so.
(Note - Option A has now been decided on see West Country 2003 - Andrew)
NETHERLANDS – Wop Siedsma (0031 566 623 157,
siedsma#supermail.nl)
Wop is the owner of R36 UTKOMST sailing out of Makkum. The Netherlands Group has
29 members with some of the best kept boats among RIVALS.
They normally have two Meets a year, one at New Year and a weekend on the
Ijselmeer.
In 2002 they had a meet at Hoorn attended by 9 boats
and 20 crew. For entertainment they had a guided walk around the historic town
and a dinner in the evening, dinner at the Yachtclub.
Please contact him for arrangements for 2003.
SCOTLAND – Les Morison (01369 703323,les.morison#lineone.net)
The Scottish spring dinner was held at the Sportser’s Bar, Stirling. This was a
surprising venue, which was extremely good. To get to the function room it was
necessary to go through the bar and the young female clientele were not dressed
for rough weather!
The function room upstairs was very pleasant, and 22 members and guests enjoyed
a gourmet three course dinner. The menu had some new items to your reporter’s
palette, e.g. black pudding and chicken terrine. A short talk on how to dance
with Hurricane Lenny followed which might have enabled the diners to aquit
themselves later on in the bar below.
WEBSITE INTERESTING ITEMS
The Forum is producing some interesting subjects viz.
- Gunge in fuel tanks and various methods of cleaning , most seemingly to no
avail.
- A problem with the grub retaining screw of the top swivel of a PROFURL jib
reefing system.
- Gas locker drains on an R38
- Making an aft cabin double berth on a R38A
In addition there is now an excellent weather site where weather maps can be
printed off very easily.
BOATS AND GEAR FOR SALE
For Sale