Dear members,
The cost of safety equipment is very much on my mind at the moment. Things that
are really not part of “sailing”. Perhaps they can be regarded as “cruising”
items. When we took our first cruise in 1961, to southern Brittany, in our home
made 25ft plywood yacht the safety and navigation equipment really was minimal.
We had kapok lifejackets (did we actually have any lifejackets?), a Prout canvas
folding dinghy, a home-made BEME loop radio direction finder, a log made from a
bicycle milometer, side lights from adapted bicycle lamps, good charts, parallel
rule, a marching compass (ex-army), a grid steering compass (ex-air force), some
white and red hand flares. I wonder what the Coroner would have said if we had
drowned! “Ill-found, not properly equipped, shouldn’t be allowed?” Nowadays I
dare say, but perhaps not in those more relaxed times.
By current standards we were undoubtedly inadequately equipped, but only the
pukka people were better equipped, and that not so much better. It was some
years before decent 12v navigation lights were available, blow up lifejackets
etc. However, the point is that one could “make do and mend” without offending
the authorities. The only arbiter of our preparedness was my recently acquired
mother-in-law.
Harbour dues, that present day scourge of a cruising couple, were reasonable and
collected only occasionally. I can understand that the new, improved facilities
have to be paid for, but what if you don’t want them? What if you prefer to
anchor out, collect your water in cans, have strip washes? The dues are nearly
always levied by LOA, not by the use you make of the facilities, and are aimed
at the fully crewed charter yacht where £20 divided amongst eight makes hardly a
dent in the individual’s pocket.
I am afraid that this is the year that we are ‘going out of date’ and we will
have to fork out for our “safeties” - life raft service, new additional flares,
fire extinguisher service, new gas system etc etc. In addition we are returning
to the UK and inflated (compared to Scandinavia) harbour dues.
How much longer we can go on in this escalating way I don’t know, but perhaps
the descending graph of my faculties will be faster than my descending ability
to pay, and I can bow out of the race.
Yours
David Jones
AGM
At the AGM the Treasurer suggested that we had to take a few austerity measures
to keep in the black. Therefore the following measures were decided upon :-
a) All flags will now have to be paid for. New members will no longer get a free
issue, and replacement ones will also have to be bought.
b) Events will no longer be subsidised. However where VPs have to pay “up front”
money for a venue and the attendance does not cover this cost, then the
Association will reimburse the VP accordingly.
c) The AGM wine will continue to be subsidised, but members attending the Annual
Dinner will pay the full cost of the dinner.
d) The Members’ List will revert to being issued every other year with an
addendum issued in the intervening years of the new members. ( You will find
this list in the middle of this Newsletter so that it can be pulled out and
placed in last year’s issue)
ANNUAL DINNER
Twenty-nine members and friends sit down to a very good Dinner. Attendance was a
little lower than of late which perhaps reflects the higher cost now, and the
relocation of the London Boat Show.
The Peter Brett trophy was awarded to Carol and Klaus Werndorf, who live in
Canada and sail R32 LINOA out of Victoria BC, for their cruise to the Queen
Charlotte Islands. It was not possible to hand the Trophy over as they live
abroad and the Trophy is not to leave the UK. Also as they did not attend the
Dinner we could not impose on them the rewarding task of giving a short talk
about their sailing.
So the President came up with the device where each boat represented at the
dinner should give one minute talks on the high and low points of their last
seasons sailing.
This brought out some interesting and entertaining accounts of Sea-eagles in the
Aaland Islands; Harley-Davidson motor bikes in Sweden; a nail biting crossing of
the bar to the Belem river in southern Brittany only to find the restaurant
closed; various tales of wild life and anchoring adventures in Greece; medical
opinion that butterfly surtures are better than stitching at sea even when
anchored off Hurst Point with two medics in attendance; adventures in the
Channel Islands by Low Country sailors; and a feared terminal hull leak on a R38
returning from Iceland (The water was coming in the hawse hole in rough seas,
heads up!) among others.
NEW MEMBERS
We welcome the following new members.
David Good R34 FLYING RIVAL Plymouth
Dean Summerfield R34 ROSANNA River Swale
NEWS FROM THE AREAS
EAST COAST – Eric Orme (01394 386 511,
ericorme#audience.co.uk)
Eric has arranged a Spring Pub Luncheon on Saturday 6th March at the Butt and
Oyster at Pin Mill. Assemble at Noon.
Eric and family took R34 ALIZ MOTTE successfully through the French canals to
the Mediterranean in 7 weeks, including a week in Paris. They then sailed to
Corsica and NE Sardinia before heading through the Canal du Midi to Bordeaux.
ALIZ MOTTE is now awaiting the Spring in the waters of the Bay of Biscay. Eric
says that it was a very good way to get know his two small girls and reacquaint
himself with the larger one!
SOUTH COAST – Barry Thunder (01793 826697)
mail#barrythunder.freeserve.co.uk
This year the Folly Meet will take place on Saturday 22nd May 200. 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.
As subsides are no longer applicable the cost has been increased to £10.50 ea.
Children and dogs are free provided they do not drink more than half a pint of
beer.
WEST COUNTRY – Michael Smith (01684 772128,
michael#msmithassociates.co.uk)
Mike has arranged the following two Meets for the coming season:-
A) Saturday May 1st in the Yealm, with dinner at the Yealm Yacht Club
B) Saturday October 16th in Fowey, with dinner at the RFYC.
Please contact Michael direct with your reservation.
Mike will keep you informed. To this end please let him have your email address
if you have not already done so.
Mike claims that he had such a poor season last year with his engine problems
that he is going on a cruise to the Azores this year to compensate. If you would
like to be considered as crew please let him know.
NETHERLANDS – Wop Siedsma (0031 566 623 157,
siedsma#supermail.nl)
The Association appears to have lost contact with our Dutch contingent, This is
a great pity as we have about 40 members in this group. However we cannot afford
to keep mailing Newsletters and Roundups to members who do not contribute to the
Association funds. So please treat this as wake up call to all our Dutch friends
to keep in contact and let us have some subscriptions.
SCOTLAND – Les Morison (01369 703323,
les.morison#lineone.net)
The Scottish Spring Dinner will be held on Saturday 13th March at the Sportser’s
Bar, Stirling, where Les has arranged for the exclusive use of the Grill Room.
Contact Les direct to make your reservation for this event.
Notes from R36 PARAMOUR DE MER ( Scheele Keel)
Ian and Viv Addis emailed at the end of December from Santa Cruz, Tenerife that
they were waiting for family to come out for New Year before setting off around
12 Jan to cross to the West Indies. They set off from UK in early July and
cruised slowly and enjoyably down to Gibraltar. There the troubles started in
late October! They had an awful time beating out of the Straights and
encountered a SW force 9 half way to Porto Santo. They turned tail, made for
Lagos and tried again a week later. This was just in time to catch the next gale
after 2 days out - again SW 9 for 30 hrs . This time they stuck it out and
arrived after 6 days. They had used the trisail and on arrival found the main
and spray hood damaged where they had been chafed by the boom secured on deck.
Otherwise no problems. They had bought a para-anchor as a last ditch option, but
were able to sail throughout.
They stayed 3 weeks in PS, taking the ferry to Madeira for a week of walking. Then on to the Canaries - nice, but at this time of year the anchorages are so exposed it turns into marina hopping and pretty expensive. Despite the ARC there was always room for one more.
Boat going well, no
significant breakdowns yet. The new bow thruster a great success with just the
two of them aboard, fitted after Brittany cruise in Aug 02 where the marinas
were so packed and designed for boats that turn in their own length and even go
backwards! Any loss of boatspeed was not noticeable but Ian supposes 0.25kn
inevitable even with a faired tube. Only problem is a sloshing in the tube in
choppy anchorages.
Ian thinks that he has solved the Perkins Perama 30 gearbox problem of tortional
vibration by fitting a PRM 80 cone clutch gearbox. It has lasted 2 seasons
(750hrs) without complaint. Hopefully this is the final solution after many
others tried with varying success. Ian has talked to several owners who have
just given up replacing the Hurth gearbox every 500 hrs. and fitted a new
engine. (hard due to lack of room - the Perkins is a small engine).
Water capacity was increased to 100galls (100%increase) with a flexi tank under
settee so the boat was well down on her marks but a watermaker was further down
on the unattainable list! Surprising how many boats have them though.
Rivals met : Tinuviel R34 ( fellow Holyhead boat) Midnight Drifter R32 (Troon)
Shoona R38 (Cardiff) They had expected to see more!
But they did see R31 LOCHEE for sale in the Chandlers there- she looked in super
condition.
Notes from R32 MIDNIGHT DRIFTER
At present Ken and Shirley Martin are at Portimao after gently cruising the
Atlantic coast of Spain and Portugal. They intend to return to the UK next
season to look for a larger boat to continue a life style that they have come to
like. For those who don’t know, MIDNIGHT DRIFTER has topsides of a beautiful
pale green. Ken and Shirley would be willing to sell in the south of Spain. See
advertisements for details.
Belgium - Robert Reyniers -
robert.reyniers#skynet.be
Last weekend we had
our annual diner in a restaurant at Nieuwpooort, 5 members and their spouses
attended the meeting. It was a very enjoyable evening.
WEB SITE
It has been found that we have a few free loaders making use of the Forum who
are not members. We did expect non-members to use the site and then help us with
the costs by joining the Association. But some people continue to use the site
without having the courtesy of paying our very modest subscription of £15.
Therefore it has been necessary to introduce a restriction on non-members using
the Forum. Everybody will be able to browse the forum’s content but not
contribute without having a FAN (Forum Access Number)
Each member’s FAN is individually hand written on the front of this newsletter.
Instructions on how to use it will be on the Web Site. If you forget your FAN
Andrew Gardener will be able to help by email or phone.
BOATS AND GEAR FOR SALE
For sale
BOATS AND GEAR WANTED
Wanted