ROAMING THE EASTERN MED

Terry Low

Our R34 "Roam" is lying to our new Rocna anchor in the lovely Ormos Iannou at Naoussa on the Greek Aegean island of Paros.  It has always been a personal ambition of mine to sail my own boat to this island after first visiting the island in my student days as a backpacker.  Luckily for me I was able to make my dream come true.  The island is somewhat more developed than when I first visited it some 27 years ago. But we have had an enjoyable stay in the capital Paroikia being kept company by the visit of Jim, our friend from home.  After he departed for Athens on the ferry we motor sailed the 9 miles to the rather more tranquil spot in the north of the island.

Since we left Southampton two and a bit years ago, Roam has sailed my wife, Fiona, and I sedately and safely to the eastern Mediterranean.  On the way here we have had some great experiences and also some bad ones. It is said by those that know about these things, that is what cruising and living aboard are all about. I think that we can confirm this wisdom.

This year’s cruise began in Cagliari, Sardinia where Roam rested for the winter.  The weather in Sardinia can be particularly windy with frequent Mistrals sending wind of 60 knots down from the south of France.  We were glad to be safely tied up in the safe and friendly Marina del Sole.

We departed Sardinia late in the year (June 1st) due to the visits of family and friends during April and May.  It was good to be cruising again and this year our objective was to reach Turkey for the next winter lay up period. In between, Roam has taken us to Tunisia where we experienced a different culture and also fabulous couscous dinners. Also to Malta where we were able to experience the city of the great 16th century siege of the Knights of St John by the forces of Sultan Sueleman the Magnificent, and a magnificent harbour.  Then it was on to Syracusa in Sicily where we waited for 2 weeks for a package to arrive.

The south coast of Italy is a cruising disappointment really, long passages, uninteresting harbours and few facilities, so we pushed through this area as fast as we could. 

On July 8th we finally made it to Greece, to Othonoi, a small island north west of Corfu.  It was a great feeling to have made it to Greece at last.  Over the last two months we have cruised the Ionian sea which is just jam packed with charter fleets and in August, hundreds of Italian yachts.  The competence of many of these yachts is seriously lacking, especially in anchoring and mooring techniques, so we decided in mid August to leave the Ionian and head into the Gulfs of Patras and Corinth.  It is much quieter here with many good anchorages and free harbours.  In fact, since we arrived in Greece, we have not paid a single penny on mooring fees. With the weather being so hot cooking is not appealing, so the savings have been spent on dining out more often than we are used to. On 28th August, we transited the Corinth canal, an unforgettable experience. Then it was a quick bash across the Saronic Gulf and Western Aegean to Paros to meet up with Jim.

This year’s cruising (once we started) has been excellent, although sometimes the hordes of charter fleets spoilt the experience. I know the sea is for all to share, but sometimes we just prefer a bit more of it to ourselves. We hope to cruise the Dodecanese and the Turkish coast for the remaining months of this season.  We have a website if anyone is interested in following our journey:  www.roamsail.co.uk.

R38 CALICO MARTLET TO NORDKAPP, NORWAY

Barbara Jones

As befits the high latitude, 71º 10’ N, we found ourselves beating round the Kapp in confused seas and with fog obscuring the top of the 300m high headland. At lunch time we had been basking in warm sunshine with no wind in the little fishing cum boat-trip village of Gjesvaer a few miles SW of the Kapp. Approaching the Kapp we could see the dozens of campervans lined up to acknowledge our passing but then the high-level fog enveloped them, and our triumph of 4^th July, was unseen.

Calico Martlet had spent the winter afloat in Trondheim. David went out in early May and was joined by a crew of three that included Rob Johnson the new ROA Vice President for North America.  They enjoyed two weeks of good sailing north to Bodø, crossing the Arctic Circle into 24 hr daylight, along the way.

Crew one left; I arrived and the ROA official baton was passed to our President and her Consort, Jane and David Ashe. We thrashed the 60 miles across to Væroy in the Lofoten Islands and harbour hopped along the island chain. The scenery was spectacular with impossibly steep, snow-adorned mountains sweeping down to the sea and attractive villages at their foot.

Jane and David left us in Svolvær and we hurried on north.  Sunny weather meant light winds and much motoring with occasional blasts of wind in narrow passages. Outstanding scenery continued, enhanced by the remaining snow.  Overnight stops ranged from small marina type boat harbours to public quays and wild anchorages. We marvelled at the Norwegian’s resource and determination in the face of this hash environment.  Power poles ran along steep shores to remote hamlets. Roads with tunnels linked tiny villages. Rock breakwaters protected small fishing harbours. Ferries linked communities large and small.  The smallest green patch on the shore sported small farms, mostly now deserted except for a few summer sheep. In more fertile areas around Tromsø cows grazed in fields and silage was being cut.

By mid June we were in Hammerfest but returned to a small marina near Tromsø to leave the boat for a week while we went home.  On the way south we had side-stepped to the head of Alta Fjord were we saw the prehistoric rock carvings, visited the Tirpitz museum, tramped up 3000ft to a late 19^th Century observatory for studying the Northern Lights, watched salmon fishermen in long, narrow boats on the River Alta, and climbed to a 18^th Century triangulation point on a lesser hill.

Returning to the boat in Tromsø we were joined by a hearty friend who saw us safely round the Nordkapp and back to south of Tromsø. Fast tidal currents took us south through Tjeldesundet to interesting small islands south of Narvik. Back in Svolvær our eldest daughter and her husband came aboard and we sailed with them to well south of Bodø leaving the midnight sun behind us.

It was now the end of July. The weather was still mostly sunny as we made steady progress southwards. With so many offshore islands we seldom had follow our track of earlier in the year or of previous years.  Unfortunately my Mum was taken ill so I had to abandon David in mid August in Florø and return home. The weather finally broke and he had a few hard single-handed sails to lay-up near Bergen as planned after some 2,400 miles.

PREPARING FOR THE VASCO DA GAMA RALLY

Rachel Chandler

We spent much of our early summer "cruise" this year getting Lynn Rival ready for participation in the Vasco da Gama Rally, which starts at the end of September.  The Rally starts in southern Turkey, heads down the Red Sea and ends in India next April.  Anyone interested in more detail can find it at www.vascodagamarally.nl.

Lynn Rival spent last winter on the little island of Leros in the SE Aegean.  We had already started an overhaul of our Bukh engine last autumn, lifting it up to get access to the oil cooler in particular.  On returning this spring we gave it a thorough clean and de-rust treatment before re-painting, replacing the wiring, hoses, etc.  We even re-lined the engine box with new insulation.   It all looks very smart and still works!!

We had two major new pieces of equipment to install: an SSB radio and a watermaker.   The watermaker was relatively straight-forward to install (below the starboard saloon berth, just forward of the galley).  This little machine is one of the wonders of modern technology and we now produce 6 litres of fresh water per hour, so long as we have the power.   No more lugging of jerry cans full of water for us!

The SSB radio installation is another story.  Finding the room for the  (fairly big) box of tricks, linking everything up with 4 inch copper  strip, and getting to the stage where we could turn the thing on took a  very long time indeed.  There is also quite a long learning curve to making full use of the radio, e.g. for weatherfax, but we're confident it will come into it's own in the Red Sea and beyond.

All these new toys are power hungry and we are keen to be as self-sufficient as possible so we invested in two solar panels and a wind turbine.  The problem was then where to put them.  After much agonising we decided to have a gantry made.  We had already reconciled ourselves to having a bimini (a life-saver as I am very fair-skinned) so we reckoned that we'd already stepped over the line as far as purists are concerned.

To their credit the boatyard in Leros produced a gantry-cum-bimini solution that is not too ugly and minimises the interference with sailing (photo above).  The solar panels make a big difference, much reducing our need to run the engine (in particular to cool the fridge and run the watermaker).  The wind turbine contributes much less, but is expected to come into it's own during dull weather, providing at least a trickle charge for the batteries.

After all this activity we did manage to do a bit of cruising towards the end of June.  We visited a few more of the Dodecanese islands, south of Leros, before crossing over to Turkey.  We would thoroughly recommend the Dodecanese islands, so long as you avoid the tourist hot spots in the height of season (July and August, when coincidentally the winds are most strong).

We entered Turkey at Datca and cruised east along the coast as far as  Finike.  This is the most popular cruising ground in Turkey, with lots of beautiful anchorages.  It was busy with lots of charter and day tripper boats charging around in the day, but still surprisingly peaceful at night in the anchorages.

We'll try and keep in touch during the Rally, but anyone wondering how we are getting on can check our blog: http://blog.mailasail.com/lynnrival.

IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF A RIVAL 36 (CENTREBOARD)

Elmer Boon

When we bought our R36 five years ago we knew she was not a fast boat, but we loved her spirit of traditional looks, lines, quality and sea-kindness. However, I could not stand it when we were passed by boats which were not even trying to do their best to do so! So I started to improve some details and this meant that we sailed at the same speed as or were passing others except modern racers, so now she is even loved more…….

The improvements that I made were:

1. A new mainsail and genoa of very good quality were an obvious help and it does improve speed and heeling moment quite a lot but an even bigger improvement is the use of a gennaker especially in light to moderate breezes. You will pass everybody sailing without one!

2. Our (and probably your) centreboard had so much width (play) in the bearings that it was moving sideways when sailing (and doing so it does not produce lift and acts as a brake), but also in her berth and even motoring when it was “up’’ it was wobbling. Helped by the building drawings, I made two identical 9 mm PVC “devices” which fit both alongside the centreboard casing and support the centreboard especially around the pivot. It can be placed or removed in or out of the water easily without removing the pivot (when the tabletop is removed) and gives no problem in case of grounding or filling with mud.

3. The genoa track is placed too far out to point high to the wind. This can be solved by a tweeter line on the sheet of your 130% genoa, coming from the end of the mainsheet traveller via a small block attached there and led through the holes in the coming to the cockpit. This gives a better slot between the genoa and mainsail and results in a bit more speed and better pointing.

4. I still had the feeling we were towing a bucket, so this winter I mounted nylon flaps on the centreboard slot in the keel. Now looking through the hole in the table while sailing on a sunny day, it is clear that it works; there are no wearls in the casting and probably neither behind it along the bottom with the board up or down. It also prevents an airflow coming from the casting that is sucked over the luffside of the centreboard.

5. The finishing touch though, was the replacement of the old 3 blade prop by a Brunton’s Autoprop. This was a big investment, but worth every penny. It has more drag then a Maxprop or folding prop when sailing but less than a fixed one, and it improved motoring enormously. The 20hp Bukh which I always thought to be insufficient for this heavy boat is sufficient now and runs smoothly while giving the same speed with less throttle. It is even possible to berth backwards or going slight astern, now isn’t that what you always wanted! When sailing it also has the advantage over the fixed prop that it produces less cavitation around about ¼ of the rudder blade and so results in less steering.

All in all she accelerates quicker, steers better, is easier to get her in the groove. We have gained ½ to 1 knot in speed and are pointing 5^o higher and……… you can feel that the brake is off.

Formerly I used to own racers or cruising racers so I might be a bit preoccupied with speed but I can assure you that a bit of speed makes sailing more fun. So if you feel the same way and wish to be discuss the improvements in more detailed, please feel free to mail me at: elmerboon#hetnet.nl

We owned a lot of good boats, but after these improvements we agree that this R36 is the best build, best looking and now a good all round sailing yacht.

THE AGM AND ANNUAL DINNER

Just a reminder, that the AGM and annual dinner will be held on the 18th of January 2008. The details will be in the December newsletter but put the date in your diary. It is a very enjoyable evening with good food and good company.

NEW MEMBERS

We welcome the following new members:

WEBMASTER:                    Andrew Gardener                 agardener#interalpha.co.uk

NEWSLETTER EDITOR:  Margaret Campbell               samandmags#aol.com

ROUND-UP EDITOR:        Wendy Tedd

AREA VICE PRESIDENTS

South Coast: Charlie Bargeron

South Coast Folly Meet Report 2007

The weather forecast for early June was poor as we approached the Folly Meet but not bad enough to call it off. I held off cooking the chilli until as late as possible so that I didn’t have gallons of the stuff to eat for weeks. My boat was still ashore for the winter tidy up and didn’t go back in the water until late afternoon the day before the meet.

But the weather was fantastic for a party if not for sailing– windless, warm and sunny. Eleven boats made it mostly under engine, congratulations to Jim Newman for his trip from Brighton and John Parsons from Poole. Denny came straight from the airport and sailed with me getting us to the Folly at bar opening time 3.30, the bunting went up and the party started. Everybody mucked in and lots of chopping of salads (thanks Liz), setting out food (thanks Denny & Yvonne) and distributing drinks (thanks Andrew) ensured an enjoyable day and evening. Much boat hopping took place as everybody went around visiting each others boats discussing jobs done, and to be done, as well as describing adventures on and off the water. I really enjoyed seeing the boats (2 x 38, 3 x 36, 3 x 34 and 3 x 32) and talking ‘shop’ in detail. I moaned about the cost of the Folly berths but we did get our deposit back this year from the Harbour Master as all the booked boats turned up.

The End of Season Dinner is booked for 20^th October at the fantastic looking Hayling Island Sailing Club. Barry Thunder and James Pickford have volunteered to give presentations on their summer exploits before the meal for about 30 members so it promises to be another great evening.