Southampton Boat Show - Friday and Sat 11th/12th Sept

Sharon from Churchouse had a problem. Simon was going to be at Goodwood, result of a present earlier in the year and she needed help on the stand. After my time at the London Boat Show earlier in the year I was keen to see the difference between the two shows so duly arrived on Friday morning at Gate A to be presented with my pass and start trying to help sell the dream.

The stand was right by the entrance, which appeared to be both good and not so good...sure people came in and wandered around the first area we were in, but  then they moved moved onto see the rest of the show and by the time they came back many must have been 'boated out'.

That didn't deter a steady stream of visitors over the two days I was there. The weather smiled upon us and the Red Arrows gave a great display. There were some very encouraging enquiries about boats and orders places for covers and other essentials.

Drascombe by Churchouse stand at Southampton

The overriding impression I got was the affection that the Drascombe range, particularly the Lugger, are held in by so many people. So many people came up who had had one, still have one, plan to downsize back to one, grandparents had one, father had one.... the stories went on.

I met the author Sam Llewellyn who dropped by to see Sharon, as well as Catherine Jackson and Jonathon Savill from the new magazine Classic Sailor .

Classic Sailor - a new magazine - wish them well

I had a good look around the new Cornish Shrimper 21, shown round by Ian, the owner of a 21 sail number 007. It looks a lovely boat and I was amazed at how roomy and spacious it was, in spite of a relatively small increase in size from the Shrimper 19. Resoling the kids plimsolls will have to go on hold to afford the asking price though...nice to dream. The other nice thing was to discover he was a reader of this blog,  so cheers Ian...enjoy your boat...

Dining out was an experience especially with Chris and Fiona from Jeckells sails when we visited TGI's with Sharon...but for her sake we won't go there.....

Glad I did the early days...handed over to Stewart Brown for Sunday,  .. and Simon is back for the rest of the week but looking at the weather not sure it's going to be much fun, but hope the sales pick up and the cheque books come out.

Short cruise 28th - 30th August

With days running out I decided to get a quiet sail in before the nights closed in.....Sharon decided she was in need of more lessons so the quiet bit didn't last long.....

We set out on the tide from Ashlett on the Friday morning..with a reef in as the weather promised a little bit of wind...which then died so much so that I took the reef out...10 minutes later I wished I had put another one in...mind you all was remarkably calm from the crew as we heeled at strange angles, but with wind and tide against us, we dropped sail and motored to Newtown Creek for a late lunch. Sharon had heard all about it in various stories from Stewart's etc. but this was her first visit. It did look good in the sunshine.

We continued on the Yarmouth, passing a fleet of Folkboats racing with spinnakers raised..lovely in the sun and were given a fantastic berth in the harbour. We wandered around town enjoying the pier and an ice cream and tried to get into the steak place, 'On the Rocks', which unfortunately was fully booked so we ate in a pub and then Sharon got a taxi to her B&B while I settled down for the night.
The next day, with crew back on board, we visited Lymington and tried to sail to Cowes. The wind died totally and we again found ourselves outside Newtown Creek where we had lunch.
The rain closed in with a vengeance and the skipper was left alone to motor to Cowes whilst the crew read in the cabin. We got a berth in East Cowes marina and went to the bar to dry off and get warm.  Sharon took off to her next B&B whilst I got out of the rain back on board.

Sunday we set off quite early and sailed initially but then had to motor back to Ashlett where we arrived at the top of a big tide...even the pontoon was under water..very strange tying up to cleats that are just showing above the water level.

Moored ..just

Recovery was smooth and I was soon away to catch up with domestic tasks at home.