Cruise to Weymouth for Golden Jubilee

The main fleet had set out on the Monday 3rd on passage to Weymouth for the Drascombe Golden Jubilee event, but work and other commitments meant that I could only launch at about 19.30 on the Tuesday evening and so it was, leaving Ashlett by about 20.30 once I was ready.

I had several plans running through my head. Ideally straight through Hurst Narrows and across the bay to Studland to anchor up and grab some sleep before departing on the early tide with the others who were already snug at anchor off Studland beach.

Other options included anchoring on the bight of Keyhaven and waiting for the morning tide to slip out and head straight to Weymouth in one go. Lymington and Yarmouth were also overnight options.

As ever weather dependant and as I set off, the wind was dying and the tide fair for the Needles.

Calshot and Fawley on the way to the Needles

I had a passage plan for the trip to Studland as this was my favoured option.The tide at Hurst would be running out at about 2 knots and if the wind was light there shouldn't be anything in the way of overfalls and steep choppy waves to worry about. A few sketched tidal streams of the bay, some compass headings and some way points and I was happy.

There was no wind by the time I arrived at the Castle but those dark patches of water, swirling around look so much more malevolent at night. I swept through, using the North Channel and encountered quite a strong counter current just passed the Castle.

Once through this and out in the Bay I settled down with the radio, a flask of coffee and some fruit cake to see me through the night. Motoring was monotonous but there was no wind to speak off  and so under a starry sky I made my way across to Studland.

 Exactly on 02.00 am I was dropping my anchor just short of the rest of the fleet and settling down for what remained of the night - an uneventful but satisfying voyage.

The next morning we had to depart on the tide at 08.00 and in spite of little sleep I was wide awake and ready to go in good time.

I had joined Pellew and Isabella, two Drifter 22's, Sundance and Siesta, two old style Drifters and Moksha, a Coaster, for the rest of the trip.

We had to motor most of the way to St Albins head but a fresh breeze blew up for awhile and we started to sail in earnest. ...and then we met the Range...

We knew we would have to go out to the 6 mile mark , but , as most yachtsman on that route, hoped the military might be having a day off.

Not a bit of it...not only were they firing but we had chosen one of the few days of the year when the 9 mile exclusion zone was in operation....

It made for a long day and plans to spend the night in Weymouth before arriving at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy were modified and we headed straight into Portland harbour  a day early.

Queen Mary Sailing Club - RYA Sailability

On Thursday this week, I was pleased to be able to assist Stewart Brown, in the absence of Sharon and Simon who were on holiday, in representing Drascombe by Churchouse at a very special ceremony held at the Queen Mary Sailing Club based on a large reservoir in Ashford, near Heathrow.

The ceremony was special in two ways:-

Firstly it was the naming ceremony of the last long boat to leave the wooded copse at Aspley Sawmills, before Drascombe by Churchouse moved to their new address near Nether Wallop, Stockbridge.

and secondly and perhaps more importantly the ceremony was for a Drascombe Longboat adapted for use by RYA Sailability sailors, and HRH Princes Anne was doing the official naming.

For those that are unaware of Sailability schemes, the RYA supports programmes designed to get people with disabilities and learning difficulties onto the water. This obviously requires special designed or adapted boats in order to be safe and inspire confidence in the students. The Drascombe Lugger was popular for several years as a safe steady boat that the students could feel at ease with, and for all the reasons that they are good family boats.

Increasingly though, many Sailability centres are turning to the Drascombe Longboat as the ideal boat for groups. With adapted wheel steering and a helming position ideal for wheelchair users to feel secure in, they have become increasingly popular for this type of activity.

So it was that an adapted Longboat was soon to join another of its type that the Queen Mary Club had purchased some years ago.

If you want to know more I have added a link on the right.....

An unusual view - perched on their vertical launching ramp

Drascombe Longboat - Zingarro - Queen Mary Sailability

 Here you can see the wheel steering arrangement and the fitted seat behind for the helm

Shameless advertising - Longboat in the background

HRH Princes Anne naming the boat

Unveiling the plaque

Watching the launch

Stewart (in blue) and  Douglas Dick, one of the many volunteers at Queen Mary

With four classes of children form local schools, councillors, the mayor and hierarchy from the RYA, Thames Water, Sport England as well as many of the sailors and volunteers at the club the ceremony was very well planned and included the cutting of a cake and the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the occasion

I hope the members of the club have many happy days on the water with Zingarro.

Pictures ©Sportography.tv

Solent 'Cultural' Cruise - Sat 10th - Friday 16th June

The cultural cruise started over several days for some, with Brad and Bob coming over the bay from Poole in Siobhan and Dom Jarman and his crew in Samphire, a Coaster previously owned by Marcus Niner, launch at Bucklers Hard on the Friday.

The rest of us, Tony in Pellew, Robin in his Shrimper and me in Daislebee,  launched and set out from Ashlett on the Saturday rendezvousing in Shepards Wharf with the others. It was a brisk sail with a strong westerly tide but caused no problems. Geoff Aston came out in his lugger for some of the journey but headed for home after awhile due to other commitments keeping him at home.

Rafted in Shepards

Friendly staff - charming

We adjourned to the pub that evening and were joined by Marcus who drove up from home, but left us as he had an early start to catch up with us the next morning.


Sunday

A lovely day dawned and leaving Dom behind we set off for Portsmouth. I think we all expected Marcus to be behind us and we were surprised to find him gilling about off Ryde waiting for us in his Drifter Sundance.

We joined up and sailed into Portsmouth and made our way up to Portchester. After waiting on the outer pontoon for awhile, the wind got up and we moved into the club pontoon as the racing finished. A BBQ was in full swing and the club officials were incredibly welcoming and we set in for an entertaining evening, including a visit to a local hostelry later that evening and a quick visit to some oriental culture....to get some Singapore noodles.

Portchester pontoon

Monday

We waited for the tide and set off about midday for the brisk and exciting sail to Ryde. Brad had not been in there before so a first for him.
Robin, Ross and I walked to Seaview which was interesting and then rv'/d with the rest at 'spoons' in the town. A convivial evening.

Robin - posing for a photo

Ryde Sands at low tide - looking west from Seaview towards Ryde

Tuesday

 Whilst waiting for the tide a bit of shopping was done and then in inaugural golf championship was held at the crazy golf course by the harbour.

Duly won by the bandit Marcus, it was a lot of fun and has lead to plans to create a cruise around crazy golf locations next year......

We waited a little longer for Adrian who had come out of Chichester in Torridon  and as we left Ryde, he was just passing.

A good sail ensued with the wind getting up as we rounded the point heading for Yarmouth.

Tony and Robin arrived ahead of us and as Bard and I tied up in a slightly different area I got a call from Marcus to say his starter cord had come apart and he was drifting so as Tony and Robin came round to join us they were surprised to see Bob and I setting out to sea past them.

We caught up with Marcus and towed him into the harbour, where the harbour master helped him into a berth.

He was soon fixed and we settled in for supper which that evening was fresh tagliatelle, with two pack of those mussels that come vacuum packed with wine and garlic  - a few additional prawns and we were ready to go-- of course with some quickly toasted garlic bread... went down well but next time a little creme freche might coat the pasta better.

Wednesday

The fleet split up on the Wednesday with Bard and Bob returning to Poole - apparently they caught a fair sized bass en route - so we had a quick team photo ...

The motley crew

Marcus needed to be home that night so Adrian, Tony and I sailed with him to Newtown Creek and spent the night there

A lovely evening in Newtown

Thursday

Adrian needed to be back to set off after breakfast to get to Cowes or Bembridge - in the event he made it all the way back to Chichester.......

The wind got up later and Tony and I waited for it to die a little before setting off to Lymington where we were due to meet Sharon who wanted a sail.

The wind and tide made for a very rough sail - even fully reefed Daislebee romped along - the wind vane was pushed up the radio ariel  and wedged there until I reached the calm water of Lymington harbour where it resumed its normal position.

We tied up at Town Quay and had a fish and chip supper with Andy and Judy Peter who came down for the evening. After they had gone we wandered to the pub on the quay and were shocked at the prices £9.60 for two pints....back in Ryde that would have got you 2 pints and a gin and tonic !!!!!

Friday

Sharon arrived on a early train and after a little shopping we set out. It was a beautiful day and we headed over to Newtown on the tide.

Tony buzzing us from astern

Steady course

After lunch, we swopped crew and Sharon sailed a D22 up the Solent.

At the helm of a D22

We arrived back at Ashlett and hauled out to make our way home..a great cruise with fantastic weather...next up Weymouth

La Semaine du Golfe 2017

At last the much anticipated event had arrived - boat and car loaded I arrived at Portsmouth ferry to join the line of vehicles, many towing boats destined for the festival in the queue at the ferry port.

John and Mary Boston, towing 'Pamela' were in the same queue and we eagerly awaited embarkation.

This however was to be no easy task, as on the approach I suddenly thought "FLARES......." and sure enough the question was asked by the official by the inspection shed. I decided without too much thought to own up to the fact I had some on board, after all a search would discover them sat in their holders in the cabin and that would lead to a very red face. So I was waved over to a side bay and then into the shed where some eager, but very helpful and friendly officials descended on the boat.

However their eagerness diminished when the realised it would take me a month of Sundays to un lash the mast and gain access to the cabin. Solution..call the supervisor....after some minutes a harassed but very courteous man arrived and evidently my answers satisfied him and I was waved through..a lesson learnt - either make them accessible or leave then behind.

The other interesting story here was the questions about knives - did I have any on board...

Well yes..its a boat and knives are useful for all sorts of reasons - I also live on her so there is a full cutlery set as well...bemused faces...Do you ask these questions of the caravan and motor home owners I asked. No we don't...well think of it as a floating caravan...faces cleared, eyes winked and I was waved through.

I has elected to sleep in a reserved seat for the crossing, which was ok but not great and I envied John and Mary in their cabin, but St Malo arrived at dawn and we set off for Lamour Baden.

For those of you who fear trailing in France...don't...it is so much better than trailing over here - the roads are wider...in much better condition...less traffic...wonderful Aires or rest areas. Three hours or so with a stop at a supermarket saw us at the quayside where other members of the group who had arrived earlier in the week were already well established.

Rigged and launched we were soon tied to out allocated buoys. We ended up using a boat as a ferry boat to collect members of our group and take them to the 'party boat'  as we were well distributed amongst the anchorage. A dinghy would have been useful at times but the tide races through so not the solution to everything. The locals used ribs and water taxis and it was very easy to get in and out from the shore, although they did pack up quite early and not start til 9 or so.

The gang consisted of Andy and Annie Cooper on Coaster 'Gadfly', Marcus Niner on Drifter  'Sundance' , Andy and Judy Peter on Coaster 'Blue Peter', John and Mary Boston on Coaster ' Pamela', Jeremy and Kim Brett on Coaster 'Storm'. Alex Haig and his crew on his Deben lugger, James Willder on his lugger 'Tarka, myself on the Shrimper 'Daislebee' and later in the week we were joined by Jack O'Keefe and Pat O'Leary in Coaster 'Tyboat' and David and Euan Camlin in Coaster ' Delta'

The event was so busy and varied all the days seemed to run together. There were many memorable moments - Marcus getting Andy C into oyster shucking...they were ten a penny...almost literally and Marcus is quite the connoisseur, and we h,ad a good oyster and wine party on his boat - head stand diving, boarding ladder testing - not forgetting the story about the mizzen but that'll keep for another time

The event didn't start properly until the Wednesday when we sailed a route following a lead boat for our fleet.

The participants are placed in fleets according to their size and facilities - so open boats of a lugger size where in fleet 3 - cabin-ed boats of a similar size like ours were placed in fleet 3 bis  - 3 and 3 bis combined into a group of 100 plus boats under a lead skipper who motored the route with several ribs to assist. Each day we sailed from one venue to another, stopping of lunch and coffee frequently in order to wait for the ferocious tides to turn in our favour.

In all over 1400 boats took part in their various fleets, each nigh spent at a little port within the golfe where the town had a stage for music and entertainment, dancing, food stalls and a crews dining area after crews drinks had been taken. Each port seemed to be trying to out do the last for the scale of the entertainment and the warmth of the welcome - the locals were fantastic.

I have simply put a selection of pictures below to show the variety of the types of boats and some of the scenery.

The fleet in Port Navalo

Port Anna 

Port Anna

Port Anna

Port Bono - the river and bridge

Port Navalo

  

A variety of the big ships that attended

 The Drascombe 50 years celebration burgee flying proudly in the Morbihan

Port Bono

The other Shrimper

The image above is a french Shrimper owned and sailed by Christian Grouhel who was at the festival with his daughter and a friend of his. The boat is a distinctive brown and comes, I have learnt from the cappuccino range that was produced many years ago . he bought in in St Malo and keeps her in Port Navalo.

We took a lovely picture of entente cordiale having spent the day 'racing' each other... we moored up together at Port Anna and had a good chat with his English and certainly that of his daughters exceeding my very poor french - but beer is a good multi national currency.

Entente Cordiale - Christian Grouhel  - french Shrimper skipper

The final day was the Saturday with a Grand Parade from the entrance to the Golfe at Navalo all the way up to Vannes. We sat in the lee of an island and joined in as the smaller boats came passed.

1400 boats of all shapes and sizes in a swirling tide with cannon going off and crowds lining the beaches o n the islands along the route - quite fantastic.

Hard to take pictures but this link will give you a much better idea. Note that the boats aren't really sailing...just being swept along with the tide.

You Tube video of Grand Parade

We hauled out that day and used the boast as caravans for the next few days, visiting local towns and cities like Josselin, Vannes and Auray and giving ourselves a break from the water before finally packing up and catching the Tuesday evening ferry back home.

It was a wonderful trip, with great weather and good company, challenging at times but really great fun....I'd highly recommend it to anyone contemplating a visit to the 2019 event..and must say a massive thanks to all those involved in the organisation - it was so well done and can you believe,..no charges involve - no mooring fees, no launch fees, no crane fees, just food and drink and tips for the water taxis....well done Brettons you did us proud.

Footnote:-

Christian sent the photo together with a lovely little poem ..very touching

Semaine du Golfe 2017

To Richard

A friendly meeting

What nice days we had,

And I was so glad

To meet you

Retired too,

Sailing on a Cornish shrimper,

Built by Cornish Crabber.

Our two sister ships took their place,

Not for a race,

But for pretty trips, among the floats

Of hundreds of  tiny and  big boats.

Some of them were armed with guns, but not to fight,

Just to remind us the terrible fights

Which are marred in ours books of  history

Of ours two countries, formerly enemy.

A lot of spots of our coast

Remind us the cost

Of  lives paid, for peace

And let us pray for theses.

  

Come back again in Brittany

Our country is so pretty.

(Hope to see you in 2019 for the tenth Semaine du Golfe.)

Christian

Early season update

Seems awhile since I wrote a piece on here ..winter seemed to linger and then everything seems to happens at once. Lots to tell so here goes......

The flag has been raised on Daislebee's stern both in the yard, as shown below but also during a Solent cruise, about which more later.

I needed to rig her to get her on the water---god what a frustrating experience. I used my new lifter pole that worked ok and will certainly help in years to come but at the moment it is easier to push the mast up manually. I will take some pictures of the finished lifter for any of you that might be contemplating a similar arrangement.

Easier to lift ...but not when it needs to be done four or more times ....grrrr..I cannot believe how many lines got twisted, were incorrectly reeved etc etc ..but lessons learned.

I needed the mast up so I could launch and take the trailer for a service which I did at Fawley Trailers, with a big shout out to Adrian there who did a good job, and thanks also to Sharon at CBL for using her powers of persuasion and contacts to get it arranged for me.

Adrian did the job between tides and having got it to him at 08.00 that morning having launched the night before I recovered her that evening..all sorted. He commented as I arrived at the yard " You'll be needing new bearings then, I heard you coming down the road"....enough said.

The next job, believe it or not was to de-rig her ready for trailing to Cornwall.

I had arrange with Crabbers to give Daislebee a face lift and remove the scratches and polish a very faded gel coat. They also did all the wood work that looks like new now. We had a family gathering in Hayle, Cornwall so the journey down killed two birds with one stone.

Returned to Ashlett looking shiny and bright

I dropped her down the Ashlett the following Saturday, just glimpsing the departing tan sails of the 1st May rally as I came over the hill. I spent the Saturday rigging her and launching, ready for the Sunday tide. Sharon came down to visit Glenys who was camping nearby, so came out for a quick sail before the tide dictated that I set off for Cowes to meet up the the fleet.

Setting off - well wrapped up

I had a good brisk sail across to to Cowes and rendezvoused with the gang in Shepards Wharf where we adjourned to the pub for a meal.

Monday

The following day I wasn't certain if worked beckoned so set off back towards Ashlett, picking up a buoy in Owers Lake whilst I waited for the phone call and/or the tide.
Thankfully the phone call came first, I wasn't required....so I set off to Newtown Creek to catch up part of the fleet, some had gone to Ryde and joined us the next day.


Tuesday

A lovely sunny day that the others wanted to spend reading and sleeping...I set off for Lymington to do some shopping and collect a bundle of flares for Marcus. It was a great sail over and I managed to get onto Town Quay which was very handy - not something likely to happen when the season is in full swing.

Back over to Newtown for the night on the raft.


Wednesday

A very windy morning meant the raft had to split up and I went over to the Clammerkin side of the creek and picked up a buoy and watched a seal play around for awhile.
Once the tide had turned we set off for Ashlett once again and the sail back was great, even beating a Drifter, which doesn't happen very often.

The others recovered but I needed some work done on the trailer so stayed on the pontoon overnight.


Thursday

A quick trip to Adrian fitted the new bit and then I changed over the conventional strap and fitted a Dyneema cable and the turning bloc I posted about,  which worked wonderfully on recovery, taking the strain out of the winching. I'll post a picture of the arrangement soon but I have to thank Nick Payne for the idea. Whilst waiting for the tide I fitted some storage sleeves to the cabin sides - gradually the important items are finding places and the less important get left ashore - she actually looks quite tidy inside.

Once recovered I snugged her down - starting to get ready for the trip to the Morbihan at the end of the month.