White Horse Cruising Club
Recent events you may have missed .
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Meetings are on the second Monday of each month, at the British Legion Club, Mill Orchard, East Hanney, starting at 8 pm.
2010
February 8th 2010 Clive Sutherland - The Islands of the English Channel.
Clive Sutherland has explored many of the less popular islands on both sides of the English Channel. These range from the Disneyesque St Michael's Mount (and its French equivalent) to the wild and spectacular Island of Ushant. Tide calculations and meticulous passage planning are essential, particularly around Alderney where the notorious Race can reach 11 knots during Sprngs. Clive talk was supported by photographs and maps, and included many anecdotes. The best type of boat to visit these islands would seem to be a bilge keeler, or one which can take the ground without damage. Many islands on the French side feature deserted beaches and crystal clear water.
WHCC Dinner on Monday 11th January 2010
A smaller gathering this year met at The Four Pillars Hotel in Abingdon. As now customary, diners were reminded of their earlier choices of menu, by Clive Sutherland’s brochure adorned with one of his yachting pictures. A very acceptable meal was capably served without undue delays. The venue was the hexagonal Conservatory of the Hotel, with a central pillar, rather tent-like in shape.
This presented rather a challenge to our Chairman, Bob Dyer when speaking briefly after the dinner. He spoke from the centre of the room and did his performance “in the round”.. He referred to various previous members of the Club including John and Elizabeth Spalding, now retired to Suffolk to whom he had spoken recently and who sent their greetings, and Dr Ian Johnston a member around 1990 who had been in touch. He mentioned John Magraw’s misfortune of breaking a bone in his foot, when reacting to an eventually unsuccessful attempt to steal his river launch from opposite his house in Pangbourne in broad daylight, and congratulated Poul Christensen on his appointment as Chairman of English Nature. The fact that this also concerns itself with inshore waters out to the 12 mile limit was noted for future reference by the yachtsmen present. Bob also referred to the eventful year just enjoyed by the Club – it’s first cancellated meeting in years because of snow, the coach trip to the Chatham Historic Dockyard and the new attractive printing of the latest Newsletter coupled with the attractive and ever-changing web-site;
The main diversion of the evening was a quiz prepared by the hard-working Clive Sutherland. Whilst this had a distinctly nautical flavour, there were several quite searching questions for non-yotties. For example, what animal first crossed the road in 1951*? Each couple had a copy of the two page quiz, results were totalled for each table then divided by the number at that table. The table with the Christensens and Drivers came out first. Clive presented a prize of a box of chocolates to Margaret and Poul later walked them round the room.
Warm thanks were conveyed to Clive for his imagination and trouble. The evening ended with a wide circulation of members made easier by the spacious room we were in.
*the zebra – as in crossing.
See the pictures from the dinner
2009
November 9th 2009 John Owen The RNLI - from the inside.
John Owen from the RNLI (ably assisted by colleagues) gave us an insiders view of the RNLI supported by slides and some video footage. The history and development of lifeboat design was explained in some detail. The role of the RNLI is still expanding. Their skill and expertise is being used in various locations ranging from assisting in local (UK based) flood rescue, to Far Eastern flood relief in third World countries. The RNLI now have a 'state of the art' training centre in Poole which includes hotel quality accomodation. Members of the RNLI can make use of this accomodation if they wish and tours of the new facility can be arranged.
The second half of the evening comprised a refresher session going over the care and maintenance of lifejackets. A role playing simulation of a sinking was staged to underline the need for prior preparation in case an emergency occurs. A crew safety briefing before leaving is essential - its too late when you are up to your armpits in seawater. The local fundraising branch from Wantage was in attendance selling RNLI goods in time for Christmas and the whip round during the meeting raised £70.
October 12th 2009 Roger Brydges - Marine Accident Investigation Branch.
Roger Brydges from the MAIB came and gave us a very enlightening insight into the workings of this section of the Dept of Transport. He went over several interesting Marine Accidents supported by slides and video footage. His straightforward realistic approach was appreciated by the audience. Most accidents seem to be related to seamanship combined with weather and/or mechanical failure. Having all the facts presented at once belied the extensive research which goes into each case, sometimes involving long haul flights to far flung ports. Maritime 'black box' data recorders are becoming more widespread in the Mercantile Marine, which makes the job of the MAIB slightly easier - notwithstanding the fact that it may have to be retrieved from 6000m by ROV.
From a leisure sailor's standpoint several themes recurred: a handheld VHF is virtually essential, crotch straps on lifejackets greatly enhance their effectiveness, radar reflectors ought to be permanently rigged, photochromatic specticle lenses should not be used at night, the comfort of the LW weather forecast on Radio 4 should not be underestimated. The Leisure Craft Safety Digest which Roger gave out at the meeting can be obtained free of charge from the MAIB. Also email Roger if you wish to be added to their mailing list.
September 2009 Captain William Wells.
For our first meeting in September, Our speaker was Capt. William Wells
who is a former Younger brother of Trinity House and senior river pilot in the
Port of London. He arrived dressed for the occasion in full rig as a Captain
and Master Mariner with four gold bars on his sleeve! But he is retired now
after almost 49 years to enjoy his current passion for Public Speaking.
His talk was about the “History and Heritage of Trinity House”
one of the world's renowned maritime organisations, which was formed in the
late 15th century and bestowed a Royal Charter in 1514 by King Henry VIII.
Trinity House has been exerting its influence on the maritime world
throughout the centuries but major changes were forced upon it in 1988. He discussed
the role of Trinity House in today's international purview and finally,
for the icing on the cake, he showed some photographs of the splendid interior
of Trinity House headquarters in London and entertained us with some of the
diverse activities that are now held there.
It was a lively talk and several questions were asked by the audience.
Clive Sutherland
September 2009 A Great day out at Chatham Royal Dockyard.
On Saturday, 5th September, a minibus-load of 15 club members and a couple of guests set off from Hanney for a day out at Chatham Dockyard.
Joan and I had been there before, several years ago, but felt we had then only scratched the surface, and there was plenty more to be seen; and so it turned out.
The travelling went well; we were ably driven by Mike and Barbara Coombes, in relays, with no holdups either way; and the weather was benign.
Once there, the party split up into small groups to follow their own interests, so we kept coming across familiar faces in our wanderings. Many of us met up at the rope-walk, where we were given a talk about how rope was, and is, made, from various fibres. Ropes are still being made on this antique machinery, dating back to the 19th century, but unfortunately not at weekends, so the winding of the rope-making plant had to be imagined. We felt that was a bit of a loss, having seen it before, as it was hard to visualise the complexity of everything rotating about everything else, without seeing it in action.
In the static museum display, we learned about that deadly day in the 17th century, when a Dutch fleet managed to make its way up the Medway, sack the dockyard, sink several ships, and make off with the flagship Royal Charles, the pride of the Navy.
We were part of a small group, which included John and Sue Greenford, and Bob Dyer, who took a jaunt in the paddle-steamer "Kingswear Castle". This is one of the Dart steamers built by Philip's yard in 1924, which uses a recycled engine dating from 1904. That engine is a two-cylinder compound, well open to view, and the boiler is coal-fired; the only coal-burning paddler left. She only does six knots or so, so had difficulty overtaking some of the racing dinghies on the river, that breezy day. We went about 5 miles down the river, and 5 back , in a cruise lasting an hour and a half. One thing that became clear, as we passed it on the river, was the immense size of the Chatham military establishment, now decommissioned: the old royal dockyard that we had come to visit, which seemed big enough in itself, occupied only a tiny corner.
Then it was time to get in the bus to return. There hadn't been time to crawl into the submarine, as I had intended, so that means yet another visit, some other day.
And to top it off, on return each of us was given a cash refund of £3, because every seat on the bus had unexpectedly been taken.
A well-organised outing, then, and a great success that was widely enjoyed.
George Huxtable.
Round the Island Race 2009
Barbara had entered Swift in this year’s “Round the Island Race”. Now Swift was at the brokers waiting for her next owner and her entry was changed to “Jess” our new boat.
Although racing is in our blood and has been a major part of our lives before we started sailing in 2002 we had never been in a Yacht Race and neither had our crew Maureen and Jackie. We were all yacht racing virgins!
Our day started at 6 am when we breakfasted in Haslar Marina. We slipped out at 6.45 am and motor sailed in very light winds to the start. Our time was 9 am. We stopped the engine at 8.55 and failed to make any forward progress as the wind had completely gone!
Every other craft in view was in the same situation. After a while the tide took us over the start line – about 20 minutes late!
After about an hour the wind picked up enough to push Jess along. She is a long keeled heavy cruiser and could not match many boats in the light winds. We tacked down to the Hurst Narrows, a bit close to other competitors on occasion but as it was a race it was to be expected. In fact we tacked past the same set of boats several times, greetings (and offers of cups of tea) being passed back and forth.
The sea got a bit lumpy in the Needles Channel and fortunately the wind picked up a bit more. The Needles were successfully rounded and we set off on a good broad reach for St Catherine’s Point and Lighthouse. Jess was now on a better point of sailing for we stopped losing ground.
Then the spinnakers and cruising chutes came out! These made a big difference
to the speed of those so equipped and the multi-coloured ones moved ahead. After
the Southernmost point of the island the direction changed and a wind shift
allowed us to put a preventer on the boom and goose wing for a dead run. We
held our own with most other entries on this leg – those we could see
anyway.
The wind was picking up – just what Jess needed. We hardened up and started
making progress down the East side of the Island. We picked up good speed –
leaving several other yachts we had been in company with most of the event so
far. Barbara had planned to go outside No Mans Land Fort but we were going so
well she decided to cut the corner to avoid any possible wind shadow behind
the Fort and hopefully avoid the shallow Ryde Sands.
We now found the wind was on the nose and many tacks were required to get us over the line. We finished in close company with a boat we had last seen in the Needles Channel. They beat us by a length!
We had taken 12 hours 45 minutes to complete the course. We were a bit subdued as not many boats were behind us. We motored back to Gosport and licked our wounds.
The following day Barbara checked the results. On corrected time we had finished 688th of 1770 entries so it wasn’t so bad after all. We had forgotten that over 1500 boats had started before us, some of them by two hours.
We have no desire to do it again it Jess – it was hard work.
Mike & Barbara Coombes
Barbara and I purchased an Island Packet 350 in May. The yacht was in the Harbour at Watchet in Somerset – 400 miles from our mooring in Gosport. The estimated time for delivery was four to five days. Due to unexpected severe weather it took eleven!
Full story at the December Club Night.
Summer Gathering 2009.
The weekend for the WHCC summer gathering brought perfect weather, warm sunshine and good sailing winds.
Clive Sutherland’s Moody “Balki” set sail from Kemps Marina at around 10am on Saturday, with Terry Jones and Richard Oliver on board as crew. We motor-sailed down the Itchen and then tacked down Southampton water into the Solent. We spent the next few hours sailing and enjoying the sun and the good breeze before going into Cowes and onto the pontoon in Cowes Yacht Haven.
“Jess”, Mike Coombes’ new Island Packet cutter, was moored just ahead of us, as can be seen from the photographs in the gallery. Coincidentally, there were several other Island Packet yachts near to us in the marina as they were having an owner’s club event. The crew of “Balki” were very impressed by one young woman from an IP yacht who came over to give us a closer look at her club t-shirt!
We were all invited onto “Jess” for some wine and nibbles before going ashore to get ready for the main event.
After a short walk from the marina through Cowes high street we arrived at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club. Situated on a hill overlooking Cowes entrance we all enjoyed the views over the Solent before returning to the bar for drinks.
The RC had reserved the Captains Room, which seats 12 very comfortably and has views over the Solent, for the exclusive use of the WHCC, where we were served a truly excellent 3 course dinner.
Sunday morning was a busy time for Mike. Not only did he go up his own mast to adjust a lazy jack fitting, but was also hoisted up “Balki’s” mast to rig the flag halyards.
After a leisurely breakfast we all sailed back to our respective home ports. It was a thoroughly enjoyable weekend.
But, where was Bob? He had decided to do the Round the Island race three weeks early! No doubt he will explain all shortly.
RYA Spring Muster 2009
Half of the Green family (me and my son) attended the RYA Autumn Muster last year kind courtesy of Mike & Barbara Coombs who invited us to join them aboard ‘Swift.’ Millie (10) had been ill so Mel (Mum – not allowed to put age!) stayed at home and Ollie (12) went on our own. Having had such a superb weekend with so many things sailing, marine, nautical etc. etc. I was really keen to get all the Greens there to the Spring Muster if we could.
When it transpired that Mike & Barbara had to squeeze another Caribbean holiday in over the weekend of the Muster it seemed that we would have to wait for another time. However not wanting us to miss the weekend Mike & Barbara said ‘take Swift without us’ – and we jumped at their generous offer. It subsequently transpired to be ‘Swift’s’ last outing under their ownership as we delivered her back to the broker’s yard to make way for the soon to arrive Island Packet ‘Jess.’
We managed to get down to the boat on the Friday afternoon and had a superb sail from Gosport to Cowes on a 5 occasional 6 broad reach arriving in time for the get together drink at Cowes Yacht Haven. We found a nice little restaurant to have a bite to eat and then back to Swift for what we thought would be a good night’s sleep. A massive mobo had taken the wrong berth in the marina putting us close to the entrance in a South Easterly blowing 4/5 onto us all night off the Medina. With a fair amount of late night traffic and ferries arriving not only did we get an unwelcome rocking to sleep but the lines were so noisy on the long finger pontoons. Space was tight the following night so we were unable to improve on our berth. We were determined to get a better night’s sleep – I tried changing the lines to quieten down the creaking but to no avail.
TIP – At 8pm I was searching for inspiration and I found it in sponge backed pan scrubs. Wedged between the fairlead and the line, the tension was taken away from the boat and as the wind had veered slightly all was much better. Silence in my berth at last – I was chuffed!
The main activities of the weekend are so varied that from oik to octogenarian there would have been too much to do. We had a hearty breakfast but once everyone else was up. I can’t resist getting up early, going to have a walkabout and then reading a few pages of my book over a strong coffee while the marina wakes up. Isn’t it great being on the water?
We spent the morning practising manoeuvring in the marina with a Hamble School of Sailing boat. We also went out in the Medina and did some ferry gliding and picking up pontoons in a fresh breeze. Ollie and I attended a really informative talk from both the RNLI plus an excellent demo from Ocean Safety on the latest life rafts and tips on how to use them.
After a bite of lunch we went out on the Sealine launch – a chance for all of us to helm threading between the sails in the Solent – avoiding OAPs with their supermarket trolleys – as it is described.
The kids and I went out on the Youth RIB and practised buoy pick – ups in a strong tide following which Millie and I went wake crossing between one of the largest container ships followed by a Red Funnel ferry. What a thrill and we got soaked. Ollie got a real thrill getting it up on the plane and then flat out at the controls. What a day!
A great meal and disco in the evening and then a really interesting ‘flare’ demo and MOB exercise from the RNLI on the Sunday morning. As I say there is just too much to do and whether you go for the social get together or to brush up/hone skills this is a rare opportunity to try many ways of enjoying the water or increasing your safety on it. I still think that I need to go on several more of these purely to have attended all the master classes on offer.
Another huge thank you to Mike and Barbara for making it happen.
Mike Shrives - Man overboard and helicopter rescue.
Mike is an RYA Yachtmaster instructor/examiner and former helicopter pilot who knows first hand the ins and outs of the rescue servces. His talk was very interesting and supported by images and anecdotes.
The main 'takeaway points' were :
1. Its more likely for the most experienced yachtsman to fall overboard.
2. Wear a lifejacket unless it is safe to take it off.
3. Remember to do a safety briefing for all crew (its too late when someone is overboard see 1 above)
4. Each recovery situation is different. Practice the various procedures for your boat and adapt as necessary. There is no single 'right way'.
5. Deploy the liferaft to assist the casuality to get back on board if they have difficulty climbing.
6. Hypothermia may set in after just 7 minutes in winter or 14 minutes in summer.
7. The maximum helicopter range is about 200 miles so if you're a long way offshore you are limited to fixed wing assistance (dropped liferafts etc)
8. If you would like to practice hi line rescue with the helicopter in your boat you can contact the local coastguard centre and ask them. They may have pilots who need the hours.
9. Be aware the the French authorities can and are checking for out-of-date flares and the skipper may be fined!
9th March 2009
Kathy Mansfield on “The Glorious Boats of William Fife”.
William Fife was the third of that name operating from Fairlie on the Clyde. He was one of the leading designers of yachts from the 1890s until the inter-war period. His yachts had a reputation for high quality construction as well as for the effectiveness and artistry of his designs.
Fife was particularly successful with yachts built to the metre formulas of the International Rule from 1906. Early in her talk Kathy introduced us to the International Rule formulas. These took account of waterline length (but not length overall), beam, girth, sail area and freeboard. The aim was to achieve relative comparability for racing different designs of yachts whilst providing scope for innovation. Metre class yachts often had generous overhangs for and aft, providing a longer deck for staying high masts, which suited the change then taking place from gaff rigs to Bermudan.
A number of metre formulas were set ranging up to 12 metre. Yachts of this class would typically be 65 to 75 feet long with masts of 85 feet. Other classes which were built in quantity were 6 metre and 8 metre.
There are thought to be about 100 Fife yachts still afloat in Europe, the USA and Australia. About 50 are still being actively sailed. Sailing these yachts emphasises how times have changed. No winches hence the large crews on 12 metre yachts. No stanchions or guard rails only toe rails – and life jackets? Forget it! Most however now have modern fabric sails.
Kathy showed us a wealth of fine action pictures of Fife yachts in all main metre classes. These are sailed at Cowes and other regattas and especially at the annual Fife Regatta held on the Clyde. In 2008, 22 Fife yachts attended, the oldest being from 1894 and the largest “Altair” being a schooner of 130 feet overall.
January 12th Club Dinner.
Some thirty members and guests enjoyed their Annual Dinner at The Bear & Ragged Staff in Cumnor.
In brief remarks the Chairman expressed the committee’s pleasure
at five new members having joined since September, one of whom, Dave Townsend
was present. He also reported on contact with Reg Minal (now set up in Spain),
with Pat Lurcook with news of Keith who had suffered a stroke two years ago.
and through the Christensens with John and Elizabeth Spalding (now living in
Woodbridge Suffolk) .
Meanwhile Judy Rudham was collecting entries for the Limerick prize draw. Two prizes were won and the benefit to the jollity of the occasion from the number and artistic merit of the contributions was evident. Can one do more than quote two of the more creditable ones just for the record?
A chap from our club climbed his mast
And up it got stuck good and fast
There came to his aid
A whole Fire Brigade,
Para-medics completed the cast
-from Terry Jones
The skipper stood on the heaving deck
He ordered the helm a-lee
He gave a cough
His leg fell off
And floated in the sea
-from Mike Coombes
Some of those we are not quoting nearly brought the house down, but those were only for the ears of those present