Yarmouth Old Gaffers Festival 2012

For me this is one of the best events of the summer: it's an annual gathering of traditional boats at Yarmouth, a small harbour town at the west end of the Isle of Wight. Although the boats are at the centre of things it's a festival for the whole town and beyond.  There is an international street market, craft tent, vintage car rally, entertainers, dogshow, lifeboat display, etc..

Toucando was joined in Southampton by Lesley and Carole on Thursday.  After some lunch on board and familiarisation with the ropes, we set off.  The wind was variable.  It started off in the north, went round to the south, then the south east, then the south west.  The only consistent thing about it was that it tended to blow from the direction we wanted to go.  We raised the main off Dockhead in a blustery Force 4 to 5 from the south east and motor sailed down to Calshot.  Once in the Solent we were able to start beating down towards Yarmouth,  but  by this stage the wind had dropped and backed to south west and we were not making very fast progress.  The crew however got pretty efficient at tacking.  We completed the passage in very light winds arriving in Yarmouth at about 1930.

After securing Toucando we went for a barbecue and were joined by Carole's husband.  Unfortunately the lawn at the Royal Solent has been turned into a builders' compound so we were in the shed at the back of the car park.  Nevertheless it was good to meet up with the gaffers again.

Friday was shore-based... there was plenty to see.  Toucando seemed to enjoy being on one of Yarmouth's new walkashore pontoons between some Memorys including Sepia and Nipperkin.

In the evening the shore entertainment was laid on by Rob Da Bank or Radio 1 and Bestival fame. 
He does a lot of stuff on the Island and brings a new dimenstion to Friday night at Yarmouth.  Cuban Brothers were headlining, but my recommendation for top band was Skinny Lister.  This five piece sings folk songs, shanties and their own material, while passing around a couple of earthenware cider jugs.  It's about time for another folk revival, and Skinny Lister brings a new energy and enthusiasm to the genre.  Best of all they seem to attract a young following who belt out the choruses with real enthusiasm.

Saturday was the day of the race.  Since Toucando will not race until a regular crew has been found I enjoyed spectating from the end of Yarmouth Pier.  Despite the blue skies it had blown a gale overnight and was very blustery in the morning.  Most of the small boats decided to stay in harbour.  Miss Ningi bravely ventured out, had a brilliant start, but had to return when waves started flooding her.  The crowd repeatedly opined that it was "blowing old boots" and that (most of) the competitors were "going like a train".  I haven't the faintest idea who won, but it all looked good.

I decided to give the Abba, Queen and Rod Stewart tribute bands a miss on Saturday night... or at least listen to them from Toucando.

The homeward crew comprised Lesley and Michele.  The wind had dropped considerably.  We sailed quite slowly up the western Solent and Southampton Water.  It was very crowded as youy might exect for the first really warm weekend of the sailing season.  We got back to Toucando's home berth on the Itchen at about 1430.

Thanks to Carole, Lesley and Michele for crewing and miscellaneous old gaffers for the benefit of their advice.

May Parties

My final exam of the year took place on Monday 21st May.  In the afternoon I went back to Toucando and motored her across to Shamrock Quay, just the other side of the river.  This was to enable easy access for a range of party guests.  On Tuesday evening I welcomed some demographers and statisticians from my course, who were also celebrating the end of exams.  The radio announced that it was the hottest day of the year and that the Solent was the hottest place.... very different from the near freezing weather earlier in the month.

We had a pleasant evening sitting above deck sharing thoughts on the (academic) year just gone and watching the sunset.

On Wednesday we were joined by some ex-Council colleagues, and one dog.  The weather was just as good.  We enjoyed catching up on developments and another fantastic evening on the Itchen.

This is quite a contrast to the many evenings when I was going back to Toucando in the evening with the rain lashing down ansd the wind howling in the rigging. Thanks to everybody for coming along!

Easter Cruise 2012

I had spent a couple of weeks on pre-season maintenance, including supervising a few engineering jobs, so Toucando would be ready for her Easter cruise - the first of 2012.  I was joined by Peter and Stewart on Thursday evening.  Our first task was to take Toucando over to Shamrock Quay so she could fill her water tank and enjoy a night plugged into the mains.  The crew checked out The Waterfront, while I prepared dinner.

In the morning we made ready to go.  Getting off the berth avoiding the enormous Sunseeker moored behind us was not easy - the tide flows at right angles to the pontoons, but we managed eventually and made another short hop to the fuel barge where we took on 100 litres of diesel, before heading under the Itchen Bridge and out into Southampton Water.  Peter and Stewart raised the main... encountering a few snags and tangles (we got a lot better at it over the course of the weekend), and we motor sailed towards the Solent.  The forecast was for moderate northerly winds, which would have been ideal for a trip west, but the wind was very light and of indeterminate direction.  Our initial thoughts of heading for Poole had to be abandonned, and we settled for Yarmouth instead.  We got some sailing in which was good before motoring in and berthing on the new pontoon by the lifeboat.

We went and had a beer in the Royal Solent (ginger beer in my case), which is part way through a major refurbishment.  Dick and Pat Dawson showed us the work in progress.  We moved on to the Bugle before returning to Toucando for a Pirata Carbonara.

Saturday seemed like a good day to head to Poole, which is what we did.  Crossing the bay was easy, but we really had to fight the tide in the harbour entrance. Poole Quay Marina told us they were full (there's a wretched Sunseeker taking up the space for abour four sailing boats).  Fortunately there was space on the quay itself, which gave us the opportunity to use the fender board which has only had one other use over the past year.  It was towards low tide, and we had to climb up a horrible ladder to do the mooring.  As time went by and the tide rose we had a convenient step ashore from deck to quay.  Three other boats moored alongside us, and negotiated out departure time the following morning.  I did a little revictualling.  There was a rabbit in charge at Tesco... ok, a person dressed as a rabbit.  She tried to sell me some carrots, which I thought was quite amusing.  We had a (ginger) beer in the Jolly Sailor with some pub grub.

Toucando on Poole Town Quay

On Sunday we headed east, towards Cowes.  There was not a lot of wind to begin with, but once we were inside the Solent we did a training run, gybing our way to our destination.  By the time we took down the main off Gurnard there was a Force 5 blowing.  We went to Cowes Yacht Haven and found a suitable mooring before going ashore and enjoying some (ginger) beer and more pub grub at The Union Inn.  We helped the people at the next table in the quiz... well, we think we helped them we didn't stay for the answers.

Monday the wind had blown up.  A gale was threatened.  We reefed Toucando and set off.  It was blowing Force 7, gusting 8.  We headed north across the Solent and up into Southampton Water. We motored.  Those boats sailing were all well reefed: one was even using its bright orange storm jib and trisail.  In less than two and a half hours Toucando was back on her mooring.

It would have been good to have had a little more wind earlier in the weekend and a little less at the end, but nevertheless was had a good trip to four ports.  Toucando has emerged from her winter somnolence and is looking forward to more sailing.  She may be a little disappointed over the next month, as my priority will be to complete four assignments for my course but by the end of may we should have a pretty busy schedule.  Thanks to Peter and Stewart for crewing this weekend and getting to understand the running rigging of a gaff rigged cutter.

Instructors Conference and Winter Thoughts

I spent an interesting weekend at Bournemouth at the RYA Yachtmaster Instructor Conference.  It was very well attended with participants from all over the world, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Croatia, Belgium etc. etc..  A particularly interesting session led by Tom Cunliffe looked at how to link up the RYA training scheme with National Historic Ships: the publicly funded organisation promoting and protecting out maritime heritage.  It looks as though NHS (not the best acronym really) will endorse traditional boats and trainers, so that a special stamp can go in your RYA logbook to say you've done your Competent Crew, Day Skipper, etc. in a traditional setting.  The scheme is not quite ready to go yet, but it all looks very promising.

Here's a link to National Historic ships to find out more about their work: http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/

Other sessions included a presentation by Sir Alan Massey, head of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (and former Second Sea Lord).  He talked quite a lot about safety issues, and explained the plan to reduce the number of coastguard bases, but make them more resillient and focussed on rescue coordination.  He gave some stats about accidents: it would appear the fishing industry is by far the most dangerous of any occupation in the UK.  Then there was Captail Andrew Moll, Deputy Director of the Marine Accidents Investigation Branch, who talked about various interesting accidents, including a tanker that got kebabed on the leg of a drilling platform that had come adrift and got stuck point up in the middle of a shipping lane.  Andrew is a Memory owner and a keen sailor of small gaffers.

I am studying virtually full time at Southampton University for the next few months, but I am looking forward to a long weekend cruise at Easter, and the Yarmouth Old Gaffers Festival in May.  I hope to do a few more weekends as well: then some longer cruising in July and August.  Meanwhile Toucando is my home base while I'm in the south.  The diesel stove is getting plenty of use!

Finally, here's a plug for Steve Gravells and Technical Recreational Coaching.  Steve helped sail Toucando back from Ireland to Southampton last spring.  He is a very experienced sailor and trainer, having been in charge of Southampton Water Actrivities Centre (SWAC) for many years.  I did all my shore-based training with him and would recommend his courses very strongly. http://www.technical-recreational-coaching.co.uk/

Colour supplement

First of all: Happy New Year to all crew and followers.  Thank you for making 2011 such a success.  I am looking forward to the new sailing season with great enthusiasm.  I hope we will be undertaking some longer passages.  The first is likely to be over the Easter weekend, probably along the coast to Weymouth with stops in Poole and Yarmouth or Lymington.  Meanwhile here are some pictures from the autumn.  First the jib following "hurricane" damage.  It is now expertly repaired and I can barely see how it was done.

Sarah and Michele on a trip which included a stop in Hamble: 

Here we are in Cowes: 

Jean and Roger on a very pleasant day in the eastern Solent: 

Penny, Hugh and Stephen on an autumn trip to Yarmouth:

A view from the foredeck:

Jolie Brise - a very famous old boat:

  

Update

You will not be surprised that I haven't been sailing for a while. That doesn't mean Toucando has been abandoned. I have been using her as my Southampton base while I do a part time MSc in demography (people counting). I wouldn't say it has been warm on board, but it hasn't been cold either. I've only had to put the diesel stove on about three evenings. There's not much action from the yachts, but the rowers still practise every day, and the usual commercial traffic makes its way up and down the river. Every so often the clam dredger comes and scoops up what it can from the bottom of Chessel Bay. I am working on Toucando's plans for next summer and hope to post something here and on toucando.net before long. Some longer trips including cross channel are definitely on the cards.

Yacht Maintenance

I had an interesting week learning about yacht maintenance through Hamble School of Yachting and Paragon Skills for Industry. It was a seven day course, the only one of its type anywhere, apparently. We started with a day of rigging, led by Jerry the Rigger. We mainly focussed on standing rigging, how to inspect steel cables and fittings; then we had a practical session looking over a few of Hamble's yachts and then on climbing the mast safely; back to the classroom for some splicing. Day two covered plumbing and winches. We took various things to pieces and reassembled them. Day three was electrics: we made up circuits, learned to use multimeters, etc.. Days four and five were on engines, and included disassembling and reassembling the main use serviceable parts; changing oil, filters, impellers, etc.. Days six and seven were on GRP repairs. All useful stuff. Now I am looking forward to some days when I can put some of these skills to practice on Toucando.