It's that time of year - HPO dinner followed by visit to the London Boat Show. The show was quite quiet today (Wednesday 12 January) which wasn't what our hard working colleagues on the LSC stand wanted (C85 North Hall, in the new section of Excel). But of course they were cheerful and welcoming as always.
Yes I really went up there! When the Royal Southampton Yacht Club invited Little Ship Club members to join them on the Tall Ship Stavros S Niarchos for a short trip across the channel I was the first (and only) to sign up.
January & February.
My season started with the Fast Cruise Series (in fact it never stopped) by chartering yachts for the January event to Bucklers Hard and the February event to Yarmouth. The Yarmouth cruise was especially entertaining as it took part on the same weekend that storms lashed the French coast causing considerable damage in places such as La Rochelle. Fortunately the Solent caught the very edge of the depression but it still gave us some interesting situations.
"Under reduced but well balanced rig, jib and gaff mizzen, we surged through 1.5m - 2m waves off Sheppey at 6 kts with the wind howling in the rigging and ratlines and sheets rod hard and throbbing and seaweed being flung across the deck. Exciting but tiring. 'Sheemaun' no longer a pretty crowd-pulling poser but a very different vessel, sturdy and seagoing doing just what she was built for. "
The recent JOG race to St Peter Port was a game of two halves or at least a weekend of two halves. Once again I was in the crew of Juno, an X34.
Guests are taken out to see Ramsgate Week racing at close quarters. Read this document as a pdf file (600Kb). Download here. (Opens in new window)
Flotilla sailing in the Greek islands doesn't mean that you have to follow the crowds.
It was a flotilla holiday that introduced the Hampson family (including my wife Nikki, and sons Alex, 12, and Oliver, 10) to sailing so, after skipping it last year, we decided to return for 2010. For those that have never taken part, the concept is simple: a small flotilla of yachts (normally between 7 and 12) meanders around an area of the Greek islands under the helpful guidance of a lead crew, whilst enjoying the local scenery, food, and culture, and hopefully not a little sailing too. The crew consists of a skipper, an engineer to fix any problems that occur, and a hostie to act as a knowledge base for interesting things do see in each destination, and good places to eat, right through to mundane details like the location of the bins and water.
The story of the cruise has been well covered in Alan Fulton’s articles on the club website: here are Julian and Diana's impressions from our own point of view as the crew of our Southerly 32 Roshanak.
I took Odin over to Cowes for the weekend to support the Laser SB3 regatta that Pelican Racing organised. We had several members competing (look for them in these photos). Competitors turned up to our pontoon drinks wet and salty and so grateful for the beers we laid on as part of our sponsorship of the regatta.
The racing was intense - five races around a short triangular course and the boats were out for around four or five hours on Sat and much the same on Sun - see lots of better photos. There were incidents (I can't reveal all but may be prepared to blab for the price of a ginger beer) and a couple of people had short dunkings.
Make sure you spot the rectangular flags we had flying on every backstay - like our burgee only not. And isn't the Pelican design on the sails fantastic?
Juno has just taken part in the JOG Salona Illingworth Challenge race from Cowes to La Trinité-sur-Mer in Southern Brittany, a distance of about 340 miles.
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