S.O.I.A. Anglia Group newsletter - July 2005
Hail hale hearties,
In terms of actual sailing, the Brightlingsea rally was one of the best ever. True, the sun didn’t come out until halfway through Saturday, and Mike Atkins and Bob Legg, who set sail the Monday before, had some right ‘weatherly’ weather (gales, rain, cold). Those of us who launched on Thursday had cracking good northerlies, but no rain, until Sunday, when we had light winds and sunbathing weather.
Launching at Tollesbury, we sailed round to the Pyefleet, tacking into the Colne on the flood, and rafted up for the evening, peeling off onto separate anchors for the night. Bob’s Trident Magic Dragon was the Mother Ship as we could all get on it!
The next morning we left the Colne on the last of the ebb, and had an excellent sail
with the flood up the Blackwater to Maldon, tacking (and occasionally touching) from
After another very peaceful night, we awoke
to find that Polly and Sea Urchin had made an early start to make
the most of the tides. We lazier folk followed on after a civilized breakfast
and still had the ebb down to the Nass Beacon and
beyond. We then headed back to the Colne, bound for
lunch at Rowhedge, upriver from Wivenhoe.
There were oyster smacks racing out to the Colne Bar
and back, which turned out to be part of Wivenhoe
Regatta. It was scary but fun, tacking up the river with them, dodging their
massive bowsprits. There wasn’t a lot of water, and as they relied on
lead-lines, several of them went aground. Not relying on lead-lines but on
perfectly good-echo sounders, several Silhouettes also went aground, and
As the tide started to drop we headed back
downriver to Brightlingsea, where we were welcomed
onto the pontoons by the harbour master. This year we
decided against posh nosh and did chip shop and pizza parlour instead, washed
down by beer and accompanied by lots of laughter. The weather was perfect, and
stayed that way for the rest of the weekend. In the early hours of Sunday, Bob
and Mike left to catch the ebb up the Wallet to
Boats present were Polly (
And now for Tony’s version….
Evening all -
Just a few lines to let you know what happened to me at the weekend.
Wednesday when
Howard and I arrived was a great day, we took our time rigging the boats, and
by the time we were ready it was to late to
launch, so we had a siesta, then enjoyed an evening meal in the club house
could'nt be better.
Thursday started
badly for me, as I was making my first cup of tea, I upset my powdered milk all
over the boat, you try clearing it up without a hoover, and it went down
hill from there. By this time you had all arrived, Howard and I
started launching Blessim when the tide had come
in enough, I had asked Howard to lower me in to get some water round the
outboard, wait while I started it then lower me in all the way, only problem,
outboard would not turn, as soon as the pull cord engaged it was solid and
would not turn at all, I shouted Howard to pull me out, and as he started
the tow rope parted ( I should have known better this was the same rope we
used to pull the car over the sea wall in France, it took a lot of strain, and
had been wrapped round some sharp bits under the car, to late its now in the
bin ).
Great so now I'm being blown up the marina no engine, and my trailer sunk, Howard got his waders on and managed to get a rope on the trailer and pull it out, thank goodness for roller reefing, I unrolled the jib and got into a berth. Now there could not be anything wrong with the motor, it had run perfectly in France, I had turned it over at home, but now it was siezed solid, I took the bevel gear apart no problem there, hit it a couple of times in frustration, talked to it nicely all to no avail, I removed plates around the water jacket, breaking one bolt that was siezed ( it gets worse ) I got a view of the piston, I could get a small amount of movement, and there was no sign of corrosion, it was clear the motor would have to be stripped right down, I was not happy.
And then
salvation Dave arrived saying Bob had an outboard I could use, but time was
short, we had to get going now or we would not get over the sill, so the motor
was quickly transfered to Blessim,
first problem, it was too short and the prop was only just in the water, OK its
an air cooled motor I gave it a try, started no problem, got me out of the
berth and stopped, frantic pulling of cord, started again, water every where as
prop was not in the water deep enough. This happened 3 or 4 times, by now the
wind had blown me to the end of the marina, I snuk
into a berth between 2 dingy's, Funny 2 dingy's in a berth 2 twenty footers could have got into, I
soon found out why, by the time I had run down the pontoon to tell Dave to go I
would follow if I could, got back and got the motor going again I was aground,
I wasn’t just not happy, I was totally pissed off.
By now I was knackered, the pontoon I had gradually worked my way down during the afternoon was the furthest from any thing else in the marina, I must have walked right round that marina at least 7 or 8 times getting tools from the car etc, I went down to the local marine engineers but they were just closing and did not want to know. Time to rest I was starving and thirsty, While cooking a meal and enjoying a cool beer I took stock of the situation, first I could not stay in this berth, I was only afloat for a short time, the wind was right on the nose so sailing down the creek out of the marina was not on, and in any case getting into Maldon or Brightlingsea without a motor would not be easy ( I know barges did it for years with just a man and a boy, if I'd had a boy I might have tried it !? ).
So I made the
decision to bin the whole thing and go home, but even this required careful
planning, First, the next tide to get out of the berth would be in the middle
of the night, no problem early night, got up at 01.30, no wind so paddled down
the pontoon and moored up beside the "white shark" next to the slip,
( The phosphorescence was amazing, every time I dipped the paddle in and out to
start again there was a thousand little stars in the water. ) Back to bed
up again at 05.30 push the trailer right up to the boat hook up the winch, back
to bed and wait for the tide to rise, bit dodgy when the tide came in had to
put a stern rope on the post with the numbers on it to stop the whole outfit
drifting, but it worked by 11.00 the boat was on the trailer, 18.00 back home.
The next day I started stripping the motor, started at the bottom took the leg off which required a bit of pulling and banging, pulled the starter cord and the motor went round? turned the prop and the bevel gears turned without problem as well ? any one got any idea's, and they say this sailing is fun.
See you at the
next meeting - Tony
The text messages I received from Mike, aboard Magic Dragon during the preceding week, make a good postscript to these accounts:
04/07, 23.04
06/07, 17.18 Bradwell last night, gale F8 blew us back to B,sea today. See you tomorrow, B&M
From Mike Atkins:
The following
caught my eye in the latest SOIA journal. It is talking about the dinner at the
end of the national rally:
“I should like to
direct your attention to the accepted Dress code, not only for use at the RPCYC
but also of the Association itself.”
Perhaps the
And for the
social occasions:
IMPORTANT DATES…..
Broads Cruise – Third weekend in September, probably launching at Brundall.
Make sure we know if you are coming to the
There will be no newsletter during August
as we do not have the technology (luckily!) to produce one on Avocet.
Likewise if you wish to meet up with others on the second Saturday, August 13th, at the Orwell Yacht Club, ring round first to see who is likely to be about.
THE NEXT MEETING you can depend on will be 8th October at the Orwell Yacht Club
Last Gasp Don’t know if I am getting soft in my old age but I ordered a life-raft for Avocet.
IT’S PRETTY HEAVY. Hope Brian is around to chuck it in should the need arise!
Wishing you - and us - balmy
breezes,
Elizabeth Letzer, July 05