It was the Tuesday when I had a phone call to say about the weather front coming from the Atlantic, primarily thunderstorms, winds and rain from the tail end of the hurricane that wiped out most of New Orleans.

This would not normally interfere with our Solent sailing but the up and coming weekend was to dry out on bembridge beach in front of the lovely bembridge sailing club, not the place to be on a wet and windy day.

Having kept a close eye on several weather reports on the web and on local TV and radio it seemed the worst of the weather would clear north of the Uk and we would have a good weekend.

This proved so and on the Saturday we had 19 Seals and Parkers on the beach with 2 more “boats” coming by road.

We had a few new comers so welcome to them and hopefully we will see more of them in the future, namely Pegasus and Miss Fidget (welcome)

Many thanks to the club and its caterers for a wonderful evening and great food.

Sunday morning we tried something new, normally we BBQ in the evening

but as low water was in the morning we had a group Breakfast so kettles were boiled on board and tea bags and jars of coffee were brought ashore and the barbies were lit to cook sausages, bacon. black pud and toast.

Someone asked how every could we fry an egg on a Bbq, the Rascal (Philip Linsell) had the perfect solution his on board cooker is a portable two burner with bottle attached, so donned with frying pan he was chief egg fryer.

Bembridge sailing clubs Commodore had a stroll down the beach to see us and was amazed to see us all tucking into a full Ulster fry or should I say full Bembridge!

The weather turned out nice again and as we floated on the rising tide we all headed home to our moorings.

Happy sealing.

Peter Lowry.

BOATS ATTENDED.

  

SHIRAZ                          SEAL 22
KEKENO                         SEAL 22
SUNFLOWER                   PARKER 235
RASCAL                         OC
CLEO                            SEAL 26
ARD RIGH                       SEAL 26
BLACK JACK                    SEAL 26
TIPTOE TOO                   SEAL 26
MISS FIDGET                  SEAL 26
HARLEQUIN                     PARKER 27
JANS EXPRESS                PARKER 27
SEA-ELL                         PARKER 27
STROLLER                       PARKER 27
SPEEDWELL                     PARKER 275
VOL AU VENT                   PARKER 275
ABACUS                          PARKER 275
MANY MOONS                  PARKER 31
LADY J                            PARKER 335
PEGASUS                         PARKER 325

By road
ELSA                             Seal 26
STAMPEDE                      OC

Sat 27^th BBQ at Keyhaven sailing club, a great place to go right in the corner of the western Solent.

Again ,as all summer the weather was great, sunshine and a little more wind would have been better. The club did us proud and many thanks to them for allowing us the use of their facilities, also to Geoff Harwood for the arrangement with the harbour master for the moorings and his contact with the club.

Sun 28th, morning departure after bacon butties to carry the tide out of the Solent to Poole harbour, we did not need to be in Poole Harbour too early, so several of us decided to stop off at the Banks Arms pub in Studland for a liquid lunch.

Evening spent in Parkstone yacht club and a buffet meal laid on for us.

It was nice to see old and new faces from Poole with approx 60 people sitting down to a meal.

The “Angus Primrose Memorial” trophy was awarded to Neill Palmer for his years of service as Poole area rep. The Commodore Clifford Miller and his wife Sally presented the trophy.

Many thanks to Parkstone and Graham Reed for organising the events in Poole.

Peter Lowry

 

 Boats attending;     

CLEO                      SEAL 26

HARLEQUIN         PARKER 27

MANY MOONS     PARKER 31

OCEAN WINGS     PARKER 31

RACSAL                         OC

SHIRAZ                  SEAL 22

SUNFLOWER        PARKER 235

STROLLER            PARKER 27  

BLACK JACK        SEAL 26

T/T CYGNUS         AVON DINGHY (PARKER 21)

SANDY LADY        PARKER 235

SHEMAR                PARKER 335

SEA-ELL                PARKER 27

  

A total of 60 people by road and sea to Parkstone YC

 

1. Yachts participating were reduced by some understandable late withdrawals to a core of 4 (Parker 27-Harlequin, 275s-Marguerite, Abacus and 335-Shemar) plus a spirited and solo one night visit to St Valery-sur-Somme by Super Seal 26-Ard Righ.

 2. The French ports visited having started from Littlehampton were, Fecamp, St Valery-en-Caux, Dieppe and by Harlequin and Shemar to St Valery-sur-Somme and Treport.  Abacus and Marguerite returned from Dieppe to UK and joined up for a few days from Brighton back to the Solent. 

3.  St Valery-sur-Somme and Treport are reported  separately, but the other French ports were pleasant , straightforward to enter and provide a good taste of near France for a short cruise.  Over the 10 days we had the full range of wind strengths from F1 to 5/6 , so the sailing was varied.

 4. I can recommend the Yachting Monthly Cruising Companion-North France and Belgium- by Neville Featherstone which gives pilotage and what to do and see ashore.

 5. Highlights of the cruise included:

• Dinner at the Arun Yacht Club at the start with the half term rally
• Dinner by Sheila on Shemar for 9 of us on arrival Fecamp after a long crossing
• At Fecamp, on the “rest day”, a walk up to the Pointe Fagnet, the Seamens’ Chapel there with a gallery of shipwreck pictures and at the request of a German gentleman a spirited rendering of “A Long Way to Tipperary” led by John Lansley  next to a 2^nd world war pill box
• At St Valery-en-Caux, another walk to a cliff top with a stainless steel billboard to mark the first flight Paris-New York (37 hours), the Cave de Vin on the quayside and drinks on board Marguerite.
• At Dieppe, a good French Sunday lunch for all at a Logis de France
• The Abacus return from Dieppe to Newhaven via Beachy Head, with strong winds on the second half with 3 reefs for a while then sunlight and a F3 for the finish
• At Bembridge, a sumptious BBQ on the beach below the beach huts at the entrance for the 6 of us on Marguerite and Abacus.

 Those who went to St Valery-sur-Somme will I am sure sing its praises.  I will try to get there another year.

 Any ideas for next year’s early cruise?

 Clifford Miller

 

What a brilliant summer so far, good winds and beautiful sunshine.

 “Cleo” and the family have done lots up to now, we always look forward to the sail round from the Hamble river to the Beaulieu river and the 4 mile meander up stream to Trimbells quay right in the heart Hampshire’s New Forest and the village of Beaulieu.

As in previous years the crew and I have always got time off work and asked permission from the school’s headmasters to allow the children to finish at lunchtime on the Friday. This means we are a night early to be there for Saturday morning low water to clear and boulders and bits that could damage boats.

It is usually only us and a seal 22 “Shiraz” that are there on the Friday evening.

This year we had a lovely sail round wind 3 to 4 easterly and sailed almost all the way up stream, to our surprise there were more Seals there than we had ever thought

The idea must have got around that it’s the best place in the Solent to get away.

Perhaps we need to make a long weekend rally?

Saturday saw another brilliant day with only a few stones to move ,and as the tide came so did the rest of the Seals attending the rally.

It was exceptionally nice to see a few more Seal 22 attending so welcome and so it may continue.

Happy Sealing

Peter Lowry

 

Boats attending were;

CLEO                               SEAL 26 

SHIRAZ                            SEAL 22

JANS EXPRESS              PARKER 27

SAND HOPPER               PARKER 27

MAYBE                            PARKER 27    

HARLEQUIN                    PARKER 27

ARD RIGH                       SEAL 26

RASCAL                             OC

MANY MOONS               PARKER 31

LADY J                            PARKER 335

TILIKUM                           PARKER 325

NIQUAIDI                         PARKER 27

ANALIE                            SEAL 28

SEVIRA                            SEAL28

SKYLARK                        SEAL 22

KEKENO                          SEAL 22

THOSE BY ROAD WERE DREAM, ABACUS, AND CALYPSO

It may have been the thought of the excellent cuisine awaiting the fleet at Ganders Restaurant, St Helens after the finish, it may even have been the encouragement of the more seasoned campainers but notwithstanding the less than inviting weather, all entrants duly presented themselves at the start line off Cowes for this the thirty-first running of the Association’s event.  The forecast of blustery F 4-5 southwest winds, poor visibility and the chance of rain, was however to make this race one of the faster ones.  In class one, Richard Tanner’s Seal 22 “Skylark” led Geoff Harwood’s Parker 21 “Cygnus” away from the line on the beat down to Bridge Buoy beyond the Needles, hotly pursued by Gary Parker in his Parker 235 “Nos Na Gaoithe” and the evergreen Seal 22 “Shiraz” of Royce & Freda Naylor.  In class two, starting 60 minutes later, the faster Parker 27/31/325/335’s were accompanied by “Ard Righ” the sole Super Seal 26 of Walter Brown and the Bull 7000 “Stampede” sailed by the Pitt family.  The best of the second start having been made by “Tilikum” the 325 of Jonathan Houston, Nigel Walbank in “Ocean Wings” his Parker 31, and “Ard Righ” with all revelling in the boisterous, wind over tide, conditions in the western Solent,.  Meanwhile ahead, “Cygnus” had established herself in usual position as early pacemaker to round Bridge first.  Conditions had started to take their toll and amongst several other, class two leader and last year’s overall winner, “Ocean Wings” retired just a mile short of Bridge to allow “Ard Righ” to round the mark first of the second start.  The reach to St Catherine’s Point saw the fleets draw ever closer, though it was not until halfway across Sandown Bay with spinnakers now in evidence that “Ard Righ”, hotly pursued by “Stampede”, finally overhauled “Cygnus” to take both line honours and first on corrected time at the finish off Bembridge Tide Gauge.  Next to cross the finish was “Tilikum” followed by “Shemar”, Martin Hopton’s new 335, John Coyle in his Parker 27, “Harlequin” and then “Skylark” who had hung on to earn a well deserved 3^rd overall on handicap.  The Association’s thanks go to the committee boat, Hugh Caldwell’s “Mons Meg” and to the warm hospitality at Ganders after the finish.

 Walter Brown
 

Results: -

  

1^st        W Brown                    Super Seal 26           Ard Righ                     6hrs 29mins 42secs

2^nd       G Harwood                Parker 21                   Cygnus                       6hrs 43mins 19secs

3^rd        R Tanner                    Seal 22                       Skylark                       6hrs 52mins 12secs

4^th        J Coyle                       Parker 27                   Harlequin                    6hrs 54mins 03secs

5^th        J Houston                   Parker 325                 Tilikum                        6hrs 58mins 33secs

6^th        C Miller                       Parker 275                 Abacus                       7hrs 02mins 02secs