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Any crew or boat-owner interested in joining this event please contact Phil Sugarman.
Round the Island 2010
This year’s Round the Island was an early start affair – it is all about getting to the Needles before the tide turns. So, this year there were two boats with involvement of HSSC members – Steve Moss with Louise, Steve’s son Joseph and nephew Ian and Ian’s friend Katrina on “Yamma”; and Robert and Victor on “Matahari” as part of a seven man crew under skipper Mike and first mate Pete out of Haslar. Matahari started at 06h10 and Yamma at 06h20.
Matahari sailed on the Friday afternoon to East Cowes during which time we practised everything likely to be needed on the way determined to do better than last year. This included proper preparation on the Friday night – hoping to get inspiration from watching England playing Algeria on the pub TV. Suffice to say, don’t emulate the England squad in the race on Saturday.
The weather was different this year from last, there was sufficient wind in the right direction to go down the Solent on a spinnaker run to the Needles, jibe it and then drop it once round. That part of the race was quite uneventful really, but a very good learning experience on kite flying. Once round the Needles the north easterly wind was fairly constant but building as the day wore on. St Catherine’s Point was the usual melee of boats taking the off-shore route joining the inshore group. We again took the offshore route not to have to deal with the wind shadow from the island. The turn at Bembridge Ledge was relatively quiet, but we couldn’t catch up an all-girl crew on a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 43. By this time we were reefed – even though Matahari is a 38ft, it is a light boat relative to the likes of Yamma. Read the rest…
This was the Easter East Coast Sail, delayed as only British Rail knows how. For those of you not familiar with the workings of HSSC we go sailing except when we don’t or can’t. On this occasion the company that runs the charter boats and an associated sailing school cancelled their school programme because of the weather. I think that was a hint not to sail.
Victor was able to get a new date in June and we were given Pretender, a Jeanneau 40.3, out of Shotley which is a locked-in marina opposite the container port at Felixtowe. His crew was Janice, Michael, Robert, Sharon, and Wendy.
On the first day, Friday, we went for a gentle potter round to HM Fort Roughs on Roughs Sands, also known as Roughs Tower that was designed by Guy Maunsell as one of several such towers to protect Harwich in the war, and on to the entrance to Walton on the Naze. According to one source on the internet there is “a great variety of wildlife found in and around Walton-on-the-Naze. The coastal area has national and international protection in recognition of its outstanding nature and conservation value. The Naze itself is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to its fossil cliffs.” One of the sights on the way there is the Greenwich Light Vessel (of Shipping Forecast fame) parked in the middle of the junction of the Orwell (for Ipswich) and the Stour (for Harwich). Read the rest…
Launch of the HSSC New Generation
The first May Bank Holiday long weekend provided our 5 club boats with great sailing each day albeit in the usual mostly indifferent cold, wet, windy and some sunshine, weather conditions.
Aeolus (Gill and Rob Woodbridge, Robert Falk, Victor Newton and Neil Turner-Nash) together with Sea Dream of Hamble (Sandy and Avi Riegler, Alison and Stanley Saffer and Diana Bader-Clynes) enjoyed Saturday evening together at the Ship Inn Restaurant, Lymington. Meanwhile the new generation crews were getting to know each other with their own meet up, for an evening messing about in dinghies at the Folly Inn on the Medina River. Read the rest…
Two luxury canal boats, eleven crew, a peaceful location and perfect weather formed the ideal combination for a fantastic club weekend in the Fens.
Boat availability issues found us split between the seven berth Desert Fox, with Stanley, Victor, Nick, Hilary, Steve, Val and Diana aboard, whilst Dave, Adele, Simon and Lorraine (the Ramet Family) were allocated the smaller four berth Swift Fox. Accommodation on Desert Fox was a little tight but both boats were extremely well-appointed and well-equipped.
We all met up at Fox Narrowboats in the little town of March, Cambs. at around 16.00hrs. The Desert Fox crew arrived with provisions which they distributed between the boats. It was heart warming to note how, Famous Five style, the women on each boat organised the groceries, whilst the men busied themselves making everything ready or as Victor put it, ‘supervising’. True seafaring custom ! All was going well, with everything stowed away and everyone happily settled until the mysterious case of the missing apples began rocking the previously harmonious boats. At least two, if not three, bags of apples had apparently gone missing from Desert Fox but the crew of Swift Fox were adamant that there were no apples on board their craft. A thorough search of Swift was conducted to no avail but some of the crew on Desert remained unconvinced to a level worryingly reminiscent of Humphrey Bogart in the film, The Caine Mutiny. In fact, the crew of Swift got so nervous, at one point they thought they were going to have a repel a hostile boarding party but thankfully, the apples finally turned up in a locker – on Desert Fox of course.
First sail of the season, 20 and 21 March 2010
Despite the best efforts to secure sufficient crew to charter a boat for the weekend of 19 to 21 March, Robert reluctantly had to cancel a “notice of intent” with Hamble Point for the opportunity to charter larger boat than normal at the low winter rate, namely a Najad 40, because of a severe lack of crew. Fortunately, Steve volunteered a sail on Yamma out of Island Harbour and Robert duly arrived just after 8 on the Saturday morning for a scheduled departure around 11h00. Island harbour is sleepy hollow compared with Hamble Point, but it is locked in, so one’s departure and arrival times are bound to the tides.
We motored down the Medina, took on fuel and then headed for the Solent. The wind was quite fresh by this time and when we were halfway down to Portsmouth visibility was somewhere between the forts being visible and disappearing again in the rain. The wind was now between a 7 and an 8 with gusts up to 44 kts which makes it a 9. In mast furling and a powered drive to manage it meant reefing was free of hassle. Read the rest…
Contact Victor
Club Charter Holiday in Greece
Saturday 2nd to Saturday 9th October 2010
Saronic Islands south of Athens
Cost £375 each for yacht charter
Flights to Athens are £105 at present
for more information of the area-
Contact Victor Newton
Shemesh means Sunshine in Hebrew, and when Frank and Carole arrived finally in Israel some 5 years and 3 months after they left Chatham in 2004, that's exactly what they found… loads and loads of it.
Having started out the Odyssey in July 2004, Frank and Carole sailed over 7,000 miles and stopped in tens and tens and tens of interesting ports through out the Med.
Happily, and by good fortune and timing, Rear Commodore Sandy and husband Avi were in Israel when the call came through that Shemesh had finally made landfall. They got over to see them at the earliest opportunity and with great hugs and back slapping we were able to take the valedictory photos you see here.
Many, many congratulations Frank and Carole; you have realized your dream.
Now lets have some lines for Wavelength and the web about your adventures along the way.
Read Stanley's verses describing the HSSC September flotilla to the Southern Adriatic…..
