Bunting and frolics

9 May 2015

Today was the club Open Day and I’d volunteered to take people out for boat rides. My friend Dani was with me and she’d brought bunting which we managed to hang over the spreaders. Sorting all that out in the wind and rain in the morning left us a bit bedraggled but by the time the event got going, the sun had come out and the enthusiasm had recovered itself.



The lifeboat guys brought Blue Peter 1 over to join us which added a dash of glamour and orangeness!




Blowing quite a stiff westerly we’d already decided just to go motoring up and down the river and not venture outside the harbour. David was more keen than us and took several groups out to sea in Dedicated Dancer and they all had a great time but came back wet!

During the afternoon we ended up going out and back about five times with three to six people aboard each time, including some young families with small children which was great fun. Even with sails down, we were heeling in the breeze, the bunting must have been catching the gusts! Thanks to Stuart for taking some pictures as we went past.



Very enjoyable motoring up an down the river talking like a tour guide, the club RIBs were also full of visitors and a couple of dinghies came out as well. 



In between trips we were able to step ashore for brief refreshment breaks but there was always another boatload waiting to go out. We had a great day and hopefully helped to sign up some new members!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Re-powering project Spring 2023

Image
24 June 2023 Following difficulty with the gearbox last year (it wouldn't select easily into forward, and then only turned slowly) a quick look in the box showed little oil and evidence of loose filings. Not good. My friend Spencer at the club offered to slip the gearbox out over winter while she was ashore and have a look. In order to do that, he had to get the engine out and into the cabin. Spares for that gearbox are not available. A reconditioned replacement gearbox would be £600 + vat. The old Sea Panther engine, which has a history of being difficult to start, was already out. So after a bit of thought I decided not to put the old engine back in and instead to source a new engine + gearbox. Spencer has re-powered a few boats at the club and was kind enough to find time for this project.  Marine Enterprises are very helpful on the phone but items on their web site bear no relation to what they actually have available. So there was no Beta engine around. But there was a Perkins
Read more

New rudder

7th Sept 2013 Keen to put the repaired rudder to the test in the cruiser race today, I met Sarah at the club at 11. Lots of kids were sailing in the river today with many of the Arun grown-ups teaching them. For this and other reasons, many regular cruiser race teams were not around. We need 3 boats as a minimum for a race and by 1115 it was decided that we did indeed have 3, so we set off for a race start at 1200. As an experiment, we hoisted the main in the shelter of the harbour and motor-sailed out through the turbulence of the entrance. I was worried about keeping control with the main up but it was fine. Once outside we shut off the motor, unrolled the genoa and assessed the conditions. As we emerged from the river it was a sunny day with about F3 winds, that'll be fine we thought. After 15 mins or so, and well outside the harbour into the sea, the swell was huge. Must have been 5 or 6 foot high, and the wind suddenly built up to F4 or even F5. Elsa was plunging up a
Read more

Cowes weekend 2023

Image
 4 July 2023 With Bay Leaf's new engine running well we set off for the weekend in Cowes for Round the Island. About 12 boats from the club were going this year. Sue was with me and we both had a space arranged on our friend Stuart's boat Moontide for the race, but travelling to and from the island in Bay Leaf. 29 June - Littlehampton to Gosport We met at the boat around 0800 Thursday and loaded all the clobber. High water at 0811 gave us a departure time around 0900. Starting the engine on battery 2 I noticed the red light stayed on, indicating lack of charging, which was a small worry but we had battery 1 if we needed it. Setting that thought aside, leaving harbour at 0905 we set full sail on a starboard beam reach, heading 240 degrees.  On the GPS it looks like there's a direct line to Boulder / Street but Selsey rocks are in the way, and sure enough the Mixon pole came into sight around 1040. Passing it on our starboard side abeam at 1110 we turned east towards the Looe
Read more