Alistair Tyrrell

11 June 2016 Fair weather this week with gentle winds, and I've been out four times. On Sunday 5th June four boats went to sea for the cruiser race. Light and variable winds from the NE, an offshore breeze, meant the sea was fairly flat and it was a bright sky. New member but experienced sailor Susi was with me for the first time. The race officer did a line start at 1100 from the committee boat anchored southeast of the river entrance. We decided to attack the start on starboard and had a good chance to shout at a couple of the others coming at us on port tack as we arrived at the start line seconds after the start, which was invigorating! Nobody was moving particularly quickly though! Races nearly always start with a beat towards a mark a mile or so to windward, which today meant we were going into the wind and into the tide as we tried to go east. The wind was variable and mostly offshore, and it seemed that the strongest gusts were to be found closer to the sh...

8 May 2016 A lovely day today, unseasonably warm and bright sunshine. Dominik and Charles were with me and eight boats put to sea for a race start at 1200. A steady F3-4 from the southeast meant a long beat out to the first mark, into the wind and into the tide, so it took us about an hour to get there and round the mark. We were near the back but not at the back, faster boats were well ahead but there were a couple behind us. On the way to the next mark at the Weather Station Charles brought out some home made Scotch eggs to fortify the crew as we dodged the lobster pots, and we found we had to short tack at the last moment as the tide was sweeping us too far west, but we got around the Weather Station in a controlled gybe then set on a long run back to the finish line, crossing it at 1 hr 48 mins elapsed time. Littlehampton seemed to be teeming with weekenders so we had lots of waving to do as we motor-sailed back up the river. Back on the berth soon after 2pm and in good...

17 April 2016 After a great deal of organisation and negotiation by Chris and Jenny Leach, and a useful pre-cruise briefing on Friday evening, the Arun YC fleet of 5 boats left Littlehampton at 0830 Saturday morning for the cruise to Sussex YC at Shoreham. The fleet comprised Murphys Law, Free 'n' Easy, Johanna, Fidelio and Elsa with additional 'stowaways' Chris aboard Fidelio, Jenny aboard Elsa, and commodore Stuart aboard Murphys Law. We had a light westerly force 2 right behind us most of the way so it was a gentle sail, some of the more competitive boats were gybing and goose-winging to get best speed. Johanna broke out her cruising chute. We were all within sight of each other all the way and the voyage passed peacefully until we were about 30 mins away from our destination. We'd noticed a black cloud coming up behind us but we were all unprepared when the wind suddenly shifted about 90 degrees into a northerly and we were hit by a massive gust pro...

31 March 2016 Elsa has sat in the river on her own since October. I’ve had the engine off and serviced, and I took the sails and the rudder off to protect them from the storms, but put it all back together during March. I went around the boat with a pressure washer as she sat in the mud with the tide out, but there weren’t that many barnacles to blow off. Today gave us a nice bit of sunshine and a northerly breeze so I decided it was a good day to go out and check everything out. Others had the same idea as four our five other boats were doing likewise. With high tide about 5pm I started her up and backed out into the river around 3.30 and motored up and down a couple of times, and then put out to sea. Northerly winds give us a flat sea with little swell. I had the mainsail rigged and ready to use but I still haven’t quite sorted out a way of hoisting and dropping it from the cockpit so I unrolled the full genoa and shut the engine off to see what she did. The wind was a bit...

21 Dec 2015 Elsa is staying in the water this winter. I must have done a good job on the antifouling back in the spring as she seems to be quite clean underneath. I'm glad to be staying afloat as the November crane-out has been postponed several times due to high winds this autumn and as I write this, we're expecting to crane out in January. I've taken the sails off and stored them loosely rolled up inside the cabin. I took the rudder off as well as I was worried about it getting knocked during the crane-out movements. If the weather brightens up and we lose all these high winds I can quickly re-rig and go sailing! Going part time earlier this year has given me more time for sailing and I've done a few Thursday outings with various friends, as well as the usual weekend races. And one long cruise to Brighton including my first night afloat. Looking back at 2015, the log shows 21 outings and 184 NM travelled. That's a lot more than 2014!

18 Oct 2015 The last cruiser race of the year, and we had a good turnout of 7 boats. The weather was fair and the winds were light and from the East. I had two of the teenagers with me, Shaun and Dominik, and we set out to form up for the 2pm start. The first leg of the course was into the wind as usual and unfortunately into the tide as well. We were too far downwind to hit the start line on time and struggled to make our way towards it against the current in the light winds. We tacked back and forth for about 45 minutes and we were not the only ones in the predicament. A couple of the faster boats managed to get away and off towards the first mark but we could see them going sideways as fast as they were going forward. In the end the race descended into a bit of a shambles – half the fleet never started, one crossed the line then kept drifting back over it again, only one boat actually completed the course. We were waiting to see who would call up to announce their retirement, ke...

12 Oct 2015 Last weekend I did the safety boat training course. Fortunately the weather was dry, a nice breeze, and the sea temperature at this time of year is not too bad..... Starting with classroom theory on Saturday morning, six of us, we then went onto the river in the RIBs to practise our boat handling skills. Driving around buoys forwards, backwards and blindfolded with another person giving directions. In the afternoon a couple of volunteer members went to sea in club dinghies and very kindly capsized and fell in several times so we could practise rescuing them. They came off worse than us but they seemed to go home afterwards in good spirits! We also practised setting up a string of dinghies ready to be towed. Back in the classroom again on Sunday morning then out to sea to practice laying and recovering the sea marks. The cruisers were out there forming up for their race (sadly I was not taking part) so we helped by setting up their finish line. After lunch, we took tim...