Alistair Tyrrell

23 - 26 June 2022 After much anticipation and planning, this was my first long weekend away in Bay Leaf and my first trip across the Solent in my own boat. My friend Sue was with me for the passage and we were laden with stores and other clobber ready for the Round the Island Race, which we were both sailing in separate boats. Ten yachts from the club were entering the race and at least three others making the trip as spectators.  Thurs 23 June - Littlehampton to Gosport An early start to catch the tide flowing to the West, Bay Leaf's crew assembled around 0730 to load up and get ready. She started first time and we backed her out of the berth - goodbye Littlehampton, see you on Sunday! It was a bit dreary at first, light rain, no wind, mainsail up but not pulling at all, engine running. About half way through the journey, just after the Looe Channel, we felt a bit of breeze and stopped the engine for a while to see if she would make progress under sail. She managed it for a while ...

1st May 2022 Sunday, the first of two days sailing at Arun. Billed as the Westerly Cup and advertised as an open meeting it was clear that only our own club boats were going to take part and only some of them, so it was decided to run it as a club handicap race open to all members but with the Westerlys having a separate score. In the end there were only two Centaurs - my Bay Leaf, and Nick's Free n Easy. My friend Jonathan is also a Centaur owner but his was unserviceable this weekend so he came with me. Forecast was F2-3 from the SW under a cloudy sky. Because it's tricky to get out of my berth until quite late into the high tide, I'd moved Bay Leaf out onto a pontoon hammerhead the day before. So she was in deep water ready to go, and we left about 1015 for the 1130 start. Seven club boats came out including the two Westerlys, all the others were faster boats such as the Limbos. A little light rain began to fall as we lined ourselves up for the start sequence. Really qui...

17 April 2022 Easter weekend and it was warm and sunny in Littlehampton with a decent SE breeze and a sparkling sea. We had lots of family staying nearby for the weekend and my nephews Alex and Barney were keen to come sailing. My friend Stuart was also with us for a club race due to start at 1100. By 1015 we were all aboard ready to go, the engine started first time. But there's quite a lot of silt in the berth at the moment, with HW at 1230 we'd hoped to be afloat and able to leave but we couldn't get off until about 1040. Fortunately the race officer knew and waited for us. Four boats came out to race, and our family members were on the harbour wall watching us motor out. The lads were kept busy with the halyard and the fenders. Once outside the harbour with the engine off, all sails out, it was clear that we were going to have a good sail in a fresh SE wind around F3. Not much time to do many practice tacks and get the crew in shape as we were close to the (delayed) sta...

2nd April 2022 Having not sailed much since 2019 I am more motivated and determined to have a go this year. Bay Leaf is in good shape. A new fuel tank, some new fuel pipes, new instruments - a fixed VHF with built in GPS, and, a depth display (which utilised the old transducer already fitted to the bottom of the hull).  Thanks to fellow members Spencer for working on the fuel lines, Karl for going up the mast with the aerial, and Roy for wiring it all together. Also fitted a replacement engine intake valve - plastic instead of bronze - and a new anode over the recent winter haul-out, thanks to John for help with that.  She seems to start reliably, though when cold she may need a puff of Easy Start in her intake. She also has a new main halyard and new genoa sheets. Saturday 2nd April was the first chance to go racing since crane-in; my friend Richard was able to come with me. A lot of the Arun cruiser fleet went off on their shakedown cruise to Gosport leaving just three boats...

5 Jan 2020 I didn't sail again after Barts Bash though spent a lot of time aboard. Still having trouble with the diesel system and unreliable starting. After much thought and much discussion with others at the club I decided that the best course of action was to get a new tank. Tek Tanks made one and shipped it to me, it looked beautiful and well labelled: Bay Leaf was craned out in mid November and sat nicely on some blocks of wood in the car park. I jetwashed and scraped the hull right away but the plan is to scrub and repaint the bottom in the Spring. Having pumped out the dodgy diesel I took it to the local tip where they happily took it off me. I got local marine engineer Lee to remove the old steel tank (which turned out to be full mostly of sludge) and my temporary tank system. He fitted the new tank and replaced the fuel line all the way to the engine, and I tipped in 10 litres of fresh diesel. Can't really test it all while she's ashore but hopefully it wi...

15 Sept 2019 Sunny and very warm for mid September and Morgan was keen to come sailing again. With my friend Jonathan also aboard we set out at 1100 for the annual charity race.  There was a strong incoming flood tide as we left the river and we had the engine on full power for 15 minutes or so to get us out but it ran just fine. Once out at sea there was a light SW wind and sunshine. We motored all the way to the start line east of the harbour setting the mainsail and genoa as we went along, keen to get up-tide of the line in case the wind dropped further. A lot of boats were out including a few from our neighbouring club AYAC coming to join the fun. About 20 dinghies and 10 cruisers racing together. The dinghies started first at 1200 with our start 5 mins later. We got nicely lined up on starboard approaching the line at one minute to go but we were a little late and almost last across the line to start the race. Despite being a lovely day we didn't seem to get Bay Leaf into ...

1st Sept 2019 Since the last trip, when the engine stopped, we've spent ages (myself and several friends at the club) trying to work out what was wrong. Initally I thought I was just out of diesel so I got 20 litres from Tescos and poured it in. Wouldn't start. Then we thought there was an airlock or blocked filter so spent a week or two pumping and bleeding and opening the diesel injectors and trying over and over. No good. Eventually it became clear the the very old diesel in the 45 year old steel tank had gone off or got dirty and blocked the pipe as it exits the tank. So my friend John spent a morning manually pumping the diesel back out into a plastic drum and tried various ways to unblock the pipes but again no good. So there I sat with a big drum full of dodgy diesel and nothing working. The idea eventually came to simply abandon that metal tank for now and I went and got a 12 litre portable plastic tank. Plenty of room under the cockpit floor so I lashed it down, co...