Internet Bollocks
I'm a great Internet fan.
I couldn't run Kipper Sailing without it. I'm writing this and
will subsequently upload it from the boat at sea using a
wonderful little USG 3G "dongle" which cost me just £10 per
month for 1gb of data, which is about 5 times what I need to
handle email, check the weather, read the news and keep my
website up-to-date.
But it's not all good news. More
Golden Days
Just like every other
true-blooded (Citizen of the United Kingdom) I've been riveted
by the 2008 Olympics and the sailing especially. The RYA has
done a fantastic job in making Team UK the World's Number 1 and
all our medal winners deserve our utmost respect...........
I guess you can see it
coming tough.......... More
Petit Bateau
Those that have sailed
with me know that I enjoy sailing single-handed. I'm not talking
about heroic trans-ocean stuff (well maybe one day) but more,
relatively short offshore passages. In this respect, I've just
returned from a fantastic week "competing" in the Petit Bateau
series of single-handed races which, this year, took us from
Lymington to Alderney to St Helier in Jersey to St Malo to St
Peter Port in Guernsey and back to Lymington.
More
Mr Panic
The other day I was bringing Kipper single-handed alongside a
slightly tricky, short, windward berth. In other words, the wind
was blowing me off such that I had to be very positive in my
manoeuvre to avoid being blown off before I could leap ashore
with a short breastline. Fortunately it was starboard side to
and Kipper makes a handy amount of prop walk that way, so I
approached at a steep angle and about 3 kts, ready to throw the
wheel over to port and go hard astern. Just as I was about 2
boat lengths away a very flustered chap came charging down the
pontoon shouting "go astern, go astern". Of course I
ignored him and we slipped neatly into the berth. Mr Panic
wasn't impressed. "You nearly hit my boat" he said. "But I
didn't" I. said. He replied "You came in much too fast and
at a crazy angle". "Ah but that's how you do it" I said.
It
never rains but it pours
If you live in England you
expect it to rain sometimes. After all, we all greatly
appreciate our "green and pleasant land" but I'VE HAD ENOUGH!. I
really, really detest sailing in the rain. The only mitigating
factor recently is that, at least, there's been some wind,
actually quite a lot of wind, because sailing in no wind and
rain tests the old adage "Better a bad day on the water than a
good day in the office" to its limits. The good news, for me at
least, is that I chose this week to catch up on paperwork at
home. So I can sit smugly looking out of the window, wondering
how all those unfortunates who booked to sail in the 2nd week of
July, confident in their belief that they could expect, at
least, half-way decent weather, are enjoying themselves. I could
also have well found myself delivering a boat to Cork for next
week's regatta and I'm bloomin glad I'm not as a succession of
Westerly gales must be making the trip very, very nasty indeed.
Hooray for HMS Exeter
Yesterday, sailing off
Yarmouth in glorious sunshine, we spotted a warship hammering
down the Western Solent. It turned out to be HMS Exeter. Having
waxed on, earlier in the week, about flag protocol, my students
were keen to dip our ensign but initially disappointed when
Exeter failed to respond. A quick call on the VHF saw a matelot
despatched aft and their ensign dipped. Hooray for HMS Exeter
and all her ship's company! And hooray for the MoD's decision to
sanction the build of two new aircraft carriers. Not only
does The Royal Navy badly need new capital ships but the
associated work will keep shipbuilders all over the country in
work for years.
The Round the Island Race
Once upon a time, I used to
really enjoy the annual Round the Island Race but, in recent
years it has been spoilt by an increasing number of entrants who
lack the experience to race in close quarters with other boats.
Some of these are family boats out racing their one race a year
and possibly even racing for the first time, others are charter
boats, typically hired from SunSail by a bunch of mates with
more testosterone than grey matter.
More
RYA Sail Cruising Syllabus
The RYA Sail Cruising
Syllabus progresses from Start Yachting, through Competent Crew,
Day Skipper to Coastal Skipper and Yachtmaster. Start Yachting
is a relatively new, 2 day introduction to sailing and most
people start with Competent Crew but what next?
More
Radar on Powerboats
I'm a sailor through and
through but I sometimes teach Radar operation on powerboats. The
other day we were out on an almost brand-new Targa 27.1
(advertised as "The 4*4 of the Sea") and she was certainly an
awesome sea-boat.
She was equipped with the
very latest, all singing-all-dancing, fully-integrated
chart-plotter and radar but unfortunately, whoever had installed
the radar scanner, had aligned it absolutely horizontally fore
and aft, which was fine when we were stationary but, when the
owner opened the throttles and we came up onto the plane, meant
that it was pointing at the sky. Obvious targets, such as large
cardinal buoys, inside half a mile disappeared right off the
screen.
Walking around the marina
afterwards revealed that approximately half of all scanners
fitted to fast motor yachts were similarly fitted. The error
seemed most prevalent on newer production boats. I can only
assume that the shipwrights don't know any better. Scary or
what?
Lobster Pots
I know that commercial
fishing of any kind is hard, dangerous and, often, financially
unrewarding way to make a living and have the utmost respect for
fishermen who go to sea in atrocious weather BUT WHY, OH WHY DO
THEY HAVE TO LAY POTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CHANNEL?
More
White Boats
Over the time I've been
instructing full-time and before I bought Kipper, I've taught
people to sail on quite a few different boats. I won't mention
specific designs or manufacturers, so's to avoid upsetting some
of the schools who used to employ me but frankly, THE AVERAGE
WHITE BOAT as used by most sailing schools is a complete pile of
poo.
More
Coastguard Industrial Action
Coastguards provide
essential safety cover for all mariners and all others who
venture on or near the sea. They are highly trained, work shifts
around the clock but earn an absolute pittance. OK, I don't
quite buy their comparison with the police and fire service
because they rarely put their own lives on the line (they leave
that to volunteers) but, by anybodies standards, their pay is a
disgrace and they are being taken advantage of. I for one
support their current industrial action 100%
Jet Skis
I positively hate jet
skis, the people who use them and everything to do with them. As
far as I'm concerned they're ridden by men with small willies
and without the balls to ride a motorbike. And I mean MEN. When
did you ever hear of a woman stupid enough to buy a jet ski? Am
I being unfair. No. Do I have an issue with other powered
recreational vessels (motor-yachts, ribs, ski boats)? No. The
problem with jet-skis is that the tossers who ride them will
ride round and round and round what, should have been, a quiet
anchorage. This is akin to somebody riding a noisy motorbike
round and round a park where everybody else is trying to enjoy a
quiet, whatever you do in a park (I wouldn't know). If I could
legally buy a bazooka, I'd buy one and blast all the jet skiers
to kingdom come.
Big Boats / Small Boats
Once upon a time, maybe
25+ years ago, a typical first boat was a Mirror Dinghy, then a
Wayfarer, then a small Westerly, then a Contessa 32, then a 40
footer. All this over a lifetime of sailing. Experience was
gained slowly. Nowadays too many people go out and buy (yes
you've guessed it) a shiny new white, European built 36 footer
as their first boat. Even if it did handle properly, they simply
haven't got the experience to manage it.
I see them all the time.
Dad in cockpit, hopelessly out of his depth, blood pressure off
the scale, shouting loudly. Mum on the foredeck, chocking back
the tears. Kids
listening to their iPods, wishing they were
somewhere, anywhere, else.
So what happens? Well,
after a few weekends, the kids simply refuse to go anymore. Mum
takes up a keen interest in tennis (nudge, nudge), Dad decides
to try his hand at golf and the boat sits unused on it's, very
expensive, marina berth. Then when it's sold, it's worth £50k
less than it was new.
Moral of the story. Your
first boat should be less than 25' overall and cost less than
£10k. It will be easy to handle, cheap to run and, if you decide
you don't like sailing, you can sell it for what you paid. |
