May 2018 – Northumbria Sailing

May Newsletter

‘I think in the eight years I’ve been doing this I’ve had one hurricane force 12 and I was genuinely concerned. Even with violent storm 11, which is quite common during the winter, the very words are disturbing.’ – Jane Steel, Radio 4 announcer of the Shipping Forecast.

Big Boy in the Tyne

We were quietly minding our own business during April’s five day practical and, following a request to go to the ‘pier ends’, were advised by Tyne VTS that a big lift was already in the lower harbour. We hung back to find this monster entering (and I have seen some large vessels in the Tyne). Now parked by Royal Quays the ship Aegir is huge, presumably here for the wind farm construction off Blyth. Come and have a look! Aegir

Towing Time

Whilst sailing in the Clyde and outside Ardrossan harbour we received a request for help from a yacht, Sunflower, who had engine problems. Mike is at the helm here as we towed her in. They were an Irish crew delivering a newly purchased boat to Ireland.

We never made it there but I hope they did without any more mishaps.

April RYA Coastal Yachtmasters & Competent Crews

Don Gunton instructed this Course, one full of incident, set in glorious weather as can be seen here. Left to right are; John, Don, Phil, Connor, Peter & Michael. John reports on WhatsApp; ‘Great Coastal Skipper Practical course this week. Also incorporated Diesel Engine, Marine Catering for Millenials, Electronic Instrument Repair and the Archaeological Exploration of Lockers’ Courses, plus a variety of strange tea ceremonies. The flotilla escort included 70 dolphins, 2 porpoises, the DSFDS ferry and Kaye at the helm of the RNLI RIB. Wouldn’t have missed it for the world!’

April RYA Day Skippers & Competent Crews

The new season is now well under way and it was my turn, the week after Don’s. We didn’t have such good weather, but saw the monster Aegir come in. Here’s, left to right, Marcelo, Lynn, Dave, Maarten & David. Dave, a roofer, shinned up the mast extra quick and, from the top, posted a video on Snapchat which had already received views by the time he climbed down.

Northumbria Sailing Adventures

For these adventures we either charter a sailing yacht or take ‘Lian’ somewhere interesting and challenging. When weather and crew status permit we will do distances, often sailing through the night via the watch system. If this is not possible we will cruise looking for pleasant places to visit with good shoreside wining and dining facilities.

Trips in recent years have included the Orkneys, the Clyde, London Tower Bridge and a North Sea crossing.

We will endeavour to have you fully involved in the sailing of the boat and to consider your preferences. Alcohol will often be enjoyed when we are no longer underway. At the end of the trip you will have a log book filled and plenty of nautical adventures to tell.

2017 has seen a trip around Skye and one to Amsterdam.

Day Skippers Galore

My latest class, the largest yet, have just graduated in the RYA Day Skipper Theory and most will be proceeding further with my courses in VHF and Practicals. Good company with a high attendance rate, despite wintry weather.

Well done John, Wayne, Ruth, Richard, Maarten, Lynn, Leah, Diane and David. 9 in all. Live Wires they are!

Theory classes will re-start in the autumn leaving the summer for time on the water

Northumbria Sailing on Video

Have a look at my Theory Training Centre with this video. Training

Onboard the Hallberg Rassy training yacht, by courtesy of Mark Batey and the kind co-operation of victims Andrew and Clive. See me giving berthing advice in trying to avoid the electric supply post Mark Batey Day Training

RYA Competent Crew in the sun, by courtesy of Mark again Mark Batey Competent Crew

In a clip from 2013 you see the appreciation of Ladies on an RYA sponsored day at Royal Quays Ladies Day

Pieces of Eight – Knotty Problems Analysed

Short Handed Berthing

The key to successful berthing is the proper use of the midships cleat. If you haven’t one it’s often possible to rig a similar arrangement via a winch. I remember doing this with my first yacht, a 21 foot Corribee named Destiny. Little did I know then that my own destiny was to be a sailing instructor and to run a sailing school!

First rig a strong, shortish, warp to the cleat with an open end or loop, depending on whether you have crew able to step off onto the pontoon.

Then motor up enabling the crew to secure the warp to the pontoon cleat (encircled in red). Put into gear and steer away from the pontoon and leave in gear. The stern will come into the berth, you can leave the helm and put in place the stern warp and finally the bow. Practise!

Accident Alley

A section to draw attention to accidents and what we can learn from them

Clipped on yachtsman fell overboard and died

During the Clipper Round the World in November 2017 a crew was clipped onto the jackstay and yet this failed to hold him. As a consequence he fell overboard and could not be recovered in time.

A safety issue identified during the investigation was that the hook on the end of the crew’s tether had become caught under a deck cleat, resulting in a lateral loading that was sufficient to cause the hook to distort and eventually release. Failed Harness .

Cheeki Rafiki again. At the re-trial the defendant has been found not guilty of manslaughter, but is awaiting sentence for failure to maintain the yacht properly. This is a similar pattern to the unsuccessful manslaughter charges against the Signature skipper following two deaths within the Tyne pier ends.

Victims (all) at Sea

Anne & Pauline ‘Hopefully with weather improving I’ll be able to go on sail again with you and maybe the kids :). Anne and I had our first sail with them (and a skipper!!) in Majorqua (french spelling) last October, and they loved it :).’ Pauline can be seen here, on the right just a bit short to reach the boom!

John Taylor is sailing around Greek Islands, in part a warm up for his Coastal Skipper Practical this month. He’s proposing to explore the Akti Peninsula, notable for it’s medieval monasteries. Also notable, in the sailing directions, is’ Females are not allowed to set foot in the monasteries and a yacht with women onboard is not allowed to approach closer than 500m from the shores of the peninsula’. Image by Thodoris Lakiotis

Jonathan Colwell is crossing the Atlantic and shown here, in the foreground, approaching the Azores. Jonathan is a commercial Yachtmaster doing the summer season in the eastern Mediterranean and is seeking his Ocean Yachtmaster ticket.

Paul Kröner ‘I returned last night from a fabulous trip in the Cyclades. We went from Athens Alimos Harbour to Palaia Fokaia on the southwest coast of the mainland under Athens. From there we went to Kea, Andros, Tinos, Siros, Sefnos, Kythnos, Lavrion (mainland) Poros (Peleponessos, Aiggina and back to Athens Alimos. We had all sorts of weather mostly sunny. The wind varied; sometimes 3-5 knots (hardly enough to keep course) to a 15-20 knots (lovely sailing)

One day we set of on the engine (lack of wind) from Andos to Tinosr – after an hour there was some wins so we put up the sails and sailed for 2 hours – then the wind picked up a bit more 15-20 knots and we were very happy. This was what we wanted!

Not so – within 5 minutes the wind got stronger and stronger. No warning signs , no clouds literally out of the blue it became suddenly very strong and we decided to take all the sails down as quick as possible. Good decision because the wind (the notorious Meltemi from the northwest was growing and growing: 30 – 35 – 40 knots!!

We even had some gusts of 45 knots. Waves grew to 2-3 meter high and we had another 2 hours to go to the harbour on Tinos. Life jackets and life lines on !! We stayed close to the south coast of Tinos looking for some shelter but waves of spray water made us soaking wet. We made it safe into the harbour and after moaring we had a well earned ankerbeer and as usual a nice meal in one of the tavernas. The harbourmaster told us that the Meltemi would last for some days so next day we hired a car and explored the island (actually there was only a nice breeze and we could have sailed.

The next day we crossed from Tinos to Siros and the Meltemi was back but not in his brute force, although to strong to sail. Altogether a very good experience that left us with confidence both in the boat (Dufour 385 grand large) and in our capability to handle difficult situations. Highpoint of the trip has been the isle of Poros on the eastcoast of the Peleponessos. Because there was little wind predicted in the morning we hired some scooters and explored the whole island. Absolutely beautiful – with on one of the highest point the taverna “Paradisos” Paradise on earth!! Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea.

Looking forward to our Farnes Trip June 13 – 16th”

Konstantin Korovin ‘Some 6 years ago Konstantin and friend did a 5 day course with Northumbria Sailing and now reports;

‘Hello, Melvyn! Glad to hear you! Yes, me and my family are fine. And, we are still sailing, of course Last year we had a sailing in Croatia (Pula – Pag – Simuni – Rab – Krk – Cres – Pula). Some photos in attached files. I recommend to visit the Rab island. Very beautiful old city. This year we plan to sailing around North Sardinia and Corsica.

We do not lose hope to plan training with Northumbria Sailing. We fondly remember our training in May, 2012 (Oh god, six years ago). :)’ Konstantin is shown back row right, a prime position next to Elena. He lives with his family some 1,000 miles east of Moscow, not that far from Chernobyl, the site of the nuclear accident.

Phil Butler, recently successful with his RYA Yachtmaster Theory, thought he was on a holiday away from boats; ‘We recently had a week’s break with the children in Costa Adeje in Tenerife. Our apartment was on the 4th floor of hotel complex overlooking the sea near Puerto Colon which was about a mile away. I was used to watching the leisure boats whizzing around the buoys each day but on one occasion when I returned to the balcony from the pool I saw a small trail of black smoke near the coastline. It was coming from a small leisure vessel less than 7m and I could also see a pin prick of flame. The vessel was facing my direction bow on and all of a sudden with 3 – 6 seconds a huge fireball erupted. I was too far away to see the reaction of the occupants but I can only imagine that they leaped for their lives. I then saw a small yacht less than 12m come to the scene together with a RIB. I later learn’t the occupants were rescued. I then watched as the vessel continued to burn intensely until it sank in the bay. I have to say I was extremely surprised by the velocity of the eruption and the intensity of the fire. It showed to me that importance of wearing a lifejacket as all you could do in that situation would be to leap over the side immediately. You wouldn’t have time to look for fire extinguishers, the explosion was that sudden.’ Boat Explosion

Where Next, Day Skippers?

I am often asked by newly qualified Day Skippers – where can I get sailing experience? Perhaps you might wish to try something different and broaden your experience. Adventures Offshore is one such organisation and Liz is very much part of it:

Liz King is an aspiring Ocean Yachtmaster and took my Theory course last autumn. I had to deal with a sailor with far more ocean passage experience than I, someone who has crossed the Pacific as well as many of the rest. Needless to say, she was successful and a pleasure to have onboard.

‘Ahoy there! I did most of my early sailing on the Solent at the Joint Services Sailing Centre (nowadays they have stuck the words “Adventurous” and “Sail Training” in there, just in case Joe Public got the wrong idea about sailing being all gin and tonics). In the good old days JSASTC had a battle hardened fleet of Halcyon 27s and Contessa 32s which, once you acquired your Day Skipper ticket, you could “sign out” and go and play and learn on. A fabulous introduction to the world of sailing. We also had a fleet of graceful Nicholson 55s, greyhounds of the sailing scene in their day; many of them are still active, as indeed are many of the Halcyons and Contessas.

Moving on a few years and about 40,000NM later, many people in the north east know me from some of my photography and PR work for the RYA NE Region, a role I have recently relinquished, so I now have time to enjoy sailing again.

I am currently skippering an Oyster 50, part time for the charity “Adventures Offshore” which is part of the Scout network and in 2017 we took part in the Baltic Tall Ships Race, my first venture into the Baltic. I skippered the delivery leg, 800NM from the Thames estuary to Sweden against relentless 25knot NE winds! Groan!

This year we are again taking part in the Tall Ships and the Oyster 50 “Ocean Scout” will be at Sunderland for the celebrations. My leg as skipper is from Denmark to Norway, I have put in my order to a higher command for some gentle South Westerlies. We’ll see if it works. (studying in the Church Life Centre might help – Ed)

I’m currently working towards my Ocean YM ticket and in preparation for that I have recently completed a couple of shorebased revision courses with Melvyn and I can honestly say that his teaching has been excellent. It’s 25 years since I last looked at astronavigation and Melvyn patiently brought it all back into focus. Great fun! At the moment, I’m sharpening my pencils and polishing the sextant, ready for a summer of sights. How does it go again? “All I need is a tall ship and a star to steer her by…” Well, I can do that now, I’m ready!

Jack’s the Lad

Jack Lowe’s aim in life is to visit all the RNLI stations and take a photograph of it’s crew. Not in a normal way for Jack though – he wants to take them using original methods and glass plates.

Jack took my VHF Course and this image belies his real character – larger than life and noisy! Have a look – Lifeboat Station Project and on Facebook

Boat Delivery

Just bought a boat and wondering whether to have it delivered or trucked? You can contact us for a feasibility assessment and quotation for cost.

Yacht Skippering

There are times when you might feel that your ‘ticket’ and/or experience will not be adequate for a safe holiday. Last summer I had such a commission enabling a larger yacht to be chartered and to sail to more adventurous places. It worked and we all had a great time and look forward to repeating the experience exploring a more challenging area in 2017.

Reader’s Links

A new section featuring links of a maritime interest sent to me.

Peter Chater has found a remarkable way of plugging a failed seacock – with a carrot! Sea Cock Repair

Leah Pattison sent this pic of Scarborough during rough conditions. A great view from the top of the Big Wheel!

Peter Chater sent this one about a fisherman suing as a result of a collision Fisherman Sues

Nigel Hierons saw this news item about a flare Flare in recycling explodes

Franek Richardson sent this Time Lapse

Phil Butler mentions the two women rescued after 5 months at sea in the Pacific.

Stuart Porter took and posted this great dolphin display, quite the best I have seen North Sea Dolphins

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Sail Safely the RYA Way