Quayside Supper
Despite the title, the Paglesham Yacht Race, organised by the Roach Sailing Association is a race for small open boats. Frank and Mark S. entered the HSC wayfarer dinghy Merganser and were first across the finish line. Seven open boats raced up river with the tide on a light reaching wind, rounding the buoy just as the tide turned. They were all in a bunch (apart from Winks trailing behind) but then the wind shifted and it was a beat back to Paglesham. Gradually they spread out and there was half an hour between Merganser crossing the line and the last to finish (Winks).
The race was actually won on handicap by Memory, with Makedo 2nd and Winks 3rd.. Mark S reckons he should have got Merganser cleaner below the water.
Richard reports that we visited the Wong Kei Chinese Restaurant in Soho. The service is fast, prices low and the waiters reputed to be rude and abrasive. Perhaps it is a sign of our growing seniority, but we had no trouble with them whatsoever. They do say that in Chinese culture age is revered!
This year the Hostellers Sailing Club participated in the amazing Semaine du Golfe sailing festival held in the Morbihan in Southern Brittany. This was the first time we had been to such an event and also the furthest distance we have ever taken one of our club boats from its home port, albeit we covered most of the distance by road. This event is likely to happen again in 2009, although I don't think there is a definite promise of that at the time of writing.
For those who have never been to a Semaine du Golfe event, I had better explain a bit about it. Despite the title - "Gulf Week" it is not a yacht racing event such as Cowes Week, or Burnham Week in the UK. Rather it is a gathering of approximately 800 boats for the purpose of making leisurely day sails in company with each other. I think the boats are all supposed to have at least some 'traditional' or 'classic' style to them, but that is all they have in common. There are even a few 'classic' power boats and some elegant rowing boats as well as the sailing boats. We took one of our elderly club Wayfarer dinghies together with my home made boat on road trailers, crossing the channel by car ferry. The Wayfarer might now claim to be a classic racing dinghy, but my boat may have been stretching the definition. Both our boats looked a bit out of place among the hoards of clinker built and gaff/lug rigged boats but nobody seemed to mind that too much and I would say that if you are keen to enter this event but don't have an obviously traditional looking boat then you should not be immediately disuaded. Check what the organisers think, I have an idea that they will want to help anyone who is prepared to bring a boat across the channel, and if you had the time and patience to sail it all the way from the UK I guess that might help too. I might add that allthough the HSC boats were not so traditional in appearance, they are 30+ years old whereas I know that some of the traditional looking boats were actually brand spanking new, having been launched at this festival for the first time.
The 'Semaine' in the title is also a bit misleading to the uninitiated. Although Semaine means week, the organised activity of this event takes place mainly on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the event, and most of the boats only turn up for these three days. However, facilities such as campsites, slipways and car parks are available for the whole of the week for those who wish to use them. You can arrive at the start of the week and spend the first few days exploring this nice sailing area, but you will see relatively few other boats on the water until about the Wednesday when hundreds arrive in a rush. I had a vague plan that if the weather was good, Josephine and myself might spend the first few days sailing to one of the small islands which are about 10 miles out to sea from the entrance to the Gulf du Morbihan. We did not do this since the weather at the beginning of the week was wet and windy, but it might still be a good idea for another time.
You may be thinking that 800 boats is rather a lot, which it is, espeicially since there must average several of persons in each boat, plus many people who come to watch from the shoreside. To keep it manageable, the total number of boats is divided into several fleets. There is a fleet for sail and/oar propelled boats, a fleet for classic cabin yachts, one for traditional fishing boats and so on. Each fleet takes a different route during the three organised days, so most of the time you are unaware of the existance of boats outside your own fleet, although two or more fleets may share a common destination at the end of a day. Both the HSC boats were entered in the 'Sail and Oar' fleet. This was about the largest fleet numerically, certainly well over 100 boats, so there was good potential for chaos when the fleet entered restricted waters such as the fairly narrow river up to Auray. But just imagine the chaos there could be if all 800 boats sailed together, espeicially since a few of those 800 boats were square rigged sailing ships.
A bit about the Gulf du Morbihan itself. This is a large estuary, comparable in area to the Solent/Spithead in the UK. Unlike the Solent, there are many islands in this estuary, some large enough to have villages on them, others tiny. There is a maze of channels between the islands, so the total length of shoreline would be much greater than the Solent. The tide really races through some of these channels, if you are an East Coast sailor think of the entrance to the Ore on a spring tide, but more so. Shoreside it is pleasant rural countryside, slightly hilly, with small villages which now seem to be fashionable places to live. There are two main towns in the area, Auray which is a pleasant market town, and Vannes which is a fair sized city. Both these places were ports of call for our sail and oar fleet.
There is no charge to enter this event. I cannot imagine anything of this kind being available for free in the UK. For those that do not have facilities to sleep on board, which includes most of the sail and oar fleet, there is a campsite available where you can either set up your own tent or you can use a kind of ready errected pavillion made from heavy canvas on a steel frame work (see picture below). These pavillions are fitted out with a simple cooking area and a couple of double bedrooms with beds but not bed linen. There is a charge for booking these facilities, but it is quite reasonable. Since the boats day sail in company from one destination to another during the final three days of the event you may wonder how you manage with camping at a fixed location. The answer is that buses are provided to carry you between the campsite and your boat morning and evening. One point about this is that most of the boats have to be left unattended on swinging moorings overnight. There are a lot more boats than moorings, so several boats share each mooring. This means that you need to bring plenty of fenders.
The crew of the HSC Wayfarer Meander comprised Herman T, Mark S, Mark T, Richard F. Josephine and myself sailed our own boat. I will skip over the first few days since the main event had not got underway at that stage and also the weather was so wet and windy that we choose to go exploring by car and on foot rather than by boat. It was at the free buffet supper for the sail and oar fleet on the Wednesday evening that we really became aware of the generosity of the organisation behind this event and that gathering also introduced us to some of the other participants including a number of boat crews from UK, most of these being members of the Dinghy Cruising Association.
Quayside Supper
On Thursday morning the crews of the sail and oar fleet gathered around a podium on the quayside at Lamour-Baden to hear an announcement that it was officially still too windy for sailing and that the start would be delayed untill midday when it had been arranged for the wind to moderate - someone had confidence in weather forcasting. In the meantime we could listen to live folk music or carry on preparing and launching our boats. Sure enough, at midday the wind had eased and the sun was breaking through. Many of the boats were now afloat on the swinging moorings and launches started to ferry the crews out from the quay to the moored boats. Then we were away, although not all precisely at the same time. The fleet was soon spread out over about half a mile of water, but at least it was all moving slowly in a common direction, shepherded by policemen in outboard powered inflateable boats. I believe that there were about 70 of these small police boats assisting the event, each crewed by two blue suited policemen. The police were friendly and helpful, ferrying the sailors to and from the shore, keeping the leading boats on the right track and encouraging the stragglers to keep up. I dont think there were any serious mishaps but if there had been help would have been on hand. Our first stop was for a picnic near the entrance to the Gulf on the shore to the south of Locmariaquer. As we approached the shore we could see dozens of boats already moored among the shoreside rocks, it did not look like a particularly boat friendly shoreline. If you were concerned about the paintwork on your boat the best thing to do at this kind of landing place would be to anchor off the shore and wait for a launch to come and collect you. However, most of us devised ways to keep our boats off the rocks with mooring lines then we congregated around several marques which had been set up as wine/beer/seafood tents. We were joined by coach loads of people who were following the event from the land and we were entertained by folk dancing and live music, a pattern which was to be repeated at each of the stopping points. There was a general happiness in the air now that the adventure had started and the sun was shining on a sparkling blue sea.
We left the picnic site near Locmariaquer on the first of the flood to sail eastwards to our overnight stop at Port Blanc. On this leg we first became aware of the strength of the tidal streams, in some places places we were shielded from the wind by the islands and then the tidal eddies spun some of the boats round through 360 degrees. But the tide was flooding in the direction we were heading so it was all to the good. The picture below shows that the weather was now really nice. The HSC wayfarer is reefed down only to avoid too much upsetting the crews of more traditional boats!
The plan for Friday was to sail from Port Blanc to a lunch stop at Lamour Baden then all the way up the river to St Goustan and Auray, a good distance but we would be helped all the way by the tide.
Picture above shows the fleet on the last stretch up river to Auray, the launch in the foreground is one of many escorting police boats.
And here is the fleet arriving, crews tidying their sails away and being taken ashore. Picture by Mark S.
Unlike most of the French crews, some of the UK contingent chose to stay on board overnight and these two DCA boats attracted much attention by parking in a prime spot right by the town quay.
The plan for the last day was to sail from Auray to a lunch at Navalo then proceed in company with several other fleets right up to Vannes.
The river near Bono is relatively narrow and we needed do some fending off as the fleet became a highly varnished 'log-jam', drifting down tide in near calm. A couple of hours later we were in open water and the wind had strengthened, it became quite exciting sailing as we arrived en-masse at Navalo.
While at Navalo we took a walk round the headland to watch the fleets of larger boats sailing in from the sea to join us in the grand procession up to Vannes. As you can see from the picture above, crowds had gathered on the far shore to watch from the land.
On the way to Vannes we passed through the narrows near Port Blanc where the flood tide was churning up the water - some people referred to this as the 'toilet flush'. Some of the open boats with low freeboard had to do some quick bailing but since our boat is self draining we headed straight through the roughest patch to see what it was like. We did take quite a bit of water on board but it is satisfying to see how quickly it drains out again. The picture above shows a crew rowing through. This chop was due to the tide, it was not particularly windy at this point.
The boats arrived a bit earlier than expected at Vannes, which meant that we had to anchor for half an hour to wait for the lock to open to let us into the basin where all the smaller craft tied up alongside floating pontoons. The event now concluded quite quickly. There was a prize giving, at which prizes were awarded for achievements such as smallest boat, oldest particpant, youngest participant (won by one of the DCA contingent) etc. Roger Barnes, President of the Dinghy Cruising Association, grabbed a microphone and made a passionate speech in French and although I could not understand this it was obviously well received and loudly applauded. Bands played and crowds congregated in the cafes and marques along the quayside but later that evening and early in the morning most of the smaller boats were being loaded onto road trailers and heading for home.
Richard reports that our boats are now tidied away for the winter. Frank, Richard and Stuart took Merganser for a short sail, exploring Barling Creek before returning to Paglesham to haul out for the winter. Back on the farm, Eric, Esin and Richard were clearing undergrowth from the space where we store the boats over the winter. Once the boats were put away with the covers snugged down the party retreated to the village hall for our Laying up Supper, provided by a local takeaway. After supper there were plenty of (digital) slides for a slide show including Steve's pictures from a sailing trim from Florida via Havana, Bahamas and Azores to Falmouth and eventually right back to Paglesham. Also slides from Mark and Eric's holidays in the Baltic, Venice, Brittany and the Azores.
On 18th November, four HSC members joined a guided walk around part of Wallasea Island, Essex. The walk was lead by Mark Dixon, a member of RSPB staff, and was ostensibly organised as an invitation to Roach Sailing Association members, as part of an exercise to acquaint local people about a proposal for the future of the area.
The RSPB has a plan that would see a purchase of that area currently owned
by Wallasea Farms, and its re-development for leisure and the promotion of
wildlife. More details are available from the RSPB website:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/reserves/guide/w/wallaseaisland/index.asp
"The RSPB is working to transform a large area of arable farmland at Wallasea Island … back into coastal marshland. This will create a wetland mosaic of mudflats and saltmarshes, shallow lagoons and pastures. These will be criss-crossed by low-lying bunds along which visitors will be able to access much of this new 'Wild Coast'."
It was a bitterly cold day, but Frank, Steve, Herman and I joined a group of about twenty hardy people at the small car park on the track beyond Grapnells Farm. We walked along the sea wall to the north of Wallasea "Island", which is really a peninsular these days, as far as the area just to the south of Brankfleet Spit.
This project is not a done deal, as the RSPB has not yet agreed a price for the land, and planning consents have to be obtained. It seems likely that the Farm owners want to sell the land, as the Environment Agency has made it clear that it is not prepared to continue to maintain the extensive sea defences that protect this low lying arable land. The Agency would prefer to build a shorter defence to the east, cutting across the peninsular.
The proposals, which are still being developed, would provide a more wildlife friendly environment, and also allow a degree of leisure access for people in the nearby Thames gateway area.
A number of us arrived at Bath hostel on the Friday evening, having driven down the M4 in heavy rain. We got rather damp just carrying our luggage from our car to the hostel door, but a welcoming cup of tea awaited us inside.
As you see above, Bath Youth Hostel is a rather splendid house in an Italian style. Like almost every building in the city of Bath, it is built from Bath stone, a yellowish limestone quarried locally and suitable for precise cutting into blocks which fit together with minimal mortor joints. The hostel is set in gardens on a hillside looking down onto the city centre.
On Saturday morning there was a break in the rain as set off for a morning walk prior to our club AGM meeting. We arrived at Claverton Pumping Station on the Kennet and Avon canal and although this was not officially open to the public at this time of year, one of the volunteers helping with maintenance work gave us a detailed guided tour. This pumping station was built in 1810 by canal engineer John Rennie to pump water 47 feet up from the river Avon into the canal so as to replace water lost to the canal as boats pass through the locks. What is fairly unusual is that this is a water pump which is actually powered by water. River water falls a few feet through a large waterwheel which drives a two cylinder double acting piston pump to force a smaller flow of river water up the greater head to the canal. The waterwheel and pump fell out of use in 1952 but have now been fully restored. For further information see Claverton Pumping Station website
At the time of our visit the structure around the water wheel was being maintained. The photo above shows a structural timber beam above the sluice gates which regulate the flow of water onto the wheel. If you were to look only at the sides or top of this beam you might think that it was in reasonable condition, but if you look at the end in the photograph you can see that the middle of the beam is all rotten and you could easily scoop out the rotton wood with your bare hands.
Canal boat on Kennet and Avon
Leaving the friendly volunteers at Claverton we walked into the city of Bath along the Kennet and Avon canal. There is a comunity of people living on canal boats along this stretch of canal, the picture above shows an interesting liveaboard home complete with carved figurhead. Throngs of Christmas shoppers filled the centre of Bath and we squeezed into the corner of a crowded cafe for a bite to eat before returning to the Youth Hostel for our AGM meeting.
Starting our meeting, we learnt from our Treasurer that the HSC made a financial loss during 2007. The loss was not as bad as the previous year since we saved mooring fees and insurance premiums by keeping only one of our two club boats in commission this summer, the other boat being laid up ashore. We basically agreed that it would be futile to try to stem our losses by raising our subscriptions. The necessary increase in subscription would be considerable and would probably be counter-productive in that it would make it harder to gain the new members that our club really needs. We did however agree to a small £2.00 increase in our Associate Members subscription. We also agreed that we will have to continue with just one club boat in commission during 2008 and even then we will run at a loss unless we gain a few more members. We have some reserves and can continue on this basis for some years to come, but unless we gain more members we will at some stage have to give up both our club boats. If it comes to that, the club could still survive since most of our sailing members now have boats of their own and those that do not are thinking about doing so. However, we would if possible like to keep at least one club boat since that gives the possibility to offer sailing to those who for one reason or another are not in a position to have their own boats. What about all those people living in flats and maisonettes in London, often without gardens or garages where they could keep a small boat. Surely some of these people would enjoy the adventurous dinghy cruising that we can offer with our Wayfarer dinghies which are based only an hour and a half from most parts of London.
Finance aside, 2007 has been a good year for the HSC. All our social and country walking events were well attended, we had a good summer cruise and a real highlight was taking our boats to France to participate in the Semaine du Golfe sailing festival.
We spent Sunday morning visiting the Roman baths. See the Roman Baths website for more information. I think we all found this an interesting visit, the entrance fee is quite high but there is a lot to see and this is possibly the most extensive and well preserved group of Roman remains in the UK. The picture above shows the great Roman swimming pool which was the the centrepiece of a Roman municipal sports centre. This was originally an indoor swimming pool fed from a natural hot spring, the brick arch at the far end of the pool was originally at a higher level being part of the roof. Pretty well everything above the shoulder level of the people on the right of the photo is relatively modern, but below that it is all Roman.
Some of us left for home after lunch, the others explored the city streets famous for their architecture which mostly dates from the 18th centuary. Bath became a fashionable place to live at that time, or perhaps a fasionable place to have a house, since I think the wealthy people of that time would lease houses in various places so that they could switch between them at will. We looked at the Assembly Rooms, built in about 1770 as a venue for public meetings and grand social occasions. We finished with a visit to one of the houses in the Royal Cresent which has been made into a museum showing how the house would have been furnished in the late 18th centuary. Then we wished each other happy Christmas befor heading off into the darkness with rain now falling and a gale of wind on its way.
To reward us for getting to the end of our Annual General Meeting Herman kindly fed us with an extremely nice cake, one which had best be kept away from any chokaholics. He later emailed me the recipe as follows:
Ingredients