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August 2011

TheBurgeePort Solent Yacht Club Magazine

Affiliated to the

Use yourwebsite!

www.psyc.uk.com

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From the Commodore’s CockpitCliff Laxton (Somerled)

I expect that by now you have all had a week or two sailing thissummer, possibly even with some help from the weather. It’salways so good to get in the swing of sailing further away fromhome and even better if you can enjoy this time with friends. Wehad the chance to do this bringing Somerled down from Scotland,learning lots about the boat in the process.The committee as always is working hard on your behalf, and wehave a few social events coming up that you will see advertised inthis issue, so please support the Club by coming to these if youcan. We always have a good time on these occasions and I knowthat Jaye would appreciate some idea of numbers for the Septsocial rally, which is a new one.I had a glimpse of the future this week, when I had a play with ahydrogen fuel cell (thinking of getting a sub from the ClubTreasurer to buy one so that I could then write a report for you).This device is all but silent, produces no nasty waste, can be usedindoors and runs for a hundred hours on a small hydrogen gasbottle. It’s the size of a small Honda briefcase generator, hasvirtually no moving parts and produces 12v and 250v. It is madeby BOC and I would like one except that, at £2600, it slightlyexceeds my weekly pocket money allowance.Hope to see you on the water soon!

Contents

3. Pirate Party - Book Now! 4. Easter Rally

5. Early May Cross-Channel 6. Yarmouth Rally

7. Late May BH & Hythe Rallies 9. Bringing our new boat home

11. Swanwick Rally 12. The Speedy Stitcher

14. Which summer cruise? 15. PSYC contacts

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Reminder Pirate Party 17 SeptemberPlease remember that tickets are now selling for the PSYCPirate Party on board Alice in Gunwharf Quays after the daysail on the 17th Sept. Pirate fancy dress is optional. Theevening includes entertainment from the Shanty Crew, abuffet meal and rum punch.

Please send your booking of £30 per ticket either by postinga cheque & SAE to me, Jaye Isherwood, at 4 Kelsey Head, PortSolent, Portsmouth, Hants, PO6 4TA, or alternately email mewith your booking and make an on-line banking payment tothe PSYC Sort code 30-96-11 Account number 01020845using your surname as a reference. Tickets are limited soplease book early.

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while the Folly launch tried to freeup the pontoon. Eventually wemanaged to get Duet, Tellina,Reflections, Amoret, Abacus, JustChillin’, Brilliant and Mañana allsafely rafted, with French Filly andLord Fyfe nearby on the mid-riverpontoon.

Eric & Gill volunteered to hostdrinks and nibbles where wewelcomed Peter & Jennifer fromBrilliant who were ‘rally virgins’ butenjoyed themselves so much thatthey decided to come with us toYarmouth instead of carrying on to

Poole! As usual Andy looked afterus by providing 2 long tables forthe 25 or so to dine together thenjoin in the dancing - everyoneseemed to have a great night.

Easter rally toBeaulieu, Folly Inn andYarmouth

Judith & Peter Hunter(Mañana)

For once the weather lived up to oreven surpassed the forecast; tenboats locked out of Port Solent onGood Friday to head for BucklersHard, arriving in steady successionto berth on the mid-river pontoon.The only exception was Lord Fyfewho opted for a marina berth whichmeant that they unfortunatelymissed out on the ‘Rosé party’ onMañana…. Yes, rosé seems to bethe colour of choice for wine at themoment as almost everyonebrought a bottle of the pink stuffto the drinks and nibbles party,although thanks to Linda we alsohad Pimm’s! We were pleased towelcome a new boat to the fleet,signing up Running Water as a newmember.Saturday dawned hot and sunnyagain. As we couldn’t arrive at TheFolly before 1600 there was nohurry to leave. There were foraysashore in tenders for walks,newspapers and ice creams and afew boats opted to find anchoragesfor lunch. Running Water headedoff to Poole as intended and therest of us poodled over to theMedina but still arrived before the‘lunchtimers’ had vacated the Follypontoon which was reserved for therally. General mild chaos ensued

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With the exception of Amoret allthe boats set off for Yarmouth onSunday in similar weather (hot &sunny). As the new walk-ashorepontoons had only recently beencompleted, the layout made for aninteresting ‘first’ arrival atYarmouth for most of us, but theHarbourmasters mustered us alltogether in the basin. This meantbeing rafted up to 5 boats out whichis fine for a club where you knowyour neighbour but not so good ifyou have several Sunsails and crewon the outside!

We were joined here by HurleyBurley as potential new members &Gary on Meridian who justhappened to sail in with his PSYCburgee flying so got slotted in withthe rally, which goes to show thatit’s worth flying the burgee to get aberth in busy harbours at peaktimes!Mike very kindly offered to hostdrinks and nibbles and ended up ona hike and bus trip with Tracy andGraham to forage for supplies onEaster Sunday, but they came uptrumps and thanks to Tracy fortoiling in the galley to provide uswith tasty nibbles. Some of uswalked ashore for a meal and othersate or barbequed on board.

A few of the boats were luckyenough to take advantage of theweather and double bank holidaysto stay in Yarmouth for furthercruising, whilst the rest of us madeour way back to Port Solent onMonday in very pleasant conditions.A great Easter weekend.

The Early May Cross-Channel

Tony Firth (Amoret)

Once again this trip was a one-boatevent. Various members of PSYCcontacted me to explain that theirboats were too small, too new, upfor sale, too short-handed, crewed

by elderly aunts and other perfectlyvalid reasons for not comingdespite prospects of favourablewind.

The forecast was for winds betweenNE and E, settling in to F5-6occasionally 7 by Saturday night.For the best chance of a reach inboth directions, the destination hadto be Fécamp. Amoret and crew(Paul, Simon, Andy and Tony) setoff after mid-day on Friday, soondiscovering that the light windsand poor visibility of our first twocross-Channels this season wereholding for the third try. Suchconditions make traversing themid-Channel shipping at night aslow and nervous process, butrunning the engine has theadvantage that there is plenty ofelectricity for the radar.

As we cleared the last of the up-Channel traffic the breeze filled inenough to allow us to sail close-hauled on port tack, though thewind waves crossing the swellproduced a jerky, corkscrewingmotion that made sleep ratherfitful. Early in the morning the

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landmarks of the Fécamp entrancestarted to materialise at about threemiles range so, after a brief struggle

with very strong cross tide off theentrance pierheads, we moored ona thinly-populated visitors’ pontoonjust inside the training ship DonaldSearle. We caught up on sleep, hadshowers, watched the youthful andmutinous crew of Donald Searlebeing bribed into seamanlikeactivity with a big bag of toffees,then hit town for lunch. Theafternoon passed in low-keytourism, cooking of the nextevening’s casserole and completionof the Times crossword, after whichwe made a successful raid on thelocal seafood.

On Sunday we left around 0730 inmore breeze and much bettervisibility. Initially the wind was NE4-5 so we put a precautionary firstreef into the main. Within a coupleof hours it was a steady 5-6 on thebeam so second reef and a few rollsin the genoa set us nicely in thegroove at 7 to 8 kt with thewindvane gear looking after thesteering. We whizzed across theshipping fairly quickly in large butorderly seas, with only a couple of

big ships needing avoidance tactics.A slight reduction in wind strengthabout 20M from home provedshort-lived, with a return of F6 forour entry into Spithead – 12 hoursfor 85M quite impressed us. By thetime we had tied up to a mooringopposite the naval dockyard dinnerwas ready and much wine wasdrunk.

Sacrifices to Poseidon shouldprovide equally ideal conditionsfor the August Bank Holiday cross-Channel.

May Yarmouth RallyEric Salt (Duet)

I took this rally over at the lastminute from Cliff, who was busymaking his arrangements to bringhis new boat down from Scotland.

Anyway I managed to get elevenboats to meet in Yarmouth on afairly cold and windy weekend. Weall moored on the old outer greenpontoon which was non-walk-ashore; this meant we all had toblow up our dinghies and start ouroutboards, all part of the fun ofsailing! Saturday evening sawtwenty-seven people on and aroundour catamaran Duet. With thisnumber and consuming plenty offood and drink aboard she was verylow in the water so I transferredsome off onto the pontoon. We allhad a jolly time meeting newmembers. On Sunday a small groupof us did the Yar river walk up toShalfleet on one side of the river

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then back on the other side takingin a nice coffee stop on the way. Thesail back to Port Solent in theafternoon was exciting;unfortunately we arrived at fairlylow water and had to wait forseveral locks before we could enter.In all, we thought it was asuccessful weekend.

Late May Bank HolidayEric Salt (Duet)

I also took over the late May cross-Channel meeting as Cliff was busysorting out his new boat ready forthe long trip down from Scotland.Unfortunately the weather onceagain prevented a cross-Channel.

As I had a strong crew on Duet weventured out on this very windyweekend. On Friday night we firstsailed to Stokes Bay where wepassed the Aircraft Carrier USSGeorge HW Bush, fully equippedwith loads of aircraft (obviously inthe UK to show off to the worldtheir capability), then continued oursail down the Solent by night toreach Yarmouth around 2330.

On Saturday we left Yarmouthplanning to sail down to Poole. Wegot as far as Hurst to be met by F7winds on the nose and a 2m swell.As Duet is not built for theseconditions I decided to make ahasty retreat back into thesheltered Solent, I timed my turnvery carefully not to be hitbroadside, then surfed up theSolent on a dead run hitting over

10kt over the water. After a lunchstop outside Hythe Marina wecontinued up to the Southamptonport viewing the fabulous cruiseships. We sailed back to Cowes inwinds now touching F8 and intothe Folly for the usual Saturdaynight fun, anchoring off IslandHarbour in shallow water (I can dothis in a cat!).

After my crew all getting a skinfulon Saturday night we stayed atanchor all day Sunday watching theMonaco Grand Prix. On Monday wesailed round the islandanticlockwise in much betterconditions with moderate windsonly. Unfortunately during the tripone of the steering cables brokeand one of the centreboard ropessnapped, I guess I must haveweakened them in heavy weatheron the preceding days. FortunatelyDuet can be steered using ropesand one centre board so we stillenjoyed the sail without anyoutside help to return to mymooring in Port Solent. I spent thenext fortnight repairing Duet.

Hythe Marina RallyJaye Isherwood (French Filly)

This was my second time of beingrally coordinator for the HytheRally and this time we had a recordattendance with seven boatscomprising: Paw Buoy, Reflections,Mañana, Shiraz,  Lord Fyfe,Mystique, Nicknack and FrenchFilly. In addition we had two

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couples arriving by car as theirboats were not available. Thisresulted in a very packed boat forthe deck party on French Filly witha record fifteen on board and thebathing deck now under water!

Hythe Marina were great in keepingus all together and placing us onpontoon C in front of the mainrestaurants.  Some of the gangwalked to the marina edge to seeIndependence of the Seas depart forits cruise into the Med closelyfollowed by Oceana. After a drinkor two the twenty-three crewwalked into town for a super mealat the Hobbits Restaurant. The foodat Hobbits is a mix of Italian andEnglish and is highly recommendedif you are ever in Hythe town.

Weather on the outward journeywas OK with a bit of a swell just atthe entrance to SouthamptonWater.  However, the weatherturned on Sunday so all but twoboats left at first light to race home.Most made it OK but with Shiraztrailing the others to face the fullforce of the storm!  I thought thatI should have been fine as we hadplanned to stay in Hythe for a fewdays. However I had a phone callwhile in town on Sunday to movemy boat urgently as I had beenallocated a private berth and theowners were approaching the lock.In a real hooley, I had to slip myberth and move to thehammerhead. We achieved thatwithout drama although Em and Iwere now soaked to the skin.Thankfully Hythe were apologetic

and gave me a free night for mytroubles.

Bringing our new boathome

Flicky Laxton (Somerled)

We are now back from Scotland atthe end of the delivery trip forSomerled, our new Sunfast 37.Everyone (us, Ian, Gary and Andy)got up there in a rented car. Allappeared to be in order, theupholstery having been finished inthe nick of time and the boat puton its mooring that very morning.We provisioned up in the localCo-op. I was glad to have broughtmy veggie burgers as the guysmade for the meat pies.

Next day it was blowing and raininghard so we only made 30M downto Largs marina, deciding that, asthe weather outlook was good,there was no point getting soakedand destroying crew morale. Thefollowing day we set off at 0500having sorted a watch system(based on four hours on and sixoff). The sun actually came outthough it was still cold. We had agood passage in a light NW wind,even managing to put thespinnaker up for a time, passingAilsa Craig close on our starboardside and Ardglass (County Down)during the night. We passed KishBank lighthouse (off Dublin Bay) inmorning sunshine to reach Arklow(County Wicklow) at 1400, having

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covered 222M on the passage, thenwent ashore to test the Guinness.PSYC members Vaughan and Lyndaturned up in the morning on theirway to Scotland. Lynda gave meconfidence that it’s quite normalthat women can do this, as I wasfeeling very much the lone female,last in the male-dominatedhierarchy of Somerled! AccordinglyI reasserted myself and then did awhole lot better on the helm. (Wehad left Scotland in the bottom endof F6 so I had spent my "off watch"time in my cabin.) We had somegood fun on the leg from Arklow;with lots of rolly seas, so we wereall practising surfing the waves,which comes naturally with time.Gary, Cliff and I were on when wespotted a monster cloud. Cliff puta reef in, then decided on another,then ... wham!  I prefer to stand onthe floor rather the side of a boat!!I was kinda pinned to the coachroof; fortunately the guys hadsome fun for an hour then itdecreased to a brisk sail with somerolly sea. The haggis pie did theblokes no favours, as they all feltunwell that night (hee, hee), whileI maintained a little dignity andseamanship!The following day the winddropped and there was a fair bit ofmotoring, so a new alternator beltwas fitted. We ended with a coolsail in Penzance bay, berthing inNewlyn by 1700. We spent a goodevening in Newlyn, a pretty basicold fishing harbour with no diesel.We headed off next day at 0500and had a motoring dayto Brixham, getting in too late for

a meal but due to the conditions Idid a passable Saturday roast forthe guys.We left Brixham around 1000 and

had a quiet passage to the Needleswhere I spotted lights andlandmarks for Laxton into

Yarmouth where, after a fifteen-hour passage, we picked up a buoyfor the night. Our thanks to Andy,Gary. and Ian for making 588miles fly.

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July Swanwick Rally

Nick Hewitson (Paw Buoy)

The annual dinghy expeditionup the Hamble River to theHorse and Groom pub atCurdridge took place at the endof July.Everyone had arrived atSwanwick marina by earlyafternoon and due to the factthat the tide time meant that wewould be in the pub around6.00pm it was decided to breakwith tradition and a pontoontea party was arranged aboardPaw Buoy at 1430.

After consuming a wide rangeof cakes and biscuits thedinghies were launched (maybea little lower in the water thanthey would have been withoutthe cake!) and the rubber boatfleet set off up the river at 1615.

This year the outboards ranwell although Cliff asCommodore seem not to havetraded up his outboard in linewith his stylish new yacht. Soas the fleet sped up the HambleCliff and Flicky started to fallfurther behind. After a coupleof stops en route to allowrefuelling we turned into thefinal leg up to the pub throughthe reeds. These stops had the

advantage of allowing theflotilla to close up and we allarrived in style at the Horse andGroom just after 1730.

The landlord’s till rang happilyfor the next few minutes and wesettled down in the pub gardento enjoy a long slow pint. Thiscontinued until Jaye pointed outthat the water was flowing awayat high speed and that the levelwas four inches lower than ithad been twenty minutes ago.The slow relaxed drink becamemore a “quick one for the road”(or should that be river?) and weall trooped back to the dinghies.With the tide behind us we wereoff, and in less than an hourback at Swanwick Marina.

The tradition with this rally isthen to go to the Chinese discojust above Bursledon for a mealand dancing, where we filledourselves up on the party menubefore wending our way back tothe boats for a good night’ssleep.

On Sunday morning a numberof boats went early which waspossibly a good idea, as those ofus who waited for the flood tidearrived back with the Sunsailfleet at Port Solent whichprovided its usualentertainment value.

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Boats taking part: Paw Buoy, Duet, Somerled, French Filly, Kioni,Mystique, Bathia, Reflections and Brilliant

Swanwick Dinghy Expedition 2011

Cliff, will it. keep going?

NicNick (Fleet Skipper) , Is it going to start?

What is ourheadingTrudy?

Ready, Steady ...

.....and they are off!

The Speedy Stitcher

John Crooks (Entropy)

The canvas of my spray hood has a thick tape border, whichcontinues as the strap used to secure the hood. Sunlight hasrotted the stitching, so that the tape has come free from thecanvas. I needed to re-stitch the hood, so I bought a SpeedyStitcher (£14.95) in the Lymington chandlers. The SpeedyStitcher consists of a stout, very sharp needle mounted in awooden handle. The needle has an eye at its tip. The handle

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has a spool of thick waxedthread in the base, and a peghalfway up.I struggled to understand theinstructions, and failed tomake it work as it should. Igave up, and used the needlemerely to punch holesthrough the canvas and tape,which it did very well. I usedan ordinary needle to sew thetape to the canvas.After much trial and error athome, I worked out how to doit. The Speedy Stitchergenerates lockstitch. This isa stitch where there is threadon both sides of the canvas.The thread on one sidepasses through a loop in thethread on the other side ateach hole. In a domesticsewing machine, one threadcomes from a spool above thework, the other from a spoolbelow the work In the SpeedyStitcher, there is only onethread, but it is in effect bentback on itself, and half thelength is used for one side,half for the other. This is thebit I did not understand.

If you have a stitcher butcan’t make it work, here is thesecret:

1. Pull out a length of threadfrom the spool, about twiceas long as the seam, and windthe spool end round the pegto anchor it.. Push the needle through,and pull the whole length ofthread after it through thehole.3. Pull the needle completelyback out4. Pull half the length ofthread back through thehole.  Call the half left behindon the other side Red, and thehalf pulled through to theneedle side Blue.5. Push the needle in the nexthole, and pull out a loop onthe other side.6. Pass the Red threadthrough the loop in the Bluethread.7. Push the needle in the nexthole, and pull out a loop onthe other side.8. Pass the Red threadthrough the loop in the Bluethread.9. At the end, push the needlein for the last time, cut theloop of the Blue thread andtie to the Red thread with areef knot.

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See the diagram for what thestitch pattern looks like.There is no need to fasten thethread at the beginning. Thethread loops back on itself atthe first hole.The Speedy Stitcher is a veryworkmanlike tool, sturdyenough to stitch the thickestcanvas. Every sailor shouldhave one on board.

Which Summer cruise?

Tony Firth (Amoret)

This edition usually carries areport on the PSYC SummerCruise. Sometimes thisfortnight is blessed with fairwinds and sunshine, allowingthose taking part to roam themiddle reaches of the EnglishChannel to their hearts’content while absorbing UVradiation and dodgy seafoodand snapping yet more NABS(for new members, NABS hasnothing to do with the towerthat marks the north end ofthe big ship channel - itstands for “Not AnotherB……. Sunset” - the reactionof audiences at PSYC wintertalks). More frequently theSummer Cruise is an ordeal

by low pressure areas, withtattered yachts and their rain-lashed crews struggling to getbeyond Yarmouth and onlythe brave or those withflexible holiday dates makingit as far as Cherbourg orDartmouth.

So what happened to it thisyear? Various fragmentaryevents have laid claim tobeing the real thing. Hugh andMarian (Shiraz) modestlydescribe an interesting timein dodgy weather. The Editorasked Hugh to write a reportfor Burgee if he had time, butten minutes’ notice beforeour deadline wasn’t reallyenough. Eric and Gill (Duet)looked at the weather

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PSYC contacts Commodore Cliff Laxton (Malaika) 01285 850159 cliff.laxton@btinternet.com

Rear Commodore Sail Eric Salt (Duet) 02392 378308 ericandgill@btinternet.com

Rear Commodore Power Nick Hewitson (Paw Buoy) 07773 324734 suehewitson@googlemail.com

Rear Commodore House Jaye Isherwood (French Filly) jaye@hotmail.co.uk

Hon Secretary Hugh Nightingale (Shiraz) 07966 427794 mayele@tiscali.co.uk

Hon Treasurer Sue Hewitson (Paw Buoy) 02392 610267 suehewitson@googlemail.com

Burgee Editor Tony Firth (Amoret) 02392 221950 tony.firth@talk21.com

Purser & Webmaster Jacqui Howe 07916 011708 howejacqui@hotmail.com

Berthholders Representative Graham Hudson grahamehudson@hotmail.com

Committee Member John Crooks (Entropy) xjecrooks@aol.com

prospects, considered thenumber of catamarans thathad gone antifoul-up in theRound-the-Island Race,decided that they didn’t wantto be the next one andpromptly went for a cruise ina slightly bigger vessel (about30,000 tons bigger).

So was there a PSYC SummerCruise? Interesting news onthis vital question has

reached Burgee from noneless than our correspondentin Arklow (County Wicklow,Eire). He reports that THREEPSYC vessels were sighted inhis fine harbour in a singleday. The harbourmasterdescribed them as “a bluidygreat tin sailing frigate,anudder froggy-type boat widfour fellas and a kenspecklemissis on board, and a low-slung blue boat wid about amillion aerials, an anchor anda propellor on the pushpitrail.” Look for the latest newson this story in November’sBurgee!

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