Concerto
Well-known member
Someone mentioned a few days ago I should get some down wind sailing, well it happened today.
Today I had planned to go ashore in Tobermory, but the best laid plans can be disrupted by the weather. When I woke this morning, Concerto was bucking like a bronco. The guide was right, Tobermory is not comfortable in strong northerly winds. I could not believe how much some of the boats were moving. I have taken 4 screen shots from a video to show how much boats were moving. It was difficult to stay standing. After slipping the buoy, I motored at 2200 rpm which should give 5½ knots in smooth water, but only made 3 knots into the waves.
Once clear of the harbour at just after 8.30, Concerto was still bucking a lot and I decided to unfurl the genoa to the first reef to stabilise her. Nope, it did not do the trick and I thought it would be silly to attempt to raised the mainsail in those conditions. So turning on to a broad reach made it slightly more comfortable. Feeling the wind and how Concerto was performing, I felt she could handle the full genoa, remember she is a ¾ rig so not a huge headsail. She handled well and was making about 6½ knots, which I felt was fine. 20 minutes later a squall came through and woosh I hit 7.9 knots through the water. The Sound of Mull was a sea of white caps and wind lanes. During one of the squalls I noticed how the wind made small wavelets on top of the waves and pulled water droplets off the surface and then they dropped back in the water. Never seen that before. You could also see how the wind pushed under the genoa and it rippled the water furiously.
On the eastern shore was another boat that joined the Sound of Mull at the same time as me, but never caught me even though she was longer than Concerto. Later 4 other yachts followed me down the Sound from Tobermory. In the strong winds I just pulled away from them as I was holding more canvas. At one time I was changing from autopilot to hand steering and a gust hit, wow she broached toward the wind, but soon came under control. As I came by Lochaline, the wind dropped and my speed fell to 3½ knots. A large boat had caught me up when the wind dropped, then I noticed he had his engine on. She was a 43ft Jenneau with 6 adults on and looked like a sailing school boat. One of the boats astern had turned into wind to raise a small amount of mainsail. After a few minutes, I decided to prepare to raise the mainsail with a single reef. Everything was ready and I was just about to turn towards the wind to start raising when another blast of wind hit. Naturally I did not raise any mainsail. It meant I had caught the 43ft yacht up again. The wind had become an almost dead run. I was was on port and they were on starboard, so I cut close across their transom to gain a little space as they were not as controlled as me. For quite a while we were doing very similar speeds until we parted. I think they were surprised at how fast I was going compared to them.
From then on I gybed downwind to maintain a middle of the Sound course to avoid too many funnelled gusts of wind. At the southern end I kept the small islands with a light on my starboard. Then to round the next lighthouse was a dead run, so continued to gybe. Then I headed to port to make Oban. I checked the details of the 2 marinas and decided not to choose which one until I could see if the Transit Marina in Oban was fairly calm as it can be exposed in northerly winds. It looked calm enough, so decided it was for me. Oban being the busy ferry port meant I heard on the VHF a ferry was departing whilst still approaching the marina, so I went just outside the green cans. I had 4m under the keel as I was rigging the fenders, but suddenly this dropped to 1.5m, so I almost brushed the buoy to stay out of the channel. Quickly I called the harbour master's office, but they did not know if there were any spare berths, but just pick any empty one. I finally rigged to more to starboard. As you expected, the first 3 berths were for mooring to port, but I went further in and had a choice of two. I took the one nearest the ramp. Entered very slowly and another yachtsman came to assist me, but I did not really need it but thanked him anyway. It was 13.15, so it was a fast trip to cover 28 miles including leaving and entering the harbours.
After a bite of lunch I decided to have a look round the town before going to Tesco for some urgent supplies. I had run out of chocolate and ciders, so it was an emergency. By the time I returned I was feeling a little tired. As I was putting my shopping away, I noticed someone on the finger pontoon tying a rope to a middle cleat. I popped out to ask if he would like a hand, he thought he could do it with his wife, but agreed another pair of hands would be useful. To be honest and he agreed, they could not have managed without my help to pull their HR356 across so they did not lie so hard on they fenders. Using warps and winches made it fairly easy , but they needed help to stop the bow hitting the pontoon.
Having found almost no tv signal for over a week, it was nice to watch a few programs whilst reading the forums and then making supper. The usual bit of loading the latest photos to the laptop and then resizing some to load on here always takes time, made longer by making the screen grabs from the video.
Overall it was a great day's sail and for the first time on this trip I did not raise the mainsail, but it did not affect the boat speed. Oh, and nothing broke.
HR34 bows down
Bows up
The ketch is about 40 to 42ft I estimated
But she bucked like the rest
Looking down the Sound of Mull and it looks quite calm
This was the 43ft Jeneau as we parted company
The small islands at the southern end of the Sound
Looking north as I approached Oban
Looking almost astern
The Transit Marina, Oban
Concerto is dwarfed by the huge Canadian yacht astern. This is the only yacht I have ever seen with 2 sprayhoods, one for passengers and one for the helsman.
For anyone wanting to read the reports from the start, this is the link to first one.
Round Britian day 1
Today I had planned to go ashore in Tobermory, but the best laid plans can be disrupted by the weather. When I woke this morning, Concerto was bucking like a bronco. The guide was right, Tobermory is not comfortable in strong northerly winds. I could not believe how much some of the boats were moving. I have taken 4 screen shots from a video to show how much boats were moving. It was difficult to stay standing. After slipping the buoy, I motored at 2200 rpm which should give 5½ knots in smooth water, but only made 3 knots into the waves.
Once clear of the harbour at just after 8.30, Concerto was still bucking a lot and I decided to unfurl the genoa to the first reef to stabilise her. Nope, it did not do the trick and I thought it would be silly to attempt to raised the mainsail in those conditions. So turning on to a broad reach made it slightly more comfortable. Feeling the wind and how Concerto was performing, I felt she could handle the full genoa, remember she is a ¾ rig so not a huge headsail. She handled well and was making about 6½ knots, which I felt was fine. 20 minutes later a squall came through and woosh I hit 7.9 knots through the water. The Sound of Mull was a sea of white caps and wind lanes. During one of the squalls I noticed how the wind made small wavelets on top of the waves and pulled water droplets off the surface and then they dropped back in the water. Never seen that before. You could also see how the wind pushed under the genoa and it rippled the water furiously.
On the eastern shore was another boat that joined the Sound of Mull at the same time as me, but never caught me even though she was longer than Concerto. Later 4 other yachts followed me down the Sound from Tobermory. In the strong winds I just pulled away from them as I was holding more canvas. At one time I was changing from autopilot to hand steering and a gust hit, wow she broached toward the wind, but soon came under control. As I came by Lochaline, the wind dropped and my speed fell to 3½ knots. A large boat had caught me up when the wind dropped, then I noticed he had his engine on. She was a 43ft Jenneau with 6 adults on and looked like a sailing school boat. One of the boats astern had turned into wind to raise a small amount of mainsail. After a few minutes, I decided to prepare to raise the mainsail with a single reef. Everything was ready and I was just about to turn towards the wind to start raising when another blast of wind hit. Naturally I did not raise any mainsail. It meant I had caught the 43ft yacht up again. The wind had become an almost dead run. I was was on port and they were on starboard, so I cut close across their transom to gain a little space as they were not as controlled as me. For quite a while we were doing very similar speeds until we parted. I think they were surprised at how fast I was going compared to them.
From then on I gybed downwind to maintain a middle of the Sound course to avoid too many funnelled gusts of wind. At the southern end I kept the small islands with a light on my starboard. Then to round the next lighthouse was a dead run, so continued to gybe. Then I headed to port to make Oban. I checked the details of the 2 marinas and decided not to choose which one until I could see if the Transit Marina in Oban was fairly calm as it can be exposed in northerly winds. It looked calm enough, so decided it was for me. Oban being the busy ferry port meant I heard on the VHF a ferry was departing whilst still approaching the marina, so I went just outside the green cans. I had 4m under the keel as I was rigging the fenders, but suddenly this dropped to 1.5m, so I almost brushed the buoy to stay out of the channel. Quickly I called the harbour master's office, but they did not know if there were any spare berths, but just pick any empty one. I finally rigged to more to starboard. As you expected, the first 3 berths were for mooring to port, but I went further in and had a choice of two. I took the one nearest the ramp. Entered very slowly and another yachtsman came to assist me, but I did not really need it but thanked him anyway. It was 13.15, so it was a fast trip to cover 28 miles including leaving and entering the harbours.
After a bite of lunch I decided to have a look round the town before going to Tesco for some urgent supplies. I had run out of chocolate and ciders, so it was an emergency. By the time I returned I was feeling a little tired. As I was putting my shopping away, I noticed someone on the finger pontoon tying a rope to a middle cleat. I popped out to ask if he would like a hand, he thought he could do it with his wife, but agreed another pair of hands would be useful. To be honest and he agreed, they could not have managed without my help to pull their HR356 across so they did not lie so hard on they fenders. Using warps and winches made it fairly easy , but they needed help to stop the bow hitting the pontoon.
Having found almost no tv signal for over a week, it was nice to watch a few programs whilst reading the forums and then making supper. The usual bit of loading the latest photos to the laptop and then resizing some to load on here always takes time, made longer by making the screen grabs from the video.
Overall it was a great day's sail and for the first time on this trip I did not raise the mainsail, but it did not affect the boat speed. Oh, and nothing broke.
HR34 bows down
Bows up
The ketch is about 40 to 42ft I estimated
But she bucked like the rest
Looking down the Sound of Mull and it looks quite calm
This was the 43ft Jeneau as we parted company
The small islands at the southern end of the Sound
Looking north as I approached Oban
Looking almost astern
The Transit Marina, Oban
Concerto is dwarfed by the huge Canadian yacht astern. This is the only yacht I have ever seen with 2 sprayhoods, one for passengers and one for the helsman.
For anyone wanting to read the reports from the start, this is the link to first one.
Round Britian day 1
