2016 Scuttlebutt Cherbourg Cruise

[Angele]

As previous years a great weekend marred only by the weather that prevented some folk not making it to Cherbourg (there were times during our crossing on Thursday evening that I wished that I was with them!!!!! ). Very many thanks to Mark & Andrea for the wonderful hospitality on board Irelands Eye over the whole trip :encouragement:.

Also many thanks to Roger for the (as usual) excellent organisation and providing the best reason for not crossing! The RNLI rule - OK!

I echo all that. :encouragement:

 

[DJE]

I echo all that. :encouragement:

So will I.

Got back on the mooring about 18:30 and unloaded one dinghy load of wine last night - we're going back for another one today.

 

[Sailfree]

Put dates in your diaries for next year, September 2nd is the best for a neap tide, with September 16th also heaps but with a higher range. Over to you, Roger!

Any strong opinions from others ref 2nd sept v 16th Sept? I know a number get caught on Uni run.

One advantage of early on 2nd is that those tied to school holidays could combine scuttlebutt with a week or few days before cruise to N France CI etc.

For that reason I prefer the 2nd but like to be democratic. Any others with strong preferences?

 

[dom]

Great w/e as ever and thanks to Roger for arranging in the 3 mins of spare time he had in 2016!

The sail over to Cherbourg was a bit of a challenge; to put it in perspective the UKBF vessel we had the pleasure of meeting yesterday commented that their vessel was rolling all over the place on Thu/Fri. The problem was the combined F6/7 driven short SSW sea and a biggish 2.5m westerly swell rolling in from the gales sitting off the SW of Ireland.

Going straight uphill in such conditions is about: hull shape, LWL, sail-cloth/cut, no. of sails carried and foil design. For some a VMG of close on 6kts was possible giving a passage time of about 11hrs, for others a VMG of 3kts would have left them at sea for an entirely unpleasant 24hrs.

The best news of course was that good decision-making kept everyone stayed safe, two groups naturally emerged and everyone had a great time! The Yarmouth Curry night seems to have been a lot of fun and the Cbg dinner was somewhat small 's'!) tamer than some years. Has anybody worked out the critical number of peeps required for a thermonuclear drinking session?

Thanks again Roger and already looking fwd to next year :encouragement:

 

[Angele]

Any strong opinions from others ref 2nd sept v 16th Sept? I know a number get caught on Uni run.

One advantage of early on 2nd is that those tied to school holidays could combine scuttlebutt with a week or few days before cruise to N France CI etc.

For that reason I prefer the 2nd but like to be democratic. Any others with strong preferences?

I'm not sure that one date is clearly better than the other.

Many schools will be going back in August next year (as they did this year). Just checked the term dates for schools in my area and terms starts on Wednesday 30 August. So the weekend of the 2nd September won't avoid school term for everyone.

On the other hand, the weekend of the 16th clashes with the start of next year's Southampton boat show.

I don't mind which, so long as we settle on one. I can then work on trying to ensure I still have enough holiday by next September.

You pays yer money.....

 

[Angele]

Put dates in your diaries for next year, September 2nd is the best for a neap tide, with September 16th also heaps but with a higher range. Over to you, Roger!

Actually, looking at Topcat's tide info, I think the 2nd is quite a bit better.

In the run up to the Saturday 2 September 2017 the tidal range is less than mean neaps from Tuesday 29 August right up to (and including) the Saturday. It only reaches mid-range by the pm tide on Monday 4th.

Whereas it is above mean neaps in the run up to the 16th September and anyone hanging on to the Monday (18th) would be crossing close to springs.

 

[KREW2]

Even with depleted numbers it was a good meetup. Thanks to Dom for his hospitality and sailfree for organizing, and re-organizing.
Going earlier seems good to me, maybe this could leave a later date as a back up. Anyone know a good long range weather forecast for next September?
We had an eventful trip back, even in light airs we managed to reach speeds og of 8 knots.

 

[Channel Sailor]

First, a thank you to Sailfree for arranging the gathering of yachts, then another thank you to Derek and Danny to encouraged the alternative meeting at Yarmouth and Beaulieu.

We may not have made it to Cherbourg but on Plan C Calypso crew had an excellent few days of varied sailing and socialising. On Thursday we headed out of Chichester for a few miles and realised the motion was not going to be bearable for another 12-15 hours so turned towards the Solent where the wind then started to increase. Ran out of mainsail reefs at 27-30 kts true so had to turn back to Chichester. Until the point we were overpowered with increasing wind it had fun but not very comfortable. Ended up anchored off Pilsea Island for a rather windy night. Then we picked up the thread about meeting at Yarmouth so headed off in the morning, again with two reefs, beating to Osbourne Bay for lunch then onwards to Yarmouth. Thank you to my crew who sorted out the social event for the evening where we met those you can see in the photo above in Derek's post. It was an excellent evening meeting new friends. A few of us planned to go Beaulieu the next morning, but on a local forecast of 28kts at midday (again) and continuous rain, there was just Calypso and one other yacht that went to Beaulieu. Some stayed in Yarmouth and I think some headed home to Southampton water somewhere.

As it happened it was a cracking downwind sail to Beaulieu in somewhat limited visibility caused by rain and complicated by our track being cluttered with two sizable serious racing fleets. In Bucklers Hard we met up with Danny and Michael (potatonavigator) for a good few beers in the Master Builder.

Going home Sunday was one of the best sails of the season back to Chichester via short stop for an evening meal in Bembridge. We entered Chi harbour late last night in perfect moon light night, excellent visibility and a southerly force 3.

It was my first proper crewed trip on this yacht, the highlights: met new friends, good crew/good company, the yacht was fun sail and was fast, chuffed with my newly fitted long extendable tiller extension that meant you can helm seated right up on rail, chuffed with the repaired Log that we reinstalled halfway through the trip because we could then see that we were sailing faster than first thought, the curry in Yarmouth and finally my Greek style meatballs (from Lidl).

Lowlights: one bruised finger which I think is not serious but was very unfortunate, discovered a stupid Jeanneau design for pumping out the shower tray that simply did not work and tying the inflated dinghy on the transom as a liferaft was a problem the first time because it dug into the water when heeled and in Strong winds it flipped up across the backstays and acted like a downwind sail (Robc's extra lashing fixed this problem the next day).

Also relieved to hear that all on Sailfree were safe considering the problems they experienced.

Thanks again Sailfree.

 

[Frank Connelly]

Thank you to Sailfree for the organisation of this event and especially to Simonfa for his kindness and generosity of spirit in allowing a random forum user like me to crew for him and so participate in the cross channel antics that was this years cruise.

It was nice to meet Horatio_Nelson in Portland and the rest of the gang in Cherbourg. You really are a lovely lot and I was made to feel very welcome indeed.

I think the trip showed the bipolar nature of the Channel wonderfully. Certainly a trip I will never forget.

I have some photos. I will endeavour to post them.

 

[robp]

Echoing Channel Sailor, sorry we couldn't make Cherbourg but it would have been quite uncomfortable, even as good as Calypso sails. Thanks to Roger as usual and really sorry to hear about your miserable time off Poole. Great to meet up in Yarmouth and meet forumites for a few beers and very decent curry.
Many thanks to Channel Sailor for great company and sailing all weekend. (I've just managed to extract the kitchen sink from my bag Andrew)! Hope everyone gets/got back with no problems.

 

[Bobc]

Shame about the weather for you this year.

Regarding next year, I would be up for either weekend, but I would think the 2nd would be a better bet.

 

[Topcat47]

That's what happens when you post when you're tired and emotional. I was working on a neep to neep cycle of a fortnight, not 17 days. Apologies it's the 2nd for "real" neeps next year.

 

[SimonFa]

Like others, a big thank you to Sail Free for organising the trip and dinner, it was an enjoyable evening and I drank more than I'd intended. An equally big thanks to Dom, and especially Mrs Dom, for their excellent hospitality. The Irish are well known for their hospitality but it isn't a patch and German/Irish hospitality.

It was also great to put faces to a few regular names, the problem is I can't remember them all, and swapping Royal Signals war stories with Lady In Bed while I fixed my auto helm - he did distract me at one point and when I'd eventually got it back together I realised I still had a part in my hand I think I stripped it down 3 times in the end.

At one point on the way we were 30 miles North of Cherbourg heading west to see if we good get enough of an angle to sail in and I offered my sea sick crew the option of going back which must have been quicker, but he opted to plod on and I'm glad we did.

As for 2017, I'm easy but the earlier the notice the better so I can get it in to our diaries before swmbo puts something in and maybe organise crew who don't need to get back in a hurry.

 

[chubby]

Perhaps the UKBF had been tipped off that the boat with Cherbourg as port of registry, flying the red ensign but crewed by an Irishman and a German, who tried to divert the French Douanes who visited during the Cherbourg indoor pontoon party with talk of brexit and that the 20 or so people on board drinking heavily and desperate to get back to England were only scuttlebutt sailors and not migrants!

I wondered why Dabchick had made up distance on you towards the end of the trip, it couldn`t have been impeccable tidal planning by Chubby despite Wizard saying the needles would be better! 020 al the way with no corrections except for ship dodging until Sandown bay!

As previous years a great weekend marred only by the weather that prevented some folk not making it to Cherbourg (there were times during our crossing on Thursday evening that I wished that I was with them!!!!! ). Very many thanks to Mark & Andrea for the wonderful hospitality on board Irelands Eye over the whole trip :encouragement:.

Also many thanks to Roger for the (as usual) excellent organisation and providing the best reason for not crossing! The RNLI rule - OK!

Contrary to other opinions voiced here we found the UK Border Force visitors to be the height of civility and good humour whilst south of the IOW!!

 

[Angele]

Perhaps the UKBF had been tipped off that the boat with Cherbourg as port of registry, flying the red ensign but crewed by an Irishman and a German, who tried to divert the French Douanes who visited during the Cherbourg indoor pontoon party with talk of brexit and that the 20 or so people on board drinking heavily and desperate to get back to England were only scuttlebutt sailors and not migrants!

We tried to warn them about that dodgy individual in a Barbary ketch to the south-east of us, who had planned a rendezvous with his shorebased "dealers" in Bembridge, but they left too quickly before we had given them the lat and long...

 

[chubby]

Thanks to all who made it a fantastic weekend, Roger for organising, Mark and Andrea who having the largest saloon assumed role of on scene commander ( pontoon party), those who didn`t cross but made an alternative in Yarmouth and everyone who was such great company. I need to let liver and digestion recover!

I will confess that by taking the week ahead off work and watching the weather, both crossings were in near flat calm conditions.

Certainly up for next year, either date provided outside school holidays.

 

[Giblets]

Perhaps the UKBF had been tipped off that the boat with Cherbourg as port of registry, flying the red ensign but crewed by an Irishman and a German, who tried to divert the French Douanes who visited during the Cherbourg indoor pontoon party with talk of brexit and that the 20 or so people on board drinking heavily and desperate to get back to England were only scuttlebutt sailors and not migrants!

Do you mean to say that UKBF didn't visit you after we suggested that the boarding of Dabchick may be to their advantage!! Barstewards!! :nonchalance:

 

[chubby]

They might have impounded the goodies bought for Mrs Chubby in the deli next to the capitanerie as a peace offering! When I did get home she had been too busy with various sleepovers to notice I had gone! I must adopt Lady in Red`s approach: I am just going down to the boat, "when will you be back?": five months!

Do you mean to say that UKBF didn't visit you after we suggested that the boarding of Dabchick may be to their advantage!! Barstewards!! :nonchalance:

 

[DJE]

....impeccable tidal planning by Chubby despite Wizard saying the needles would be better! 020 al the way with no corrections except for ship dodging....

Similar for us. 025T for 10 hours but we did seem to be heading for Selsey until I realised I'd applied the compass deviation the wrong way.

 

[KREW2]

Even with depleted numbers it was a good meetup. Thanks to Dom for his hospitality and sailfree for organizing, and re-organizing.
Going earlier seems good to me, maybe this could leave a later date as a back up. Anyone know a good long range weather forecast for next September?
We had an eventful trip back, even in light airs we managed to reach speeds og of 8 knots.

Looks like nobody is going to bite, the 8 knots was achieved with the help of Weymouth life boat. I was not going to be out done by Sailfree.

At about 13.30 and some 20nm sse of Portland Bill crew Richard shouted stop the engine, he thought he saw a piece of fishing net go under the boat. I looked over the stern and saw that the rope cutter was doing its job, spitting out bits of green nylon. A few seconds later the engine stalled, totally overwhelmed by the amount of mesh.
A look at the plotter showed we had stopped with SOG showing zero, the view from the transom was green mesh going down into the depths as far as the eye could see.
My first concern the we had been anchored to the sea bed, so we let out the main sheet hoping the light breeze would give us some way. After about a minute SOG was 0.5 of a knot, but with hindsight I now think that was tide drift, I tried to harden up and come onto a beam reach, but movement in the helm was restricted and very stiff. Eventually we had a reading of 1.7 knots, so I was satisfied that we were not anchored by the stern.
We gathered our thoughts and decided to try and pull the net on board and tie it up on the pushpit. I said I would go down below and get some short lengths of rope and webbing I keep in a locker. As I was descending below Richard nonchalantly said "Keith, just check we're not sinking" I did and we were not.
About twenty minutes later, using the boat hook and a lot of grunt, we had pulled in some 8/10 meters of net and had it tied on the back. Looking down we could still see steams of green running astern but it was too deep for us to reach, but boat speed had increased to 2.4 knots unfortunateley we were on a heading of 027 towards Anvil point. We unfurled the genoa, gybed and tried to goosewing towards Weymouth bay, with the tide just turning east light airs and a lot of drag our SOG dropped to 1.5 knots.

It was now about 14.00 and with and ETA into Portland of midnight I now decided it was time to call Solent coast guard and inform them of our situation. They told us to go to ch73 and stand by.
With the easterly tide going to pick up, and remain for another five hours we decided heading for Weymouth was not really an option, so we gybed again and head towards St Albins Head on a heading of 010, this gave us an SOG of 3.8 knots, but VMG was poor, it still meant an ETA of about midnight.
Solent coast guard called us up and asked how we were doing, and did I have concerns, I said I had.
I was concerned of tacking just off St Albins Head and sailing across Weymouth bay, with an onshore breeze, entering Portland Harbour in the dark, and trying to manoeuvre through our swing moorings with an unknown length of netting hanging below our keel. He said to avoid what might become a more serious situation he was going to contact Weymouth life boat to come and assist. I told him our position and said we would continue sailing on a northerly course to close land
At 15.40 we spotted the lifeboat, they called us, asked us to drop our sails, and would put somebody on board to assist, as they swung around our stern they took one look at the mess, and said they would just throw us a line and tow us in.
At 19.00 we were safely tied up in Weymouth.

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