52 Motor Boats in Rosette formation

The Clyde Cruising Club like doing this, for some reason. Here's their record, said to be 184 boats

48206087.jpg
 
Some better photographs of the Rosette.

Profile view of "Rosette" raft anchored out for the night on one of the tiny inner lakes only 2 miles off the sizeable Lough Ree.



Drone overhead view of Shannon Boat Rally 2016 - "Rosette Raft" anchored out for the night



For many of the crews on these mobo's this was their first time ever anchoring out, and they were pleasantly surprised and really enjoyed the night under candle light socialising with neighbouring boats, and even some folk doing a 360 degree boarding walk about visiting every boat in the raft until they got as far as a barge with the Guinness kegs!

There was a harbour master with three support ribs that assisted the boats into position and safe deployment of anchors in a way that did not risk entanglement of chains and cater for any wind shifts. The ribs acted like tugs and ensured anchors were deployed well forward of the bows in a star formation. With the boats tided together the whole raft became 'tension locked' without undue pressure on fenders and was resistant to wind from any direction. There was an anchor watch crew on rotational duty all night. It proved a magical experience and highlight for many of the whole year.

Ocean Froggie photo from a few years ago
 

Attachments

  • 22.jpg
    22.jpg
    31 KB · Views: 0
Last edited:
OF, what are the two oddly shaped long things on 9 and 11ish on the aerial view? Look like barges of some sort, no?
And why the boat at 3 is coloured like that, ALL OF IT???

V.
 
Thanks for the Shannon update OF, great to see all the folks getting together and having a good time.

Wow, your local harbourmaster certainly goes beyond the call of duty, it's pretty dedicated to go out to this anchorage and manoeuvre all the boats together.
 
I see that they are virtually all "outies" with only a couple of "innies"

That was by design so most folk could sit in their cockpits facing inwards to watch the fun events inside the Rosette circle, and have bathing platforms inside the Rosette for swimming, and more sociable to have cockpits closer to neighbouring vessels. There were some "its a knockout style" fun comps floating in the centre. There were another 15 vessels absent from the raft that night for a variety of reasons including a few nervous lady 1st mates who regretted missing out.

OF, what are the two oddly shaped long things on 9 and 11ish on the aerial view? Look like barges of some sort, no?
And why the boat at 3 is coloured like that, ALL OF IT???

They are two locally famous wide beam barges "Sampson" and "Ye Iron Lung" that cruise the large loughs as well as the river, and the 3 o'clock vessel was a small wide beam barge with deck and top sides painted 'green'. Sampson is more of a small ship skippered by the harbour master of a deep water port on the east coast.

Thanks for the Shannon update OF, great to see all the folks getting together and having a good time.

Wow, your local harbourmaster certainly goes beyond the call of duty, it's pretty dedicated to go out to this anchorage and manoeuvre all the boats together.

Hi Andie, your welcome. The HM 'Brian' was travelling with the rally and was responsible for controlling and coming up with mooring plans for the fleet as it moved from harbour to harbour every 2 days, and was also responsible for constructing the anchored raft. Many of the crews had never anchored out before so he was also doing a fair bit of education and physical assistance with the support of a number of safety ribs.

All in all, from the positive feedback most folks said it was one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences they ever had boating.
 
Last edited:
Top