Demoralising Comments

[gandy]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry. I don't see the problem.
Are you not happy with your boat?
...and your wife?

[/ QUOTE ]We're both quite happy with the boat. (And I'm happy with the missus, if that's what you mean).

There is an issue with confidence, though. She's very new to sailing. I didn't really appreciate anyone planting any form of suggestion that our plans are ill advised.

 

[smeaks]

of course he has a good point the west coast being so devoid of opportunities of a leward refuge when it blows...... hang on...

 

[LymingtonPugwash]

"The doctor is in"
Now Gandy...... lay comfortably on the couch and tell us how you feel about your wife speaking to an 'old friend' she 'used to know'?
And how do you feel about that clever ploy of looking for a comment you could use against him and going so far as to post it on this forum knowing the amount of derision it would raise against him?
And do you feel better now that it's all worked to plan?
Now that we, your fellow forumites have stood by you through this 'challenging' time and reinforced your feelings about this guy, what will you do with this reinforecment?
Would you consider showing all the postings to Mrs Gandy with a triumphant, "I told you that guy was a plonker"?

Okay........... that's all you get for 200 Euro..... Time up!
Please pay the bill at reception on the way out!

 

[SQUIRRELS]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hubby sailed our last boat, all 27' of it across Biscay. Couldn't have done it without that extra foot though /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Who was he then? Rolf Harris??
/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

No, no, 'Viince in the Vancouver' (those boats do what they say on their labels /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif)

 

[tcm]

hm, I'm quite demoralised now as well. There again, I'll be able to do far more things now I haven't any morals.

 

[webcraft]

[ QUOTE ]
What made his comments a bit unwelcome was that we are planning a trip to the West, and one of my main aims is to make sure its fun rather then scary for both of us. Its going to be a sailing trip, not an adventure.


[/ QUOTE ]

Getting there is the hardest bit, and the Moray Firth has lots of nice new marinas.

Caley Canal - great fun, and it doesn't get much more sheltered.

Loch Linnhe - well, not really even proper sea IMHO - then the Sound of Mull - only two or three miles wide . . . lots of handy sheltered anchorages everywhere no matter what direction the wind is from . . .

How anyone who sails on the horribly scary nowhere to go East coast can worry about a little jaunt out West I don't know - you will have a great time. Even the dreaded Ardnamurchan is a pussycat with a decent weather forecast.

Right now - faced with 500 miles of open Atlantic in an old 27ft boat and an unstable Azores high - I kind of wish we were back home and going up to Tobermory for the weekend . . .

Hope you have a great time 'out West', and I'm sure we all look forward to hearing about it.

- Nick

 

[Niander]

of course he has a good point the west coast being so devoid of opportunities of a leward refuge when it blows...... hang on...


Is ok he can stay behind the whole isle of Mull..!


actually the Caledonia canal is beautiful... a few big lakes in there as well!

 

[contessa26]

Small craft?
I think it was a famous designer who said something like: "Oh - and the smaller the boat - the more fun. And usually the more use you get from her. Likewise - the simpler the better..." Great eh?! Was it is Herreshoff? Or Starling Burgess...?

 

[gandy]

Someone also said "keel boats are for the elderly", so our small keel boat sounds ideal.

 

[Sailfree]

Sad that you did not reply "No as the boat is still in Boston from our Atlantic crossing!"

 

[FAITIRA]

Nothing wrong with small, wife, 3yr old and self spent 2 yrs going to the Med and back in a Westerly 25 bilge keeler 30 yrs ago, no radio, gps, only compass, trailing log and old whirly sounder. We also now have more fun, spend less time fixing things on our 33 than we did on our last 44ftr.

 

[Slow_boat]

Since when was 26ft small?

The Griffon is a good solid boat.

The blokes a nobber, ignore him.

 

[gandy]

I'm intrigued by the "lots of new marinas" on the Moray Firth.

Were you thinking of Banff, just completed this year? Its quite a smart setup, but the harbour entrance still dries so you still only have access 2-3 hours either side of HW.

There are new(ish) pontoons at Cromarty and Helmsdale, but I wouldn't really have called either a marina.

 

[1114C]

we have a 26 footer and I too took my rather nervous wife out to the west coast - she (the wife that is) was terrified as we pulled out of the canal gates with the dorus mor ahead of us (I has shared too much information with her) - on the way back after two weeks she was v sad to see the gates close behind us - weather had not even been that good. She did not enjoy it all but then neither did I but overall it was brilliant!

Nowhere better than on the west coast (only my opinion of course)!!

 

[Searush]

[ QUOTE ]
(cut) His final throwaway comment to her was something along the lines of "well you'll not be sailing on the West Coast in a 26 footer, anyway".

[/ QUOTE ]

We spent 3 years on a 1966 Westerly 25' in and around the Clyde arae with 2 young kids. Then we went on to the West coast untill we sold her in Loch Etive. Absolutely lovely, & sailed part way in company with a plywood Seamew (under 20') very competently singlehanded by an elderly gent.

You will love it, but need to keep well stocked. It can be difficult to leave beautiful isolated anchorages simply because you have run out of something you need!
/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Thistle]

[ QUOTE ]
The Channel was regularly crossed ...

[/ QUOTE ]

Aye! And a couple of Enterprises ( combined length not much over 26') crossed last year ... then sailed back instead of following their original plan of putting the boats on a trailer and coming back by ferry. Didn't a Laser cross the Channel last year as well?

 

[Allegro]

I was a bit apprehensive when we moved to the West Coast from Devon 4 or 5 years ago too. It'll be beautiful, but challenging sailing, was my feeling. We even bought a bigger boat to cope - selling the 21' corribee and buying our current 25 footer (well, ok, that actually was more to do with the number of children expanding from one to two)!

But, I couldn't have been more wrong. In Devon and Cornwall its a steady 20-30 miles between anchorages - a good 6 hours sailing in a corribee - and I several times ended up doing the coastal hops alone, meeting up with the wife and one year old for some estuary sailing when we got there. But the west coast is amazingly family friendly! We started out based at Dunstaffnage near Oban and within an hour or two's sail were Oban bay, Kerrera, Loch Don, the Creags, Loch Creran, Loch Etive, all in different directions to suit the wind. Another hour gives access to Phuildhorran, Loch Spelve, Sound of Mull, north end of Lismore, etc etc, and reached about our limit before we wanted to get the children ashore to run off some energy!

So don't be put off - 26' sounds rather large to me ;-) for the West Coast, and the sailing is much more friendly that the northeast (we lived in Aberdeen for a while, but still kept the boat in the west) because there's so much shelter around. Plus the scenery's better!

Cheers
Patrick

 

[Duffer]

Yes my mother used to single-hand up and down the West Coast of Scotland in a Westerly Tiger (25' ) and loved it. That was before VHF and Yeomans, never mind radar overlay on a C screen... I'm not sure I would want to cross the Atlantic in one but maybe someone doing the Jester Challenge already has!

 

[graham]

Your Griffon is a well proven design. This guy with his throwaway comments is a well proven arse.