Do you have 'off years'? PS this is my 5000th post...

john_morris_uk

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I have left it a couple of days, as I wanted to ask peoples opinion on sailing - and have something genuinely of interest (to me at least) to say in what seems to be a milestone in my occasional contributions.

We have just had one of the worst sailing years in the last twenty. We went no-where. What's worse is that it is the very year that PBO is expecting me to write something about it for their antifouling trial in conjunction with International Paints. Normally we sail a couple of thousand miles - certainly well over 1000 miles a year. This last season we did diddley squat. There were good reasons - Firstly our 19 year old daughter had a scarf osteotomy on both her feet and was laid up for six weeks and unable to walk, and then 18 year old son has a screw put in his lumbar 4 vertebrae in an attempt to mend a stress fracture induced by his cricket, and he was laid up for 8 weeks needing lots of care. We did go sailing - but we never crossed the channel - never went further than a few miles up the coast - and the furthest we sailed was from Plymouth round to the Exe so we could dinghy ashore and visit the children and check that they were OK.

Do other people have bad sailing years? I am not suggesting enjoyment is proportional to miles sailed, but the miles sailed are usually some sort of indication of how much we use the boat. It was also the first year ever we have slept on our boat on our own mooring - we usually go somewhere - even if its only a mile or two up the river, or down to Barn Pool.

Should we just put it down to one of those things - and carry on making plans to cross Biscay and sail the Rias of Spain next Summer?

PS SWMBO says 5000 posts is sad, but I try and explain that I am lightweight compared to some... but that doesn't seem to wash and she just gives a hollow laugh - translation required I think...?
 
Yes. This year was going to be the best ever. 5 weeks in Holland ended in late June with m-i-l being taken into hospital, wife told to get back home, sat around for 6 weeks whilst she expired. Wife took this very hard and bythe time funeral etc dealt with the good weather had gone. Then daughter's transplants started rejecting - over 20 visits to Guys in past 7 weeks. One night and 20 miles on the boat since getting back from Holland. Boat now lifted - next year will be great.......

No good having a boat if you're not an optimist.
 
Definitely.... we had one last year... followed by a cracker this year... don't give up hope... not all is lost!

If its any consolation, last year, a year of sailing apathy for me, was followed by enormous anticipation and excitement at launch at the start of this season... my 'mojo' returned in volumes....
 
I'm still trying to work out whether this was a good year or a bad one.

Spent just one day less on board than last year, which was more than in any of the last five years. But, sailed fewer miles than in any of the previous six years.

The main reason is that I had the young family on board more this year than in any of the other years - which is a good thing - but meant I was much less ambitious in my plans. I also took a friend and his two daughters for a weekend in which we only covered 20 miles, but they enjoyed it - so that was good too.

The real problem was that I planned to end the season with a cross Channel trip in October. But we abandoned that plan for the much more sensible option of staying in the Solent when the weather forecast gales (and it turned out to be true).

So, although a good year, I do feel a little cheated.

Hoping to make up for it next year and grateful that HRH William and Kate have just given me a four day weekend to do that cross Channel trip. :)
 
I had all sorts of great plans for my first year with Jumblie, and got off to a good start with a fortnight spent going to Iona an back. Then I got inveigled into going on tour with A Popular Science Roadshow which, along with a few other commitments, meant I was away from home for thirteen weekends on the trot. We managed a few short trips to the boat, but through the summer she only spent two nights off her home mooring. There were half a dozen day sails on the Jouster (no reasonable offer refused) as well and a fair bit of autumn sailing on Loch Ken, but all in all it felt like a bit of a washout.

Resolutions for next year:

1. Fewer boats.
2. More sailing.
 
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Well I rather enjoyed......

......our lunch on the hook at Cawsand! Okay so no great sailing feat but it was nice wine and excellent company! So how can it have been a bad year?
 
A smug git writes:

Well I had a pretty good sailing season. I had 5 weeks off and planned to sail to the Golfe de Morbihan for the first time. This was achieved, and a fine cruising ground it turned out to be.

On the whole we had good weather, met many nice people, made some new friends, enjoyed some excellent meals, visited interesting new ports and had some good sailing. The boat did everything asked of her and nothing broke down.
 
Returned to landlubber life this year in July after 8 years long distance liveaboard cruising.

After 5 months setting up life ashore the boat is still languishing on her berth in Southampton.

Definitely an off year. So much so that I am already beginning to plan how to **** off again.

PS anyone else had problems adjusting to "society" again after being free as a bird for a while. Tips gratefully received.

If anyone else says welcome back to the real world, I will hurt you :mad:.
 
My most distant sail this year (first summer after early retirement in July) was to a point just 2.15 miles outside the outer breakwater !!!
But I did get to sail much much much more often than previous years -- more time available !!!! Just not so far afield -- so what ??

Ahhh - but last year was excellent, and so were many other years, and so will many years to come, please God.

My worst year was 1998: Bad fall in April of that year, damaged sciatic nerve to right leg (torn muscle), laid up for 10 weeks, followed by several months of "easy does it". Still gives the odd "remember me", but nothing painful or serious. By taking due care and not doing those things that I know agravate it, all is well. And my doctoress says to keep on sailing -- don't let it get you down !!!! Wise advice, I say !! What more could I ask for ???

So John, don't let a "bad" year get you down, it probably wasn't so bad at all, and will be compensated by other good years in the future.

Plomong
 
Do other people have bad sailing years? ?

Yes. We had 4 bad ones on the trot and I thought of giving up - until I realised that the boat was the problem. We had bought a cruising cat based on its layout and accommodation but it was no fun to helm. So when a series of miserable summers combined with domestic issues of the sort you describe, it was all too easy to just not bother. And of course the season was only really 5 months long anyway.

So I went out and bought a boat based on sailing performance above everything, and I started winter racing to make the season longer. Now I'm as keen again as I ever was. Cruising with SWMBO in the summer and racing with the "lads" the rest of the time.

Sailing is about sailing, not motoring or caravanning yet an awful lot of modern awbs are designed to appeal to SWMBO at the boat show as a mobile floating home.. If you want to do the latter then get a mobo or a caravan. And the added spice is trying each week to sail a bit better to beat your pals - a challenge that is missing in just cruising.
 
Based on the Exe being further than Dartmouth you had a good year. I did however pick up some silver for my troubles so distance isn't everything.

Yoda
 
I was on the boat for six solid weeks this summer. Achieved everything I aimed to do and still sailed less than 1000 miles. Fortunately I don't equate pleasure to distance, rather the experience and company is what makes a good sailing season for me.

And for those who don't think you can get far on low mileage, I left the boat in Norway.:D
 
oh dear, JM, on the surface that sounds sad, and I sympathise with your frustration.

If your boat is out of the water, and you feel like a sail - even in the cold stuff ! - we can always find room for a sky pilot and SWMBO. Send a pigeon.

Not that you would have to go very far from your normal base ;)
 
Longest trip this year was from my berth to the travelhoist :mad:
Bad year, my MIL was very ill at the beginning of the season and sadly passed away at the end of June, then dealing with her affairs took up the remainder of the season.
We have had a number of weekends on board but didn't leave the marina.
Next year will be better :)
 
Thank you for the kind replies. I don't want to give the impression that I am wallowing in a pile of self pity - just interested to know whether others have similar feelings about their boat usage sometimes.

I am also very sorry to hear of the ills of others which stopped their sailing this year. Again I wasn't trying to share my woes - but rather explain the circumstances of how we never even got across the channel. DV next year will be better; we really are planning to get across to Spain, and I am part way through fitting the SSB and we are looking at EPIRBS for the further offshore bit of sailing. All part of the big plan - and all very exciting.

If I wanted to be depressed I could add up the costs of owning and maintaining vs the usage - although when I see the price of package holidays (even so called cheap ones) then I often feel better about the money we spend on Serendipity. Just a couple of weeks anywhere seems to cost thousands! Perhaps its not so expensive after all and that makes me feel better about this sailing (or lack of sailing) lark.
 
Came off my mooring on 1/3/10 (long story) had a contra temps with the railway arch, been spending my little leisure time carrying out repairs since - little leisure time as swmbo has the dreaded Alzheimer's and therefore I'm limited to 3 hrs per week - weather permitting. When I meet other carers, things could be much worse.
I can't say I like work, but I dislike working on the boat less than other forms of toil.
 
Some of will know of my aborted plans to sail to Scotland. With that shelved, you'd think that we could have got some sailing in nearer home - not a chance!

The one week in June we got to Cherbourg SWMBO and I were pinned in the place with F8 NE for 4 days. Then the curse of the drinking classes scuppered any further plans as both SWMBO or I could not get away from work at the same time.

Butter luck 2011.
 
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