New Member - Hi there!

dolabriform

dolabriform

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12 Sep 2016
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Location
Kent
freewheeling.world
Hi everyone

I've recently become the proud owner of a Leisure 17 that I'm preparing for launch in the Spring ( hopefully ! ).

Currently based in Woodbridge, I'm looking forward to exploring the east coast and rivers and introducing my family to sailing.

Regards

David
 
Welcome David.

For inspiration for your quest to explore the east coast I would suggest Dylan Winter (a regular poster on the ybw forum) web site Keep Turning Left for his videos. http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk/

A very useful book to buy is 'East Coast Pilot' at www.eastcoastpilot.com, again the writers are all members of the forum.

Hope every thing goes to plan in getting ready for next season.
 
Hi all

Thanks for the warm welcomes,

I've been watching KTL, it's addictive!

Thanks for the recommendation of East Coast Pilot, I've just bought that from Imray.

Kind regards

David
 
Welcome. My first boat, a Seawych 19 trailer sailer (bought from Andy Seedhouse) was kept at Woodbridge on a swinging mooring. Love the place. Be careful though, 3 boats later, this pastime can become an obsession!

My mate has owned and sailed a L17 for ten years, averages 1500 miles a year in her, great little boats.

Steve
 
Don't be so bloody cheerful, we're all East Anglians here.

When my late father died, a Churchwarden, after living in the village for thirty-five years, the village greengrocer and auxiliary Coastguard was heard to pronounce that "He wasn't a bad man, for a foreigner"!

Some years earlier he had remarked to my father "Saw your son today, singlehanded. He'd torn his mainsail right across!"

Dad "Did you call the lifeboat?"

Aux CG : "No, he knew what he was doing!"

I was 18 at the time, in a heavy carvel half decker with no buoyancy...

In those dim and distant days, one was more afraid of what would be said if you poked your nose into the Butt and Oyster at Pin Mill, or the Victory at West Mersea, or the Ship at Brightlingsea, having moored up and stowed up less than perfectly, than of anything that might happen at sea! But they are all gentrified now!

OK, seriously, never mind pilot books - get yourself copies of "The Art of Coarse Cruising" and, above all, "Sod's Law of the Sea", which is the finest sailing textbook ever written.

Seriously - well done, good choice of boat, be very gentle with the family..
 
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Minn said:
OK, seriously, never mind pilot books.
Click to expand...

What are you saying! No pilot books! :disgust: Here's an example of a current pilot book about Pin Mill

"A little way above Pin Mill there is a black can beacon buoy, which we leave to port..... Keeping midway between the buoys, there is no obstruction to pick us up, but the yachtsman should not stand too close to the buoys near low water, or some of them dry out. It is also advisable to keep some distance from the edge of the mud should the 'Woolwich Belle' - a passenger steamer which plies up and down the river - be seen approaching, for she makes a deal of wash. A friend of the writer's some years since was running before a light breeze up the Orwell after dark, and hearing this steamer coming up astern, kept close in to the edge of the mud. The steamer, travelling very fast, sucked all the water from under his boat - a three tonner - and left her stranded for a moment on the mud. Then a big wave broke right over the yacht and half swamped her. Had she kept well out in the stream and shown a stern-light this would not have happened. " :encouragement:

See how helpful on temporaneous advice can be. :encouragement::encouragement::p

Take Felixstowe for example:

"Felixstowe Dock, nowadays, is not what it was, from the Yachtsman's point of view.... There used to be several mooring buoys in the middle of dock to which a yacht could make fast, but I understand that these have recently been removed, and a boat has now to anchor and run a stern warp ashore. The charge for a small yacht is half-a-crown per week, the craft being permitted to go in and out as often as the owner thinks fit."

There. You see the benefit of advice:encouragement:

Welcome, dear new Member.
 
Welcome! And congratulations on your new Leisure 17. Fine boats, we almost bought a 20 but ended up with a 23SL in the end which we loved very much. The Leisure Owners Association are a grand group of people, join up if you haven't already it's a very modest fee for an awful lot of knowledge, help and socials. You'll have a great time exploring the crinkly nooks and crannies of the lovely east coast rivers and estuaries.
 
Minn said:
OK, seriously, never mind pilot books - get yourself copies of "The Art of Coarse Cruising" and, above all, "Sod's Law of the Sea", which is the finest sailing textbook ever written.

Seriously - well done, good choice of boat, be very gentle with the family..
Click to expand...

Thanks, just ordered those books, looking forward to reading them!

Totally enjoyed "Sailing out of Silence" <btw> can thoroughly recommend it!
 
tillergirl said:
Welcome, dear new Member.
Click to expand...

Thanks, bought the East Coast Pilot straight away.

Although I don't intend to venture out along the coast until the family are a bit more experienced, it is amazing and invigorating learning about all the future options available to us.

Who knows, in the future a trip eastwards might well be on the cards
 
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Sailing around here is easy. Just remember the following ...

Brown water is shallow
Yellow water us shallow
Black water is shallow

You will not see blue water

The Wallet is a misprint, it's actually The Vomit

If you see a boat with a blue burgee with a map of the East Coast on it, they'll have beer

If you see a blue boat with said burgee called Pagan they'll have proper beer, not some Belgian stuff that is passed off as beer ( :p )

However, they do not serve beer at the Deben Bar, although several pints before approaching may be wise. Or possibly unwise.

When the beer runs out, there may be rum or scotch

It is considered right and proper to take the mickey out of anyone with an extensive array of electronics and disco lighting. It is also essential to drink all his beer

There are three types of East Coast sailors - those who have run aground, those who will run aground and liars

It isn't really THAT far up the River Crouch to Fambridge (stick around, you'll get that one in due course!)

Don't follow that little sixteen foot gaff cutter over there, it not only draws less than half an inch, it levitates (seek out Creeksailor and Shoal Waters via Google!). OK, she doesn't actually levitate but she goes where even Dylan fears to tread

Jesting apart, welcome on board. There's lots of great folks on here and lots of good advice to be had. Mostly good advice anyway!
 
Welcome to the forum, David. Now you've bought East Coast Pilot can I suggest you sign up on its website to get the occasional newsletters that come out, these give you a nudge to look at recent changes and updates.
 
Hi dolabriform and welcome,

QUOTE=Hadenough;5967136]Just bear in mind the publishing date of those recommended books, things have moved on big time.[/QUOTE]

I'm not so sure that anything important has changed since those books were published, apart from the design and production of an awesome flag All the wisdom shared by Bru in #17 remains the same and even the Deben bar remains constant in its habit of changing every year. Personal experience of sailing the Deben for over 60 years confirms the unchanging nature of the East Coast and reading about how it used to be suggests little change before that.

Bearing in mind Bru's advice on running aground, you may wish to adopt my late Uncle's invariable solution to running aground - it was my lanky (and also late) cousin John. As the boat came to a halt he'd call out "Over you go, John and push!" The tough part was cleaning up the muddy mess after we'd sailed free and hauled John back aboard. Of course, no obstructions such as pulpits and lifelines in those days.....

Peter
 
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