Passage in Company?

Major_Clanger

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I'm planning to take my boat to the West Country in late spring, possibly the Dart but probably Fowey. Anyone care to join me for a cruise in company? Not intending to make it a delivery trip (unless the forecast warrants it), more of a sensible mooch down there stopping a few times on the way. I'll leave the boat down there until August. Might be quite fun to have another boat(s) to mess about with on the passage.
 
Sounds a nice idea, but I doubt circumstances will allow. Hope you have a good trip, though.

Thank-you :)

Need any charts?

I'm up-to-date as far as the Solent but nothing further west. Was going to wait until spring and buy new - hoping for less corrections to make! Open to ideas though, what do you have in mind?
 
We came the other way in August , from Plymouth to Fambridge, , I had charts from Dartmouth to the Solent but to be honest didn’t bother with them , Navionics on a tab & Shell Channel pilot book for details .

Lovely sailing down there .
 
We came the other way in August , from Plymouth to Fambridge, , I had charts from Dartmouth to the Solent but to be honest didn’t bother with them , Navionics on a tab & Shell Channel pilot book for details .

Lovely sailing down there .

I'm only just getting to grips with Chartplotters but, even though I have no reason to doubt their reliability, I view them as a back-up. I must be some form of masochist because I enjoy long-hand chartwork. I was hopeless at maths as a schoolboy, but once it was applied to something it all made sense. The tablet I bought recently will be a friendly reassurance though.
 
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I'm only just getting to grips with Chartplotters but, even though I have no reason to doubt their reliability, I view them as a back-up. I must be some form of masochist because I enjoy long-hand chartwork. I was hopeless at maths as a schoolboy, but once it was applied to something it all made sense. The tablet I bought recently will be a friendly reassurance though.

I usually find that if you keep England to your right you usually end up in Cornwall.
 
I'm planning to take my boat to the West Country in late spring, possibly the Dart but probably Fowey. Anyone care to join me for a cruise in company? Not intending to make it a delivery trip (unless the forecast warrants it), more of a sensible mooch down there stopping a few times on the way. I'll leave the boat down there until August. Might be quite fun to have another boat(s) to mess about with on the passage.

I have just registered to participate in the 2019 Jester Baltimore Challenge. This means that I will be heading that way with a view to get to Plymouth before the start on June 9th.
 
I usually find that if you keep England to your right you usually end up in Cornwall.

Ah, but how will I know when to stop? I might overshoot and find myself in Wales.. Scotland, or even back where I bloody started!

I have just registered to participate in the 2019 Jester Baltimore Challenge. This means that I will be heading that way with a view to get to Plymouth before the start on June 9th.

That might be quite fun but I suspect you'll be cracking on at more than my STW average of 4.25kts. Where is the Jester going to next year?
 
That might be quite fun but I suspect you'll be cracking on at more than my STW average of 4.25kts. Where is the Jester going to next year?

It’s going from Plymouth to Baltimore in Ireland.

My current thinking is to combine this event with an attempt to try to sail round the U.K., starting and finishing in Essex and going around clockwise. The idea being to start out from Essex in mid May, do the Jester in early June and backtrack a little to carry on going around after this.
 
My "observation" from organising cruising in company in the past is that such events are misnamed... They are actually a rally, since you only get together at stopping points. You can get close arrivals, but you will often not see much of others en route...
 
My "observation" from organising cruising in company in the past is that such events are misnamed... They are actually a rally, since you only get together at stopping points. You can get close arrivals, but you will often not see much of others en route...

That is how it should be, or at least, how people should expect it, and each skipper should be totally responsible for that boat. A sail in company should be regarded as a bonus and a chance to take photos of each other, but not something to be relied on. I have done rallies with anything from two to twenty boats and have had all sorts of experiences. On a couple of occasions I have been in a position to lead a friend's boat with my radar in fog but otherwise company is social rather than nautical. I think two to five is plenty for a cruise in company. The last big rally we did with twenty-odd broke into cliques.
 
That is how it should be, or at least, how people should expect it, and each skipper should be totally responsible for that boat. A sail in company should be regarded as a bonus and a chance to take photos of each other, but not something to be relied on. I have done rallies with anything from two to twenty boats and have had all sorts of experiences. On a couple of occasions I have been in a position to lead a friend's boat with my radar in fog but otherwise company is social rather than nautical. I think two to five is plenty for a cruise in company. The last big rally we did with twenty-odd broke into cliques.

Your description says exactly what I meant to say but was too idle to type in full! We've done 10-13 boats, and so long as people realise there's never going to be a single social event (other than maybe a pontoon party) for everyone, it isn't an issue
 
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