SYC  NEWSLETTER  July 2024

 

Message from the Commodore     Tom Hutchinson

 

The planned Cruise in Company to Ballycastle before the Craobh Muster was cancelled due to winds gusting force 6 & 7 featuring for much of the week beginning 8^th June. Only Silverjack, crewed by Graham, Ian Thomson and David Dorward ventured round the Mull of Kintyre and made a valiant effort to join the Craobh event.

Don and Marje Gillies were, at this time, storm bound on Black Pepper in Ormidale, however all was not lost and they travelled by car to Craobh where they joined the Aquaholic team which included Norena McAdam from Adastra.

Joining us in Craobh on their new berth were Catherine and Stewart on Encore with their crew Bill and Lilias also Doug, Alison and Finlay Gray on Shenavall.

By the morning of the 15^th the weather had improved significantly and three boats crossed the start line as scheduled for the round Shuna race. The Officers of the day were Don Gillies and the Commodore on Aquaholic. This was the first time the Toy team had raced their new boat which will, I am sure, feature in many more club events. The course set was an anti-clockwise circumnavigation of the island of Shuna.

The results are as follows: -

1^st Silverjack    2^nd Encore   3^rd Shenavall

While we were enjoying ourselves on the water, the shore team were preparing food for the evening BBQ. This consisted of Caroline, Marje and Norena who were joined by Catherine following the race. The barbecue was once again held in the marina boatshed where seventeen people attended and enjoyed a fabulous evening with good food, music and company. I was particularly pleased to welcome new members Luke and Marta Newman to their first club event. They berth their Rustler 36 at Ardfern. As usual a big thank you is due to the Craobh Marina staff who provided the barbeque and boatshed and to the Serpent ladies who did so much to make the evening a success.

On the Sunday morning, Silverjack and Aquaholic with the additional crew of Don, Marje and Norena headed to Loch Spelve for the mussel feast. The weather was interesting to say the least and we were all very grateful to Inverlussa Mussels not only for providing the venue and mussels, but especially for allowing us to use their moorings in the blustery overnight conditions.

Eight members enjoyed a wonderful evening of good food and chat. The event was not without incident when the Commodore lost the propeller of their dinghy outboard. Needless to say, I am now a lot fitter than before thanks to all the rowing I’ve been doing. During the evening, we met a French couple sailing a beautiful sixty five-foot steel ketch called Milagro  which we were invited on board the following morning. Lauriane is a qualified Naval mechanic and is currently studying for her PHD while Damien carries out the routine maintenance including tuning the rig of this monstrous yacht. Damien has a most impressive sailing C.V. which includes racing Figaro yachts single handed in trans ocean events, I will never again complain about being short of crew when people like this team sail around Europe and the higher latitudes two up in a 65-foot, 45-ton yacht.

On the Monday morning Silverjack with Don and Marje on board headed for Oban while Aquaholic headed north to continue cruising.

I’m sure all who attended will agree that this was a wonderful event despite the somewhat blustery weather.

Tom 

   

Encore edging past Silverjack in the sound of Shuna    GG  

 

Shenavall moving well in the light airs   GG 

 

 Some participants at the Spelve Mussel Feast      David Dorward

 

 

The 65 ft Steel ketch ‘Milagro’ we were treated to a tour of    ^{David Dorward}

 

Message from the Secretary     Graham Gillies

 

 

Serpent Summer Barbecue The next Serpent event will be the Summer barbecue at Ormidale on Loch Riddon On Saturday 3^rd August. This is a relaxed and informal social occasion. There is no charge or provision by the Club for this event. Attendees require to bring their own barbecue, food and drink. There is no need to contact me if you are joining us, but it is helpful if you let me know by email a couple of days before if you intend to come. It’s a good opportunity to socialise and meet other members.

 

Crew Register I asked if any members were interested in crewing opportunities within the club. Luke Newman replied saying that he would like to be added. He has a Day Skipper qualification but would like to gain more experience. He lives in Perthshire, but keeps their boat at Ardfern so, in principle, he says he would be available on either coast. He can be contacted through myself at gwagillies@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

Diary of Events for 2024  

 

Ormidale Barbecue – Saturday 3 August Our informal barbecue in the evening at Ormidale, Loch Riddon is a BYO BBBB event. Bring your own Boat, Barbecue, Bangers and Bottle. It is a relaxed and fun evening in good company. No booking required.

 

Autumn Muster – Largs – Saturday 14th September – There will be a race starting and finishing at Largs. Most participants will be dining at Scott’s restaurant in the evening.

 

Annual Dinner   Saturday 7th December at the Glasgow Art Club 

 

 

 

    Another settled sunset for the 2024 Craobh Muster   GG

 

 

SYC NEWSLETTER May 2024

Message from the Commodore Tom Hutchinson

I was delighted to welcome folk to the Commodores reception in Tarbert on the 18th of May. It was great to see so many members on the water. The weather was spectacular with temperatures topping 26 degrees in the warm sunshine. As is tradition, the reception was held in the Tarbert Harbour Association marquee where drinks and canopies were enjoyed along with the opportunity to catch up on every one’s latest sailing news.

Caroline and I are finally afloat on Aquaholic and have enjoyed our first short shakedown sail when I am happy to report all went well. We are based in Craobh hence why we did not feature on the water at Tarbert. I look forward to meeting up with many of you as the season progresses beginning with the cruise in company to Ballycastle which Graham has detailed below.

I must thank the Committee for planning the Tarbert event, and in particular to Graham, our secretary, for organising the berthing, and dinner. Thanks, also to Caroline, Marje and Norena for preparing the canopies and also to Don for making Black Pepper available as a base for the Commodore and for food preparation and for dressing BP overall for the occasion.

I hope the weather is as kind to us going forward as it was for the Spring Muster and look forward to meeting as many of you as possible during the season at our full programme of events.

Tom 

Notes from the Secretary Graham Gillies

Our opening Muster at Tarbert last weekend was well attended with 23 folk and 6 boats. In addition to the crews arriving by boat, the Commodore Tom Hutchinson and Caroline drove down from Craobh with Norena McAdam to welcome everyone to a drinks reception in the Marina marquee. The club yachts had largely arrived early due to the cancellation of the race and there was much chat and catch up on the long pontoon which THA had reserved for us.

Stewart and Catherine Toy and their crew just made it in the nick of time aboard their immaculate and, ‘new to them’, Sadler 39, ‘Encore’. They had encountered extensive dense fog in the lower Clyde after leaving Troon which necessitated cautious progress.

Tom warmly welcomed Mike and Freda Forbes on their Dufour 40, Micky Finn IV. They are our most recent Serpent members but need no introduction to Clyde sailing and racing having spent many years sailing from their base at Rhu. Talking of experienced sailors, it was also good to see Douglas and Mairi Brown in good form at the muster on their Nicholson 32, Mariella with its distinctive yellow Tinker dinghy. We were pleased that our Sailing Secy Charles, and Anne Sutherland were able to join us with their crew aboard Lollypop, their Beneteau 29. A failed heat exchanger proved to be a tricky issue to repair in time with a new unit requiring modification and necessitating a new alternator. Charles was pleased with the result, if not the cost. Other teams in attendance were Don and Marje Gillies on Black Pepper and my own crew on Silverjack.

Following the drinks and nibbles at the Marquee reception, everyone moved to the Anchor Hotel for dinner and a sociable evening.

Our next event is the Craobh Muster on Saturday 15th June.
The round Shuna race is planned for the morning with the traditional barbecue and jig taking place in the evening. There will be a charge of £10 pp for the barbecue food which will be provided.
Drinks will not be provided so please bring your own.
The next day, Sunday 16th we are holding another Mussel Party at Inverlussa Mussel Farm on Loch Spelve in the evening.
Again there will be a charge of £10 pp for food. Bring your own drinks. 

Mariella setting off from Tarbert GG 

 

Encore motor sailing back to Troon D Dorward

 

GDPR Please note that the GDPR policy on the website has been updated to enable a list of members to be circulated within the club. This list will not appear on the website.
If anyone does not wish their details as stated in section 2 of the GDPR policy 15th April 2024 version 1.2 to be shared with the club membership would they please inform the Secretary at gwagillies@gmail.com within one month of receipt of this newsletter.

Crew Register The club is planning a Crew Register for members which will also be circulated to the membership (but not on the website). If any members are looking for crewing opportunities, can they send me a couple of sentences about themselves indicating any sailing experience and sailing qualifications (if any) that they have and what sailing opportunities they are interested in. Please include a preferred contact detail.

 

Diary of Events for 2024

Ormidale Barbecue – Saturday 3 August Our informal barbecue in the evening at Ormidale, Loch Riddon is a BYO BBBB event. Bring your own Boat, Barbecue, Bangers and Bottle. It is a relaxed and fun evening in good company. No booking required.

Autumn Muster – Largs – Saturday 14th September – There will be a race starting and finishing at Largs. Most participants will be dining at Scott’s restaurant in the evening.

Annual Dinner Saturday 7th December at the Glasgow Art Club 

 

Micky Finn IV heading home GG 

 

 

The Serpent boats were afforded places on the Tarbert East Pontoon 

N McAdam

Feb 2024 & Annual General Meeting

The 2024 Annual General Meeting is to be held in the Commodore Suite at Royal Gourock Yacht Club on Wednesday 21st February. Coffee/tea etc will be available from 7pm with the meeting due to start at 7.30.  

 

 

After the completion of business Peter & Marian will give a talk on their 2023 cruise to the Baltic on Exody.  This is bound to be a fascinating account and all members are encouraged to attend. 

 

Jan 2024

The Commodore writes: 

This is probably my last Commodore’s Message before I demit office at the
AGM in February so I should take the opportunity to state that it has been
an honour to be of service to the club in that capacity and to thank those on
the Committee who have guarded my path and identified to me my
deviations from that which is deemed proper.

I am sure that those who attended the Annual Dinner a couple of weeks
ago will have had no regrets. I am no natural compere but despite a few
slip-ups from me the evening passed most acceptably with a meal
surpassing previous standards. 

 

Our Speaker, Mr Mike McKirdy gave a speech which was both humorous and thought provoking and the warmth of the reception certainly dissipated the chill of the Art Club’s heating which had suffered a failure. An interesting point made by Mike was of the alleged hierarchy of brown, green and blue spaces in terms of mental wellbeing and his observation that those us who sail in coastal waters must surely benefit from the blue to which I’m sure we concur.*   

*https://www.researchgate.net/publication/353433617                                        

all photos courtesy of Dr Freda Forbes 

The Raffle in aid of the Hope Foundation of the Royal Society of Physicians
and Surgeons of Glasgow, the charity designated by the speaker (https://
hope.rcpsg.ac.uk/) raised £385 and the club has received thanks from the
Chair of the Foundation.
As I remarked at the dinner, it has not been the most successful of years
for the Club in terms of events but those that did survive the weather were
enjoyed by all participants with the BBQ at Croabh being of particular note.
At least it resulted in a minimal prize-giving. The club has managed to
attract a few new members with the possibility of one or two more so we
can remain optimistic. Keep a look out for changes to the club calendar
and I hope next year to see as many of you as possible out on the water.

2023 Photo Competition

The Serpent Photo Competition 2023 has been won by Seamus Lalor with 'Contemplative Clyde Seascape.' 

 

 

Congratulations to Seamus on his dramatic image. Seamus was unable to attend the Annual Dinner to receive the Turner Prize to keep for a year but arrangements will be made.  Thanks to the voting system it was possible to pick Dugald Glen's 'Heatwave Sailing as a runner up with the entries from Peter Jennett and Don Reid 3rd equal.    

All of the images now have the name of the photographer appended.  If you wish to know how many votes your own image received it is within the realms of possibility that Graham Gillies would be more than delighted to assist.

Autumn Muster 16/17 September

 

There was a light north -easterly when Tulla Mhor, Silverjack and Lollypop gathered off Kip for the race to Rothesay.  Race Officer Don Gillies with Marge on board Black Pepper chose course 2 - (the familiar trek to Hun 1, Buoy B, Toward Bank with the finish at Ardyne.) meaning a downwind start which, using the available in-situ buoys resulted in an extraordinarily long start line and no incidents. As would be expected Tulla Mhor pulled away strongly but Lollypop was able to maintain distance on them as far as Hun 1 after which the wind filled in to a good sailing breeze and Tulla Mhor found her true stride.  Dugald and Val were joined on this occasion by Stewart and Catherine Toy who were just one day away from no longer being boatless.  Silverjack, with Norena crewing for Graham, was by this time some distance behind Lollypop and there was no change in positions before the finish. Given the wind direction it was a somewhat undemanding reachy course but by midday the sun was blazing, the Clyde was sparkling and with a good sailing wind the conditions were to the enjoyment of all involved.  

Parking up in our reserved berths in Rothesay inner harbour was also uneventful, aided by the always helpful shoreside staff.  Most crews eventually went for a stroll about the town which does show some limited but welcome evidence of regeneration and later on all crews gathered on board Lollypop for the Commodore's drinks reception, it being the final opportunity available to the present Commodore for so doing.  The race results seemed so unexpected when I calculated them on the Excel sheet that I had to triple check everything to ensure there were no errors before presenting them to the assembled party.  The elapsed and corrected times are below. There then followed our annual  visit to the Victoria Hotel, where the ambience continues to resemble a benign version of Fawlty Towers, for what was a perfectly acceptable dinner.  After that, a smaller group of salt encrusted would-be party animals were led by Stewart Toy in search of a performance by the legendary Margaret Zavaroni but ended up having a quiet nightcap in the Black Bull.   

Overnight it was wet and so was the dreich Sunday morning when everyone eventually departed on their separate ways, generally satisfied with the latest Serpent outing.   

Lollypop     elapsed 3hr 5m 29s   corrected  131.45 minutes

Silverjack   elapsed 3hr 15m 26s  corrected 140.85 minutes

Tulla Mhor  elapsed  2hr  39m 00s corrected 141.78 minutes

       

Scandinavian Cruise - Peter Jennett & Marian Borde

Peter and Marian have kindly agreed to give a brief overview of their fascinating summer trip to Denmark, Sweden and the Baltic.  Their full presentation will be the main feature of next year's Annual General meeting so that's one not to be missed.  

Nearly two thousand memorable miles after leaving Ardrossan on 5^th May, Exody was lifted and winterised in southern Sweden near Karlshamn in the last week of July and we flew home on 31^st July. Our trip was focused around the eighth anniversary World ARC Reunion timed for the Swedish midsummer celebrations at Karlskrona. We met with six other crews for a convivial weekend of socialising, and touring the historic naval city. We were joined by only one other crew arriving by boat from Germany- the rest flew from Iceland, USA and Portugal, with one couple coming from UK by campervan.

The cruise fell into four main legs

Clyde to Peterhead about two weeks via both canals, a brief detour to Corryvreckan anchorage, a beautifully quiet and flat Loch Ness transit and welcomed by the harbourmaster at Whitehills.

                                        transiting a tranquil Loch Ness
 

                                                 Exody and Ben Nevis

 North Sea Crossing: Peterhead to Limfjord – 400 miles taking two and half days. After a very pleasant two days weaving through wind and oil installations, we took a bit of a close-hauled, triple- reefed dusting in a near onshore gale eventually diverting 30 miles for safe landfall at Hanstholm commercial fishing harbour.

 

                                                 Leaving Peterhead

                                           North Sea oil installations

 

Limfjord to Karlskrona – three weeks in all firstly transiting this shallow (less than 10 metres) inland waterway that bisects Jutland, emerging after Aalborg into the Baltic. 

 

                                                    Baltic Windfarm

We took in several islands (Anholt, Tuno) and harbours (Ebeltoft, Skaelscor) as we threaded our way south through Denmark’s complex geography, dipping down to Glowe on the German island of Rugen (for economic alcohol supplies). 

Onward northeast to Bornholm, then to charming and well preserved fortified island of Christianso before the final 55 mile crossing to Karlskrona. This last leg saw Exody close reaching at 7 knots into dense mist and crossing a busy shipping lane with unseen vessels passing less than a mile away at nearly 20 knots! We dowsed the genny to slow the boat till clear and then saw the floorboards awash! Culprit found to be our electric bilge pump back-siphoning- first time since fitted 35,000 miles ago: antisiphon valve and non-return valve promptly fitted. 

                                           Christianso fortified harbour

                                                    Utklippan Harbour

                                           Dressed overall in Karlskrona

Island and Archipelago Cruise- Following the reunion event we had crew join us for three weeks heading north about 150 miles in short hops to enter the archipelago complex well south of Stockholm. Translating the Swedish cruising guide and with membership of the local cruising association, we found many delightful spots here to anchor or pick up a buoy. There were a variety of interesting towns and harbours to dock before heading south again via the islands of Gotland and Oland to the city of Kalmar and then southwest (and upwind!) to our pre-arranged yard for slipping.

It was a trip of generally great weather, a whole new vocabulary of docking experiences, flat landscapes, huge maritime wind farms, charming cities towns and villages, superbly clean facilities -all so very well organised and civilised! A great combination of intricate remote archipelagoes to navigate and anchor, busy town centre marinas and small harbours on delightful, mostly carless islands.

Nearer to the war on our European doorstep, we also became acutely aware of the geographic significance of this constrained area of the Baltic as the backdrop to the many belligerent events of the last few centuries: museums everywhere and whole fortified towns and islands.

The general setup for cruising and visiting boats is impressive and we reckon is down to the sheer number of vessels owned by the Danes, Swedes, Germans - mostly under 12 metres due as we learnt to the shallow depths and the compact nature of many of the harbours. Larger boats need to choose their ports and anchorages with great care!

So here we are now boatless in the sunshine in Scotland but also realising that not a jot of boat maintenance will need to be tackled until next spring when we head back for the return trip.