The Serpent Yacht Club is a small friendly club originally started by doctors but now open to anyone who has a connection to any of the healthcare professions. The club has a programme of sociable musters with races and new members are welcome. The club email is serpentyachtclub@gmail.com
2024 Photo competition
1.Choppy Loch Fyne - Séamus Lalor
2.Learning the ropes - Trevor Watson
3.August squall - Don Reid
4.Snowmelt! - Norena MacAdam
5.Two feet one yard - Jane Hinshalwood Runner up
6.Dolphin off Skye - Gavin Kenny
7.Late summer dawn Crinan - Dugald Glen The Winner
8.Dugald trying out his summer wardrobe - Val Glen
9.A Red Deer for shore - Graham Gillies
10.End of Season High - Caroline Hutchinson
11.High winds - Steve Pickles
SYC NEWSLETTER November 2024
Message from the Commodore Tom Hutchinson
The Serpent Annual Dinner and Prizegiving will once again be held at the Glasgow Art Club, one of Glasgow’s grandest and most elegant settings,
on Saturday December 7th 2024.
The Art Club has recently installed the celebrated Glasgow restauranteur Gordon Yuill as it’s new operations director. His task is to make the Art Club more accessible and his chefs are now running the kitchen.
The cost will be £60pp to include a pre-dinner glass of fizz or juice and a three course meal followed by tea or coffee.
As this year is the 200th Anniversary of the RNLI, we are delighted to confirm that the speaker will be Ms Roberta Young who has long been involved with the Institute.
Please see attached Menu and application form for the dinner. As usual we require to have menu choice pre-orders. The Chef will tailor choices made to any stated diet requirements.
Orders must be received by 26th November.
Autumn Muster Report
The Autumn muster and race were scheduled to take place at Largs over the weekend of the 14th and 15th of September. As with a number of events this season, a close weather watch was undertaken in the run up to the event. A weather window appeared on Friday and three yachts made their way to Largs to berth in the very busy marina on the Friday afternoon where the crews socialised in the traditional Serpent Yacht Club fashion.
Saturday morning dawned with the predicted strong winds of up to 37 knots blowing up the Clyde Estuary. It was agreed by all that given the current weather conditions the race should be cancelled. Encore, Silverjack and Black Pepper remained in the marina and were later joined by Jim and Lorraine from Stiarna, and Séamus and Marie from Emma Louise for a superb meal in Scott’s restaurant on the Saturday evening.
The weather improved overnight and the three boats berthed in Largs enjoyed a fine sail back to their various berths.
Once again, despite the poor weather and some resulting cancellations, this was a very enjoyable event. I must thank Don and Marje Gillies on Black Pepper for hosting the Commodore and to the rest of the Committee for organising the event.
Closing Supper Report
The closing supper was held on the 17th of October with pre dinner drinks in the Horseshoe Bar (which reminded me of my misspent youth) followed by supper in the Bombay Blues Indian restaurant in Glasgow. 12 members attended and enjoyed an evening of sailing related chat with much discussion around plans for next season. Again, this was an excellent evening which was well supported. We are hoping to repeat this next year following an official tour of Central Station which comes much recommended.
Photo Competition
Following the success of our remarkably popular photo competition last year, we are hoping for a bumper crop of special shots from you this year. The theme this time is very loose, ‘Summer 2024’ which should allow for considerable latitude. The rules are that you must have taken the photo yourself in the past year, only one photo submission per member, and you must be happy for us to display the photo on the Serpent website.
Please email your photo, in the highest resolution possible together with a title to Graham at gwagillies@gmail.com The closing date is not far away on Monday 18th November so don’t delay.
Association Karukinka
Members who managed to attend the club’s mussel fest in Loch Spelve in June this year will remember meeting Lauriane and Demian from yacht Milagro and having a fascinating conducted tour of their 65 foot steel ketch (see photo). The Association Karukinka who own and manage the boat, plan to use it as a base for their research and support work with the native peoples of Patagonia.
The organisation are offering several opportunities for people to pay to sail with them for the experience, crewing on various legs of the delivery trip to Patagonia and also three, eighteen day, circular trips exploring the islands of the region. Although French, their English is excellent. They have decided the Patagonian exploration trip departing from Puerto Williams in Chile on 19th February will be an English speaking trip.
Some club members have already signed up to go on this trip. If anyone is interested in learning more about it the link to their website is:-
https://karukinka-exploration.com/en/patagonia/
Sailing Ketch Milagro (David Dorward)
RYA certificated courses run by Ocean Youth Trust Scotland -North East Group
Norena McAdam has kindly let us know that the North East Group of OYTS run various RYA Theory Courses over the winter season which are open to everyone. These include, Day Skipper, Yacht master Coastal/Offshore, Radio, Diesel engine, Radar, and First Aid. As an attendee you pay the usual rate for the course but the instructors donate their time, so other than the RYA fee and venue charges the money goes to the work of Ocean Youth Trust Scotland. They have a very good reputation for the standard of the courses they run.
The team are happy for any Serpent Yacht Club members who are interested in finding out more about the courses to contact them directly by email. The email address is northeast@oytscotland.org.uk
The instructors have also volunteered to run an update course for us as a club, somewhere central, to include such topics as weather, sea survival techniques or any other relevant topic. If this is of interest to members please let Graham, the club secretary, know with information regarding the subject you would like included. If there is sufficient interest, we will explore this further.
Diary of Events for 2025
AGM Our AGM will be on the evening of Tuesday 25th February 2024 at the Royal Gourock Yacht Club, Ashton, Gourock PA19 1DA. Tea & Coffee will be served from 7pm. The meeting starts at 7.30pm. The formal part of the evening is fairly brief. This will be followed by an illustrated talk by Peter Jennett and Marian Borde giving us Part 2 of their recent Scandinavian Cruise on board Exody, their Sadler Starlight 39 yacht.
Fitting Out Supper Thursday 10th April – We are planning to have another informal dinner in Central Glasgow on the evening of 10th April. Venue to be confirmed but somewhere suitably convenient for train and bus access.
Spring Muster – Tarbert Saturday 17th May – Our opening and most popular Muster will once again be at Tarbert. We are planning a race there from Rothesay for those inclined, others will be cruising there or driving. There will be a Commodore’s Drinks Reception at the Marina followed by dinner ashore.
Craobh Muster –Saturday 14th June. We are planning to hold the Craobh Muster in June again next year.
Ormidale Barbecue – Saturday 2nd August
Autumn Muster – Rothesay – Saturday 13th September
Sunset at Otterferry GG
