The Serpent Yacht Club

17/01/2019

Annual General Meeting 2019

The AGM is to be held in the Hamilton Ice Rink on Tuesday 12th February. Tea/coffee available from 7pm with the meeting to start at 7.30. Following completion of the business Dugald Glen is to give a presentation on his and Val's World ARC circumnavigation on Tulla Mhor.

04/11/2018

Toys Rescued in Dramatic Blaze

A group of nine British tourists have escaped their burning yacht after a bolt of lightning ripped through the vessel. The four married couples and one other woman were on board the 50ft chartered catamaran off the coast of Phuket, Thailand, when they were caught in storms at 4:30pm on Saturday afternoon. Police said they cowered below deck as deadly seas rocked the vessel and thunder sounded overhead.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/04/british-tourists-escape-flames-after-lightning-bolt-ripped-through-boat-8104055/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

A lightning bolt then ripped down from the sky and shattered the boat. Flames ripped through the vessel named Emmjay as a passing fishing boat raced to help the stricken crew and holidaymakers.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/11/04/british-tourists-escape-flames-after-lightning-bolt-ripped-through-boat-8104055/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

BANGKOK, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- A yacht caught fire and sank on Saturday in southern Thailand's Phuket, with all nine passengers rescued.
The accident occurred at about 4:45 p.m. local time on the northeast coast of the famous seaside destination Phuket.
The luxury yacht with nine foreign tourists on board was struck by lightning in heavy downpour before it was engulfed in flames. Fortunately, all the passengers were rescued by fishing boats, reports said. The catamaran was completely destroyed.
The cause of the accident is under investigation. Deputy Phuket governor and officials from concerned agencies rushed to the spot to inspect the wreckage.
Boat accidents are frequent in the famed southern tourist destination. Phuket has been tightening its tourist safety and security measures to restore tourist confidence.

Police said that the crew cowered below as the storm raged overhead. The lightning strike started fire and the 50 ft cruiser was burnt to the waterline. We hear that all the 9 crew had to jump over the side and were rescued by fishermen. All are safe. They only have what they jumped into the sea with. With Catherine and Stewart are Kevin and Susan Atkinson, Bill and Lilias Tennant, Anne & Martin Anderson and Margaret Hamilton.

Thankfully they are all ok and we are relieved that contrary to reports they were on a monohull and not a catamaran. .

17/10/2018

Annual Dinner

The Serpent Yacht Club Annual Dinner will be held once again in the Glasgow Art Club on Saturday 1st December. Note the date and further information will follow.

08/10/2018

'Frostbite Race' 6th October 2018

It was certainly a chilly morning in Largs Marina for the Frostbite. All 6 entries turned out with Solus just making the line following battery issues.

Given the conditions, Seamus as Race Officer on Emma Louise wisely opted for the simple Round Great Cumbrae course. With no wind it was a drifting start and by 20 minutes into the race little progress had been made.

The first leg was mainly spent catching whispers of available wind and watching some interesting tactics. Pondskater for example was observed hiding behind Hunterston jetty, presumably executing some cunning plan - or escaping from the French Brigantine which was cruising the channel during the day looking for action.

Eventually the wind started to fill as the fleet approached Hun 9. Aquaholic, Solus and Katya took full advantage, led the way and split the fleet in two. With the wind rising and shifting, the fleet tacked through the Cumbraes Pass and was rewarded with a stiff reaching breeze on the west side of Cumbrae and a fast gull wing dash to the finish where care was needed to avoid mowing down the Topper dinghy racing fleet. It was an exciting end to the race season in fine conditions - and the results on corrected time are as follows.

1 EMMA LOUISE          2 HOURS 35 MINUTES
2 AQUAHOLIC.             2 HOURS 40 MINUTES
3 SOLUS.                      2 HOURS 44 MINUTES
4 CAMUS BOSTA          2 HOURS 45 MINUTES
5 PONDSKATER          2 HOURS 46 MINUTES
6 KATYA                       2 HOURS 47 MINUTES

10/09/2018

Autumn Muster - No rewards for the quitters

All of the preceding week it hadn't looked very good for sailing on Saturday 8th September and when the day finally arrived the predictions were confirmed. With a poor entry of only four boats racing it hardly seemed worth the bother but there was just enough of a zephyr off Kip to allow Stewart Toy on Katya to select a shortened course start, missing out the first mark. Both Aquaholic and Troikka can manage in these conditions and both made a clean getaway towards Dunoon Bank but Camus Bosta struggled to clear Kip and Katya, 10 minutes later were hardly up to speed either. Troikka reached Mark One first, dodging the patches of still air but finally became completely becalmed somewhere not far east of Cloch and began drifting backwards in the tide. With mist coming down there seemed little prospect of any improvement and there was a unanimous vote on board for retiring. The photo below shows the scene in the Holy Loch where the Polaris regatta was running with little action for the Piper classic dayboat class.

Katya, further back needed little encouragement to follow suit but Tom and Neil are made of sterner stuff and stuck it out for several hours while the other two were safely tied up in Holy Loch marina where eventually it became apparent that the sun was coming out and a sailing breeze was developing. Black Pepper, Sulaire and Solus cruised in and all the pontoon socialising began in earnest but it was late in the afternoon before Aquaholic and Camus Bosta finally arrived having finished the course within the time limit and of course placing a very commendable first in Classes 2 & 3 respectively.

A convivial evening followed in the Cantina restaurant in Dunoon despite the rather disappointing food quality and there were some late nights on board back at the marina. Next morning completed the traditional feast or famine scenario for the Polaris weekend with SW wind building to the high 20s giving quite a boisterous sail home. Maybe pick a different weekend next year.

22/08/2018

Autumn Muster and Race

Don't Miss Autumn Muster and Race - Kip to Holy Loch Sept 8/9

With evening meal in La Cantina, Dunoon.

19/08/2018

August Barbeque at Ormidale

Our Clyde Summer barbecue on the 11th August was notable for its absence of midges and rain. It a week of generally dreich weather, Saturday proved to be dry & bright, and the crews of 7 boats made ashowing for an evening of sizzle and smoke. It was a relaxed and sociable affair making it a likely fixture again for next year.

Here is a photo of the revellers taken by Séamus Lalor. It was raining pretty convincingly when Séamus and Mike left us on the Sunday heading for Ardrosssan. Their pleasant reach lasted till
Garroch Head from whence it was 22 gusting 28 on the nose for awell reefed beat home thereafter. The forecast had never been encouraging for the Sunday so they showed considerable spirit in
joining us for the party.