Members Talks Evening (11th October 2024)

Published 09:10 on 15 Oct 2024

An audience of eighteen gathered in The Hornet Services Sailing Club for a meal and an evening of tales told by HYC members. Officially we had four speakers but their four spouses contributed throughout the presentations, as did members of the audience. It made for a very relaxed, informal exchange of ideas on 4 very different topics.

"A Trip to Falmouth" - Cathy Hems

First up was Cathy talking about a dramatic passage from Falmouth to Plymouth in a 10m planing motorboat where high winds and big seas arrived 2 days earlier than expected.

In hindsight they feel they should have moved into a marina for a week however they started the passage and it was too difficult  to return or to put in place Plan B (Fowey) so a frightening passage ensued, fortunately ending with their eventual arrival in Plymouth and the decision to buy a bigger boat.

Lessons learned; don't be forced by time constraints to leave a safe harbour, if in doubt stay where you are, don't go out in more than 10 kn winds.

"Delivery Work" - Steve Derbyshire

Next to speak was Steve. He did his day skipper and then started to do deliveries to get his hours up. He bought a Moody 42 and lived onboard for 2 years travelling until 2004. Steve has delivered boats from as far afield as Southern Spain to Stockholm. That particular trip was so cold that the crew had taken plenty of clothing and wore the whole lot at the same time but could still not keep warm. He vowed to never again sail north of the Thames but was later persuaded to help a friend move a Starlight 39 from Eastbourne and later from Conway in Ireland north to Largs in Scotland which is definitely north of the Thames. Steve now feels he's too old for sailing and has bought himself a motorboat so not quite ready to give up all together.

"Baie de Seine" - Brian Masters

Our third speaker was Brian who gave us a fascinating and informative talk about their recent trip (5 weeks) across the channel to Bay de Seign, illustrated with so many lovely slides, too many to show here, you should have come to the presentation you missed a treat J  This was originally planned as a club trip but it was cancelled last minute because of the weather and by the time the weather had settled only Brian and Hilary were still able to go!  For anyone considering doing any part of this trip then a chat with Brian and Hilary is a must, they have so much information in their heads, from Port of entry info to local markets, restaurants, marinas and activities they could write a guide book. They arrived on Bastille day and enjoyed the fireworks. Hilary talked about watching an excellent band in the street doing covers. She was particularly thrilled by their excellent Dire Straits covers because she is a fan. They hired a car and visited the Bayeux tapestry and the D day memorial in Normandy which they found very moving. They motored around a lot but in the whole 5 weeks only managed a few hours sailing as there was no wind. Brian gave some local knowledge about entry into Dives sur mer which dries out. This place is famous for being the departure point of William the Conqueror in 1066 and Hornfleur which is the entrance to the Seine is very easy to run aground, no room for error on entry.

"Anchorages in the Solent" - John Walker

Our final speaker John was handed a telescopic stick to point at his slides of Anchoring in the Solent and proceeded to wave it around like Harry Potter. John spent 12 years living on a boat in the Med . When he moved back to the UK he would spend the winters in marinas and the summers at anchor to save money. He has years of experience of anchoring in the Solent, from boyhood, and showed how almost anywhere can be an anchorage providing the wind and sea conditions are favourable. He also has a long history of running aground and his wife Mo threatened to spill the beans about their experiences but sadly we ran out of time. John's talk did make me think we should be more adventurous with anchoring and not stick to the handful of places we all know about.

We ran over time by about half an hour because so many people contributed to the talks as they went along, a good time was had by all. Thank you to Jem for organising it, to Brian and Hilary for putting together all of the slides and to the speakers. I think this is an event which could be repeated in the future. We all have tales to tell and the audience is very appreciative so don't be shy.

Cathy Hems

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• Talk: Member's Evening (11 October, 18:00 - 23:00)

Last updated 11:53 on 24 October 2024