Kipper Sailing

Vessel Name: Kipper of London
18 November 2010
18 November 2010
18 November 2010
18 July 2010 | Lymington
06 July 2010 | On our way bsck to Lymington
05 July 2010 | Finished
05 July 2010 | 5 miles SEof the western entrance to Plymouth Sound
04 July 2010 | 5 miles east of Dartmouth
04 July 2010 | 8 miles ENE of The Bill of Portland
03 July 2010 | 10 miles SE of St Catherines Point
02 July 2010 | 10 miles SW of Beachy Head
01 July 2010 | Anchored 2 miles SE of North Foreland
01 July 2010 | 8 miles SSE of Lowestorft
29 June 2010 | Lowestoft
28 June 2010 | Sailing 3 miles south east of Cromer
28 June 2010 | Becalmed 3 miles east of Cromer
28 June 2010 | 16 miles north of Cromer
27 June 2010 | 20 miles ENE of the entrance to the Humber
27 June 2010 | 12m NE of Flamborough Head
26 June 2010 | 32m east of Blyth
Recent Blog Posts
18 November 2010

White Boats

Sailing schools are commercial enterprises and margins are extremely tight, so they typically buy training boats that provide sufficient accommodation for the maximum of 5 students and one instructor at the lowest possible price. These are usually European (as opposed to British) built and on large production [...]

18 November 2010

Jet Skis

I positively hate jet skis, the people who use them and everything to do with them. As far as I'm concerned they're ridden by men with small willies and without the balls to ride a motorbike. And I mean MEN. When did you ever hear of a woman stupid enough to buy a jet ski? Am I being unfair. No. Do I have an issue with other powered recreational vessels (motor-yachts, ribs, ski boats)? No. The problem with jet-skis is that the idiots who ride them will ride round and round and round what, should have been, a quiet anchorage. This is akin to somebody riding a noisy motorbike round and round a park where everybody else is trying to enjoy a quiet, whatever you do in a park (I wouldn't know). If I could legally buy a bazooka, I'd buy one and blast all the jet skiers to kingdom come.

18 November 2010

Big Boats , Small Boats

Once upon a time, maybe 25+ years ago, a typical first boat was a Mirror Dinghy, then a Wayfarer, then a small Westerly, then a Contessa 32, then a 40 footer. All this over a lifetime of sailing. Experience was gained slowly. Nowadays too many people go out and buy (yes you've guessed it) a shiny new [...]

18 July 2010 | Lymington

Back to Work

Back to the day (and sometimes night) job after the (excitement) of the 2-handed RB&I race. And guess what? I'm enjoying myself more working than I was, supposedly, taking some R&R. It's one Hell of a lot more varied and stimulating.

06 July 2010 | On our way bsck to Lymington

Final thoughts on the race

Now it's all over, I've had time to reflect on the experience and to report on what worked and what didn't.

05 July 2010 | Finished

That's that then.

Finished at 10:13:40.

Exciting finish at Lowestoft

29 June 2010 | Lowestoft
John
We eventually finished at Lowestoft at 00:49 this morning after a thrilling beat, tacking in and out of the sandbanks, making 8kts over the ground. Well I found it thrilling anyway. Nasher was fast asleep and, when I gave him a shake, just after midnight to tell him it was his watch, it was amusing to see him sat staring at the chartplotter, not quite believing his eyes. When he turned in we'd been expecting a 0500 finish.

Of course we have it easy these days, compared to the early races. A good autopilot and chartplotter, backed up by radar means that one person can sail the boat and navigate simultaneously, even at speed in close pilotage. Always remembering that it's essential to verify your GPS position by other means and that, in places like this, where the sand banks shift around and the buoys are relocated continually, you can't just sail “off the screen” but must validate the position of buoys. Radar simplifies this and we were able to take the corners really close.

We were surprised and delighted to be welcomed on the finish line by a rib load of Royal Norfolk and Suffolk members and, as it turned out, it was just as well they came out because when we tried to engage ahead propulsion from the engine, we got nothing. The prop isn't pitching in ahead (it does astern). We tried to sail into the narrow, and from seaward, very difficult to locate, entrance, under yankee alone but, as we closed the entrance, it became clear that the tide had turned and we we're being set rapidly north of the entrance and into the sea wall. Not a great situation as, with just the yankee up, we'd have struggled to tack and we hadn't room to leeward to gybe. It'd have been anchor down in double quick time.

Anyway the rib towed us in and alongside (big thank you) and we were invited into the clubhouse for beer (or tea which we declined), cheese and biscuits and fruit cake. We sat chatting for a while and then turned in at around 0230.

Up just before 0800 as there's a lot to do. We need to find out what's wrong with the prop, if necessary order a rushed replacement, get the cooker fixed, sort out the water tanks, clean the boat etc. etc. Hopefully there'll be some time for R&R later.
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