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.

Thanks to our hosts, Ian and Rene Fraser

23 June 2010 | 16M NNE of Fair Isle
John
0245 is a stupid time to have to get up. A glance outside told us that: it was foggy; drizzling with rain and very little wind. Ugh! Venturing outside to top up the sea told me that it was bloomin' freezing too (although the water was quite warm). Double Ugh! Our start was at 0326 and we crossed the line and tacked down south out of the sound at about 3kts, watching the radar and AIS displays carefully.

At one stage the wind dropped to, virtually zero and I was not a happy bunny. It's nearly 500 miles to Lowestoft and the forecast is totally crap. At the moment the wind is SE4 but forecast to veer SW or even W within the next 24hrs. So that's not too bad. But then, around Friday, there's around 24hrs of calm, followed by southerly winds, up to about F5 for the foreseeable future. So it's going to be a dead beat (again) all the way. This really isn't funny. This leg could well take 6 days.

Whilst in Lerwick, we were admirably assisted by our host family, Ian and Rene Fraser. Rene willingly took on the unenviable task of our laundry. We felt quite guilty handing over two bulging bags of damp, smelly clothes and were highly impressed when they were returned smelling sweet, ironed and perfectly folded. Thanks Rene. Ian ferried us around, went to search out new O rings for the water tanks, took us to Co-op and gave us a guided tour of the island. He also regaled us with fascinating anecdotes from the race from years past. He's been fulfilling this valuable roll since the very beginnings. Thanks Ian.

We're now heading around 195 at 6kts, hoping to weather Fair Isle, 16 miles ahead. It looks OK at the moment but the tide is beginning to set strongly west and we might have to put in a short tack out to the east, which'd be a pain. Then it's on down towards Orkneys. We'll tack when the wind veers.
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