Kipper Sailing
| Vessel Name: | Kipper of London |
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.
A frustrating 24hrs
The last 24hrs have been slow and, at times, very frustrating. We only made 61 miles and, at times, there was insufficient wind to maintain steerage.
We passed Fair Isle about 4 miles off. Like St. Kilda, it's a forbidding looking place. No trees whatsoever and towering cliffs. It is however inhabited by a few hardy souls.
At one time we had to dodge a vessel, restricted in her ability to manoeuvre, owing to the fact that she was undertaking seismological survey work, towing a 3 mile long, sonar array and requesting an exclusion zone 3 miles ahead, 3 miles on both sides and 6 miles astern. That's a moving obstruction of 45 square miles. It wouldn't have been as bad if she didn't keep changing course. She had a ship escorting her and, at one stage they came haring over toward us to chase us off. I called them on the VHF and explained that we were racing and therefore really didn't want to be forced to use our engine and, at the same time had very little wind. They gave us the Lat Long of the tail buoy on the array and we agreed a course to keep us clear. They extended their gratitude. Interestingly the survey vessel is able to tow the array way off to the side. As much as 45 degrees. I wonder how they do that?
Before we left Lerwick, Ian Fraser presented us with 4 beautiful haddock fillets. They'd been caught only hours previously. We had one each in a sandwich for supper. Yum, yum, yum! The other 2 are in the freezer. Going to roast a chuck today.
Currently making 4.5kts at 148 degrees, which is a VMG of 4.2kts, ahead of our target to finish within the time limit, which expires at noon on Sunday July 4th. However the forecast for the next few days is light winds and headwinds. Sometimes together. ETA Lowestoft is now Tuesday.
