The RNYC's practical course this year was extremely eventful, especially
aboard our yacht Jay, a nicely appointed 40 ft Bavaria that, unfortunately,
did not handle quite as well as she looked.
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The lightest crew member on Jay demonstrating
that she could lift the heaviest crew member on Flamingo using
Jay's spinnaker halyard. The skipper and crew of Flamingo, another
of the Club's chartered boats, look on from the pontoon in a rainy
Rothesay.
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There were four of us students on board - Shirley, Keith, Andrew
and me - all doing Coastal Skipper - and our instructor Tony.
We spent the week doing all sorts of difficult things - navigating
in "fog", navigating without a GPS, fender and bucket
overboard recovery under sail and power, sailing onto and off
buoys and pontoons, anchoring under sail, circuits and bumps around
the pontoons and, of course, night sailing.
In our case the night sail was from Loch Gair (in Upper Loch
Fyne) to Tarbet on a very windy night. To start with the steaming
light did not work so one of us had to operate a torch. After
being surprised at how fast we were going with the boat fully
reefed, we learnt a very important lesson - not to leave the engine
in forward gear at 2000 rpm at the same time.
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Mooring under sail in Loch Ranza was livened up by one of our crew
becoming suspended between the mooring buoy and the pulpit. Although
the skipper had invented a gadget for picking up the ring of the mooring
buoy, it was necessary to replace this with a more secure mooring line
for the night. The skipper told Andrew he had once seen someone climb
over the pulpit and stand on the buoy in order to thread a line through
the ring. Andrew decided to give this a try himself, much to the skipper's
amazement. He actually performed this difficult balancing act but, unfortunately,
climbing back over Jay’s high bows proved to be rather more difficult.
A spinnaker halyard was led forward to assist in his recovery, but an
exhausted Andrew managed to haul himself back on board before this man
overboard recovery technique could be put to a real test.
Whilst moored to this same buoy we went ashore in the dinghy to try
some real ale - a particular interest of the skipper. More adventure
awaited on the return trip when we started the outboard motor and aimed
the dinghy at Jay's anchor light. All seemed to be going well until
the skipper noticed our anchor light was unexpectedly coming into transit
with that of another moored yacht. The outboard was running in gear
but we were not moving through the water! Instead the tide was taking
us out to sea. Later we found that a pin had sheared off the propeller.
Two crew members then started paddling Indian style, to the amusement
of the crew of a second RNYC yacht, Kookaburra, who were taking photographs,
not realizing that there was a problem, as the engine was still going.
We soon realized that this was not getting us very far and also that
the dinghy was deflating under us. Consequently some serious rowing
by the skipper against the current ensued and a relieved crew eventually
arrived back at the yacht.
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Rigging a stern spring in the sunshine in Tarbet.
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Scattered in with all this practical experience, we were involved
with an unusual number of near calamities - not ours fortunately.
One was the result of hearing a MAYDAY call while in Tarbet. A wayfarer
dinghy had capsized 1 mile north of the harbour in choppy conditions.
Not hearing any other response we headed off to the scene as fast
as we could and advised the coastguard, who told us to continue
and stand by the casualty. When we arrived the dinghy sailors had
already been recovered by a RIB from the Tarbet-Portavadie ferry.
This was fortunate, as the inverted wayfarer was surrounded by rocks
and it would have taken us some time to inflate and launch our dinghy.
The coastguard nevertheless thanked us for our offer of assistance. |
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Springing the bows off against a fresh breeze
in Rothesay.
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More drama ensued when we were in Rothesay, sheltering from a
gale. As we were practising take offs and landings at the pontoon,
another yacht arrived and attempted to berth alongside the pontoon
to windward. One of its crew misjudged the distance to the pontoon
and we had to rush across and haul him out of the water.
A third incident concerned one of our boats. The skipper told
his crew he required hospitalisation and requested that they advise
the coastguard. The crew of would-be Day Skippers did a great
job in liaising with the coastguard and in no time a pilot boat
turned up and, as the tale is told, two hefty sailors leaned over
and hoisted the casualty unceremoniously but efficiently two metres
up from the yacht into their boat, which then transported him
to a waiting ambulance. In this case we were just involved with
checking his crew were OK, notifying relatives and transporting
his car back home. I am delighted to say he soon recovered and
is now his usual healthy self again, but the experience gave us
good practice in VHF procedure and seeing how well the authorities
responded to a crisis.
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Altogether it was a very interesting week. Apart from the sailing instruction,
we made new friends from different walks of life, realized our strengths
and weaknesses as members of a team, and had many good meals, which
we had to plan and prepare. On top of all that we even experienced the
famous Victorian loos and showers at Rothesay.
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