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Affiliated to the The Burgee Port solent yacht club magazine May 2017 www.psyc.uk.com Send contributions to the editor: [email protected] 1 Cover: Alum Bay Anchorage 2 From the Commodore’s Cockpit Ian Reed (Reflections) Welcome to the May 2017 issue of The Burgee. Spring brings us buds, daffodils and lambs, fresh winds and some crisp early morning temperatures. We started the year with winter meets which are reported in this issue of The Burgee, all very well attended by very appreciative members. We started this year’s on-the-water events with the Shakedown Rally to Shepards Wharf up the Medina at Cowes. This was well attended and a great start to the season even if it was April 1st! This was closely followed by the Easter Rally with 8 to11 boats at all venues: Bembridge (Friday), Hamble Point (Saturday), Folly Inn (Sunday) and the very good end-of-Rally Tea at the Port House (Monday). So a busy and eventful period with the weather giving us the Spring start we had all hoped for ….. and a further five new boat memberships in the last two months. Welcome to all new members who should have their 2017 PSYC Handbooks with the events schedules. Any problems, call one of the Committee members. At the time of writing the Bucklers Hard Rally (13th -14th May) with the Safari boat supper has been publicised to members. The PSYC Barn Dance (Friday July 21st) notice is also out. Members and friends need to commit early with a deposit for priority booking as the event will be opened to all berth holders later. Don’t miss out – get it done without delay! What now? Well, keep looking at the PSYC web site (due to be revamped by Jacqui our Web Master) for updates and information and look out for mailed notices from the Hon Secretary (note: if you change your email or postal address please let the Hon Sec know). If any member would like to take up the rally lead for the MERCURY Rally, 10th -11th June, please contact me directly. I will give support (if needed) to any volunteer. As an RNLI sea safety advisor I had to take my update on the First Aid (Merchant Navy) Cert. We will be looking at organising some training in 2017 (as noted in February's Burgee) as we have had several new members in the last four months. However, the standard First Aid procedures have changed quite a bit over the last year or so. If you are interested you can contact me directly and we will see what can be done. In the meantime enjoy The Burgee and, as always, please consider any contri- bution you can make to The Burgee and the web with a story of your experienc- es, good or bad, or any boating techniques that you think will be entertaining or useful to all. Look forward to seeing you on the water 3 February’s Winter Meet at the surface by the interface box. Another yellow hose is used as a Summary by Hugh manometer to measure the exact depth Nightingale (Shiraz) and is open-ended; in an emergency it could be used as an alternative diver About thirty members and guests came air supply. The hat has a HD camera to enjoy a talk by Ruben and Debbie on it. from RS Divers. Ruben covered a brief history of both himself and the company. He started working with yachts and commercial vessels from his twenties to now in his forties. He began The whole equipment requires a five- man team of one diver, one standby diver, one supervisor, one tender (to diving for fun and non-commercial look after the umbilical), and a second activity before falling in love with it. He tender to look after the second diver. It became part of the boat scrubber is not cheap to run so they are not enterprise, (we had one in Port Solent), cheap. where he used his diving experience to They do a lot of bottom inspections; finish the missed bits but the scheme typically they recently had to drag a car fell through. He set up on his own in out of a pond after the owner had left 2005 and became a limited company in the handbrake off while she chased 2008, mainly cleaning racing boats. after her dog. One of their first jobs was However, one day he had a phone call to look for a Faberge egg which, sadly, from a ferry operator and decided he they didn’t find. It has been a busy time would have to be more professional. scrubbing and changing props, to This kind of work meant he had to start which they have now added a lot more using surface supply diving rather than large commercial tasks. They have a SCUBA and he had an example of the basic team of 5 employees with up to equipment to show us. The diving hat 20 additional divers. Most recently they weighs 25 kg in air but is not so heavy won the contract to help with the in water so we were able to try it. Portsmouth Harbour Capital Dredge working with the MOD. Therefore The hat is connected to the surface by Ruben had some restriction on what he an umbilical comprising a blue air could talk about. The harbour search hose, a red communications cable and has found a lot of debris including a yellow hose carrying air. High shopping trolleys, grenades and some pressure air is reduced and controlled bombs and mines; RS Divers tend to be 4 called in after a surface scan. Much of rigid procedures. They had one near- what followed concerned the problems miss when working on a boat on a of finding and dealing with ordnance. slipway when one of the concrete Once identified, a bomb cannot simply “anchors” started to slide slowly and be moved; estimating its size in the un-noticed down the slip but the diver mud has its own problems. felt the pressure of it. It had to be fully reported. They do not work where there The services they provide include is any differential pressure as in locks underwater inspection and and they have never had to use the maintenance, underwater photographs standby diver. of damage, visual inspection of props, rudder and the stern. It appears that An enthusiastic round of applause Debbie will answer the phone at any followed this fascinating and time of day or night. There are about entertaining talk. four other dive companies in the area and there is some interaction. They are As I write these notes there is news that used to doing searches for mobile a 500 lb bomb has been dredged up in phones, car keys, prop rope problems the harbour, the worst scenario since and many case studies are on the web, this means it had been moved. It is www.rsdivers.co.uk. They are still being carefully dragged out to blow up cleaning many of the race boats and a bit more of the Isle of Wight. Fastnet boats, and some 80/100 foot boats are cleaned every day at a cost of March’s Winter Meet £400. They cleaned Alex Thomson’s boat; the J class yachts have a 7m keel; Summary by Hugh all of the major players use divers. Nightingale (Shiraz) He felt now was the time to invite Ian introduced Sam Hunt, a consultant questions and nominations to wear the dermatologist, previously based in hat. They usually only work down to Portsmouth but now in Winchester. Her about 20 m, deeper needs a SAT main target audience for talks was container with 4 divers maintained at golfers which is how she met Ian. pressure and operated through an air Golfers are nearly always out in the sun lock to a pressurised dive bell. How and she recently realised that sailors much to clean a yacht is shown on the are also out in the sun (hopefully – distributed leaflet, however they did Hugh). We talked about the risks; we once do a drift dive in the Solent to are outside for most of the day. When clean a yacht as it approached the start should we wear sunscreen? Now? In line. While this was being discussed March? We should be using sunscreen Gail Gould, one of our new members, from March to October. We should also and Dave Aldridge both tried on the wear broad-brimmed hats and gloves hat. The umbilical as shown is 45m are excellent but wearing shorts long; they could dive to 50m and can presents a sunburn problem. We remain under water for up to three should have regular skin checks; Sam hours. Diving deep is better in clear asked how many of us had suffered water so Egypt is much easier than the skin problems. From the year 1800 it Solent. Answering a question, Ruben was noted that there was a relationship made it clear that they have had no between sailors and skin problems; mishaps mainly because they stick to golfers receive each year 270 times the 5 amount of UV needed to cause radiotherapy or chemotherapy. It is sunburn. For sailors there is the added most important to be safe, avoid reflection from sails and the water; it sunburn, wear protective clothing, use also should be noted that 80% of UV high protective sunscreen with SPF penetrates mist. There are >30. Most people do not put enough on approximately 70,000 new cases of and factor 50 probably results in factor malignant melanoma per year with the 30 efficacy.