EASTCOASTER The Newsletter of the East Coast Old Gaffers Association August 2017 Issue 112 Forestay Welcome to a packed issue of Eastcoaster. With so much to fit in I have left the Crouch report to Gaffer's Log, where you can read all about it! How many people remember their first sailing trip? I am sure Edith will not remember hers but thanks to her mother's account published here it will never be forgotten. Gromit ©Julian Cable In this issue The premier Gaffer race on the East Coast has been in decline for a number of years; we carry full reports and results, but also a plea for ideas as to Forestay its future. Medway in flames One of the boats racing in Class 5 this year was a Swallows and Amazons one off concept boat, on a very standard hull. We have a report on how to convert a Wayfarer to gaff Lego and hair-dryers rig, and very pretty it looks too! Norfolk Rally East Coast race; Being only half way through the sailing season Races and reflections there are still a lot of events to enjoy all over the area. There is our ever popular August Cruise in First sail company, which this year feeds in to Burnham Gaffering a Wayfarer week, with the promise of free moorings for our boats. Maritime Woodbridge is back, with a small boats points series race on the Saturday, and August Cruise hopefully this year's Maldon Town Regatta will have better weather than last! OGA members welcome! Planning is well advanced for next year's 55th Excelsior for 2018 anniversary celebration. Feel your own boat is too small for the trip to Cowes? How about there or back in Excelsior? Read on to find out how to do it! Backstay 1 Eastcoaster 112 East Coast OGA Newsletter August 2017 Medway in Flames Brian Corbett, OGA Trustee, Maritime Heritage Trust Board & Chairman, MBSA The Dutch have now gone back home. This time not with the `Royal Charles', but with immense respect for, and happy memories of, their time on the Medway, especially at the parties hosted by the Medway YC, Upnor SC, Hoo Ness YC and Gillingham Marina. Heavy westerly gales had frustrated the arrival of some, and just two of the Dutch OGA fleet made the crossing, Rik Janssen and Celeste, in Cine Mara, and Arjan Megens with Hymke Spanjaard in Bola. The Hoo Ness YC entertained us Gaffers to a great evening on the Friday and we were joined by Solent Gaffers Ben Collins and David Walters on the Saturday for a great hog roast party at the Medway YC. The Dutch retired marines issued a rowing challenge the first Saturday to the Royal Marines, but when the British Marines strangely failed to show;(shades of 350 years ago), the challenge was gamely taken up by the local rowing clubs Queenborough and the Medway Towns who rowed a hard five mile course, partly against both wind and tide. The race finished close to Nelson©s Gate at the Chatham Historic Dockyard and the leading boat broke a foam chain consisting of alternating links of the Union and Dutch flags. A special piece of theatre, arranged by Frits de Ruyter de Wildt, the highly successful overall Dutch coordinator of the event. Brian Corbett awarded a beautiful silver trophy to the winning boat, one of the Dutch retired marines boats. It had been presented by Mr Dick Atlee©s family, whose father had won a sailing regatta at the anniversary 50 years ago. The second Dutch fleet of over 70 yachts gathered on 13 June at Stangate Creek, to sail up the Medway in company, led by the modern steam ship, ©George Stephenson©. This time, no Dutch Prince, but. regaled as a Victorian yachtsman in his dinghy off Upnor Castle, Brian Corbett helped the larger Dutch yachts onto the Royal Engineers YC moorings, standing up gingerly to take the salute! After a superb pub quiz evening organised by the Upnor SC at the Medway YC, we had another hog roast party and a barbecue on the Saturday night of the Medway in Flames finale. 2 Eastcoaster 112 East Coast OGA Newsletter August 2017 Swallow and Amazons A windy weekend made for the fastest race round the island ever, with the first boat round in just under 65 minutes, while the slowest finisher completed the race in an hour and a half. A full report of the weekend can be seen on the website, here I will just say thanks to Walton and Frinton Yacht Club, for their excellent support of the event, and the Wilberforces for the use of their orchard and facilities. Happy Days Smacks Boat 1st Overall + 1st Smacks Boat Montmorency Spirit of Tradition 1st Spirit of Tradition + 1st Boat Home Peter Pan Spirit of Tradition 2nd Spirit of Tradition + Little Gaffer (Smallest Boat) Ripple Smacks Boat 2nd Smacks Boat Summer Traditional 1st Traditional + Little Gaffer (Youngest Crew) Neva Smacks Boat Guillemot Spirit of Tradition Awol Smacks Boat Minnow Smacks Boat Lapus Lazuli Jewel 1st Jewel Fox Cub Smacks Boat Papa Little Spirit of Tradition Maiden Race Delilah Traditional Fyre Spirit of Tradition Pudding Faces Smacks Boat retired Tiki Traditional Furthest Passage to event, retired Windfall Spirit of Tradition Retired 3 Eastcoaster 112 East Coast OGA Newsletter August 2017 Neva in action in Hamford Water photo Pete Sweeney Lego land-yachts Julian Cable At Swamazons we had some time between the race and the prize giving. Unfortunately we didn't mention that we had the game available at the morning briefing. Our apologies to those who would have joined in if they had known (Melvin, this means you!). I'm not sure what the W&FYC thought of our motley collection of kidults with Lego, sellotape and beer. They were very gracious and even lent us an extension lead for the hair dryer. There was much discussion about the rules. A certain sailmaker was somewhat rebellious over the stipulation for four cornered sails. I'm sure I 4 Eastcoaster 112 East Coast OGA Newsletter August 2017 heard an ex-teacher saying `Sir she's taken my sellotape'. After about an hour where only Ian had done any experimentation on the course I dragged everyone over and we tried all the craft out. Not all of them made it through to the actual racing and quite a few modifications were needed to others. The main problems were capsizing and the need to improve sheeting arrangements. We had a large variety of rigs with some people going for sail shape, others for sheer sail area and a couple of fascinating interpretations of the rules. In the end there were four finishers. Will Thomas came a comfortable first with his brilliant America's Cup style wing. It performed fantastically on all aspects of the wind. A very traditional lug sail came a close second, brilliantly evolved and sailed by Ian Kemp. Ian's lugger was actually faster upwind than Will's wing but not quite as stable downwind. 5 Eastcoaster 112 East Coast OGA Newsletter August 2017 The other two boats were significantly slower on all points of sail. Pete Thomas' innovative bat-winged design scraped into the design rules with the two sails folded together and when opened was fast downwind while the concave roach on Mark Butler's pretty lugger did a fine job on a reach but lacked the sail area to keep up downwind. A big thanks to the W&FYC for putting up with our antics and to the entrants for their creativity and sense of fun. Norfolk Broads Eloise Howlett For the third year running we packed up and headed to Norfolk for the annual trailer section camping holiday in Bures hosted by the ever so welcoming Keith and Marion and the rest of the regular OGA campers. Now we©re a family of four, we decided a smacksboat might be a bit of a squeeze so fellow camper Judy introduced us to Hunters Yard where you can hire a lugsail and it was perfect for us! We spent two days sailing the broads visiting Ranworth and Potter Higham. President of the OGA Alastair joined us this year and had his new toy, a Broads One Design Eider, to show off and he sped off into the distance with Yvonne towards our favourite majestic hideaway Ranworth! They sailed back towards us and announced you had to pay to moor up there now (which is sadly becoming true of many moorings on the Broads) and there were no spaces so they were heading back. We were gutted (and very hungry) and so decided to have a look for ourselves as we had taken quite a long time to get there. Luckily for us there are still free ones available tucked up next to the wherry and there was a space for us. A lovely lunch and a much 6 Eastcoaster 112 East Coast OGA Newsletter August 2017 needed coffee was consumed and Fiona and Andy also joined us ashore and had a bite too. The sign is a small one, so we©ve sent it in for any other likely visitors and sometimes its hard to miss! After a fantastic sail back to camp (and some low mutterings to Alastair of the tortoise and hare race ah ha) the barbecues were alight and a great sing song and dinner was had by all. The Sunday was spent sailing to Potter Higham which was a first for us, it was a beautiful sail with lots to see and many fisherman to avoid.