NOTICES
If any member wishes to post anything on this notice board, for example items for sale or items required, please email
dave.j.welch@btinternet.com
There will be an Open meeting at the Yacht Club on Monday 20th October 7.00pm.
If your interested in maintaining the future of the club then please attend.
John Rice will be at the Yacht Club on Thurs 18th Nov to give us a demonstration on Radar 8pm - 10pm
What it feels like to be in a liferaft
The penultimate in sea safety tuition took place recently when the Ilfracombe yacht club took to a liferaft in their local swimming pool.
This, the latest in a string of sea safety course organised by the club, proved to be the most enjoyable yet, and a valuable experience in the application of surviving at sea.
And, like the previous, popular courses, the attendance was filled by a combination of both members and non members and from varying boating backgrounds.
The instruction resulted in a RYA certificate acceptable for leisure craft sailing and recognised by the MCA as a statutory requirement for commercial fishing trawlers.
The instructor, south coast based Kevin Riley (MBE) is a well known and respected expert in survival on both the sea and land, being an ex paratrooper, a pilot and a regular lifeboat safety and Station Operations Manager . he stated “ ALL SAILORS SHOULD KNOW WHAT TO DO IN AN EMERGENCY, AND IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES TAUGHT IN SEA SURVIVAL IT WILL HELP YOU IN THE DREADED EMERGENCY.
BEING THROWN INTO A DISTRESS SITUATION IS NOT THE TIME TO START THINKING AND PLANNING AS THINGS CAN HAPPEN VERY FAST . PREPARATION AND PLANNING IS THE KEY TO SURVIVAL ”
Colin Savage Also a qualified RYA instructor and no stranger to the club, was also at hand helping to make the day very informative and highlighting the importance of being aware of what to do in an emergency situation, whether in a liferaft or in the sea, showing the realisation of just how difficult things could be in the unfortunate event of a real life drama.
The cold. fear, extreme condition and darkness would all add to making survival much more difficult for the unprepared.
The correct way to conserve energy and body heat, keep up moral and prolong life for as long as possible were explained in detail as well as procedures for getting help and attracting attention from rescue operations.
The familiarisation with the huge variety of equipment demonstrated, was of great benefit by way of reassurance in the event of it ever being needed to be used. It was also highlighted how important it is to carry the correct safety equipment and check, maintain and keep it serviceable. Faulty equipment can cost lives.
I am still laughing to myself when I remember what it felt like to be propelled into the life raft, it was great fun as well as a valuable experience. Being a non swimmer, I am really pleased that I took the course. Having the practice in the controlled conditions of the pool coupled with the invaluable advice gained from the theory part of the day, was an essential experience.
Jane Gear
Local Yachtsmen awarded trophies
Ilfracombe Yacht club have held a presentation night to be remembered this year. The celebrations took place within the harbour side clubhouse itself, which was specially decked out in sparkling star clothes, just for the night, to celebrate the occasion. The prize giving was attended by special guest the honourable John Rouse owner of Clovelly.
The evening was a spectacular success, enjoyed by everyone and with a buffet not short of a gourmets banquet expertly prepared by club members Tony and Mo Reeves, and with desserts that no one could resist by Ann Clemence.
Despite a year of abominable sailing weather, the races went ahead and the cups were awarded to the following winners :
Round Lundy Trafalgar Race - Peter T - R.Thompson
Clovelly Rum Race - Haze - M.Silvester & A.Reeves
Copperas Cup - Haze
St Austell Cup - Zephyrus - D.Welch & J Welch
RNLI - Elianne - J.Clemence & G.Duffin
Lunatics Trophy - Bert Gear
The Commodores Cup was justly awarded to Bobby Davis and her team of helpers for all the hard work and efforts that they have achieved this year as the social committee, putting on a full, varied and greatly enjoyed programme of social events that included something to suit everyone, whether they were sailors or land lovers.
Well done to you all!
Jane Gear
Here at the Ilfracombe Yacht club we have again promoted sea safety by successfully qualifying a new batch of navigators.
The course run in our beautiful harbour side club, and tutored by Colin Savage, himself an experienced and fully qualified RYA instructor, proved to be a great success and a valuable source of knowledge to the students. Both members and non members sat side by side, and ranged from complete beginners about to put their first step onto a boarding ladder, right up to the more experienced sailors of several years who just needed a brush up on their navigational skills.
The two day RYA certified course went well with plenty of coffee and refreshments to keep the students alert, and included instruction and demonstrations on passage planning, charts and position plotting, safety, including engine checks, buoyage, tidal awareness, visual navigation and pilotage, rules of the road, electronic navigation, anchoring and weather forecasts, as well as the usual banter and joviality always encountered when you put a group of like minded people together in the same room for any length of time.
I find it hard to believe that so many people set sail on our waters without any instruction whatsoever, it seems essential to me to be as informed and as prepared as possible before taking to the seas, not only for your own safety, but also for that of your own crewmembers and other seafarers.
And so, for any of you who missed this opportunity, and would like to attend another session, please get in touch with me so that I can arrange for a further group later on in the year.
Jane Gear 
Ilfracombe Community Harbour Forum
Inaugural Meeting 7 th Feb 2008
The Inaugural Meeting of the Ilfracombe Community Harbour Forum was held at the Sandpiper inn on Thursday 7 th Feb where the Ilfracombe Yacht Club was represented by Chris Marman and Bert Gear.
Other groups represented were;
* Commercial Fisherman's Ass
* Boatmen's Association
* RLNI
* Ilfracombe Anglers Ass
* Ilfracombe Town Council
* Ilfracombe and District Community Interest Company
* Ilfracombe and District Tourist Ass
* Licences
* Harbour Traders/Businesses
* Environmental Management
* N D Sub Aqua Club
* Ilfracombe Gig Club
* Harbour Ass.
This meeting was mainly to set out the aims and procedures of the Forum with an introduction by the Chairman of the Harbour Board, Paul Yabsley.
A chairman was elected, Bob Thompson
And Vice Chairman, Paul Crabb
So as you can see the Yacht club is well represented.
It was a very positive meeting and hopefully things will now start to happen around the harbour.
The next meeting of the Forum is 2 8 th Feb. so if anyone has any points to bring up or needs more information please contact me at the club or by phone or e-mail.
Bert Gear
07768 595789
bert@berlyn-services.co.uk
Sea Safety by Jane Gear
Ilfracombe Yacht club are taking safety at sea very seriously this year by not only providing a range of new sea safety courses, but by also and again offering sea checks to boat owners.
Sea checks are a friendly and confidential free service that looks at the safety aspects to help make sure that the boat is as safe as possible. With the demands of the Bristol Channel upon our boaters, this must be very reassuring for both the skippers and their crew. The Checks are neither a test nor an inspection and there is no pass or fail. Two highly trained volunteers, Mark Rumson and John Clemence carry out a personal RNLI face-to-face safety advice service that takes place on board peoples own craft. They tailor the visit to the vessel and the type of boating that it it is used for and allow both newcomers and experienced boaters, the opportunity to ask any niggling questions on equipment or emergency procedures .
Boating should be fun, but every year our lifeboats respond to thousands of incidents, many of which could have been prevented with simple safety precautions. Even the most experienced seafarers should be prepared for the worst.
The courses on offer are each led by qualified instructors and are excellent value for money. You do not have to be a member of the Yacht Club to enrol so shake off that winter malaise and get motivated for the coming season.
The available courses are:
Navigation and Sea Safety Weekend – 16/17 Feb 0900-1700. Cost £60.
Diesel Engine maintenance – Sat 1 st or Sun 2 nd Mar 0930-1730. Cost £50.
Sea Survival – Theory and practical sessions – Sat 5 th Apr 0900-1700. Cost £70.£80 depending on numbers
Further details are available at the Yacht Club (Tel. 863969) or contact Jane Gear on 07876 773404.
APRIL
Sat 19 th ................................................................Spaghetti Night with Deano 8.00pm
Mon 21 st ......................................................................St Austell Race I 18:30
Quay Bay
Avon Redcrest inflatable Dingy for sale with bellows, oars, repair kit, outboard bracket and seat. A very strong dingy at a very reasonable price at £260.00 phone 07876773404
32' 6' Luff, 36'6' Leach, 16'6' Foot.
Complete with blue UV strip. Good quality sail cloth.
Includes yacht racing numbers on the sail which you could remove if you wished.
Overall condition of the sail is fair. It could be ideal to fly as part of a twin headsail set-up on the homeward leg of the Lundy Race with a good Westerly breeze behind you!!
Contact - Mark Rumson - tel. Ilfracombe 863173.
1)Two very good radios, with all the working channels and dual watch, etc.one is a Hudson. the other is a Raytheon 200. £70.00 each 2) Cooker with oven and grill used one season in very good condition £280.00 3)stainless steel jack stays complete and ready to go never used £55.00 suit Sadler 34 4) jackstays for a 36ft boat webbing £30.00 5)Jacobs Yacht cradle-premium yacht cradle probably the best design and versatile cradle made £500.00 6)Youngman's Aluminium Mobil tower 4x6 base height 28ft approx plus small size up to a base height of loft complete with out riggers but not wheels all in good condition Price to clear £170.00
a)Kodon Radar and scanner new in 1995. I understand that some updating has taken place to the scanner,working well very good picture £100.00 ono b) Rader reflector.Mast mounted firedell blipper good make£30.00ono
A heavy duty steel jackstay for 36ft boat never used £50.00
Colin 07899962414
e mail
salty.savage@btinternet.com
I thought that it may be a good idea to introduce Colin 'Salty' RYA course trainer to the IYC.
I decided that the easiest way to do this would be to tell you all about the time that I went down to Fowey to take my RYA day skipper aboard Colin's boat 'Salty's Scorcher'.
Not too daunted by this minor imposition of the weather, I got out my mobile to let Colin know that I had arrived............ There was no signal........ Apparently Fowey only affords coverage from that fruity coloured network.
Being a brunette, I soon spotted a phone box.................Colin was out of signal, he is obviously on the same network as me.
Oh well, no matter, I would drive back up the hill, find a place to leave the car for the week and phone Colin again when we would hopefully both be in signal..................We were - only just.
Luckily my handy holdall has wheels, and so I trundled it back down the narrow street, making enough noise to wake up the very sleepiest of Cornish villages, and waited for Colin to come in with a dingy to collect me from the harbour side, He soon arrived, appropriately dressed wearing large waterproofs and an even larger smile, and after loading me and my trusty holdall (with wheels) aboard the dinghy, we crossed Fowey harbour to board "Salty's Scorcher" a Malo 38 of the greatest luxury. I settled my belongings into my cabin and familiarised myself with the boat for the coming voyage, and then we went back ashore and met up with Alison my fellow crewmate for the week, we enjoyed some pleasant chat over a very good evening meal in the Fowey Sailing Club overlooking the picturesque harbour. Monday - Fowey harbour entrance had no colour in it at all - except white! and to say that the seaward horizon was chunky, does not mean Cadbury chunks, but more of the giant men only Yorkie type!......... We went out!!!!!!
The weather forecast was not giving anything remotely good for the whole week, with Wednesday being the worst, with storms and very strong winds from the south, and then veering SW again, we knew that we had to get in somewhere sheltered by Wednesday, and hopefully also be in a good position to come back home on Friday with the S.Westerly.
We considered taking a beating down to Falmouth , but upon leaving the harbour and taking a closer look, we quickly thought better of it and turned to the East and put into action plan ‘B' sailing through some very unpleasant seas up towards Plymouth . Colin enjoyed a good run at the helm, as Alison and I sought the most comfortable ways of wedging ourselves into the cockpit, but thankfully I soon managed to get myself into an upright position, and took over the helm. We battled our way on up the coast, until we reached our destination and I enjoyed taking us in through the complex but interesting entrance to the shelter of the River Yealm.
It all seems so quiet and still when you enter shelter from the turmoil of a stormy sea, and feels very reassuring…… We travelled quite a way up the river and picked up a mooring and readied ourselves for the night ahead, enjoying a wonderful meal and a most welcome bottle of wine in the evening setting sun................ A peaceful night was had by all.
Tuesday - We awakened to a bright and sunny morning, and with Alison on the helm, we cast off to make our way over the sound and up into the shelter of the Tamar River before the approaching gales arrived, we hoisted the sails once we were out of the Yealm entrance, and had a good sail around Plymouth breakwater (although a lovely pirouette any ballet dancer would appreciate got in there somehow, right off the breakwater light)! But undaunted by this, we made our way successfully across the sound, through other traffic and under sail to Jenny's cove.
Wednesday - The Southerly gales had come as forecast, and the river resembled the Bristol Channel , and not on a particularly good day either!, we were getting up to 25knots of wind even in the shelter of being up river where we were, and the noise of the wind was unbelievable. Colin was in contact with friends on-board down in Plymouth , and they really had it bad, banging against the pontoon with a 3 metre swell in the Sound itself! He was reassured that he had made the right decision by bringing us up here. We listened to the radio and heard of flooding in Ilfracombe and Boscastle and Falmouth etc. We took the chance to do some theory, but the only navigation done that day was getting the dingy across to the "Crooked Spaniard" and back, (normally accompanied by Colin singing appropriate paddling songs about some squaw named running bear)! Why was it that every time that we decided to inflate the dingy it decided to rain? And each time we went below it stopped? But after a lot of ducking up and down the companion way, we managed to beat it in the end and got ashore without too much of a soaking. The staff of the “Crooked Spaniard” looked after us very well, they are obviously used to having people arrive in their bar wearing dripping wet waterproofs lifejackets and boots! They were even kind enough to sell us a loaf of their bread and allowed us to charge up our mobiles. In the afternoon we ventured over to the Cargreen sailing club, where we had a wonderful hot shower, what luxury!........ Thursday - The weather was still not good and Alison decided to jump ship and spend the rest of her weeks holiday with her Partner who could drive down to collect her, she kindly offered to take me ashore and get me back to my car in Fowey if I wanted to, but I decided to sit out the storm and hope for a break in the weather so that I could go back to Fowey aboard' Salty's Scorcher' and earn my skippers ticket, after all that was my reason for being there unlike Alison who had booked for a leisure trip only, and I am so glad that I made that decision, as it's a very funny thing, but the moment that Colin and I waved them off in their car, the sun came out and the wind started to ease. We walked a little way down the river bank to see how things looked down on the bend, and decided that it looked safe enough to venture down with the boat to check it out. And so after the raging of the storm, we left the safety of the mooring and cautiously went back downstream. It was still very windy, but we decided to keep on down river in readiness for the run back home to Fowey next day, When we came back down to the part of the river which widens out just above the Tamar bridge, I managed to do some practice manoeuvres and man overboard procedures, it was not ideal conditions, but in real emergencies they rarely are, and there was at least enough room to compensate for the effects of the strong winds. This went ok, and so I agreed with Colin that I was happy to put her alongside a pontoon to fill up the water tank. To my relief this also went ok, with Colin showing me how to use a line from the cleat around the winch to make it simpler to come in single handed. That evening as the wind dropped down even more, we managed to find a very peaceful mooring on a quiet bend just above Devonport Dockyard. We had another delicious meal precooked and provided by "Mrs Salty" which only needed warming - thank you again Mrs Salty for this most welcome provisioning! We ate our meal outside in the cockpit that evening watching a local sail race in the very pleasant evening sun.
Friday - We left the mooring early to make our way back to Fowey, the weather was bright sunny and still but we hoisted the main in anticipation, we had to motor most of the way, down the Tamar and out past the Dockyard with its sinister submarines. All of the boats and general traffic were heading downstream towards the open sea with us, like dogs straining against the leash, glad to be released again after their confinement. We went down to the sound and out THROUGH the iron bridges which I found a little unnerving to steer through, watching the depth carefully and trying to keep mid stream between the pillars whilst compensating for the swell, but I got through ok, and headed out towards the sea again. We motor sailed back down the coast until we were just off Looe, the wind suddenly picked up from the SW. and I noticed that all of the eastward bound yachts were sailing past us very well, and then the wind increased a bit more, and we were able to set the sails, turn off the engine and sail at 6 knots and in brilliant sunshine! The sea changed to the most beautiful emerald and jade green that I have ever seen a bright contrast completely to the heavy grey of the rain storms still over the land. This is what sailing is all about. As we approached Fowey, we could see that it was in the centre of a rainstorm, and so we tacked and headed out to sea, following in behind the rain and entering the harbour in perfect conditions.............much too nice to have to come in from.
I left Fowey heading east in the early evening with the sun on my back, and a little sadness in my heart at the leaving, it had been a mixed bag of a week, but I had learned a lot and gained more precious sailing experience. I now know among other things, how to safely lasso those big mooring buoys that they have in abundance on the south coast but that we just don't come across in the Bristol channel, (I still have strong memories (as I expect many of you do), of dangerously grappling with one at the Scillies one summer, whilst trying to hold the boat against a strong tide, not knowing how to spare a hand to thread the line through the eye)! I enjoyed my week immensely and have a great determination to return again to Fowey one day, and re-find that emerald and jade sea to sail upon again!
Jane