SHAKEDOWN

2003

Another winter has been and gone and its time to start the first of the clubs two shakedown events. As its name suggests these are intended to shake the cobwebs out the boats and iron out any problems prior to engaging the main club programme.

DAY 1

The event started on the Friday ( with a 6am tow for me ) making me the first arrival at Mercury Yacht Harbour around 9ish, incident free......

With no coffee facilities open I quickly found Tony (Maverick, whom was unfortunately still without his new boat, like several others on this event ). With dues paid we readied Dragonfly on the trailer for the launch.

Shortly after Chris and Shirley arrived ( Khamsin ) followed by Les ( Marmont ).

With the three boats lined up next to the slip, Khamsin was the first to launch followed by Dragonfly both incident free.

Unfortunately Les's helper had a problem inputting the security code into his car and with fingers like liberache had succeeded in immobilising the car, a phone call to the AA revealed the vehicle had to be left for a period of time before it could be used, so Rob launched Marmont with his 4x4 while Les's car sat embarrassingly blocking the route to the slipway..

Very soon Richard ( Due Diligence ) arrived, this completed the launching boats for Friday. Club boats arriving by water were Steve and Angie ( Kisma ) and Malcolm ( Breakaway ). The weather was fantastic, clear blue skies and very warm.

The briefing was short with a scope to head off to Hamble Point, give the boats a run and then make our way towards the Folly Inn for a spot of lunch.

We bobbed around Hamble Point buoy for a while to assemble the boats and to call those on the radio whom had not yet materialised before setting off to Cowes. The journey was reasonably smooth with the sun beating down upon us, it was like August.

The Folly was packed but we squeezed a seat outside in the sun, the waiting time for food was 50 minutes so we gave it a miss. Brendan ( Iditarod ) arrived while we were there to join in the fun.

Following lunch we set off down towards the Needles and anchored up in Alum Bay for quite a while to partake in cold drinks and refreshments. While there we watched a fellow boater for a while whom had his anchor stuck, but eventually it was freed and he was on his way.

I felt the sun when we got back to Hamble as I turned my usual shade of red.

The evenings event was at the Spinnaker public house, no need for me to say more.

Another new member arrived ( Mark and Jo ), well actually they arrived the day before but were to late to launch so they had a night on the car park. They had a nightmare journey down what with the traffic around Warwick and then loosing their Tonneau only to get it back from the police together with a ticket for an unsafe load - so beware you trailer sorts. 

The club being safety conscious had arranged a good discount on emergency flares for its members, so these were delivered and handed out to those that had ordered and paid for them.

Khamsin didn't even make it to Hamble Point today, having to return to mercury with low oil pressure and eventually pulling out the water the same day.

A slight change of conditions saw four of us heading up Solent Water and to Shamrock Quay, somewhere we don't get very often. On route we received instruction from the local harbourmaster about a local rowing race to shortly start, obviously thought we looked the yobish types.

We had a good look round the chandlery shop ( a few purchases made ) and a rest on the local watering hole before setting off back to Mercury.

The evening meal was set at the BUGLE in Hamble and again a good time was had by all.

Kisma despite being new unfortunately developed a water leak from within, yes within I said as the fresh water system from the transom shower filled one rear compartment and causing Steve and Angie a little work to sort out. Problem sorted they were out again the next day.

Another new member arrived ( Mark ), and after launching him we decided to venture round to Port Solent in Portsmouth. It was a little lumpy on the way round but we stuck close to the shore and made it in good time.

The boats on this trip were Due Diligence, Iditarod, Dragonfly, Sundancer, Blue Storm and Breakaway who turned back due to lack of fuel.

The new boats you'll see pictures of are "Sundancer" a Fletcher Cruiser and "Blue Storm" a very nice twin engine'd Rib. Both of which are planned to go to Dartmouth this year.

Due Diligence was having trouble nearing Portsmouth with the temperature of his engine but managed to just limp in.

We berthed up on the outer pontoon and made for the yacht club for a snack and drink, followed extremely quickly by yet more shopping in the Port Solent Marine Superstore. OUCH !!!! While here we were joined by Breakaway, Rafiki and Kisma. 

On the exit Due Diligence was still reporting problems so he returned to Port Solent escorted by Iditarod to arrange to recover the boat from there later on. 

The journey back was much better and seemed incredibly quick. 

Richard later drove back to Port Solent escorted by Neil, Rob and Carol. It was obvious once there that the Port Solent slipway recovery there was not going to be possible and the only option was to pay the marina dues and collect the following day or later ( not a cheap affair by any means ). Rob knew of a all tide slipway in the old Portsmouth harbour and Richard finally agreed to give it a go.

Richard was to take the boat back up to the harbour entrance while Rob drove Richard's car and trailer, Neil dove his car and Carol drove the 4x4.

I had not been to this slipway in over a year and only ever been there once, it was buried in the heart of the Portsmouth docklands, I was driving a strange car with an empty trailer in the pitch black and yet amazingly enough we got there, we were impressed. Having paid the barrier lifting fee's Richards trailer has hooked up to Rob's 4x4 as this is a all tide but very very steep slipway and in the pitch black there was going to be no room for errors if we were to do this safely. Rob positioned the trailer on the slip and walked up to a vantage point where he could see down the Solent.

We maintained radio contact with Richard and Rob guided him in the pitch black across Portsmouth Harbour and to the slip using the three colours of his navigation lights to determine his position and bearing. All that way and the slip would not be visible to Richard until the very last 20 foot and being located next to the IOW ferry terminal Richard constantly asked for reassurance of his direction and relative position. Don't forget this was all done at tick over speed with ferries and other vessels crossing his path. I'm sure Richard breathed a sigh of relief when he saw what was in store, a nice slipway with water and trailer all ready for him. Neil and I had already dawned our waders and with Carol at the controls of the 4x4 we recovered the rib in no time.

Its not a nice feeling I'm sure to loose your engine on any event and not to be able to take your trailer'd craft home with you even more disconcerting. I would like to think this demonstrates one of the many advantages of such a club where members put themselves out to help others in need.  

We made last orders anyway and managed to sneak a Chinese on the way back in Hamble.

With Sumprezi and Solitare making an appearance today the larger boats decided they wished to go places the newer smaller boats did not so the fleet spilt into two and the smaller fleet ventured over to Cowes Yacht Haven for a hot dinner and spot of shopping yet again.

The weather and seas were again glorious and on departing we ventured a little way round the island doing a few photo shoots as we went.

We returned at 4 to meet the tide and recover Blue Storm and Dragonfly. The trailer bars for Dragonfly proving a worthwhile investment with the side winds at Hamble and the long bar yet again causing more interest of other boaters and our new members. 

Sundancer stayed on another day.