HNYC Reports

Swale Regatta

This year’s Swale Regatta took place over the weekend of 29^th June to 1^st July and it was my first time participating. There were two boats from HNYC, Triassic and Spicecat and this guaranteed that HNYC were bound to win the Columbine Trophy for multihulls being the only multihulls in the event.

Before the first day, Spicecat and Traissic met up in Stangate creek for a very delicious evening meal of curry, apparently this is becoming a tradition.

Robin (the son of Spicecat’s designer) and I were crewing for Wil and John was crewing for Nigel. Robin and Nigel recreated an episode from The Bill, they both served and protected the good people of Kent while Will cooked dinner. John and I ran through some of the finer points of crewing, it sounded a lot more comfortable and dry on Spicecat.

On Friday we had a pleasant sail round to the Swale and Robin and I practiced some tacking and generally had fun.

Whitstable Bay Race

The race itself was relatively short and with 18 starters it was a bit lively. We did OK and while Triassic finished considerably before everyone else their handicap would probably undo their hardwork. There were a couple of stars from the monohull fleet; First Knight seemed to keep up with Triassic on the upwind leg and Fals Kappa, a very trim Nicholson 32 made it from the back of the fleet to close to the front. On Spicecat we kept pace with Pinguin, Genevieve, True Colours and a couple of other boats.

Our Marker boats starting back down the Swale.

 We had our reference marker boats and were looking forward to seeing how we did on the longer race the next day. At the finish we had made up a lot of ground on the downwind leg and mainly due to spinnaker malfunctions on other boats we picked up several places. We almost caught Wishful. One of the slower boats, a Cornish Crabber, suffered a broken mast but the owner seemed fairly sanguine about this putting it down to racing. All a bit serious.

After the race we moored to a buoy with Triassic but as the wind increased we appeared to be drifting on to other boats so we moved into the lee off Harty Ferry on Sheppy and anchored. We then were ferried across to Ironsides, an Iron hulled Thames Barge. We had an excellent meal and met up with several other crews. The social side of the regatta set the scene for the racing; friendly, respectful but competitive.

The Island Race

On the Saturday we made the start line with time to spare so spent our time trying to keep out of other boats paths whilst aiming to reach the start line around the time the start gun went off. Triassic had a very good start and shot off into the distance but didn’t appear to be outrunning First Knight by too much. We kept up with the fleet. Will’s tactic of keeping to the shallows paid off and while several other boats found the mud, Spicecat made good progress towards the windward marks. The fleet was splitting into distinct groups; the fast boats which now included Fals kappa who seemed to start about 20 minutes after everyone else, Menace and Wishful. We were keeping up with the same group as the first race and then there were half a dozen boats being hit by the increasing tidal flow into the Swale. At the windward mark, Columbine, we lost ground on our bunch and then sailed largely on our own back to the Medway. The finish line was the ATL at Queenborough and we finished in the middle of the fleet. Triassic had been there several hours.

Saturday evening was spent at the Admiral’s Arm micro pub. It is actually quite large and there was a great BBQ and good selection of beers. Again we enjoyed the craic and found out more about Sheppy life and other people’s boats. Again, lovely people and good fun. Robin showed me round Queenborough from the view point of the locally bobby, fascinating insight and interesting place.

Medway Race

Sunday was the river race and we had a brilliant start just behind the faster boats. We were keeping pace with Summer Breeze after leaving the other marker boats in our wake. I think I made Wil a bit nervous by getting a bit close to a pair in front who were duelling but we stayed out of trouble and were fifth at the turn.

The main bunch following Spicecat at Bee Ness

From Kingsnorth Power station we headed back down river and held our position to the finish. 20 boats took part and while Triassic romped away with it we didn’t do too badly.

Triassic on her way home

After the race we set off back up river for the HNYC high tide race in the afternoon.

The weekend was excellent and we all enjoyed it. Robin and I were almost able to tack as well as Wil when he showed us how to did when he was on his own. The results came out later in the week and Spicecat had won the Columbine Trophy, ironic since that is the mark where we lost the most ground to everyone else.

Chatham Cruise Report

On a blisteringly hot Saturday Spice Cat and Chantilly met up at Sun Pier on the afternoon high tide. Spice Cat with Wil, Brian and Jenny and Chantilly with Bernie and Tony rafted up and had a pleasant cup of tea and chat.

Chatham Marina was full, probably due to a number of boats visiting for Sweeps Weekend and a contingent from Benfleet. Ember with Celia, Martin and Jan joined the rally is spirit from the marina.

When the tide turned we motored round to Gillingham Reach and both boats took a Segas mooring buoy for the night. The overnight stay was very calm and restful.

The next day Chantilly motored round to Bartlett Creek and anchored for lunch before sailing back in a gentle easterly F2. Just right for trying out the spinnaker for the first time.

Cruise Report, Conyer (or the ‘not Benfleet rally’)

Various stories were circulating; behaviour of HNYC visitors last year, state of the tide or it was their lift in weekend meant that Benfleet YC wasn’t available as a destination so Conyer was chosen as an alternative. Glorious sun shine and the first real warm weather of the season made this a great weekend even if the wind was predominantly on the nose. At least there was a decent breeze and Spice Cat along with Chantilly met up in the Swale and motored into Conyer on the high tide on Saturday afternoon. There was adequate water, Spice Cat had a couple of feet to spare on a 5.8m HNYC tide table prediction, just after springs. The club house at Swale Marina was welcoming and the food was good and there was a decent selection. Mooring charges were reasonable; Spice Cat £20 and Chantilly £18.

The marina dries out but almost all of the berths appeared to be able to take boats of any size up to 36 feet and as all of the masts were vertical at low water I assume that they can accommodate a variety of keel shapes and types.

The surrounding area has a great variety of wildlife and a walk down to the Oare takes you through the bird sanctuary. The strange noise along this path was marsh frogs.

We left on the Sunday afternoon tide and had a very calm overnight stay at the Harty Ferry mooring buoys. The next day saw a decent westerly breeze and the tides suited a good sail back up the Medway.

I really hope that Conyer is on the schedule for next year. There are options for the route; either round Sheppy by way of the Thames Estuary or via Queenborough and the lifting bridge at Kingsferry so it is suitable for a wide range of boats and weather conditions.