Yachting Monthly - April 2016

(Elle) #1

112 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com APRIL 2016


THE CONFESSIONAL


OWN UP TO YOUR SAILING SINS


The confession of the


month wins a floating


Standard Horizon


handheld VHF radio worth £140
PLUS an original Bill Caldwell cartoon

WIN


It didn’t take long for the charter operator
to realise what had happened. The main
halyard, which was winched up at the
mast, had fallen over the side and
the propeller had helpfully spooled
in the line until the engine could
take no more.

Put me


down please!
By Sandra Dean
We bought our Bavaria 38
in Palma. Having agreed the
sale we exchanged conditional
contracts and arranged a lift
out and survey for 0830 the next
day. We had a lively sail crossing
the Bay of Palma in 20 knots of wind to
the travel hoist where the marineros and the
surveyor were ready to lift us straight out.
The surveyor informed us he would need six
hours to do his work, so we decided to pack
a day bag with a few essentials.
While we were still below, before we’d
got to the bottom of the companionway, we
heard the rumble of the travel hoist’s engine
and felt a slight unsteadiness. We emerged
on deck to fi nd ourselves far above the
water, dangling in mid-air. For what seemed
like an age we swung gently in the lively
breeze, a good 15ft above the sea and then
solid ground. We remained trapped on board
throughout the whole alarming manoeuvre
as the boat was shunted this way and that
until we were eventually propped up, which
didn’t feel a whole lot safer.
A fl imsy ladder was brought to our aid,
down which we gingerly wobbled. It never
felt so good to be back on terra fi rma.

month wins a floating


an original Bill Caldwell cartoon


POST Confessions,
Yachting Monthly,
Blue Fin Building,
110 Southwark Street,
London SE1 0SU
EMAIL
[email protected]
Please send us your confessions
in less than 200 words

Twitchy anchor work


CONFESSION OF THE MONTH
By Richard Carter
My brother Henry, a friend and
I chartered a Moody 31 from
Largs for a few days sailing
on the Clyde to try out all
we had learned on an RYA
Day Skipper course, taken
earlier that year. On our fi rst
morning we sailed into the
lovely sheltered St Ninian’s
Bay, intending to anchor for
lunch. My friend and I were
on the foredeck looking after
the anchor, whilst Henry was
on the helm.
Our fi rst attempt failed as
there was a lot of weed on the
bottom, so the helmsman started
motoring forward whilst we hauled up the
chain. What the foredeck crew did not know
was that Henry, a keen novice birdwatcher,
had spotted a number of divers and was
watching these with great concentration.
He was therefore totally unaware when he
drove over the anchor trip line and its buoy
and wrapped them round the propeller and
rudder. By the time I had risked a heart attack
diving under the boat with my knife, we had
settled nicely on the sand, with a falling tide.
Henry had four hours clinging to the steeply
angled coachroof to decide if they were red-
necked or great northern divers.


Automatic sail hoisting?


By Craig Hardy
After chartering a yacht in the Whitsunday
Islands in Australia for a week, my wife Lesley


and I returned the boat to the marina. In
Australia, no qualifi cations or previous
experience are needed to charter. The only
requirement is to demonstrate that you
can raise and lower the sail, tack, gybe and
operate the anchor.
While we were there we overhead a radio
conversation with the charter operator.
An inexperienced husband-and-wife crew
radioed the base early one the morning.
‘There’s no wind so we will motor over to
Hamilton Island if that’s ok,’ they said.
‘Sure, no worries,’ came the reply.
Then, more tentatively, they came on the
radio again.
‘One question. How do we turn off the
automatic sail raising mechanism?’ they
asked. ‘It is not working well. The sail will
only hoist half-way up the mast before the
engine turns off.’

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