EMAIL [email protected]
POST The Editor, Yachting Monthly, Blue Fin Building,
110 Southwark Street, London SE1 0SU
Please send us your letters in less than 200 words
A BOTTLE OF RUM
The letter of the month
wins a bottle of Pusser’s Rum,
produced to Admiralty specification
and served daily to every sailor in the
Royal Navy for more than 300 years
(UK residents only) http://www.pussers.comWIN
LETTERS
Most letters are edited for brevity. You can read more correspondence, online, at http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/lettersThe RNLI quiz (overboard.rnli.org)
crystalised my thoughts. Sailing carries
two main risks: falling overboard, and
collision. Yachtsmen pay huge attention- and sums of money – avoiding the
latter with GPS, radar, AIS and so on,
and by keeping a good lookout. As for
falling overboard, much is made of
lifejackets, which are useful after the
event, but what about prevention?
Sailors rarely wear safety lines and
jackstays are often positioned so a man
overboard can be dragged through
the water with fatal consequences. On
British Antarctic Survey (BAS) ships,
lifejackets are not worn during gear
deployment but safety lines prevent
anyone going overboard. Is it time the
yachting world gave more attention
to man overboard prevention? Simple
solutions would not be rocket science.
The consequences of going
overboard in UK waters, with or without
a lifejacket, are quite likely to be the
same as in the Antarctic. How long
would it take most of us to recover a
man overboard in anything but ideal
circumstances?
Professor Paul Rodhouse
BAS Emeritus Fellow6 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com NOVEMBER 2015LETTER OF THE MONTH
Why don’t we cut the MOB risk?
PHOTO: COLIN WORKEven in calm conditions,
recovering an MOB is hard work.
Shouldn’t we take every
precaution to stay on board?Belgian deadlock
The situation regarding Belgian customs and
red diesel is partly due to the structure of
the Government – or rather, Governments.
We have Federal, Flemish and Walloon
Governments, and four others, each claiming
some authority and contradicting each other
(explaining the Belgian Government to an
Englishman is like explaining cricket to a
Belgian). A solution isn’t imminent as the issue
is not under discussion at government level.
Due to the migrant crisis, inspections of all
boats has increased but as far as I know British
yachts and crews with correct papers run little
or no risk of prosecution for having red diesel.
Belgians are affected too. After 35 years of
visiting Britain and the Channel Islands I have
reluctantly given up sailing further than Dover,
Ramsgate and Eastbourne, which are within
motoring range of the white diesel in my tank.
At 77, I don’t see myself carrying jerrycans of
white diesel from a fi lling station to my boat so
the only way to solve my problem is to install
white diesel pumps in British marinas.
I understand that UK sailors enjoy travelling
on cheap fuel and I know some pay VAT on the
part of fuel used for propulsion (60%). But I
also wonder why they use so much of their red
diesel (40%) for heating purposes? It must be
very cold on the other side of the Channel.
Professor Henry E Van KetsEdible fouling
To the untrained eye, a plate of Galician goose
barnacles (percebes in Spanish) could look
like the sweepings of a hull-cleaning session,
but their price, up to €70 per kilo, would soon
convince the uninitiated otherwise.
While in Riveira fi sh market, Ria Arousa, we
bought a handful along with six sardines and
a couple of sea bream. The cost was €18, most
of which paid for the percebes. So are they
worth it? And how do you cook and eat them?
The lady on the counter, through the ever-
useful art of gesticulation, conveyed they need
a brief boil in already boiling water, no more.
Gaining entry is also simple. Lightly inserta knife at the weak point between the tube
and head and they will separate, and the
inner tube can be pulled out. Or the beak can
be prized open allowing the soft mouthparts
and pale orange cheeks to be eaten as well.
Beware, if squeezed they squirt water, which is
understandable.
They are delicate and slightly salty in fl avour
and tender in texture, fun to get into and
possibly as overrated as caviar to the heathen.
Barbara WhitePHOTO: BARBARA WHITEIt may look like hull fouling, but to epicurean
Galicians, the goose barnacle is a delicacyPassion born of YM
The Letter of the Month (Aug 15) evoked
much nostalgia for me. My grandmother lived
at Merton Lodge, Barnet, where my aunt
Kathleen Palmer was running YM during the
war years and I remember Doreen who signed
the letter reproduced in your article.
As a bored nine year-old boy on the routine
weekly visit to grandmother I used to go into
one room in the house, the fl oor of which was
covered in stacks of YMs. These had green
banners as I recall and many drawings by Fid
Harnack and Winston Megoran. I attribute my
life-long love of the sea and sailing to these
early formative years. I still enjoy YM and my
copy is posted to me each month out here
in Portugal, where I ended up. Thanks for an
excellent magazine, which I enjoy immensely.
Ian Palmer