Yachting Monthly — November 2017

36 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com NOVEMBER 2017

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H

(^990973)
With the wind building
and veering from SW to
W, it should be a
cracking sail across
SAILING SKILLS
Former RYA Chief Examiner James Stevens looks
at a classic skipper’s dilemma, considering the
skipper, the boat, the passage and the weather
Should I stay
or should I go?

F

or her second summer cruise,

Hettie, 45, has decided to sail 77

miles across the Irish Sea, from her

home port of Arklow to Aberdovey,

to explore the Welsh coast. At

0800 on a Friday morning in late July,

excitement is building in her crew, son

Finn, 17, and daughter Niamh, 15, who

are capable and enthusiastic on board, at

discovered a love for cruising under sail,

passed her Coastal Skipper theory and

practical courses, and bought Wisp, a

35-year-old Contessa 32. She kitted out

Wisp for offshore cruising, installing

a new DSC VHF, EPIRB and lifejackets

(mandatory in the Irish Republic), and has

the yacht professionally maintained.

Hettie has always had excellent wind

awareness and a gift for boat handling

but her offshore experience is limited so

she’s been planning this trip carefully.

The passage seems relatively hazard-free

apart from a shoal about seven miles off

the Irish coast that has a wind farm on it. It’s

halfway between springs and neaps so the

tides that run north and south will be less

than their three-knot maximum.

Arklow has 24-hour access so they

can leave when they like, and she knows

that Aberdovey is open to the West

and has a harbour bar whose depth

varies throughout the season. The

harbourmaster’s advice to yachts is to

enter HW-3 to HW, and HW Friday is

1800. The nearest alternative harbour is
      Aberystwyth, which also has a bar.

NEW SERIES

INSET PHOTO: RICHARD LANGDON/RYA

Thanks to Simon Rowell, the British Olympic Sailing Team’s

meteorologist, for his expert input in devising the weather scenario

0 20nm

Arklow

Bank

IRISH SEA

Bardsey I.

REPUBLIC

OF

IRELAND

WALES

Arklow

Aberdovey

Aberystwyth

Lleyn

Peninsula

GRAPHIC: MAXINE HEATH

least most of the time. Neither has any

RYA qualifi cations but both are mad-keen

dinghy sailers, and they’re hoping to take

part in a regatta at Dovey Yacht Club on

the Saturday.

They get their enthusiasm for dinghy

racing from their mother, who raced

dinghies to a national level as a youth.

Life intervened but two years ago she

GRAPHIC: MAXINE HEATH