The Pennant

SUMMER 2003

The Newsletter of Newport Uskmouth Sailing Club

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CLUB MATTERS

Eve of season

The season is well underway now and was kicked off with the usual eve of season supper that was again well supported. The Commodore commented as follows: "Everybody I spoke to said they had a great time, they enjoyed the food and music. A lot of effort was put in by members that made it such a successful night. I would like to thank all those concerned. I hope all those sailing out of NUSC have a good season and a safe one".

Computers wanted!

As previously mentioned, the clubs training officers need about half a dozen computers to fulfil R.Y.A. requirements for the electronic navigation element of the training. If any of you have an old PC at home and would like to donate it to the club please let any of the clubs officers know or just bring it along.

Compound

One of the committees objectives for this season is to tidy up the compound and get rid of the large amount of rubbish (some of it boats) that have accumulated over the years. Plans are afoot to organise a few working parties over the summer to make it if not pretty, then at least tidy. Please volunteer to help if you can, if you can't then at least don't make matters worse by dumping rubbish, take it away with you.

Fire fighting equipment

The new fire fighting equipment has been installed in the clubhouse together with the new EU standard fire exit signs. Plans to install four fire points on the compound in line with recomendations are ongoing. The recomendation is that four fire points with hose reels be placed on a 45 to 50 metre square, one already exists at the winch house so three more are required, this will allow all the compound to be covered by at least one hose and about 80% of it to be covered by two and 50% of it to be covered by four. The only problem we may have is that the main supply pipeline may not be big enough to carry the volume, watch this space.

The company are also offering extinguishers at knockdown prices to members as follows:

Extinguisher List price Offer price

2kg dry powder £55.60 £40.00

4 kg dry powder £84.95 £60.00

2 ltr AFFF foam £36.00 £31.00

2 kg Carbon dioxide £96.80 £70.00

The company are also prepared to visit in October and quote for replacing automatic Halon systems that must by law be removed from boats by December 2003. See the secretary for more details.

Excellent news

Just prior to the publication of the Pennant the news came through that John Colleypriest negotiations with the recievers for A.E.S. had come to fruition with the release of the contracted funds. Well done John on a great job of work on behalf of the club. He deserves the gratitude of all members.

Getting ready to go

In the weeks leading up to the launch the usual feverish activity was seen on the compound. Members were seen in a variety of strange garments and poses as they tended to moorings, maintenance and all those last minute "I forgot that was broken" jobs as well as the normal anti fouling and servicing engines and winches.

Dave and Elwyn were caught making a bolt for the door. Masts going up

Going

Then the big boats launch day finally arrived and the crane and trolley did the business

The the next day the Wise lifter was put to work for the small boats with all the usual fun involved with engines that were running five minutes before the boat was put in the water and refuse to start the moment the hull gets wet. Ben Hill and Archie English had to sail "Thistle" off the Wise lifter as they suffered from an attack of "Murphy's law" and sure enough when the rescue boat rushed to their aid as they sailed down river the engine started and ran smoothly as ever. A useful advantage of the Wise lifter is the fact that boats go in the water with all the stays attached and ready to sail. The whole operation went very smoothly thanks again to the Wise and all those who turned up and lent a hand.

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The Cruiser rally

Held on Saturday and Sunday the 10th and 11th May in only slightly less than perfect weather the cruiser rally kicked of with an interesting race the winner of which I and most others were unsure of until John Coventry came forward to work out the handicaps. I am told that the winner of the fin class was Archie English and John Colleypriest won the bilge keelers race. Late in the afternoon, post a couple of beers for some and a nap for others the evening entertainment got underway with music by "24 Carat" and food by Helen Cox and helpers.

The food was excellent and thoroughly enjoyed by all, the only people disappointed were those who tried to go back for third helpings for the second time because it was all gone by then. The evening was thoroughly enjoyable with music and a little dancing, a lot of fun was had by all there.

On Sunday morning the usual order of a dawn breakfast at about 10 o'clock for the early risers followed by the usual chatter, tidying up after the night before and preparation for the days racing. In mixed weather of sunshine, showers and winds from almost nothing up to about 22 knots a couple of lively races took place and were won by Archie English for the fins and the commodore for the bilge keeled boats. Sadly I had to leave early for a family commitment but I understand the day went on into another pleasant evening. Once again thanks to all those members who turned up to help, join in or just to watch.

Boats race across the finishing line

WORK HOURS

For those who may not have heard an alternative method of logging work hours has been introduced to overcome the problem of people not being able to find the work hours book.

In the entrance lobby to the bar members will find some grey cards that they should fill in details of any work they do. If nobody is about to sign the card just date it and drop it in the letterbox under the bar key safe. The commodore will vet and sign the cards and add the details in the work hours book. This will end any end of year disputes about work done but not logged.

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CHILDREN FROM BELARUS

The children from Chenobyl will be visiting us again this year on August 2nd, high water is about 10:40 am that day so in a change from our usual pattern we are going to try to get the children into the club fairly early and onto boats almost straight away. A cruise up the river as far as the new bridge allows and then perhaps a run out to the channel before coming back in time for lunch. After lunch we hope to have the usual fun and games before tea and departure later in the afternoon.

Thanks to those of you who have already volunteered to fill a rucksack with the sort of goodies that these youngsters don't often see. Volunteers to help on the day will be very warmly welcomed. As it is childrens day please bring your own children and grandchildren to join in the fun. Those of us who were there last year had a wonderful time, let's try to at least match that this year.

WAVE GOODBYE

What may be the last waterfront festival took place on Saturday 21st June by the wave at Newport town reach and was wonderfully supported by our membership both by sea with the many boats that went up the river and by land with Brian Robinson setting up a stall to try to tempt some new membership.

A few of the many boats at the wave.

One of the many included this very pretty Drascombe lugger which turned up and launched from the club slip.

Well done Ray Ford for organising this at such short notice and for getting the event and the club so well advertised on Classic Gold radio all morning on the days before the event.

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Cover story

The front cover picture of the summer edition of the Pennant is the beautiful "Sula", loved and maintained by Doug McCloud. Love them or hate them, nobody can deny that a wooden boat looks good and a well kept one looks better. Lots of yachties admire wooden boats but few of us have the courage to take on the work required to maintain one. I asked Doug to write a few words about Sula, here is what he had to say about her:

Sula is a "Baracole" class cruising yacht from the board of Maurice Griffiths, who regarded the Baracoles as one of his most successful designs. Sula differs from the rest of her class in that the raised topsides are continued to the stem, giving her extra bouyancy (and windage) at the bow. She was built by Seacraft of Leigh on sea in Essex in 1957. I have been told that Sula was the last boat built in this yard before it fell victim to G.R.P., or "frozen snot", as the new material was known by traditional boat builders, confidently asserting that it would "never take on".

Maurice Griffiths was for many pre war years the editor of "Yachting monthly", an east coast yachtsman, author and a prolific designer of cruising yachts. He studied local working boats; smacks, shrimpers, bawleys, oyster dredgers and the like and used their hulls as a basis for his own designs. "Sula" with her full bow, fine run to stern "cods head mackerel tail", full round bilge and long keel is of this tradition.

Originally designed as a centreboarder with a long cast iron ballast keel, some time in her past the centre plate was removed, her hull strengthend at the turn of the bilge and bilge plates fitted enabling her to take the ground. This modification was approved by her designer who claimed that it did not affect her windward performance - it remained

modest. Off the wind, given a brisk breeze she will go, several skippers have been astonished to look over their shoulders to find themselves being overtaken by "old sula". Her Bermudan cutter rig is easily handled, well balanced and not needing powerful sheet winches. She is built of mahogany planking on oak frames, with teak topsides and an afromosia deck, good materials that explain her longevity. TIP - if you are

"I have spent many hours each spring scraping, scarfing, stopping, caulking and painting"

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"Sula" moves along nicely.

tempted to buy a wooden yacht - look for a cruising design built by a yard with a reputation, don't be tempted by a lightly built racer.

Elish and I have found her to be an admirable cruising yacht and have been comfortable and at home in her for many months at a time. Enjoying the benefit of early retirement, we have sailed her north to Cape Wrath, south to Gibralter, west to the Blaskets, east to

Barcelona and scores of interesting places in between. She has been equally at home in a short Bristol channel chop or long Atlantic swells. On one memorable occasion we ran for hours with a scrap of mainsail before a full Biscay gale, surfing down the slopes, touching eleven giddy knots, with a destroyers bow wave, she held her course without any inclination to broach, I did not allow myself to look astern. With the wind abeam or a little before she will happily sail herself for hours on end, we have crossed the Irish sea with a bit of string on the tiller. I have made a wind vane for her but it is really just decoration.

She was originally engined with a Stuart Turner, the yachtsmans curse! When I bought her a neat 13hp Yanmar had been installed, although small for a thirty footer it pops her along very nicely. Sula's shoal draft does not seem to detract from her seakeeping qualities and has the advantage of opening up rivers, canals, estuaries and quiet anchorages denied to deep keeled yachts.

Down below she is traditional and snug, the gimballed lamps give a soft warm glow and just enough light to read by. In deference to our maturity we have installed a heater, the better to enjoy the northern waters that we enjoy most.

Of course she requires maintenance and I have spent many hours each spring scrapping, scarfing, stopping, caulking and painting in order for her to take the water looking tidy and shipshape. We love old "Sula", here's to the next season.

By Doug McCloud.

Thanks to Doug for the excellent article.

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What women did in Nelsons navy

For those who choose to believe that women in the navy is a modern move think again, women have been playing an active role in the navy for many years. The following article from the Historical maritime society outlines their role.

The more one reads of life within the wooden world the more confusing the role of women within that world becomes. To be sure there are regular references to women being carried but this is usually as a result of a charter or delivering an official and his family to some far-flung British outpost. As early as 1587 the printed regulations forbade women on board ship and the threat of severe punishment was proposed for those who contravened the order. However from then on written sources hint that the rule was ignored, and that for the next 250 years women were glimpsed on board but only as shadowy figures flitting around below decks.

There is, however, a clear distinction to be made between those who visited the ship to further their trade, the oldest profession in the world, who left when the ship sailed and those who were there when the ship sailed, often with the collusion of the ship's officers. Of those living aboard the ship, they appeared to represent the social classes in that there were the women who served the needs of men and others who served the officers. Most of the contemporary references to this situation are drawn from various ribald songs which have survived from the time. Furtiveness was their watch word as they existed in a gloomy half-light between decks. What we lack is a first-hand account, so far as we know, no women recorded their exploits of life at sea.

However, there was obviously concern from official quarters that this practice existed judging by the regulations in successive rule books. All through the eighteenth century the rules included articles such as this example from 1756:

" ... no woman ever be permitted on board but such as are really the wives of the men they come to, and the Ship not to be too much pestered with them. But the indulgence is only to be tolerated in Port and not under Sailing Orders."

The Captain of the CAMILLA in 1809 wrote that he disapproved of the previous Captain's habit of "having with him a kept mistress, a companion that did not do much honour to his station".

Naturally many women visited ships when then were in harbour and it was noted that "it is frequently the case that men take two prostitutes on board at a time, so that sometimes there are more women on board than men ... Men and women ... shamelessly and unblushingly couple like dogs"

It was always the case when a ship entered harbour that the bum-boats flocked out to it full to the gunwales with prostitutes which were selected by the sailors and brought on board. The boatman who brought them out often acted as a pimp and Jack Nastyface in his book describes the boatmen getting three shillings on top of his regular fare for each woman he brought out.

The other group of women to be found aboard ship were the wives of officers, marines and seamen. There are allusions to officer's wives living on board at least semi-permanently

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from 1600. By 1800 it was certainly not unusual for admirals downwards to take their wives with them on a cruise. After Nelson had been seriously wounded at Santa Cruz he asked to be taken to another ship so that he would not offend the wife of Captain Fremantle, Betsy, with his wounds. She was on board his flagship the SEAHORSE.

In 1800 Captain Sir William Henry Dillon took his wife to sea with him in the LEOPARD, the reason for this we are told was that he had recently married her and found out too late that she was a total spendthrift and would quickly squander his fortune. By taking her with him she would have no opportunity to spend anything. We know too that Dillon's Second Lieutenant also had his wife on permanently on board. The warrant and petty officers also applied to various Captains for permission to take their wives on board and this was rarely refused. We hear of Admiral St. Vincent complaining of the amount of water which women used while at sea for washing and the like.

Richardson, the Gunner of the TROMP in 1800 took his wife with him on a cruise to the West Indies. He originally felt this was not suitable due to the terrible disease problems in their destination, Martinique. However, "after some entreaty I gave my consent, especially as the Captain's, the Master's, The Purser's and the Boatswain's wives were going with them: the Sergeant of marines and six other men's wives had leave to go."

Although women were on board they rarely appeared but we do know that when the HORATIO struck a rock in 1815 and all hands were called to the pumps five women appeared to help. Only one of them was known to the officer present and that was the bosun's wife. Fifty years before that a dead woman was found "sewn up in a hammacoe" in the bread room of the DEFIANCE. After a court of enquiry it was decided that she had died of a fever and that those who knew of her existence were acquitted It is known for certain that women were present on many cruises and that they took part in some engagements. Those present at the Battle of the Nile (1798) certainly petitioned to be awarded the commemorative medal claiming they had served a gun during the fight. John Nicol, who served in the powder magazine of the GOLIATH at the Nile kept abreast of what was happening in the heat of action by consulting the women and boys who carried the cartridges. "Any information we got was from the boys and the women who carried the powder. The women

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behaved as well as the men ... I was much indebted to the Gunner's wife who gave her husband and me a drink of wine every now and then ... Some of the women were wounded and one woman belonging to Leith died of her wounds. One woman bore a son in the heat

of the action: she belonged to Edinburgh ..." After Trafalgar (1805) Jane Townshend of the DEFIANCE applied for her medal "presenting strong and highly satisfactory certificates of her useful services during the combat".

What did these women do during combat? The usual job seemed either to help the surgeon with his gruesome task or else to run cartridges to the guns. There has recently been some discussion as to a painting by Thomas Stothard showing a gun being served in the heat of action. Some commentators feel that two of the figures around the gun are women. I am not so sure. One of the problems for the modern historian is that the women were not rated and therefore did not appear in any of the muster lists.

There were a third category of women to be found aboard the ships - those who masqueraded as men. The most famous case, admittedly during an earlier war, was that of Hannah Snell who served for at least five years as a seaman, soldier and even marine. At the battle of Pondicherry she was wounded in twelve places and removed one bullet herself to avoid detection! When she finally returned home she declared herself and was given her pay. In our period most of the references to female sailors are taken from popular songs and must be greeted with some scepticism. However from a court-martial document of 1807 we read that " one of the witnesses in this awful and horrible trial was a little female tar, Elizabeth Bonden, who has been on board the HAZARD these eight months. She appeared in court in a long jacket and blue trousers..." Another 'cross-dresser' was recorded in the QUEEN CHARLOTTE where, in 1815 William Brown had been serving for eleven years. William was a 'negress' and reportedly an excellent seaman, having filled, for many years, the prime position of Captain of the Main Top. Earlier in the eighteenth century one William

Prothero, a private marine on board the AMAZON, was discovered to be a Welsh girl of eighteen who had followed her lover to sea.

There is another case where the Admiralty themselves told a captain to engage a respectable woman for the voyage and rate her able seaman. However she was to act as a maid to some princesses who were to be carried to foreign climes.

The role of women within the wooden world can therefore be seen to be much more complex than previously supposed and it was only the complex rules and expectations of the time which prevented the whole subject being acknowledged and talked about more openly. As re-enactors we are doubly fortunate in that women can take an active role on board ship and still remain women without having to dress up as men.

Next time: more about those women who dressed and served as men, and even earned a pension on retiring. Also why incidents of lunacy were so high among sailors.

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Riding the winds

Elements of this article are by kind courtesy of the magazine "New Electronics" who through Philip Ling the editor and the articles author Vannesa Knivett gave me permission to reproduce some of it.

I was recently involved with something called IQAN, those of you involved with technology may have heard of it. IQAN is a computer system used to control vehicles, I won't get too deep in but basically every item of information about the vehicle, from the pressure and temperature of the air being drawn into the engine for combustion to the vehicles load, speed, position, direction of travel and just about everything else is fed into a computer that can do thousands of calculations and adjust or correct whatever may need adjusting or correcting. The system "talks" between the various components by means of a "CANBUS" this is basically two wires twisted together that connects everything to everything and

transmits it's information in computer language BITS. One of the very few things that these are currently not controlling is steering systems. This is because under the DIN standard a failure is unacceptable, imagine a lorry losing all steering while thundering down a

motorway or through a busy town centre. While these systems are in use on mainly off road industrial vehicles they must run alongside a standard steering system so if the electronics fail the mechanical steering will continue to work, like the power steering or brakes on your car, the systems I was involved with use a mini steering wheel that fits in the palm of your hand; A joystick steering system is also an option.

I was surprised to learn that one of the places where these systems and their componentry are being tested is in ocean going race yachts, to quote Raymarine's ceo Malcolm Miller

"a salt water battered vessel going at more than 30 knots through some of the most

extreme environments on earth makes for a challenging design environment by any

standards!"

Raymarine design and manufacture some first class equipment at their plant in

Portsmouth, their bread and butter is in fish finders sold mainly to the US fishing market but they also supply fully intergrated systems to the yacht racing fraternity. One of those who opted for the Raymarine system was last years around alone winner Brad Van Liew on

Brad Van Liew on Tommy Hilfigger freedom America

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Tommy Hilfigger freedom America pictured. Raymarine's designers have over the years come up with ways to overcome the demands placed on components by salt water, sunlight, humidity and vibration. While much of their product uses standard/military/industrial mixed components some of it has also been inhanced in house by Raymarine. The sailing industry has in many ways moved far more slowly than, for example, the automotive industry, this is due to the huge difference in the volumns of production. In some ways however the sailing fraternity are out in front in being the first to have a commercial use for satelite navigation and autopilots (which is effectively electronic steering). Raymarine set out

developing cockpit pilots and have progressed steadily with instrument panel and fluxgate compass intergration, the evolution of push button steering and lately, advanced steering technology.

A tiller pilot is typically a one piece unit comprising drive, display and controls powered by a 12 volt dc supply, it communicates via the standard NMEA marine communications bus. Optional control heads, fluxgate compass and a GPS would communicate via Raymarine's proprietry "SeaTalk" networking technology. Raymarine's senior design engineer Dave Wellcome explained it thus "SeaTalk is a very fast multitask, multilistener communications bus. Our challenge has been that the National Marine Electronics Association's standard doesn't go far enough, it hasn't all the sentences defined that would allow us to connect our entire product range". What is meant by this is that it is possible to link all the boats

instrument systems together and have them talk to each other via the CAN system BUS. (a CAN is a controller area network, the BUS is what does the carrying) A controlling central intelligence hub would then monitor and control all onboard systems using information from radar, compass, electronic chart, GPS, depth, wind speed and direction.The illustration below shows crudely what is meant.

All these devices are computers in their own right and carry a program for doing their thing, when they are linked together things can get interesting. If the course data and instrument parameters are then input into the controller, the boat will literally sail itself, following an optimum course using wing and tidal data, watching the radar and even correcting for leeway and drift, the possibilities are endless. An example of the sort of thing I mean is the controller could be told to read the current position and go to position "this" using chart data, confirm course and correct for leeway and drift, watch the forward looking depth sounder and warn of possible underwater collision, ditto for radar for above surface objects and wake me up when I'm 10 minutes from harbour. Ridiculous? Perhaps, but entirely possible with current technology and what is being learnt on yachts today will be applied to family cars tomorrow.

One advantage of this type of system is that it can be made fully self analysing to inform the operator via either the controlling computer or a plug in analyser not only if there are any faults in the system but what those faults are. These already exist in the automotive world and the sentences are defined in what is known as J1939 protocols. When your car goes to the garage and gets plugged into the analyser these protocols are highlighted showing exactly where and what the faults are.

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Sailing boat or floating computer?

Automotive systems are moving on from this to built in self analysers that will, for example. flash the vehicles charge warning light in a certain pattern known as a "flash code"; By referring to a fault chart the flash code indicates exactly what the fault is and how to repair, bypass or overcome it. An example of this is that the current Cummins lorry engines have three warning lights, red, yellow and blue on the dash panel. A blue warning is a service item that has not been carried out or that needs attention. A yellow warning is a potentially damaging situation such as the engine temperature is at a maximum set parameter. A red warning is a serious fault such as low oil pressure outside of the safe parameters. In order to analyse what is wrong you have to switch the engine off then switch the ignition on and fully depress the throttle pedal and release it three times (it's an electronic throttle) the red warning light then flashes in a code such as five on flashes, a pause, one on flash, another pause then 2 more on flashes. A fault chart will then tell you that this code indicates that there is water in the fuel filter and it needs draining now please. Other manufacturers are using similar systems. This same technology can eventually be applied to yacht systems once all the sentences are defined and internationally agreed. It is strange that systems are being developed and tested on racing yachts with the aim of mass producing them for fitting in family cars and eventually back into yachts for use by the more lowly sailors.

A SHORT STORY

A man lies on his deathbed, surrounded by his family: a weeping wife and four children. Three of the children are tall, good looking and athletic but the fourth and youngest is an ugly runt. "Darling wife," the husband whispers, "assure me that the youngest child really is mine. I want to know the truth before I die, I will forgive you if ..." The wife gently interrupts him. "Yes, my dearest, absolutely, no question, I swear on my mother's grave that you are his father." The man then dies, happy.

The wife mutters under her breath: "Thank God he didn't ask about the other three."

WATCHIT

Excuse the pun but Dave Howell had an unpleasant experience trying to get Gem into Watchet harbour. Gem suffered minor damage that could have been far worse and was forced to use the wise to lift her out and repair the keel.

Dave carries out emergency repairs to Gem

The first words we ought to use are Dave's own "Many thanks to NUSC for the use of the Wise to fix Gem. Dave Lynn, Elwyn Blease & Jim Warrington are the salt of the earth."

Here is his story.

BE WARY AT WATCHET!

Sat 14th June 2003 saw Roger L. & I sailing Gem to Watchet for the weekend. In preparation, I had visited their website & downloaded the lock opening & closing times. As it was not stated whether the times were GMT or BST, I emailed them to seek clarification. The following day I had the answer, BST - which surprised me as most tide tables are stated as GMT.

Fellow sailors reminded me of the strong crossflow in the lock at Watchet which tends to sweep boats from starboard towards the port wall whilst entering. There was little wind and we had to use the engine for most of the journey in order to make the necessary speed. When 2 miles off Watchet, confirmed by the new Yeoman plotter, I called up the marina on CH 80. No answer was the same result a further 3 times before arriving in the outer harbour.

Three hours out from Cardiff, we circled in the outer harbour whilst folding up one of the floats etc. in preparation for entering the marina. Called again on CH 80 & again no answer. As there was only 20 minutes before the lock was scheduled to close, I said to Roger that we would have to go in on the next green light due to radio silence from the Marina.

The lights changed to green and we proceeded to line up the entrance. Before we arrived

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at the lock the lights changed to red. We estimated that this was 1 minute after changing to green. The lights are supposed to be on a 4 minute cycle.

We aborted the entrance and again tried to call up the Marina - to no avail. During our visit last year, the lights had not been operational and there was a free for all situation. Was this a repeat? So we turned for the lock and noted the tide gauge height of water over cill 3 meters, checking carefully that there were no boats coming the opposite direction In the lock there was a crunch! We had grounded the centreboard on the lockgate. Unbeknown to us, the gate of 2.5 meters draught had closed, leaving an effective 0.5 meters of water over the gate! The water being brown offers no visual assistance.

I promptly engaged astern, moved a little but became stuck. Three sailors from the Marina came aboard and helped, but we could not free Gem even by moving weight astern. The tide was dropping rapidly .....

The Marina's berthing officer offered to lift the bow with the small electric hoist above us. This helped but didn't solve the problem. The tide continued to drop ....

At some time during the melee, the stern line (which had been made off in preparation to enter the Marina) got kicked overboard, wrapped around the prop and stalled the engine. So we were now disabled as well!

The berthing officer went astern on the outer mole and, with the aid of a long rope tied to Gem's stern, he and a handful of others pulled us off. The direction of pull was upwards as well as astern. We made the inside of the north outer harbour wall and tied up the first ladder, before drying out.

Note: if you miss the lock you can tie up here. There are 2 ladders; the piles adjacent to the first is steel, the 2nd are wooden piles and probably kinder on the boat. In either case, you need a plank to bridge the piles. As the mud is so soft, even fin keelers would lie happily here. There is, however, a somewhat unpleasant smell once the mud is exposed. The climb up the ladder is probably 40 feet and there is no breathalyser at the top to check you out before descending.

On inspecting Gem, no water ingress was evident. We were advised that if going over the

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side to clear the prop, to be roped to the boat due to the glutinous mud! When enquiring how deep one would sink in the mud, we were told up to one's neck! So we were relieved when I rotated the prop shaft in the engine bay whilst Roger pulled lightly on the line. Hey presto! Luck at last! Note, if the line had not been made off onto the cleat, the whole line would have gone around the prop, which would have prevented us from recovering the line without (further) discomfort.

On the advice of the berthing officer, we entered 30 mins following the next lock opening. We were advised that for the first 30 mins the tide flow is dangerous!

We subsequently determined that the gate opening and closing is controlled automatically by means of a sensor. The published times are a guide only and may vary by 30 mins due to air pressure etc. variation. Additionally, the PLC that controls the gate should hold a 6 min delay following sensor activation before the gate closes. Clearly, this is not happening.

Additionally, the berthing officer told us that a light should flash on the end of the quay when the gate is up. We did not see this (faulty?) and if we had, we would have not known it's significance as the was no labeling!

He also told us that he had heard our VHF call, but "he was busy tying up 15 berthing boats that had come in before us". A yachtsman from Penarth alledged that he entered 30 mins before us and there were no boats until we arrived.

Another yachtsman commented that it would be easy to rig a gate open/close indicator - a length of line, block & weight!

RETURN JOURNEY:

Sunday 06.00 forecast was force 3-4 SW. Wrong, SW yes but white horses all the way. It was interesting to see the variety of sail and motor combinations to return up Channel.

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We unfurled the headsail and immediately we were close reaching at 8-10 knots. Soon we noticed a couple of fenders dragging out on the starboard float bow. I didn't fancy getting wet (there were splashed over the floats onto the nets). We rolled up the headsail and Gem lay like a large raft on a millpond!

I quickly recovered the fenders and we were soon underway again with the headsail reefed - about 3/4 out. The wind speed exceeded 30kts apparent on many occasions, 22 kts was about the minimum. Not even short term weather forecasts are always accurate!

The wind continued to blow hard, often up to 30+ kts and one huge downdraught off Penarth we recorded at 42 kts apparent ... I had the tiller in one hand and the uncleated jib sheet in the other as we sailed rapidly past a Farr 720 (who really was sailing very well).

The return passage took 2 1/2 hours, mostly with reefed headsail only.

On retrieval at NUSC with the "Wise", the forward leading lower corner of the centreboard was damaged & some scuffs on the forward section of the hull. Fixed this with epoxy resin. For me, the "Wise" was a wise investment!

By Dave Howell

Thank you for the excellent article and photgraphs Dave as well as the words of warning.

A few unrelated items.

"There is such a huge gap between my income and my expenditure I now feel we are living apart." Attributed to E.E. Cummin.

With all the sadness and trauma in the world it is worth reflecting on the death recently of a very important person that went almost unnoticed.

Larry La Prise, the man who wrote the hockey cokey died peacefully at the age of 93.

Everything went well until they tried to put his body into the coffin, they put the left leg in and then the trouble started.

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A club cruise to gloucester by Brian Robinson

Five boats set off from Newport on Friday evening the 18th of April and motor sailed to Portishead arriving late evening and anchored just outside the lock gates .As we swung to and fro, Wayne from Doublet could see the local hostelry passing by but unable to reach shore consoled himself and his crew with a flatpack of stella. Morning broke clear but cold and before long the lock gates had opened and a flotilla of boats came pouring out. We to were soon on our way again under power. All told we numbered about forty boats, we were joined by Freedom who had sailed up from Cardiff, as we sailed under the first Severn bridge the water seemed to boil, sailing at up to eight knots it wasn't long before we were under the second bridge, Barry Welch turned sharp to port heading straight towards the rocks, it was then that we noticed that we were travelling four knots forwards and eight sideways easily missing the rocks, We then followed the transits that Barry had supplied and within an hour we were at Sharpness. This is where things got a bit tight, in fact sardines and tin come to mind, after a while it was decided the lock was too small so they had to lift the outer lock as well, after some time we were on our way stopping for lunch at

Club boats motor up to Gloucester in the murky light.

Slimbridge where the twitchers amongst us slipped off to find the lesser spotted grebe i.e. Helen Cox, Helen Nicklason and myself, after a pleasant hour we were summoned by phone to return to the boats as time was tight to pass though the swing bridges. We arrived at Framton for our over night stop and after a wash and change of clothes it was down to the local for a few pints, where we were entertained by the locals fighting. Next morning as we set off it was very cold and overcast, arriving in Gloucester some hours later, We then set about looking around the museum and shops were John bought a set of strings for his Banjo (thank God he'd left it at home), next thing gladrags on and off to Barry's favourite Chines restaurant where John surprised us all by his prowess with chopsticks, it took a little while to clean the table up and after a superb meal, we all set off to the Navy Club were food and entertainment were laid on for all the boats Glyn and Mike had joined us having driven up so in the morning they joined John for the leg back to Sharpness and I drove Glyn's car back We stopped for lunch two (pints) then off again, at Sharpness a very warm welcome was extended to all and a good time was had. Next day we all set off home down river arriving back at Newport in the afternoon, a very good time was had by all.

The Pennant

Obviously blonde.

A blonde wanted to go ice fishing, so after getting all of the right tools, she headed

toward the nearest frozen lake.

After getting comfy on her stool she started to cut a circular hole in the ice.

Then from the heavens a voice boomed, ''THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE.''

Startled, the blonde moved further down the ice, poured a thermos of hot chocolate

and started to cut yet another hole in the ice.

The voice boomed, ''THERE ARE NO FISH UNDER THE ICE.''

This time quite scared, the blonde moved to the far end of the ice.

Then she started another hole and once again the voice said, ''THERE ARE NO FISH

UNDER THE ICE.''

The very scared blonde raised her head and said, ''Is that you, Lord?''

The voice answered, ''No, it's the manager of the ice rink.''

A blonde goes to Louisiana in the USA for a holiday and wants some alligator shoes.

she tries several shops and still no joy. the last shop keeper jokes 'well you could

always go out and catch you're self a gator.' 'I might just do that' she says.

Well, a little time later, the store owner sees the blonde in the swamp up to her waist

in water shooting gator's galore, with a large pile of them on the bank.

He's a little puzzled, where upon, the blonde shoots another one and promptly turns it

over and exclaims 'Damn, this one's not wearing any either!'.

A few more

A girl walks into a supermarket and buys the following: 1 bar of soap, 1 toothbrush, 1 tube of toothpaste, 1 loaf of Bread, 1 pint of milk, 1 apple, 1 banana, 1 orange, 1 peach, 1 plum, 1 tomato, 1 lettuce, 1 cabbage, 1 potato, 1 muesli bar. 1 pie, 1 box of cereal, 1 frozen dinner, 1 single frozen pizza.

The checkout guy looks at her, smiles, and says, "Single huh"? The girl smiles sheepishly and replies, "How did you guess?"

He says, "`Cause you're ugly"

The CIA had an opening for an assassin. After all of the background checks, interviews, and testing were done there were three finalists... Two men and a woman. For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun. "We must know that you will follow your instructions, no matter what the circumstances. Inside of this room, you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!!!" The man said, "You can't be

serious. I could never shoot my wife." The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job." The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Then the man came out with tears in his eyes." I

tried, but I can't kill my wife." The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home." Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one shot after another. They heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls. After a few minutes, all was

quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow, and said, " This gun is loaded with blanks. I had to beat him to death with the chair."

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