November 2023, Vol #43, no #10. Editor: Jeremy Clarke
Next Meeting: Monday 20th November 7.30 p.m BYO BBQ 6:30 p.m.
Featuring video presentation on heavy wind sailing
Make sure to book the date 16 December
Cartoon by Alex Comino
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Captain's column
Hello fellow Cruisers,
This past month has been a busy month for the Cruisers.
Started with the long weekend in October where 8 boats sailed up to Pittwater for the weekend, then we had our monthly meeting visited by Lee who spoke about his sailing experiences, especially shorthanded racing in the Sydney to Hobart race.
The Long Lunch followed on the 22 October at Foys Kirribilli – it was great to see so many of you attend as we were finally able to hold this popular event.
We then finished the month off with a Tapas-Tie-up – as always a very popular event and I must say this was the highlight of the month. We had Serenite and crew join us for their first event with the Cruisers and they fitted right in.
The MHYC bi-weekly Friday night twilight also started at the end of October and we got a Cruising division going when RaRa and Sanctum participated. Afterwards the BBQ was on and the bar open and we had a lovely evening in the newly renovated harbour view room together with racing crews. Come along next time, with or without your boat and help make these Fridays a great start to a summer weekend.
A reminder that the Harbour view is open looking lovely now it is renovated and it is open Wed-Thu 11-6pm, Fri 11-5 pm and Sat 9-6pm. Bar open for drinks and coffee and you can order food too. Come along, bring friends and enjoy our beautiful club from upstairs.
See you soon at one of our events, be it on land or water.
Photo of the Month of November ’23 by Niclas Westling
Coming into Port Stephens on a Cat in a southerly gale
(Look at the chop on the water. Ed)
Send your photos to Mike McEvoy to enter into the 2023 Cruising Division Competition. Each Month the best photo received will be published and, in the running, to win a new Mystery Prize at the end of 2023.
Send your best photos (as a JPG / JPEG) - Remember … to be in the running to win the prize you must be in it.
Hint …. Give your favourite photo a Title and Place taken. Submit your photos to mmcevoy@bigpond.net.au
Most of the photos submitted are by Committee members, surely there are other photographers out there on the water?
Good Shooting …!! Mike.
The Cruising Quiz, by Phil Darling
What term is given to the draining holes cut through the bulwarks to allow water on the deck to drain away?
What is the difference between a ketch, a yawl and a schooner?
On the day of a solar eclipse, would you expect to have neap tides or spring tides?
You are coming into port at night in a rolling sea and sight a flashing white light. On counting it as best as you can you count 8 white flashes. Which navigation marker is this likely to be?
Where on a boat are you likely to find the rams horn? (assuming you are not a sheep carrier!)
What is an ICC, and where is it most likely to be required?
If you have an ICC, do you need the CEVNI endorsement as well?
What is a Lateen sail, and how many sides does it have?
On a traditional compass, how many points are there on a compass?
You are steering 090 by the compass, and your skipper tells you to steer “two points to starboard”.What is the new heading on your modern compass, and what would it have been called in the traditional (“points of the compass”) way?
Past Events
Tapas-Tie-Up October 2023
The theme for this year’s Tapas Tie Up was the South Pacific. Nine boats rafted up at Sugarloaf Bay. Everyone went to great effort with costumes. We had movie stars, islanders (one in particular wearing very little), the navy, and resort guests. Boat decorating turned one boat into a veritable jungle. Machetes were almost necessary. Attendees created delectable tapas meals and intoxicating cocktails. Coconuts, pineapples, rum, leis and palm fronds were the way to go. Residents of the nearby houses would have been very glad when the party finally finished. Our group became even more rowdy once the espresso martinis and dj vibes took hold. We are all looking forward to next year’s event. Thank you to all those who participated and helped to create “Some Enchanted Evening”.
Until next year,
Selina O’Brien Eternity
Long Lunch at Foys
Well we got there finally. It’s been hard to find a date for us to have our long lunch this year. We didn’t want to interfere with any sailing dates and also a few members were overseas, so there was a little juggling of dates. Pleased you all came and had a nice catch up surrounded by some great sailing history.
It’s was so nice to see the Mark Foy trophy made in memory of Tom Keddie. It’s sitting proud in a case on the wall, in the main dining area . The trophy as you all know is the one I found when I was carrying out some handyman tasks. The family that was looking after it were only too happy to give it back to the Sailing Community after 35 years missing.
The lunch catered for all of us and some with allergies, I had some good feedback on the meal. Someone suggested visiting other clubs to see what they were up to with functions and food, a good idea.
Some of the discussion was had about the Swansea Channel being dredged after all this time. Lake Macquarie for New Year adventures could be good. Many moons have passed without being able to get boats in or out. This is an exciting development for us cruisers.
Next year we shall return to MHYC for our long lunch and more in the middle of winter. Can’t wait!
Jeremy Clarke SV Kai Rani
Make-A-Wish cruise
This annual charity event was a great success with sunny weather and light winds. The children were so grateful! Thanks to Evan&Kelly for coordinating this year, and all who donated boats and time to make this a great event.
Feature article
Pittwater to Coomera on a cat
Through the Facebook group "Sydney Sailing Crew Finder" I found Dave, who needed some crew to help him get his 40ft Fountaine Pajot catamaran "Pourpre" from Pittwater to Coomera. As he put 'no previous experience required' in the ad he got about a hundred responses in the first day, so the ad was taken down quickly. After a few quick conversations I somehow made the shortlist of candidates. I had never sailed on a large cat before so I was quite keen on gaining that experience and see what the differences were to a monohull. I'm also adding to my 'sea miles' in preparation for a Yachtmaster certification which is on the plans.
The total crew of four was on standby for about a week and a half waiting for a suitable weather window, and then we had 4 days of solid Southerly wind from Monday to Thursday forecast, so we met on Sunday night, had a dinner in Palm Beach and then went to bed on the boat for an early morning departure.
First 24 hours
After a most lovely daytime sail from Pittwater and up to about an hour from Port Stephens, we managed to avoid the rain squalls and had mostly sunny with fairly light winds, motor sailing.
Then the Southerly buster hit us with a vengeance, and although we had been looking for it intensely and prepared with only a headsail out, we were still surprised by how quickly it hit us and with the strength of the wind, being well over 40kn in the gusts. We furled away the headsail, but managed to damage the clew quite a bit as it was flogging during that procedure. Then we continued under engines, bare poled.
We decided to err on the side of caution and rather than continue through the night, we took shelter in Shoal Bay over night sharing a bottle of red with a lovely pasta. In the morning the wind had subsided a bit and was in between 20-30kn and we continued north without any mishaps.
Some learnings along the way
For me, the key takeouts from sailing on this boat were:
when doing any form of sail change manoeuvre the first thing we did was turn the engines on. For any mainsail reefing we had to be head to wind, and that requires the engines on to keep the steering working as the boat stops immediately going head to wind.
the boat was very comfortable and stable, even in a big swell, with the wind from behind at least. I don't get seasick myself, but it was easy to move around inside the boat without losing balance
i found the slab reefing system being pretty difficult to operate. All the halyards and reefing lines were at the mast, so required crew to move forward and work it from there. Also, the reefing lines tended to get caught and sometimes required a crew member to crawl into the boom bag and sort out the lines. Although the boat was quite stable it felt unsafe to me in the sea state we had.
Flying a symmetrical spinnaker was quite easy as it could be sheeted to the two hulls and not needing a spinnaker pole to get the separation of clews. This spinnaker also had a sock, which worked quite well.
i loved having an autopilot (which we don't yet have on RaRa), as it made in particular the night watches quite relaxing
we used an overlapping watch system where you were on active watch 2 hours, passive/standby watch next 2 hours and then off watch for 4 hours. This system worked really well I think, and allowed us to get a lot of rest.
Arriving in Southport
We had a great spinnaker run in 15-20kn for most of Thursday in beautiful sunshine, before arriving at Southport in the late afternoon. Strangely enough we almost didn't see any other marine traffic, only a few whales.
Crossing the bar was a little bit exciting, and we managed to find a period between breaking waves to enter. Once inside the bar we were met by a fleet of yachts doing a twilight race in the very narrow waters there.
I was then surprised by how long it took to get from Southport to the Marina in Coomera, and we motored for two hours at 6kn speed through the narrow, and partly quite shallow, channels. All along the way there were luxury houses, all with their own private jetties where one could park ones superyacht.
The Boatworks, Coomera
What an amazing place to have boat maintenance done, with facilities from 'normal' size boats up to mega super yachts. They also offer an area for live-aboard hardstand, where you're allowed to work on your boat yourself - not something you find in the Sydney area for sure.
It turned out good friends of mine, Julie and Pete, actually temporarily worked there as "Caretakers" making sure everything ran smoothly at the marina. We had a short catch-up on the Thursday night, but unfortunately I had to fly back to Sydney on the Friday morning.
A surprise on the hard
Once Pourpre was up on the hard and the work to replace the rudder bearing started, it was discovered that the rudder stock was quite badly rusted, and could easily have broken during our delivery. Luckily, on a cat there are two rudders and the second one was in a much better shape!
/Niclas S/V RaRa
Vale
Keith William Watson
29 January 1929 – 6 October 2023
Keith’s Order of Service highlighted his life succinctly:
His children Trevor, Joy and Peter each spoke at his funeral on Friday 20 October 2023, as did three of his grandchildren. From their recollections I have pulled together some features of Keith’s life. His family all remarked about how a stroke when Keith was 55 totally changed his personality from formal and hard to lively and fun.
Keith is probably one of the few Members of the Club who was there when the Cruising Division was established by Tony Rickards, as Cruising Captain in 1976 under Commodore Tig Thomas. Evidently, he had three yachts which he purchased the bare hulls and then fitted them out. Those Members of the Club I have spoken to remarked that the timber work was excellent which come from Keith’s occupation as a Surveyor where a straight line is very important. The first yacht was a Bluebird, then a TopHat, a Compass 29 and finally a Cavalier 32. His chats at our meetings over the years in Corner were always interesting, off-beat and often hilarious. His unique personality was entertaining and there will never be another Keith Watson.
Peter Dally
It was with great sadness that I heard of Peter’s passing this week. He was a great supporter and member of the Cruising Division, along with his wife Noeline, and attended many of our events in their Catalina 32 “Sensei”.
Peter grew up in a tough area of Sydney, learning to sail out of Balmain. He left school at 14 (as many did in those days) and went to sea, qualifying as a Marine Engineer. After he met and married Noeline he came ashore, setting up a marine supplies and support business.
One of his favourite stories was of being helicoptered onto a stricken bulk carrier drifting somewhere in the Great Australian Bight. Over 5 days he and the crew tried to get the engines going again, finally with limited success so the vessel could limp into Port Adelaide.
Peter had several direct influences on both myself and the Cruising Division. In 2002 he was looking to step back, and persuaded me to take over his role as Vice Commodore. I had not realised the extent of the financial difficulties they were struggling through, and the role was quite an eye-opener for me. One of the solutions was to split the sailing and business activities, and set up a separate Board to focus on financial rescue – at the same time the Vice Commodore role was split into Cruising and Racing, so I became the first Vice Commodore Cruising.
He was also instrumental in us naming our current boat eXpresso. When Maralyn and I bought the vessel it had been the x-yachts demonstrator, and was named “X-Appeal”. At a cruising raft up Peter got onto the radio, calling us up as “Sex Appeal” followed by raucous laughter. Maralyn instantly decided that name had to change.
In recent years we have not seen much of Peter as he cared for Noeline in her own health struggles.
He will be missed.
By Phil Darling
Sea miles honour roll!
How many sea miles have you done?
We have a wealth of experience in our Cruising Division, and I wanted to recognise that, hence the creation of a sea miles honour roll, which will become a monthly feature in the Compass Rose.
If you wish to be recognised, please contact cruising@mhyc.com.au to add your details.
Sailor
Sea miles
Most exotic location
Bryan Moore
20,000
Fastnet in UK
Mike McEvoy
Over 59,000 nm
Bali, North Sea
Dallas O’Brien
3400 nm
Queensland coast
Phil Darling
Stopped counting in March 2016 I had 60,400 miles logged
Cork Ireland or maybe racing in Hong Kong harbour although the most enjoyable was in the Med (St Tropez/Nice and also Croatian coast)
Evan Hodge & Kelly Clark
7800
Port Davey/ Bathurst Harbour SW Tasmania
Dallas O’Brien
sv Eternity
The Cruising Quiz answers
Scuppers.
All are two-masted. A ketch has a main mast with a smaller mizzen mast behind, with the mizzen mast forward of the rudder. A yawl is similar but the mizzen mast is aft of the rudder post. A schooner has a main mast with a smaller fore-mast in front of it.
Spring tides – as the sun and the moon are in line their tidal effects would add.
Tricky one this – there is no marker with 8 white flashes. It is most likely to be a West Cardinal (9 white flashes) with one flash hidden by the waves. Check your chart to see if this is likely and which one it is.
The rams horns are the hooks on some vessels at the gooseneck (ie where the mast and boom connect) to allow reefing. On eXpresso we have one on each side of the boom.
The International Certificate of Competence is a certificate which is often required to charter in Europe, and also to take your own vessel into some marinas.
You will need the CEVNI endorsement (Code Européen des Voies de Navigation Intérieure) if you are venturing onto European inland waterways.
A Lateen sail is a fore-and-aft triangular sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle on the mast. It has 3 sides.
The traditional European compass has 32 points.
Each point is 11 ¼ degrees, so two points is 90 + 22 ½, so 112.5 degrees. East-south-east in the old terminology.
Opinions expressed in the Compass Rose are those of the contributors, and do not necessarily reflect opinions of either Middle Harbour Yacht Club or the Cruising Division
