Sandhopper Class Cruising Trophy Winners 2007For the Third time Peter Blomfield and John Evans have presented a clear winner in in the hotly contested Sandhopper Cruising Trophy with their cruise in July to Wolverstone Marina. The trophy will this year be presented at the Class AGM in November.. Below is their report and attached files outward and return logs. Plus some photos. Whats in store for next year? TALITRUS S46 SAILING THE ORWELL AND STOUR CREW: Peter Blomfield & John Evans 10th to 24th July 2007 Well yes the title may be a bit misleading as actually getting there and back is the really interesting bit. The planning for this trip started way back when we first thought about trailing to Woodbridge and then sailing Talitrus back to Thorpe Bay. We decided that though this would be possible it did involve considerable outside help. To sail the journey both ways again posed problems as we needed to be at the entrance to the Deben about 2 hours before high water; impossible in one go from Thorpe Bay. So we wrote off our research including our trip by car to all the yards on the Deben to check out launching and storage facilities. The Harwich rivers looked a much better bet as you can come and go at all states of the tide. So in early March we drove up and checked out all the facilities on both banks of the River Orwell (in the rain). Levington looked a bit grim and we thought we might be too low for their pontoons. Fox’s was too busy and too expensive. Woolverstone however was helpful and the situation is delightfully rural. The monthly rate for a pontoon berth for a boat the size of a Sandhopper is £262. But the staff were understanding, it was raining and they were not busy, so they said we could have a swinging mooring for about £40. So our choice was made without too much difficulty. With luck, (i.e. a fair wind), we thought we could do Thorpe Bay to Woolverstone in a day. If we were delayed or the weather deteriorated we could divert to Bradwell Marina or Brightlingsea. John, as is now normal for our cruises, typed up all the essential facts for this passage and had them laminated. This waterproof and easily handled reference always proves invaluable. 10TH July 2007 The tides on 10th July looked fine and the 05.20 Shipping Forecast on the day was “Thames: variable becoming SW 3 veering NW 4 to 5 later”. Beyond the call of duty Robin Foster –Taylor collected the crew and delivered us to the Yacht Club by 06.00. He then rowed back with the dinghy which saved at least 15 minutes. We cast off at 06.40 in a very light Westerly with main and genoa. Five minutes later we hoisted the kite looking forward to an enjoyable run to Harwich. Five minutes later our speed was down to about half a knot so we downed the kite and started the motor as we did not fancy taking 24 hours to reach Woolverstone. This was the beginning of a very pleasant spell of motoring which went on till 12.40! We left Thorpe Bay about 2.5 hours before high water so that we could benefit from all the ebb and hopefully reach the entrance to Harwich just as the tide began to flood up the Harwich rivers. To do this we had to average 4.5 knots. To minimise the adverse effect of the last of the flood we needed to keep in shallow water past the end of the boom and along the edge of the Maplins. The most interesting thing during this leg was trying to miss the man made island off South Shoebury, which the last time either of us had seen it stood clear of the sea by over a metre. We realised just in time that the big raft of gulls was not floating but standing in inch deep water. We had decided that we would not use the Spitway to reach the Wallet Channel as this added distance. A straight course over the Gunfleet from the S Whitaker buoy to Wallet 4 buoy would save time and we calculated give us a minimum depth of almost three metres. It was essential as we crossed the Gunfleet Sands that we kept strictly on course. John was wedded to the rolling road display on his GPS for the whole of this period. To make sure we did not stray I double checked every 5 minutes using Lat & Long from my GPS. I need not have bothered as the rolling road kept us spot on course. The old lighthouse on the sand stood out clearly but we were confused by a lattice tower or aerial on the sand which initially appeared to be on the land near Clacton. It was not shown on my rather old chart but when we later looked at John’s chart it was clearly shown and on the sand. I guess there must be a lesson there somewhere! The minimum depth shown on the echo sounder was 2.5 metres. The transducer is about 0.3M below the water so our calculation was not far out. As we cleared the Gunfleet the wind at last filled in from the South and we hoisted the spinnaker and cut the motor. From then on we actually sailed faster than we had motored. From then on it was a reach followed by long and short tacks up the Orwell as the wind, as forecast, veered round to the NW. We raced the Thames barge Hydrogen for a while but it drew ahead when it started its motor. We radioed the marina and were told which buoy to pick up, which we did at 16.05, just 9hrs 25minutes after casting off at TBYC. The distance sailed was 45.29 nautical miles at an average speed of 4.8 knots. The Woolverstone staff was exceptionally helpful and even made us a cup of very welcome tea. Robin then did his second good turn of the day, drove up to Woolverstone and drove us home to Thorpe Bay. A thoroughly enjoyable cruise and given the recent weather we could not have picked a better day. 15th July 2007 Yes. St. Swithin’s Day and we awoke to a thunder storm and heavy rain, which did not bode well for our return trip! However we had set aside this day to explore the rivers and were not to be put off. John drove us to Woolverstone and we were ready and cast off at 10.11hrs. It was flooding pretty hard and we made slow progress down stream towards Harwich until we started the motor. It took just over an hour to reach Bloody Point. The name may have resulted from the bloodshed at that point when in the 885 King Alfred slaughtered a marauding fleet of Danes. We cut the corner between the point and Shotley Spit buoy and headed up the River Stour under sail. For a moment or two we did wonder whether our navigation was completely haywire when we sailed past the Sandettie light ship, (in for servicing). The wind was fair and we soon had the kite flying and were able to keep it up till we reached Mistley, the head of navigation for all but dinghies. We had hoped to tie up at the West end of the jetty but we arrived more or less at high water and gave that pleasure a miss as we were not prepared to take the risk of running out of water. The sail up the Stour was delightful first passing Parkeston Quay (not very pretty!), but from then on through traditional soft Suffolk (to the North) and Essex (to the South) countryside. The book says note the cliffs at Wrabness; pleasant but only about 30ft. high! The Royal Hospital School at Holbrook is impressive. The sail back to Harwich was a beat with, for the first few miles, constant reference to the echo sounder as in the upper reaches the deep water channel is very narrow. With the ebb tide behind us we made good progress despite a thunder storm and rain. We sailed into the little dock on the water front of old Harwich which the port authorities said we could use if we wished. It looked a good place to stop for fish and chips but unfortunately we were running out of time and pressed on back to our mooring which we reached at 17.10hrs Total distance sailed 28.7 nautical miles. 24th July 2007 Having got the boat safely to Woolverstone we now had to get it back. This we hoped to do on the 21st, (cancelled; lousy weather forecast) and the 23rd (postponed for the same reason). The only window throughout this gloomy period was 24th July. The forecast, which varied greatly depending on which one you looked at, was “NW force 4 backing WSW, with gusts”. No rain was forecast so we decided to have a go; the alternative was to wait for another 10 days until the tides were once again favourable. Sandhoppers with both an adverse tide and wind are not ideal cruising boats. John’s wife Sheri very kindly did the taxiing and then had to dash back to work. We left the mooring at 09.06 under main and working jib with the engine safely stowed on board. The wind was fresh but with us, and with the ebb under us we made rapid progress down the Orwell to Harwich; just under the hour to the College Buoy. There was no need to fly the spinnaker and the sun shone. It looked like being a fast and very pleasant passage. On the way in we had worked out where the shallows were so we sailed past the huge container ships at Felixstowe, (18 containers wide), and out on to a course for Walton without any problems. This time we decided that we would sail down the coast, (the Wallet Channel), then use the Spitway. We hoped that this would give us some shelter from the forecast gusts, (which proved to be more like squalls), and would allow the tide to rise just a little before we crossed the Gunfleet Sand. Once we rounded Walton and headed further West for Clacton we were hard on the wind. The wind backed and soon we were long and short tacking down the coast. The sea was unpleasant in the Wallet Channel and breaking on the Gunfleet which shelved steeply. Trying to hold our course as far as possible towards the Spitway we went from about 12 metres to 2.6M in less than 2 minutes. We ended up approaching the Spitway more or less at low water which was not what we had planned. With the nasty looking waves all round we decided to sail up to the Wallet Spitway buoy which is in deepish water and take a look before crossing. We calculated a minimum depth of 2.7m and with metre waves thought this did not leave much of a safety margin. In the event the wind moderated for a brief spell, the waves reduced and we sailed over at 14.17hrs. with a minimum of 2.6M showing on the echo sounder. Our next waypoint was the South Whitaker buoy which we made with ease. However we then had to head more or less SW to work our way down the East Swin which put the wind dead on the nose. We beat along in the general direction of the NE Maplin and Maplin buoys and with the flood under us extended our tacks over the bank between the E Swin and Middle Deep. The sea by this time had started to get quite nasty with waves occasionally up to two metres. John decided shortly thereafter to re arrange his clothing so that his life jacket was on top of his oilies so that he could hook on his lifeline if needed. The inevitable happened and just as he removed his top we took a green one over the bows. I am still trying to convince him that I did not do it on purpose! From then on it was a solid beat home through nasty short steep seas which quite regularly came on board. This involved periods of pumping. As the sea looked calmer over the shallow water we risked going over the Maplins behind the Blacktail Spit buoy and beacon. This provided calmer water but less of it. We decided to tack for deeper water with the echo sounder reading 1.9M. Surprise surprise as we headed back the water got shallower and we had a slightly worrying few minutes until at last it started to get deeper. I have always thought it risky to sail over mud flats you do not know as you could just sail up a channel and then have to alter course up the bank. Luckily this time the bank was pretty gentle. As we approached Thorpe Bay Yacht Club we were met by Peter Thompson in S14; he had very kindly put a dinghy on our mooring so that we could get ashore. We picked up our mooring at 19.15 about 10 hours and 10 minutes after leaving Woolverstone. The total distance recorded on the GPS was 49 nautical miles. However the GPS constantly had difficulty logging on to satellites so we estimate the true distance sailed as around 55miles. Absolutely everything in the boat was wet through; our spare clothes in our bags were sopping, the radio was suppurating a yellow goo and refuses to speak to me. The engine however started straight away when tested in the YC drum. You have to ask in this day and age why they cannot make water proof bags and electrical equipment. On our Calais trip the echo sounder filled with water and this time the radio. It is probably worth mentioning that even with the working jib we were hard pressed. The boat would have been unmanageable had we flown the genoa. So that brought to an end our trip for 2007. We sailed, (or motored), a total of 129 miles; not bad for a couple of “mature” sailors! John’s formal passage plans and logs are attached for those technically inclined. Peter Blomfield.
|