Sep. 20, 2005 - Suck it and See (Trev's Side of the Story)
Safely ensconsed on our old mooring, Holes Bay side, near Poole bridge, we looked forward to some good sailing throught the coming year. Silly me.
Brian our friend also keeps his boat in the same location, was keen to get my wife and I out sailing. I dont know whether it is me being cautious or Brian being very keen, but somehow a day out sailing involved too many complications just to get out. We had to arrange for the tow out, plus the tow in at some pre-arranged time and place. This all seems easy enough but in reality proved difficult. Brian however never seemed to come to terms with this aspect of a day out sailing Beroe. Instead he always put it on me that I was making it difficult. Anyway, we did go out a couple of times over the year, and yes, it was problematic finding a day to suit our friend Andy who could tow us.
I had my reservations about the lack of engine realised on one trip out. Winds were light at best but we thought this would afford us the chance to learn the ropes of a Gaffer and hopefully get all her sail up. We found to our cost that the wind died nearly altogether later after leaving the harbour. We were making way along the Swash Channel when a decision was made to hoist the large Jack-yard Topsail. Sounds easy.....it was not. The Yard must be 7.5m long and no clues as to how to rig it to send aloft. Heated points of view were laid out faster than the topsail hoisted but we managed to figure it out and UP she went. Shortly after this the wind died. Sailing huh. From then on we had a steady drift from Ballard past swanage and the near by Peveril Race, all the way to about 2 miles south of Anvil Point. The humiliating part was our drifting backwards [stern ahead] that made it worse.
Not all doom and gloom, wind did favour our sails eventually and we made slow but steady progress back to port. Andy gratiously came and towed us back in.
This episode confirmed to me that some auxillary drive was needed for Beroe to be used as weekender out of Poole. Plans were made!
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How My wife and I cope with owning a 120 year old racing cutter
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