Boats shouldn't wear grass skirts.....

Last Tuesday I gave a talk to Stafford Coastal Cruising Club about my experiences during various Round The Island Races. Thus far, all my skippering experience in this event has been on chartered boats. One charter operator I used for a while was very honest and helpful when I made clear my concern that the hull should be clean in preparation for the race. This year, however, we used a different operator who also assured me that the boat's hull would be clean. On hand-over it became clear that it wasn't. The official on hand at the time 'didn't know anything about sailing boats'; apparently he was a 'motor boat' man, and was there just to do the paper work for hand over. Anyway, to cut a long story short we made do with the boat as it was, with its little grass skirt growing around the hull at the water line. It wasn't as bad as the boat shown below, which featured in my talk at the club, but it wasn't good either.

Needless to say, we didn't win the race in 2014! Next time might just be in our own boat, properly prepared and with all the right kit. Should be an easy win then, don't you think?

A new star is born!

Yesterday Roger and I finally reached an agreement with a vendor on the purchase of our yacht, a Bavaria 37. She is in great shape, although there are some maintenance tasks and updates that we want to take care of. If all goes according to plan we will become the owners of 'Blue Star' on 1 Feb 2015. How exciting is that!

Great news on the sponsorship front too. Staffordshire University have agreed to sponsor our project!

Cape Wrath - what's in a name?

Why does it have to be called Cape Wrath anyway? Why not Cape Comfortable? It rolls off the tongue quite nicely don't you think? And I would feel much happier about planning the passage, and look forward to it all the more.....

I wonder what the forecast says today....

A bit worrying......

I keep on catching myself dwelling on the fact that Cape Wrath, the most northerly point in mainland Britain, is further north than Cape Horn is south! Hmmmmm! Then I look at what the inshore weather forecast is in the Cape Wrath area, and it usually is not particularly good! Have you looked recently? Probably says 'sea state - rough'. Fortunately it does not say this all the time, so it is simply a matter of carefully picking the right time to sail. Same as anywhere else really! So, nothing to worry about there then! Good! That's alright then! No worries!

Hmmmm. I wonder what the forecast will be tomorrow? Hhhmmmm.

Fresh food on board our boat!

I always find it very satisfying to sit around the saloon table eating a meal with the crew after a good day's sailing. Somehow the exertions of the day seem to make the occasion all the more relaxing. One thing we will need during our trip is a good way of keeping our ship's supplies fresh, ready for said meal. Fortunately, our sponsors Woolcool have exactly the product we will need to keep our supplies cool. Come to think of it, they are pretty cool people themselves! Thank you Woolcool!

Angela Morris, CEO of Woolcool, and Keith Spilsbury, MD

Progress......

Yesterday I took a train ride to Essex to view a boat with Roger. It was a nice boat, but there are others we want to look at too.

Great news today! Woolcool, the manufacturers of environmentally friendly thermal insulation, have agreed to sponsor our boat! How brilliant is that! Thank you Woolcool!

There are still opportunities for others to sponsor our boat too, so I hope there will be more good news soon!

....its all in the planning!

Although the start of our big sail is some months away, there still seems to be lots of preparation to do! I find myself thinking most days now about this trip, and making a note of things to do....and yes, even doing some of them!

The boat obviously needs to be bought - we have our eyes on a number of possibilities at the moment, so we need to get on with viewing them. What percentage of the asking price should one bid for a boat? Then we need to consider all the features we would like/need on the boat: radar, AIS, TV (I know), cockpit VHF radio repeater, chart-plotter and cockpit repeater, life-raft, inflatable with outboard, power windlass, charts, pilot books, .... the list goes on!

Then there is organising the crew! We have managed to set up a likely sailing schedule (but of course the actual sailing schedule may turn out to be different due to weather etc.), and we now need to encourage friends etc to sign up!

The fund raising aspect is currently resting heavily on my mind. I hope friends will sponsor me/us, but I want to try to arrange some commercial sponsorship too (this may prove difficult, but is worth a try). Getting on with this today!