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Skippered Yacht Charters



Wednesday 23 February 2011

Qualification to Delivery

But first the qualification.  Although I had sufficient experience for a commercial yachtmaster, I decided it would be beneficial (and good fun) to do the Professional Yachtmaster Trainee course at Plas Menai.  With that and some commercial experience under my belt it was time to look for a boat.  I had decided it needed to be at least as commodious as the Starlight 35 and Sunfast 37 they sail at Plas Menai.  I planned to sail out of Holyhead where there is a Dufour agency and so a Dufour seemed a good idea.  All I had to do was wait for one I could afford!  After a year or so, there it was - in the Clyde.  The following is an account of the delivery trip.

As I start to write this we are snowed in – very unusual in Rhosneigr.  Casting my mind back 12 months, the challenge then was to deliver Pipedreamer VI, a Dufour 40, from Kip marina on the Clyde to her new home in Holyhead before Christmas.  Of course, attempting this in winter had not been the original plan, but the pre-purchase survey had picked up some issues that required rectification and there were delays with the paperwork, all of which conspired to turn a pleasant autumnal cruise into a winter delivery.  Indeed, we had looked at making the passage 2 weeks earlier, but had changed the plan to a sea trial in the Clyde when faced with forecast southwesterly gales.  Nevertheless the trial was very useful, confirming the speed (we had over 10 knots on the log) and capabilities (SW 5-7) of the boat and allowing the crew’s confidence to grow in relatively sheltered conditions.  It also allowed us to get up close and personal with one of Her Majesty’s nuclear subs, or at least her police escort, who informed us of her intended course and asked us to alter ours to give her a wide berth.

So it was with forecast snow and northwesterlies (F4-6) we set off at lunchtime Fri 18 Dec in the hire car to pick up the crew.  Emma, my daughter, and I picked Capt John Howard (Master Mariner) up from across the road and then John Mee (local fisherman and raconteur) on the way out of the village.  Finally, we stopped off at Star for John Glyn Jones, who was to act as mate.  The journey north was uneventful despite the wintry forecast and we were embarked by early evening.  There was a good deal of ice on deck and initially the crew were impressed with my attempts to dry out the boat’s interior, until, that is, the ice on the inside started to melt!  An excellent meal in the local hotel did much to restore morale.

We slipped south from Kip at 0848 on 19 Dec.  The forecast was mainly NW 5-7, but initially we had WSW 3-4.  It was very cold.  We started with one reef in the main and after fitting the radar reflector and radioing a transit report to Clyde Coastguard, we were ready for the open sea.  JGJ took the first watch.  He and I were going to alternate 4hrs on, 4 off.  The others could luxuriate in 3 on, 6 off.

I was back on watch at 1300.  We were beating with 2 reefs in the main and the wind was SW, building 5-7, with a front approaching.  At 1420 the logbook shows that the front was going through with the wind veering westerly and increasing, just as we were losing the shelter offered by Arran.  It was rough.  If memory serves, it was about this time that our Master Mariner was giving a master class in how to eat lunch (pastie and baked beans prepared by Emma) in such conditions, prior to starting his watch.  Unfortunately, at the moment critique, the boat rolled to starboard and he, along with his lunch and the cushion on which he was sitting, slid majestically, almost in slow motion, away from the table and onto the floor.  A little surprised, but undaunted, he was soon helming us on our way down to Ailsa Craig, which appeared out of the mist and rain about 1530.

By 1700 we had covered 50 nautical miles and were closing on the Mull of Galloway.  The wind had settled NW 5 and we were reaching in a quartering sea, but with another front approaching.  JH had learnt the lesson of lunch and was in the starboard heads (toilet).  However, this time the boat rolled to port and he unexpectedly burst out backwards, somewhat dishevelled and tottered across to the galley on the port side.  By now the boat had rolled the other way and was heeled well to starboard and he was propelled back into the heads, whereupon the door slammed shut behind him.  Unaware that his unplanned excursion had been observed, he reappeared some time later as if nothing at all out of the ordinary had occurred.

The second front went through just after 1900 and the wind again veered, this time to NNE 5-7, which allowed us to parallel the coast having gybed in the middle of the North Channel.  By 2100 the wind was beginning to back, forcing us round onto a more SE’ly heading and at 2315 some 6 miles south of the Mull of Galloway lighthouse, having waited for some large shipping to pass, we again gybed onto a more S’ly course.  Just after midnight with Emma and I on watch, a snow shower went through with a squall touching a gale and blizzard conditions.  By now we had covered over 100 nautical miles and were running down the west coast of the Isle of Man.  At 0200 we were off Peel and an hour later we were off the Calf of Man, on track to pass outside Chicken Rock.

At 0500 I took over from JGJ for the last leg.  The wind by now had backed to W 5-7 and we could make direct for Holyhead, allowing for the flood tide.  As dawn broke we were making 8 knots in a surprisingly (for some of the crew who could now see it) large following sea.  We rounded the breakwater 25 hours after setting sail and were tied up in our newly allocated berth by 1030.  We had sailed 171 nm in just over 25 hours.  We were also very tired and cold, but elated and exhilarated at the same time.  However, the crew seemed just as excited by the prospect of their return home to the luxury of a hot bath and a hot toddy…..or two.