East Coast OGA race

 We used to enter the EC race fairly regularly, but hav'nt been for a few years now. Its always held on the River Blackwater in Essex, so unless its part of a holiday cruise we need to make sure there's enough time to get there and back across the estuary. This year I had Justin who is an expert helmsman as crew. We set out from the Swale at 2am on Friday morning to catch the tide. There have been moderate northerly winds for weeks and I was anxious that we might have difficulty getting across before the tide turned against us, However we motor-sailed as far as the Wallet Spitway and just got there by low water, so everything worked out, and we picked up a mooring buoy outside West Mersea. There was a fine gathering of gaffers afloat and of their crews in the West Mersea yacht club ashore, and its likely the bar takings would have significantly helped the club finances.

We had a nice force 3-4 northerly for the race. Justin helmed and I did everything else. Bonita doesnt do so well under the OGA handicapping system and didnt win any prizes but we had a fine sail and its good to see so many gaffers out on the water, and so many people of all ages enjoying sailing under traditional rig. 

A large feature of the EC race are the smacks, many of them very well looked after and sometimes sporting far more sail than they ever carried when they were working fishing boats.

Our mooring at West Mersea seemed to be about a mile from the clubhouse, and though there is an efficient ferry service I thought it would be interesting to be independent. I fixed our electric outboard to the elderly Tinker inflatable, together with a 100Ah battery. This worked fine and propelled us against wind and tide for three and a half of the four trips between the mooring and the club pontoon. Sadly the battery finally gave out as we were giving Colin a lift back to his boat after the prizegiving, and we had to row the last bit. However overall I was quite pleased with the setup which worked well for rather shorter journeys.

On the Sunday morning it was still blowing northerly, and we had a splendid sail back across the estuary. We picked up our mooring on the Swale under sail about an hour before high water. We were just tidying up the boat when Allan and Alice arrived with family on their boat Dura. They are hoping to cross over to the Essex rivers for their holiday but need a more favorable wind and rather smoother water with their young crew.

First time afloat!

 Bonita has had a quiet start to this season, though I have done some sailing on other peoples boats. I finally got round to painting her a few days ago, and yesterday D and I were lucky to have Sarah and her three eldest -Tamar, Isaac and Quin- aboard for their first ever sail. 

It was quite breezy, but we ran downwind under staysail for a couple of miles, then motored back to the mooring. After lunch our new crew enjoyed themselves waving at passing boats, exploring the ship, blowing the whistles on their lifejackets and jumping down the forehatch onto a pile of sailbags.

When we rowed ashore at high water the children were amazed to find all the soft mud had gone, covered by the rising tide. I tried to explain that it was the moon that caused the tide to come in and out, but I suspect this was thought to be another silly idea. 

Anyway, our new crew seemed to enjoy themselves, no-one was sick, no-one got too wet or muddy and lets hope they will be keen to come again.

Classic Boat article

 Nice to see an article about Bonita (and her skipper) in the June issue of Classic Boat magazine. I always like seeing stuff about Bonita in print. She has been in CB before - in 1993 and 2013 I think- but a bit more does no harm. 

But what about the old lady herself? Bonita is now out on her mooring on the Swale. She still needs painting, and I am waiting for some suitable weather and free time for this. Last week Allan and I renewed her mooring. This always provides plenty of fresh air and healthy exercise. As always, when we got to inspect it, 95% of the chain looked perfectly sound and good for another couple of years or so. 5% looked dodgy and not to be relied on. Its not quite that simple though, when you chip off the rust and look at the links carefully you often find its not as good as you at first thought, and sometimes the welds seem to rust more quickly than the rest of the metal. All new galvanised chain helps give peace of mind on those dark stormy nights when you lie in bed at home wondering if the boat is ok.

New jib sheet

 For years Bonita used to have separate port and starboard jib sheets tied to the clew of the jib. However the trouble with cutter rig is that the jib sheet frequently catches on the forestay when going about, and it wont come free regardless of which sheet you pull on. Its not a major problem as the jib will come free if you  come off the wind and bear away a bit, but it means that tacking in confined waters is not as crisp as it should be. And sailing without sheet winches, its best to pull the headsail sheets in sooner rather than later when the sails are full of wind. Having put up with this for years I thought maybe things could be improved and this seems to be the answer....

The new jib sheet is one continuous length of rope, with a brass cringle spliced in the middle that is shackled to the clew of the jib. There is nothing really to catch on the forestay.  I have been using this during the last season and it does seem to be a definite improvement - I wish I had tried it out years ago.

Thats all very well, I hear you say, but what news of the boat? Shes in her mud berth for another month or so. I've installed a couple more bronze brackets to strengthen the hull at the after end of the cockpit, and shes had her annual treatment of wood preservative being sprayed into every accessible crack and crevice internally.  With various other commitments we aren't planning any major trips this year and its looking like we will be mostly be sailing in the Thames Estuary, the Essex and Suffolk rivers. And with such a varied and interesting cruising area so close, why go any further?

Midwinter

Bonita is snug under her winter covers, and not much happens in the middle of winter, although I do try to visit her every week or so between family and other commitments. We have removed everything that can reasonably be moved ashore. The mizzen mast which sadly got split while trying to leave Brighton marina in the summer is now hanging up in my garage at home and is I hope, stronger than it was before.

                                                    

                                                    Bonita's venerable toolbox

Bonita's toolkit is sufficient to tackle most routine and emergency jobs afloat, and is kept in a waterproof box in the bilge to get the weight down. Some of these tools may well be as old as the boat and would probably have been familiar to the Crossfields. We carry no electric tools aboard. Probably the oldest and best are stamped to show they were made in Birmingham or Sheffield when Britain was the workshop of the world. These were the days when the best manufactured products were British or German ie. 'Bog standard'  which is a phrase that has had a complete reversal of meaning over the years. Others were made in countries that no longer exist, such as Czechoslovakia and East or West Germany. The most modern are mostly Japanese or Chinese. Let's hope they last as well as their predecessors.