Roompot

Today Bonita is back in the Netherlands.Allan and I set sail from the Swale yesterday lunchtime and this evening locked into the Roompot in the southern Netherlands. Although we had hopes of a reasonable breeze mostly we had light winds. We had clear weather for crossing the shipping lanes, which is definitely welcome. The night was enlivened by a number of rain squalls with plenty of wind and spectacular lightening. 

We had thought of going to Flushing, but we were late for the tide in the River Schelde, so we came a few miles north and locked into the Osterschelde at Roompot. We tied up at the marina to find two friendly Dutch immigration officers waiting to stamp our passports. I was impressed that they had come to meet us to avoid causing us any inconvenience or delay. They didnt ask to see any of Bonita's ships papers or want to know if VAT had been paid on her, for which I was grateful.

Bonita in the lock at Roompot : Allan on deck and yellow Q flag hoisted to indicate we have come from outside the EU.

June

 I have been quite busy but Bonita has yet to leave the river Swale this summer - just a few short day sails. I went (by road) to the Yarmouth IoW OGA rally where the racing was cancelled due to strong winds. George and I inspected the gaffers in the harbour to judge the Concours d'Elegance. This needs some diplomacy as there are some lovely boats and everyone thinks theirs deserves to be a winner. We decided it should be Lady Belle - a Falmouth Quay Punt built in 1909.  She was once owned by our Dutch friend Bart Pot, but is now well cared for by Hannah Matthews. Then I had an invitation to the OGA Helford rally. We have attended this a couple of times on Bonita, but this year I was on Dave and Julies boat Susan J, a sturdy Heard 28. The Helford is a lovely river in almost any conditions. We had a good race in perfect weather and came in second, though there werent many boats taking part. This was followed by a jolly evening in the Helford Sailing Club.

                                                                 Susan J

Meanwhile Bonita hasnt been totally neglected: paint and varnish have been applied in the better weather and we have been stocking up on some essentials. I bought a load of Dutch charts for our planned trip next month. Sadly it seems that the days of the paper chart are probably numbered and we will all have to depend on GPS navigation eventually, just as no-one seems to carry a road atlas in their car anymore. I prefer a 'belt & braces' approach using both. I have been on a boat with a total electrical failure - and also have had a chart blown overboard from the cockpit. We retrieved the chart with the boathook after some 'man overboard' practice, but it wasnt much use afterwards.

Moorings

 In preparation for the new season we decided to overhaul Bonita's mooring. The mooring chain is mostly out of sight on the river bed and when you haul it up its all covered with thick mud and rust, so its difficult to know just when it needs to be replaced. Better too soon than too late: it hadnt been done for several years.  Various elements need to come together for this operation to go well: a good low tide, calm weather and plenty of help. I had Geoff, Allan and John on the job and it all seemed to reasonably well. I have tried to refine the process over the years and a fairly recent addition is a portable 12v electric winch which definitely makes the whole process quicker and easier. 

Often you find that much of the chain is in reasonable condition, but there is a greater degree of deterioration in the galvanised  shackles joining various parts of the mooring  together. The weak point in the shackle is the thread which holds the pin in. We secure the pins with wire and cable ties, but even so, once the thread has corroded away, the pin becomes loose and the shackle is unsafe. A shackle with metal thickness of perhaps 12mm will have a thread holding the pin in place where the metal may be just 1mm thick. Many shackles get thrown away when they are 90% intact, but just the thread has rusted away, as with this one below...

I have tried dipping the shackle pin in grease or glue to try to prolong its life, but neither seem to make much difference. The answer, I have found, is paint. Dipping the shackle pin in an oil based paint - any colour will do - before tightening it up prevents the water getting into the thread and enormously prolongs its useful life. 

So I still worry about Bonita on her mooring in the Swale when the named storms sweep in, but I worry a bit less knowing that the chain and mooring gear is, if not new, then at least fairly recently inspected.

Tidying up and the 1974 Heineken rally

 While waiting for the weather to be suitable for a bit of painting, the time can usefully be spent clearing out some of the clutter that accumulates in the boat. This is perhaps overstating it a bit; usually stuff is taken out from the various lockers, inspected, and then mostly put back in again as its just possible it might come in  useful sometime.  Over the years we have also accumulated quite a lot of plaques commemorating various events and rallies that Bonita attended. They are often quite nicely made in brass or ceramic, but there are far too many to put up in the boat, so they accumulate in boxes either on the boat or at home.

I found this little souvenir at the bottom of an old plastic ice-cream box, and maybe it deserves a bit of cabin space this summer...

The 1974 Heineken rally was, I think the first rally to Holland organised by the OGA and very generously sponsored by Heineken. 22 boats went across including a few classic bermudans. We were rafted up in a commercial dock that had been cleared for the purpose in the centre of Amsterdam and hundreds of people came to look at the boats and their intrepid crews. Bonita was there, though I was on another boat at the time. We certainly had a marvellous time and were very well received. The boats I can remember or find a record of are Marguerite, Alyn, Band of Hope, Dreva, Bonita, Saskia van Rijn, Ciris, Privateer, Kyle of Bute, Blue Shoal, Greenshank and Argo. Gaffers last a long time but I wonder how many of these are still active today? Certainly Marguerite, a Bristol Channel pilot cutter is. At 43 ft overall she was very much the largest of the fleet. She didnt do well when racing on the Ijsselmeer though, as with a draft of 7ft 6in her keel was touching the bottom much of the time.

We are hoping to get to Holland this summer at the invitation of the Dutch OGA to help them celebrate their 20th anniversary.

Liverpool

D, John and I took the train to Liverpool  for the OGA AGM.  The conference was excellently arranged by the NW Area of the OGA, and there was a display of various prawners build in the area arranged by the Nobby Owners Association. They were selling neat little badges showing a nobby in full sail. Of course we had to buy a couple....

Virtually all nobbies are cutters as in this badge (single mast and two headsails). Bonita is as far as I know the only one that is rigged as a yawl.

We all enjoyed the meeting which I felt was very productive with some useful business done. We met a lot of OGA members from all over the country. It is most helpful to meet up face-to-face with people you normally only see on Zoom. There was also a very encouraging contingent of Younger Gaffers.

At the AGM the results of the OGA Photographic competition were announced, excellently judged by Sandy Miller who is a renowned marine photographer. Justin got a 'Highly Commended' for this picture taken from Bonitas cockpit.

This was taken in Lyme Bay heading westerly after a windy night at sea. As the sun came over the horizon in the east, we saw this magnificent rainbow, a sign, as it turned out, of more difficult weather ahead.

After the AGM on the Sunday morning we had a few hours to spare before the train home. D went in pursuit of culture in the art galleries. Preferring fresh air I walked down to have a look at the river Mersey and look at the Albert Dock. 

The dock was a major piece of early Victorian engineering, but is not much used now apart from a few yachts. There are a few historic boats in the dock and some historic vehicles on the dockside. There is a London steam bus from 1902 - apparently a commercial failure, and withdrawn from service after a few months. The most interesting exhibit I thought was a propeller from the the liner Lusitania. Built in 1906, and sunk with great loss of life by a German submarine in 1915. 

This is one of her 4 propellers and is 17ft in diameter, though I thought it looked smaller than I expected for such a large ship. The propeller was removed in 1982. Presumably the visible damage to the blades was caused when the ship hit the bottom, perhaps with the propellers still turning as its known that she sank very quickly.