To sum up

Well, the last three races of the Spring series have taken place and were hard work. I never thought we could have so many Sundays in a row with no wind! The fourth race saw us achieving 4th place, the fifth race we got a third and so to the final race. No results had been posted at PHYC so Saturday night I made my way across the Haven to enter enemy territories, Neyland yacht club. A quick look at their notice board resulted in me non the wiser as no results were posted there either! Ah well, I thought, just do the last race and see what happens.
We had a good start with the wind right behind us, but the majority of the fleet had declared spinnakers, so slowly pulled away from us. We got to the farthest mark without too much trouble and the fleet hadn't pulled too much out of us. Great, we know we can make ground on the beat back up. Then the wind got turned off! Nothing, zilch.............We tried everything to gain some forward momentum. One by one boats started to retire.......I lowered the engine into the water ready to give it up, but my crew member made me hold out for a few more minutes. He had spotted a ripple working across the water coming in from the sea. We waited and waited and eventually we started to get some movement. The wind had done a complete 180 and was again in the stern. There was now only three boats still racing and we were within spitting distance of one, so we now knew if we could hold this distance on the run back we were guaranteed a second on corrected time. The engine was lifted out the water again and we painfully made our way back. Boy was I glad back at the clubhouse we had waited. We got a first! Not only that, but Jumbuck had also won the series by one point...........

The Plot Thickens

I think it is time for me to pay a visit to Neyland Yacht Club, the hosts for this years Spring series. I have been getting mixed reports as to my finishing positions for the first three races so far! Unfortunately the results haven't appeared on the web site yet, so will go over and see if they are posted on their notice board.

This weeks race was pretty un-eventfull. A severe lack of the windy stuff made it hard going and long. The highlight of the race being Merak firing a champagne cork into our direction for pinching his wind, what wind there was! I think a couple of super soakers will need to get stored aboard for future encounters.

Race Two

First off lets clear up last weekends result. 2nd, well pleased.

Now for this weeks report and boy was it full of drama! Light winds blowing straight down the Haven, so the more experienced were readying spinnakers at the start. I, however have declared no spinnaker for this series, due mainly to my spinnaker man having other commitments at the moment.The start went fairly well, but with the light winds we were loosing ground fast as we couldn't even get the genoa to fill so took the decision to pole it out opposite to the main. At last Jumbuck picked up speed and started to hold her own as the smallest yacht in the fleet. First mark was negotiated with out a hitch, on to the second. As we rounded the second mark a work boat passed to our port side, the following wake from it was nothing to concern me as it happens all the time in the Haven. On this occasion though the second wave caused the kicker mounting at the base of the mast to shear, with the whole kicker mechanism making a bid for freedom. Two half twists and a tucked pike later it cleared the guard wire and made a perfect entry into the Cleddau! ~*##***# was followed by some more #***#####. After some hastily improvisation with some spare sheet we lashed the boom down as best we could and decided to carry on racing. We struggled on the dead run down and lost a fair bit of time over the rest of the fleet, but I kept telling my crew we could make it up on the beat back up. This we did to some success but I still felt it wasn't enough. What a surprise we got in the clubhouse with another second place confirmed on adjusted time.

Please note all images in this blog Copyright BFG Media.

Next Saturday will see more on going maitanence and a new kicker being fitted ready for the third race. It's looking like my present crew member being unavailable and the two reserves are busy too so it's time to drag my 16 year old daughter back on board. Lets hope she brings good luck as last year we had a couple of firsts with her crewing for me!

The Spring Series Starts.

Well, last Sunday the 13th saw the first race of the spring series hosted by Neyland Yacht Club. A good fleet took to the waters for an 11 o'clock start and the course was announced over the radio. Start, No2 (P), Pennar Channel(S), Milford Middle(P), East Angle(P), Pennar Channel(P), Hazelbeach(S), Finish. The winds on the start were light and Jumbuck struggled to pick up speed amongst the larger yachts, but once clear air was found she started to heel over nicely. There were no real dramas with a new crew member on Genoa and we had a good little tussle with Picante and Hunters Moon, gaining on the beat but loosing out on the reach due to declaring no spinnaker for this series. Finishing in amongst the fleet I suspected we had done fairly well for first race of the year, and although still awaiting to see confirmation the rumour machine has reported back top three, maybe even first! Second race this coming Sunday, so hoping to confirm the position this weekend.

Time Flies!

Well lots of things have happened since my last blog, so this is going to be a dash through time to bring things up to date. Hopefully then I will be able to keep an up to date record of this years sailing, so here goes.

Back end of last year a few regattas were entered with differing results from dead last to a couple of wins. Experienced crew really do make a difference, especially when the skip, me, doesn't know the course! One thing that was established though was that when in the groove Jumbuck is a quick little yacht and holds her own against much bigger rivals. We even managed to lift a fin keeler of the start in one race, and Jumbuck being a bilge. It raised a smile amongst the crew.

October arrived all too quickly and it was time to get her lifted out on to hard standing for the winter, then the hard work was to begin. I already had an order in with Kemp sails for a nice new power main and the old hank up fore was to be replaced with a furling genoa. I know I shall sacrifice a little in performance, but as I will be doing a fair bit of solo cruising it seems the way to go.

The lift went well and she was demasted ready for the work to begin. Feeling a bit lazy at typing I shall let the pictures tell the story of her transformation. A picture paints a thousand words and all that.............




The sheep? Well it's a Jumbuck don't ya know. It now adorns the stern under the name.
Well as you can see she now has a new paint job for this year and the hull has been stripped of years and years of antifoul and been repainted black. I think she looks damn smart now, let's hope she will be just a quick this season, only time will tell.

She is now back on her mooring and already had a cruise down the haven, all seems well and I shall be taking her out again this weekend for a final check.

Passage Home

The date and time was set for Jumbucks passage to Milford Haven, Sunday 24th June 2007. I had manged to cajole two crew members to assist in the voyage who had the necessary experience and my intentions were to just go along for the ride! But they had other ideas and insisted I was to skip' my own boat. Talk about in at the deep end, my knowledge of yachts could be listed on the back of a postage stamp having owned power boats before, but I kept telling myself I had to learn and this is what she was bought for. So with a dry mouth myself, John (Mr Etec) and Pete (BFG) boarded at 1100 hrs, deflated the tender and stowed it away below and headed out under power, port side of Black Rock, Solva.

The weather was bright with a gentle wind blowing North to South and it wasn't long before the crew had the sails set and the outboard was turned off. I was sailing! BFG plotted our position every 30 minutes and Mr Etec looked like he was going to fall asleep as passages weren't his thing. " Blasting round cans is fun, this is boring" was all he muttered, but at least he was there, just in case.

We were making a steady 5 knots as we entered the falls at the back of Skomer Island then the wind disappeared and we were back on the outboard. Passed Skoholm and a breeze reappeared. "Kite up then Skip?" the two crew members chorused. I smiled nervously and shook my head in agreement. Mr Etec disappeared to the fore deck and BFG busied himself sorting out sheets, I sat there gripping the tiller and tried to take it all in.

As we rounded St.Annes head and entered Milford Haven we were now surfing in off the waves, spinnaker up and Mr Etec getting all excited. " 7.5" he shouted, "8.9 on that one" The tiller was vibrating under my hand and beads of sweat ran down my neck, but I kept smiling!

The run up the Haven to Hobbs Point was quite serene and uneventful until we finally arrived at my swinging mooring and disaster struck. While trying to re inflate the tender I pulled a little to vigorously on the pump handle and it snapped off! Plan B was put into action and we slipped the mooring to drop BFG off at the quay so he could get his tender from the club to come back out and rescue us.

Jumbuck was home, back to the club where she once sailed many years ago and before I had even developed an interest in boats, but that's another story.

The Early Days

She was standing all alone away from all the other vessels, high up in the harbour of Solva,
Pembrokeshire when I first viewed her. Having earlier that day visited Boatshed Wales and asked Alan if they had anything for the beginner. I immediately felt she was right for us and with the wife in agreement that all it needed was some TLC, an offer was placed and accepted that same day and the journey began. All we had to do was get her back to my own mooring at Pembroke Haven Yacht Club, Hobbs Point, Milford Haven, a seven hour sail away and I'd only crewed twice on a good friends UFO 27! A plan was needed and some experienced crew who knew a lot more than I did. Tides and weather were studied with diligance over the next few weeks and while we waited for them to be in our favour a little TLC was lavished upon her.