Next Racesail Event
Sunsail Regatta 1, 16 -18 March 2012
“I’ve been sailing all my life” – about Tom Cunliffe
Tom Cunliffe with our very own Dave Chaplin at the SBS 2011
Ladies and Gentlemen – we shall be honoured to have Tom Cunliffe for our next HOEOCA Speaker Night on Thursday 20 October. Tom is a very well known sailing journalist and as the following bio explains an extremely experienced sailor. This speaker evening is going to be a corker!
Tom Cunliffe’s bio from his website
“I’ve been sailing all my life – I started back in 1961 when my Dad shoved me and a pal off on the Norfolk Broads in a 22-foot gaff sloop with no engine. That way you either learn fast or come to grief. I was fourteen and I was lucky. Since those days I’ve sailed most things from Firefly dinghies at University when I should have been reading law, to big gaff schooners.
I’ve been Mate on a coasting merchant ship and run yachts for gentlemen. I’ve operated charter boats, delivered all sorts of vessels, raced at quite high levels and have been teaching sailing intermittently for thirty-five years. I’ve been a Yachtmaster Examiner since 1978.
Privately, classics are my passion, and until Westernman, my own boats have been at least fifty years old. My wife Ros and I have sailed them all over the Atlantic, from southern Brazil to Iceland and from the Caribbean to Russia, with a number of trips to the US and Canada thrown in. I love traditional craft, but I’m happy sailing anything that does the job properly. I’ve no time for boats that go sideways
Family commitments in the mid-1980s started me writing and lecturing about the sea. My first commercial article was about star sights. It was published by Yachting Monthly where I have a seamanship column to this day. On the strength of this and the advance for Topsail and Battleaxe, I came ashore after living aboard for many years. These days I operate from a cottage in the New Forest. The arrangement suits me well because it gives me somewhere to grow roses and to keep my motorcycle, but I still sneak plenty of time out to go cruising. In the last few summers, Ros and I have sailed from home in our old boat Westernman to Arctic Norway, down to Portugal and up the Baltic to Stockholm. Now I have sold her, but I’m not swallowing the anchor. Watch this space!”
Tom will be talking about The Ship’s that built Britain the subject of his recent TV series. Attendance exclusive to HOEOCA members.
Sunset in The Canaries
January Sunset, Canary Islands
The January Sail 2012
Portsmouth based Sunsail F40's are moving south for the winter
- Welcome Punch party and BBQ
- Technical Boat and Racing Brief
- Practice Sailing
- 3 x In Port Races, Lanzarote (round the cans)
- 2 x 40nm (minimum) Offshore Races: Lanza – Fuerte and return
- Cruising in Fuerteventura
- Gala Dinner and Prize Giving
Enjoy the January Sail
F40's have proved really popular this year
Konteradmiral Von Hemm
So this is what the German Navy do at weekends!
My thanks to Konteradmiral von Hemm for the vid. (Formal identity withheld for reasons of National security!)
Central Lechera Asturiana dismasted BWR#5
This was Mike Goldings 2004-5 Vendée Globe boat. Achieved third place as Ecover 2.“Fortunately there has not been any injuries of any kind to either of us, both Fran and I are fine.”Merediz confirmed in a phone conversation with his team. “We do not wish to retire, we wish to carry on.”
Central Lechera Asturiana are heading for Wellington which was 290 miles from their reported position. On arrival in the New Zealand capital they will carry out a detailed assessment of the damages with representatives of North Sails and Southern Spars from Auckland. When the incident happened this evening the IMOCA Open 60 was approximately 160 miles west of Cape Farewell, heading for the Cook Strait and lying in 11th place.
Merediz and Palacio have told Race HQ in Barcelona that they were making around 15kts of boat speed with around 20-25kts of wind at 140-160 degrees in a heavy crossed sea when the rig gave way.
After breaking their mast off Lisbon on the 2nd of December whilst on the delivery passage from Sanxenxo to Barcelona, they won their three week race to step a replacement rig on time and managed to make the race start on 31st December. Central Lechera Asturiana made a technical pit-stop Cape Town to repair their hydraulics for their keel ram.
The boat raced in the first edition of the Barcelona World Race with Pachi Rivero and Javier ‘Bubí’ Sanso as Mutua Madrileña.
The leaders are about to round Cape Horn, the leading pair are going hammer and tong! I predict one will break and the other will be left in strong position for a win. Third place are a half an Atlantic away! Just to give you an idea what it’s like down there…take a look at this…God Almighty!
Sailing Quotes #2
Andy Meiklejohn, co-skipper on Hugo Boss
Andy Meiklejohn (NZL) aboard Hugo Boss on who climbs the rig:
“Being from a land which is almost under water Wouter does all the swimming, and being from a land famous for mountain climbers I do all the climbing.”
