Practical Boat Owner August 2019

with the editor To receive the editor’s monthly email newsletter, go to our website: www.pbo.co.uk What goes around… Thousands of sailors on more than 1,200 yachts took part in the 2019 Round the Island Race in the Solent at the end of June. It was a mainly light-wind affair (nearly 1,000 retirements!), which usually means a small, slow boat takes the win on handicap. And so it proved this year with the smallest boat in the fleet, Alacrity 18 Eeyore, taking the Gold Roman Bowl. We will be hearing from two different contributors next month on board two different boats and we shall perhaps find out a bit more about why people like sailing in circles… In this issue we have a nice mix of circumnavigators: in the news pages…

Anchoring restrictions considered for Studland and Bembridge The RYA says it will continue to campaign against anchoring restrictions at Marine Conservation Zones (MCZs) following the designation of 41 new MCZs in English waters. The third tranche of MCZs includes Studland Bay in Dorset and Bembridge on the Isle of Wight, with the Government announcing that anchoring and mooring at both of these sites would need to be managed to protect the eelgrass and maerl beds. In total, there are now 91 MCZs around the coast of England. The RYA’s planning and environmental officer, Duncan Savage, said to date there had been no managed anchoring introduced at MCZs and it would be pushing for no anchoring restrictions at Studland Bay and Bembridge. “As we said in our consultation response to Government,…

▪ 2019 Panerai Classic Week, 13-20 July, Solent, britishclassicweek.co.uk ▪ Gerrards Cross Sailing Association’s Brittany Cruise, 13-21 July, starting from St Peter Port, gxsa.org.uk ▪Thames Traditional Boat Festival, 19-21 July, at Henley, tradboatfestival.com ▪Western Boat Show, 19-21 July, at Bristol Harbour, westernboatshow.co.uk ▪Conwy River Festival, 20-21 July & 26-28 July at Conwy, conwyriverfestival.org ▪Ramsgate Week 2019, 21-26 July, at Ramsgate, ramsgateweek.com ▪Tattinger Royal Solent Yacht Club Regatta, 26-28 July, at Yarmouth, royalsolent.org ▪Bridlington Sailing Coble Festival 2019, 27-28 July, at Bridlington, bridlingtonharbour.com ▪162nd Gorey Regatta, 27-28 July, at Jersey, goreyregatta.org. ▪Cowes Classics Week 2019, 27 July-2 August, at Cowes, cowesclassicsweek.org ▪72nd West Highland Yachting Week, 27 July-2 August, at various locations in the West Highlands, whyw.co.uk ▪Gerrards Cross Sailing Association’s Devon Cruise, 28 July-4 August, starting from the River Yealm…

SOUTH COAST AND CHANNEL ISLANDS POOLE HARBOUR SHOW SUCCESS Visitors to the largest free boat show in the UK have welcomed efforts to make the event more sustainable and environmentally friendly. The Poole Harbour Commissioners (PHC), which runs the Poole Harbour Boat Show in association with Sunseeker, introduced several new initiatives over the three days, including providing water refill stations for visitors and refillable coffee cups to exhibitors. More measures are planned for next year. The PHC said record numbers of visitors attended the event, with many taking part in the on-water activities and workshops during breaks in the weather, including free paddle boarding, kayaking and dinghy sailing taster sessions. SALCOMBE PONTOON UPGRADE New pontoons have been installed at Salcombe Harbour and Kingsbridge Estuary in south Devon. Walcon, working for…

Wanted: Colour photos of Cliperau In last month’s letters page, ‘Tragic tale of Cliperau’ Dan Tack asks for information about the boat lost at sea with his Grandfather on board as skipper. I once sailed on the boat and have an old photo. It is an image on slide film taken in 1968: this is a photo (right) of the projection I took on my iPad. Philip Hughes Wrexham In Yachting Monthly December 1972 I found an advert for the Scimitar Schools of Sailing and Seamanship – the company that owned and operated Cliperau. I Hope it might be of some help to Dan Tack. Ron Allen by email The chemistry of anchoring PBO March 2019 had interesting articles on anchoring: they reminded me of interviews I read some time…

As part of an extensive refit, I recently bought a 15in Windex which is now in situ but I was astounded at the price for a few bits of bent wire and some plastic mouldings, the tooling for which must have paid for itself years ago. How about one of your experts, or a reader maybe, coming up with a DIY version? It seems an ideal candidate for recycling a wire coat hanger and all that plastic we are encouraged to find alternative uses for.…