Cape Cutter 19 Association Forum

Dennis wrote:DVD with pics and video was posted yesterday.

I've worked out how to edit etc - here's the first efforts The odd sneaky peek at work keeps me sane until the next time -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX4yHclyybw

Steve

Finally we had our first sail of the season today from our spring time mooring in Valtoudi Bay, Pagasitic gulf. Not much wind but fun. Tried our new Yankee for the first time. I can see how easy it is to handle and should give us better balance I think... Also to hear of another Cc19 in the Aegean sounds promising, but not close to where we are unfortunately.

Just back from a good sail on Kielder Water.

Interestingly, the lake was covered on yellow tree pollen, it was also all over the boat and all over me by the end of the day.

Started with virtually no wind using full mainsail, staysail and yankee, ended the day with F4 using one reef in main plus staysail only.

17 nm covered with a max. speed of 6kts.

Having bought CC63 just over a week ago, my Dad (Roger) and I have been hard at work fettling her for a fourth day, with lots of help from my Mum, too.

The hull is at last looking shiny, the spars are varnished, we've worked out how to rig her and we think we are ready to launch tomorrow morning for a holiday at Kielder.

Much thanks to Dennis for all his advice when popping across the road!

We've still not settled upon a name for her. Watch this space.

Had a great sail yesterday evening under two and a quarter Forth bridges, each one built in a different century using a different technique. It was to be my first solo sail but thankfully the wife turned up, meeting me after work, as there was a nasty furler snarling incident on the way back in, which was handled by dropping the genoa into the boat.

Just beat the miserable weather today, thank goodness.

How do you reverse out of a pontoon without the boat being pulled to port by the rotation of the propeller? A rather embarrassing moment....

Donald wrote:How do you reverse out of a pontoon without the boat being pulled to port by the rotation of the propeller? A rather embarrassing moment....

Hello Donald

In reverse, I steer with both the tiller and the motor in unison, it helps.

On Monday 19th May , launched at Wells Next The Sea . HM team very helpful , dropping the boat down the slip with their tractor . Moored overnight on the pontoon and shuttled the car / trailer back to Cambridge.
Weaved out of Wells an hour before HW...not the drink , it's just a very tortuous entrance , and set a direct course for the Humber Estuary. For the first couple of hours the tide was against and we struggled to get far enough from shore to escape the sea breeze. Finally with the tide turning we made decent progress passing through the Docking channel and then heading for Outer Sand East Cardinal. We had decided to skip Grimsby and continue north.
By now it was dark , with a fair number of ships about together with the Xmas tree lights on the gas rigs and activity around the wind farms.
The chart plotter worked well and the AIS overlay was reassuring , allowing monitoring of shipping .
The wind died down during the night and we motored towards Bridlington , arriving at 08.00.
The Port staff were very helpful , sorting out a berth. It was quite spooky to find ourselves encased in soft mud at low water , along with 150 other boats.
I'd been a bit worried about our VHF....and the port staff found a radio specialist who checked the aerial function , OK.
The duty member on at The Royal Yorkshire Sailing club was friendly and provided lots of info. on sailing further north.
The forecast was not great , but we pressed on in the morning heading for Whitby.
Expecting problems rounding Flamborough Head with a NW wind , we put a reef in . The wind was forecast to veer NW , but stuck around NNW and we had a very uncomfortable time under engine the whole way . The sea state was such that I had concern over Whitby entrance . Port Control Whitby were very good , checking the entrance swell and as we approached , confirmed that we should be ok. We entered at dusk , and moored on the waiting pontoon before the bridge. Port staff came to the pontoon , explained the port procedures and provided a " key" for the showers at the marina.
Two hours wait for the bridge were spent in the pub with fish and chips.
Radioing the bridge ....told to do this 20mins before scheduled time...got no response , so back to Port Control. Bridge opened and we found the visitor berth in the marina.
The last 5 hours had been carried out in torrential rain....so tent up and off to bed. Some leaks overnight , so a bit fed up in the morning. Looking at the forecast we decided to call it a day.....so back to Cambridge for tea.
Further North will be for another day!
So... 120 miles in two legs...34 hours at sea...two on board.
Learnings... Minnie is a tough little boat...tougher than we are anyway.
AIS is a great when in congested areas with poor visibility.
Once you sail overnight you need two crew who are happy to sail single handed...allowing rest/sleep. You can make good progress though.
We carry a couple of plbs and a just purchased 2 man life raft.(unused!!).
Sitting at home...Minnie at Whitby... I'm checking the weather and thinking about finding crew.
Ian

Whilst a few CC's are having fun in Mylor we spent the afternoon with f3 to 5 wind from our mooring in Valtoudi Bay, Milina. We took with us 2 friends just out in search of a good sail. Out past Alatas Island we headed for a look at Prasouda Island, tiny with an interesting old monastery and no landing place. It was our first good windy sail with our new Yankee. I was dubious about them previously, why abandon the nice big Genoa, but I am converted. It gives much better balance and I'm sure windward performance is improved when we are at about f4. Instead of putting the genoa away we now drop the staysail as our first sail reduction. Bearing away towards a reach we redeployed the stays'l and were comfortably sailing at 6kts. Later we put a reef in the main as we were up to f5... We have no instruments except a handheld GPS so these are estimates. Our friend Wolf is a retired ships pilot from Bremerhaven and helmed all day... One of his many claims to fame was taking QE2 from Southampton to Bremerhaven for refit many moons ago.... So as we were heading for home I said to him, 'so do you prefer the QE2 or Kaliope.... Kaliope he replied just as a huge gust hit us and for the first time in 8 years Kaliope's coach roof handrails were in the water... Wolf was trying to bear away instead of head up... It was a momentary lapse and quickly recovered... A great sail and a lot of fun, saw dolphins too..... Meanwhile back in Mylor we hope you are having a great time too.... (We are sure you are)
Cheers
Chris
Kaliope CC67

Have been out and about around Falmouth for the past five days. Check out the CC19 Facebook page for lots of photos (Many thanks to Charles (erbster) for that). https://www.facebook.com/capecutter19#!/capecutter19

The highlight for me (so far) was the trip to the Helford River (and back) yesterday. It was quite a thrill to sail in company with four other CC19s and a Cornish Yawl, especially during the first few miles when three of us (Nettie, Sapphire and Mary Ann) sailed in close proximity.

Richard (Nettie) and Paul (Sapphire) hove to in Falmouth Bay to have lunch, whilst I set the sails (full mainsail plus staysail) so that Mary Ann would sail "hands free" and I had lunch on the move while the boat sailed itself.

To reach Helford we had to sail through the Pendennis Cup race area. The sight of the "Superyachts" was awsome, see the attached photo.

The weather was so good I even had to use sunblock.

Hoping for more of the same.

Ok, Dennis, you've successfully provoked an intense bout of pure envy - it looks like it's been a great week so far. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your time down there and I look forward to seeing more pictures soon.
With luck I'll get to the next one

Steve