In July 2013 Paul and family cruised the stunning North Brittany coastline between Paimpol and Roscoff. The brief for the trip was to cross over from Poole, spend time ashore in as many places as possible, and return their Ovni, "Little Wing", safely to her home berth, all in the space of a three week break from work. They discovered a wonderful cruising ground with a great variety of idyllic, tranquil islands, small bustling harbours and winding rivers.
The call of the Far North: preparations for a transit of the Northwest Passage, by Jimmy Cornell
As Jimmy prepares for a transit of the Northwest Passage, he tells us about preparing boat, equipment and crew for high latitude sailing, based on lessons from his voyages to Antarctica, Alaska and Spitsbergen; and about designing a new Aventura for the trip in summer 2014, which will be the first stage of a planned fourth circumnavigation with the Blue Planet Odyssey.
As you sail past the O2 “Dome” or fly over it on the cable-car, look to the opposite bank and you will see the site of the largest private dock in Europe, the birthplaces of the hydraulic crane and the modern lighthouse, the yards where “bad buoys were made good” and HMS Warrior was launched, and the wharf where Brunel’s first steamship had her engine installed.
Electronics masterclass with Tom Cunliffe, Saturday 9th November 2013
Once we navigated oceans by the stars. Now it’s barely imaginable to cross the Thames without a computer. If you’ve ever been baffled by the array of technology available to the modern yachtsmen and left wondering what is useful and what is just good marketing, this is for you.
Taking the Stress out of Single and Short-Handed Sailing, with Duncan Wells
Duncan is an RYA Instructor, Principal of Westview Sailing, and a features writer for Yachting Monthly. There is something for everyone from master mariners to novices in his talk, which is full of practical ideas delivered with humour.
A North Atlantic Circuit in Gulliver G, with Geoff and Kate Caesar
Clare Francis famously crossed the Atlantic in Gulliver G back in 1973. In October 2011, 37 years later, current owners Kate and Geoff Caesar took her over the Pond again on a 10 month circuit of the North Atlantic.
The Baltic: Getting there, and why you would want to, by Nicholas Hill
The Baltic has gone from a place visited by the intrepid few to the Cruising Association’s second most popular destination. The area covers ten countries, each very different. With better weather than the UK, no tides, and a few thousand harbours to explore, Nicholas Hill reckons it’s the place to be.
In this talk, he explains how to get there, and where to go when you have arrived.
Individual lecture tickets: Members £4.00 , Non-members £7.00
Croatia – the Mediterranean as it used to be, with Stuart Bradley
Why does Croatia get a bad press? Before moving to the Adriatic, Stuart and his crew picked up many negative comments about Croatia's officialdom, costs, and the unfriendliness of the native population. Their plan was to spend one season there and overwinter in Greece. However, after five summers cruising the coast and islands they have no plans to move on.
