Morgan Sailing Blog

We are planning our first dross-channel french trip for next weekend (5/6/7th June) currently we have 4 persons...could fit another onboatd, on Vega A and Nick Beetham is bringing along his boat Cabrach, this far out the wind looks fair for Dieppe, so we will leave at approx. 18:00 on Friday, travel through the night, cross the traffic lanes and arrive at dawn, ready for our croissant and french coffee, There should be a market on Saturday in Dieppe, so after we will search out something good! Then spend the day either resting or doing the tourist, and end up in a restaurant in the evening!! Up early approx 06:00 Sunday and start our journey back. I hope I remember my camera this time!!!!!! So here they are, or there they are in photo album, it was a weekend of all types of weather, we left on time and went into a force 6 sea, so now sleep and most people feeling a biy queasy! Arrived down tide of Dieppe, so arrived about 09:00 in the morning, showered and had naps or went round the town, visiting as was the anniversary of D-Day, or buying wine and cheese, then met up with the two other guys from the Yacht Cabrach who came along with us. We went to a restaurant and had a great meal and lots of discussion! Toby got us up on Sunday morning at 04:50 and set off back to UK, weather was better and had an excellent sail untill wind died coming across the west going traffic lane, had to motor and dodge around several ships coming down the lane, then some ominous black clouds appeared on the west horizon, it actually looked worse than it was, winds up to 25 knots and rain, but motored back into Eastbourne and arrived at 18:00 as planned. All in all a good little trip full of all types of weather and different challenges!

Have been taking Sailing taster days out, have some  good photos of Beach Head, Friday the wind cropped up and had some good down-wind sailing back from Seaford Head, always exciting stuff. The Cross Channel trip on June 6/7th is shaping up with 2 definites and 2 possibles. Croatia Sail 2009 dates have been firmed up and now we have interest for August 29th - 5th September......interested anyone!!! 

Latest photos and video are from a shakedown sail on a sunny day in March sailing off Eastbourne in light winds with crew James. Everything worked after a fashion, I had the dacron genoa in repair, so used the mylar jib, also the throttle was sticking on the engine, which was sorted out recently by Michael who is working for me as a job placement. He is working on getting the maintenance jobs on Vega A done prior to the start of the season. Sunny weather is bringing people out onto the Waterfront area of the Sovereign Harbour, although still a little chilly.

Hi all,

 

There maybe snow on the ground (and more expected) but there is sunshine and calm seas in my mind, some say there is just clear space in my mind! Au contraire I hear you say!!! Times are tough and we don't know what sort of season to expect, but we are preparing for it anyway! We have bookings coming in for RYA shorebased courses happening in the evening and Saturday and Sunday sessions, also a VHF SRC course about to be scheduled.

 

We will be bringing the boats out of the water in early March,  we are free to offer practical sailing of all types, from beginner's taster days, trips across to France and local charter. Our annual sailing cruise in company to Croatia may have to be deferred untill September to wait for the Euro/GBP exchange rate to stabilise (if it ever does)!

Did an assisted delivery of a Seamaster 815 with the owner from Beaulieu to Eastbourne over 2 days from 19th to 21st June. Brian drove us down to Bucklers Hard in the van, to find out that the mast was not on the boat, as boatyard hands had gone home because they went out earlier that day to assist a boat in trouble and got wet?! However we slept onboard at the dock that night and they did come early in the morning at 06:00 to put the rig up. We eventually left the dock at around 09:25 after getting the sails bent on, with owner having to purchase a few bits that boat did not have. Bucklers Hard is a beautiful place and is steeped in nautical history, being used as a shipyard since the 16th century and some of it hasn't changed, good pub-grub was had, Brian departed back with van for Eastbourne. The Beaulieu River exit  was no problem despite being Low water springs, passage through Solent no problem to with the wind on the starboard quarter we sailed at 4-5 knots most of the time. Through the Forts and out close to the Nab channel, had a few problems with the newly installed roller-reefing, and as we went through the Looe channel the wind over tide kicked the sea-state up a bit, which made it a bit uncomfortable as a corkscrew motion was experienced with a following sea and wind from the quarter. As at times the genoa was getting blanketed by the sheeted out main, we turned on the engine and motored most of the way to Brighton, where we arrived at 21:00 and slept the night there after a beer (or few) and burger at Weatherspoon's.

After a shower and breakfast we took off again this time into a SSE breeze that took us all the way to Eastbourne , breeze died a bit off Beachy Head, but we arrived back at Sovereign Harbour around 14:00 and moored in owners berth.....job done!