The sailing holiday trips were split into two this year with cello going to The Torbay area whilst Emma, Kisaiya and Freya Only managed Fowey for a few days to see the Weeklong festivities.
This is the log of Cello and Gordon’s eventful trip:
Decided to go for a longish cruise up the coast to Torbay area, so on the Friday night I departed moorings for fuel/water and deeper water for the morning. Whilst picking up a mooring off Kiln Quay in a fresh breeze, managed to get the adjacent pick-up buoy jammed in the rudder gap, taking nearly 2 Hrs to clear, Good start. Got up at 0130 and took a look around, no wind and thick fog, decided that the scratcher was a better option. Very bumpy night developed, a complete opposite of what was forecast, so went hunting for other Gypsy’s, found them encamped in St Just pool, more decisions as Sunday was to be the next optimum gate. 0400 another gander again, a no go. (Must get a periscope) foggy, checked again at 0700,clearing, crept out as quietly as a Sabb will allow and full gear up on a N/Nw F3 great a broad reach! Fraggle rock passed at 5 knots, zone point 1 knot, coffee grinder on and motor sailed to Plymouth, anchoring at 1630, nine hours ten minutes I made it not bad. Left Cawsands at 0730 not much wind but did manage to sail about 500 feet before elastic banding, working the tides now, do not want be caught in any tide races if possible, especially Bolt Head. Lovely day sunny passed all the headland without problems, just of the Skerries witnessed huge up-wellings on a fairly smooth sea appeared to be 40Ft across and about 18” high, quite a sight. Cracking along at 6.6 SOG. Just off Dartmouth entrance a large gin palace cut across the bow, bit close for comfort huge great wash called on the vhf, and when he replied I asked of he would like to do again, never replied. Just past Dartmouth the wind arose and kept arising ENE 4 in about ½ hr. off engine and with the tide still doing 6.6 SOG even during slack water.
About 1M from Berry Head the boat speed dropped to 1Knt in about 3Ft must have been an eddy as she soon picked up to about 4Knt so altered course to make more Eastings and after a hard tack arrived in Torquay at1410. The wind within an hour of arrival swung Westerly F5/6. 6Hours 55 minutes not bad for two old sea dogs. I will not bore you with my stay in the Marina except to say that the first night was enforced as the tide was out, so access was denied till the morning for the inner harbour, about 2300 it started to really blow a gale and two racing boys came in both with trouble, one had all the Port stanchions sheared of and gaping holes in the deck, the other were all suffering some degree of sickness. The wind was such that it was not prudent to leave even to do the short distance to the harbour so I now qualify for a free night in any MDL marina. I have come to the conclusion after watching the antics of SOME of the bigger boats that small crews and smaller boats seem to be more efficient. Westerly gales forecast till Wednesday night then due easterly, lovely. Got up at 0500 on Thursday had breakfast when 3 Pan Pans off Salcombe were heard, all in very heavy seas. Cancelled departure till Friday. The great moment Departed at 0930 with a good reach to Berry Head flat sea slight swell about F4, Berry Head at 1030 rounded the corner straight into a long swell and waves that got steeper as I left Tor bay, heading straight for Falmouth. About 3M off Salcombe, very rough tried to alter for Plymouth but violent cork screwing, changed for Fowey still bad headed for Falmouth and had the swell dead astern but still being thrown about, following the 10 second parallel for Zone point 45 miles to go, long way, so put in a way point 3 mile south of the Eddy stone, now 23 miles to go, feeling better already, sighted the light some 11.5 miles away must have been some wave as I never saw it again till dinner was ready at1705, roast beef dinner decided to go walk about when retrieving from oven, do not recommend red hot dinners on wet Jeans, even in these seas the old girl is doing 5.6 SOG good really especially as the log shows 9.2 down hill and 3.4 up hill !! Between Dodman and Falmouth the sea state diminished to a slight sea but long swell of about 6feet height nothing compared to looking up at them. Don’t think the whale I spotted minded at all. Fraggle rock at 2315 with Cello on the moorings at 2400 exactly 15.30 hours with 72.6 miles by log, very tired but happy.
This the '2005 Seasons Summary' written as seen by the Captain and crew Of Emma:
The season has well and truly finished, albeit for the most hardy of the Gypsy II fleet based in Falmouth. With summer barely underway most of the Falmouth fleet was casting an eye on where to store our prized possessions for the winter due to increased boatyard storage from the previous year. Freya has been taken from her exposed full tidal mooring in Falmouth harbour right up to the head of Penryn river which is sheltered from all severe weather. Literally up the creak and placed on Cello’s summer half tidal mooring. I believe there is a small adjustment to the insurance, which is to be expected, but there have been significant savings in boatyard storage. More importantly though is that Freya has been used most weekends cruising around the Fal and into the bay, catching big! Pollack and bucket loads of mackerel. It does help if you have a diesel heater to warm you up every now and again though.
Come spring, Freya and the rest of the fleet will head for our favorite anchorage, Turnaware Bar, where she will be beached, scrubbed and painted. We have plenty of scrubbers who are willing to give us a hand while we layback and chill-out with a few(!) beers and a barbie in celebration of a new season. Tim in Kisaiya brought his season to an abrupt end after our ritual booze cruise from Falmouth to Fowey, and back -for those prospective owners of GII’s, be prepared to do some, and I say some! DIY on your beloved Gypsy. Present owners will know where I am going with this thread. I am slightly off-course here so I will gently tack back to Tim and Kisiaya. Kisiaya has quietly been leaking fresh water from her coach roof for some while now, not that Tim didn’t know about it. He thought he would hang on and fix it during the winter. That was until Fowey, where the wet stuff persisted into all three bunks and over himself during the night. He even set-up a bivouac inside the cabin too keep his person and bedding dry. Maybe he should have bought an open boat and a tent from Argos? As a consequence of all this persistence, Tim, and I don’t think he will mind me saying, became a little disillusioned and fell-out with Kisaiya, so much so that he felt like putting a chain saw through her like Paul Daniels but without the magic. He even contemplated a Vikings funeral for her, minus himself of course. I don’t think he was that far gone though. After some reflection time, Tim came to the conclusion that he could not do without or be parted (al a chain saw solution) from Kisaiya. Tim has fallen in love with Kisaiya all over again after a brief tiff and is know lavishing her with oodles of TLC. New Gypsy and prospective Gypsy owners please do not be alarmed at the thought that you may have purchased a ‘dog’ of a boat and have wasted your hard earned cash as I did with Emma – 267 in the Autumn of 2002. You must have seen something in her. Yes, GII’s do have their problems but it is not their fault. The problems are easily fixed using modern materials, glues and adhesives which were not around or available when these boats were built. The problems were a result of the company not being able to keep up with the supply-and-demand for the boats. This tells you they were a desirable and much sought after boat. No, the company took short cuts in the assembly of these boats. This coupled with a lack of owner maintenance resulted in the problems with the Gypsies. If you are prepared to do some DIY carpentry, basic glass fibre and epoxy work, you will restore your love-at-first-sight to a handsome traditional lined 24 ft. motor sailor for not much money. £ for £ these Gypsys compare very favorably with similar modern equivalents, even with a famous named 27 footer which can be 2 to 3 times more expensive than Gypsys. What’s more exciting about these Gypsys is that you can easily rearrange your cabin layout, which is nigh on impossible with the full-on Tupperware jobbies. Even more exciting is that the sailing rig can be changed to combinations of sloop, cutter, ketch and yawl as indeed many were by the manufacturers. Many of our members can testify to the Gypsys performance. Theory investigations into the various rig combinations and their CE and CLR are underway and will be presented on our website in the near future. What you have is a well-founded 24 ft. motor sailor that will get you right up there at the head of tidal rivers and dry out then take you around the coastal waters of Britain safely. We have also heard that Gypsys have sailed the Atlantic, but I am not up for that just yet!
Please take some time in visiting our gallery as I am sure will find it very interesting, especially if you, like us, are nuts about Gypsys. Ian Nicholson
This year has turned out to be very good as usual for the Gypsy fleet
from Falmouth/Penryn
Freya was in the water on march the 27th March, closely followed by the
others ( Fliver Cello Emma and Tims boat)
We made numerous trips to the Helford over the year, one trip continued up
as far as Gweek.
The main trip was to to the Isles Of Scilly.
The passage over there was a bit rough from Lizard all the way to the
islands. We stayed initially on the visitors buoys but we were advised by
the harbour master to move alongside the seawall as the conditions were
deteriorating. this proved to be a good advise although when the boats
grounded and floated there was a fair amount of surging and snatching.
We had dry sunny days although the winds were south westerly 6-7 increasing
at times to 8 with very rough seas on the outer islands.
This did not stop us from having a very good time and visiting the main
islands using the local passenger boats. We took an extended trip around St
Mary's on bicycles which took a majority of the day taking into
consideration that we had to stop for an hour or so for lunch and Ian's
midday sleep.
The journey home was uneventful except the slight detour around the Wolf
rock light house the conditions on the way home were perfect for the
close-up visit, no wind at all and sea state was flat to mirror.
Cello was the only boat to go to Fowey this year as the weather for Fowey
week was not very good, the exercise for cello and Gordon was to attempt to
get to Lostwithial in the Gypsy. The prop shaft coupling failed at St winnow
church so the attempt was abandoned till another time.
The remainder of the year we sailed locally and stayed at Turnaware which is
one of our favourite anchorages the other being St Just pool.
We have clocked up 580 miles this year on Freya which is about 80ish up on
the previous years.
Stephen Evans