BLUEMOMENT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgENMhtn8DA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Video from aboard Contender and up the mast of the boat next to us (Faustina 2) whose mast was easier to climb. Video and editing by son Matt.

Grand, how many?

How about an end-of-season BlueMoment daisy? Oitir Mhor Bay springs to mind as the sort of place where such a thing could be achieved in a typical southerlyish without unduly inconveniencing others. Someone young and fit could be dispatched up the hill to record the event for posterity. How many petals could we manage?

I take it you were thinking of this place:

http://www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/searc ... MyMzA3Mw==" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

rather than somewhere in the western isles?

I've never anchored there. The up to date pilots are on the boat and the 1974 CCC blue book doesn't mention it, but H H-S says it "affords reasonable shelter in moderate weather." So, a suitable window between the equinoctial gales then...

Yes, that's the one. This was one of those good ideas you find at the bottom of most bottles. Naturally I assumed that everyone would be similarly enthused, or do I mean infused?

Oitir Mhor sprang to mind because it's big, quiet and has a wide circle of suitable anchoring depths. Waking up wiser, it's hard to imagine a sufficient number of you being interested in such a tin-pot notion and the bay is also subject to some swell from the ferries going into Oban bay via the north entrance IIRC so perhaps not the ideal spot.

As a matter of interest, how is such a moor achieved? I imagine that everyone anchors by the stern, attempting to drop on the perimeter of an imaginary circle and motoring towards the centre. Shortening rodes slightly after the circle is formed would spread the load to all the anchors rather than a couple of windward ones doing all the work. Or...?

Edit - This last sentence is nonsense since any additional tension on leeward anchors will result in an identical additional load on windward ones.

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We're up for it.

You need a snurble grip-thribley to symetrically adjust the tension.

I think everyone must have a 2.5Kg folding grapnel anchor with just enough scope to reach the sea bed. The multiple anchors of all the boats will more than make up for any deficiency, real or imagined, in the anchors.

We put a buoy in the middle of Troon outer harbour, and the four (north, south, east, west) boats used a small stern anchor. The rest just rafted up.
However we didn't have so many! No doubt a participant will reveal all in due course.

Silkie wrote:
As a matter of interest, how is such a moor achieved? I imagine that everyone anchors by the stern, attempting to drop on the perimeter of an imaginary circle and motoring towards the centre. Shortening rodes slightly after the circle is formed would spread the load to all the anchors rather than a couple of windward ones doing all the work. Or...?

Edit - This last sentence is nonsense since any additional tension on leeward anchors will result in an identical additional load on windward ones.

Very large boats (at least to us) moor at cardinal points. I think there was at least 32 biggish boats with anchors. The 4 main cardinal boats were joined together by two very long warps - i.e. N to S and E to W. This gives the out line of the circle. The average beam of boats is choosen and then you have to guess how many boats will arrive. This will give you a rough circumference.

As boats join the sunflower, you will be asked to join stern to centre. This gives the curve and 'sunflower' shape. As more boats join - some will be asked to point bow in and anchor. With the main cardinal boats and the two warps and the intermediate boats anchored will give an incredible amount of flex to the circle. When the decision is made to 'close' the circle a certain amount of winching is done and hey! presto! it all joins up like magic. Simples.

Much respect to overall meister - Alistair Mill and family on 'Lorca J'.

I wuz gubbed by the end of the afternoon, by the way.....

Donald

So... more of a clover leaf than a daisy with three possibles so far.