BLUEMOMENT

It's no the Olympics, it's nought tae dae wi' racing, it's for numpties like you lot .....Malin Cruise

marisca wrote:It's no the Olympics, it's nought tae dae wi' racing, it's for numpties like you lot .....Malin Cruise

Largs to Campbeltown? Ooh, scary. I can see why you'd want to do that in small hops, in a big group, with instructors to hand.

I'm almost enthused.
Could it possibly be that someone listened to the moaners who said there wasn't enough cruising coverage, and it was all dahn saaf?

We were talking about the North coast of Ireland (for which I have at least three charts!) just recently.
I may Email for the package and see if the dates clash with anything.

Please let us know how much the RYAS expect from participants and if a Bus Pass brings concessions.

Good initiative imho, and cruising in company can be fun (as long as the Cruise Director is up to it.....). Anyway, there are probably boats and crews that have never left the Clyde before and who will appreciate it.

Bunnets aff tae the RYAS, I say.....

ubergeekian wrote:

marisca wrote:It's no the Olympics, it's nought tae dae wi' racing, it's for numpties like you lot .....Malin Cruise

Largs to Campbeltown? Ooh, scary. I can see why you'd want to do that in small hops, in a big group, with instructors to hand.

It's easy to sneer, especially if you deliberately mis-quote the text (Largs to Campbeltown is one of the short hops) but everyone has to start somewhere & that looks an excellent initiative for encouraging relative newbies.

You could always offer your supreme experience to help if you wanted to be positive about it.

Arghiro wrote:

ubergeekian wrote:

marisca wrote:It's no the Olympics, it's nought tae dae wi' racing, it's for numpties like you lot .....Malin Cruise

Largs to Campbeltown? Ooh, scary. I can see why you'd want to do that in small hops, in a big group, with instructors to hand.

It's easy to sneer, especially if you deliberately mis-quote the text (Largs to Campbeltown is one of the short hops) but everyone has to start somewhere & that looks an excellent initiative for encouraging relative newbies.
You could always offer your supreme experience to help if you wanted to be positive about it.

My OP was not meant to be sneering, more an admonishment to those who were denigrating the RYAS's relevance to the denizens of this august forum.
It is a fair effort to organise such an event and it's a fair undertaking for those who invest the training time and a week's holiday to such a cruise especially given the weather that might arise at the start of July. I wish both sides well. It does seem sad (and this is a presumption on my part) that this will be a financial transaction rather than an altruistic passing of information and knowledge that, for example, joining the CC would create. Sailing clubs, this, and even TOP's, fora, friendships in marinas and I'm sure there must be other social avenues would be preferable in my mind but doesn't seem to be the way of the modern world.
I didn't know about this till yesterday and I assume this forum didn't know until I posted - quite how those who might be interested are going to to be encouraged, I await with interest. Meanwhile, I shall be circumnavigating* from 6th-8th July so I definitely won't be there.




*It's the Round Mull Race - a real fun event with all the entertainment you could wish for a mere £65

Shard wrote:Good initiative imho, and cruising in company can be fun (as long as the Cruise Director is up to it.....). Anyway, there are probably boats and crews that have never left the Clyde before and who will appreciate it.

Bunnets aff tae the RYAS, I say.....

I'd agree with that. pitty my planned week off sailing is end of May. Hope it gets the support.

ubergeekian wrote:

marisca wrote:It's no the Olympics, it's nought tae dae wi' racing, it's for numpties like you lot .....Malin Cruise

Largs to Campbeltown? Ooh, scary. I can see why you'd want to do that in small hops, in a big group, with instructors to hand.

Largs to Campbeltown? .... can be challenging in a good NW breeze once you get past Pladda!

Anyway...
There's somewhere it says "nothing too challenging" - and somewhere else it says "something to suit all levels of experience" ( I'm paraphrasing a little)
In my experience the two are mutually incompatable. If you don't stretch your experience / comfort zone you don't often acquire new skills.
However - it's good to see sailing being made more available at what is fairly obviously entry level.
I'll be curious to see whether they try to run OYT like watch systems ?

marisca wrote: My OP was not meant to be sneering

My reply was, though. This sort of namby-pamby hand holding is all very well for the poor frightened denizens of the Solent with their plastic soap dishes of boats and their crowded marinas, but I'd be sorry to see it spread to the traditionally more self-reliant yachting areas.

Yah boo sucks.

And the winner of the GOLDEN SPIRTLE award is...

Arghiro wrote: It's easy to sneer, especially if you deliberately mis-quote the text (Largs to Campbeltown is one of the short hops) but everyone has to start somewhere & that looks an excellent initiative for encouraging relative newbies.

What happened to "Just going out and doing it?". Sailing isn't that hard.

Once upon a time, not that long ago, newcomers bought their Silhouatte, or their Corribee, or their Hunter 19, or their Jouster and they set off with paper chart and hand bearing compass, exploring the seas, their boats and their skills. Nowadays the newcomers buy their 34' starter boat with touch screen chartplotter and 40hp engine ... and yet they seem to need more coaxing, more instructions, more training and more bloody exams.

Maybe I'm just getting old and grumpy. And fed up with not enough boats in the water.

ubergeekian wrote:the poor frightened denizens of the Solent

I am one of these. (I can walk to the Solent from my front door.)

I have also sailed to Campbelltown.

It's the most terrifying place I've ever been.

A scary deserted ghost town, abandoned in an attack by aliens in 1907.

The night I was there we went to a restaurant and a couple of pubs. At no point did we see anyone else. A party of very strange looking probable zombies walked past the window and that was the only people we saw. We felt like we were in "The Shining".

When we left they were just warming up the wicker man.

I won't be going back there without my Mum to hold my hand and my No7 Crucifix.

If people want to cruise there in company good luck to them. I doubt if even 10% will leave alive, the souls of the rest will remain in Campelltown forever.

MMMBwahahahahahhaahahaaa!

One of my first trips out of the River Dee was a club cruise to Conway, a 45 mile passage along a lee shore without shelter. 5 boats said they would go but it was foggy at the start & 2 dropped out immediately. Once out of the Dee & round Point of Ayr the fog cleared & we arrived at Conway a little early for the tide, so the other 2 boats went to Beaumaris & we were the only one to arrive at the planned destination.

But I was glad of the company, it gave me confidence that I was doing the right things. I almost certainly would not have set out on my own at that time. Cruises in company are good fun & great for building experience visiting new locations. The last one I went on didn't go far, or anywhere new, but it was hilarious fun because of the people involved, a motley collection of yachts & mobos from the YBW forum.

I'm all for them - as long as I'm in the mood for one! If not, I'll go & anchor in a quiet creek on my own!

The first time I went to the Broads I was on my own the first week I but joined up with the Yare Sailing Club for the second week and it was great. Sailing in company can be lonely though, like flotilla sailing you may not see boats between breakfast and dinner.
There again, I have been known to sail to Tobermory when I had a feeling I was going the wrong way, but got away with it.