Pirates and cakes: last weekend in Wales

There be Pirates here!

We (Mum, Shaun. their pet dog, Coco and Myself) got down to Neyland last Friday morning at 4am, Shaun had not slept the whole way so was tired and grumpy. Nonetheless we decided to take Shoestring out on the morning high-tide.

Coco liked relaxing in the cockpit.

We untied and left her moorings very easily, edging out of the marina slowly, rounding the sharp bend at the entrance. Around this time the speed Log decided to give up and continually display 0Knots for the remainder of the trip... something else to fix...

We took her up river to Lawrenny under engine and a stuck mainsail -the batons got jammed in the lazy jack lines and refused to budge so we carried on. It was Shaun's first trip out on the yacht and at only five years old he took it very well getting quite excited and wanting to help with everything. Coco tied on her lead down below slept most of the time.

Shaun at the helm

Shaun proved to be a natural at steering and helm control as we passed quietly up river. We turned around and came back in after an hour so as not to get caught out by the tidal sill.

Docking was more fun, this time whacking the bow on the side of the pontoon, but no damage done.

This was before Shaun fell in after getting out the Canoe.

The rest of Friday was spent at the marina, where we had Lunch at the Brunel Café and took Shaun out for a paddle in the canoe tender, with other yacht owners asking where we got it and how we found it. We also drove out to Dale for lunch at a cafe there over looking the bay.

Paddling in the new Hudson canoe 'tender'

Saturday was spent driving in the car exploring Pembrokeshire a little, with nice warm weather on our side we went to Fishguard, a lovely little town where I picked up a 'Welsh Wool Jumper' and bought Shaun a model sailing yacht. Mum found a bakery where they had just made a fresh batch of welsh cakes, -they are much better when warm and fresh!

Fishguard lower harbour

We decided to explore nearby Solva, another little harbour, and former finishing village, now a bit of a tourist trap, but still a charming colourful village with brightly coloured buildings. One of the most senic places I've been I think.

Solva at low-tide.

Driving back to Shoestring, we also discovered Newgale Beach, a wonderful long expanse of sand with amazing views of Skomer and Ramsey islands.

Sunday and Monday the weather turned nasty, with wind, rain and cold hitting in from the North East.

We left for the LONG drive home, as always I don't like leaving Shoestring, and can't wait to get back, both to finish the refurbishment works on the deck, and to also get her out for a sail!!!

Drinks Cabinet: Appleton estate rum V/X

Back to the Rum again... The bottle makes this one appealing from the start. I tried this with diet coke an hour ago, and I'm on the third glass already! It's great, very different from my other favorite, Havana Club, this has a more sugary taste.

It also seems a little stronger than other rums, but not as a distraction from the flavour. Much more deeply spiced than others we have tested but without the chemical taste that effects some of the other supermarket rums such as Captain Morgans. It actually makes me want to buy another bottle of Goslings rum as a comparison. -Thats a good excuse. Plus, I am testing this one at home, and as everyone knows all rums taste better sitting under the stars in the cockpit of a yacht at anchor, so i'll have to test them all over again...

I'll stop now or be accused of running a 'Folkboats and Rum' website again, which is probably true. So I'll leave the last words to Sainsburys who have a nice little editorial about Appleton Estate on their website:

Appleton Estate has been producing Jamaican rum since 1749. Located in the Nassau Valley, the estate sits in the valley’s fertile fields in the parish of St. Elizabeth, where the valley gets afternoon rain together with warm sunshine, providing the optimum conditions for growing sugar cane.

Sugar cane’s thought to have originated in Papau New Guinea, and Christopher Columbus introduced it to the West Indies in 1493. Sugar cane’s a member of the ‘grass’ family and each variety results in a different rum flavour. The cane grown at the Appleton Estate tends to produce rums that have fruity and buttery notes.

Rum making on the Appleton Estate
Appleton Estate takes a handcrafted approach and uses many controls at every step of rum making, from the selection of the sugar cane, the yeast used in fermentation, its unique distillation methods, through to the ageing, hand-blending and bottling of their rum. Each step is carefully monitored to ensure consistency and quality throughout.

Fermenting
The molasses extracted from the cane are fermented for 36 hours by adding water and yeast. Appleton’s uses spring water from the estate that has been naturally filtered by limestone formations.

The fermented liquid is then distilled to strip the alcohol from the water. This stage uses either a pot still or a continuous still to heat the liquid and draw off the vapour that is then condensed back to a liquid. This resultant liquid is referred to as ‘water white’ because of its crystal clear colour.

Ageing
The rum is then aged in large wooden barrels, almost always oak, and often once-used bourbon barrels. As the rum ages in wood, the sharp flavour begins to mellow as the air permeates the oak, the space it leaves behind through evaporation is known as ‘the angels’ share’. The rum takes on colour from the barrel and this is where the flavour develops.

The art of blending
The final step in the rum-making process is the blending. This is a real art where the blender selects rums that will be used in a particular blend based on the type and style of rum that it contains, and these are blended together. A sugar cane crop, like grapes, can vary from year to year depending on the weather, so to ensure the quality and consistency of a blend, the Master Blender and her team blend all Appleton Estate rum according to a secret formula.

Full version here
www.appletonrum.com
----
Around £14.99 per bottle.

Bilge scrubbing

Last time we were there was some white goop floating the bilge... I think this means that bilge scrubbing and painting may be on the way. I suspect this is a deceptively easy job, but one that I don't really fancy doing yet... I'll let you know how we get on.

Drinks Cabinet: Bells' Whiskey

It's not a Rum! I hear you cry. Yes I know we're breaking with tradition here, and it is entirely the First Officer's fault.

Someone made him have whiskey a few weeks ago and he wanted more... I personally find it slightly 'smokey' tasting and have never been struck on the stuff.

Bells is a good solid brand with a good reputation, 'M' reports that it is not quite as good as the one he had a few days ago, which he can't remember the name of. Its great with coke, lemonade, water or neat.

Whiskey is a good solid nautical tipple, and found in many yachts around the world. So I really should have a bottle around on board somewhere...

You can get it almost anywhere and a 75cl bottle should cost around £10

Folkboats and Rum... updates to the links section

We've added a few more links to the recommended sites page, mostly to other bloggers out there, with either Folkboats or simply great sailing blogs.

An amusing side effect of this is the descriptions made when linking to other sites, one of the new links has us down as "The adventures of Shoestring" (Folkboats and Rum).

I'd be ashamed but its true. :0)

Away the weekend

I'm off to Shoestring this weekend, leaving tonight (Thursday) and returning Monday morning. If the weather is there we'll be finishing the aft-deck painting and maybe a trip up river to Lawrenny to spend Saturday night.

Michael's working on Saturday so it will be my Mum and Shaun visiting again. I'll post some photos of the trip and painting works when I get back.

Jester

Perhaps the most celebrated Folkboat so far, Jester, a folkboat heavily adapted by World War II hero Blondie Hasler. Jester had a carvel-planked Folkboat hull with an unusual deck arrangement with no cockpit or companionway and a single-masted junk rig.

Jester was the test-bed for many of Hasler's ideas such as the development of windvane self-steering gear. Jester could also be steered from below decks via a whipstaff. All sail handling could be performed from a central hatch without going on deck.



Blondie Hasler sailed Jester in the 1960 and 1964 single-handed transatlantic races and in every following single-handed transatlantic race with her second owner, Michael Richey.

During the 1988 race, Jester was abandoned at sea after damage during a storm. A duplicate of the original Jester was built with cold-molded construction to continue the tradition of her participation.

There is now also the Jester Challenge, a self-supported single handed race in yachts around Jester's size and displacement. Information on the 2008 Challenge can be found on their website.

Review: Standard Horizon c180 chartplotter

We purchased and installed this excellent little chart plotter on one of our first projects on Shoestring, we chose this one for three important reasons, 1) Cost, at just £314.99 it met our budget but also had more advance features such as AIS expandability and compatible with Cmap Max cartography cartridges. 2) It was easy to install and had a very clear and easy operating system, and lastly, 3) It is a good size with a not so small screen. -Perfect for a Folkboat's navigation area.

We opted for the external GPS unit, in the understanding that gaining a signal through a wooden cabin roof would be optimistic, however this was not the case, and I now get a full signal with the GPS receiver unit simply sitting on a shelf.

Using it at first is quite daunting, -to the point that at present I still accidentally put way-points in, and also struggle to delete them, but I am sure with time I can get the hang of this.

It has a very useful tracking feature and combined with the CMap Max information such as aerial photography and port information it makes a great makeshift pilot guide if needed.

On the whole a very well made quality product, one that is making me look at more Standard Horizon products in the future. Well worth the money.

Folkboats sailing in Christchurch Bay, UK

I came across this on YouTube, some great action shots of Folkboats racing in South England.

Sevylor Hudson KCC360: Our new yacht tender.

After spending literally weeks looking at yacht tenders, dingies, even small optimist sailing boats we could use a yacht tender, we eventually settled on the Sevylor Hudson KCC360, an inflatable canoe.

The reasons for this are simple:

1. Easier to handle under paddle/oar than a tender
2. We both have experience of kayaking and canoing
3. Stability, as opposed to a normal tender, this design offer a lot more stability in rougher weather.
4. We can use it for a different water sport while away from the yacht.
   

Coming from a background of canoing with plastic hard hull kayaks I was resistant to the idea of an inflatable hull, but considering this as a yacht tender inflatables are really the standard, we went to Decathlon in Surrey Quays, London as our past experience there was generally good. After looking at options this model impressed me, not just for overall size and solidity but also for its folded size.

We bought it was a package paying £319.99 for the canoe and a buy one get one free on a set of collapsible paddles and two buoyancy aids. Bringing the total to £475, an extra £40 on the alternative on a 'conventional' yacht tender. Plus an additional £4.96 for a foot pump.

I got home and opened the box, included with the canoe is a good quality storage bag, repair kit, and pressure gauge. Fully inflated it is just over 5 meters long and around one meter wide. It is capable of seating three adults comfortably in the fitted chairs with back-rests. With one or two passengers it has ample storage space for any provisions or cargo. They even sell an out-board bracket as an optional extra if we wanted.

Getting in and out, from pontoon or yacht is quite simple and stable in the marina, we're yet to try it in rougher seas and waves, but I don't anticipate any problems.

Underway I was surprised by the speed and maneuvering, for a large canoe it handles very light and with two paddlers we easily managed a good 5-6 knots down stream. We're still experimenting with paddling techniques, the maker's recommendation is for two kayak paddles, but we also found using half paddles as oars very reasonable and efficient.

Overall we're both quite pleased with the purchase, and will see how we get on with it this year, i'll be adding "T/O Shoestring" (Tender Of..) in vinyl soon.

What I like most is we're also using it away from the yacht, with short canoe trips on the River Medway at Upnor or picnics along the Regent's Canal in London. I'll post some more images here as we get them, together with any more notes on using these as yacht tenders.

Where did the site go?

Seem to have had a glitch somewhere that knocked the site out for most of Sunday!

Sorry about that, no idea what went wrong, hopefully it won't happen again!

Book review: To the Baltic with Bob by Griff Rhys Jones

One of 'those' books that you pick up and can't put down. I like Griff Rhys Jones as a Television presenter, his series Restoration was fabulous and despite missing it myself his 2 part 'Three Men in Another Boat' television documentary featuring his classic yacht, Undina, i'm told is quite good.

As an author I feel he sometimes lacks a bit of atmosphere, but makes up for it in comedy. To the Baltic with Bob is a story of a real voyage in 2003 just after the near completion of Undina's overhaul (minus the chrome). It follow his crew's mood, attitude and sense through out the trip exploring both how to handle a (small?) 45ft yacht, shipping channels, landfalls and foreigners while trying to keep everybody, if not happy then at least amicable.

The book is available in hard or paperback. A recommended read for either crews with awkward Skippers, or Skippers with awkward crews.

Planning for the Isles of Scilly

On the 11th August, we are planning to set sail to the Isle of Scilly for our summer break. There I've said it publicly, no going back now!

I've always been fascinated by these islands, not just with the romantic scenery but also the challenges presented in getting there. We stayed near Mousehole and Penzance last year on a camping holiday, and seeing the pretty boats in harbour and the Scillonian ferry leaving is where the idea for this years trip came from.

It will be a bit of a challenge, both in terms of planning, pilotage and navigation, but also in sailing, handling and anchoring. This is perhaps the longest voyage Shoestring has undertook for a while, and also the longest voyage I would have undertook as skipper.

I'll be using this site both for planning and recording of the voyage, so please keep checking back for details.

In preparation for the trip I've acquired a few extra pieces of equipment for Shoestring: a Second Anchor and rode, handheld VHF in case of emergencies and of course charts, pilot guides and other books.

Planning
The route currently looks like this:

• Day 1 - Neyland to Dale anchorage
• Day 2 - Dale to Lundy Island ( I may decided to skip this depending on weather)
• Day 3 - Lundy to Padstow
• Day 4 - Padstow to St Ives
• (Possibly collecting a friend for the trip)
• Day 5 - St Ives to Scilly (Hugh Town)
• Day 6 to 10 - Exploring Scilly
• Day 11 - Scilly to St Ives
  
• Day 12 - St Ives to Dale (optimistic distance maybe)
• Day 13 - Dale to Neyland

I'm also looking at Penzance and Mousehole as a bolt-hole in case the weather for the Scilly trip is not in our favour.

Pilot guides and charts:
Full reviews of these will follow on later entires on this site.

• Imray C7, C58 and C60
• A closer detailed Admiralty chart. (Still looking into this)
  
• West country pilot, 2008, £24.99 (Amazon £17.95)
• A sailors guide to the Isle of Scilly, Sent via the author direct in Scilly (thank you!)
  

Sea Fair, The Captain's Handbook

Yesterday my copy of the Captain's Handbook for the Sea Fair arrived. It's getting nearer so ensuring the re-fitting and training on Shoestring is finished is getting more important!

In the guide is the information and details on the events being organised and also the "how, who and when" information for Skippers and also timetables and charts for the events.

Shoestring will fall into the Classic Bermudian fleet. Below is the timetable for her appearances, a few are marked as Shoestring only, this is where she will need to break from the fleet for a short while to collect or drop off crew.

Wednesday 18th June

• 15.00 to 22.30, Opening events at Milford Haven.

Thursday 19th June

• Sailing from Milford Haven to Sandy Haven.
• Along Pembroke River to Pembroke.

Friday 20th June

• Free day of Sail, possibly anchoring at Lawrenny overnight.

Saturday 21st June

• Lawrenny to Pembroke Dock and Neyland.
• Collecting visitors from Neyland Marina. (Shoestring only)
• Festivities in Neyland.

Sunday 22nd June

• Race from Neyland to Angle for lunchtime.
• Angle to Neyland return to drop off a visitor. (Shoestring only)
• Neyland to Dale and rejoin the fleet to anchor overnight.

Monday 23rd June

• Race from Dale to Skomer island and back.
• Anchor overnight in Dale

Tuesday 24th June

• Free day of sailing, ending overnight in Milford Dock.
• Afternoon and evening, Closing ceremonies at Milford Dock.

Wednedsay 25th June

• Milford Dock to Neyland Marina. (Shoestring only)
  

A very busy, but very fun few days, if your in the area, please do say hello, Shoestring will be wearing her full ceremonial flags for the events, except the races, where hopefully she'll be speeding along.

Book review: The Folkboat Story by Dieter Loibner

I saw this mentioned and referred to several times wherever Folkboats were mentioned on the internet, so decided to order a copy.

Despite the uninspiring cover, the book is fascinating, more than a good detailed history of the design and the class, but also a concise and interesting resource for Folkboat culture. With everything from the voyage of Anne Gash the grandmother who sailed around the work in her Folkboat Ilma, to the heroic Blonde Hastler and his experiments in the modified Folkboat Jester.

It slightly biased perhaps towards the Wooden Clinker built boats, nothing wrong with that, as it constructively discuss the conversion of the folkboat from wooden hulls to a glass fiber one, with an interesting commentary on the building techniques and styles.

My favorite section is on the 'lure of the Folkboat', which looks at the versatility of the yachts, and how they are used by their owners. In fact a good sentiment set by the title is that it talks as much about the people involved with Folkboats, from designers and builders to sailors, racers and owners. This is part of the key to the success of this design, it inspires safety, reliability, honesty and simplicity in sailing, which draws such a diverse cross-section of people towards it.

Full of black and white photos and illustrations and very well written, this one of those books that has a direct comparison out side of sailing, with titles such as those around 'cult motorcars such as the Mini and the Beatle. -Both designed in similar times and to similar briefs.

One amusing line is that, to be a true Folkboat you have no inboard engine and no life-rails around the edge, so thats Shoestring's pedigree gone if that is ever enforced.

In the UK Amazon.co.uk seems to be the best place to get hold of a copy of The , prices do vary but I purchased my copy for £17.95 in hardback.

The dodgers in place

A few weeks ago I did a feature on here about re-painting the canvas dodgers where the name had cracked and faded over time. We decided to attach them last weekend, they'll have to come off again as we finish the painting but it already looks much better. I also attached the new life-buoy to replace the aging yellow one, moving it from the rear above the rudder off to the port-side hand rails.

Fun at low tide

A quick photo of Michael pushing the trolley up the pontoon ramp at Neyland on a low-tide. Inside it is not only our tender -a post about that soon, but paddles, clothes, food, water and the like. In my defense I was carrying the camera and the dry-bag... :0)

New colours

As mentioned previously we've had a few (read: too many) leaks in the decks, so we needed to re-paint the canvas decking. We decided that although the grey decks had a 'smart' look, we would lighten them up a bit with a cream, we settled on a colour called 'Cornish Cream' in the SandTex range of paints with a waterproof seal. -Although not a yacht or marine paint, it came highly recommended from many people as a canvas deck paint.

So just as a reminder, this is what the boat used to look like. We've still got the rear decks to do, the white cabin sides need repainting (keeping them white), and we are going to be stripping and varnishing the fore and rear deck hatches. We'll do this weekend after next.

I hope you all like the new colours! We feel it gives a more 'classic-wooden-yacht' feel with more exposed wood and varnish. The cabin top beam (with small forward facing window) was a last minute choice in the paint scheme but one that really sets the whole finish off I think. Please feel free to leave any comments below on the new colours.

Home again

Just home from another weekend spent in Neyland. Very productive, and expect to see some photographs added later on.

We fixed on the newly re-painted dodgers, striped back some of the white paint to bare wood then vanished, then we re-painted her decks. (HUGE CHANGE!)

You'll see later on we've got a lot left to do, but a very productive weekend. We spent the whole car journey back to London (280 miles) discussing if we should move her closer to home. Except then we'll miss out on the lovely sailing area, the islands and trips to Scilly, Lundy, and North Cornwall that the Milford Haven offers.

More later.