09 October 2009

Autumn slides in gently!

 After such an awful summer it is great to get a little respite from the weather at last! When I was in school very few boats stayed afloat after September. We had a good sheltered mooring for our motor boat in East Ferry so she stayed afloat and we got some trawling done during the winter months. In school I was lucky enough to get crewing in team racing with the RCYC team with such luminaries as Harry Cudmore, Dave Gay and Johnny Ryan - fantastic experience (except for the fear of the cold - we didn't have wetsuits!) When Clayton Love Senior brought his ketch "Galcador 2" to Cork from Palma we at last got a taste of off season big boat sailing - we had the whole harbour to ourselves!

Back in 1973 Christy Gibbons (the Hungry Plumber) RIP and his friends organised the first October League - I sailed that year with the late great Denis Doyle aboard Moonduster - what a great time we had! Since then the October (now Autumn) League has grown from strength to strength with boats coming from all the Harbour clubs, Kinsale, Schull, Fenit, Foynes, Waterford and Dublin. It is a great feeling to be out there on a Sunday with so many other avid sailors! The new format of an earlier start and two races makes much better use of the day and there certainly was a great atmosphere ashore in the RCYC last Sunday - here is hoping that the weather will be as kind to us for the rest of the series!

 

On a more serious note Paul O'Regan from the Port of Cork came to open proceedings last week with a special briefing on shipping in the port. He and Pilot Steve Palmer outlined the difficulties of bringing big ships into the narrow confines of the channels of Cork Harbour. They informed a packed house about problems of visibility from the bridge, lack of deep water for big ships, windage etc. The presentation was well received and I hope it has really sunk in! Amazing that less than a week later I was on the bridge of a container vessel coming from Tivoli docks to Roches Point and twice vessels disappeared under the bow! Two rowing boats in Blackrock, and a speedboat near the Forts! Maybe ships should have canon guns mounted aboard again!

You don't want this coming at you.....!!!!!!

It would be remiss of me not to mention the fact that Navigation Courses are beginning all around the country at the moment. The Yachtmaster Shorebased Scheme has been a great success since it was "invented " by the RYA in 1971. At SailCork we have been teaching navigation for almost 30 years now and I must say I am looking forward to next week when we begin our courses in Cobh and Crosshaven. We are now working very hard on a set of correspondence / e-learning navigation courses ............ more news of this later in the autumn.

 

 

Eddie English Blog