Round Anglesey Cruise

The club’s round Anglesey cruise took place over the May bank holiday weekend this year, and thirteen club boats joined in.  About half the fleet headed off to Menai Bridge on Friday and spent the night there, while the other half left Conwy on Saturday morning, navigated the Swatch and went straight through the Swellies on the flood tide.

On the way across, boats on both days were accompanied by a large pod of dolphins which have taken up residence in the bay – take a look at the videos below, taken from Free Will and Pisces, to see a spectacular show, including fully airborne dolphins!

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Trafalgar Day

The morning started un-promisingly with rain and poor visibility, with some debate over whether it’s all worth it, but we decided to trust the weather forecast.  The live rain radar looked like the rain would sweep through.

So we headed out in full oilies.

By the time the fleet got to C6 there were signs of the sun trying to appear.  By the time we got to the start line at C1/C2, the sun was shining and there were reports of a fully costumed admiral being spotted on Mahalo.

Though apparently the admiral wasn’t aware of the correct way to wear his hat.

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Conway Yacht Club Inaugural Regatta

Conway Yacht Club ran their first ever regatta on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th June, and entry was open to NWCC members.  The weekend was a great success, here is a summary from their Sailing Captain Keith Munro:

So, we had our first Regatta and from the turnout became to be a very successful event. A number of thanks you’s I’d like to get off my chest. Firstly our Race Officer for the weekend, Richard Stagg and his team, the Sailing Committee for pulling the event together. Everyone involved with the BBQ Saturday evening and finally all the people who took part sailing in the Regatta.

We had a total of 15 boats racing;
Sarissa from Bay of Colwyn SC.
Penny Diamond and Mahalo from North Wales Cruising Club.
Predator affiliated to Penmaenmawr SC.
COD’s Seiriol, Minnie, Gwalch, Phoenix, Musetta, Swn Y Don, Akushla and cruisers, Seren Y Mor, North Star, Calva and Talaris from Conway Yacht Club.
A great turnout.

Any feedback with regard to the event would be very much appreciated. Many thanks for your support and look forward to seeing you out on the water soon.

Keith Munro, Conway Yacht Club Sailing Captain

 

2016 Spring Cruise

May 28th – Conwy to Lynas

d80cdd1f-8d50-4146-9462-421b8c74f742Split Decision, Myfanwy, Deva, Tessa and Pisces departed from Conwy early afternoon in sunshine and sailed straight into a very heavy shower.  By the time we had reached Lynas it was back in to sunshine and Myfanwy, Deva, Tessa and Pisces settled down for the night at anchor in light North Easterly winds.  I have never been in to the bay myself and it was a pleasant surprise to find how sheltered it was although there seemed to be a bit of a swell at times, possibly as the tide turned.  Tessa was well photographed as the sun set behind her before we all turned in for the night.

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BJ Clark Trophy

Five Boats took part in the BJ Clark Trophy race on the 21st of May – Comrades, Myfanwy, Penny Diamond, Seren y Mor and White Water. In a brisk westerly breeze the course was set as Abbey Buoy to Fairway back to Long Outfall and finish at Abbey Buoy.

Seren y Mor quickly took the lead and never looked back to finish the course in an impressive 58 minutes 25 seconds on corrected time and is the winner of the BJ Clark trophy.  16 minutes behind was Penny Diamond and a further 4 mins behind was Myfanwy followed by a brave showing by Mike Gell sailing single handed on Whitewater.  Comrades retired on the upwind leg but Bob’s new mast which was a tree not so long ago stood up to the test of some strong gusts and must give Bob confidence for its future.

Caernarfon Cruise

The second event of the year was the Shakedown Cruise, over the May Day Bank Holiday.  Thanks to all the hardy sailors – Myfanwy, Pisces, Split Decision, Night Song, Mahalo, Sunya and Amanzi – for joining in with the annual attempt to go round Anglesey. Yet again the weather beat us as it was far too windy to cross the Caernarfon Bar on Sunday morning so we elected to sail to Caernarfon and back to Conwy instead, stopping at Dylans and Fu’s for refreshments as we went.

As it turned out both Saturday and Sunday were excellent sails and on Sunday we managed to sail all the way from Caernarfon back to Conwy under head-sail.  See below for a compilation video of the weekend.

ActiveCaptain and eBoatCards

3e0d6ed7-c26a-4f74-b228-2da14e507df6ActiveCaptain is a worldwide cruising guide that anyone can contribute to – it includes anchorages, harbours and marinas as well as hazards, all reported by users and continually updated.  Users add reviews and comments so you can see where you might like to visit (or avoid).

eBoatCards is a social network for boaters – you join as a boat, not a person, and it includes private messaging, public posting, blogs and groups. The two systems are connected so you only need a single login for both.  If you and your friends run the ActiveCaptain Locations app on your phone, it will plot all your positions so you can see where they are.

NWCC now has a group, so come and join in.

Puffin Island Cruise Saturday 26th March

After a postponement on Easter Saturday, 6 boats braved the blustery conditions on Easter Monday for a thrash around the Bay, according to sailing captain, Steve Gorst, conditions were a gentle force 8 on the Cemaes scale! The wind direction precluded a sail around Puffin Island, so no seal pictures this year. However, see below for a good video of Bob from Comrades helming Myfanwy that Steve took which gives some idea of the conditions.

The Fitting Out party took place on the Saturday evening in the Clubhouse with an Italian themed supper of lasagne and Italian trifle well laced with Amaretto. 12 members enjoyed the supper with many more joining for the music night organised by Mike Harrison. Seemingly bangers and mash would be a more popular choice for supper in the future – noted by the chefs 🙂

The next sailing event is the Shakedown Cruise on May Bank holiday weekend. The details of the event are on the website under sailing events.

RYA Yachtmaster Course Success

Five candidates successfully achieved the RYA Yachtmaster qualification at the course recently run as part of the Clubs winter training programme. The course was taught by Tony Mead.

The successful candidates were:

Steve Wade – NWCC member

Stuart Hartley – NWCC member

James Nicholls – NWCC member

Scott Hughes – Conwy Harbour Office
Peter Allison – Conwy Harbour Office

Congratulations to Steve, Stuart, James, Scott and Peter on passing the course and thanks to Tony once again for the expert tuition.

The photo shows the successful candidates with their certificates presented by NWCC President Terry Worthington.

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