East Coast Branch

 

Saturday 16th October - Laying Up Supper - Royal Harwich Yacht Club.

 

Click the link for an application pack. Please print the pack, and complete your menu and berth requests. Return to Helen Krarup, address details are included in the pack.

 

Tollesbury Rally - 14th August

 

Although the weather forecast was seriously unpleasant, some 7 boats made it to Tollesbury, which together with two local boats made 9 boats attending altogether. A few more members arrived by road.

The weather eased just enough to permit the customary pre-dinner drinks, and some 24 souls crowded onto Toodle Pip, which just proves a quart into a pint pot will go!

Robin Harris the branch treasurer seemed rather concerned about "'were the seacocks closed"' but in any event we did not sink, though were somewhat low on the waterline, and I think everyone had a very merry time.

We disappeared (eventually) into the clubhouse and 26 members had a great meal, and a few more 'refreshments' so there were a few sore heads in the morning, mine included !

Considering many were leaving on the 04:30 tide it must be said that the party did not break up very early, and one or two were still to be found in the bar at midnight!

Special thanks go to Dave Flewitt, who had sailed his Moody 44 'Sea Breeze of Grimsby' all the way down from Grimsby with one of his objectives being to attend an East Coast rally for the first time, and of course to all the other members who braved the weather to attend. - Colin

 

East Coast Branch 25th Anniversary Event

 

Around 20 yachts, and 60 plus members and guests made it to the Silver Anniversary rally in Burnham from July 9th to 11th.

Mike Price probably deserves a medal for sailing all the way from Newhaven for the event in his Moody 28; others came from Dover, and the Medway, with a good sprinkling from the Essex and Suffolk rivers. Others joined the party by road.

Some members were able to join the party on the Friday, when we were treated to a wine tasting competition organised by Robin Harris, followed by a BBQ supper at the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club.

After a gentle start on Saturday morning, we welcomed the other yachts as they arrived and of course was there was the coming and going to adhoc 'coffee mornings' with members taking the opportunity to have a good look at the various marques of Moody present.

Various tool boxes were also in evidence around the
pontoons as running repairs were undertaken.

After some pre-dinner drinks on Endeavour, we wound our way along the Burnham Waterfront to the Royal Corinthian YC for a Champagne reception, before a first class dinner, all accompanied by the 'Tea for Two' duo. A great time was had by all, and were pleased to welcome the Commodore Steve Westwood and his wife Anne Marie.

After some short dinner speeches all present were presented with an engraved cut glass tumbler (perfect for that late night dram). Pete Goodfellow won the prize for being best dressed boat, Paul Goodrick the prize for the being the most creative, and Dick Holness for the best advert.

 

 

 

Sunday dawned (again slowly for many, with a few members feeling a touch ordinary, including yours truly!).

Although the weather was fine and sunny, the wind had got up quite a bit, so after a few impromptu meetings, it was decided not to proceed with the planned sail past.

Most also found lifts by road to our lunch appointment at the Ferryboat Inn in North Fambridge, although a few hardier souls did sail. These included Rockhopper who was 'helped !!' after lunch by a number of fellow diners, as he was somewhat pinned onto the hammerhead pontoon by wind and tide. After lunch the rally officially was at an end, although the socialising continued in the Burnham Yacht Harbour.

After a weekend of excellent weather the Monday, when many returned home, was very wet, with heavy rain showers for much of the day. Mike Price deserves a second medal for on his way back to Newhaven he sailed to Boulogne in order to 'get a better slant on the Southwesterly and ended up being stuck for 5 days whilst the wind blew old boots!

I think everyone who attended had thoroughly enjoyed themselves; there was much socialising and comparing of 'notes', not least by the three Moody 28 owners present. - Colin

 

Shotley Shakedown

6 boats made it to Shotley for our shakedown cruise to join with others already berthed there. Some of us who arrived Friday evening having had a brisk (wet) sail in the usual Wallet chop! Keith and Nicky Bunker sailed up from Dover in Oronsay to join us on Saturday, and quite a few of us had impromptu pre dinner nibbles on board before going to the Bristol Arms for an excellent meal later that evening. Most of us departed early-ish on Sunday morning in bright sunshine; but for those of us going south this faded rather quickly to be replaced by headwinds, rain and again the USUAL wallet chop! Summer has now arrived on the East coast! - Chris

 

Fitting Out Supper 2010

Despite the late change in venue and location we had 26 members and guests for our fitting out supper on 17th April at Levington, Ivan and his merry band of helpers organized a good meal for us and our traditional raffle raised £50 for our chosen charity; which this year is “Toe in the Water” a sailing charity for disabled servicemen.

 

Our winter photographic prizes were awarded to Alison Mainwood for her picture “Baltic wharf Sunrise” and David Woolgar for “Grevelingenmeer Sunset”. Our summer photographic competition is now well underway with more prizes to be won, so do get snapping. - Chris

 

Chatham group meet

Wendy Wooster hosted a Medway group natter and nosh at the Ship & Trades on 1st April with 16 and 1/2 members from 9 boats attending!

Ferryboat Inn - Get to Know You

On what turned out to be the first warm, (well warmish) day of the year 28 members and guests turned up at the Ferryboat North Fambridge for our now traditional Sunday lunchtime natter, noggin and nosh.

 

Our thanks to the staff at the Ferryboat for exclusive use of their garden room and well done Jeremy Squier for organising it.

 

We shall be returning to the Ferryboat on 11th July as part of our 25th celebrations. - Chris

 

 

Visit to Harwich Harbour Authority (HHA) VTS Centre

 

Our visit to the HHA VTS centre followed hard on the heels of our AGM, and despite snow and ice all ten of us (plus 1!) managed to turn up at Navigation house on time. To avoid disrupting HHA VTS operations we were asked to restrict our numbers to ten. John Adams of HHA met us and escorted us to their incident room on the top floor. This is immediately behind the VTS operators room and provides a panoramic view over Orwell and Stour and out sea.

John gave a fascinating talk on HHA’s role, responsibilities and modus operandi, liberally spiced with anecdotes of amusing and not so amusing incidents! He primarily focused on pilotage, access and berthing issues, but it was pleasing to hear that incidents concerning yachts were few and far between despite the thousands transiting the harbour each year. One very powerfully made point concerned large ships and the difficulties they faced with restricted visibility and manoeuvrability in the harbour approaches. This fully emphasised the need for us to keep well clear and signal our intentions in good time.

As we were oversubscribed for this first visit a follow up visit was arranged for the 25th March. - Chris

 

Lion Inn - talk - lunch and AGM

 

Around 38 members and guests crowded into the Lion Inn, to hear an excellent talk by James Littlewood about his Baltic trips on Paddington Bear (photo right). James was rewarded with second presentation of the Clark and Carter plate, this time complete with engraving.

This was followed by a great lunch, from an excellent menu (photo on left), many chose the traditional roast Sunday dinner; which was very good indeed, and ensured that your webmaster
did not need to eat again that day !

 

A brief AGM followed the lunch and passed off peacefully --- actually we were not sure quite how many were asleep by the end! The existing Committee had all declared that they were willing to stand again, and were duly re-elected. It was agreed that we use e-mail bulletins as far as possible, via the new East Coast e-mail list service, and encourage more use of the East Coast Discussion Forum for events management. - Colin

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Don't forget the East Coast Photo Competition continues ....

Very young competitors will get bonus marks, to level the playing field. You can find full details on the Gallery page.

 

Please keep us up to date with any e-mail address changes

 

We occasionally send e-mails to the East Coast membership and quite a few fail to be delivered because we have out of date e-mail address information. PLEASE make sure that has an up to date address for the membership database.

Please e-mail the East Coast webmaster with ideas and content for these branch pages.