East Coast Branch
Laying Up Supper - Saturday 4th October
Some 50 members turned out on hat turned out to be just about the worst
weather of the season (F9 and driving rain !) to the Royal Corinthian Yacht Club
in Burnham, or the East Coast Laying Up Supper. Needless to say, even the local
boats came by car!
This was the biggest turn out to an East Coast event for some years, and it went
very well, with members enjoying a very nice meal, with lots of socialising and
meeting new faces.
The photo competition prizes for the Summer 2008 competition were awarded to
David Woolgar and Dick Holness (full details on the
Gallery page). This year we have had a fine crop of entries, and these were
worthy winners of joint first prizes of £20 M&S Vouchers.
Chris
Hennah presented 'The Sailing Achievement Shield' to Ken Moss in recognition of
his trip around UK and Ireland in May and June of this year.
Another highlight was a raffle in aid of charity, organised by Chris & Sue.
There were lots of prizes (mostly bottles) and lots of enthusiasm, so we were
able to raise £100 for the
The Ellen MacArthur Trust.
The charity, which is now entering its sixth
year, aims to support, empower and enliven children aged between 8-18 suffering
from cancer, leukaemia or other serious illness, by introducing them to the joys
of sailing at sea.
Colin Shead
Tollesbury Rally - Saturday 30th August
A
good time was had by all 25 members and their crews who made it to the
Tollesbury Rally. Nine yachts attended,
three being bertholders at Tollesbury
who did not have far to sail! Others came by car, after various mishaps
including total engine failure on the morning of the rally!
Tollesbury is quite a small marina by usual standards these days, but berthing
arrangements went fairly well, although Snow Leopard (422) had to be moved to
make way for a police forensic examination on another yacht (no nothing to do
with the Moody Owners), which was 'interesting' in the confines of Tollesbury
Marina.
The weather was very kind, and for once this year, the sun shone and it was
warm.
The Tollesbury Cruising Club put on a 'professional' BBQ, with one of the chefs
doing the cooking, whilst we concentrated on the talking and and drinking. All
declared the food to be excellent, as was the beer, with just a couple of sore
heads the following morning.
Sunday morning saw a few of the more hardy souls walking the sea wall, whilst
others
had a lazy breakfast whilst waiting for the tide.
The weather was again
fine, though those sailing home during the afternoon had to contend with
occasional thundery showers and associated squalls.
Many thanks to all who attended:
Chris Hennah 'Endeavour' Moody 333; Brian Chidwick Olana-J 'Moody 31'; Chris
Edwards 'Snow Leopard' 'Moody 422; Mike Cornish 'Mary Rose' Moody; Dick
Holness 'Cornsilk' Moody S31; Conrad Barnard 'Bukra' Moody 346; Alan Giles 'Teteli'
Moody 35; Paul Yates 'Greenbelt' Moody 38; Peter Farndon 'Hearsay' Moody
Eclipse; David Owen 'Malgre Tout' Moody 31; and your webmaster on 'Toodle Pip'
Moody 28.
Colin Shead
Laying Up Supper - The Royal Corinthian Yacht Club Burnham on Crouch -
Saturday 4th October 2008
East Coast members - Book now for the Laying Up Supper, which is certain to
be another enjoyable 'Moody' event. Click for full
menu details and a booking
form.
MOA East Coast Rally to St Katherines - London 6th -13th July
Ten boats signed up for the Rally to St Kats from as far afield as Ramsgate
and Titchmarsh. However the weather forecast was not promising, so some dropped
out. Five boats finally made it to Queenborough most having experienced rain, a
little sun and much wind. We had all had fun and games picking up mooring buoys
in the blustery conditions and strong tide.
Sunday
morning found Marmalade, Kara II, Stormraider, Snow Leopard and Endeavour
leaving Queenborough on the last of ebb and enjoying a spanking sail from the
Medway into the Thames and all the way up Sea Reach before being headed by the
wind as we approached Gravesend and the first of many showers.
Despite my
earlier misgivings about organisation, the lock keepers were expecting us, on
the ball and squeezed us all into the lock at its first opening.
Apart from its proximity to London a great advantage of St Kats is its choice of
restaurants and shopping facilities; including a well stocked Waitrose. We all
took full advantage of these and the ample opportunities London offered to
pursue our own interests. Between bouts of rain we also held some impromptu get
togethers. Fred and Marion of Storm Raider must be thanked for hosting all of us
during Wednesday's downpour!
While the other boats stayed on until the weekend and took advantage of the St
Kats 7for the price of 5 days berthing, we were due back at MSC for the start of
the Piers race on the Sunday morning so left at first lock opening 7am Friday
along with Snow Leopard. Motorsailing or sailing for much of the way with the
tide we enjoyed a fast run down the Thames, passing Southend just before low
water.
In the afternoon the wind increased from the Southwest and progressively
veered. By the time we reached the Wallet Spitway we were logging over 30 knots
across the deck and on entering the Blackwater slowed down by stiff wind over
tide sea conditions. We finally picked up our mooring at 7pm having travelled
over 72 miles in just under 12 hours.
Chris Hennah
Successful BBQ at the Marconi Sailing Club
Around
20 members and their crews attended a very successful, 'Bring & Cook' BBQ at the
Marconi Sailing Club on Saturday May 10th.
This was the first 'on the water event' organised this season, and it was good
to see around 6 boats attending, and more by road.
Our treasurer (Robin Harris - photo left below) had a somewhat pensive
appearance as he saw the amount of 'communion' wine and beer being consumed
(funded by the MOA) but assured us that he had the 'money in the bank' so that a
good time was enjoyed by all.
The
weather was unbelievably kind, being the hottest and sunniest day this year so
far; even the river was kind, and those of us who had sailed to the event were
not awoken by the rather steep chop that can set in with wind over tide
conditions in the Blackwater.
Our
thanks go to the Marconi Sailing Club, and their Commodore Simon Elwell (a
MOA member himself), for hosting this event in such a friendly way, and for
running several members (sans dinghies) back to their boats on the moorings post
the festivities.
A traditional raffle raised some £30 for the Cirdan Trust, who sent the branch a
letter thanking us for
our support.
We hope that this event will set the trend for further enjoyable events during
the season - next is the rally to Titchmarsh on 7th June, followed by the Cruise
to London and St. Katharine's on 6th-13th July.
Webmaster
Shirley Braben wins the National Photo Competition
All
East Coast photo competition entries are entered automatically into the MOA
National Competition.
We are delighted that Shirley Braben has won the 'Creative Category'
prize this year with her entry "Blue Skies from Saxon Blue", which will
appear on the Compass cover soon.
Photo at right shows Shirley receiving the trophy from Branch Captain Chris
Hennah
Don't forget the East Coast Photo Competition continues ....
We have changed the competition a little, with new prizes, and a youth
section. Very young competitors will get bonus marks, to level the playing
field. You can find full details on the Gallery
page.
Programme for 2008
The Programme of Events for 2008 can be seen on the
Events page. We are organising quite a few events and
are trying to hold events in the various East Coast 'regions' so that more of
you have a realistic opportunity to attend. If you have any comments on the
programme please let Chris Hennah know. Please also of
course put these dates in your diaries for next year, we hope to see many of you
during the season.
Please keep us up to date with any eMail Address changes
We occasionally send eMails to the East Coast
membership and quite a few fail to be delivered because we have out of date
eMail address information.
PLEASE make sure that has an
up to date address for the membership database.
Please email the East Coast webmaster
with ideas and content for these branch pages.