Javelin – A Broadsman

2009 Cruise – Day 4

Urgh. Well.

Typically there’s always one. in this case it was Chief Engineer Jalil… He’d fallen in love with a barmaid at Cantley. This lead to an evening of heavy drinking – the junk box played on (and on), and things became blurred…

It was a VERY late return (or early) for those who were staying on ‘T.O.G’. The skipper showed some restraint… (!)

The Only Girl – s/N137.

Two cabins, four berths and ample space for drunkard, love-sick crew members!!

Now, the next day its worth noting that some were alert and fit for duty… Some… well. Less so.

Once again our plan was changed to suit the scale of our hang-overs… We’d head upriver to Surlingham, which gave us plenty of time to bring ourselves into the world slowly… with caffeine. Lots of caffeine.

It was light airs, so we raised the sails on both ‘Corsair’ and ‘Nulsec’ and beat up the Yare. It was even sunny! Yes, this was the life! H.B motored upriver, sweeping past.

Javelin No. 1 – sporting a fraudulent mainsail!

We sailed past Nulsec’s birthplace, at Buckenham Ferry. Here – the 1st 550 (yes, really!) Javelin’s were built. Nulsec is unusual – not least because she is S/N 1, but that she is probably the only wooden decked Javelin still in existence – by S/N 5, the boats were all fibreglass.

More information r/e the Javelin class, which celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in 2018, is available here; https://www.javelinuk.org/

‘Corsair’ moored at Brundall for victualling, and petrol. Strangely there was demand for energy drinks and paracetamol!!

Determined to rescue his reputation our Engineer leapt into action, as we walked upto the shops. His Uncle’s boat ‘Strongbow’ (aptly named) had some mechanical issues (it had a BMC1500 diesel)… ‘nuf said!

Returning from the shops, we looked longingly at the railway station, thinking about civilisation, showers, hot water!! Eventually – we all walked back to the boats!

Jalil had managed to bring life to ancient iron – the subtle clattering and blue haze surrounding ‘Strongbow’ gave it away as we approached! ‘Strongbow’ also served as an excellent camera vessel for ‘Corsair’ as she tacked through Brundall.

Sadly – ‘S/B’ had to retire – oil pressure was scarily low. On ‘Corsair’ then amused ourselves by tacking onwards, aiming at lots of expensive boats, with a probing bowsprit!!!

‘Nulsec’ attempted the shortcut through Surlingham Broad, and ‘Corsair’ took the long way around via Brooms. We didn’t catch them – BUT we did enjoy ourselves, arriving at Surlingham last.

At Surlingham – it was the skipper’s turn. A thoroughly pleasant (for some) – and deeply amusing (for most) evening was spent attempting (and failing) to capture the attention of a barmaid…. (!)

Accepting failure, Chief Engineer Jalil & the skipper took a nightcap (or 4) aboard ‘Seabird’ – and set about getting wrecked commiserating eachother!

Goodnight!

Day 2 – 2009 cruise

Sorry. As ever my ambitions to write regularly get thrown aside. However – a lot of the distraction has been sailing the boat, which is no bad thing.

‘Corsair’ had her topsail set recently. It’s the only sail remaining from the 1978 suit. To be honest I’ve never set a topsail on her before. In the true spirit of all ‘well thought’ out decisions, I dug the topsail out of my loft on the Thursday evening, rigging it Friday evening (on the quant pole in lieu of a proper spar) – and then raced with it on the Saturday morning.

It’s important to spend time on well founded (funded) development… (!)

The only down-side, was that the new mainsail doesn’t set quite ‘right’ with the old topsail. I’m considering narrowing the topsail by about 3 inches, which should allow the peak to sit better.

Also – using the quant as a topsail spar – it worked, kind of… Ultimately the sail needs its own spar, as the quant did bend. In fact I’m curious to see if a better spar will allow me to peak up the required amount.

Oh, and having put the boat in the reeds to get the rig up, you know what I needed to get out? The sodding quant…

She didn’t look too bad though;

The regatta in question, is the Autumn Open at Cantley – some excellent photographs were captured by my friend Sue, here if you’re interested. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ladylouise2/albums/72157710884428228

And, Editor’s privilege, here’s a gratuitous photograph of us – powering to the finish line. 2nd to last place. Champions.

So. Yes. Back to Day 2 of the 2009 cruise. To recap what had happened, please see here; https://broadssailing.blog/2019/08/14/summer-storms-submarines/

In short – James had sunk, we’d got pissed, and then some dubious sailing had occurred. Situation normal really!

Day 2 – Cruise 2009.

There was a strange sense of de ja vu about the early morning at Somerleyton… The skipper shuffled through the cockpit, en-route to get the kettle going. A cursory glance astern. BOLLOCKS!

‘Nulsec’ had caught up on the quay, and as the tide fell, she had reached an unnatural angle of heel. The bugger would capsize any moment. A flurry of hungover people came busting out of various craft up and down the bank – and pyjama-clad, we proceeded to put ‘Nulsec’ back into the water.

Later, post breakfast and caffeine (plus some ‘feedback’ to James) us saily-types decided that we would sail from Somerleyton staithe, up the Waveney with the ultimate destination of Beccles. ‘Corsair’ and ‘Nulsec’ were first to depart, taking advantage of an early opening bridge to saunter in the direction of Beccles.

‘Corsair’ took a brief pit-spot at the Waveney River Centre, providing a glimpse at Sailing Barge GM. A vessel I had skippered on a delivery trip from London to the Waveney River Centre earlier in 2009. Anyway, ‘Dragonfly’ swept by majestically, being lead by ‘Seabird’, we needed to stop dawdling!

Dragonfly – S/N 6. Largest Broads yacht on the rivers.

Having set off again, ‘Corsair’ tacked her way up the Waveney. A very short interlude later, ‘Nulsec’ was sighted, firmly stuffed up the lee bank. ‘Corsair’ brought up on the weather bank, and after some encouragement – ‘Nulsec’ paddled across, enabling us to make a temporary repair to the rudder. (more of this later).

‘Nulsec’ then set off, and we took bets on how long before we’d see them again…

Inevitably – the rudder had suffered a terminal failure. Thankfully it was in eyesight! Wow. ‘Nulsec’ stormed across the river, the rudder and tiller parted ways. The adjacent hire boat stopped abruptly in an indignant cloud of diesel smoke.

They shouted. We cringed. James flinched and Alison screamed.

‘Nulsec’ however, she was still going! In a series of beautiful violent and uncontrolled gybes, twists, loops and spins she seemed reluctantly to go out quietly. (!) She did inevitably, cannon into the lee-shore with a final thumping gybe.

HB was despatched to act as salvage craft to tow ‘Nulsec’ to Beccles.

‘Corsair’ continued her gentle tack up the Waveney, now being in the tree-lined upper reaches. I manned the foredeck (read my book), or at least I tried. The skipper would like the record to state that Chris B tried to garotte me with the jib-sheets!

(I’ve never liked him).

Eventually Beccles was reached, with some weapons-grades Pimms, and a BBQ restoring everyone’s spirits. Simon was a sterling figure of ingenuity – he first fixed ‘Nulsec’s’ rudder – and then identified the cause of the leaks / sinking!

James had left the self-bailers open.

(insert descriptor here)

After berating him suitably, we sat about long after it’d got dark, everyone just chatting away (nobody could stand after the Pimms).

Goodnight.

Summer storms & submarines

Phew. Writing this now having had a forced absence from;

A.) writing and
B.) sailing.

Weather in Norfolk hasn’t been the kindest. Last Saturday instead of rowing across to ‘Corsair’, I was forced to walk a mile down the flood-bank on the opposite side of the river, and then wade through the rhond to get to her.

Mind you, I’m not complaining. You walk south from Cold Harbour and the view west is fantastic. The vista includes St. Helen’s church, whose tower juts above the tree line at Ranworth, meanwhile to the right, the remains of St. Benets squat on the marsh, with Horning Hall obscured behind.

The f7 SW had laid the reeds flat, and as we walked, we watched a determined yacht tacking up the Bure. Three reefs and a storm jib – good effort. Even from couple of miles away, you could tell she was striding along. Exhilarating conditions (for the right boat!)

All of this played out under a magnificent, leaden sky-scape. 8/8^th’s cloud cover, and all scuddying along ahead of this incessant near-gale. I tried to absorb it all, that sense of place in me taking over. I’m very lucky to live in this part of the world, my advice is to make sure you see Norfolk in different weathers and in different seasons.

It’s hard to describe, but you’ll capture the different ‘moods’ of the days and seasons if you do. You’ll see what’s a weather bank in a Northerly, or a westerly, where the trees will shelter you, how the wind bends along the reaches – all useful for when you’re sailing and need to find a decent mooring or take in a reef. I don’t pretend

Edward Seago managed to capture the atmosphere of St. Benets under a storm better than me;

Anyway. ‘Corsair’ was O.K. bilges were dry, covers still on. Duty done, we trudged back to the car. Odd isn’t it, boats are such a release in so many ways psychologically, and a constant responsibility physically. I dread to think how many miles I’ve driven to check on her in similar situations.

Back to 2009.

2009 Cruise – Day 2

Cold. Cramped. And hungover once again. Not an unusual set of circumstances for the cruise…. Bleary eyed – I staggered through the cockpit and opened the awning.

Bollocks.

Opening the awning had focused my attention somewhat. What a bloody nuisance! James’ boat – ‘Nulsec’ had capsize itself in the night, quite unnoticed. After confirming with someone less hungover than me that in fact yes, the boat had sunk itself – we set about righting her. After I’d had a good think about what to do…

What a hassle that was!! For a 17ft boat, there was a lot of water to be removed. Sterling bailing efforts by Rob, James & Chris removed most of the water, leaving ‘Nulsec’ mostly afloat.

However, a brief phone call to Julia – the wonderful Hon. Secretary of the Yare Sailing Club produced a large, petrol powers salvage pump, which quickly drained the boat, leaving us with our fleet mostly intact.

Having lost time, we then set about motoring down the New Cut. For those of you not familiar, the New Cut is the result of some fairly aggressive Victorian power-playing. Yarmouth was a successful port – Norwich was not. No matter – Samuel Morton Peto dug a cut – linking Oulton Broad with Norwich, so you wouldn’t have to go through Yarmouth…

Yes. Not quite successful, it does however provide a useful function connecting the Yare with the Waveney – where we were heading. Whilst we motored, a fry up was produced, with the skipper resorting to hair of the dog!!

More amusement was to come though, how do you lower the mast on a 17ft racing dinghy?? With a lot of ‘faff’, bad language and brute force! I was still hungover, and unable to assist.

During this, ‘Dragonfly’ (S/N 6) came swishing past heading for Somerleyton. No doubt amused by the antics – they sensible opted to finding decent moorings.

Moored against a convenient crane barge at Haddiscoe – we set about raising the big white crinkly bits (sails!!)

In the short interval that followed, James attacked a moored pontoon, ran into the reeds on a lee-shore, lured a hire craft into towing him illegally, and generally produced much material (very kindly) for me to record.

The fleet – now mostly assembled at Somerleyton consisted of ‘Seabird’, ‘Dragonfly’, ‘Corsair’ and ‘Nulsec’… Just HB & Herbie the wonder-dinghy and we’d be complete.

To pass the time, we inexplicably found ourselves in the pub – avoiding the rain, playing cards with a pint. Compared to yesterday’s excitement – this is more like it!!

Goodnight.