Cruising Castles – South Shore Of England

Why do we love cruising?

It’s the places you go, the people you meet, the food, the wind on yer whiskers… but last weekend it was the castles. 

We raced out of Poole on the Sunday and there, at the harbour mouth as we headed out to the start line, was sparkly Branksea Castle just glowing back at us from the shore. 

We get a kick out of castles, thinking about the history and who’s lived in them, the stories. Sweet to view them from the water too.

We can’t find too much info about the history of this particular castle, but it sits on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour – the island where Lord Baden-Powell and his boy scout camp started it all. 

Cruising makes learning history seem not just painless, but fascinating.                            

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

Cowes Week – Mid-week Report

It sure is the biggest sailing summer ever round here. The Olympics just finished – and now Cowes Week has started up.

For those who don’t know, Cowes Week is the UK’s biggest annual regatta (save the Olympics of course) and one of the country’s yearly social highlights. 

It ‘is one of the longest-running regular regattas in the world. With 40 daily races, up to 1,000 boats, and 8,500 competitors ranging from Olympic and world class professionals to weekend sailors, it is the largest sailing regatta of its kind in the world. Having started in 1826, the event is held on the Solent…made tricky by strong double tides’ *.

It’s not just a rocking’ regatta – it’s also a great festival, complete with endless parties, street concerts, vendors, prizes and stalls. 

Fun if you are watching the action from land or from the deck of a high performance racing machine.

  

The Can Opener and I were lucky enough to be invited to race on a J122. And lucky enough to be on a great team that’s on a winning streak. Nothing like crossing the line first and getting the gun! 

All credit to the J122’s great skipper – the same nice guy from the Red Tabby Yacht Club who invited us to join him.

View from the J122’s bow

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

* wikipedia

 

Olympic Site

Weymouth

We arrived at the Games site early on Monday and so had a little time to walk through the charming town of Weymouth before we staked our spot on the hillside to watch some amazing sailing. It was all dressed up in flags and finery for its Olympic visitors.

So, what’s the magical town of Weymouth like?

‘Weymouth is a seaside town in Dorset, England, situated on a sheltered bay at the mouth of the River Wey on the English Channel coast…  Fishing and trading employ fewer people in the area since their peak in earlier centuries, but tourism has continuously increased its presence in the town since the 18th century and is now the primary industry.

‘…nearby Portland Harbour is home to the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy, where the sailing events of the 2012 Olympic Games‘ are being held ‘and is ideal for sailing as it is exposed to reliable winds from most directions, but is sheltered from large waves and currents by Chesil Beach and the breakwaters.‘*

They couldn’t have picked a better spot for the racing. We loved it!

Cute town too.

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

* Wikipedia

Olympic Report

 

The Olympics – Weymouth, England 2012
 
Yesterday I took the Can Opener down to see the Olympics, pinnacle of dinghy racing glory and excellence. 

The First Mate was beyond excited and even I admit to a tiny frisson of sailing electricity running down my tail at the thought of witnessing true greatness at such close quarters.

The First Mate came the first time I whistled, he loaded up the oyster tin trolley (sustenance for the long day ahead) and dutifully hoisted me onto his shoulder as usual so I could steer him by the ears.   

The Trek 
We made the mighty train trek down to the southern shore in record time. Some spritely folk in our carriage had decked themselves out in Union Jacks and a few other assorted flags. We were not alone in our buoyant high spirits. 

The Venue
The viewing area at Weymouth slopes gently down to the water which rings a perfect arc as an undulating stage before the crowd. Felt like you could almost touch the windward mark from where we sat. Brilliant. 

Market Appeal
They say sailing is not a spectator sport and that may be true. But they have done really everything imaginable to make it more accessible and as riveting as possible. 

Every dinghy was rigged with its own camera focused on the action in the cockpit. Two helicopters filmed from above and roving camera arms filmed from our hill. All of this was relayed back to giant screens around the crowd to make the action even more immediate.  

Intensity
Regattas are now designed to lead in to a ‘medal round’ with a clear visually-appealing last race. No more ‘best 6 out of 7 races’ where the winner is triumphantly (though anti-climatically) announced after some math calcs in a back room.  

Visual Appeal
Even the racing courses have been redesigned so that the final stretch to the finish is a mini-reach, emphasizing boats’ finishing positions like horses at the racetrack.

And you gotta love the ‘flags for spinnaker’ designs for the boats this year (as in the lead picture above). Absolutely gorgeous! 

Results
We were lucky enough to see three medal round races yesterday. China won the women’s laser radial, and Australia won the men’s laser and 49er classes after some very intense competition.

Was it a great Olympic day? Absolutely! Whoo-hoo! You bet!


Have you been watching the Sailing Olympics? Favourite class? Best race? Best moment? What did you think?

–Captain Cat 

(transcribed by the Can Opener)

How Much Boat? – Marina Fees vs Length

 

Part 1 (of 4) of  How Much Boat? Boat Fees vs Length

 

Captains’ Log

Stardate: 201195

Far worse than I feared. My First Mate, Can Opener, persists in obdurate lunatic ravings against the draft of my three-storey starcruiser yacht design.

How long can this continue? I may soon be forced to admit that for him there is no hope and no antidote… has he really gone off the planetary deep end this time?

Cost effective? One-storey? Monohull? What mad science is this?

Here below, a sad excerpt from the Can Opener’s notes and calculations found only last night while I was searching for an informative book to snooze upon:

‘What is a cost effective length of boat?

Is there a ‘most cost effective length of boat’ when considering ongoing ‘running costs’, for example, marina costs? Obviously costs increase in general as boats get longer.

But I wonder –

is this a straight-line increase?

Or are there a step change increases around boat ‘length categories’ that mean a slightly longer boat at a marina could have the same approximate cost as a shorter boat?

If so, where (in what regions) is this true?

How was the sample done?

This is not intended to be a definitive last word analysis of worldwide marina fees. It was done relatively quickly with enough data to look for tendencies only.

I collected daily and annual marina base rates from a sample of 26 marinas across 5 popular cruising regions: England, the Mediterranean, the Bahamas, the US and Fiji. (I aimed for the cheaper Med countries: Portugal, Croatia, Greece. Also included Malta.)

Costs were estimated for boats of every length from approx. 8.5m to 14.5m (from 28 ft to 50 ft). Sales taxes were included in prices; electric, water charges etc were not.

Annual marina rates were also recorded – since the corollary to the above question is: what region would be most cost effective to do a year’s refitting in? Marina rates will be an important part of this answer as well.

This sampling covers relatively few marinas and regions and is only intended to identify a significant trend in pricing ‘step changes’, if any.

I only sampled marinas that have websites and that also post their rates online (not a given). Some good bargains at smaller marinas without websites were probably missed.  


I completely skipped the superyacht websites too. Of course.

Results

Only the Mediterranean marinas seemed to often price by length categories. These categories were usually: <10m (<33ft), 10-12m (33-39ft), 12-14m (40-45ft), 14-16m (46-52ft)… So a boat that is just under 12m (39 ft) would be charged the same as a boat just over 10m long (33 ft).

Some marinas in England and US have price/length categories, but most just offer a flat per metre (per foot) rate. In England if there were length categories, they tended to be ‘under 10m (30 ft)’ and ‘over 15m (50 ft)’ – but this was not consistently seen.

In the US if there were length categories, they tended to be ‘under 35 feet (10.5m)’ and ‘over 50 feet (15m)’ – this didn’t have too much impact on the daily rates, but showed up more in the annual marina fees (of this decidedly small sampling).

The Bahamas and Fiji seemed to consistently price a flat per length increment rate.

Is there a magical length of boat to optimise costs?

Maybe. I guess if we planned to just cruise in the Med, it might make sense to pick a boat just under 10m (eg. 32ft), just under 12m (eg. 39ft) or just under 14m (eg. 45ft) versus something slightly longer.

If we planned to primarily cruising along the US coasts, a 34ft (or 10m) or 49ft (or 15m) yacht might enjoy some relative gains that are greater than the joy of having one extra foot of length.

But we are heading for ‘destination anywhere and everywhere’.

Although the relative cost per metre/foot goes down as the boat gets longer, the total cost to stay at a marina dock per night keeps going up and up…  QED.

Note to self – further research?

Are there online databases or guidebooks with more comprehensive marina rate listings all in one place?

It was surprisingly difficult to find this information online… ‘

What further evidence of the Can Opener’s ongoing ravings will I find? Such is my concern for my dear First Mate that I have booked a vet appointment for him tomorrow.

He thinks he is taking me for a check up (heh heh), but once there I will perform a hasty switcheroo and have him spread-eagled on the stainless steel table for a quick once over before he knows what’s up.

Will a few good swigs of the vet’s fail-safe cod liver oil wonder drink end this madness? Only time will tell…

–Captain Cat

(relayed per Skype and transcribed by the best Vet in the galaxy)


Next up: How Much Boat? – Daily Marina Fees vs Length, Part 2 (of 4)