Its Different in a Bigger Boat

The Greenwich Yacht Club East Coast Cruise 2015 on Snow Goose - A commentary

It's different in a bigger boat.  Much though I like small boats, for that ‘Old Man and the Sea’ feeling, and despite the pleasures of my previous much loved Drascombe Coaster Spray, I am happy to say the East Coast Cruise this year was a more comfortable and more fulfilling experience on Snow Goose. OK she doesn't sail as well in light winds (yet) as Spray did but what Snow Goose lacks in that respect she certainly gains in others.  For a start there is room for a crew of two to join me for the week in relative comfort, allowing us to get on well in both cockpit and below - no cabin fever here. It's early days on Snow Goose, and I have lots more to learn about how to get the most out of a Bermudan rig like this. I am looking forward to doing that. So far since buying her in Newcastle last year she came South (on a lorry) to Gillingham, which is the closest to London the lorry driver was prepared to come and where for convenience I kept her over the winter, she has been cruising about in the Medway and the Thames Estuary. She was then moored for a month or so at GYC before spending much of the summer in Brightlingsea. There she gained an almighty beard of weed and barnacles in record time, but was duly beached and scrubbed on the in time for the ECC.

Beached on Brightlingsea Hard and scrubbed, ready for a cruise

So Jim Grady, Peter Garland and I joined the cruise at Brightlingsea. We consequently missed the first couple of days and an epic Thames Estuary crossing in high wind and rain but we met up with a tired and happy fleet that Sunday evening.  From then on our days were varied in weather and destination and as the East Coast Cruise unfolded we visited both familiar and new places, all worthwhile and interesting.

My excellent crew - Jim and Peter at Pin Mill

Day one was an exciting start for us with force 5-7 south westerly winds driving us up the coast to the Orwell. - excellent weather for a crew to get to know one another and the boat. With one reef in the main and a turn or two on the genoa furler the boat flew along and apart from an uncomfortable swell on the starboard quarter, until we resorted to deep broad reaches instead of a run, she was quite at ease. This was very different to sailing a small boat in such conditions. Spray also used to like strong winds, and one somehow always felt safe in her, but being very light she would ride over the top of the waves rather than in and through them.  The result was always a roller coaster and often quite wet. Exciting yes but hard work and tough on the crew. We would often ship water over the rail and occasionally need to stand up and pump. By contrast it takes a lot for Snow Goose to dip her rail and the crew stay much dryer.

The mighty Felixstowe Dock dwarfing all around it

Having arrived at Suffolk Yacht Harbour in the lower Orwell and well rested, our next day was spent sailing in the Orwell and Stour, again in strong winds, and I and my doughty crew had plenty of opportunity to hone our tacking skills which started off, well frankly a bit ragged. Snow Goose is blessed with vintage fixed handle winches. They look nice and I feel they are part of its charm but I admit they don't work as well as modern two speed winches. It is therefore, at least until we get better at it, a little slow coming out on the next tack. Spray, being a big dinghy really, didn't have winches, a different kind of hard work one might say and often tough on the hands hanging onto the jib sheet before cleating in. But the two boats were of similar early seventies vintage and are definitely sea boats, sailable either alone or in company.  Our beat up the Orwell to the Royal Harwich Yacht Club was thoroughly enjoyable and good practice. The previous long term owner of Snow Goose left much of her sailing gear in its original state for which I am grateful. Nearly always boats, (buildings, people etc) work better left as designed rather than as adapted over time and I am learning how to sail Snow Goose early seventies style. For instance she is very dependant on a well set Genoa and a light touch on themain, being prone to weather helm otherwise, and the genoa sheets are meant to run a long way aft to permit a decent set of sail. I've only just found this out and once reorganised I have no doubt it will make a difference to my sailing.

Essex skies - Deben

There is another big difference between the boats - the engines. Not long before I rather unexpectedly sold Spray, (I did not intend to buy a bigger boat it just happened), I got her a beautiful new outboard. This went with the boat to its new and happy owner. Before that I had an elderly Honda outboard which would taunt me with its irregular behaviour at in opportune moments, like Sea Reach in a blow. So far Snow Goose, which has a new(ish) Perkins diesel engine, has delivered immediate and reliable power with a confidence which is new to me. And it needs to of course, especially when manouvreing backwards onto the inside of the hammerhead at Gravesend Town Pier against a spring tide to drop off crew at the end of the Cruise. Anyway before all that the Cruise took us as far as Woodbridge up the winding Deben, penetrating deep into the Heart of Darkness, or was it Suffolk, and as the week went on and the winds became more fickle motoring became a more frequent pastime - OK for getting there but it feels wonderful when you switch it off.

Peacefully berthed on the Hammerhead at Royal Harwich Yacht Club

Sailing back down the Essex coast as close as the depth guage will allow us to, not quite as close as I used to on Spray but still close enough to wave at people walking their dogs and se them waving back.

And then there was the sheer delight of a secluded (or actually quite busy) anchorage at Pyefleet, letting the afternoon slip away and the sunset come on, comfortable in the knowledge that the meal and the company is going to be good and the boat a really nice place to spend our time. Anchoring a bigger boat takes a bit more doing than I am used to and having a willing crew certainly helps, but I will get the hang of it.

Blue Moon at sunrise - Pyefleet

We returned to Greenwich over the last two days hot days spotting seals and porpoises on the way, seemingly surfacing to take a good look at us. And although the wind was pretty tricky in the last few days of the cruise that last couple of hours’ reaching into London afforded us some good sailing.

Grain Fort guarding the Medway under a mackerel sky

So I got a bigger boat to sail in more comfort and to provide me with a sort of mobile studio, to allow me to paint and draw where I wanted. I haven’t managed that bit yet, too busy sailing it, but lets hope a few days tucked away in some quiet anchorage will do the trick. I used to paint on Spray but occasionally the work got wet or got trodden on in the rather close quarters of the cabin – Snow Goose is an altogether more civilised prospect.