Attendees:

The Poole cruise returned to the WCOA cruising programme in 2009 over the first weekend in August and was blessed with mixed weather and decent breezes of which participants made the most on both days.

Poor diary planning meant that the organiser, Tim Robertson, had to ask Andy Peter to deputise on the first day of the cruise, which turned out to offer a good day’s sailing despite the weather. Many thanks to Andy for so ably jumping into the breach.

On Saturday morning Andy led the fleet of dinghies up the Frome from Redcliffe Farm slipway to Wareham Quay for a lunch at the town quay before turning the fleet back down river and winding their way down to the open waters of the harbour, traversing the Wareham Channel past Rockley Point watersports centre to turn to starboard and land at Shipstal Point. The weather was not promising with rain and grey skies, that meant some decided not to sail at all or called in at Redcliffe on the way back down river from Wareham, but it dried out and everyone who stuck it out reports having had a good sail.

Once the fleet had recovered at the slipway, plans were discussed for evening entertainment in Wareham, where apparently the Wanderers discovered live music and had a very sociable evening.

My arrival on the Sunday morning coincided with the arrival of sunshine and a decent forecast for the day of moderate winds. We briefed the 13 boats with a plan to sail direct downriver, past Shipstal Point and round the south of the islands in the centre of the harbour to a beach just inside the harbour entrance, where we would take stock and decide whether to sail out of the harbour to Studland Bay or cross to Brownsea Island for cream teas.

Sailing without a reef we made slow progress between the high reeds in the river, alternately beating and running as the river meandered between its high banks. The large fleet got away from the slip fairly quickly so there was only a 15 minute or so wait at the mouth of the river for us to reform as a group before setting out across the harbour. Andy Peter kindly took up the tail-end-charlie position to keep the fleet in touch and make sure no stragglers got into trouble and left behind, whilst I led the group down the deep water channel past the Royal Marine Base at Hamworthy, through the many moorings and down Wills Cut to the western end of Brownsea Island at Pottery pier. The back of the fleet cut the corner across the shallows meaning that we all arrived at about the same time.

As we had left the shelter of the reeds and the SW wind was less encumbered by the nearby Purbeck Hills the wind freshened considerably out in the open harbour. I rather wished I had reefed before departure which is my usual routine when sailing with the children. With the full rig up we were often over-pressed trying to make to windward and threatening to plane in the gusts when reaching or running. Whilst this makes for exciting sailing it reminded me of Frank Dye’s advice that racers rig for the steady wind state and survive the gusts somehow, whilst sensible Cruisers should rig for the gusts and put up with less performance in between. Due to the exciting conditions I elected not to reach south around the islands in the harbour, but amended the plan to cut directly between them, downwind and to head straight for the beach at the entrance, to have lunch and reef. The ride through the ‘Blood Alley’ channel south of Brownsea was fast and exciting, moving back in the boat to encourage planning in the gusts and keep her bow up, watching other wanderers showing similar ‘bones in their teeth’ stretched out around us.

The beach just inside and to the south of the harbour entrance offered us good shelter from the fresh SW breeze and we anchored in the shallows to enjoy a beach picnic in the sunshine.

The decision not to venture further out of the harbour was quickly taken and after lunch the whole fleet reefed down and prepared to beat back over our outward course into the fresh wind. Dressed up in our waterproofs and with the jib furled we made good progress back up wind, swapping the lead with several other boats sailing with and without genoa.

Beating back up the narrowing Wareham channel early on a neapy flood tide between ill defined and steeply shelving mud banks just below the surface proved interesting on the way home. If you ventured near the edge of the marked channel you had to be primed ready to tack at the first bump of the board on the bottom or else you risked stalling and getting pushed further on to the shallows. We missed one tack early in the beat, running too far into shallow water and popping the rudder as well as bumping the centreboard up. Once you are in water this shallow and moving slowly there is little point in continually trying to tack as she will not pivot through the wind and simply limps sideways slowly into ever shallower water. After two failed attempts to tack I loosened the mainsheet and bore away down wind to gybe onto the other tack and escape downwind trailing a very muddy wake! If you leave the decision too late you can find yourself in a sticky situation well aground on a lee shore, which a couple of other boats in the fleet had to paddle or pole their way out of after dropping their sails.

Everyone made it safely to the mouth of the Frome after playing with the mud to varying degrees and most elected to motor up the river back to the slip, passing us in Joshua as we tried to cheat the fickle wind and sail up the narrow channel.

All hands made light work of the recovery at Redcliffe slipway despite the stroppy powerboaters trying to dominate the use of the facility and everyone was accounted for after Andy appeared towing a Wanderer casualty with engine trouble.

A quick pack away had the boat park clear within an hour or so and another successful and friendly Poole cruise drew to a close. 

Many thanks to all who attended, especially to Andy for leading on day 1 and Andy and Judy for their safety boat efforts on day 2.

Tim Robertson - Report

David & Jill Davies - Photos