Teifi Dayboat Rally

[garethrow]

I have been able to agree a date for the use of the Teifi Boating Club, who have kindly agreed to make their premises available to us for a Rally on the weekend of the 13th and 14th of September 2014.  Format will be much the same as in previous years. A combination of coastal and estuary cruising - depending on weather conditions. Two meals in the boat club - which (by way of information for the benefit of Michael and Tony) is still serving Felin Foel bitter.

I will be sending out diary markers to skippers who have attended before soon and details a bit later in the year. If you would like to be included in the circulation of details and haven't been before, or have changed your email address, please let me have your name / email address through this forum.

Here's wishing for fair winds and beautiful maidens in 2014

Regards

Gareth Rowlands

[Michael Rogers]

Excellent news! Well done, Gareth. Put me down to come (usual caveats about intervening sunamis in the middle of Cheshire).

Michael

[garethrow]

Talking of Tsunamis Michael - have a look at:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_HWkUiKqIlaN01LOEZHZ0ttWGc/edit?usp=sharing. for video footage of the lifeboat harbour and old shed being damaged last week.  Hopefully we will have slightly better weather.

Regards

Gareth

[Michael Rogers]

In the circumstances (unknown to me), Gareth, an aside from me in poor taste. Apologies! Isn't the sea ferocious when it gets worked up - scary.

Here's to decent breezes and sunshine (and dolphins) in September!

Michael

[Michael Rogers]

Hallo again, Gareth

Your bit of the coast must have taken a pounding in the last few weeks? I hope you and yours have not been too battered. I imagine a bit more than hatches have been battened down in the boat 'park' at Teifi Boating Club? Not too much damage, I trust.

I do wonder what sort of summer we could be in for!

Michael

[garethrow]

Hi Michael

Storm Force 10 gusting Force 12 (hurricane) around the Teifi coast has left its mark in places. Dinghies left in the Teifi Boating Club boat park are somewhat rearranged / stacked. Aberporth beach has about 3' more sand than it did. I am glad to say that Gwennol Teifi was in my garage, which just about kept its roof on. Plenty of flooded properties in Cardigan. We are waiting with interest to see what the channel will look like this year once the surf dies down.

I am suitably envious of those of you going to the English Raid - the W/E before the Teifi Rally. I can't see myself having the time to do both but would love to sail in that part of the world.

Regards

Gareth

[garethrow]

Inspired by the good reports of Bala  / Rutland / Sail Caledonia, I have got together details of the Teifi Rally (12th to 14th September) together with an accomodation list and registration form, all of which I will attach to this message. If anyone thinks they will have the energy left at the end of the summer and would like to come along, do please get in touch with me via Email (hp.rowlands@virgin.net) or through the forum.

Regards

Gareth Rowlands
Gwennol Teifi S17

[garethrow]

Dear all

With 3 weeks to go to the Teifi Rally I thought I'd jog your memory.

Thank you to all those who have sent me registration forms and cheques, so far I know of around 9 boats attending. If you would like to come and haven't yet got around to sending me your form yet – please do drop me a line. Programme details and registration form attached to earlier posting.

Any queries – give me a bell on 01239 811199 evenings or weekends.

Regards

Gareth Rowlands
Gwennol Teifi S17

[John Harrison]

Evening Gareth
We are interested in taking part in the Teifi Rally. We have took delivery of our BRE , Morgi Glas in April this year and have had several shake down  sails over the summer. Please can you send some further details to our email address - john_nic@hotmail.com
Best wishes
John Harrison and Steve Hancock

[garethrow]

There are 10 boats registered for this week end's rally. Weather looking as if it might be reasonable - room for more if anyone else is interested?

Regards

Gareth
Gwennol Tefi S17

[Michael Rogers]

One of the beauties of estuaries is how much they change, by the hour and often even more quickly, according to the tide, the light, the season, the weather. The Teifi (pron. 'Taivie') estuary is no exception, and has additional attractions as a 'different' place to sail. It empties and fills with the tides through narrows with strong currents: beyond the narrows there is a bar, with swells and breakers, to be navigated around: and beyond the channel past the bar, the open sea and a coastline with 'beetling cliffs by the surging main' (although last weekend the main was murmuring benignly rather than surging), wide horizons, and wonderful wildlife.

Last Friday evening in the fading light,'while barred clouds bloom[ed] the soft-dying day' (since you ask, Keats' Ode to Autumn), and while I was rigging my boat in the Teifi Boating Club (hereinafter TBC) boat park, hundreds of geese in skeins of 10, 20, 40 flew in low overhead, honking disconsolately to each other as they wheeled and settled on the sand/mudflats of the estuary for the night.

All this by way of introduction to a brief (ha-ha?) account of the Teifi Dayboat Rally, and to rub in what ALL of you MISSED. Only 11 boats this year, only four were visitors such as myself, and for a change there was not a single BR! Swallow Boats were represented by two Storm 17s, a brand new BRE, and my Trouper. Other boats were two Drascombes, two Shipmates (17ft GRP pocket cruisers), two Wayfarers, and an unclassifiable 13 ft GRP dinghy. What might be called a varied/motley fleet. TBC is a friendly, unpretentious venue with a comfy clubhouse, a bar with good beer, and lady members who, as in other years, provided excellent meals. The slipway is ample and not too steep. We were blessed with quiet weather, some sunshine and - mostly - enough wind for fun sailing.

Because tides dominate, we had to make an early start on both days. On Saturday there was enough wind to sail out over the flood, and we went for a cruise past Cardigan Island and up the coast - and some of us saw dolphins, a great thrill. Back through the narrows, now against the ebb, we sailed up the emptying estuary to St Dogmaels, where a sturdy pontoon by a pub with good beer made a natural stopping place for an early picnic before heading for TBC while there was still water, recovery, and mugs of tea. There was time for relaxed socialising and/or a quiet zizz before our early evening meal.

On Sunday there was initially no wind, and engines and towing were needed to assemble the fleet beyond the bar for a 'race' of sorts. The wind sprang up quite suddenly, and thereafter we had a good sailing breeze for a course involving a sail across the bay and then round the island (in my book, the main function of islands is to be circumnavigated if at all possible) and back through the narrows to St Dogmaels again. The first few boats made it into the estuary at high water, the later ones had the rapidly increasing ebb to contend with. Back at TBC we were treated to a sumptuous cold buffet before those of us from afar set off home.

Gareth asked us to try a 'buddy' system whereby boats in pairs kept in touch with each other on their VHF radios, in addition to the overall radio links centred on a friendly TBC rib which kept an eye and ear on us all. We voted the experiment a success, and 'buddy banter on seventy two', which can obviously also be enjoyed by all, has definite potential as an art form.

Thanks yet again to Gareth! For the rally next year, he will look for a weekend with suitable tides which also has space for us among TBC's own programme of activities - by no means a given. He hopes it can be earlier in the season, ideally in June, but has not done his homework yet (tut-tut, Rowlands), and will doubtless keep us informed once it (the homework) has been marked. It may compete with other suggested rallies, but is WELL worth the journey, and I hope more of us can support it next time. I have tried to whet your appetites!

Michael

[david]

Michael,
              Thoroughly enjoyed your account at Teffi. Sounded like a fun time in great country. Sounds like it is a 'little' tricky sailing out, what with the emptying bay, currents, narrows and bar!
Talking about Dolphins. Check out my encounter earlier this year with a pod that was feeding. It is one of those memories you just do not forget. Magical.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm54NzjXBFQ

David.

[garethrow]

Thanks for the generous write up Michael - responding to encouragement on 'homework':

Finding a date for next year depends on quite a few factors. Certainly a midday Saturday tide is a critical factor - but I also have to fit in with the Teifi Boating club who don't charge us for use of their facilities (though I do make a donation from the balance of rally fees). Generally speaking this means avoiding school holidays. I also have to fit around senior management plans - who points out we are supposed to be moving house next year (but then again - we were supposed to move this year)! The TBC don't finalise their calendar until just before Christmas - so I won't be able to pinpoint a date until then, though I may come up with a provisional one a little earlier.

Regards

Gareth

[Michael Rogers]

David

What a fantastic bit of filming - very well done! Where were you when you filmed the dolphins? Our encounter was very brief in comparison, but I'll not forget it.

[david]

Hi Michael,
                   I filmed in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California. I was out from my usual launching place of Oceanside California. The dolphins are Pacific Dolphins.