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Affiliated to the

The BurgeePort solent yacht club magazine

May 2017

www.psyc.uk.comSend contributions to the editor:

tony.firth@talk21.com

2Cover: Alum Bay Anchorage

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From the Commodore’s CockpitIan Reed (Reflections)

Welcome to the May 2017 issue of The Burgee. Spring brings us buds, daffodilsand lambs, fresh winds and some crisp early morning temperatures.

We started the year with winter meets which are reported in this issue of TheBurgee, all very well attended by very appreciative members.

We started this year’s on-the-water events with the Shakedown Rally toShepards Wharf up the Medina at Cowes. This was well attended and a greatstart to the season even if it was April 1st! This was closely followed by theEaster Rally with 8 to11 boats at all venues: Bembridge (Friday), Hamble Point(Saturday), Folly Inn (Sunday) and the very good end-of-Rally Tea at the PortHouse (Monday).

So a busy and eventful period with the weather giving us the Spring start we hadall hoped for ….. and a further five new boat memberships in the last twomonths. Welcome to all new members who should have their 2017 PSYCHandbooks with the events schedules. Any problems, call one of the Committeemembers.

At the time of writing the Bucklers Hard Rally (13th -14th May) with the Safariboat supper has been publicised to members. The PSYC Barn Dance (FridayJuly 21st) notice is also out. Members and friends need to commit early with adeposit for priority booking as the event will be opened to all berth holders later.Don’t miss out – get it done without delay!

What now? Well, keep looking at the PSYC web site (due to be revamped byJacqui our Web Master) for updates and information and look out for mailednotices from the Hon Secretary (note: if you change your email or postal addressplease let the Hon Sec know).

If any member would like to take up the rally lead for the MERCURY Rally,10th -11th June, please contact me directly. I will give support (if needed)to any volunteer.

As an RNLI sea safety advisor I had to take my update on the First Aid (MerchantNavy) Cert. We will be looking at organising some training in 2017 (as noted inFebruary's Burgee) as we have had several new members in the last fourmonths. However, the standard First Aid procedures have changed quite a bitover the last year or so. If you are interested you can contact me directly and wewill see what can be done.

In the meantime enjoy The Burgee and, as always, please consider any contri-bution you can make to The Burgee and the web with a story of your experienc-es, good or bad, or any boating techniques that you think will be entertaining oruseful to all. Look forward to seeing you on the water

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February’s Winter MeetSummary by HughNightingale (Shiraz)

About thirty members and guests cameto enjoy a talk by Ruben and Debbiefrom RS Divers. Ruben covered a briefhistory of both himself and thecompany. He started working withyachts and commercial vessels from histwenties to now in his forties. He began

diving for fun and non-commercialactivity before falling in love with it. Hebecame part of the boat scrubberenterprise, (we had one in Port Solent),where he used his diving experience tofinish the missed bits but the schemefell through. He set up on his own in2005 and became a limited company in2008, mainly cleaning racing boats.However, one day he had a phone callfrom a ferry operator and decided hewould have to be more professional.This kind of work meant he had to startusing surface supply diving rather thanSCUBA and he had an example of theequipment to show us. The diving hatweighs 25 kg in air but is not so heavyin water so we were able to try it.

The hat is connected to the surface byan umbilical comprising a blue airhose, a red communications cable anda yellow hose carrying air. Highpressure air is reduced and controlled

at the surface by the interface box.Another yellow hose is used as amanometer to measure the exact depthand is open-ended; in an emergency itcould be used as an alternative diverair supply. The hat has a HD cameraon it.

The whole equipment requires a five-man team of one diver, one standbydiver, one supervisor, one tender (tolook after the umbilical), and a secondtender to look after the second diver. Itis not cheap to run so they are notcheap.They do a lot of bottom inspections;typically they recently had to drag a carout of a pond after the owner had leftthe handbrake off while she chasedafter her dog. One of their first jobs wasto look for a Faberge egg which, sadly,they didn’t find. It has been a busy timescrubbing and changing props, towhich they have now added a lot morelarge commercial tasks. They have abasic team of 5 employees with up to20 additional divers. Most recently theywon the contract to help with thePortsmouth Harbour Capital Dredgeworking with the MOD. ThereforeRuben had some restriction on what hecould talk about. The harbour searchhas found a lot of debris includingshopping trolleys, grenades and somebombs and mines; RS Divers tend to be

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called in after a surface scan. Much ofwhat followed concerned the problemsof finding and dealing with ordnance.Once identified, a bomb cannot simplybe moved; estimating its size in themud has its own problems.

The services they provide includeunderwater inspection andmaintenance, underwater photographsof damage, visual inspection of props,rudder and the stern. It appears thatDebbie will answer the phone at anytime of day or night. There are aboutfour other dive companies in the areaand there is some interaction. They areused to doing searches for mobilephones, car keys, prop rope problemsand many case studies are on the web,www.rsdivers.co.uk. They are stillcleaning many of the race boats andFastnet boats, and some 80/100 footboats are cleaned every day at a cost of£400. They cleaned Alex Thomson’sboat; the J class yachts have a 7m keel;all of the major players use divers.

He felt now was the time to invitequestions and nominations to wear thehat. They usually only work down toabout 20 m, deeper needs a SATcontainer with 4 divers maintained atpressure and operated through an airlock to a pressurised dive bell. Howmuch to clean a yacht is shown on thedistributed leaflet, however they didonce do a drift dive in the Solent toclean a yacht as it approached the startline. While this was being discussedGail Gould, one of our new members,and Dave Aldridge both tried on thehat. The umbilical as shown is 45mlong; they could dive to 50m and canremain under water for up to threehours. Diving deep is better in clearwater so Egypt is much easier than theSolent. Answering a question, Rubenmade it clear that they have had nomishaps mainly because they stick to

rigid procedures. They had one near-miss when working on a boat on aslipway when one of the concrete“anchors” started to slide slowly andun-noticed down the slip but the diverfelt the pressure of it. It had to be fullyreported. They do not work where thereis any differential pressure as in locksand they have never had to use thestandby diver.

An enthusiastic round of applausefollowed this fascinating andentertaining talk.

As I write these notes there is news thata 500 lb bomb has been dredged up inthe harbour, the worst scenario sincethis means it had been moved. It isbeing carefully dragged out to blow upa bit more of the Isle of Wight.

March’s Winter MeetSummary by HughNightingale (Shiraz)

Ian introduced Sam Hunt, a consultantdermatologist, previously based inPortsmouth but now in Winchester. Hermain target audience for talks wasgolfers which is how she met Ian.Golfers are nearly always out in the sunand she recently realised that sailorsare also out in the sun (hopefully –Hugh). We talked about the risks; weare outside for most of the day. Whenshould we wear sunscreen? Now? InMarch? We should be using sunscreenfrom March to October. We should alsowear broad-brimmed hats and glovesare excellent but wearing shortspresents a sunburn problem. Weshould have regular skin checks; Samasked how many of us had sufferedskin problems. From the year 1800 itwas noted that there was a relationshipbetween sailors and skin problems;golfers receive each year 270 times the

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amount of UV needed to causesunburn. For sailors there is the addedreflection from sails and the water; italso should be noted that 80% of UVpenetrates mist. There areapproximately 70,000 new cases ofmalignant melanoma per year with thehighest incidence in the SW region andthe incidence is increasing.

Most new cases are referrals from GPs.There are three main types that cover95% of skin cancers: Basal CellCarcinoma (BCC), Squamous CellCarcinoma (SCC) and MalignantMelanoma (MM). UV changes genes byproviding energy that upsets covalentbonding within the DNA molecules.People who have been outdoor types areall living at greater risk and especiallythose with red or fair hair or with lighteye colour (blue etc). Sunscreen usedto be sold as tan-enhancing but nowthere is more emphasis on protection.You have to watch hair loss and V necktops. Scaly spots are really commonand are generally Actinic Keratosis (AK)which are usually harmless but candevelop into SCC. Basal Cell Carcinomais the most common and has raisedround rings. Squamous Cell Carcinomais the second most common and hasthe potential to spread to distant sites;note that this can also be caused bysmoking. Malignant Melanoma is dueto uncontrolled growth of moles.Remember your ABC’s, A Asymmetry,B Border, C Colour, D Diameter, EElevation and be aware of your ownskin. If worried say by a funny mole, gosee your GP. He will assess and referyou to a local dermatologist who willfurther assess using a dermatoscopeand might also take a sample. Thetreatment for scaly skin might beAldara cream (an immune responsemodifier), Efudix cream (a DNAsynthesis blocker), freezing or surgery.More advanced cases will require

radiotherapy or chemotherapy. It ismost important to be safe, avoidsunburn, wear protective clothing, usehigh protective sunscreen with SPF>30. Most people do not put enough onand factor 50 probably results in factor30 efficacy. The best policy is a goodcover of Factor 50 which should last allday except in intense sunlight areas.

Do not worry about large moles. Samshowed a picture of a mole-coveredback followed by a picture of a large,crusty mole. The golden rule is do notburn. Be generous with SPF 30+ andapply 30 minutes before exposure andbefore dressing. Reapply if necessary.Which is best, cream or spray? A thickgloop has plenty of zinc while a sprayis more chemical. The best one is theone you put on. Wear a long-sleevedshirt and brimmed hat but rememberthat 80% of UV can penetrate clothingdependent on weave. Use UV-protectivewrap-around sunglasses and carrysunscreen with you. Another pictureshowed an older gentleman with oneside of his face damaged (a truckdriver). Retinoids can reverse wrinklesbut may cause severe peeling. Withbright-red sun damage (all tanning isdamage) the reddened skin will peel off.

Sam said “I’m done”; there wasspontaneous applause. Q. what aboutvitamin D as, with complete block,there is no tanning but the body can nolonger synthesise vitamin D? NIHCEsays 20 minutes a day is sufficient butdermatologists say use Vitamin Dtablets.

Ian thanked Sam and there was afurther show of appreciation.

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Shakedown RallyIan and Sandra Reed(Reflections)

The first PSYC on-the-water eventof the year, the Shakedown Rally,was to Shepards Wharf in Cowes.While the March weather had beenfickle (as past experience of Ralliesin March had demonstrated) April1st gave us a cold day on the waterand only a spot of rain. Beinglayered up and keeping the earswarm was a priority, on Reflectionsat least. Winds were 16 to 19 knotsadding a substantial chill factor butit gave us a good reach up theSolent from the Forts to Cowes witha good sea-state. Soulmates, Shiraz,High Time, Somerled, Mañana andReflections were berthed just insidethe outer pontoon which was verycomfortable.  All was well organisedon arrival by the Berthing Master.

Drinks and nibbles were onReflections prior to making our waydown to the Island Sailing Club forour evening meal. A few of us hada chat with the ISC CommodoreMark Wynter prior to sitting down.

Mark owned Alchemist,  the yachtthat sank after it hit the wreck ofthe Varvassi inside the Needles inlast year's Round the Island race(fortunately no casualties). He hadhad Alchemist,  all wood, built in1977 at Lallows in Cowes. Althoughhe was not on board (he had lenther to Club members), it had beena big shock.  However, they hadfound a similar boat in Spain thatneeded doing up, so there was somegood news.

The ISC did a great job for us intheir restaurant on a busy night

with Lymington SC also visiting.The food was really good and thevenue overlooking Cowes entrancemade for a really great evening.

The return to Port Solent sawlighter winds that had backedsomewhat but weren’t any warmer.This was a good first outing despitethe chilly conditions.

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Easter RallyJudith Hunter (Mañana)

Our first port of call was Bembridge onGood Friday with nine boats attending.Duver marina was packed with severalrallies as well as numerous boatsturning up on the chance of finding aspace on a busy holiday weekend. Allthis made mooring quite tricky foreveryone, with the harbourmasterGordon barking out instructions as hetried to fit in all the boats. We wererafted alongside Salacia and the otherpower boat; Tricky C’s then rafted to us,which made a stable platform forhosting drinks and nibbles later onMañana. However, Andy and Emma inWild Confusion found themselves on theoutside of the raft behind us whichconsisted of four other PSYC sailboats,namely Bright Future (new membersAlan and Jane), Up to Speed, Reflectionsand Legato. Shiraz was on the inside ofthe same pontoon so we were all verycosily grouped together...in fact Patriciawas able to pass her beautifully madecanapés to me from her bow to ourstern with the helpful aid of Brianbalancing precariously on Salaciawithout dropping any! As the eveningturned quite cold nobody volunteeredto stay on the afterdeck for drinks andnibbles, so we managed to cram 22bodies into Mañana’s saloon beforeheading for the water taxi to BradingHaven YC for dinner. The taxi tooklonger than expected as it was very lowwater so they could only take 10 peopleat a time; we were about half an hourlate sitting everyone down for dinner.

The next morning was dry but notparticularly warm and the reversechaos began as soon as there wasenough water in the channel for peopleto creep out of the harbour. Gordon andhis merry staff were on hand to direct

operations with military precision asthey tried to allow boats to peel off fromthe first raft, followed by our raftsetc…which worked fine until one boateither lost steerage or ran aground offthe main fairway. We took thisopportunity to go as Tricky C’s left, andwe were closely followed by Salacia andReflections who was the lead boat onthis next leg to Hamble Point.Unfortunately, we later learned that Ianand Sandra had engine problems dueto fuel contamination and ended uphaving to call out and join Sea Start atsome expense before being taken backto Port Solent, but I’ll leave Ian to tellthe full story. Up to Speed and Salaciawent off to join other rallies and we werejoined at Hamble Point by Roger andSue on High Time. After the crowdedrafting at Bembridge it was very nice tofind ourselves on long, spaciouspontoons at the marina and even nicerto be welcomed by the staff with a‘Treats’ trolley and offered a cold beeror Pimms just after tying up! PortSolent could do with taking note!Sandra called to let us know about theirproblem but said that if they got backinto Port Solent in time they woulddrive around for the meal later, so wevolunteered to be host boat again forpre-dinner drinks and nibbles,generously contributed by other boatcrews. At the Ketch Rigger, we wereindeed joined by Ian and Sandra, Pippaand Ciaran after their adventurousreturn to Port Solent and enjoyed ourmeal seated together in a coveredveranda area, followed by Ian dishingout mini Easter eggs.

On Easter Sunday, the marina laid oncoffee and croissants, chocolates, eggsand various freebies in their receptionso we all negotiated a late departure tohead to The Folly Inn. As we didn’t wantto arrive there until the walk-ashorepontoon was clear of lunch-timers, we

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poodled slowly across the Solentpassing High Time and Shiraz andarrived around 1500 to find WildConfusion already circling in the river.We called Dave on channel 72 andreceived instructions to come onto themiddle of the pontoon as there was, asusual, still one malingerer taking upthe south end. Shiraz also needed to bealongside the pontoon as Marion wasrecovering from an operation, so theygot on to the north end soon after us.Bright Future appeared next to raft toShiraz followed by High Time; WildConfusion was still circling so wesignalled them to raft to us, closelyfollowed by Amoret. The wind hadpicked up from the west and wasdriving boats on quite hard. Tricky C’sarrived, but the last remaininginterloper hadn’t left yet, so they hadto pull up on the mid-river pontoon toawait the yacht’s departure by 1600.They were then rafted to by Nick Nackand finally Island Spirit whichcompleted our allowance of nine boats.Brian and Chris on Salacia had decidedto stay on in Island Harbour andwalked down to join us for the eveningfestivities … which started with …you’ve guessed it … drinks and nibbleson Mañana!

This time we squeezed 24 bodies intothe saloon and didn’t touch the bottom,we think. This was followed by dinnerat the Folly Inn which was unusuallyquiet for a bank holiday weekend and

no dancing on the tables as it wasSunday!

The return trip to Port Solent on EasterMonday was uneventful in calm seasbut not a lot of sunshine. With the helpof the tide we made the trip in about anhour...BUT then spent a similaramount of time hanging around theapproach to the lock as we all queuedto get back in. (Editor’s comment:Should have left at early morning lowwater like Amoret did!) The rally wasrounded off by joining several otherPSYC members for afternoon tea anddrinks, which had been organised byAmanda, at the Port House. All in all,it was a very sociable rally spent eating,drinking and making new friends.

A Cautionary TaleBrian Munslow (Salacia)

I'm submitting this, not to panic oralarm owners, but to raise awarenessof a problem that could have developedwith catastrophic results. Whilst this isobviously more of a powerboat  issue,those members with sail might also findsomething similar in their under-usedengine bays!

As with many members’ boats,February is Salacia's time for her lift-out for annual maintenance. This year,in addition to the usual outdriveservicing, anodes and anti-fouling, thereplacement of the starboard outdrive’spower-lift hydraulic hoses wasplanned. The port ones had blown latelast season dumping the fluid reservoircontents outboard and were replacedas soon as possible.  Being the sameage (nearly 10 yrs), it seemed a prudentmove to replace the starboard hoses aspreventative maintenance.  Theengineering work was undertaken bythe Port Solent Volvo Dealers, GoldenArrow.

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Squeezing round the back of thestarboard engine to gain access to thetransom shield, the engineers found aworrying sight which brought to theirminds a 2009 fire incident - a SealineF34 in Stokes Bay, the same model asSalacia. It was, according to them, anunexplained aft-end fire in a 6-monthold boat, which blazed to the waterlineand sank.  Thankfully, both the crewwere safely rescued.  Rather thaninclude it here, the IoW County Pressarticle is still online for those memberswho wish to find it themselves as, andI emphasise, this is a purely speculativeconnection.

On removing the top of the exhaustbetween the riser and the manifold theengineers found a plastic trunkinginstalled on the transom, positionedclose to the exhaust and showing signsof what might be termed ‘heat stress'.In situ:

The affected area was about 20cm long.Needless to say, the replacement

trunking has been repositioned awayfrom the exhaust! Fortunately thecabling within the trunking was OK.

Salacia is a 2007 hull, fitted with VolvoD4 260s.   The damaged item wasinstalled from new, so I would urge allmembers to double/triple check theirengine bays next time you’re onboardfor anything similar, whatever the ageof your hull.  Please be safe, not sorry.

PatioMagic! Magic?John Crooks (Entropy)

After the end of winter 2017, Entropy,my Beneteau 281, was in a deplorablestate. Mould seems to like winterweather, and I usually have a problem,but this was the worst yet. Perhaps itwas because the winter had beenunusually warm and wet. The mouldand green algae grow on the shadynorth-facing side of the deck. Icomplained about this to the man I wassitting next to at a PSYC lunch, and hesaid:

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said “Aha! What you need is PatioMagic!You can buy it at any large hardwaresuperstore. You just spray it on with asprayer that you can buy at the sametime, and in a week or so all the algaeare dead”I took his advice. As it says on thebottle, the algae died, but Entropy wasnot restored to shining white. The deadalgae remained as a grey deposit, and

there was also the sooty dirt that driftedin from the nearby motorway (photo 2).

It was only after pressure washing thatthe boat was restored to pristinewhiteness (photo 3). The pressurewasher also efficiently removed a patchof green algae I had forgotten to spray.You may ask what is the point ofPatioMagic! when you can pressure-wash live or dead algae equally well?However, there is no doubt that deadalgae are easier to remove than live and,if you have to clean your boat by handwith a scrubbing brush, PatioMagic!would help. Furthermore it is not agood idea to pressure-wash a teak deck– it is too drastic and will causedamage. If any member would like totry PatioMagic!, let me know and theycan use my kit. I bought a much largerbottle than I needed, not realising howfar it would go, so there is plenty tospare. I am also willing to lend mypressure washer.

Editor’s comment: John has spotted thekey point with his comment on theextreme non-wisdom of pressure-washing teak; this criminal treatmentstrips out the soft grain so that theharder wood forms projecting ridges thatbreak off when stepped on. For severalyears I have used a watering-can witha spray rose to treat Amoret’s teak deckwith PatioMagic! (a specific algicide)diluted 1:4. Do this on a dry day in earlyspring and the teak looks immaculatewithin a few days and remains so forthe rest of the season. Of course, sea-water discourages re-growth of algae soplenty of sailing to windward is a goodfollow-up treatment. All this is vastlybetter than using the two-stagetreatment with alkali then acid thatforms the basis of most chemicaltreatments.

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Space-Occupying LesionTony Firth (Amoret)

This is an editorial apology for two things.

First, the good news! Because of a good supply of copy, this issue ofThe Burgee won’t fit into twelve,pages, so it has to go up to sixteen.

Second. The bad news! The available material fills fourteen pages butnot sixteen. This means that I need to create something to fill the lasttwo pages.

Happily, I have a solution that doesn’t involve me in extra writing!I am organising a Jurassic Anchorage Meet to the Dorset coast inmid-August. There won’t be time for Hugh to send a notice out after I getback from my summer cruise to Galicia, so I’m filling the remaining spacewith a notice of this Jurassic Anchorage Meet. If you are interested in takingpart, please contact me around the end of July.

•••••Jurassic Anchorage Meet (to Worbarrow Bay,

Chapman’s Pool, Studland Bay and South Deep)Fri 11th August – Mon 14th August

Contact Tony Firth (Amoret) 02392221950tony.firth@talk21.com

Given suitable weather, this mini-Summer Cruise will allow exploration of someof the spectacular scenery of the Jurassic Coast.

However, all the Dorset coast anchorages between Anvil Point and Weymouthare unsuitable or untenable if there is significant onshore wind. Therefore thereare a couple of backup plans:

� “Plan B” would go straight to the anchorage in Portland Harbour� “Plan C” would be not go further west than Poole Harbour.

The meet starts on a spring tide allowing us to cover a lot of distance on the firstday. We’ll meet up by dinghy on the anchorages with drinks, safari suppers etc,according to taste.

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Friday 11th August(HW Portsmouth 1446 4.6m) Leave Port Solent at 1130, downthe Solent through Hurst to Bridge WC Buoy then past Anvil Point and St Alban’sHead to reach the anchorage in the eastern end of Worbarrow Bay.

Saturday 12th August (LW Portsmouth 0813 0.8m; HW 1525 4.6m)Carry the east-going tide in the morning back towards St Alban’s Head, thenfollow northwards along the west side of the Head keeping about 1 Ca offshore.Chapman’s Pool is the small bay in the corner, with a sandy spit on the porthand and some rocks on the starboard hand as you come in (photo below).Anchor on sandy ground in sufficient depth for a brunch stop. Use the rest ofthe east-going tide to round Anvil and Peveril Points, then past Old Harry andinto the popular but spacious anchorage in Studland Bay.

Sunday 13th August (HW Portsmouth 1610 4.5m)Enter Poole Harbour on the rising tide and anchor for the evening and night inSouth Deep in the peaceful southern part of the harbour

Monday 14th August (LW Portsmouth 0938 1.1m; HW 1703 4.4m)Tide turns fair at Hurst at about 0830, so leaving South Deep at about this timewill give us a flood tide all the way back to Portsmouth back to Portsmouth. Thosewho can get an extra day off can join Amoret for another anchorage in the WestSolent (Alum Bay, Hamstead Point or Gull Island) and get home on Tuesday.

Please contact Tony on 02392 221950 or tony.firth@talk21.com if you areinterested in joining this slightly different event.

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