Boating holiday - not on a canal

[Momac]

Okay its not a canal boat buy I thought \i would share this as all boats are of of interest to me and may be to others .

 

Just returned from a week in Greece - South Ionian . Bavaria 41.
The weather was good - always pleasantly  warm , occasionally hot, a bit English one day . Made  7 knots under sail on a couple of occasions which was fun.

.

.

[Alan de Enfield]

Bavaria are well built and beautiful boats. NICE !!!!

 

Big bathing platform fenders for mooring stern-to. Good idea on 'hire boats'. My 1st time mooring stern to (in Turkey) and I thought "I hope that bow anchor holds" as I reversed back against it.

 

 

[WotEver]

Great boat name, too...

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, WotEver said:

Great boat name, too...

Yer - Wotever ……………………..

[rgreg]

Nowthen, that looks good. What level of experience did you need to take it out? Were you part of a flotilla? 

[mrsmelly]

3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Bavaria are well built and beautiful boats. NICE !!!!

 

Big bathing platform fenders for mooring stern-to. Good idea on 'hire boats'. My 1st time mooring stern to (in Turkey) and I thought "I hope that bow anchor holds" as I reversed back against it.

 

 

They do like their stern berths in Turkey innitt. Many moons ago in a previous life the Skipper of our warship did one in Antalya............He hadnt done one before................We had three months in dry dock in Gibralter after limping there to restore the trashed ( Big time ) stern of the ship after he hit Turkey, literaly at about 5 knts or more!!

[Momac]

1 hour ago, rgreg said:

Nowthen, that looks good. What level of experience did you need to take it out? Were you part of a flotilla? 

We were not in a flotilla.

 

We shared the boat with another couple who we have known 30 years . David has RYA Day Skipper , which was  sufficient to charter the boat. He doesn't have a great deal of experience in terms of sea hours and  I think my 10 years experience together with my wife  with our own motor boat helped too.

 

The charter company provided a mornings free boat handling tuition so we fully understood the method of   anchoring and mooring  ''stern to''.

 

 

 

[WotEver]

55 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

They do like their stern berths in Turkey innitt. Many moons ago in a previous life the Skipper of our warship did one in Antalya............He hadnt done one before................We had three months in dry dock in Gibralter after limping there to restore the trashed ( Big time ) stern of the ship after he hit Turkey, literaly at about 5 knts or more!!

What is it with RN skippers? Driving into Oz, reversing into Turkey...

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

What is it with RN skippers? Driving into Oz, reversing into Turkey...

Stern berthing is a very rare manouevre for a warship. Our skipper had never done one!! I and a couple of oppos were leaning over the stern with rattan fenders ready to butt up to the path basicaly as that was were we were berthing. We had an american ship on one side and someoene else ont tother. As we got closer and closer still going too fast there was a subby with a radio in contact with the bridge giving approximate distance.....me and my mates kept looking at each other and a few feet before we hit we all dropped the poxy fenders and took off legging it down the waists towards the pointy end of the ship, we had already done half a dozen paces before the subby told us to move!! The  back end went over the concrete cutting massive cables inside and causing both props damage and the entire stern of the ship..........it eventualy bounced off and stopped clear of the path. We went to get our fenders and all that was left was the rope and piles of dust on the surface of the sea.......some things you just never forget ?

[Alan de Enfield]

15 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Stern berthing is a very rare manouevre for a warship. Our skipper had never done one!! I and a couple of oppos were leaning over the stern with rattan fenders ready to butt up to the path basicaly as that was were we were berthing. We had an american ship on one side and someoene else ont tother. As we got closer and closer still going too fast there was a subby with a radio in contact with the bridge giving approximate distance.....me and my mates kept looking at each other and a few feet before we hit we all dropped the poxy fenders and took off legging it down the waists towards the pointy end of the ship, we had already done half a dozen paces before the subby told us to move!! The  back end went over the concrete cutting massive cables inside and causing both props damage and the entire stern of the ship..........it eventualy bounced off and stopped clear of the path. We went to get our fenders and all that was left was the rope and piles of dust on the surface of the sea.......some things you just never forget ?

Sounds a little unnecessarily exciting.

 

My 1st experience was when we went to look at buying a boat (23 foot beam catamaran), The widest previously was my 14 foot beam cruiser. The seller insisted that I took her out for the sea trials, and that I brought her back in, it was nerve racking 'backing' in between millions of pounds of yachts with inches either side, then being able to stop inches from the dock-side without damaging someone's boat. All went well, so I didn't need the pair of spare trousers.

It gets easier with practice, but the 1st time is a bit of a worry.

 

We didn't buy her, but the next one (in Croatia) was the one we eventually bought - still moored stern to, but she was moored alongside a pontoon !!!!!

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2018 by Alan de Enfield

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Sounds a little unnecessarily exciting.

 

My 1st experience was when we went to look at buying a boat (23 foot beam catamaran), The widest previously was my 14 foot beam cruiser. The seller insisted that I took her out for the sea trials, and that I brought her back in, it was nerve racking 'backing' in between millions of pounds of yachts with inches either side, then being able to stop inches from the dock-side without damaging someone's boat. All went well, so I didn't need the pair of spare trousers.

It gets easier with practice, but the 1st time is a bit of a worry.

 

We didn't buy her, but the next one (in Croatia) was the one we eventually bought - still moored stern to, but she was moored alongside a pontoon !!!!!

 

 

Yes it was a C---K up!! We were in several million pounds worth of kit even back then. When you have two and a half thousand tons of steel going back at a jogging pace with out the brakes on it makes a fair old bang believe you me. Myself and oppos got out of the way fast as we didnt want to be injured before we went ashore to err um Enjoy ourselves ?  That was the place I was introduced to the Hookah pipe!!

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, mrsmelly said:

That was the place I was introduced to the Hookah pipe!!

Plenty of Hookers there, ideal for a young sailor.

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Plenty of Hookers there, ideal for a young sailor.

You know it makes sense ? I was a child of about 21 at the time!! Thankfully I have never grown up.  Ive met lots of those grown ups and they are very boring innitt.

[X Alan W]

16 hours ago, WotEver said:

What is it with RN skippers? Driving into Oz, reversing into Turkey...

Comes of using the "Navylark" as an instruction manual= Left hand down a bit ??

[Dr Bob]

21 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Bavaria are well built and beautiful boats. NICE !!!!

 

 

 

 

....er...No.

Bavarias were the bottom end of the market. I wouldnt call them well built. Built to a budget. The 'Liverpool Boats' end of the market. We chartered a 50 ft one in Thailand a few years back and couldnt do less than 50° apparent into the wind. Hopeless at pointing. I would never dream of buying a Bavaria.

I remember a number of keels falling off them in the mid 2000's......particularly the Bavaria 38 (I think it might have been called 38 sport).

[howardang]

17 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Yes it was a C---K up!! We were in several million pounds worth of kit even back then. When you have two and a half thousand tons of steel going back at a jogging pace with out the brakes on it makes a fair old bang believe you me. Myself and oppos got out of the way fast as we didnt want to be injured before we went ashore to err um Enjoy ourselves ?  That was the place I was introduced to the Hookah pipe!!

I remember an apocryphal  tale that went the rounds of the company where I served as a deck cadet. One of our company ships of 10,000 tons was approaching a berth in the corner of a dock in Montevideo. The Master decided to berth without tugs and when nearing the berth end on the ship had a black out. There was a hurried order to Let Go the starboard anchor to stop the ship, but by the time the anchor was dropped, the bow had hit the quay, ridden up and over the nearby railway line and the anchor dropped nicely into a passing coal wagon being shunted along the quayside, laying out the cable nicely as the train continued its journey! 

 

Howard