What connects Limehouse Marina, Tower Bridge, the USS Enterprise and a National Trust property in Northumberland? All made use of hydraulic machinery first conceived by Blaise Pascal and later developed by Joseph Bramah, Sir William Armstrong and others, including the jigger (which is not a weevil), the hydraulic motor and the weight-loaded accumulator.
Earlier this year the RCC Pilotage Foundation published ‘Ocean Sailing’ by Paul Heiney. His intention was to gather as much information as he could from people who had actually done it, rather than those who held strong views but had limited experience. He will share with you some of those experiences, and often some surprising conclusions about the craft of sailing oceans.
James has had a love of East Coast sailing for the last 25 years. Last year James introduced his crew to the shallow waters written about by Maurice Griffiths, author of The Magic of the Swatchways, by sailing their club boat, a Contessa 32, on a cruise of some of the places he wrote about. In this talk James will share some of the highlights and perils of their trip, and take the opportunity to celebrate Maurice Griffith’s work and love of the shallow and remote places.
Having long dreamt of taking his own yacht across oceans, in July 2018 Nick Nottingham set off on an Atlantic Circuit which saw him visit 50 islands over a year. He explored Madeira, the Canaries, the northern Cape Verde islands, the Windwards and Leewards, and returned via the BVIs, Bermuda and the Azores. The presentation describes his voyage and includes several videos, including drone footage. Nick’s log won the Lacey Trophy for the best CA member’s website or blog.
John’s talk covers how the Whitbread was established, an overview of the first race in 1974 and his personal view as a participant in the last Whitbread in 1989-90. The race progressed into the Volvo Race, then the Ocean Race and, to come, the 2023 Ocean Globe race that offers the non-professional an opportunity to follow the Whitbread route.
In 2014 Steve Brown and his 60ft Aero Rigged schooner Novara completed an east to west transit of the NWP before going on to complete a 33,000nm circumnavigation of the Americas.
With so many ships visiting London, it is hardly surprising that there have been thousands of shipwrecks in the Thames. This talk tells the story of 12 of those ships, from a Roman cargo ship to a mysterious sinking in the Cold War.
Iain and Penny won the Yachting World Family Cruising Trophy in the CA’s log competition for this account of a cruise to the Netherlands with their grandsons. They set out for a standard trip. It was not to be. They found themselves in Oostende with a broken transmission which they repaired before going on to Holland. But there was more damage than they thought and they were left engineless in Hellevoetsluis. Getting home produced mechanical and navigational challenges. Lessons were learnt!
Dave and Jeanette recount the story of three months of fantastic sailing in what arguably must be the most spectacular and committing sailing on mainland Europe. Leaving their home port of Liverpool, they sailed the west coast of Scotland, continuing to Shetland 100 miles north of mainland Scotland, then crossed the North Sea without autopilot which presented its own challenges.
Mike is one of the few yachtsmen to have raced round the world non-stop in both directions. He will tell the inside story of the rescue of Alex Thomson during the Around Alone Race in 2006, a particularly difficult and dangerous situation which took place in the eye of a major storm, 1,000 miles south of Cape Town.
