As you sail past the O2 “Dome” or fly over it on the cable-car, look to the opposite bank and you will see the site of the largest private dock in Europe, the birthplaces of the hydraulic crane and the modern lighthouse, the yards where “bad buoys were made good” and HMS Warrior was launched, and the wharf where Brunel’s first steamship had her engine installed.
Electronics masterclass with Tom Cunliffe, Saturday 9th November 2013
Once we navigated oceans by the stars. Now it’s barely imaginable to cross the Thames without a computer. If you’ve ever been baffled by the array of technology available to the modern yachtsmen and left wondering what is useful and what is just good marketing, this is for you.
Taking the Stress out of Single and Short-Handed Sailing, with Duncan Wells
Duncan is an RYA Instructor, Principal of Westview Sailing, and a features writer for Yachting Monthly. There is something for everyone from master mariners to novices in his talk, which is full of practical ideas delivered with humour.
A North Atlantic Circuit in Gulliver G, with Geoff and Kate Caesar
Clare Francis famously crossed the Atlantic in Gulliver G back in 1973. In October 2011, 37 years later, current owners Kate and Geoff Caesar took her over the Pond again on a 10 month circuit of the North Atlantic.
The Baltic: Getting there, and why you would want to, by Nicholas Hill
The Baltic has gone from a place visited by the intrepid few to the Cruising Association’s second most popular destination. The area covers ten countries, each very different. With better weather than the UK, no tides, and a few thousand harbours to explore, Nicholas Hill reckons it’s the place to be.
In this talk, he explains how to get there, and where to go when you have arrived.
Individual lecture tickets: Members £4.00 , Non-members £7.00
Croatia – the Mediterranean as it used to be, with Stuart Bradley
Why does Croatia get a bad press? Before moving to the Adriatic, Stuart and his crew picked up many negative comments about Croatia's officialdom, costs, and the unfriendliness of the native population. Their plan was to spend one season there and overwinter in Greece. However, after five summers cruising the coast and islands they have no plans to move on.
Colossus sank in 1798 off the Isles of Scilly. She was a 74 gun war ship. This is the story of the wreck and its salvage over the years, told by the divers that discovered it. Colossus was one of Nelson’s ships and carried an important and valuable cargo, owned by Sir William Hamilton.
The talk will include a 40 minute DVD made by the divers, who will also tell us about current diving and salvage projects around Scilly.
Individual lecture tickets: Members £4.00 , Non-members £7.00
Cruising the Bahamas (or Sailing in a Swimming Pool), with Angie and Mike Williams
Mike and Angie Williams left the UK in July 2005 with Lady of Lorien to cruise Spain, Portugal, Madeira, Canaries and the Caribbean. They spent five years around the US East Coast, returning to the Bahamas each winter as ‘snow birds’.
The tides have a major effect on our time on the water – and have a seemingly infinite variability around the world. From Ungava Bay to Lowestoft, from Venice to Port Circumcision, from Galileo to Dr Doodson, here is a description of how and why tides happen, how predictions are generated, and some of the other effects that we need to look out for, all from the man who gave us astro-navigation in 90 minutes.
Individual lecture tickets: Members £4.00 , Non-members £7.00
