Sept 27th

Today there were more boats leaving the water than on it. As Summer draws to a close the little day boats on the moorings are slowly being taken to the Village Lane slip where they are taken up to the Promenade for their Winter hibernation.
It was extremely quiet in the Bay. The Mumbles Lifeboat briefly disturbed the peice for a few moments during a launch and subsequent recovery but even this was a corporate event and not a mercy mission. The Bay itself was as flat as a mill pond and with only 1-2mph of wind and sunny intervals it was an extremely pleasant 3hrs pottering around under motor. Both Harry and Elliot helmed and although Elliot hasn't quite got the knack of keeping us going in a straight line it was very amusing watching him try!
Unfortunately, the camera was left at home but the fishing rods were kept pretty busy, in total we caught six fish, 3 Pollock and 3 Red Gurnard. Although, 1 of the Pollock was pretty small so was put back for another day. On the way home we stopped for some charcoal and you can guess the rest.

Sept 12th

We went for the quick get away today as The Mumbles Yacht Club was
hosting a Topper Nationwide Event. There were 184 Toppers in and around the boat park so we decided to leave the sails behind and just go under motors (plural). Clare did mention 1 motor and a pair of oars but lets just say I knew who would be doing the rowing if something had happened, hence 2 motors.
Well... a woman's intuition prevailed! I managed to break a part of the starting mechanism on the 4 stroke Honda whilst afloat but still at anchor. So we spent the next 3 hrs pottering with the spare 2 stroke (Yamaha Malta) What a great little engine, very light and pushed us along quite happily. In fact this little engine has really opened our eyes and will
probably be our second choice of propulsion from now on,
sails obviously being the first.
I started the day by taking the boat down to the boat park prior to the Topper crowds and had a good chat to an owner of a Drascombe long boat (21'). He comes from Hereford but makes the trip to Mumbles quite regularly. This was the first time we had met, they were off down the coast to Three Cliffs and as the owner rigged his crew were digging for bait. With this in mind I decided it was time to purchase my first fishing rod (not a brothers hand me down whilst in my early teens)
Too cut a fairly long story short we had an excellent afternoon in Swansea Bay getting close to the Topper racing coupled with a quick jaunt through the outer sound (gap between the lighthouse and middle island) to Limeslade and back. For tea we had Gurnard and Mackrel which were both caught by Harry using his £5.99 rod and reel!!

Club Racing in June

What did I get up to?
Approx 18 knots

Blue Water sailing!

13th June
Elliot's first sail this year. We decided to go on an adventure. With plenty of food and fuel packed we headed of from Mumbles on an ebbing tide, destination Pwll Du Bay. The weather was pleasant wind approx 10mph south westerly and sunny, temp 18deg C. After sailing around Mumbles Head we started to harden up onto a beat, passed over the choppy Cherry Stones and made our way out further in to the Bristol Channel on a starboard tack.
Once on a transit between the Mixon mark and Langland we
tacked onto port to head inshore, the out going tide helping to push us down the Gower Coast towards Caswell. At Langland Point we tacked back out to sea but it wasn't long before we thought it necessary to start up the outboard furl the jib and motor the rest of the way. This decision was welcomed by the crew as it cut over an hours sailing time from our journey. On our arrival at Pwll Du we lowered the anchor, tidied up the sails and finished off what little food still remained. Harry and Elliot did a little fishing whilst Clare and I snoozed. That didn't last long!!
They soon realised fishing didn't mean you automatically caught
fish so I dropped Clare and the boys off just behind the Needles to
explore the beach and rock pools. The tide turned at 15:16hrs so at 16:00hrs we decided it would be a good time to head back to Mumbles. I expected the journey to take up to 2hrs of sailing but on a beam reach and a following tide we were back at the Mixon mark in 50mins. The 4-5 foot swell was now breaking at times over the sand banks and all the other craft and us included took the inner passage between the sandbanks and Braclet Bay. We passed Mumbles Light house at 17:00hrs, gybed on to port and made or way back towards the moorings passing the Mumbles Pier.
The tide was now covering the bottom of the Knab Rock slip so it
was an easy job to get the boat back onto dry land and packed away.
The very last job was to wake up Elliot who had slept for the
majority of the return journey.

April 22nd

The forecast was Southerly 6mph veering Westerly
12mph by 16.00hrs. Unfortunately it remained around
6mph all afternoon and out of the Bay it appeared to be
a lot less.

Clare, Harry and I had an enjoyable sail in the
lightest conditions we have sailed the 'Lucky Lobster' in.
Even if I had spent some time tweaking the sail shapes it
would not have made any noticeable difference to our speed.
Maybe a burgee and perhaps a tell tale or two on the jib
could prove worth while but I must remind myself that
this is a Day Boat and not a pure bred racer which I am
more accustomed to.

The internal fit out is pretty basic, there is an aluminum
luff track adjacent to the seat, hull moulding, this is what
the cushions are supposed to slide into so they don't get blown over board.
A forward and aft locker with a bilge pump located in the
rear, teak centre thwart and maghony rear seat and floor
boards, a RWO mainsheet pulley/cleat and a roller
furling jib. I am planning on fitting some fabric pockets
each side of the centre board casing just to put small
items and halyard tails in.

First sail of 2009

Today Harry and I had our first sail of the year. It was an Easterly wind approx 12 gusting 15mph and we just played in and around the moorings at Mumbles. After a while we took on board another two crew members who had sunk their Oppies and Harry appeared to be very proud that our boat wasn't even close to sinking. Harry even offered the new crew some of his crisps! Ronan and Olivia both thought the FBB was much better than an Oppie.

Falmouth Bass Boat 357

FBB 357 "LUCKY LOBSTER"
Clare and I bought Lucky Lobster last July. Unfortunately due to the disappointing weather we only managed to sail her on two occasions last year with the great help of the Skipper, Harry (4) and First mate Elliot (2). I also managed to take her out under motor with the help of Paul Lienti from Chattanooga USA whilst running a warm up race for the F16 Catamaran World Championships being hosted by Mumbles Yacht Club. We are planning to start sailing in earnest during the next week or two.
FBB 357 had been well looked after by it's two previous owners, the first lived near Hereford and the second near Mumbles, South Wales. FBB 357 is a De Luxe model and was originally built by Mike (I'll check out his surname etc). She came complete with a white cuddy & sails, thick 'fender rope' to protect the hardwood gunwhales, oars & rollocks, 3.5hp 2 stroke Yamaha engine and a 5hp 4 stroke Honda engine and a fishermans anchor. Not forgetting a galvansied trailer built by Lizard Trailer Services, Helston, Cornwall (date plated 19/8/88).