Swallow Yachts Association
Swallow Yachts Forum => Sailing and Events => Topic started by: Graham W on 11 Jun 2012, 18:53
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The dates for Sail Caledonia 2013 have already been fixed as Saturday 25th May to Saturday 1st June, to coincide with the UK's late Spring bank holiday. The dates do not clash with Morbihan or Venice 2013. If you have a BayRaider or BayCruiser and want some real excitement in great scenery, with good company and with multiple safety boats in attendance, block out your diaries and let the organisers know that you are interested.
There are already nine possible entries, of which three are BayRaiders. Claus will probably bring a BayRaider instead of Craic, so without an all-conquering SeaRaider to contend with, who knows what might happen?
I declare an interest as the new treasurer of the Great Glen Boating Club, under whose auspices the event takes place.
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The barge accommodation is filling up unusually fast for next year (10 of the 12 available cabins seem to be already booked). So if you definitely want to be on a barge (as opposed to on a separate cabin cruiser, in B&B's or camping), then it would be a good idea to put your marker down with Norna prontissimo.
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Graham,
Great to hear that BayCruisers are eligible - my reading of the entry rules suggested otherwise.
I will sign up for next year. I sail on the Moray Firth so its the closest we have to a local raid!
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Great to hear that BayCruisers are eligible - my reading of the entry rules suggested otherwise.
Brian,
Which part of the rules did you think disqualified you? We had a Drascombe Coaster this year, which is sort of similar. Except that you will find going to windward much easier!
Graham
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Graham,
The BCs have a Bermudan rig rather than a "traditional" rig.
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The Baycruiser rig is traditional in Bermuda.
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The classes for the raid are:
Class 1 - Displacement keel boats of traditional shape and sail plan
Class 2 - Centre-board boats of traditionally inspired shape and sail plan
Class 3 - Drascombes and similar craft
Class 4 - Development boats (modern materials, sails etc)
Class 5 - Leisure Class (may use motors, not qualified for all races)
The rules go on to say:
"Specialised racing sails, including spinnakers and other similar sails are not permitted. Trapezes, outriggers and sliding seats are also not permitted. Special cases may be considered in the “Development” Class.
Note that "traditional" sail plans generally exclude Bermudan and Günter rigs although special cases may be considered. The Organising Authority reserves the right to allocate a boat to any particular class on the basis of anticipated or actual performance in the interests of promoting close competition, and to split any class."
That bit about Bermudan rig would disqualify you from class 1 and 2 but I think you would be in class 3 with the BayRaiders and the majority of other entrants. The organisers are not so keen on keelboats as they are unable to draw up their centreboards and beach with everyone else. No problem there with BayCruisers. How do you feel about rowing, which is part of the raid?
You have to be fairly weird and wonderful to be put in class 4.
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The Baycruiser rig is traditional in Bermuda.
Now there's an idea - Sail Bermuda, a raid for those with new fangled rigging.
Oh, what I would give for some warm weather sailing at the moment!
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That bit about Bermudan rig would disqualify you from class 1 and 2 but I think you would be in class 3 with the BayRaiders and the majority of other entrants. The organisers are not so keen on keelboats as they are unable to draw up their centreboards and beach with everyone else. No problem there with BayCruisers. How do you feel about rowing, which is part of the raid?
Rowing! Not exactly, too much freeboard and no rollocks. Would towing with a rowed tender qualify? :)
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Four of the ten races this year were rowing along the canal sections, plus one sailing race in Loch Lochy which turned into a rowing race (10nm) because there was no wind. You could opt out of those races and use the iron donkey but you might end up last overall, if you can bear the ignominy. Towing with a rowed tender would be slow - the race leaders managed 3-4 knots in their boats.
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The accommodation barge is now fully booked. Five out of the eight berths on the very comfortable cabin cruiser Taransay are also booked, with talk of a second smaller cabin cruiser being chartered. I recommend booking early if you are not aiming to camp or sleep on your boat, which is what the less pampered majority do.
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Swallow Boats have generously agreed to sponsor a special prize (a quaich - see picture below) for the fastest overall BayRaider 20 (either model) during Sail Caledonia 2013.
Before this year's event, I had never been in a sailing race and had not rowed for 35 years but my boat still came in third overall. So it is not necessary to be an expert to put in a good show. I encourage anyone to enter who wants to learn more about their boat and and at the same time have an adventure which is out of the ordinary. The more BayRaiders we have, the more fun it will be and the greater the learning experience.
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Accommodation on Taransay is also now fully booked. The organisers will almost certainly charter a second cabin cruiser.
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Swallow Boats have generously agreed to sponsor a special prize (a quaich - see picture below) for the fastest overall BayRaider 20 (either model) during Sail Caledonia 2013.
Meaning, a prize for the best overall accumulated time between Atlantic and North Sea, and with no discarding of any one race, right?
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I should think it means the same Sail Caledonia rules as for everyone else, based on race points and one discard.
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Graham,
if the prize is not for the overall accumulated race time then it will not represent "the fastest BayRaider overall" but the "BayRaider with the minimum points in certain races".
The traditional Sail Caledonia race rules are such that to finish one single short rowing race in sixth position by seconds late cannot even be compensated by winning five long sail and oar races by hours each. Thus the usual Sail Caledonia race point system can clearly not be used to find a true winner for the title "Fastest Bayraider 20 overall".
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Ha! Discards?
Shame they can't apply the principle elsewhere - like Wimbledon or the European Cup, for example? The Brits could really do with other ways of "not really losing" .
Nice to hear about the Swallow Boat-sponsored cup for the fastest (Terms and conditions apply) BayRaider. Er....Sorry. Sponsored Quaich, that is. (You’ll probably need something with two handles to hold the whisky steady after all that rowing against the wind.)
The only way “Four Sisters” will get into the silverware is if I nick the spoons from the Premier In at Fort William. (Should I get that far!)
.....and the only way, Graham, to beat LLafurio ( if he still has the crew I saw him with last), will be to tie a bucket to his rudder and hope he doesn’t notice! (Llafurio, I have FOUR daughters and none of them are willing to pick up an oar!)
Anyone up for the Irish Raid? Fourteen days of it .... and they spell it ”Whiskey” over there!
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Matt as sponsor of the BR award and Martin as organiser of Sail Caledonia both agree that the 2013 quaich should be awarded on normal SC rules (race points minus discard). The feeling is that raids like SC are special because of the rowing element. It is driving the evolution of a type of boat that balances the opposing requirements of rowing and sailing - and also the lottery of wind direction in the Great Glen. The points system does this and without it, as one committee member (skipper of this year's overall winner) put it, SC would become "just another sailing race".
We all know that BR's sail extremely well in nearly all conditions. The challenge for BR competitors now is to make sure that the rowing aspect of their raid is also up to scratch. Not everyone will want to do this but I think that in the right conditions, the BR is surprisingly fast as a rowing boat.
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11 boats are now entered for next year, including two past overall winners. It is shaping up for quite a scrap!
The barge and first cabin cruiser are fully booked and only one double cabin remains on the second cabin cruiser. After that, it's camping (on shore or on your boat), B&B's or hiring your own cabin cruiser.
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I participated in the 2012 Scottish raid, and really enjoyed myself as crewing member in the Bayraider Ristie. Everybody to me seemed to have lots of fun teasing and challenging other boats. The getting together in the evening and enjoying the food and alcoholic beverages, discussing different topics brought us all together for a memorable occasion. Thanks should go to the organisers and support crew. Yes, I’ve already signed up again (sorry for those who got to know me).
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I’ve already signed up again.
Reg,
Congratulations on ordering your new BayRaider. That means three of the eleven boats registered for Sail Caledonia (so far) are BayRaiders. Matt mentioned (I don't know whether he was being serious) that he was also thinking of entering with a BayRaider, which would raise the possibility of presenting his own trophy to himself.
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James Lowden has entered his Bay Raider 17 'Tarika' to Sail Caledonia 2013, bringing the number of Swallow Boats to 4 out of a total of 12 so far.
There is currently one berth available on each of the barge and the cabin cruiser. There may be other accommodation possibilities organised, depending on demand. Otherwise, it is down to tents or sleeping on board, in both cases supported along the route by a van, the barge HQ 'Ros Crana', 3 safety RIB's and at least three other larger boats.
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An article entitled 'Preparing for a sail & oar raid' has been posted to the library.
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Jonathan Stuart and Simon Russell have both entered their BRe's for the raid, which means that six out of 14 of the boats entered are Swallow Boats.
Sadly, the Caledonian Yawl 'Elsie', 2012's winner, has had to pull out but will be back in 2014. Swedish entrant 'Sommarvind', overall winner in 2011, is still in and there are also some fast Dutch boats among the competitors.
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For anyone still pondering whether it is too late to enter for Sail Caledonia 2013 (25th May to 1st June), it isn't!
Two more boats have entered since January but Claus has withdrawn his BR20 Llafurio, which means that a third of the 15 entrants are Swallow Boats - all BayRaiders of one kind or another and all eligible to compete for the BayRaider Trophy donated by Matt. A limited number of comfortable floating accommodation places are still available for those who don't want to camp.
Anyone who has taken part in the raid will tell you that it is very well organised, you get well fed, it is great fun despite being somewhat challenging at times and that going across the picturesque middle of Scotland from sea to shining sea engenders a huge sense of achievement. Enthusiasts enter every year!
This year, there is a small pool of boatless participants who are keen to crew in any boat that will have them (the Press Gang), although some have expressed a preference for Swallow Boats. If you can't find crew or don't want to participate solo, this may be an opportunity.
One last thing - you are guaranteed to be extensively photographed by John Macpherson from his committee boat, as well as by several others. You will therefore have as souvenirs some cringe-making shots of your boat badly trimmed, as well as some shots, like the two below (both courtesy of John M), that you will want to have framed. I had a Photobox photobook made up of mine last year, which I gave to my crew.
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Tim Riley has entered his BR20 'Ristie' for a second year, so we are back up to six Swallow Boats registered for the sail & oar raid at the end of next month. The total number of boats entered is now 17, which is higher than it has been for many years.
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On the subject of rowing without rowlocks - I found out at Rutland water last weekend that that a BC23 can be successfully "paddled" using a couple of dinghy oars though I wouldn't want to do it against a current.
Rob J
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You are guaranteed to be extensively photographed by John Macpherson from his committee boat, as well as by several others.
Photographer and writer Kathy Mansfield is now coming to next month's Sail Caledonia http://www.kathymansfieldphotos.com/
Her brief is to find out what makes a good sail & oar raid boat.
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Ristie will be back this year to defend our reputation agains Alice-Amy whos skipper jumped ship last year at North Kessock and immediately ordered his own Bay Raider and entered Sail Caledonia. So it looks like we will have the ideal opportunity to see who was right about those tacks on Lock Ness... is it better to sail quicker but a little off the wind.. Watch out Alice Amy we are coming for you!!!
ps if anyone else in a bayraider decides to leave their engine behind please work out how to come to a stop before you reach my stern when entering a lock.
cheers
Tim Riley
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The BayRaider fleet has finished safely and an excellent time was had by all. We had all four seasons during the week, although there was less wind than usual which meant quite a lot of rowing....
I have posted the first of what I hope will be a torrent of photos to a new Sail Caledonia 2013 gallery http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?page_id=449&album=1&gallery=12 Links to other galleries, including those of Kathy Mansfield, will be posted in due course. In the meantime, Kathy will be on the 'Water Craft' magazine stand at Beale Park next weekend, and has promised to bring her computer along for sneak previews of some truly stunning photos, particularly on Loch Oich.
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I have added my photos to this gallery.
What Graham modestly omitted to say was that he not only won the Swallow Boats class but was also the overall winner of Sail Caledonia 2013. Congratulations Graham!
Jonathan
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The highlight of Sail Caledonia for me was probably the Loch Ness Challenge - for the challenge of the sail as much as the race. I have had a look at my GPS track for that day and we sailed 44.36 miles (38.5 nautical miles) with a max speed of 5.65 knots (on a beam reach). If anyone's interested here is a link to a map showing our track:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/322707845
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Here's my track for the same day using HomePort - not as useful as Garmin Connect but better than nothing. Just under 38nm total distance, with a bit of rowing (assisted tacking) in the mid section of the upwind leg. Maximum speed 6.0 knots at the NE end, maximum depth 230m (with fish showing down to 110m), minimum water temperature a chillsome but apparently normal 6°C.
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The detailed raid results have now been posted by John Macpherson http://www.sailcaledonia.org/page40.html
John's photos are eagerly awaited. In the meantime, Kathy Mansfield has posted some wonderful pictures of the raid on her own website http://www.pbase.com/kathymansfield/sailcal
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For those that like to over-analyse things as much as I do, attached is a spreadsheet containing the 2013 race and class results by race and boat.
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The skipper looked sternly at his crew. “Shipmates”, he said “we are about to take on the endeavour of our lives, er, again. I can offer you nothing but toil, sweat, cramp, blisters, a sore bum and if you pull the wrong piece of string, blood and tears as well. This is a sail & oar raid, which means that if there is no wind, it becomes an oar & oar raid”.
And so it proved. With often feeble winds for this time of year, we ended up doing quite a lot of rowing. Four of us had an oar each in the rowing races, without a helm and with only car wing mirrors for guidance. Three of us often rowed in the sailing races, while the fourth member of the crew acted as a member of the RIB safety boat team.
Our aim was to beat as many of the five other BayRaiders as possible, helped by four long oars, a master sailing tactician (my brother-in-law), a conventional jib on a short bowsprit and the aforementioned toil, sweat, etc. We all have the blisters to prove that we put in the effort. We also gained an insight into what it was like to be a Viking but without the usual shoreside perks.
If the wind drops below about 5 knots on the nose, instead of clawing slowly to windward, it is usually a lot quicker just to sheet in the main, furl the jib and row straight upwind until you hit the next patch of breeze. The boat that habitually beat us, Sommarvind, a Stora jaktkanoten from Sweden (overall winner in 2011), barely bothered to raise their sails on some sailing days and rowed like Vikings possessed.
When we were fortunate enough to sail, the BR20 behaved impeccably as always and then was only consistently outpaced by Lapsus, a beautiful Dutch Valk keelboat of 1941 vintage. Tarika, a 17’ BayRaider gave us a spot of bother when sailing on Loch Oich, beating us by four seconds. My excuse is that I didn’t notice the obvious drag from our unraised outboard until we were a third of the way around. They also chased us closely over the line in the final sailing race on the Beauly Firth. The BayRaider Expedition Mallory had the nearest scores to ours by doing well in both the sailing and the rowing. In a raid like Sail Caledonia, if you want a good placing, you need to do consistently well in all the races, regardless of the conditions.
Our focus on consistency certainly paid off and it was enough to give us an excellent score. What we didn’t realize was that being first in class so many times also made us overall winners. When the results were announced, I think we were all a bit shocked, as we had assumed that Sommarvind had repeated their 2011 win.
I’ve already booked a place on next year’s raid. I’m hoping that with a bit more wind, we can enjoy the scenery and expend fewer calories. Whether I can persuade my excellent crew to share my vision after this year’s experience is another matter….
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Here is another set of photos from SC2013, including a good number of BR/BRe pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shricthism/sets/72157633881518594/
Further to what Graham wrote above, I would love to say that he won solely because of a greater willingness to row and by having more rowers in his crew. However, when the wind did blow he also out-sailed us. Well, on Loch Oich we were getting close until Mallory was unfairly given a 360 penalty, but on Loch Ness and elsewhere Turaco had this annoying habit of pulling away and grudgingly we may have to admit that this was down to better sailing!
There's always next year, so it looks like I need to get back in to training to make my oars bend even further and improve the sailing techniques...
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I did an experiment with a temperamental GoPro camera mounted on my mizzen mast for the Loch Oich race, which was sailing only. One photo a minute for nearly two hours before the battery ran out https://www.icloud.com/photostream/#A45ON9t3fpt4d Double click on any photo, wait a bit and it should come up in high definition.
Several other boats come into view at various stages, including close encounters with Feadhanach half way through and Ristie (BR20) towards the end. There's also a point towards the end where we barely move for about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, the camera died before a slo-mo multi-vessel pile-up right in front of us and before the windy finish.
I also have an unpublished sequence of the "sailing" race on Loch Lochy. It shows three rain-soaked individuals rowing and rowing and then doing some more rowing.
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John Mac's photos are now up http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/f1WpjQ01/1/6095724
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I've added some more pictures to the gallery http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?page_id=449&album=4&gallery=12