IROQUOIS OWNER'S ASSOCIATION

July 1996

Contents:-

The Editors Notes
Treasurer’s Report
Minutes of the IOA AGM
Letters
Round the Island Racing
The Adventures of Two Bears
Gun Gun Photos

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The Editors Notes

The bad news is that you still have a poorly presented Newsletter. The good news is Philip Corridan, the only man to have sailed an Iroquois round the world, has kindly offered to take on the editorship. His present project will take him to later in the year but in the meantime please let him have relevant details of your maintenance, new equipment or trips (another Round-the-Island would be excellent).

I understand Marque Clubs are increasingly taking over their own sections of Marina’s which sounds a splendid idea. We have the essence of a good base here at Brighton on seriously discounted moorings and the whole set up gets better as the development proceeds. David Smith in 01273 504373 for mooring.

In discussing the arrangements for this year’s Solent Meet with David Smith we came to the conclusion that the more civilized conditions of East Cowes Marina - Port side going up the Medina beyond the ferry - might be worth a try.

The pleasant evenings at Newtown Creek (and the weather has interrupted many in recent years) is followed by a fitful sleep as the tide makes and the raft of boats realigns itself. Thank heavens over the years we have been able to rely on the stalwart anchoring of John Keetley and others.

We have always kept the same date, as when this was set several AGM’s ago some members found school holidays a problem. So we hope to see you Saturday/Sunday 24th and 25th August with Summer Bank holiday to follow.

Every year our AGM coincides with a MOCRA meet at the Star Hotel. Since we have a number of joint members it seemed logical to have adjoining rooms and they have kindly agreed to arrange a Speaker. The Buffet is of course optional and we shall open this to those MOCRA members who book. A Restaurant for those who would prefer is available in the Hotel but in the past we have found this disrupts or excludes members from the meeting.

Contents

Treasurer’s Report

The Association welcomes the following new members:

Marilyn and Robert Packer and Glen and Nancy Maxwell from USA
Robert Ashley Smith
Anthony and Jean Beetham
Anthony Cheetham
Fred and Tim Ball
Nigel Topham

The general hiccups on Newsletters has led to some understandable back sliding on subscriptions. Because of the new Newsletters it was decided to waive charges for 1994 and those who had paid have been credited. This has of course depleted the funds.

To completely update the enclosed Register we propose to delete those members who now allow their subscription to lapse. If you still wish to retain membership of the Association please send your subscriptions now before it's put in the desk and forgotten.

Contents

Minutes of the IOA AGM

held at the Star Hotel, Southampton on the 16th September 1995.

The Chairman opened the Meeting and welcomed those attending 14 members and 6 guests and particularly Walter Peeters and Willy Willemsen from Holland. Apologies for absence were received from Janet and Doug Mackay, Bob Hawkins, Tom Harte and Yvonne and David Smith.

It was reported that 5 boats attended the Newtown Creek Meet. One boat sat on its rudders and had to leave early but the remainder moved up river for the Barbeque on Monday.

The Treasurer reported that the financial situation was current account £347.60 and deposit account £1074.91. It was agreed the date of subs would be the 1st January annually and that the period of membership would end 2 years after the expiry of last payment.

The Minutes of the 1994 Meeting were read and approved.

The Chairman said he had wished to retire for the last two years and that the matter was becoming increasingly desperate as the Association needed and deserved a better Chairman. After several years in the job and having owned an Iroquois for a quarter of a century it became difficult to become original and that was not healthy for the Association. Certainly John's efforts have been most welcome and the production of the Newsletter is so much better than anything comparable he had seen and that his idea to sell advertising on the cover needed support.

The Chairman then proposed to circulate these minutes in the hope that a member would come forward and whilst he had always believed a Chairman from the south of England would find the job easier the matter was now becoming urgent.

The enclosed proposition for a mainsail design was introduced by the Chairman. After considerable discussion and a first hand account of the capsize of "Catcracker" by Dr. Peter Rohde whilst racing in close company the general opinion of the meeting was that the orignal sail plan was very adequate.

Peter then showed an electric sheet release which he has fitted to No. 1 "Ellicat" and relies heavily on following the "Catcracker" incident. This unit is no longer produced and would be too costly to reproduce. The meeting recognised the advantages of this system and John Rolfe and Steve Bleach agreed they would investigate the possibility of producing such a unit in an more affordable form. Peter was thanked for his very well presented contribution.

The Yamaha 9.9 4 stroke outboard which is becoming increasingly popular was discussed and the enclosed letter was produced. These amendments were included on current models and it was intended to discover what engine numbers required this treatment. As well as this maintenance it was recommended that anodes should be provided and well maintained to all underwater metalwork (leeplates, rudders and skegs).

After supper and at a late hour further business was closed after a thoroughly interesting evening. A poor attendance is particularly unfortunate as it is difficult to attract a good speaker to address a small gathering and unrewarding for the arrangements necessary for the comprehensive facilities provided by the Star Hotel.

Contents

Letters

News from a new member with Apache "Kasanti" and I have edited it as follows which accounts for the disjointedness:

23^rd May 1995

Dear David

Thank you for your telephone call and I enclose an application for membership and we look forward to welcoming you as a member.

I have looked up "Warlord" and in the catalogue new she was priced at £12,500 and was the 2nd Apache. The designer Rod McAlpine-Downie was very much involved with her when owned by John White (no relation of Reg). Rod had entered his Mirroecat in Round Britain, did very well but was anxious to bring an Apache to a win in the 1970 Race. The first boat "Apache Sundancer" was fairly well settled down by Mike Butterfield, a very experienced sailor and was entered so he put his effort into "Warlord". The boat was not complete and therefore well stripped out and light. In the first leg the steering cables were not good. The second leg the boat was uncontrollable and since there might be a time penalty for her state they retired her. There is a fine photograph in Multihull International 1970 photo album competing as No. 16 very light and using a 150 to 180 degree Genoa.

February 1, 1996

Dear Mr. Pack,

Sorry it took so long to respond to the membership package you sent us back in May of 1995. As you will find out by the time you finish this letter, we’ve been pretty busy. I hope you’ll find this letter entertaining and worth the wait.

Where do I begin?... My dad, J.C., was working in Saudi Arabia in 1984 when he started to contemplate his retirement. What better way to spend your golden years than to explore the islands and oceans living aboard a boat. Power boats seemed like the easiest way to achieve this goal, until he figured the cost for filling the fuel tanks. (Not on his retirement budget). This reasoning quickly gave weight to a sailboat. Monohulls were quickly discarded as inappropriate because, as my dad likes to say, "Both my legs are the same length and not designed to walk on slanted surfaces." Therefore it was decided that a multihull was the answer, and specifically a catamaran.

So it was determined that a used boat, bought in Europe, could be brought to the US and maybe sold for a profit that might make it possible to build the Tonga. At this time (1986), he enlisted the services of Patrick Boyd, and sent him on the chase for the right boat. J.C. gave Pat a short list of requirements he needed for his selection and the process had begun. Pat was looking for a boat that was:

1. 35’ or better
2. capable of handling ocean crossings
3. had headroom for my dad’s 6’+ stature, and
4. priced to sell

This led my dad on excursions throughout Europe and eventually to the river Dart in the town of Dartmouth where he made arrangements and bought the Kasanti, a Sailcraft 41’ Apache. The survey uncovered some problems that, along with some updating of some gear, were accomplished at Queen Anne’s Battery in Plymouth.

In February of 1994 we proceeded to strip her down to bare fiberglass and totally replace or refurbish all systems. We kept the Mercedes OM636 42-HP engines, Enfield outdrives, Colette stove (converted to propane), and original Brooks and Gatehouse instruments. We replaced all wiring (converted to 12 volt), plumbing, refrigeration system, sails, engine instrumentation, trampoline, headliner and carpet. In addition, we added a watermaker, single side band radio, TV, microwave, two 165 amp high output alternators, 2500 watt inverter, energy monitor, two starting battery banks, one 640 amp hour house battery bank, four lockers aft of cockpit, a dinghy/swimming platform, dual GPSs, rigid coachroof and numerous other minor improvements, as well as a new paint job inside and out.

After launching the boat at Freeport in June of last year, and bringing her up to Clear Lake by July, we finally (after "three weeks" boat time, 6 months real time) finished her preparation and set sail December 4th on our maiden voyage to Port Aransas, Texas. On this trip the usual crew of David, Sue, J.C. & Kay were joined by David’s brother Mike. It was not as picturesque as we had all spent 10 years imagining it would be. The day before we left Kemah a good friend of ours, Chuck (a fellow multihuller), showed us a short cut on the charts of Galveston Bay that could save us 20 minutes by going over an area he said "used to be" Red Fish Island. Well, Chuck, Red Fish Island still exists. We ran aground less than an hour after we set sail. We had to put everyone except David on the front of the boat while he put the engines in full reverse and powered off the shoal. After backtracking to our original mark at the ship channel, we probably lost an hour (and some bottom paint).

Although our stopover in Port A. was to be fairly short, Christmas fell upon us and we decided to hole up for the holidays. It stayed pretty cold and windy the whole time we were there, and with only tropical clothes to wear our foul weather gear got a good workout. We did however put this extended layover to good use by installing the water maker and the SSB radio/backstay insulators. (We can now be reached on board via a High-Seas operator, see last page for details.) We also sent our mainsail and knot meter back to the manufacturers for repair. After retrieving our mainsail and knot meter, we prepared for our Gulf crossing to Isla Mujeres.

We planned our departure according to the weather. We decided to leave on the tail end of a Northern in order to ride the favorable winds while we could. By 5:00pm we had motored out of the jetties and cleared boat traffic and were under full sail. Winds were 8-12 knots and we were doing about 7 knots. These winds increased occasionally to 15-20 knots and we surfed sometimes in excess of 15 knots. What a ride! Although this Northern brought us fair winds, a Northern is a Northern because it is bitter cold. We froze our butts. (And yes we all got sick.) By Monday morning the winds had tailed off to around 10 knots and by late afternoon were practically non-existent. This prompted us to pull out the "Iron Jib". For those of you who don’t know this expression, this means we fired up the engines. We continued to motor until Tuesday morning and decided despite the lack of wind, we were a sailboat and would eventually have to use the sails. We proceeded to ghost around for the next 10 hours going nowhere. By 6:00pm this got so boring we again pulled out the Iron Jib. We continued to motor until midnight and with still no wind and running low on fuel, we decided we had motored long enough. We shut down the engines and prayed for more wind. The thing about wishing for something is, if you're not careful, you might get what you ask for! Winds continued to be very light, 5 knots or less out of the Southwest and although the GPS said we were doing 2 or 3 knots, it sure seemed like we were sitting still. It was now Wednesday evening and we decided to try to get a weather fax. The forecast called for winds out of the South at 20 knots proceeding another cold front due to pass over us. So with less than 5 knots of wind, we put a reef in the mainsail.

By 8:00 Wednesday evening, wind started to pick up out of the Southeast and we started to fly once again. Our tri-light (navigation light) did not come on, so we rigged our backup tri-light onto the front pulpit. By 10:00 am Thursday we were heading into the waves and decided to slow the boat down by putting a reef in the jib. Because of these Southeast winds, we had to take a course further north than we had preferred. By 8:00 that evening, winds had turned and started coming out of the south at about 12-15 knots. This lasted only a couple of hours, while the winds increased and came out of the Southwest. Seas were becoming very confused, and despite a second reef in the jib we were still pushing the bow (front, pointy end of the boat) into the waves. The Southwest winds continued until around 4:00am Friday when the Northern passed, and the winds turned around out of the North in excess of 25 knots. We found ourselves really flying, with "average" boat speeds approaching 10 knots, and wishing we had put in a 2nd reef in the mainsail. By 8:00 am, the winds were coming from the Northwest at 20 knots which limited our ability to make a more direct line on our destination. Also, we awoke to find the trampoline ripped half off, and dragging in the water. With it, went our backup tri-light. We were able to shore up the trampoline to keep from losing it, but it was in pretty bad shape. All day Friday winds stayed up around 20-25 knots. We were on a port tack, sailing a broad reach with following seas sometimes in excess of 20 feet.

The boat settled well into this new tack, and by 11:00pm the winds died down to 15-20 knots. David was getting ready to hand over the watch to JC when they noticed a bilge pump light on for the port hull. Initial investigation showed some water in that bilge, but since we had been taking occasional water over the boat for the past 24 hours, this did not seem too unusual. But the pump persisted, and further investigation revealed large quantities of water were coming in from somewhere. David found water to be coming from under the port head (toilet), and it seemed to be increasing in volume. All hands were on deck at this time, and a furious effort was made to remove the port head and holding tank only to find that the water was coming from behind a Formica wall behind the head. David could stick his hand up behind the wall and feel the hole but could not cover it entirely with his hand. He proceeded to tear out the Formica wall to expose the hull. It was a crack about 8 inches long just aft of the dagger board pocket. By this time, water had begun to rise above the floors in the port hull. Sue and Kay worked frantically with hand pumps to stem the rising water. David worked to try to slow the flow. About an hour later, the hole had been patched using a towel, plywood torn from the wall, 1 can of new potatoes, 1 can of carrots, and a fishing gaff hook. - We sighted Isla Mujeres in the early hours of Sunday, January 14, and anchored by 8:00 am.

We all were tired and hungry and pretty much ate and lounged for the remainder of the day. David went snorkeling to check our anchor and discovered the hole on the outside of the boat to be about 18 inches long and also found another 6 inch crack on the leading edge of the dagger board pocket. These cracks were apparently caused by the sideways sliding down the steep waves on Friday.

So here we are in Isla Mujeres. Before pushing on, it looks as if we will have to haul the boat out to repair the broken fiberglass along with all the other small breakdowns. At this time it looks as if we have found a place here on the island that can haul the boat out and we are in the process of gathering the materials needed to facilitate the repairs. It will probably be a month at least before the boat is ready to continue. As it stands now, the boat is very comfortable to live on at anchor with no electrical problems or water concerns. The dinghy ride ashore is the only drawback to living on the hook. After repairs are made, we plan to move slowly down the Mexican coast, stopping when we see something worthwhile, until we reach Belize. In Belize all time stops.

The Kasanti Crew
JC, Kay, David and Sue

PS. To reach us on board: Dial 1-800-SEA-CALL to get a High Seas Operator and explain to them that you wish to contact the sailing yacht KASANTI call sign Whiskey Tango Tango 6094. They will try to raise us but we might not have the radio turned on. In any case we will probably get your message within a day and call you back. Costs are about $25.00 for a 3 minute call.

My reply dated l3.2.’96

"Kasanti" is certainly a credit to you and reminds me of her pioneering days as "Warlord" in the early 70’s. If you have been down the track of Derek Kelsall and Pat Boyd who know far more than I on this subject, what I am about to say is ‘preaching to the converted’.

Apache is the scaled up version of the highly successful Iroquois 2, double the size in fact 400 ft. super to 800ft super but proportional in every respect and this was the theme. Navaho followed the Mark 2A and so on. The Mark 2A was developed to produce better buoyancy aft. From your photographs particularly the one in the Dart 1986 the engines and outdrives are setting her stern down, this balance is crucial for sailing performance and I would have said your logged speeds for wind speed seem conservative and this may be a further indication. I enclose some AYRS details of her at the time and you will see she was designed a single engined installation well forward. My experience with the Apache was that a single engine installation revolutionised her sailing performance. Prior to this I had considered a couple of buoyancy scoops aft to be used as access from dinghy or swimming. ?????? turbulence will be converted to lift.

One hard sail is unlikely to have caused your cracking problems. It more likely happened earlier by grounding and twisting with her boards down in mud or sand. Your sail would have probably opened the weakness. It is the same problem of course, but would make me inspect the other hull critically whilst she is out of the water.

From Sandra and Bill Hather

Dear Ken

We are still delighted with our Iroquois she is everything we ever dreamed of in a boat and even if we won the lottery (no chance as we’ve never bought a ticket) we wouldn’t change her. Bill has taken an industrial sander over her hulls this spring so she is gleaming as far as the Humber mud will allow and she in sporting smart new red and black stripes instead of the brown and gold.

We hope to return to the Baltic this summer as we had such a superb cruise last year. We were made very welcome wherever we went and having bought a lot of expensive charts, we feel we must make use of them. Hopefully the journey across this year will be a bit quieter. Last years partial knockdown by a freak wave half way across the North Sea was off putting - Bill was hanging from the uphill float with his feet on the side of the cockpit - but at least she came down again the right way up. We weren’t over canvassed as we only had a small triangle of jib and no main. We put into Helgoland instead of trying to make Thyboron on the Danish coast and went through the Kiel Canal, along the German coast to the island of Poel and then up the Danish coast as far as Arhiis. We came back through the Canal and spent the whole of August sailing the German and Dutch Friesian Islands, back through the Ijsselmeer, Ijmuiden, Stellendam and across to Kent to join the daughter and son-in-law in Faversham.

We are hoping that our recent acquisition of a Hydrovane self steering gear will be an improvement this year. The fitting was simple due to the help and advice of the Hydrovane Manager, Derek Daniels, who was extremely interested in fitting the gear to an Iroquois. We haven’t tried it out at sea yet but in the river it coped admirably. We tried it on beating, reaching and running with the cruising chute and it will be a relief not to have to rely on electronic gear.

We were sorry not to have met up with the Danish couple mentioned in the Newsletter since we sailed to some of the same places. Hopefully we’ll meet them this summer. As regards Hiawatha, we saw her at Fehmarn and also he led us through the Wat passage at Neuwerk in the German Friesians. We didn’t get to talk to them as they were going to a different island but the sail number was 152 which I see was previously a Swedish owner. It was certainly Johnny Ahlers sailing her. Incidentally we met a Commanche owner (or at least his son) sailing Running Deer at Vlieland Sail No. unknown, his father had previously owned Pas-des-Deux Iroquois No. 156

As regards the AGM we would love to come but it is held so far away. We were set to come to the one in London (Boat Show time) two years ago but it was cancelled. Is there any chance of a meeting a bit nearer home e.g. Essex Rivers?

The idea of joining MOCRA is a good one and certainly meets with our approval. Perhaps the venues would be a bit more varied.

I’ll try to get round to writing an account of this years cruise in Kedim for the Newsletter. Please keep them coming - there is interest out here.

Dear Sandra and Bill

I am sorry for the tardy reply but your letter was so interesting and I am sure will be to other members, particularly with respect to the Hydrovane steering.

Later in the year Phillip Corridan has kindly agreed to do the Newsletter he I know, shares your wish for a North of London meet and we can discuss this.

As I keep on about, the boats' designer is not available and our collective experiences are what the future is for Iroquois. It is therefore SO helpful when people have done a cruise to hear of their experiences. Perhaps Bill would rather not relive his near knock down but freak conditions may be more common than is thought. I would be most interested to hear if he has had any second thoughts on cause e.g. a masthead float, running across the seaway, too much leeboard etc.

The last time I saw "Kedim" she was looking very spruce with new trackmark deckings and I am so pleased to hear you are so enjoying keeping her that way.

Have a good 1996 cruise and thank you for sharing 95’s,

Sincerely
Ken

Contents

Round the Island Racing

Simon Forbes sent John the following tables together with a multihull history of Round the Island Race that has been published in MOCRA’s Newsletters.

The following tables are most interesting in that Table 2 shows Iroquois with 42 official finishers the highest number of any marque. No production boat of her time has gone round quicker.

Of course weather is a deciding factor and Richard Collier in Cherokee set his time in 1986 the same year as Paragon set the fastest time ever. It is an abiding memory seeing Richard fly his spinnaker after rounding the Needles and ploughing off through the chaos of mono’s off St Catherines.

The entry list is impressively consistent 8 each for Catapult and Moggie D’or in 1973 the Mk 2 Idaho beat the Mk2A Joy Feline by 2 hours yet in ‘76 Joy Feline beat the Mk 2 Catapult by 4 minutes and in ‘78 beat Chiquita 5 by 10 minutes and half an hour over Catapult a very good constant improving record.

Rather than reprint all the tables, I have included here links to the appropriate pages in MOCRA's website. These pages may be more up to date than those printed in this newsletter - Webmaster

Table 1 - The fastest times ever recorded during the ISC Round the Isle of Wight Races

Table 2 - Best time in the ISC Round the Isle of Wight Races for the production designs

* The column headed "boat x races" is the number of times that a yacht of that design has been recorded as an official finisher for the full course since 1971.

Table 3 - Multihulls which established new record times for ISC Round the Island Race

Table 4 - Iroquois best times

Contents

The Adventures of Two Bears

Summer 1995 - accompanied by Angela and Terry

As usual we started our adventure in April, catching the bus to Denmark where the boat had spent the winter at Bogense harbour on the island of Funan.

Our Danish friends Inga and Fleming stored a mass of boat gear for us as well as keeping a watchful eye on Two Bears.

We were lucky with the weather and managed to get the boat ready for launching by the end of April, setting off on a new adventure on May 1^st. We said our sad farewells to our very special lovely Danish friends and left Bogense harbour feeling sure that one day in the future we shall return!

We had decided that we could no longer delay our trip to the Mediterranean so having read about the wild unspoilt lakes of the Meckelenburge area of the former East Germany, we were eager to see for ourselves.

We entered Germany on the 5th of May. The trip through the Baltic Sea had been gentle with light winds and hazy sea mists. From Heiligan to Travemunde the wind got up so we had a great sail doing 7 to 8 knots At Travemunde we met a really friendly German, Gerd Konkel, who invited us to stay at his sailing club S.T.Y.C. at Schwaten, where we could use the crane to step the mast. He was most helpful and within a very short time he had found timber to make a crutch to support the mast and with his electric saw it was completed within an hour or two! The height of the mast was ascertained purely by guess work but we went under every bridge and through all the tunnels without a scrape but it was a very close thing on one or two occasions when we held our breath!

So now we had to become a motor boat for the rest of the summer. Our 9.9 horse power four stroke Yamaha outboard engine was going to work very hard indeed!

Our next stop was the old and interesting city of Lubeck, one of the Hanseatic league cities. Here we moored rather appropriately at the ‘Lubecker Mortorboot Club. We then passed into the Elb canal which was very quiet and peaceful with hardly any commercial traffic until we came to the eighth and last lock, here there were a number of barges manouevering dumb barges full of sand and gravel. We had waited about an hour to go into the lock trying to keep out of the way when the lock keeper indicated for us to enter the lock behind the barge. Unfortunately for us just as we were passing its stern the skipper revved his engines causing terrific turbulence which lifted "Two Bears" up and scraped us along the side of the lock, we now had a deep groove along the port side hull! As you can imagine this made us extremely careful on future encounters with barges!

Now our little engine was to prove its worth as we entered the R. Elb against the flow, the wind was against us too, we managed 4 knots, after 5 hours we found a little backwater which must in the past have been a dock as there was a disused railway line, we moored free at a sailing club, Alt Garge. The next day we motored for 7hrs until we reached Domitz where we left the R.Elb. We had not met too many barges but those we had were Blue flagging, which meant because of the strong current, on the bends they would pass on the wrong side.

Here we entered the Elbe canal after spending the night on an old jetty without any facilities, for which we got charged about five pounds. The weather had turned really cold & miserable wet & windy, however the canal was very quiet & beautiful plenty of wild life, Red Deer, many different types of eagles & hawks we even saw a Barn owl sitting in a tree near the waters edge! So many Kingfishers that we stopped being amazed by the sighting of them. The farmers had built huge twiggy nests for the Storks, we could see the baby Storks in the nests being fed by the adult Storks, we found so much to look at!

We came upon a new jetty by an Inn so we moored at Fresenbrugge. It was so pleasant that we stayed for two nights, new showers & toilets, a live Jazz band, & a very pleasant restaurant where we treated ourselves to a meal! We found in the forest nearby a saw mill, here we purchased a 13ft long plank of hard wood which was to prove most useful as a landing plank, when the water at the side of the canal was too shallow for us to moor near the bank. It was good for pushing us of when we got stuck in the mud, for although the depth is supposed to be 1.80m. we only draw 1m with our two keels one on each hull!

Our next stop was at Grabow where a new town quay was being built. We cycled about a mile to a Garage to buy some petrol as we were getting rather low on fuel, we were averaging about l0hours per 20litre can, we carry 100 litres.

At Garwitz lock we moored for the night, the lock keeper was very chatty, he told us that some English men lodged in the village, we later met a gang of Liverpool lads on a 1 year contract, dredging, pile driving & restoring the canal banks which had been neglected for many years! We next stopped at a new marina which had some brand new boats for charter an attractive little town called Lubz, here we found a Bank also a good supermarket where we restocked the gally larder.

The weather continued to be cold & wet this lasted for three weeks! We had by now passed through several lakes where we had noticed these little animals swimming about, they turned out to be Beavers! Malchow beside a large lake was an interesting historical town with a causeway leading to an old monastry. Here at last we managed to contact our German friends from Rostock, we had met several years ago at the Danish international multihull meeting in Copenhagen, as we have a Reg White built MacAlpine-Downie design boat as he has, we have a Comanchie & he an Iroquois, we struck up a friendship writing to each other, so it was really good to meet again. Helga & Seigfried arrived with a bottle of Bubbly, fresh rolls, & fresh ground coffee. We had plenty to talk about it was a great reunion.

At last the weather changed to become warm & sunny at last, 22nd May we put on our shorts, I wore my sunhat, also heard a Cuckoo! We moored at Mirow Loch, beside a fish farm, so we bought a smoked Trout for our supper. A little girl of 13yrs came on board as she wanted to practice speaking English, she had been learning it for 2yrs, she was very good.

We continued through canals and lakes on our Journey to Berlin. We met some really helpful people. One couple Wilma & Henning we had met at Lauenburg 11^th May they had a 27ft sailing boat he had built 20years ago. On the23rd May we met again, they had found the Elb current too

Strong & had gone downstream, we met them coming towards us they came on board for coffee, with loads of maps & pilots telling us where to go & where not to go in Berlin, both Terry and I were totally confused in the end.

Now out onto the very busy R.Oder, which leads to Poland if you turn left however we turned right next came the Oranienburg lock, there must have been about 20 barges waiting to go through! But we were told through the loudspeaker after only 20 minutes to proceed into the lock - how lucky we were.

Next stop Spandau, here we stopped at a friendly club, the lock was closed for repair, so we had to take a 3 & half hour detour, we ended up staying at the old British Yacht club, now British /German Yacht club! We had a rather grand arrival, as we were not quiet sure of the clubs exact location, we had previously entered the wrong harbour, a high powered speed boat approached us, seeing our British flag asked us if we were looking for the British Yacht Club! They were plain clothed police, who then at high speed escorted us about a mile back to the B.Y.C. Plenty of helping hands assisted our mooring, everyone was very friendly, and to complete the British atmosphere an announcement over the Tannoy "Fish & Chips ready table six", what more could one have wished for, & so we had a really enjoyable evening, Fish & Chips with salt & vineger, then they told us because we were a catamaran the mooring fees would be double at Twenty pounds a night, we only stayed the one night!

The city of Brandenburg was a sad place as most of the buildings are in a state of neglect, but we stayed at a friendly harbour with an inn, run by a lovely family who came on board Two Bears all six of them for coffee!

We continue our travels with a unique experience of going into a boat lift, built in 1938 the Rothensee boat lift is an amazing piece of German engineering. The Mitterland canal is rather uninteresting and fairly busy with commercial traffic, but this was not a problem as it is quite wide, the scenery is tree lined banks. We had decided to get to Hannover by June 1st, for the first time we had over two hours wait at Hannover Lock which is absolutely huge & extremely busy! The marina at Sleeze has a very smart new restaurant hut they were not very helpful or friendly, we were having difficulties contacting our friends daughter, so in the end we just got on our bikes, & with some helpful directions from a travel agency where the young lady spoke excellent English, in the pouring rain we found her flat. We spent a happy few days together visiting Hamylin by car.

Our next interesting part of the trip was our voyage down the Rhine. The rain had not stopped for weeks, because of all the rain we had had the river was in full spate, & with a Westerly wind on the nose, the water was very choppy, the current is very strong. The commercial traffic is huge (like the M25)giant barges pushing six dumb barges, which as you can imagine makes a huge wash! It was really quite frightening & we were greatly relieved when we reached Nijmegen in Holland!

Five days through the Maas to Maastricht, we enjoyed wandering around the town which is famous because of the treaty which was signed there. Three days through Belgium first part disgustingly filthy but the Ardennes region with its high tree clad hills sweeping up from the river is very beautiful in contrast. As Brussels is the centre for European bureaucracy we should not have been so surprised by the paperwork which had to he done at each lock & rubber stamped, to be handed back at the final lock before France. All this checking was for the huge amount of about One Pound!!

June 16th - France:

Givet a small boarder town where we paid our canal dues to Voies navigables de France for a year = 450f (279.62pounds) there are three different tariffs 30days = 250f & 15 consecutive days = 100f this is for up to a 11m boat for 1995.

Our voyage continues along the R.Meuse, we had not met any other British boats mainly Dutch who were very friendly, we also met two Danish boats one Swedish & several Belgium boats, they all spoke excellent English and made the trip very enjoyable! The scenery was densely wooded countryside with small old villages, the locks were not too big or frequent so we got into a good routine, me on the helm Terry helping the Lock keepers. We negotiated our first tunnel along the canal Ardennes, St Aignan,196m long, it seemed quite a close fit, we did in fact loose two fenders when we scraped along the sides, fortunately a Dutch boat following later picked them up & moored right behind us, so we got them back!

At Attigny we prepared ourselves for a run of 29 locks in 16km they are automatic but in fact a lock keeper rushes up & down on a moped as the mechanism which was designed for peniches does not always work. After the first three failures we got better, however a sprung bar had to be held back for 10 seconds It was so strong that it took its toll on the gel coat along the sides of the boat so now we have more deep grooves to be repaired. Steel boats are much better for this type of travelling!

At the junction of Berry-au-Bac, we took the canal Late'ral a’lAisne we did not meet another boat, it was so peaceful saw many Kingfishers again, the weather was hot & sunny hut with a gentle breeze.

At Compiegne we met our first French boats in a small club harbour, they made us welcome. It is an interesting city with some impressive architecture. Here we took a 10km cycle ride to the Armistice Clearing in the forest where the generals met in a railway carriage & signed a peace document which ended the 1st World War, it was repeated again at the end of the 2nd World War.

July 5th we now had reached Conflans-St-Honorine where the Oise meets the R. Seine, the peniches here are moored six - eight abreast some never to move again as more & more cargo is carried by the fast railway networks throughout France! We moored in a backwater at Andresy where a small pontoon with electricity, water & places for two boats, so inevitably there is rafting! Here we saw & smelt thousands of dead fish it was awful! Apparently because of the hot weather there was not enough oxygen in the water, we saw masses of dead fish for miles along the R. Seine.

As this was the route from Le Havre to the south of France we began to see plenty of British boats now, although still not much commercial traffic! So to Paris where we had decided to stay at the Port de Plaisance de Paris Arsenal, on the canal St Martin right in the middle of this exciting capital. It cost us 42 pounds 50p for the two nights we stayed.

We took a trip underneath Paris through many tunnels & locks on a tourist boat, the commentary was most interesting & gave us a lot of history, we went through the middle of a Fun & Science park the trip took about an hour, we walked back through parks & gardens most had fountains with children playing in them it was delightful! In the evening we wandered along the banks of the R. Seine listening to the street musicians, admiring the beautiful buildings just absorbing the atmosphere!

We had decided after much deliberation to take C. Briare, C. Lateral-la Loire then C. du Central onto the R. Soane, then onto the R. Rhone. This was mainly because of our width 4.2m but also we had heard that the depth of 1.8m was usually maintained.

At St. Mammes we were joined by our friends Sue & Mike Baily this was a lovely surprise as we had been having difficulties contacting them, as a last resort we left a message on their answer machine giving the date when we would be there, they got the message via their son & after a long drive through France they found us! We spent an enjoyable week together which included Bastille day celebrations at Namours, a wonderful Son-et- Lumminere the theme was l00yrs of the movies, music & fireworks beside the river Loire with a castle in the background it was dark & lasted an hour! Our friends Sue & Mike left us at Montargis we had a good 5 days together.

At Briare there is about a 5km canal with several locks to get to the town moorings which were reopened in 1988.Having just passed through the 1st lock who should we see coming the other way but our old Dutch friend Lennie who we had met in Maastricht, he had been alone but his grandson & friend had joined him for a few weeks holiday. They all came on board for coffee & a chat, retelling our different adventures! We said farewell once again, however we were later joined in the harbour by more Dutch friends, a young couple with a small Shetland cruiser who tow it behind their car, launch it at a suitable place have two weeks holiday, go back to fetch the car get the boat back on the trailer, then drive home to Holland. We had met at Rogny an interesting village, with some ancient locks of seven rise which are floodlit at night they stopped being used in 1887.They have been replaced by six locks which are much deeper & further apart.

We next cross the Briare Aqueduct, which is most impressive with its attractive wrought iron electric lights, it was designed by the Societe des Etablissments Eiffel & constructed by them (of Eiffel tower fame) it crosses the Loire.

Now into the C. Lateral-a-Loire then the C. du Centre into the wine growing region with the vinyards dotted up the gentle slopes along the sides of the canal.

August 8th. At Chagney Matthew no2 son & his girl friend Jenny joined us for 2 weeks holiday the weather was still very hot & sunny although we had several thunder storms with torrential rain, this did not make it any cooler!

We entered the R. Soane at Chalon-sur-Soane a week later we were exploring the great & interesting city of Lyon, taking the funicular railway up to the Basilica of Notre-Dame-de-Fourviere which has huge tapestries hanging on the walls, one depicting Joan of Arc going into battle. There are many Roman remains including a vast restored amphitheatre. It is difficult to find good moorings in the city so we only stayed one night, but we should like to return as there is much more to see!

Now we enter the R. Rhone, fast flowing with huge locks, it's also very wide & shallow in places, so we kept in the buoyed channel not wanting to go aground! Mooring places are few so stopping places need to be planned ahead.

Valance was where Matthew & Jenny caught the train to go back to collect their car at Chagney we were sad to see them go. We went through the biggest locks on the R. Rhone today one was 26m deep, Bollen lock.

Next, stop Avignon, another historically interesting old walled city. The harbour, where the current is extremely fast flowing, is overlooked by St. Andrews Fort, a ruined castle. There is a huge Papal Palace was constructed in 1342 - 52. The first ruin on entering the harbour is the bridge which still almost spans the river it has a chapel of St. Nicholas in the middle. We said goodbye to another couple we had net at Chagney, from. Australia after five years out they were heading back home leaving the Canary Islands in October to spend Christmas in the West Indies.

We turned onto the Petit Rhone before Arles, which we would explore at a later date, we were anxious to get "Two Bears" to a safe haven for the winter. We had made some provisional arrangements by phone, however we were let down twice, and in the end we had to make hasty arrangements at Navy Services Port St. Louis, which was the place we had been first recommended!

No 4 son Andrew & his girlfriend Maria came down in a yellow Transit Van for a late holiday, & they would kindly bring us home. The journey home took three days, camping up in the Massive Central mountains up in the clouds with breathtaking views of the valley below, up & down narrow twisting roads, a journey not to be missed!

After travelling through the waterways of Europe for 5 months for about 2,300 miles at 4 miles an hour through about 350 locks. After a very gentle ferry crossing we arrived home on Sunday 24th September the end of another incredible journey.

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Gun Gun Photos

The very well thought out and excellent engine installation by Gunner Enberg in #188, Gun Gun:

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