Thanks to Jennifer McCarthy for scanning this Newsletter. Unfortunately the first two pages were missing, and I am not sure what was on them. If anyone has any more of this newsletter, could they possibly let me have a copy please? Although the page numbering indicates that this was a separate publication, it may have been issued at the same time as the "Early 1968" newsletter. - Webmaster
Annual General Meeting
A few Notes on Fawnia
A Letter from Colonel V J C Cooper
Tivoli Astern
This will be held at the Boat Show on 1st January 1969 and I shall be on duty at the Yachting Monthly stand, do come in and say hello - don't be surprised if I dun you for a pound note for next year's sub while I'm at it. Incidentally the meeting will be held at the Sailcraft Stand at 7.00 p.m. on the 1st January.
After reading our Editor's article in "Practical Boat Owner" there really doesn't seem much left to say about putting an Iroquois together, however there are a few points of difference so here goes.
We brought our hull back from Brightlingsea by road behind our own Land Rover on New Year's Day l967; leaving her on the foreshore in Littlehampton for completion.
I must admit to having had the rubbing strake fitted by Reg White. After reading of the struggle to get "Pyewacket's" into place I have no regrets on that score. The section is much heavier than is usually used and bending would have been a serious problem to me. We also had windows put in.
Externally, Fawnia has a number of differences from the standard boat. We have plates of 7/16" galvanized steel with quite a chunk carved off the trailing edge to save weight which comes out about 300 lbs. heavier than for alloy plates. The saving in cost was about £50.
Rigging is in 1 x 19 stainless with Norseman ends. These are surprisingly easy to use once the knack has been acquired. Twin forestays and fore halyards, and internal main halyard and (this year), a Barton dolly winch complete the picture. The latter has been installed to help both with fore and main halyards as required. I am never really satisfied with the tension on the foresail luff obtained with the normal open snatch block fittings; the main is normally easy enough but getting it up again after reefing in a breeze is often heavy work. The winch is intended to cope with both these problems.
Cockpit layout includes a box locker running full width across the front of the transom beam with central vertical tiller mounted on a rod running through it to a crank lever outside the transom. Steering is by wires to internal tillers in the hull lockers. The system works well and is to be rebuilt this season with home made sheave boxes in place of the outboard lead blocks at present in use. I am very conscious of the fact that if any-thing goes wrong both rudders will be out of action so carry a spare tiller that will fit either rudder head. One rudder is quite enough for an Iroquois, I know because I have tried.
At the end of last season we snapped a blade off in rough water off La Corbiere. Calling at St. Peter Port only managed to produce an unshaped blank, which we fitted to the rudder stock in case of further emergency but kept raised for the rest of the journey home. The next 100 miles was done with a quartering breeze force 5 - 6. We certainly needed more helm than is good for best speed and yawed about a good deal into the bargain but made a very good passage none the less. Now both blades are in solid Iroko and the old Agaba blade is carried as a spare.
There is a substantial rail around the cockpit carried on heavy steel stanchions across the top of the transom. This carries the sheet horse with quarter blocks each end and a double on the boom. We rig the sheet double ended through large bullseye and cam jammer fittings on the rail so that a fall is always near the helmsman's hand. The whole thing works a treat, my only regret is that I didn't make the horse the full width of the rail, i.e. out to the centre lines of the hulls.
Going below we start with a single large door to the companion with lift off hinges on the starboard side. These would have been better placed to port as the door when open interferes to some extent with the working of the sheet winch handle. The back of the door carries a contraption of legs so that it can be used as a free standing table in the cockpit.
Inside the cabin layout is fairly normal. We have a 4'6" wide double dinette berth in front of the main beam. Forward of this again is an open trough about 10" wide, the "manager" which we use to stow bedding in daytime. We are a tall family and I have had to get 6'3" length in the bed by slanting the seat backs and making them in the form of trays facing inwards. This does away with the pigeon-hole feature but does give a little more width in the hulls so that we are able to use a standard width sink on the galley to port.
The mast support is 5" x 5" timber halved onto the beam below and secured to the base of the tabernacle by a steel stirrup bolted through.
Ventilation is most effectively achieved by means of a squat "Plastivent" (South Western Cat. No. 54807). This is kept turned aft and produces a gale of wind when required and never, so far, any water. A pleasant change from my least favourite piece of yachting hardware the "Tannoy" ventilator.
Of troubles. Quite the worst is that of leaks in the forepeaks. I am gradually getting the better of them and the latest gadget is an ex-W.D. grease gun with the flexible pipe removed and a piece of ¼" copper with a tapered nozzle substituted. This is used to inject mastic into the void behind the glass fillet sealing the deck head joint on the inside, suitable 3/16" holes having been drilled first. Leaky windows are still bothering me though to a less degree and I haven't yet found the answer.
Worries? Well my worst is having only one shroud a side which in my view makes the rig unsuited to offshore work. It isn't easy to work in any more at this stage as the position of the plate casing makes it hard to fit another chain plate.
If I was to do another Iroquois I would go for a masthead rig with about 4 ft. less height than at present, but then I am an unashamed cruising man. Not that I am really afraid of a capsize but I would like to feel I could cruise the Western Isles or the Greek Archipelago with easy confidence; and I don't yet. Hurricane gusts on a calm sea are not my idea of Iroquois weather.
We do take precautions, though, starting at the top with a masthead float. This is standard pattern and the internals were made up by a local firm from polystyrene foam which was then covered in GRP at home. This puzzled me at first as the resin gobbles up the foam at alarming speed so we first papered it as one would a kitchen ceiling and all was well. Total cost £15.
We also carry an ex RAF 8 man dinghy with gas bottle and an emergency radio transmitter working on the trawler band. (Beme "Lifecry")
Total cost has been in the region of £3,300 including sails, outboard motor, dinghy, echo sounder, log and a fair inventory. Most of the joinery was done by a local jobbing shipwright.
For our money we have a really splendid craft: fast, able and with accommodation that would cost three times as much in a monohull. I can quite easily sail her single handed if prepared to forego sailing in and out of harbour yet she will take seven or more on an extended cruise and cope with the weather as it comes.
MOTORS. Ours is a 10 HP. LS. Evinrude. It gives us around 6 kts. and seems very adequate and much more satisfactory speaking generally, than the 28 HP. we had to start with. Consumption last season worked out at 1.14 gph. In rough water it isn't too good as we come to a standstill against a force 5 breeze with a 3ft. sea. Longer seas make things easier but the installation isn't comparable with a good inboard in a monohull at any time.
MOTOR BRACKET. This is a lifting affair with a hinge under the bridge deck. Originally it was a skeleton but a timber floor was found necessary as otherwise the motor spent a lot of time fully submerged. This worried us more than it, but I doubt the practicability of the McElroy bracket unless some form of shield is fitted.
RIGGING. A quote from Argus in the current Yachting Monthly "My friend the editor of "Yachting World" is wont to say that in rigging matters he insists on a belt as well as braces". Personally I can't but agree.
WINDOWS. Farocaulk, which comes in an aerosol tin seems just the job for leaks. If it does what it says on the tin I don't expect any more trouble.
TIGHT LUFFS. Our single winch is expected to deal with both fore and main halyards. The main will not need tensioning as the tack tackle will still be used but the fall will lead through a bullseye to a cleat on the hatch coaming so as to be accessible from the cockpit. In sticky weather the winch will be a great help in getting the sail up after reefing. We may later fit a tack tackle on the headsail luff rather than another winch.
BRITTANY. Last year we went to St. Malo via Alderney Carteret and Granville. We very nearly tried Mont St. Michel but were deterred by the need for some of the party to get home, also by lack of a green card. I certainly hope to go there next time we are in the neighbourhood.
St. Malo itself is a splendid sailing area, not difficult with the large scale Admiralty chart No. 2700 or its French equivalent. We did quite a bit of sailing among the rocks, there are a number of small harbours that are worth a visit, The scenery is tremendous at low water but we were at first a little worried that we could not pick up any of the far transits given. Use of the near transit and a bearing worked very well however, perhaps our compass was working; better than usual.
P.M. Bourdeaux’s "Guide du Yachtsman" (Brehat to Cherbourg) though not exactly recommended (it has about enough detail to cope with an out and back trip in an Avon dinghy), gives a few of the smaller ports that I do not remember seeing in Coles but is not a substitute for either of his (Coles') books. Bordeaux's remark on Mont St. Michel sets the tone. "Magnifique excursion - en voiture".
We returned by Chausey, negotiating the Sound with "Channel Harbours" in hand but without a chart quite easily.
My son David and a friend Alex Surgenor, who sails a shearwater cat. joined me in Swannemolle harbour, Copenhagen on Sunday 23rd July 1967 and we set sailing date as Wednesday 26th. Sure as fate, Tuesday was a day of rain and thunder which abated about 17.00 hrs. with an ominous lull, preceding and then confirming the arrival of the South West Wind which stayed in that quarter for the next six weeks. "Duty-free" is confined to working ships in Denmark but we could get the local Pils beer at about 9d. per bottle from a nearby grocery. No wind on Wednesday morning so we motored off down the Sound in slight haze with plenty to occupy our minds watching for the ferries, local trade and the big stuff coming out of the Baltic. After an hour the wind picked up but South West 5. Time was short so we kept on the motor straight into it and in due course picked up Bogestrom buoy, which lies amongst a sea of fishing nets and marks the entrance to the withied channel to Nyordby and Vordingborg. I had decided to follow the same route back as we had to be in Amsterdam in a fortnight for Alex's plane home. After Logestrom, the channel twists with 90 degree bends and shallows all around, so it was no surprise to hear the engine starting to falter as soon as we were in the channel with the wind steady at force 5. Shortly a coaster of some 450 tons was observed approaching, which was the cue for the engine to pack up. A lightning plug changed failed to beat our drift across his bows but we won by about 20 yards and any vituperations from the coaster skipper were drowned by the noise when the motor burst Into life again. This incident was another conviction against the engine for cruelty to humans! And so, on past the island of Nyordby, under Kallehave bridge which is about 2½ miles long, and between other islands to Vordingborg. Calling in at Spodsbjerg we bade farewell to Denmark as we sailed past Keldsnor light on Friday and ran down Kiel Sound in thunder and heavy rain to wish "Stan" Townsend good luck when he retired from the British Kiel Y.C. in the following April. Having filled up with petrol at the fuel barge just north of the yacht club, we made off for the Kiel Canal. No tacking so engine all the way, with seven stops for plug changes and one when David was standing on the fuel line! Waves and cheers to a Norwegian submarine going east and darkness arriving as we jogged around to hold our place in the queue of diesel-driven mountains entering Brunstuttelkoog locks at the Western end. Slow ahead into the lock gates..and the drive-pin sheared! Luckily a chappie had a long line and we were soon under control and towed to the far end where there was ample time to fit a new pin. Heavy rain as we emerged so we went to starboard about half a mile out and entered the narrow channel to the local harbour for the night, and Sunday too as it never stopped raining and visibility was down to 200 yards.
Down with the tide on Mondsy past Cuxhaven in haze to the Schannhorn buoy at the mouth of the Elbe, alter course to pick up the Weser Light vessel, with prayers and thanks to the Nova-Pal as the fog was down to a mile then a grope for the gap into the Waddensee and the port of Wangeroog, where we tied up in a furious thunderstorm (it was now that we found that the island was all-electric and no petrol, as mentioned in my previous letter about the trip up). As soon as the storm abated, we set off across the Waddensee to Harlesiel. We now intended to try and make Tersohelling, or the German island of Borkum at worst, but thick fog and no wind in the morning delayed the start until Nordeney. Approaching the gap once more by Wangeroog there is a very distinct line of surf and foam occasioned by the huge 35 feet straight down to 5 feet in the boil, then back to 35 feet and more. This looks quite alarming when first seen as one is in constant apprehension of going aground in this area of "The Riddle of the Sands" (the book was written in Nordeney). Lunch on board and a refuel in Nordeney and the engine would not function unless on full choke. We managed to clear the harbour works and tack across to a blinker buoy marking the withies to Borkum. By this time I had got the engine running alright but suddenly it raced like a mad thing with no way being made, and I assumed the drive-pin had sheared again. Not so simple as that .. the forward gear had stripped and the split-second calculation as to the best thing to do sealed the fate of the Perkins mechanical wonder.. death by drowning! We sailed back into Nordeney, where the President of the Sailing Club was most helpful and gave us a good berth on piles on the western side of the harbour. After a day's Swimming, eating and drinking amongst the German holiday-makers on the island, Alex went off by ferry to Norddeich, train to Amsterdam and air to London, to contact my local chandlery to send out a 20 h.p. Johnson or similar with all necessary fittings to suit the existing fuel line. The German National championship for the "Piraat" class of dinghy was held that week, with spills and thrills in the prevailing SW 5/6 almost every day.
A shout from the quay on Thursday morning heralded the arrival of a 20 h.p. Johnson with long shaft and everything that mattered to make immediate connection. The actual receipt of the engine was delayed by it having to be taken down to the Customs Office at the Railway station in the town some three miles away and we eventually had to get a taxi driver to go and bring it back. British Rail must have been out there to study their method of running a railway, as there are no trains and no railway lines in Nordeney! "Bahnhoff-Ingang" looked ludicrous then but it is becoming normal and seeing that the order was only initiated on the Saturday morning, I was more than delighted to get the motor on the next Thursday morning. I had kept the Perkins just in case, but now I disconnected it and coupled up the Johnson, had a trial run around the harbour and tied up on the eastern jetty for an easy start next morning. Friday and the wind still in the southwest, so we motored across to Norddeich and through the channels towards Borkum, stopping in one particularly deep place to conduct a very rapid funeral service for the Perkins as it went overboard! The words were not the same as usual but the result was the same. I was delighted to see the end of it as the waves closed. After which a slight grounding on a corner then away and twisting over to a buoy south of Borkum, then due south on a reach to Delfzijl for the week-end as the locks do not open in the North East of Holland on Sundays. We entered the lock on Monday morning in the company with an American yachts "Nightingale" ex New York and which had crossed the Atlantic to Scotland, then over to Oslo, down to Heligoland and now en route for Amsterdam. We left him at Gronigen that night. I had read in the Yachting World that it was impossible to go through Gronigen without lowering the mast but this is not necessary if one takes the "B" Class canal called Hoorndiep out of the town and this minor canal joins up to the main canal to Grouw after 10 miles. A stop at Grouw for a night and then on and out of the canals at Lemmer to tack across the Isjelmeer to Enkhuizen, the lower part of the forestay bottlescrew snapped straight across the thread, so I downed the foresail and went in on main and motor. This port used to send out some 400 herring boats daily in the days before the Zuidersee was dammed off. There is a fine museum and the town is nice. More rain and wind on Thursday so I sought out a chandlery and found a reasonably heavy bronze bottlescrew, which with a couple of shackles made up the required length. We spent a very entertaining evening with a Dutch lawyer and his wife from Leiden on our boat and pushed off down to Amsterdam next day. Similar weather but it looked alright and all went well until some 5 miles from the Oranjesluis to enter the channel to Amsterdam, when the shackle at the head of the jib parted, so it was main and motor again. We met some good friends at the lock by name of Bart from Haarlem Yacht Club and we duly went through and tied up in the Municipal yacht harbour in Amsterdam in the early evening. (By a coincidence I met the Barts again this year waiting at 06.00 on the north side of Sassenheim bridge as I sailed through going north). According to a man who came across to Amsterdam that evening, it had been blowing force 7 for three days on his anemometer but maybe it ran on Genever!
Somers Payne and Tony Rowe arrived on Sunday for the trip home and we were bid farewell by a Dutchman I had met in Nordeney, who was more than helpful in finding out about bridge opening times. Leaving on Monday along the Nordsee Canal, 9 miles then to port through Spaarndam lock down to Haarlem. lovely houses with nice gardens and boathouses south of the town.. often the canal was some 20/30 feet higher than the surrounding countryside.. and down to our first obstacle, Sassenheim bridge, which carries all the traffic from Amsterdam to The Hague and only opens between 06.00 and 07.00 in the mornings. We tied up outside the "Puck" Restaurant for a good steak in pleasant surroundings, heads down and up again for the bridge at 06.00, down to Gouda (visited this year, very fine) and on to Dordrecht, where the bridge opens at 06.00 and 18.00. "By careful planning" (!!) we turned into the main stream towards the bridge at 17.55, pressed on and arrived at the bridge at 18.00, got the green lights and straight through! 'then one misses these times one realises how vital they are in a long trip.
A few miles below Dordrecht, an enormous sluice lets you enter immediately and out into the tidal river Maas where we turned east from Rotterdam and ran goose-winged down to Willemstad, another "must" as far as ports to visit are concerned. (This part of Holland is now non-tidal and the new yachts berths at Willemstad should be open in 1969) (I went through the new lock and bridge just south of V. with burgee taken down and 1½" to spare this year on the way up!) Wednesday now, so push on down and call in at Veere and Middleburg for a very quick visit and Flushing for the night, in the yacht harbour in the canal. As the "Duty-free" at the club is double price and the club is miles away from the town, I recommend using the small pilot and ferry harbour about one mile west of the lock entrance, where one can tie up against the town wall; keep to starboard entering the channel to the town. We phoned the North Sea Y.U. in Ostend and arranged to call in there next morning and we duly arrived about 11.00 took on stores and pushed off down to Dunkirk for t he night. Fog on the coast next day and we crept past Calais and down to Gris Nez, emerging into brilliant sunshine so we anchored in the Outer Rade in Boulogne for a swim. Saturday and the last day…compass course from the inner harbour to find the way out of the outer harbour, visibility 150 yards and the ghost of a French yachts trying to find his way in. Clear weather 5 miles out but no wind and we had to motor all the way, with a row ashore in the dinghy for petrol at the King Alfred at Hove and we tied up on the moorings at Littlehampton just too late for a bonfire party held on the beach!
All in all, a fabulous trip, more than delighted with the boat, nerves back to normal after engine change! and I would go there again any time.