Editor’s Ramblings
Chairwoman’s Report
Iroquois and Navahoe
Cruising in the Med
Book Reviews
1988 Racing Programmes & Sailing Fixtures
Solent Area
Chiquita’s Summer Cruise to the Netherlands
Letters and Correspondence
Chairwoman - Haidy Blake
Editor - S D Fisher
The question is, does the Secretary of the Iroquois Owners’ Association need to be an Iroquois Owner? I’ve sold mine, I didn’t use it enough to justify the cash tied up in it. Fisher Enterprizes are now re-established and we were settling down nicely and beginning to look ahead a bit when the hurricane hit us. I’ve now got sufficient firewood to last until 2001 AD, or will have when I’ve cleared, cut and stacked it!
The Association should consider the matter and if the need is felt, should elect a new Editor/Secretary. If, on the other hand, ex owners are considered suitable, I’m willing to continue and will, in 1988, be able to devote a useful amount of time to organization and the newsletter.
The Association is now quite rich, the deposit account contains over £1000.00, and the current account nearly enough to cover current expenses, this newsletter and the AGM. The last instruction from the membership regarding spending this surplus was to produce a compendium of mods and a sailing guide; looking at the folder containing the work to date for this project, I see that progress is rather better than I remembered and I would expect this to be completed and issued during 1988. I don’t know when the first production boat was launched, but I have an advert for Iroquois dated March 1968, quoting her 1967 racing successes and advertizing the Mark I for sale at £3800, excluding sails, which cost £215 for mainsail and two head sails.
Can 1988 be the 20th anniversary of the Mark? If so it would be most appropriate year for us to publish our resume and critique of the design.
Amongst Iroquois and Iroquois owners, Richard Aubry has bought an Iroquois, see his letter in this Newsletter; the boat is based in Chichester Yacht Basin and he takes his six weeks annual leave in the UK. I hope to get news of next year’s gathering to him in time for him to attend.
The Barnett’s SOPHISTICAT (Ir.76) wants a new trampoline. I know of several boats with this problem and if members who are interested let me know I’ll see if we can put together some sort of bulk quote/order system.
Bal Barnes has now sold SEACAT, Ir.295, to T G Barry of Arborfield Cross in Berks; Mr Barry is keen to become a member. Vyv Bennett, CATINA( Ir.70) has had a great season sailing in Greece, makes you sick doesn’t it! Lyle Burke of Minnesota, USA, recently bought an Iroquois and is keen to become a member. Having bought it he trucked it from Florida to Lake Superior, a trip of about 1500 miles. Ken Boswell of Aldeburgh, has DOODLESACK II (Ir.121); Bob Butler has bought SCARPER (Ir.180) and she is now celled CATALINA and based is Brighton Marina; Bob is keen to become a member of the Association. The Butlers are still keen to sell their Comanche COMANCHE KRYSTAL, anyone thinking of going up one should visit and make an offer for their beautiful boat. J Cartier of Arleux in France has bought DAZZLER, but not responded to our enquiry.
John Davis has the Cherry’s boat FOXY LADY (Ir.317) and renamed her GYMNOPEDIES II. Andrew Dutkowsky has bought an Iroquois in Hilton Head, SC, USA, Iroquois 88, SANDRIDDLE.
Alan Holmes has bought ANTARES OF ASHTON (Ir.132) (and boy oh boy do I miss her). She is based in Fareham and has cruised extensively already this year. Alan had a Telstar trimaran previously.
T J A Foster of Haslemere, Surrey is keen to buy an Iroquois; anyone thinking of selling should get in touch.
Bernd Galle of Burscheid, W Germany, has bought an Iroquois but not, as yet, joined the Assoc.; John Gates bough EUROTICA (Com.15) in 1986 and is mooring her on the Beaulieu River, he has not, as yet, joined us and neither has Bob Goddard, who has bought MBOTE/SAFARI VI (Ir.68) from Chris Hammond. Bob founded the Hirondelle Association 2 or 3 years ago so should, if seen, be pressed. Apart from anything else we want to see the mods Chris Hammond carried out to MBOTE in order to change her to SAFARI VI, at one of our rallies.
John Knox. has bought CATAPULT, a Mark I, and is keen to join the Association; Dr. & Carry Leane have MALLEMOK 3 (Ir.201) still, this is their third Iroquois! L G Linton has bough ARTAC CHARTER (Ir.304) and has happily renamed her CHEETAH, and has joined the Association. Dennis Lavoie of Bryan, Texas, has bought Ir.129 and we have contacted him.
Dear Al Krech in Big Pine Key, Florida, writes and sends a generous contribution, and the lovely Loders, WINDDRAGON (Ir.182) are back on the strength again, nice to hear from you folks!
Marc Menahem has bought SULA BASSANA (Ir.41) in France and we hope he may join. The Neilsons have bought SEAING DOUBLE, a mark II, and will keep the boat in the Solent. Alan Robinson has bought LIGHTFOOT (Ir.275). Rowland Smith has bought ASMODEUS 21 and has joined the Association. Ray and Alison Palmer of Camberley have bought FAWNIA (Ir.29) from Ruben Smith and have joined the Association. Jean Pelgrims has renewed his membership and come from Belgium for the rally; his long distance pennant was destroyed in the post so he needs a new one. There goes another curtain, the things one has to do in the service of others!
Walter Peeters is running FIA FIA (Ir.61) for a Guernsey Company; this may have interesting implications for us all! Jean Segalen is bringing film of his sailing around Eros to the AGM. Roger Silcock has bought CAT O’LAFITTE (Ir.183) and is intending to help pay for her keep by charter work. Pierre Stauffer of Versoix, France, writes to say that his boat is CALAMAR(Ir.315) not CAL AMAK, and Richard Stilgoe has sold MELODY OF WIGHT (Ir. 14) to a Doctor Hope, who has now sold her to David Hutchings of Bournemouth, who has joined the Association.
John Peacock, CHESHIRE CAT (Ir.140), wrote some time ago to say that he was selling and had bought a mono so that he could live in Majorca half the year (or because he was going to); he’s based at Alcudia, lucky chap! and finally, Trevor & Helen Wilkins have bought DOUBLE VISION (Ir.141). They have refitted her extensively and want to race and cruise, and have joined the Association.
The last item of note is the question of the Southampton Get Afloat, Get A Boat event. The prime movers in this were Patrick Boyd and Chris Hammond. Both are extremely incensed at my attitude to this event. Patrick’s letter to me shows how strong his feelings are, and at the Multihull Symposium in Exeter this Autumn, Chris could barely bring himself to speak to me.
The facts as presented to me were:
The following is the fairly bland notice I issued:
ANNUAL SOUTH COAST RALLY
This will be held as advertized on page 18 of the Winter 1986 newsletter, that is, on the last weekend of July, at Newtown Harbour, Isle of Wight; the weekend of 25/26th July.
It has been suggested that we might like to hold it in Southampton as part of the British Marine Industries Federations Get Afloat Get a Boat weekend at the Ocean Village. We would, of course, have to pay to berth our boats at the Ocean Village for the benefit of the Federation, which is a commercial organization. It seems to me that the industry should be able to support itself and not try to rely on private individuals to pay for the privilege of advertizing products on behalf of the traders. If they’re not sufficiently interested in paying for their own advertizing I don’t see any reason why we should do so.
Further, there’s not much fun in going to a Marina, we all go to them all the time.
I stand by these sentiments. The response from Patrick Boyd is as follows:
"Dear Stuart,
Even for you, well known for your cantankerous, not to say misanthropic outlook, the letter to the Iroquois owners was unhelpful to say the least.
The purpose of the "Try a Multihull" event was not purely commercial, but very much to get non sailing people to try sailing and to meet Multihull owners and their wives to find out from the horses mouth the pros & cons of owning a multihull - in almost every case the boats were privately owned boats being demonstrated by the owners and their families. David Asdell, Richard Collier, Peter Kinch, David Smith - all known to you, ignored your advice and came over to help.
I think it would have been preferable, and fairer, if you had sent copies of my letter asking for help to the owners instead of your typically outrageous diatribe and let them make up their own minds without gratuitous advice from you.
I trust that now you are no longer a multihull owner that you will be resigning from your various offices in Multihull Associations."
Bearing in mind his final comment about giving up all offices in Multihull organizations (I do, in fact, own an 18’0" trimaran) the Association should consider whether or not to re-elect me at the next AGM.
Finally, finally I am reliably informed that the next Summer is going to be an absolute whizzer for heat, fair winds, calm seas, secluded anchorages, low marina fees, good facilities ashore and deep suntans. I hope to see many more members afloat next year in a state of blissful euphoria than has been the case heretoforia.
SDF
I am beginning to think I have a jinx on this Association. It seems that since I was persuaded to be Chairwoman the weather has not been good to us Iroquois owners (perhaps it’s the Editor - not me at all). I seem to be writing the seine thing each year, what am I doing wrong?
The beautiful spell of weather we had at Easter lulled me into feeling that this is finally the year for super sailing and barbecues and suntans. I was wrong. I will not go into detail about the first part of the year as I have said it all before. I will sail forward to the last weekend of July, which was excellent. The weather was OK; the threatened rain did not come, but 8 boats did. 291 Double Vision; 117 Chiquita; 116 Katiki; 38 Ganisa; 77 Cherokee; 65 Tesbecansnix; KOTICK Heavenly Twins, Tinkerbell, Kelsall Design.
Newtown is an excellent place for the Venue of the South Coast Iroquois meet. Once we were all settled the advance party went ashore to start the barbecue. The smell of the first burnt sausage lured the rest to follow very rapidly. By 8pm the show was on the beach, very liberally helped along with the aid of Jeans Belgium jungle juice. I do not know what was in it - there were a few thick heads in the morning.
The high point of the evening was the arrival of the ENORMOUS Tinkerbell, Richard and Ann Colliers’ new, Derek Kelsall design catamaran. We were all green with envy. Thank you Richard for allowing us to look over your lovely boat.
In the night the weather changed, it blew and the threatened dark clouds burst. The weather men got it wrong again; by the morning it was a little gloomy with a hint of brighter weather to come. One by one the boats departed until Double Vision and Katiki were left. We did have fun recovering our anchors, we thought we might have to stay at Newtown forever. The wind in the night had dug the anchors in so deep they did not went to come up. Eventually, after a series of different suggestions and manoeuvres, the anchors were recovered and away we sailed back to Fareham.
After a few days at Fareham the weather improved and Rod sailed Katiki to Bembridge on the Isle of Wight. I took the car and the children on the ferry to Wooton Creek (no I have not stopped sailing) I wanted to explore the Island and a car helps. We spent a lovely week on the beach messing about with buckets and spades. We visited the sights on the Island and Rod pottered around the boat cleaning and painting and studying the rotten rubbing strakes. We were joined at the end of the week by Gymnopedie II.
A family holiday over, Rod set sail with a crew; he was fortunate to have good sailing weather and visited Cherbourg, all the Channel Islands, Isles de Choussee, St. Malo and into the River Rance, Erquy, and finally home via Alderney and Swanage. I had another beach holiday with the children at Swanage, again lovely weather, so it has not been all bad this year.
Here’s hoping for an Indian Summer from September to December. Good sailing and see you at the AGM in January.
Request for help. Katiki II needs new gunnels/rubbing strakes. Has anyone else had this problem, if so how did they tackle the replacement? We would be grateful for any advice.
Haidy Bake, KATIKI , Ir.116
In our blinkered way we regard our boats as the only true Iroquois; the Navahoe is less frequently in our minds but it would be strange if we didn’t think of sailing yachts first, Red Indians second and the rest nowhere. However, to the remainder of the Maritime world this is not the case for one of the most enterprising and interesting ventures in the history of merchant shipping was the construction in 1907 of the oil tanker IROQUOIS and her tow, the barge NAVAHOE, at Harland and Wolff’s Belfast shipyard.
The IROQUOIS was a twin-screw, quadruple-expansion steamer of 9202 gross tons (at least that’s what I think it says - the original is rather distorted - Webmaster), with dimensions 476.3ft. x 60.3ft. x 35.5ft; she had a cargo capacity of 8,888 tons and a bunker capacity of 2,000 tons. She was equipped with special towing gear in a deckhouse on the poop. Her propelling machinery was situated aft and she was, in fact, one of the first tankers to be so designed.
The Navahoe was not much smaller than her parent ship, being 7,718 gross tons on dimensions 450ft. x 58ft. x 33ft. Her cargo capacity was 9,250 tons, and her bunker capacity 600 tons. She was rigged as a 6-masted "bald-headed" schooner, her fore mast acting as a funnel for her large single-ended boiler, which supplied steam to the towing winch, cargo pumps and auxiliaries. Although the barge’s lines were obviously not those of a sailing ship, she nevertheless carried sails on her six masts - the fore, main, mizzen, jigger, spanker and driver. To each mast was bent a fore and aft sail of the strongest canvas made; the booms were 65ft. and the gaffs 60ft. in length. She had a complement of 27.
On March 1, 1908, the IROQUOIS left Belfast with the NAVAHOE in tow across the Western Ocean and, with the exception of one voyage to Colon and Sabine, continued on the North Atlantic run until May 30, 1917. During this period of over nine years, she made an average of eight round voyages per year at a speed of 8¾ knots, 148 Atlantic crossings being made in all. In December 1918, this unique partnership was resumed and continued until September 7, 1925, by which time the IROQUOIS had towed the NAVAHOE for 17½ years and a distance of 686,329 miles at sea and 42,832 miles in rivers and harbours.
From 1925 onwards many tankers were laid up, but the IROQUOIS and NAVAHOE continued in service, trading mainly between Baton Rouge and Thames Haven until September 1930, when the barge was sold to the Creole Petroleum Corporation for use as a storage hulk at Venezuela. The two vessels had been in partnership for 22½ years and, in the aggregate, had covered 1,044,161 sea miles. In retrospect, it seems incredible that in this time the towing hawser parted only once - a tribute to the seamanship of the officers and men manning the craft.
As regards the subsequent histories of these two famous ships, the NAVAHOE served usefully at Venezuela for six years, and on June 27, 1936, was taken in tow for the last time. On the following day she was sunk in a pre-determined position 50 miles North of the Dragon’s Mouth, Trinidad. The IROQUOIS outlived her consort by 11 years, being sold to shipbreakers in 1946, nearly 17 years after she had parted from the NAVAHOE. She arrived at Dalmuir basin, on Clydeside, during December 1946 to be broken up by W H Arnott Young and Company Ltd.
Stuart Fisher
Sitting on my boat in the process of putting it away for the winter. A little early, but I have run out of crews and I don’t care to sail alone. ‘A pleasure shared’ as they say. Last winter my boat was in TINOS out on the hard. When I went out in May it was in a filthy state and petty pilfering had robbed me of my halyards. So I had no running rigging. I tied two four metre alloy ladders together and by throwing a line over the spreaders, managed to hoist them up the mast. Then as I climbed I tied them on and reached the top feeling fairly secure. Re-rigged and with some relief, descended safely. I am too old for all this! So, slap on the anti-fouling and get dragged by tractor into the water. Stored and left the next day for SIROS, only fifteen miles away but the only island that stocks calor gas in a range of fifty miles. This is what you have to know about Greece; what islands stock what items. For gas it is Pireaus, Siros, Kalimnos, Rhodos. If you run out anywhere else you have had it.
From Siros we sailed, or rather motored as very little wind at this time, to Lavrion, where I picked up a smashing little plastic dinghy, much the same size as my old AVON, but it doesn’t deflate, puncture (sp), suffer from faulty valves and takes my 6hp Johnson with four people, at max revs. Drawbacks - A bit heavier, not quite so stable, and you have to balance it. On ups - it rows like a proper boat! From there we visited Hydra & Spetsi; beautiful, but very touristy. Then to Kithnos and Tinos again because there was to be a big festival in the village. The Saints day of the church. Ag. Joanis (St. John). All went to church with lots of candles, incense, chanting. Didn’t understand it but it is quite in order to walk out and sit in the courtyard to recover, and then all back in! It ended with a procession through the village, led by the icon of the saint and followed by all the people. Afterwards we were invited to a meal with some Greek friends, and what a feast. Every imaginable dish you could think of with a centre piece of a beautiful decorated two-foot long fish. After drinking innumerable glasses of locally made Retsina, we then proceeded to visit all the other houses, rather like the Scottish New Year’s Eve first footing. Another Retsina, another mouthful of food; after about five or six houses we gave up and went for a siesta (polite name for sleeping if off!).
We left Tinos the next day, heading for KOS & TURKEY. It was all downwind broad reaching. First to a very small island Denhoussa and on to Levinthe. Almost deserted, but this year it has a taverna for us yachties; then Kalimnos - buy some gear - remember? Nowhere else. Perserimos and Kos, a beautiful town but full with Scandinavians. The beaches have their special attractions though! Booked out and sailed for Bodrum and went through the formalities of entry. First the Marina for Transit Log, then to the Doctor for Health clearance stamp. "Anyone sick", "No", OK. - 500 T.Lira (about 25p). Then tourist police; passport stamped, fill in form for everyone on boat; purpose of visit, how long etc. Then customs. "What do you have?" You do all this in reverse when you leave Turkey but you also have to see the Harbour Master to pay Light dues. I am too small, but a 20M yacht is looking at a substantial sum of money - £50 - £100. But the formalities are worth going through for Turkey is beautiful. The winds are mostly from the West; starting at 10.00 rising to 3 - 4, and sometimes 5, and dying away at 19.00. So we did a long hop and sailed overnight to Marmaris; then came back in ten - fifteen mile nibbles, staying in beautiful bays with crystal clear water and trees right down to the water. Sometimes a restaurant, but not always. Back through the Gulf of Datcha, then the Bay of Kos, and finally to Kos itself, when my permanent crew had to return to Sweden and work. Here I found myself another crew and we started to sail back. Because of the Meltemi at this time of year I decided to loop round the Southern islands where the wind is not so strong. I should have known better; on the South coast of Kos I blew out my genny and had to motor sail into KAMARA BAY. Put No.1 jib onto roller reefing and start again; have to sail with one reef in to balance boat, so go rather slowly. Heading for ASTIPALIA, one of my favourite islands as it’s very quiet with very few tourists. While here we were in the same taverna as a Greek wedding, which was fascinating; the bride and groom, with best man, best woman, get up and dance and as they dance other guests come and pin money onto the man’s shirt and put gold chains on the bride; it went on to 03.00 hrs. Then to ANAFI and then Santorini. Visited ancient ruins but found all the best stuff is in Athens, and they say "this is where the famous mozaic was"; very interesting. Otherwise Santorini is horrible with tourism. Glad to get away, and sailed due North to Nexos; not the best place to be with bad water, so we later discovered, and Ferries coming in and out so fast that you get enormous wash that piles you onto the wall; Crunched bows. Set sail and have long haul to Siros, but good sail with George at the Autohelm working well. Next morning set off for Tinos, again only fifteen miles away. Get half way across and decide to turn back as weather deteriorating rapidly. Sail back for an hour, looks better; try again. Get within 203 miles of Tinos and wind drops to nothing. We are being thrown all over the place by very short cross seas and the outboard only cavitates. Then, suddenly, off the hills, great gusts of wind. I am suddenly glad I only have my No.1 jib. Put another slab in the main and settle down for a hard sail - and it was. Water coming straight over the cabin roof. We were going well, but every now and then a cross sea would knock the stern round, and before you could get her back there would be the wet one. My crew had to get me a wet sponge as my eyes filled up with salt, but at least it was nice warm water! At last we beat in and hurtled straight into the harbour, I have never appreciated a cold beer as I did then. Stayed a few days as my friend Derek was there with his family. By this time we had some better weather and sailed back to Kithnos, and then had a great broad reach down to POROS, making 7-8 knots with my No.1 and a reef in the main. A great way to end a great season.
Vyv Barnett, CATINA (Ir. 70)
Enrico Sale. RIGGING. Fitting out, improving and maintaining Yacht rigging, nearly an excellent book, certainly a long felt want, contains many excellent illustrations, many useful tables of rope strengths, winch sizes, sheet lengths per sail area, tables. However a book which illustrates a mast head with the radar reflector incorrectly mounted and is equivocal about the need for one, and which makes no attempt to explain and caution against wringing or twisting in the standing rigging, is to be read with some reservation. Overall, nevertheless, worth buying for the useful information, at £12.95 it’s bound to save you that much in rig wear. Hard cover. 150pp. 20x20crn. Adlard Coles.
Michael Stadler. PSYCHOLOGY OF SAILING. The seas effects on mind and body. Invaluable insight into the "hydrodynamics of the human element". Seasickness, sensory performance, awareness, optical illusion, fatigue, the crew and the probable inter-reaction of the crew. We all know how to fidget with the sheets and adjust the trim, read this book and gain at least as much from tuning the crew; paperback. 120pp. £7.95. Adlard Coles.
Ross Garrett. THE SYMMETRY OF SAILING. The physics of sailing for Yachtsmen. Highly technical dissertation, no doubt invaluable to the mathematically minded who won’t object to the poor illustrations, on rather gutless paper for a text book, only for those on a post Marchaj course, but at that level essential. Harbeck. £19.95. Adlard Cobs. 268pp. 19x25cms.
Jimmy Cornell. CRUISING ROUTES. Tells you when to go, where and why; hurricane seasons, trade winds, regional weather, prevalent currents. Did you know that many round the world sailors consider the Caribbean Sea crossing the roughest and most dangerous of all. Essential planning material. £25. Adlard Coles. 432pp. 19x25cm.
Erick Hiscock. BEYOND THE WEST HORIZON; ATLANTIC CRUISE IN WANDERER III, AROUND THE WORLD IN WANDERER III. All these classics have been reprinted in large format paperback, many still follow these routes and gain immense pleasure from doing so either in fact or in the armchair and although the letterpress photo reproduction is a bit disappointing, they’re well worth having at £5.95 each. Adlard Coles.
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27 MARCH - 24 APRIL |
Plymouth Spring Series |
RPCYC |
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APRIL 30 |
Plymouth to Falmouth |
RWYC |
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MAY 1 |
Falmouth to Fowey |
RWYC |
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MAY 2 |
Fowey to Plymouth (pursuit) |
TWYC |
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MAY 21 & 22 |
Carlsberg Multihull Weekend - Maxi, Micro and Cruisers |
Queen Annes’ Battery, Plymouth |
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MAY 25 - 27 |
European Multihull Symposium - Monnickendam, Holland (20th Anniversary of Dutch CTC) |
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JUNE 5 |
CSTAR Start; Plymouth Bar-b-Que/rally (4-5 June) |
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JUNE 9 |
Plymouth to St. Malo |
RWYC |
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JUNE 15 |
Yachting Monthly Triangle Race from Torquay |
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JUNE 25 |
Round the Island Race |
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JUNE 27 - 29 |
World Multihull Symposium, Newport, Rhode Island. |
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JULY 16/17 |
Plymouth - Fowey - Plymouth |
RWYC |
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JULY 21 |
UK Open Micro-Multihull Championships - Plymouth |
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AUG (early) |
European Micro-Multihull Championships - Holland |
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AUG 12 |
Wolf Rock Race |
RWYC |
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AUG 22 - 24 |
Micro-Multihull Class - Torquay |
RTYC |
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AUG 27 - 29 |
Plymouth MOCRA Rally |
MOCRA |
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SEPT 25 |
Start of Plymouth Autumn Series - Peter Storm Trophy |
RWYC |
ALL IROQUOIS WELCOMED & DELIGHTEDLY RECEIVED AT ALL EVENTS
For further information phone David Milner
INAUGURAL MEETING OF SOLENT MULTIHULL GROUP TO BE HELD at EMSWORTH SLIPPER SAILING CLUB at 7.30pm on Saturday, FEBRUARY 20th 1988. Mainly to discuss Micro Multihull programme, but also to discuss cruiser rallies and races. Sat. June 25. ROUND THE ISLAND RACE; Sat.& Sund. July 30 & 31. IROQ. OWNERS RALLY, Newtown Harbour
Holland is a good place to visit if you have a yacht. In England it’s the farmers who get the special weather and a special forecast; in Holland it’s the sailor and yachtsman.
CHIQUITA V summer cruise in 1987 was to the Southern Meers and Inland water ways of Holland and took place during very hot weather, so hot and sunny indeed that although the memory is beginning to dim, the tan is persisting. David and Yvonne Smith keep their Iroquois catamaran at Brighton Marina and it’s generally in a fit state and fully bunkered for an instant world cruise, so Holland meant provisions, topping up, checking out and tidying up only.
David has a Sailor Navigator operating on the Decce chain which will programme up to 8 or 9 chains of waypoints to a total of something like 240 points. This marvellous piece of equipment gave great pleasure throughout the cruise. We could frequently distinguish the location of one wave from the next and as for knowing where we were, how fast we had really gone as opposed to how fast we believed we must be travelling, or which buoy we would approach next, there was simply never any question or doubt. The only problem is that after a very short while one relies on it very heavily and when taken in combination with David’s petrol consumption and fuel flow meter and rev counter, endless interesting experiments could be made with speed, power and economy.
We motored out of Brighton Marina at about 5.00 on Friday, June 26, and sailed placidly down to Beachy Head over the last of the ebb in drizzle, overcast, poor visibility and a 3 to 4 on the starboard quarter. Yvonne insisted that we stir ourselves and hoisted the spinnaker; speed immediately increased to 6 to 7 knots and the sun came out. As we sailed briskly towards Dungeness we tapped in the chain of way points to Holland and this, of course, had an immediate effect on the weather as we were now officially part of the Dutch Special Yachtsmans’ weather scene (this is another less well publicised virtue of the Sailor Navigation system). The breeze increased, the tide strengthened, and surrounded by our own patch of Dutch sunshine amongst the general gloom, we swept up channel and appeared to reach Folkestone in no time. The was our chosen point for crossing the separation lanes using the Verne light ship as a marker. Our sun patch coped admirably with this rather unnatural change of direction and without seeing more than a couple of ships or yachts we arrived, in sunshine, off the French coast. It’s a very friendly feeling to be in the middle of the Channel and be able to see both French and English coast lines.
Calais we had hoped for, but now decided to aim higher and set off for Dunkirk. Up with the spinnaker and off we went, for one awful moment it looked as though the sun patch might not be able to keep up, but Dutch weather is made of tough stuff and all was well. By now we were in the north going ebb up the French coast so continued swiftering on until finally the tide turned against us and in the dredged inshore channel we faced a steep chop of wind over tide. No doubt because the tide had turned, the weather controller had wound up the wind a bit so that we shouldn’t loose any time. After surfing along in 12 to 14 knot bursts we approached Dunkirk, entered at 20.45 end motored up the long harbour and moored at the marina on the starboard side. This seems an excellent place, if a little more expensive than we were used to; there were spare berths at the end of June, and showers, a small restaurant and a 10 minute walk to provision shops.
However it does provide a most excellent cabaret. As we motored up the harbour we were astounded to see a breakdown truck dangling a 6’ dia. brazier of red hot flaming coal over the quayside. Later a trawler came alongside, took the brazier from the truck end, hooting wildly, came slowly up the harbour followed discreetly by a police launch. All the time the crew were climbing the rigging end hurling buckets of oil and chemicals into the fire, resulting in great rolling balls of variously coloured flame detaching themselves and drenching the coaling berths on the other side of the harbour in fire and smoke. From time to time a crew man (or woman for all we could tell) would leap howling from the rigging and fall flaming into the water. Eventually, after a paroxysm of fire, sparks, smoke and flame balls, the trawler came alongside the quay and the brazier was craned ashore in front of a grandstand of spectators. As soon as it was ashore they all went home. We never found out what was happening, no-one in the Marina knew and we were able to give the local spectators better explanations (various) than they were able to give us. Not a bad first day, we thought.
Next day, Saturday, we left Dunkirk to go North over the last of the flood and headed towards Flushing in poor misty weather compared to previous day, but in reality normal English cruising weather. Past Zeebrugge with its windmills. If you’re ever lost and find yourself approaching a harbour arm with seven or eight modern windmills along it you’ll know it’s Zeebrugge.
The tide was ebbing from the Schelde by the time we got there and with the engine at full chat and 9 knots registered on the log we were only just making up on mid channel and fairway buoys. Alongside the foreshore at Flushing there is a narrow deep water channel going North, which saves a few miles for small north-going craft. As we approached, a large (6000-7000 ton) Cypriot cargo ship turned across our bows and to our astonishment headed sideways towards us, then directly towards a large block of flats on the sea wall; just as we really and genuinely thought that the captain had decided to take vengeance on modern architecture by demolishing the flats the bow turned away and the ship slid away up the coast. I now know what people look like with "agog"; it’s how David and Yvonne, and no doubt I, looked at that moment.
Much cheered by the continuing high standard of cabaret being provided we entered the Flushing lock (second on left for the harbour, not first, that’s for pilot boats only and one would feel such a fool!) at 5pm that afternoon. To clear customs we went to Flushing, although Harlinvliet has now been opened as an entry port where you are allowed to stay a day whilst the clearance is obtained from Middleharnis, a much more flexible arrangement. Tie up alongside the quay on starboard side through the lock and send one person ashore only, preferably someone who can hop well and has a spare shoe that they can throw away before coming back on board. Clearing customs is hard work, this is mainly because Dutch Authorities don’t want to discourage visitors or be too overbearing, so one has to insist a bit. The customs examination, politely and thoughtfully from the quayside, was worrying. "Good Afternoon", welcome to the Netherlands (note never say Holland). I hope you have a pleasant holiday with nice weather". How could this experienced official not be aware of the "Special Dutch Yachtsmans’ Weather Provision". Rather glumly we motored a bit farther up the harbour and tied up at a little marina on the starboard side for the night. By this time the sun was out again and as the Netherlands are plus one hour on UK Summer Time it never seemed to go in again, at least not whilst I was awake.
Next day, Sunday, the Middleburg Canal bridge at Flushing didn’t open until 5pm Netherlands time, so note this fact in your planning; you must either lower your mast or wait, so we walked into the town, which I noted in my journal as being "like Cromer in Winter". Where is Cromer?, whenever did I go there, especially in Winter! but on a Sunday midday it is a bit quiet for a stranger. In 1988 there may be a town marina entered from the port side of the harbour, this was under construction at the time in the old fishing port. It was also odd to someone from the UK to see the casual way in which road works were carried out. Pick up the paving bricks and dig straight into the sad, no wonder the houses tend to lean this way and that.
Bridges and Locks open in this part of the Netherlands, not by and large in response to requests from yacht or boat owners, but when the time is right so you don’t have to worry. Most of them have traffic lights and there are quays, dolphins, piles or pontoons to tie up alongside whilst waiting the short time (at most time for a cup of tea) for access or passage to be granted. Nevertheless the first Dutch canal, first swing bridge, or first lock is exciting. Everyone waves a greeting, and coming from England where we all ignore one another even when forced to give way, it’s a bit unnerving but you soon learn to judge the circumstances more accurately. So under the bridges, up the Middleburg canal to Middleburg and the berthing master with the beer can collection.
Middleburg Marina is easy to find, turn off the canal into Middleburg and the entrance appears on the port side; tie up at the pontoon below the elegant iron lifting bridge, take your beer can into the harbour master and up goes the bridge in due course and in you go. The Yacht Club Arne, just over the bridge, has the toilets and bar, next door is a Chandlers where you can buy the one essential item for travelling by water in the Netherlands, large scale charts. All the meers and inland lakes are shallow with deeper areas marked by withies. Between the withies there is a minimum of 4’6, usually much more, but beyond the withies is no-mans land. If it looks tempting to take a short cut don’t, you’ll go aground. There’s loads and loads and loads, a whole big bunch in fact, of perfectly usable water so don’t try and pinch an extra five square yards inside the withies, it may well pinch you back.
There is, in fact, only the one disadvantage of cruising in the Netherlands and this is in the number of rude or stupid yachtsmen that one meets, all of whom flew the red ensign or, to be honest, more often the blue. At first this worried us, but then we realized that it was in fact all part of the Special Services for Foreign Yachtsmen, part of which is the Special Weather which was working so well for us. Once we realized that they were all part of the cabaret provided we were less embarrassed and more interested. No doubt there are Dutch idiots for the Dutch to view, although of course we didn’t notice them; Belgian idiots for the Belgians; quite how the two Germans who were brave enough to cruise in Holland in 1987 got on I don’t know, perhaps they performed for each other, and as for the French there were none, so it all worked out very well in the end. It was charts which provided one of the frequent cabaret acts. Towards the end of the cruise on our way back to Flushing we cruised through the Veersemeer, end rounding an island saw a 38ft Westerly type bilge keel ketch firmly aground and waving frantically and flapping their red ensign at us. Outboard engines are not good for tow-off jobs, especially on Iroquois where the grip is less than usual. However David went alongside and offered to take a tow line, which they didn’t have ready. We circled around and were passed one and belaying the end, motored carefully towards deep water, only to be brought up with a jolt not far from the ketch. After an endless wait they unravelled another and rowed it across to us. David gave a jolly good haul at full power but we couldn’t move the boat and as we swung out of the channel and the engine started to overheat we had to cast off and leave them. However, not being entirely heartless, we moored about half a mile away, inflated the dinghy, put on the engine, got some warps and motored and rowed back to offer help. Meanwhile they had been using the emergency wavelength to call for help in getting off. By the time we got there the State Water Police were aboard and carefully and methodically going through the routines; sails up, engine full ahead, everyone aft, everyone forward, engine full astern. We spoke to the ladies in the party who were distraught and certainly not about to lighten ship by coming down into our dinghy. "Why" we asked "did you go aground? why did you go inside the withies?". "What withies?" they said, a stunning answer. "Don’t you have charts of these meers then?" we asked, and received an even more stunning reply. "No" she said "we looked at them in the Chandlers at Middleburg and they were all in Dutch so we didn’t buy them". We motored slowly back to Chiquita almost in silence, in awe at such a magnificent production, solely for our benefit, by the Netherlands Foreign Yachtsmans Special Services, Entertainment Section.
Middleburg is unfortunately well worth visiting. This is evidence of a slightly more worrying aspect of the "Special Services" and results from Dutch thoroughness and preoccupation with tidyness, organization and perfection. Everywhere is worth visiting! After a while one becomes either blase, the "It can’t be any better than the last place" syndrome, or neurotic; the alternative "we can’t miss it, suppose it’s better than the last place" syndrome.
This part of the Netherlands has been extensively reclaimed from the sea over the centuries and since the great North Sea Flood of 1952, whilst we in England have been building the Thames Barrage and raising the embankments on the Thames, they have been building a dam up the North Sea coast of their whole country; it’s quite extensive!
Apart from the vast boost that it’s given to the Dutch economy, it’s also given them the world lead in modern land reclamation technology, which is why the Japanese are asking their advice on the new island to be constructed off Japan in the 1990’s. The land, natural disasters apart, is very peaceful now but the towns show evidence of a rich and bloody past. Many have defensive works against siege in the form of star shaped embankments with cannon emplacements at the critical points. There can’t be any other European country with many defensive systems of this type still in such good condition and so complete. Yet, whereas in other places these historical relics would be restored, regulated and overrun with sightseers, here they are so common that they are usually only used for leafy walks and grassy glades. Parma Nova may have the most perfectly preserved of this type of fortification, but for density and variety of evidence, this part of the Netherlands must be pre-eminent.
Middleburg has the town plan and much of the fortifications; the main street had young persons fashion wear sufficiently cheap, presumably from what was once the Dutch East Indies, for me to chance my arm successfully on behalf of any daughters, and the houses leant, slipped, crept, bowed, heaved and tilted in a discreetly crazy fashion as one walked by on the opposite pavement. This last is the permanent legacy of building on sand, the only surprise to me is that they last so long.
Back at the Yacht Club Arne that evening and several drinks later, we were soon deep in conversation with all and sundry. As we started to say goodnight, the charming lady behind the bar announced that, as yet, we couldn’t leave. This was another Dutch shock, once again our perception of the known world weaved and shimmered across our brains. One might be ejected from, prevented from entering, or even barred access to alcoholic facilities, but to be prevented from leaving on the grounds that one had consumed insufficient was unnerving. However, we eventually came to understand that it was spring rolls that were to be consumed and after a couple more calming tinctures we duly received and ate the necessary number of piping hot delicacies before walking the few yards back to the boat.
Diesel is to be had more or less everywhere on Dutch water, frequently from beautifully painted clean tank barges. You can step aboard one of these in your deck shoes and step back, transaction completed, and not leave black greasy footprints everywhere. Petrol is another matter. The outboard engine has not made much impact in the Netherlands; too flighty and erratic perhaps to suit the national temperament and if it’s petrol you want you go to a petrol station with your can and buy it. They certainly don’t want ugly, dangerous excrescences like petrol stations in the centres of towns or near the waterways, after all what have cars got wheels for if not to roll along to petrol stations to fill up with petrol.
It wasn’t until the middle of the afternoon that we left Middleburg. It was very hot and sunny when we woke up, and whilst I felt a little tired and limp, not so David & Yvonne, who spent the morning re-roving the lashings of the foredeck trampoline.
Down (or up), say along, the canal to the Veersemeer we motored, past the urgent river barges, still exciting in their novelty to us. We saw one oil tanker literally shining and glittering with fresh paint in the sun, driven by a very stalwart woman, which had various "No" signs displayed. "No’ smoking"; too right aboard an oil tanker; "No mooring", well fair enough, it’s a commercial vessel in beautiful nick, but "No men", that must make life tricky for Customs inspectors and so on, and anyway I don’t believe in this sexual discrimination.
At Veere on the Veersemeer, we began to experience homesickness, brought on by a form of sensory depravation. Along the wall of the town there was a long jetty, put there specifically so that yachtsmen could tie up, go ashore, shop and visit the town. It was free; no charge was made, no-one collected any mooring fees from us. England, oh England, where were you.
Veere is another of these lovely little towns but is hoist, in part, by a peculiarly Dutch petard. Once life and business had got back to normal after the war and the great flood, new houses were built on new estates outside the city walls. All the young newlyweds, and lots of the olderweds, went to live there, after all there’s no point in living in old, draughty, crumbling, tilting houses in the centre of town when you can have a brand new home just outside. As a result, many of the old town houses were sold to foreign nationals and other outsiders for small sums of money and now, in winter, the old town centre is almost unlived in because, of course, the owners only come during the summer; specifically during the continental school holidays. During this time this part of the world becomes, so we were told, not unlike a mixture of Blackpool’s Golden Mile, the Medina during Cowes week, or the Round the Island Race weekend and Oxford Street during the Christmas rush. It may be so, fortunately we had the 2 weeks before this cataclysm occurred.
Whilst at Veere we discovered that the many islands in the meer had mooring jetties that were also free and so, drunk with the voluptuous plenty of it all, we reeled off down to the sea end where we moored up free of charge. We climbed to the top of the massive sea dyke and saw the sea, had a cup of tea, moved off and moored up, free, to a clever ‘Y’ shaped floating pontoon. This is fixed only to one pile at the bottom of the ‘Y’ and revolved so that it was always facing into the wind. David and Yvonne swam, pretending that it was warm and lovely in the water. I could see that it was not and contented myself with stretching the trysail over the boom and wrapping myself in cold-water soaked towels. After splashing about for a while we had another cup of tea and went off to look for a free berth for the night. This proved troublesome; one, I remember, was the wrong colour, another had the wrong shape of mooring cleat, yet another had the right sort, but they didn’t look pretty. Eventually David took the decision himself, came alongside and told us that we were there; funnily enough this was a jetty which proved to be just right.
The odd thing about this day that I remember was that the cabaret was not up to standard; however, on looking back, I wonder if perhaps we, or more specifically I, was providing it. After all we didn’t see that many other people sitting in their cockpits wrapped in wet towels, and it is true that as soon as we moored up and settled down, all the boats with topless beauties in them unmoored and sped off.
Next day we decided to go along the Veersemeer to the Oosterschelde, and sailed gently off the jetty in the early misty morning. The channel twists and turns, but there is no doubt that it’s wide enough for beating to windward with a handy crew, although most people we saw were motoring. Rather a grey day but with a favourable wind from one quarter or another as the channel weaved about, we sailed gently towards our next lock. We had only just passed the holiday village of Kortgene with the smell from its local chemical factory or brewery blowing down to us, when shrazam, wham, bam the day’s cabaret began. A large, bright orange high-wing monoplane with a rotary engine leapt over the dyke ahead of us, shot across the water, banked left, rocketted upwards and then dived, engine howling, towards some unseen spot beyond the sea wall, and disappeared. Silence. We waited, stunned, for the explosion and ball of flame. It never came. Instead, the same aircraft shot over the dyke again, banked towards us and, zooming upward, rolled over and dived, backed towards the ground, engine note rising, until, hidden behind the dyke, it was cut suddenly off. Still no explosion. We dashed below for cameras and pointed them variously towards the points at which we thought the pilot would bring his machine back over the wall. He didn’t. We tried again. He appeared somewhere else. We adjusted our aim, so did he. We tried again, and again, but over a period of perhaps 10 minutes we repeatedly missed the spectacular moment when, from a blank sky, the huge orange round-nosed aircraft appeared instantaneously above the dyke. It was a big plane, not unlike a Lysander, but probably more powerful. We never heard any explanation.
Zandkreekdam, between Veersemeer and the Oosterschelde, was our first proper lock. I remember I grabbed the side rails too quickly and we had to push forward, but we were soon through and into a new world. Even at the head of the creek it looked big, but when I took a short cut inside a withies the leeboard still grounded, no more tricks like that then!
FIRST CORRECTIONS. David’s Navigation system is a SHIPMATE and has capacity for 9 routes of waypoints and a total of 200 way points. The canal across Walcheren Island is, of course, the Walcheren Canal, not the Middleburg Canal.
To be continued in the Spring 1988 edition…….
Dear Stuart
Can anyone help me about renewing my rubbing strakes, the bolts are rusting away. Also, all my windows are corroding away!!!! URGENT!
Vyv Barnett, CATINA (Ir. 70)
Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your good wishes and those of the Iroquois Owners, which has reached us at last on the Costa del Sol! Herewith our subscription for 1987 as requested.
As you can see we now have a Hamble addrees (a caravan just above Mercury marina) where we intend to spend our Summers, but during the Winter we are seeking warmer climes. At present, we are staying with my brother in Estepona on the Costa del Sol, but before long we are hoping to own a very small studio apartment close by, with a smashing view of the bay and Gibraltar in the distance.
Mind you, at the moment there is a covering of snow on the mountain behind the town, but we are still far better off than Great Britain, according to the news!
All the best,
Rony and Elise
Dear Mr. Fisher,
Please find my application for the Iroquois Association and cheque for £5.00 enclosed. Haidy Blake referred me to you after learning that I had purchased an Iroquois cat, we are both members of Farham Sailing Club.
I bought the boat from Michael Cherry in October 1986 and have changed the name the name from Foxy Lady to Gymnopedies II, which is now recorded on the Small Ships Register. The boat is ahsore at Thorney Island at present and I hope to ‘Gelshield’ her bottom as soon as temperature allows. I am very interested in technical developments and am at present investigating the possibility of changing the pivoting boards to dagger boards, to prevent the deterioration of the boards by being able to lift them out when not in use, and also to improve performance.
Looking forward to seeing you afloat in ‘87.
Yours sincerely,
John Davis,GYMNOPEDIES II (Ir.317)
Dear Stuart,
I bought Cat O’ Lafite from Dennis Marrion in June 86. The boat is based at Brightlingsea. I first fancied an Iroquois in 1968 but have had to wait until now to afford (?) one. So far we have visited The Colne, Blackwater, Orwell, Stour, Orde & Deben, Thames Estuary, Ramsgate, Calais, Bologne, Le Touquet, Etaples, Bereke, Authie Bay, Cayeux, St. Valerie, and lastly Ambleteuse (near Cape Gris Nez). You won’t find Delmar Morgan’s or Mark Brackenbury’s notes on this town as they obviously don’t know Northern France!
The boat is a 2A with rudders underneath, and a 1600cc Ford Watermota diesel in the cockpit (which makes a marvellous seat) which will still run even if hulls are awash. This engine drives an F11 Volvo hydraulic gear box, which in turn drive F.11 motors, one in each hull, which then drive a conventional shaft through a gland and have 13" propellers. This is obviously the best system for the 2A. It weighs the same as two fat men! The cat has yet to be designed that will go to windward (if we are honest!) and as mine has roller genoa 244 sq.ft. and roller mainsail 160 sq.ft., she is underpowered and both extrusions sag off to leeward on a beat so, 50o is the highest she will point. 4 knots to windward, 7 knots reaching and 10 knots down wind, I have an accurate log and drink when I get ashore, so no daft claims!
Mostly our inventory is similar to everyone else’s, save our 12’6" inflatable slung fore & aft in davits, even in force eight the waves can’t get it! Our log is a seafarer electronic and the impeller drops through a rubber grommet in the large cockpit locker and rides in the central wave caused by the hulls (being too close together!). We have 60’ of 3/8 chain, on a 151b Bruce and the same on a 35lb Plough, also of course there is 35mm of nylon on both, also an anchor winch which weighs the same as a couple of bottles of wine (S L HYSPEED). We carry a sail board and wet suits; we have a life raft but leave it up the loft, now we know how thin it is! A Lavac toilet is like a Rolls Royce compared to a compact!!!
We have all the usual problems, pivot pins, both broken, fore windows leaking, side OK. Also we have a Fluxgate compass mounted up the mast about 20’ when it should be three feet above deck at most. In rough weather it rotates like a second hand and I have to check my course on the engine rev counter, which is similar in size and does not move so much! As I have a wife and 3 young children she is the perfect boat for coastal cruising. As we all know, to get any class of better boat would cost at least double the money. Have I missed the AGM?
Regards,
Roger Silcock, CAT O’ LAFITE, Ir.2a, 183
PS I have copies of your magazine up to when the application form was printed. A recent list of owners would be appreciated as I live up the hill from Brightlingsea. If I can help in any way let me know. Roger.
Dear Mr. Fisher,
Thank you for your letter enclosing the photocopy of the Iroquois sailing guide, I am indeed interested in becoming a member of the Association.
I work in Saudi and I usually return for vacation during the summer, for around six weeks. This year I intend commencing my holiday from June 11th, although this is not finalised, and I am planning to visit the Channel Islands for two weeks in company with a friend, in his Prout Quest.
There are a couple of questions which I wonder if any member of the Association has come across. Firstly, is it possible to set a storm jib from the baby stay, hence avoiding the problem of having to remove the roller headsail; suitable back stays could be improvised using the spinnaker sheet winches. Secondly, has anyone tried setting a spinnaker with guys leading to the bows, thereby not needing a pole?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Aubry
Dear Mr. Fisher,
It’s with great pleasure that I have received the list of Iroquois Owners and the Newsletter. I have now many possibilities to have contact with other Iroquois enthusiasts and there is no doubt I will do so in the near future. I would like to tell you details about my Iroquois No. 315.
Please note that the name of my cat is CALAMAR and not "Calamak" as in the list of Iroquois owners. In the list under "Boat names known only" is mentioned an Iroquois celled "No Name". "No Name" was the first name of my boat, but rather unofficially. It was sold by Mr Boyd under this appellation.
I would be very interested to have the possibility to obtain photocopies of the booklet "How to sail an Iroquois" and would be very grateful if you could organise that. With many thanks in advance for your co-operation, I remain,
Yours sincerely,
Pierre Stauffer, CALAMAR (Ir.315)
We are in the process of trying to find a new trampoline for our Iroquois and wonder if you would know where we could buy one or have one made. We are getting a quote from a sail maker in Connecticut but would like to know what else is available.
We are going into our third season with "Sophistocat" and are enjoying the boat very much. We had a 24 foot cat before this and did some rafting up with the Synders when they owned "Chinchilla".
Any information you might come up with would be greatly appreciated.
Joan and William Barnett, SOPHISTOCAT, Ir.76
Dear Stuart,
As I read this letter I realize it is not news, but history by now. Suzy wrote it on the date above and it was set aside and alas forgotten. Anyway here ‘tis, with some updates at the end. Ted.
We received the August 1985 IOA Newsletter this week and have enjoyed reading about members’ activities this past summer. Our thanks to contributors and to you, the editor.
We enjoyed a fine season with Wind Dragon getting her launched well before our previous times of late July - there have always been major repairs heretofore. This year we made several day and weekend trips to the Isles of Shoals (a group of 7 islands about 9 miles off the Maine-New Hampshire coast) sharing our fun with our friends and those of our two sons. Our major cruise took us "down-East" where for two weeks in August we explored several of the hundreds or more islands of Maine. Accompanying us was an 18-year old German youth who had never before sailed on any boat. He found his sea legs after a day or so and became a regular sunbather on the foredeck.
At our first island anchorage he helped us all scrub the anti-fouling paint which had begun to get a bit slimy. Last summer (1984) we had scraped and sanded off all previous anti-fouling paint (9 years worth) and applied two coats of Micron 33, one black and the final blue. This spring (1985) we simply scrubbed it just before launching and put her in. By cruise time the hulls needed a bit of a swish which we accomplished by taking a line ashore while at anchor and scrubbing her by hand with brushes or sponges while standing in hip deep water. This last weekend when she was hauled and power scrubbed, we noted that the blue paint is still about 95% present and a bit of the black is showing thru after two seasons in the water. It looks as though the Micron 33 will go at least another season or two without reapplication (except for touching up for cosmetic purposes). Although considerably more expensive than regular paint, we have found this to be a real time saver in getting her ready each spring.
Hello again, March 7, 1987
It’s nearly another boating season and I haven’t completed this letter. I was prompted by having talked with Fred and Lu Doll, who attended the AGM last month. Enclosed is our check for our ‘86, ‘87 and ‘88 memberships. I apologize for our tardiness. We do so enjoy reading about other Iroquois’ experiences.
To continue the saga of Micron 33, we touched up the waterline this past season (‘86) and will probably do so again this spring, thus avoiding total repainting for the 3rd season. We also raised the waterline in the bow about two inches since she always seemed a bit down in the bow when on the water. While this paint requires a midseason scrub to remain effective, it is a minor task. I’m certain other antifoulings would benefit from such attention midseason as well. We also applied gray tinting film on the forward windows to cut down the glare inside and hopefully reduce the bleaching of the wood inside, which we are slowly sanding and revarnishing.
Our major cruising last summer (‘86) took us south to Cape Cod and the island of Martha’s Vineyard. It was not our first time in these waters, but certainly was a first for the weather conditions. We has 2 sunny days out of the 15 and more thunder squalls than we’ve experienced in our previous 14 years of cruising. Fortunately we did not lose our electronics, as had occurred three summers ago.
Despite the weather we managed another first - to have 6 to 8 persons aboard for more than an overnight. Two teenage girl cousins from Arizona joined us for 6 days, much to the delight of our sons who showed the "tumbleweeds" what sailing is all about. Later, over a weekend in September, a family of 4 joined us for 3 days. We found out that the Iroquois is just as accommodating for these numbers and conditions. I think the makeup of the personalities is very important, however.
We are very interested in hearing about the stretched Iroquois (35ft?) plans as related by Fred Doll. We feel the Iroquois layout is ideal providing the best combination of visibility and privacy. It would be delightful to have just a bit more space in all dimensions. Location of the chart table just inside is perfect for cruising and so efficient in space use. We have observed our boat at anchor during 50-60 knot winds and are very impressed by how well she hunkers down and points into the wind. The monohulls around her dance all over the mooring area. This streamlining costs us seating and headroom at the saloon table, but contributes impressively to sailing and safety factors. I’d hate to see that compromised in any major way.
As you can see we continue to enjoy our Iroquois very much. Thanks for your efforts in letting others know what is happening.
Sincerely yours,
Ted & Suzy Loder, WIND DRAGON (Ir. 182)
Dear Stuart,
Tomorrow is the day when Gun-Gun will get back into her right element after the Winter lay-up. This year I have installed a new heater. A central heating system with radiators. I have mainly done this to conserve electrical power. With my old heater I could not start the engine after two nights of running the heater. Apart from that the new heater has got twice the heating power of the old one, so I hope to get cosy and warm even in our coldest nights.
If you print this in the newsletter I would be most thankful if anybody reading this could sell me "Daughters of the Wind" by David Lewis (nothing to do with me - Webmaster), and "Children of Cape Horn" by Rosie Swale. My name and address is Gunner Enberg, Sweden.
I hope you will have a nice year sailing,
Gunner Enberg, GUN-GUN (Ir.188)
Dear Mr Fisher,
I do apologise for the extremely long delay before answering your kind letter of January 1st. If I remember well, we also met at Brighton Marina on the very day of the Iroquois Gathering. I am a clergy man involved in two schools, for religious purposes, but having a full time teaching English, Dutch and German in a school (for French speaking youngsters) belonging to the Roman Catholic Church. As I deal a lot with electronics, for better language teaching I’ve built 4 language laboratories, of which the fourth I’m completing now with computers, video and multi programming devices. That’s why I am critically short of time and often delayed for my personal matters!
Since 1974 I’ve been sailing aboard FIA FIA, Iroquois Mark One, bought at that time from Mr Backhouse (Basingstoke) by a brother-in-law of mine. A few years later she was sold to Tradeberry Ltd (Guernsey) with whom I agreed upon a management on a yearly basis. They are the owners and I am the manager, dealing with running, equipping and sailing the boat. The agreement conditions are ruled by Guernsey Law. She flies the Red Ensign. I act on behalf of the Company, but I am now allowed to declare anywhere myself on an owners’ list; it would have serious consequences in Guernsey and in my own country as well. That’s why I hesitated quite a long time before writing to you and explaining plainly the very situation.
I would very much like to be accepted in your association as I am a thorough Iroquois sailor! I trust you’ll find a means of mentioning the owner’s name Tradeberry Ltd. on your lists.
In July-August I used to sail in English waters, this year the East Coast Rivers from July 4th till August 8th, date on which the cat will have to be back in Willemstad (Southern Holland). In fact 4 days later I’ll have to supply three German parish priests in four churches for the remainder of August, enabling them to go on holiday; as I teach German as well, it is a fairly good yearly training.
I hope things will be settled accordingly for membership. Perhaps our catamarans could meet somewhere in your home waters. My sail number is #16; the NEW NAME of my catamaran is VIA VIA, required by British registration, as Mr. Backhouse bought another Iroquois Mark Two with the name Fia Fia 2. My boat was built in ‘68 as number 61.
Yours sincerely,
Fr Walter J A Peeters, VIA VIA (Ir.61)
To the Iroquois Owners Association.
My wife and I recently bought an 1978 Iroquois Mk IIa in Florida, and are having it trucked to Duluth, Minnesota. We cruise Lake Superior. Our past experience has been in monohulls and for the last 6 years we’ve owned a Searunner 31 Trimaran; no Cats, so we have some re-learning to do. What can your organization offer us? We know that we need some specific information such as: A sailplan with enough measure merits of the various sails so a sail maker can make or repair sails; also, information on a roller furling/reefing genoa -how can it be mounted so the drum clears the center pulpit stanchion?
How do we join? Do you have a newsletter, if so are back issues
available?
Thank you,
Lyle G Burke
Dear Mr. Fisher,
Following our recent telephone conversation, please find enclosed cheque for £5 membership fee to the Iroquois Owners club. For your information, the Iroquois I purchased last year has a sail no. 304 and was originally named ARTAC CHARTER. She is now lying at Poole and is renamed CHEETAH.
This summer we are hoping to cruise S Brittany from the 10th July, returning the weekend 1-2 August. If the summer rally is re-scheduled for this weekend hopefully we will be able to get up to Newtown, IOW.
Whilst on holiday, hopefully, I will be able to find time to write an account of our journey back from Mallorca last year.
Yours sincerely,
L G Lintern, CHEETAH (Ir. 304)
Dear Stuart,
Thank you for your reminder of the Solent Rally ... We arrived in Comanche Krystal at Newtown Creek mid morning on Saturday (25th). By 16.00 hrs, as we appeared to be the only participants, we decided to give it up and moved out to spend the night in Yarmouth. On our way there we did, in fact, spot a mast head float of an Iroquois heading Eastwards, maybe one of ours? Where were you all? Could you please put an advertisement in the next Iroquois Newsletter:
"FOR SALE: Comanche Krystal (1979) Centre Board version by Sailcraft. Fully fitted. British Registration. Mooring available. Lying Dorset. One owner and carefully looked after and maintained. £27,000 ono"
I am receiving postcards from exciting anchorages in the Eastern Med. from the Comanche, Buster of Maldon. They will send me a diary of events of their Summer Cruise at the end of the year, which I’ll pass on to you for your Winter newsletter.
Best wishes,
Pauline Butler, COMANCHE CRYSTAL (Co.14)
Dear Stuart,
Enjoying the reading of old association newsletters, I was thinking what items might be of interest to the readership.
First of all we replaced the Arona engine in the starboard hull of our Apache with a 2000T Volvo which puts out 43hp and weighs no more than the 24hp Arona. The available pitch prop and belt drive are gone and we installed a feathering three blades PYE prop of 16" diameter adjusted to 12" pitch. We are very happy with the installation and hope to do the same in the port hull next. The engine noise is now much reduced and maintenance much simplified.
The second item may be of more general interest as it addresses the mysterious leaking of the hull above the waterline without apparent exterior holes. For the past six years we have had a small odiferous leak from a shroudplate fastening in the forward starboard cabin whenever underway in a moderate sea. The outside bolthead was eliminated as a source by adequate caulking. As we know, the Sailcraft hulls are solid fibreglass below the waterline to several inches above, and then convert to a balsa-.fibregless sandwich. The bottom of the sandwich consists of a plastic foam "V". This "V" provides a channel for water to accumulate from wherever there is a small leak between the decks and hulls. The water stands there for weeks on end undisturbed, and will find an exit, if there is one, when the ship does some hobbyhorsing. In our case the major source of water was a deck fitting that needed rebedding some 30 feet away from the cabin leak. Until we found the source we managed the problem with the drilling of a relief hole in a more acceptable place than the forward cabin. I believe inside drainage holes for the "V" in each wall are a good idea anyway.
The winds are pretty good here this summer, yesterday it was blowing 25 knots. We will keep the America’s cup competition here I think. Someday we will replace the 12 meters with Cats.
With best regards,
John B. Roes, DUTCH YANKEE (Ap.17)
Dear Mr. Fisher,
We would be grateful if you could send us an application form for the membership of the Iroquois Owners’ Association. We recently purchased No.141 ‘Double Vision’ via Patrick Boyd, who has also lent us a very complete set of back issues of the magazine.
Now that we have almost completed an extremely comprehensive refit, we are interested in racing her, but are coming across the usual problems of knowing where to find anyone who either accepts multis or has sufficient numbers of them to make life interesting.
We are moored at Favershem and would be interested in any advice or contacts that you could give us in this area. Thank you very much.
Yours sincerely,
Trevor and Helen Wilkins, DOUBLE VISION (Ir.141)
Dear Stuart,
We have had a good cruise this year, partly in company with Paul & Jean Smedley in their new (to them) Comanche ‘Louis’, formerly ‘Oopsy Daisy’ and formerly ‘Louis’. They bought her in Scotland earlier this year, had her transported to Favensham and then had some professional, and a lot of their own, hard work done and relaunched early June, and got up to Woolverstone and the Butley; we had several happy evenings together before we went on to Snape, and they headed South again.
Having had a quick stop and look at Snepe, which is getting steadily more commercial and pricey, we planned to stop at Aldeburgh for shopping, but it was Regatta Week at the AYC and very busy, so we took the hint and went down to the Deben, where the entrance is considerably changed from last year with only 1 offshore channel buoy in addition to the Haven Buoy. After a couple of days there, using a mooring at Ramshell (£1 per night) we shopped at Waldringfield - very good general store for groceries, and had a look at Woodbridge Marina, where we saw Barbara and Russi Dordi and BARU. We met up with them later at Pin Mill where we had stopped for a few days to enjoy the swimming in clean water and the general ambiance, which is superb.
My main purpose in writing is to ask if any of your readers has experience of a wind-operated (non-electric/electronic) self-steering system that has worked well on the Iroquois. I am trying to get a DME to work, but the rudder load seems to be too heavy for the vane. I will raise this at the AGM in case anyone there can offer advice. With very best regards to you,
Sincerely,
Doug Mackay, KAWA (Ir.153)