The Victoria Shadow Association

 

East Coast Social 2008

 

The East Coast Social took place on Sunday, 17th February 2008 at Wivenhoe. The event, organised by Anne Grubb our East Coast Regional Organiser, started when members began to gather outside The Rose and Crown public house just before 12 noon. It was a beautiful winter's day with virtually no wind. Although it had been very cold with ice on a local pond, in the sunshine it was warm and many sat outside the pub' to eat their lunch in the sunshine. It had been two years since we last met at Wivenhoe but the plan remained the same. We would eat at The Rose and Crown and socialise and then move almost next door to The Nottage Maritime Institute for our talk about matters nautical. This year there was a better than usual attendance and it was a great delight to meet old friends. Olive Hathaway turned up for the lunch, having stayed with Percy Ashton in Brightlingsea the previous day. Unfortunately, Olive could not stay for the talk but it was very good to see her. It was also good to see Leon Ferguson, who had come up with friends to join us and new members, Chas Argent and Jerry Croft were there for the first time. We numbered about thirty-five in all.

The Rose and Crown

If you haven't visited before, The Nottage Maritime Institute is a truly remarkable establishment. On the ground floor there were more wooden dinghies under construction than we had seen before. Such is the pleasure of seeing boats built of wood that one just cannot resist the urge to touch them! All around there are traditional tools, models, pictures and books. After a good look around down below, we moved upstairs to what would once have been the sail loft. Mike, who runs the Institute was there to meet and welcome us back. The collection of books, pictures, photographs and models must be quite priceless and one could easily lose track of time and spend hours and hours just looking around. You really must come and see for yourself all that is on offer.

Brian Smith and Arnold Robinson inspect work in progress

We had come from far and wide to listen to Professor Noel Dilly talk on the subject of Heavy Weather Sailing in Small Cruising Yachts. Prof Dilly turned out to be an extremely enthusiastic and lively speaker, bringing with him a visual presentation of slides, models and many items of equipment to make sailing in extreme conditions that bit more comfortable. The first half of the talk was interesting with advice on avoiding the very conditions we had come to learn about. When to run for cover and how to use some very ordinary objects to extraordinary purpose were covered, while the value of such items as lifejackets and flares were critically assessed. It gave us a great deal to think about. Then we had a break for tea and cakes.

Professor Noel Dilly extols the virtues of the serial drogue over the parachute!

Anne had baked some wonderful scones and cakes to go with the tea and coffee that Mike had brewed up for us. No pictures this time; too busy eating. Soon we were back in our seats and the second part of the Prof's talk got much more practical. The relative merits of parachutes and drogues were explained and his own serial drogue was partially deployed along the floor down the centre isle. The size of the hawsers and of the shackles raised some eyebrows but apparently this item was both stowed and used on Professor Dilly's own Twister. When we had inspected all the equipment and asked many questions, the talk was brought to a close with a vote of thanks being offered by John Sadler. All that remained was for the raffle to be drawn and for the lucky winners to collect their prizes. John Cade had sold a good number of tickets and the amount collected went a long way towards paying the costs involved. John also had on offer a large number of Victoria Yacht caps priced at just £1 each. They were being bought three and four at a time and any sailor worth his salt will be sporting one in the coming season. It just remains to thank Anne Grubb for organising such a splendid event. Thank you Anne.

This compact drogue can be stored flat

This page last updated on the 26 Feb 2008