My Summer Cruise 2002

Posted at 8:33 PM, Apr. 9, 2008

This article was written for 'Saltings', the LOA magazine.

 

My Summer Cruise 2002

 

Joan and I had booked a fortnight off work in August but didn’t make any definite plans as to what we were going to do with it. By mid July, we were fed up with the lack of decent weather in Scotland, so booked a week in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus. This was a very relaxed week, lying by the pool or the beach, soaking up the sun, with virtually no nautical theme, other than an evening stroll along the harbour front. The harbour was a working one, with only Gullets and fishing boats. There was one 29 ft yacht, available as a skippered daysail, for £85.00, but I resisted the temptation. I did eventually find a small marina, in the new harbour, further out of town.

 

We flew back into Glasgow on Monday, and by Tuesday evening, the dirty washing had been sorted, the freezer restocked for the boys, and we were up at Ardlui, ready to start our Summer Cruise.

 

The journey started well, on a beam reach in a fresh westerly, but halfway through the 7 Km trip to Inveruglas bay, the wind died, and we resorted to the outboard. Inveruglas is on the west shore, and is one of our favourite lunch stops when daysailing. The resident pair of swans now know the boat well, and always pay a visit, tapping on the hull if you happen to be in the cabin when they arrive. The Loch Sloy hydroelectric power station discharges into the bay, this small installation was built using the labour of German PoWs and now provides power during the periods of high demand. The building of a floating jetty, a large car park, and a building containing public toilets, visitor information and a café have recently improved the area. The ferry to the Inversnaid Hotel that is located across the Loch on the eastern shore, and the cruise boats that take busloads of visitors on tours of the northern half of the loch use the original, private jetty. Solitude has been the subject of many photographs taken by foreign visitors. We used the jetty to go ashore for a BBQ dinner, on a dull but dry evening, before moving out to a swinging mooring for the night. The three mooring buoys are used by the cruise boats for their winter berths – the mooring lines are 2” diameter rope! – and are almost always vacant during the summer.

 

We awoke on Wednesday to a wet, but calm morning. My cooking facilities consist of a portable pressurised petrol stove that I use in the cockpit, and on this morning, breakfast had to be cooked under the shelter of a golf umbrella that I have modified to hang from the boom. The next stage of our journey was the 11Km or so to Rowardennan, which is further south, and on the eastern shore. We had motored about half the distance before a light southerly headwind built up which allowed us to sail until we tied up at the steamer jetty. The public road, running up the east shore, stops at Rowardennan, but the West Highland Way continues northwards. There isn’t very much more than a hotel, a holiday chalet park, a youth hostel, and a car park but Rowardennan is very popular with day-trippers who come by car and take advantage of the various forest walks and small bays in this area, as well as with hill walkers.  From a boat user’s point of view, there is a small jetty and group of swinging moorings north of the peninsula, and the same on the south side, all of which are owned by the chalet park. In years gone by, a large steamer used to ply up and down the loch, and large wooden jetties still exist at Balloch, Balamaha, Luss, Rowardennan, Tarbet, and Inversnaid with the majority having small lower level decks at the side for use by leisure craft. At Rowardennan, the south deck is for the exclusive use of the ferry, and the north deck is normally too high for Solitude, as her side decks would slip under the deck but on this occasion the water level was higher than normal and we could berth safely. As the afternoon wore on the wind and waves got higher and higher, but fortunately we were on the lee of the jetty.  The plan had been to use the last of the fresh food, cooked on a disposable BBQ, for dinner. This we did manage, but only by using a metal grating on the corner of the jetty, sheltered from the wind and rain by the golf umbrella!  As dusk fell, we moved off the jetty and picked up a vacant mooring within the northern group, where we spent a lumpy night. I slept reasonably well, but I think Joan spent most the night sitting up in her bunk, continually checking that we weren’t adrift!

 

The next morning we set off, motor sailing SSW under a scrap of genoa and outboard into a strong southerly with 0.75 metre waves. I was taking great care to ensure that we didn’t heel excessively, but despite all my efforts, Joan was extremely unhappy and ended up clutching the graprails so hard that her knuckles were white. The current conditions weren’t helping, but more than that, her imagination was running riot.  During our 2001 cruise, we had spent a very unpleasant time at Inchmurrin. We were on the outside of the jetty, and had gone to our bunks at the end of a fine, calm evening but during the night a strong easterly built up, pinning us on the windward side of the jetty.  We put up with it for most of the next morning, but we were being pounded, so made the decision to leave. We managed to get the stern swung into the wind and motor astern off the jetty, but not before catching the pulpit over a mooring post. Luckily the next wave lifted us clear, and we were away, with only slight damage to the pulpit.  We motored to the new jetty at Balloch, which was much more sheltered, but we wouldn’t be allowed to berth overnight. We walked to the garage to get more fuel, and stayed for as long as we could, but eventually had to leave and motor through strong winds and 1.5 metre waves back to Inchmurrin. This time we were able to string ourselves between two adjacent jetties so that the bow was facing into the weather, using the 30-metre anchor warp, doubled up, as our bow line. This was much more comfortable, and we survived until the weather improved the next day. The thought of having to go through a similar experience terrified Joan, and she wanted to be put ashore so that she could walk 12 miles or so to the nearest railway station! We had been out for only 45 minutes, before turning around and running back to Rowardennan, where we picked up the mooring again for a much-needed breather and discussion.

 

I persuaded Joan to stay aboard whilst we ran back up the loch to our home berth, and the car, at Ardlui. Now running downwind, under genoa only, the apparent wind over the deck was much less, and the deeper water at the north end of the loch meant that the waves were also less severe so Joan felt a bit happier. We had a good run, with the wind mainly S to SW and occasionally SE, averaging 5 Km/Hr over the 18 Km trip with maximum speeds of 10 Km/Hr when the flat bottomed dinghy was surfing off the stern wave.  I felt that we should treat ourselves to the luxury of B&B in the Ardlui Hotel, which we did, after a very pleasant evening spent over an excellent meal, bottle of wine, and an interesting conversation with the couple at the next table who came from Carlisle but had a small motor boat which they kept, on a trailer, on the hard on the east shore of Loch Lomond. They regularly visited Scotland, and launched and sailed in Loch Lomond, the Clyde estuary, or the Caledonian Canal.

 

The next morning, Friday, was dull but dry, with a light 10 Km/Hr southerly. In spite of the improved conditions, and a good nights sleep, Joan couldn’t be persuaded to stay as she felt that she would inhibit my ability to sail in stronger conditions and spoil my enjoyment. She set off south along the west shore in the car whilst I set off south in Solitude. My dilemma now was that three days wouldn’t allow me to get very far down the loch before I had to turn for home, but once in the vicinity of Tarbet, I was able to get a signal on my mobile and could make a call to the office. I managed to arrange to have Monday and Tuesday off, so the cruise was back on, only this time single-handed. I sailed non-stop for 7.5 Hrs, tacking into a light wind, mainly S, but swinging between SE and SW, and gradually diminishing from 10Km/Hr to nothing as the sun came out and the day got hotter. I had to resort to the outboard for the last Km to the mooring at Rowardennan, and according to the GPS had, because of the tacks, travelled some 25 Kms for the 18 Km route.

 

After an uneventful night, I awoke to a dull, dry day with strong SE wind of 20 – 30 Km/Hr. I set off on a SW course under full main and a couple of rolls in the genoa, taking care to stay south of the large Inverbeg sand bank which lies in the middle of the loch between Rowardennan and Inverbeg and is marked by a buoy and by stakes. I then continued south, tacking across the western half of the loch, as there is an unmarked sand bank off the eastern shore, and further south the Ross Isles sit off the eastern shore and require to be given a wide berth. I was soon clear of the Ross Isles and able to turn east, gaining the shelter of the island of Inchlonaig for the next 3 Km, before turning south to pass between Inchlonaig and the shore. I then turned SW, and aimed for the sandy beaches on the north side of the island of Inchmoan, which were visible some 2.5 Km away. I was now well sheltered by the islands, but had just enough wind to turn W and pass through the narrow, 100 metre wide eastern entrance to the anchorage and then continue SW along the shore line. I picked my spot to anchor, furled away the genoa, luffed head up to the wind, went forward and dropped off the anchor and 15 metres of chain, cleated off the warp and then backed the main to reverse her and ensure that the chain was lying straight downwind and that the anchor was dug in. This was, to me, the perfect end to a good days sailing, as I don’t like to use the motor unless I really have to. I sometimes drive Joan mad, especially on lunch stops! by spending 30 minutes short tacking into a bay instead of firing up the outboard for 5 minutes.

 

This was my first visit to a very popular anchorage known as The Straits. It is enclosed by the islands of Inchtavannach to the west, by Inchconnachan to the northeast, and by Inchmoan to the southeast, is roughly triangular in shape with each of the three sides approximately 0.5 Km long. The islands are tree covered right to the shoreline, so any wind is diffused, and a sheltered anchorage can be found in any wind direction. There are a number of beach areas, which are popular with the power boaters, as they normally beach their craft and tie up to a tree. This still leaves plenty of room for those who want to swing to their anchor. The depth is 4 fathoms throughout most of the area, with a mud bottom, with 7 fathoms in the main channel, and with one unmarked shoal area. The speed limit of dead slow / 5 mph is well observed so there isn’t a problem with wash, and of course, there are no tides. There are three points of access, the east entrance between Inchconnachan and Inchmoan, the west entrance between Inchtavannach and Inchmoan with the tiny Stot Isle off Inchtavannach reducing the channel to 100 metres, and lastly The Narrows to the north. The Narrows is a very convoluted channel, some 750 metres long, between Inchtavannach and Inchconnachan.

 

After a late lunch, in dry, sheltered conditions, I decided to investigate just how much shelter was being provided in the anchorage. I motored out through the west entrance to find very strong southerly winds of 30-40 Kms/Hr! I motor sailed with part rolled genoa anticlockwise around Inchmoan and Inchcruin to the east entrance, a journey of some 6 Kms. I re-entered The Straits, and according to the snail trail on the GPS, followed exactly the same route as before, but this time I felt the rudder scrape along the bottom. I had found the shoal area! I sit further aft in the cockpit when motoring, and there would have been no heel, and so the rudder would have been just that much deeper.

 

On Sunday, I wanted to investigate a jetty, and possible anchorage on the SW side of Inchcailloch. There was very little wind, so I mainly motored, initially in dry conditions but then had to endure a heavy downpour whilst entering the bay and anchoring. I didn’t go ashore, but sat in the cabin until the rain eased slightly, and the wind picked up. I then sailed in a big loop, NE, then NW, and finally SW around the north end of Inchfad and Bucinch and back to The Straits, by which time I was soaked to the skin. The weather improved during the rest of the afternoon, and by early evening it was calm and dry, and so I decided to investigate The Narrows. My previous intention had been to try to follow someone else through, but it was so calm that I felt I could safely manage on my own.

 

With the GPS running, the chart and guidance notes in the cockpit, and the outboard at tick over, I set off north into a channel that narrowed rapidly, and appeared to be a dead end. At the last possible moment, the channel appeared at 90 degrees to Starboard, and continued for some 300 Metres before turning some 110 degrees to Port. I knew from the chart that there were two buoys, one Port and one Starboard, marking submerged rocks that ran out from each shoreline, but was surprised to find that they were in line with each other, up the centre of the visible channel. On which side should I pass! My mind went blank of any ruling, no flood of tide on Loch Lomond!, so it was a frantic rereading of the guidance notes to assure myself that the south most buoy, green, protected a rock running out from the east, whilst the red protected a rock running out from the west shore. I zigzagged through, marking GPS waypoints at each turn, and was soon safely in open water. I slowly motored anticlockwise around Inchtavannoch back to my anchorage, enjoying the calm, balmy evening, and the sights in the passage between the west shoreline of the loch and the island.

 

Monday started dry, sunny, and hot with virtually no wind. I motored out into open water, and raised the sails, but the telltales weren’t even moving, and I drifted about for a couple of hours, enjoying the sunshine, but making very little progress. I needed to make reasonable progress up the loch, or I wouldn’t get back to my home berth in the time remaining of my holiday, so I reluctantly started the outboard and motored at tick over speed. By the time that I was off the Ross Isles, the wind had started to pick up, initially S, then SW, then SE before settling onto SW with the speed gradually increasing to 20 KM/Hr. I was enjoying a beam reach, and making good progress so decided to bypass Rowardennan, and keep going. I was just a KM short of Tarbet, at about 1700 Hrs when the wind dropped. I had the sails stowed and was motoring to pick up a buoy off Tarbet when the wind picked up again. I was very happy to raise sail again and sail on. I had never spent a night off Tarbet, and didn’t really relish it. The bay is exposed to an easterly, and winds from any other directions tend to be funnelled up Loch Long, through the very short valley and out over the bay. I had a good sail up to Inveruglas, the wind disappeared with the sun, but I was only a few hundred metres short of the buoy.

 

Monday, my last day, was again dry and sunny, with a fitful southerly varying between 0 and 10 Km/Hr. I ran back to my home berth at Ardlui, goose winged under poled out genoa and main. I arrived in the early afternoon, tidied up and treated Solitude to a polish of all the white GRP. I didn’t have the car, and would have to wait until Joan could pick me up in the early evening. The wind was freshening, and just couldn’t be wasted so got rid of the dinghy and went back out for a session of what I like to call ‘test’ sailing, or ‘play’ sailing. This involves trying to get the most out of the wind and the boat without having to reach any particular destination. I spent about an hour trying MOB techniques with a bucket and fender, once pinning the ‘casualty’ across the bows so that I had to back the main, and once having so much way on that although I caught them with the boathook, I was in danger of being dragged overboard myself! The wind was still freshening, so the next hour was spent just thrashing about, slightly over canvassed at times but feeling secure as for most of the time I was in sight of the marina. A great end to what, all in all, had been a good cruise.

 

PostScript – Joan has been back out day sailing on Solitude, so all is not lost.

 

Further PostScript – In October 2002, Joan and I bought another boat, Mistral, a 30 year old, 27 ft Albin Vega. Despite much advice to the contrary, we are going to sail her in Loch Lomond for a couple of seasons, I want to explore the south end of the loch much more, and we should now be able to do that over long weekends. The hope is that the bigger accommodation will make more comfortable cruising, especially in poor weather, and the heavier displacement, 2 tonnes, will allow Joan to feel more secure. The Vega has a reputation for sailing well, and I can only hope that she proves to be as much fun as Solitude.

 

Ashley Smith

Solitude

Ardlui

Loch Lomond

 

My Rig

Posted at 2:00 PM, Aug. 23, 2005

This Blog may prove to be only of interest to fellow Vega Owners

 

During the summer of 2004, my wife and I attended the Scottish Rally for Vega Owners at Seil Island. I wished to see and sail on other Vegas. We sailed with Cathy and Nick Bowles on Fairwinds ( yes the same Nick who set up this site )

 

Back on board my own Vega, I was thinking about the differences and decided to take some photos ( not the easiest when single handed without a tiller pilot )

 

I still use hanked on foresails, and the following photos show the larger of my 2 Genoas, which I use at up to 15 Knts apparent across the deck ( I use a hand held wind speed instrument)

 

 

The sail is sheeted in fairly hard, although it is not quite touching the spreader. The aft lower and the inline cap shroud can be seen.

 

 

I used to have a stainless steel snapshackle on the sheets, but it caught on the shrouds a couple of times during tacks. It was also too heavy when sailing off the wind in very light airs. The shackle used now is made of an aluminium alloy,and was bought in a climbing shop.

 

 

With the above rig she will make 5.5 to 6.5 knts to windward in flattish water whilst tacking through 100 to 110 degrees.

 

 

One of realisations that I made whilst sailing with others was that she could be sailed at higher angles of heel than I had been using.

 

 

This shows my system for pulling down and tying off  the mainsail tack when reefing. This allows me to reef without having to remove any of the slides from the mast track.

 

 

My First Yacht

Posted at 4:28 PM, Apr. 8, 2005

Solitude is a 1977, 17' , Twin Keeled, Leisure 17L.

See Sailing Today, March 2005, for a recent revue of the marque.               Leisure Owners Association

My Sailing Area

Posted at 4:00 PM, Apr. 6, 2005

My Sailing Area – Loch Lomond

 

The boundaries of my sailing area are very clearly defined, as Loch Lomond is a freshwater, inland waterway, with no navigable access to the sea. If it were located in England, it would be called a lake, as in Lake Windermere, and if located in Ireland, it would be called a Lough, as in Lough Neagh. The Scots cause further confusion by also referring to the fiord-like sea inlets up the West coast as lochs, as in Loch Long, although we would tend to use the generic term ‘sea-loch’.

 

Loch Lomond is situated at 56:0 N; 4:4 W, runs N-S, and is some 24 statute miles long and up to 5 miles wide (38 Km x 8 Km). It has a surface area of 71million M², a volume of 2,600 million M³, and a maximum depth of 190M (100 fathoms), with the mean depth being 37 M (20 fathoms). The Loch contains some 38 islands, mainly in the southern end, which is deemed to be in the Lowlands, as it lies to the south of the Highland Boundary Fault.

 

A Right of Navigation exists on the Loch, but vessels are required to conform to the “Loch Lomond Registration and Navigation Byelaws 1995”, which require all power driven vessels to be registered annually (at no cost) with the authority and to display the registration number on both sides of the vessel. The majority of the shore line is protected from excessive erosion by a speed limit of 11 Km/Hr within 150 Metres of the shoreline, otherwise the maximum speed limit is 90 Km/Hr. There had been a fear that the Loch would be over run with power boats when Windermere imposed their blanket speed limit, but this doesn’t seem to have materialised.

 

 

Same Lunch Stop - Different Yachts. A small South facing bay on the East shore

 

The Loch is popular with boaters, but certainly not overpopulated. During 2001, there were 5317 boats registered, of which 265 were yachts, 696 were PWC (Jet skis), 1808 were speedboats, 769 were Motor Cruisers, 286 were motor boats, and 758 were fishing boats (leisure fishermen).

 

As can be seen from the above statistics, sailing is very much in the minority, and I would think that some 70% of these yachts are concentrated around the same area of the Loch, namely Milarrochy Bay, where racing takes place throughout the season. My berth is at Ardlui, at the very North end of the Loch, which is the narrow end and hence not very popular with yachts. Of the 100 berths, there are only 9 masts, 2 of which are ashore, 2 are motor sailors, and only 2 regularly move under sail, as opposed to motoring.

 

 

The racing fleet in Millarochy Bay

 

There is very little commercialism on the Loch, there are a few cruise boats, a couple of speedboats which do skippered trips, and a few small motorised rowing boats for hourly hire, but nothing on the scale of Lake Windermere. Joan and I had a very enjoyable bare boat charter of a 30 ft Jeanneau, on Windermere, over a long weekend in May 2001, but motoring through the narrows off Barrow was an eye opener. It was more a case of aiming for the gaps, rather than trying to abide by the Col Regs (maybe we should have kept the sails up and claimed our rights of way!!)

 

I don’t know how many berths there are on the Loch, but there are only two marinas, Ardlui and Cameron House Hotel. One of the boatyards at Balloch may have pontoon access, but two fixed road bridges cross the river Leven between this yard and the Loch, so it is only suitable for powerboats. The majority of the berths will be swinging moorings. My own berth is stern to a jetty (which is also used for public access) with a fixed lazy line for the bow. This was the case with my first yacht - I now use a berth in the marina.

 

 

This is my current yacht, Mistral, on her berth in the marina at Ardlui.

 

Navigation on the Loch is by eyeballing shoreline features. The authority provides a Guide to Navigation, which shows dangers, and buoyage, with good explanatory notes, but no positional data. A 2”: 1 mile chart also exists, based on an 1861 survey, which shows depths in fathoms, and dangers, but again no positional data.  The Loch is situated in an area popular with climbers / walkers and so is well covered by Ordnance Survey maps. I use an Outdoor Leisure Edition, at a scale of 1:25000, which with its 1Km grid can be used to determine waypoints and plot position. I therefore run my handheld GPS on a BNG datum, and use Kilometres for distance, speed, wind speed, etc. For comparative purposes I assume 1 Knt to be 2 Km/Hr.

 

The Loch can be dangerous, the mountains and valleys surrounding it tend to funnel the wind, so that the wind strength and direction can change dramatically as you move down the Loch. The weather can also change very quickly, and the Loch tends to create its own weather systems, with mists, and katabatic winds. Rocks tend not to be too isolated, but submerged sand banks occur throughout the Loch. The large Ardbeg sandbank sits in the middle of the Loch between Rowardennan and Ardbeg, and is not very far from the deepest part of the Loch at 100 fathoms!

 

Powerboat wash isn’t too much of a problem, except on busy weekends in light winds, when it can be very frustrating as the wind is continually shaken out of the sails. I believe that the majority of problems are caused by a lack of appreciation of the effect of wash rather than any malicious intent. Skippers may slow down as they pass you, but don’t appreciate that due to the travel time of the wave, you actually have to deal with the large wave that they’ve created as they move back up to speed after they’ve passed. They also fail to appreciate that they create a much bigger wash when travelling at maximum displacement speed than they would if they stayed up on the plane. A lot of the shoreline on the Loch is hard and steep, so the waves are reflected back into the Loch.

 

'Solitude' , First Mate and wife Joan, and Second Mate and granddaughter Aimee at jetty in Inveruglas Bay

 

The scenery is stunning, both in summer, and more so in early autumn, as the colours change, and is probably the main attraction of the Loch. I would urge everyone to come and enjoy the Loch. The trailer sailors with their L17s could use the new, free slip facilities at Balloch to launch at the Southern end of the Loch, and easily spend a week/fortnight cruising. There are facilities to camp, there are B&Bs with jetties, and there is even a hotel on the island of InchMurrin if you feel the need to get off the boat for a while. If you are in the area without a boat, then take one of the pleasure cruises on the Loch, with a running commentary on the features and history, or give me a phone, and we can arrange to go out for a sail.

 

 

The view from the gardens of the hotel on the island of Inchmurrin

 

 

Ashley Smith

 

Solitude

Ardlui

 

This article was origionally written for Saltings, the quarterly newsletter of the Leisure Owners Association.

At the time it was written, my yacht was a Leisure 17L. Since the article, the Loch is part of a National Park, but so far nothing has changed for the boater. It is only now, April 2005, that the speed restrictions have been imposed on Lake Windermere, so will wait to see if this changes things this season.

My Current Yacht

Posted at 3:44 PM, Apr. 5, 2005

Mistral is a 1973, 27', long keel, Albin Vega, sail number V1789.

Vega Association of Great Britain