Day Sailing Round Ireland: Robinetta, #5

Introduction

We have owned our yacht Robinetta for eight years, but she is a lot older than that, having been launched in 1937. Owning a yacht was definitely a rich man’s hobby at the time, but Denys Rayner who designed her for his own use was not a rich man so she was built down to a price. The Enterprise Small Craft Company of Rock Ferry, Birkenhead, followed their novice designers plans carefully, not scanting on the sturdy construction that Rayner claimed was 400% of Lloyds A1. That over-design has certainly contributed to her long life! Although only 22’6" (just under 7 m) on deck Robinetta has standing headroom in the cabin, with a proper galley area and toilet. She makes a comfortable home for weeks at a time.

The one thing Robinetta does not have is room for a dinghy stowed on deck. Rayner experimented with a design for a folding dinghy, but that had long gone by the time we bought her. We tried using an inflatable dinghy tied on the cabin roof, but were never happy with deploying or using it. In the end Julian bought the plans for a Mouse pram dinghy from Iain Oughtred and built Worm in our garage one winter. There may be better yacht tenders available, but I have never seen one, and our varnished plywood dinghy is admired wherever we go.

2016 was our third year of cruising the British Isles on a very slow circumnavigation. Robinetta spent the winter at Fairlie on the Clyde, while we were at home in Bishop’s Stortford deciding on a plan for the following summer. After two lovely years in Scotland, we were definitely thinking about heading south. We do want to get back to the east coast eventually!

Julian suggested that travelling down the Irish Sea on the Irish side would be interesting, and that he would like to visit southern Ireland too, hopefully even getting up the south west coast a little before turning round. I looked at the map, and thought about it, and did not like the idea of trekking along the south coast of Ireland, only to turn round and retrace our steps. Instead I came up with a different plan; why not go along the north coast, then all the way down the west coast to reach those places in the south west that Julian thought so inviting? We bought all the Irish Cruising Club guides, and read them carefully. It was certainly possible, yachts circumnavigate Ireland every year, and while most head round clockwise enough go anti-clockwise to show it is not a stupid idea.

Once the outline of our Summer cruise was firmed up Julian thought he would state it in public, so this is what he put up on our blog.

"Robinetta is due to be launched at Fairlie on the 18th of April. We then have two weeks aboard. We hope to get around Malin Head to Lough Swilly. We will probably sail down the Scottish coast to Portpatrick and then hop over to Belfast and along the northern Irish coast to Derry.

"Then it's back to work until the 20th of May when we have three weeks to get to Fenit in Tralee Bay. I'm really looking forward to this but somewhat daunted by the prospect of the Atlantic swell.

"After another work break we restart on the 10th of July, although Alison is thinking of staying out there and inviting friends to crew and explore the Shannon Estuary in June. It's all right for some ...

"In July we have just two weeks to get around the Dingle and Kerry peninsulas. We were thinking of ending up in Crosshaven, but it looks like we would find ourselves in the middle of Cork Week so we may stop before then.

"Our final leg, from the 20th of August, assuming things work out, will take us back up the Irish Sea to Holyhead, just in time for the Traditional Boat Festival.

Of course, if the weather intervenes, we might not get round at all. Wherever we end up, I'm sure it will be wonderful.

That phrase if the weather intervenes, we might not get round at all was something that we always kept in mind. Winds on the west coast of Ireland are south westerly for 40% of the time. That would be on the nose, and Robinetta does not beat fast to windward... Plus there was the swell. Our only taste of the Atlantic swell had been on the way to Colonsay in 2014, and the weather had been pretty tame, with almost flat calm seas. There is a surfers beach near Mullaghmore Head (which we would have to pass) that boasts regular swells up to 30 foot high....

We made our plans, and picked out ports of refuge, while telling everyone, "We might get to Malin Head, and decide Robinetta can't cope, and turn round." There are no certainties when sailing!

But we did it. Not because we are brave, or intrepid, or foolhardy, but because we were unbelievably lucky with the weather. We hope you will enjoy reading about our adventure.

This year the sailing blog was mostly written by Alison, with the days ashore being reported by Julian. All entries have been put into Alison’s voice since she is the main editor.

Sailing has its own vocabulary, and traditional rigs need words most sailors don’t know. We use these terms liberally but we know that makes our exploits harder to understand, so this year we have provided a glossary and a guide to Robinetta’s rigging at the back of the book.

Alison and Julian Cable

Back in the Water; Fairlie to Largs

17th-19th April

After a long drive up to Scotland we arrived at Fairlie Quay Marina at 5pm on Sunday 17th April. We had left Robinetta there because they have a large undercover storage area, courtesy of the Royal Navy who requisitioned the yard in 1940, and only returned it to civilian use in 2003. Prior to that Fairlie Quay was the site of William Fife’s boatyard. There are still dozens of Fife’s fine yachts sailing, from the 1887 Ayrshire Lass to the 1938 Solway Maid.  Robinetta’s only previous connection to the yard was that she lived on a mooring there in 1937 for a few weeks. This time she stayed the shed all winter so we could work on her whatever the weather.

The yard had moved Robinetta in the shed and made her a clear run to the double doors, ready for her relaunch the next day. Julian got the anchor and chain aboard while I fitted the repaired hatch cover and put away the things we had left on the deck. After that I began to wipe down the paint inside, so the cabin would be clean enough to stow our belongings into once Robinetta was back in the water.

Monday morning saw us back at the yard with Julian working on the mast and rigging. He had made a new dead eye from cherry wood over the winter, so he needed to fit it and replace the whipping to hold it in place. I kept cleaning, and loaded a few bits and pieces on board that we would need for the afternoon's trip to Largs Marina.

The yard workers came and moved Robinetta and Worm (our plywood tender) outside at 12. It was bitterly cold, with a strong northerly wind, making me appreciate our decision to keep the boats inside last winter even more!

Robinetta’s mast had not been in the shed, and now it had been moved clear of the other masts in the rack I could see that the varnish really should have had some attention, There was no time to do anything about it, so the first job went onto next winter’s maintenance list.

The mast was lifted in, and Julian and I spent an hour attaching the shrouds and stays as well as fitting the boom and gaff. In theory the yard should have done this, but although they know what they are doing it was really much easier for us since we are familiar with where everything should go. In the process Julian discovered another of the dead-eyes was badly damaged. (I suspect that this was the one I had noticed before and reported needing replacing, since the one Julian took off was not really too bad). No problem, since we had repaired and brought back the damaged dead eye, so just substituted it for the really badly damaged one!

All this took time, and Robinetta was due to be launched at 14:00, but we were ready by 14:05 when the yard workers came to hoist her out of her winter cradle with the lifting slings before taking her to the dock. They had launched a larger modern Bermudan yacht in the morning, and it had been quite difficult because of the waves, but they were certain that there would be no problems with Robinetta. We left Worm ashore at Fairlie though, since it was a bit rough, and there way no simple way to launch her. We could easily put her on the car roof to take round to Largs Marina and slip her into the water from the pontoons there.

We stepped aboard as the hoist lowered Robinetta level with the dock side, and Julian went forward to take a bow line on each side to help keep her straight while the descent continued. Meanwhile I had a sudden thought, and went below to check that the through-hulls were really closed. Good thing I did, because the water inlet for the toilet was open. Leaving that open can put a lot of water into the boat though the toilet bowl... I closed it and went back on deck, then dashed below again to make sure the engine cooling water inlet through-hull was open, as it had to be for the engine to work!

As soon as Robinetta’s hull was low enough that the water inlet for the engine raw water cooling was under water I turned the key and pressed the starter. The engine rumbled into life first time, but I had a nervous couple of minutes waiting for the cooling water to appear in the exhaust... The slings dropped still more, and Robinetta was afloat, held in place by the bow lines while the hoist moved back and cleared the slings from beneath her. Then the crane man gave the nod, Julian cast off the bow lines, and I put the engine into gear and steered forward.

We had not installed the chart plotter yet, so we had no depth gauge either. I took no risks with the course, heading out along the line of the dock where deep draft boats come along side, then aiming for the safe water mark at the entrance to Largs Marina where we were going to spend the night and finish our fitting out. Unfortunately this put us into some quite rough water at the end of the dock. We were heading into both wind and tide, so seemed to be moving very slowly ahead, but by 15:00 we were tied up safely in Largs Marina.

After picking up the car from Fairlie it was time to start converting the cabin from a painting shed into our living quarters. Our little electric heater kept us warm in the cabin, but I did not fancy spending the whole evening aboard, so we walked into Largs and ate at a restaurant, before spending our first night on Robinetta since last September.

Tuesday was a beautiful day, with more wind than forecast for Wednesday, but we still had lots to do before we could leave. Worm needed collecting from Fairlie, and a few screws adding where the epoxy had failed. None of Robinetta's electrics were working. Only the staysail was bent on. We had no water, spare diesel or beer on board.

Julian's first job was the electrics. He got the running lights working, but complained about not finding a good reusable connector; it takes an hour every year to re-crimp the lights on and seal the wires. This year he had also re-run the running light wiring down below. Still it all worked, with just the anchor light to check once it was dark enough to see. (Unfortunately we forgot to do this....) Then he ran the VHF antenna and soldered the plug on. Radio check. Loud and clear from Belfast Coastguard.

Then it was on to the electronics. He had wired up the light for the new compass and rewired the chart plotter, depth gauge, radio and tiller pilot while in the shed in February. They all powered on but none of the NMEA 0183 links had worked. These are serial data links which let us see depth on the chart plotter, provide time and position from the chart plotter to the DSC radio and, in theory let the tiller pilot steer to the next waypoint set up on the chart plotter. The new wiring brings all these to a connection block in the cabin and it all seemed to be right, but not working. He had left it, hoping the problem was lack of outside signals in the metal shed.

Now, when he turned on the chart plotter the depth came up immediately, and a few moments later the GPS position popped up on the radio display. Hurrah!

As we were working on Robinetta on the pontoon Alex and Marilyn West of the Westerly Owners Association walked past. We had met them in Lossiemouth in 2014 and briefly after we tied up yesterday, but today we had lunch with them in the Bosun's Cabin and caught up with what they had been doing. They were busy helping organise the WOA 50th birthday; there was to be an event in the Solent and one on the Isle of Man but we would not be able to get to either of them.

Then we got Worm and did some shopping (beer sorted) and did the repairs to Worm.

While Julian checked over the electrical systems I tackled the water systems, which included installing a new tap in the wash-basin, before filling the tanks. Then I bent the mainsail on and we raised it and found a few twisted ropes and sorted them. Re-rigging the mast had not been the nightmare of previous years (no being hauled aloft this time), but then we had left all the ropes tied on...

By mid afternoon it looked as though we could head off next morning, so I checked the tides. The south going one started at noon or midnight and the Reeds tidal stream atlas said we could get up to 3.4 knots against us if we got things wrong. Julian prefers electronic information, and fired up the Navionics charts on his Samsung 7" tablet; this showed nothing worse than 0.4 knots against, which we could ignore. On looking at the weather we decided to head straight for Portpatrick. This sits half way down the Mull of Galloway and was used by the old packet boats as the nearest point in Scotland to the Irish coast. I had chosen it as our departure point from Scotland as it would give us the shortest crossing toward Belfast Lough where we would start our trip round Ireland. My planning had included at least one stop on the way, but this would be unnecessary with the weather we now had.

It would be motoring all the way, with no wind to speak of, so I made sure to get the fuel cans filled up with diesel. We have finally decided that Robinetta's tanks take 40 litres, and with 15 litres in the cans we have an engine range of 55 hours.

An early start would be needed, as Portpatrick is 60 nm from Largs and it would be good to arrive in daylight, so we carried on our preparations. We ran out the bowsprit since Robinetta was in a large berth