An outing with George

15^th July 2007

It all started a few weeks earlier. We found the old Yamaha had a fault that was expensive to repair so we acquired a 1993 Mercury5hp outboard. This was proving increasing troublesome every time we attempted a manoeuvre that required some precision control such as getting back onto out swinging mooring. It kept had stopped idling and cutting out when the revs where reduced, there was nothing else for it; it had to go in to be looked at.

Everything was right for an exciting sail on Saturday 15th, good wind from the South West which would mean lots of reaching both ways, some beautiful gaff rigged boats racing out of Pin Mill. As our main was outboard now at home receiving attention we decided to try going out with our 1963 vintage Seagull Forty Plus affectingly known as George – George Seagull. Despite his age George is strong and reliable, starts 2^nd or 3^rd pull, and pushes the tender along beautifully, even with last seasons petrol. We knew pushing Cupido along would be at Georges limit having only half the power of the outboard he was replacing but we hoped he would be up to the challenge of getting us off and on the mooring. We got off the mooring fine and motored slowly through the elegant Orwell Bridge and headed up to put up the sails. This proved difficult for George as he struggled to keep us head to wind while putting the sails up with both reefs in the main – it was a bit windy. We had a great sail down to Foxes Bottom and returned back to the Orwell Bridge, this is where the fun started. As George had struggle to hold us when we put the sails up, we decided to sail onto the mooring instead, it look as if we would reach until close to the mooring and then head up onto the mooring and using the outgoing tide ensure we drifted onto mooring, at least that was the plan.

The Orwell Bridge is the main river crossing carrying the A14 and one of the few really beautiful concrete structures. Unfortunately it also plays havoc with the winds as far as the yachtsman is concerned. We where no longer reaching but had to point up as high and meant we couldn’t get inside the row of trot moorings which lay between our mooring and the channel. OK we’ll go round the other end and tack back in to the moorings. The wind was still not helping being quite variable as we got closer to the bridge. We had taken in the heavily reef Genoa to keep things slow and to stop Angela being swept off the foredeck once we reached the mooring – big mistake. We had not got the power or the ability to point high enough to get the mooring nor to over come the leeway that was pushing us towards the trot moorings. Luckily there was a gap where a yacht would normally be moored where opposite ours mooring which we managed to pick up and avoided hitting any of the other yachts.

As we weren’t in a position to sail off there we dropped the sails and prepared to motor out. With the usual outboard it wouldn’t have been too much of a problem. Hold on to the front, turn the outboard a bit and reverse out, using the front to pivot us out, then let go and carry on backwards it to relatively clear water. Only problem is the George has no reverse gear. We could turn a far way round to get us 80 or 90 degrees to the trots but not out into clear water. Trying to go out forwards was not an option as this would have got the prop tangled in the ropes linking the moorings. After several attempts and a couple of near misses with the moored yachts we decided we wouldn’t be able to get off. Any way the tide was going out and we may not be able to get to the mooring anyway.

Our next problem was how to get back to shore. One option was for me to try and swim to the tender (Cupido Minimus), but the oars where on Cupido, the ebb tide was in full flow and the sewage works opposite made this worse case option. Neither of the fellow club members we had numbers for answered their phones, so we started to try and hail passing boats. Luckily a fleet of small gaffers where still racing and eventually we managed to attract the attention of one boat, they were following the fleet taking photographs. They kindly took me across to our mooring to pick up the Minimus which I rowed back to Cupido and we sorted things out and went ashore.

Once home there were several phone calls, firstly to find out whose mooring we were on, call them to apologise. Luckily it turned out they were away for a week, so didn’t caused them any inconvenience. Then contact our friendly mooring master Peter to tow Cupido back to her moorings.

All sorted safely in the end, but I don’t think we’ll leave George to push Minimus along in future.