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For the past week, Weir Quay Sailing Club has been hosting Cody Sailing Club’s dinghy camp on the Clarke’s paddock at Weir Quay. Their campers have been using the newly completed showers and toilets at the Hub Club and have taken part in a Friday evening dinghy sailing session with our club plus a sail to Drake’s Island on Friday 3rd June.

Here are the Cody sailors preparing for a day out on the river. Their other trips have included voyages to Cotehele, Jennycliff Bay, Saltash and just up and down the river.

The WQSC and Cody SC dinghies pulled up on the beach at Drake’s Island. Afterwards, Cody joined many WQSC members at the evening BBQ at Weir Quay Boatyard.

The Cody dinghies were parked on the Kumpel’s land next to the slipway.

The camp could not have taken place without the generous support of the local landowners, the Clarkes and the Kumpels and payment for the camp will result in WQSC making a donation to the Hub Club that shall be used for future projects.

Cody SC were exemplary guests and told us that they very much enjoyed their first ever Weir Quay camp!

Weir Quay Sailing Club organised a programme of 3 day-sails for groups of local young people on the classic Tamar Barge “Lynher” during the Platinum Jubilee holiday. The plan was for Bere Alston Scouts to sail on Thursday 2nd June, Bere Alston Cubs and Brownies on the Friday and the club’s own young people on the Saturday. This all went to plan, except for the Saturday event, that had to be postponed due to very strong winds and rain. We shall schedule another date when WQSC young people will have their turn on Lynher.

Here are some of the Friday crew (including the Rector, Nick Law) being picked up from the pontoon at Weir Quay Boatyard.

Anchored in Sandacre Bay for lunch.

The Scouts being instructed in steering Lynher.

Both groups said they really enjoyed their days out and it was lovely to have been able to give them this opportunity to experience sailing on the Tamar in this iconic and historic vessel!

On Friday 3rd June, our dinghy sailors joined the boats from Cody Sailing Club for a cruise in company to Plymouth Sound. The weather was amazing all day and although we had a few calm spots, all the boats reached the beach on the north side of Drake’s Island, where they stopped for lunch.

The smallest boat to arrive was “Tamar Fortune” (above) which used her oars as power assistance when the wind was too light!

The group had to divert briefly into St John’s Lake while travelling through the dockyard to make way for the arrival of the RN frigate, HMS Somerset.

All arrived back at the Weir Quay slipway at 5:30pm thanks to some occasional towing support from the boats with outboards including Chris and Sue Coomber’s yacht “Moonshine”.

Last Friday there was a very good turnout of dinghy sailors for training with 16 of the 18 club dinghies out on the water!

It is lovely to see so many new sailors gaining confidence on the water as they learn to sail.

Monday’s sail from Plymouth to Falmouth was a lively first day with an ESE wind gusting F6 and a 2m swell. This resulted in plentiful fish-feeding by the majority of the crew.

A calm anchorage soon restored spirits and stomachs! Time ashore in Falmouth was much enjoyed.

Next morning there was a gentle motor to the Helford River, a passage ably planned and executed by Richard P. (third mate for the voyage).

Happy Birthday, Bill!

Calm seas and blue skies for Wednesday’s passage to Fowey.

Concerned parents, please note they are double clipped on!

In Fowey – showered and ice-creamed.

11 of WQSC’s young dinghy sailors and their leader, Sue Coomber boarded the Island Trust’s tall ship “Johanna Lucretia” yesterday at Plymouth Yacht Haven Marina.

They will be spending the week on a sailing trip along the coast and we will be watching their progress as they go. This is where they were this morning.

We hope to receive more photos, so look out for the next Posts!

The club’s Friday night dinghy training season started last week. There was a good turnout as plenty of previous sailors from last year as well as around 8 or so new joiners took part.

It was a lively evening on the water with occasionally gusty conditions resulting in a few capsizes keeping the support boats busy and several young sailors were whizzed off the water early due to the cold but all went well and the evening was greatly enjoyed by all both on and off the water.

The hot chocolate at the end of the evening went down particularly well!

Last Saturday the club’s mooring barge was put to work on some novel tasks.

• They upgraded two members’ moorings by fitting brand new orange Hippo buoys made from solid foam with a top ring.
• They wrangled a very large tree away from Andy Anderson’s mooring. The tree had become wrapped round the mooring and showed no signs of moving on its own accord. So it was painstakingly cut off in several pieces.
• Then they headed off to South Hooe to cut the upper limbs off another tree that was stuck in the mud in deep water and threatening to be a hazard to vessels navigating the river.

Luckily the weather was fine and a successful conclusion to the work was much appreciated by all those involved.

John and Sue Chadwick will be giving our first Winter Talk on Monday 14th February at Bere Alston Bowling Club starting at 7:30pm.  Bar open from 7:00pm.  Entry fee £2.

This is the return leg of the voyage, begun in 2016 from the Tamar, that took John and Sue and Dandelion down to Spain and Portugal, through the Atlantic islands and on to Brazil and ultimately into the Beagle Channel at the very bottom of South America and the stormy waters of Tierra del Fuego.

This leg will take us from Stanley back up to Brazil, French Guyana, Suriname and on to the Caribbean, the Turks and Caicos, Cuba and the Azores before making finally landfall off the Lizard in 2019.

We shall hear about the usual cocktail of: bad weather, awkward authorities and gear breakages with one or two startling encounters with local fauna!

Please Note that as a fundraiser for our Junior Sailors’ Tall Ships voyage we will be selling snacks and cakes before and after the talk.  So please bring your spare change to support this life changing voyage.  £3 a plate of snacks + 50p a cake.  There will also be raffle tickets for sale.

Come along and join us if you can!