Category Archives: Events

This is an event held by SOCA the sailing club based in Hertfordshire

Honfleur Journeys to the E.U.

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Crewed by Alex, Andrew and Richard, Honfleur made a recent trip across the Channel.

8th-July-Walton-Yacht-Club



The trip started at Honfleur’s home port of Walton Marina with the first stopping point being Ramsgate where the crew prepared for their journey across the Channel.




10th-July-Chart-Plotter




After a day experiencing the delights of Ramsgate they set off for the continent  crossing La Manche via Knockdeep Channel in good sailing weather. 


 

 

10th July Knockdeep



Navigating was reasonably easy as someone had put these really tall marker buoys on the sandbanks. So the instructions to the helm was sail between the wind generators.



10th-July-Honfleur-in-Dunkirk



After their cross Channel trip it was obviously time to celebrate the return to the continent at the quay in Dunkirk.

11th-July-Trouble-motivating-crew


Before the Captain could rally his shipmates to proceed to the next port of call along the coast the crew decided they needed to take on more refreshments.

After their rest the crew of Honfleur then preceded along the coast to Ostend

12th-July-North-Sea-Yacht-Club-Oustende

 

Arriving in Oustende the first “port of call” was the North Sea Yacht Club to top up (again) on the local beer.
There were complaints that the beer consisted mainly of froth but that didn’t stop repeat orders!.

13th-July-Ostend-Tourist-train



The next day the crew decided to explore Ostend and the various forms of alternate travel methods rather than sailing.




13th-July-Vagrants-in-Ostend

13th-july-Exercise-on-Pedal-Car.

 

 

 







5th-July-Da-Boyz-in-Bruges



Last port of call for Honfleur on this foreign trip was Bruges were despite all the other options available on shore again it seems the bars held the greatest attraction.

Having increased the GDP of our continental neighbours, mainly via beer sales, Honfleur returned to its home port of Walton.  There is a potential that Honfleur wiill make another sortie to Europe later this year after the SOCA Solent Sailing in Company Event.

‘The Wooden World’ – the inner life of the 18th century navy. 

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The talk at the meeting held at 7:30pm 11th May at the RNA club W G City was given by author Phillip K Allan

A talk in two parts for SOCA

Part 1 :- The Wooden World
An introduction to the 18th century navy – a world apart from society ashore, with its own customs, language, and culture. How sailors were distinctive and easy to spot – clothes, jewellery, language, uncut hair, different songs and dances, tattoos. The ships and those that sailed on them. How they were built, how they operated. Life aboard, diet and disease, press gangs and mutiny, animals, children, and women aboard.

Part 2 – The Wooden World in Action – The Battle of the Nile
In 1798 the biggest fleet since the Spanish Armada left Toulon carrying a huge army under the new French Republic’s crack general, Napoleon Bonaparte, and vanished into the wide Mediterranean. Where was it going, and what was its target? A British fleet under their own young hero, Horatio Nelson, was sent to track them down. In an epic hunt from Sardinia, to Sicily, to Malta and beyond, the fleets finally met in an epic battle fought at night. 

About Philip K Allan

Philip K Allan comes from Hertfordshire where he still lives with his wife and two daughters. He has an excellent knowledge of the 18th century navy. He studied it as part of his history degree at London University, which awoke a lifelong passion for the period. A longstanding member of the Society for Nautical Research, he is also a keen sailor and writes for the US Naval Institute’s magazine Naval History.

He is the author of the nine book Alexander Clay series of naval fiction set in the age of sail. The first book, The Captain’s Nephew, was published in January 2018, and immediately went into the Amazon top 100 bestseller list for Sea Adventures. He has recently turned his attention to the Second World War. Sea of Wolves is a novel set during the Battle of the Atlantic. A sequel, called The Wolves in Winter, was published last year.

 

Please click here for more details on his website

SOCA 2023 Annual Review & AGM

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SOCA 2023 Annual Review & AGM was held on
Thursday 10th March at RNA Welwyn Garden City

Despite the atrocious weather the club managed to successfully hold the 2023 AGM which was a relaxed, social evening which gave the retiring Commodore the chance to look back at the past year and for the new Commodore to discuss plans for the next season.



The meeting commenced with the Commodore’s review of the past year followed by the presentation of the club’s trophies.
Below are extracts from f the slides used by the Commodore for his review of the year.

“Talks / Presentations”

“Social Events & Quiz Events”

  • April SOCA Fitting Out Lunch at the Crown Aston End.
  • April QUIZ NIGHT. Started with a paper/oral based Quiz (Nautical based) followed by a group discussion on planned sailing/boating for the 2022 season
  • June Fish & Chip Night June Social at RNA Included a group quiz on “Night Lights”
  • July Social at RNA Welwyn Garden City
  • August A social evening held at Tanya and Stewart’s house. The food provided by Stewart and Tanya was much appreciated by all.
  • November The 2022 laying up lunch was held at The Chequers, Bragbury End.
  • December SOCA 2022 Photo Competition Winners were Terry, George, Paul, Tanya, Stewart & Geff, a selection from the entries will form the basis of next year’s calendar 2024.
    A raffle was held which made a healthy boost to the funds for the Commodores Charity.

“Sailing in Company”

  • May 28-29 May Sailing Weekend (East Coast).


    The East Coast rally was arranged based at Foxes Marina,
    River Orwell for berthing and dinner on Saturday 28th May.




  • September SOCA South Coast Sailing Weekend

    SOCA Barbecue at Hythe

    A very enjoyable and well supported sailing event was held mid September.
    It started for most from Hythe Marina on Saturday 10th September,
    Cowes on Sunday 11th September. whereas some of the boats had
    congregated from further afield.
    Attending craft were Ariel Spirit (from Hythe),
    Hypertonic (from Southsea), Jetstream (from Port Solent),
    Saluki (from Chatham)
    & Skylark the smallest and travelled the furthest (from River Crouch).

“Other Events”

“Paul Redd”

 

The 2022 Trophy Awards were as follows

Astrolable
The Astrolabe Trophy (donated to the club by Roy Maynard) for a member’s presentation at a club evening.
 Awarded to Ashley Cato, Barton Turf Adventure Centre for the best attended presentation of the year.
 
See the relevant post by clicking here.
 
Joseph Evanson Trophy 

The Joseph Evanson Trophy awarded for the best log / navigation log description during the year. 

This was awarded to Alan Wolfe,  for his 1 man and a dog trip on Hypertonic  to the Solent.  A description of this can be found in the post 

South Coast Cruising in Company  which details Hypertonic’s Trip to the Solent

Kelphil Bell 
The Kelphil Bell is one of the oldest awards within the club. It was awarded by the Commodore to Geff Briant, for his work on the amazing club website, club talks and assistance with technology.


Commodore’s Cup :- Awarded at the discretion of the Commodore to John Gardener, for his extensive cruising on Shrimper Skylark.


John could not attend the meeting so the cup will be presented to him by the Vice Commodore at the next opportunity.



Following the award of the Trophies, The 2022 Commodore stood down and the President, the previous Commodore, asked for nominations for the 2023 Commodore.
Andrew Davidson was appointed who chaired the rest of the AGM which started with the appointment of new officers. Then the minutes of the 2022 AGM and the Treasurer’s report were approved .

Then the officers for 2023 were elected.

The new  Flag Officers for 2023 
endorsed by the membership at the AGM.
2022 Commodore is  Andrew (Right)
Vice Commodore is Geff (Centre)
Rea Commodore is Terry (Left)

The meeting concluded with a reminder of upcoming events.

“Future Events”

  • SOCA Fitting Out Lunch Saturday 1st April
    Arranged for lunchtime, 13:00 at The Station Pub at Knebworth.
    Details to be sent out before start of March when the spring menu is announced.

  • Sailing in the Greek Islands 2022 Thursday 13th April
    A talk by Terry on the flotilla sailing holiday that was enjoyed by various SOCA members.

  • The Wooden World’ – the inner life of the 18th century navy.
    Thursday 11    th May RNA Welwyn Garden City




    Presented by local Author Phillip Allan



Followed by a reminder of the club’s Ruby (40 years) celebration

“Founded in 1984”

  • SOCA was first formally launched on 8th March 1984.
  • The Committee has decided to celebrate the 40 year Anniversary of SOCA.
  • There is already a web page set up for this on the SOCA Website “History”

Commodore’s 2022 Festive Message

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Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, and trust you have had a enjoyable sailing year which has certainly had its share of fine weather, lets hope we get the same next year.
The first club sailing event was the East Coast Cruise at the end of May which culminated in a dinner at Fox’s Marina Ipswich. Honfleur crewed by four SOCA members managed to make it followed by Stewart, Tanya, Paul Redd and Denise all of whom arrived by car.

25th – 28th May 2001 Cherbourg Rally

Paul had recently retired from work and had just bought a Cornish Crabber which he was looking forward to using in his retirement. This as we know was the last SOCA event Paul attended as he sadly passed away in September shortly after  being diagnosed with cancer.
He was SOCA Commodore for the year 1999-2000, I think that’s Paul at the helm of what I believe is a Colvic 28.

Tom. Sarah and Baby


Paul was a past neighbour of mine for many years at Becket Hall, Welwyn and joined the club soon after me. He had two young children Tom and Sarah who I was very pleased to meet again at Paul’s funeral.
Tom was showing off his latest 3 month old addition which he is holding in the picture above with Sarah standing alongside .


The reception was fittingly arranged at Pin Mill and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. Our heart felt condolences go out to Denise for this tragic curtailing of their retirement years together.

The last yachting event was the South coast cruise arranged by Martyn Reed at Hythe Marina. This was a very successful event with 5 yachts all helped along by Martyn and Sean’s hospitality and the particularly fine weather.

Jetstream at Hythe Marina Sept 2022

Just to remind everyone the next meeting is on the 12 January 2023.
Tanya will be giving a talk on her experiences diving on the scuttled German warships in the freezing cold waters of Scapa Flow. 

Commodore Alex Nicholas

SOCA 2022 Photo Competition

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The December meeting was held on the 8th of December and was well attended despite the weather conditions. This was the annual nautical themed photo contest which included the opportunity for a pre-Christmas social.
Nearly 120 photos from over 20 members were submitted into the competition, this made the voting very close with ties-breaking decisions having to be made in 4 of the categories.

The winners in the 2022 Photo Competition

Above are the six winners in the 2022 photo competition.
From left to right :-
Terry, George (at front), Paul, Tanya, Stewart & Geff

The competition for best photo was broken into six different Categories:-
1) Club People since the club was formed.
2) Seascapes
3) Artistic (with a nautical flavour)
4) Boats
5) Weather and Sunsets
6) Sailing Holiday

Below are the winning photos from the 2022 Photo Competition.

 Categories for the Photo Competition:

1) Club People since the club was formed.

Club People – A very old Printed Photo that required scanning from Tanya


2) Seascapes

SEASCAPES – A photo taken by Stewart off Plymouth


3) Artistic (with a nautical flavour)

Artistic – A photo that could have been entered into (and won) many of the categories by Terry


4) Boats

BOATS – A picture from Paul from high on the mast.


5) Weather and Sunsets

Weather & Sunsets – A picture from George on the East Coast.


6) Sailing Holiday

Sailing Holiday – a picture taken on the wharf in Oban whilst Geff was on holiday in Scotland



Note a selection from the entries will form the basis of next year’s calendar 2024 which seeing the quality of this year’s entries means it will be highly desirable.

Also a raffle etc was held which made a healthy boost to the funds for the Commodores chosen charity which this year is BTAC.

November 2022 Meeting

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The November meeting at the RNA W G City was given in person by Jeremy Batch from the Cruising Association.
The topic was :-
Going boldly: across, beneath and beyond the ocean by Jeremy Batch.

The meeting was very well attended and included some external guests from a local diving club.

Jeremy provided a very high tech and entertaining presentation that gave the answers to the following questions.

  • What sort of lifejackets did the ancient Egyptians wear,
  • and what did the Inuit carry on the back of their kayaks?
  • How did the Assyrians manage to swim in full armour
  • and when did we first learn to breathe underwater?
  • How have we (almost) overcome scurvy?
  • How did the shipworm help Marc Brunel drive a tunnel under the Thames?
  • How did the tomato worm and the Playtex company help 12 men to walk on the moon
  • and what will the next generation of space suits and diving suits look like?

 

 

Barton Turf Adventure Centre

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 A Talk on the BTAC was given by Ashley at the October meeting.



Ashley gave a talk on the work of the Barton Turf Adventure Centre.
This is the charity chosen by the current and previous Commodores.




Dee and Debs presented Ashley with a donation of £350 at the meeting.This being the proceeds of their charity fund for 2020 and 2021.
See story below

BARTON TURF ADVENTURE CENTRE – A SHORT HISTORY

The story starts in the 1950’s, when the Director of Education for Hertfordshire recognised the value of outdoor activities and took groups of school children to Barton Turf during the school holidays to sail on Barton Broad.  The campsite was a field rented form a local farmer and the young people had to set up the camp, including the camp kitchen around the fire pit, dig latrines and rig and launch boats.

In the 1970’s Hertfordshire decided to make the Centre more permanent and purchased the current site from Cox’s Boatyard and the Farmer, rumour has it that this was done via a compulsory purchase order!

The Centre was developed over several years, mainly by volunteers.  Buildings are mostly redundant prefabricated school classrooms from Hertfordshire schools which were dismantled, transported and erected on the site.  The marshland was dug out to provide jetties to moor the boats (Staithes in Norfolk) and the moorings.
Eventually, a Head of Centre was appointed, and wages paid by HCC, in line with the other outdoor Centres being developed by HCC.  Schools were encouraged to use the Centre, for Sailing during the summer months and Geography Field trips at other times.

In 2003 a reorganisation of the Outdoor Centres was undertaken, at this time HCC had, I believe, 5 outdoor centres, one in Norfolk, one in Snowdonia and 3 in Hertfordshire. The review recommended that this was reduced to one centre in Hertfordshire, the centre at Barton and two in Hertfordshire to be disposed of.  A campaign was started by the Hertfordshire Sailing and Canoeing Association to save Barton Turf.  This was also supported by several councillors who refused to close the Centre and tasked their officers with finding a way to keep it open, at no cost to HCC.

The operation of the Centre was put out to tender. The Council Officers served the staff with redundancy notices and shut the Centre before the tender process was complete. BTAC-Services won the tender and were granted a 25-year lease.  Unfortunately, this process took approximately 18 months and the lease was not agreed until mid-way through July 2005, too late for most bookings that year.

BTAC has been building up the Centre, both in terms of the activities offered, facilities and services provided for groups since taking on the Centre, although the main activity is still sailing. Boats have been improved and renewed and additional craft have been purchased. Canoeing and Powerboating have been added as additional on water activities.

The accommodation on site is in tents, these have been repaired and replaced as needed and each tent is on a concrete base with 4 beds and mattresses in each. In the past groups using the Centre have had to self-cater, BTAC is able to offer a full catering service for groups who prefer this.

Additional activities such as environmental studies can be offered, as well as teambuilding and conservation. 

The latest project is to provide a drying room for clients, which is currently underway, and they are seeking funds to fit this out, for a dehumidifier so that clients can dry wet clothing overnight.  The estimated cost for this is £750 to £1000. 
The Donation from SOCA will go towards this purchase

Who they are & what they do

Barton Turf Adventure Centre (BTAC) is a 7-acre private campsite and sailing school originally established for Hertfordshire schools’ use. Now run by Di Smith, Ashley Cato and Sheila Fishwick, its activities are open to everybody, but especially schools and youth groups.
They offer tuition for a range of adventurous (chiefly watersports) and environmental activities using Barton Broad and the 14-acre private nature reserve. The Centre has its own slipway into an arm of Barton Broad, and can launch and recover boats of up to about 6m in length, 2m beam, 0.5m draught (keels up). Wider boats have to be manhandled over the side of the quay, or launched through Cox’s Boatyard (for a fee). Boats may be moored overnight.
The camping facilities are open only to schools and other organised clubs and groups, and (subject to availability) to those booked on multi-day courses at the Centre. They have 11 permanent tents sleeping four each (in beds! but you need to bring your own sleeping bag and pillow).

Barton Broad is the second largest of the Norfolk Broads and arguably the best for sailing.
It has been subject to substantial improvement project recently undertaken by the Broads Authority aimed at restoring the silted broad to clear water. The project on the whole has been a success and Barton Broad is once again a real boating paradise.
The Broad is home to numerous wildlife, including many species of birds, fish and even otters who have returned to the Broad. The edge of the Broad is all nature reserve, and much of it is fenced off to provide fish-free areas where microlife can breed without being eaten. The Broad lies across the River Ant, and there is a certain amount of pleasureboat traffic moving through it. The Broad is about 2m deep at most. Power boats are subject to a 5mph speed limit.