The Westerly Owners' Association - South Coast Group

Hamble River Odyssey 2007

The object – to see if we could preserve the calm serenity of the upper Hamble this year by sailing up it in an inflatable dinghy – “Ditch-Crawl” meets Scrapheap Challenge!

The week before was spent searching the garage and shed for bits and pieces which could convert an Avon Redstart and a Zodiac into workable (and safe) sailing boats. The only limitations were a maximum sail area of 24 square feet and a maximum mast height of 10 feet.

Rudders were fashioned from plywood scraps for both boats. On the Redstart, they were fitted with 15mm pipe-clips onto an array of 15mm copper pipes and “T” pieces. The sail was a square of light sailcloth fitted to a large bamboo pole. The zodiac had a fully furling mainsail and topsail made from our old red kitchen roller blinds.

The forecast for the weekend was for light westerlies with heavy rain, but indicated that we might get away with a ‘window’ with just showers on the Saturday afternoon, dying away in the evening.

On arrival at Swanwick, we met Janet and Keith from Pavia of Beaulieu, who were at their first WOA event for 25 years!

We were also greeted with intermittent drizzle, but that was not going to stop us; true British insanity would prevail over common sense and the elements. John and Pauline of Dunlin arrived with their “Hamble Flyer”; we set up our dinghies with their masts and sails, and set off under tow, up-river to the start line.

Off the start line, our dinghies were cast off and made sail. All three sailing craft passed the “start line” just about together. The Pirate Zodiac, with its red roller blinds, made good use of the light westerly breeze and soon put on an impressive lead.

After a bit of a shaky start, Dunlin’s “Hamble Flyer” found its feet and sped into second place, when the “Green Seamole” got itself tangled in heavy weed close to the port bank. Although she was towed out of the weed, “Seamole” missed the best of the breeze and finished a leisurely third at the top of the river, well behind “Hamble Flyer”.

We then had to negotiate the narrow Curbridge Creek to reach our ultimate goal – the Horse and Jockey. A hearty three course meal and fine ale followed at the pub, where we were met by Rod and Mary of Woodstock Hi, who had (very wisely) come by car.

Fortunately for us, the sky emptied itself of rain while we were enjoying the hospitality in the pub. But with the second high water gone, we had to tear ourselves away from the cosiness of the lounge bar and set off back down the river.

With the rain past, we were able to enjoy a serene and leisurely (and dry) row back down the river to Swanwick, in the gathering dusk... (more pictures on Flickr – search for “Upper Hamble”, “WOA” or “Ditch Crawl”).