Commodores Comments March 2018

This report for the Cruising News will be my last as Commodore. You will now

have received all the paperwork for our upcoming AGM and I look forward to

seeing as many of you as can attend the meeting on Saturday 17th March 2018.

You will see that there are 2 new faces on the Ballot sheet that are standing to

be members of the Executive Committee as well as those who are standing for

various other vacant positions. If you can’t attend please do remember to vote

with the form to be handed into the office on the run up to the 17th March.

There also 3 resolutions that require your vote either at the meeting, by handing

in the form or by Proxy form. Please do remember to vote.

The Cruising Programme was launched on Friday 23rd February and the gathering

was well attended. A couple of hitches were discovered but these will be

corrected very shortly. The programme is very full and comprehensive and I

would like to thank all those concerned with the organisation. Now is the time

to get your crews together and plan you summers sailing starting with West

Cowes on 31st March.

The dinghies are having a great time sailing in the Perisher series of racing on

Sunday mornings which are organised by Simon Ward. Thank you, Simon. A

large number of visiting sailors are coming to the Club to enjoy this very popular

series. You will see the reports online and in the new look Lymington Times.

On the 5th March we will be welcoming Alastair Beeton back to the Club as our

Sailing Secretary. I would like to thank Barry Sticklen so much for standing in for

Alastair over the past year, without his help we would have been in a very

difficult position. Those of you who have popped into the office lately will have

met our new lady in the office. Emma joined us very recently as Clare was

unfortunately unable to continue. However, you will still see Clare from time to

time as she fills in on the occasions when we have other staff off on holiday.

I would like to conclude by wishing Chris Barr all the best as he takes over the

helm as Commodore after the AGM. I have had some

interesting events through the period of time that I have

been guiding the Club. Some good and some not so good

but overall it has been a very worthwhile position to hold

and I am very glad to have been given the opportunity.

I would like to wish you all happy sailing in which ever

form you chose.

Rick Underhill

Burns birthday celebration at the LTSC The poster and menu gave a strong hint that this year’s celebration was to be not only of Burns and his 18th century works, but also the efforts of others, to entertain Scots in the 19th and 20th centuries. Piper Iain Fraser for his second year at the LTSC, arrived by boat and welcomed by piping in arriving members and guests. This followed with piping in the “beastie” for slaughter at the hands of Jim Fleming, who regaled us with the formal address before despatching.

The meal of truly excellent “Scotch Broth”, then “Haggis, Neeps and Tatties wi Onion Gravy and a wee dram” followed by “Cranachan and coffee”, was well received and preceded with a video reading on “Tae a Mouse”. There followed thanks to Jason his crew and Consuelo for their efforts. Then came the formal “Immortal Memory” of Robert Burns by Jim Sey, a scurrilous “Toast to the Lassies” by Stuart Watson (tempered towards the end being mindful of Caroline his wife being present). Guest Anne Lawson gave a suitable spirited reply from the lassies, most notable inclusion was the assertion that men could not describe Dolly Parton without using their hands.

The year 2107 saw the passing of 8 members of the club, the most recent of which was our senior statesman John Stacey, therefore it was felt appropriate to mark this with a poem which Burns wrote in English, “Epitaph on my own Friend” read by Eileen Sey against a video background of “Majestic Scotland”. This was followed by the piper playing the haunting lament “The Dark Island”.

Then the proceedings went all downhill with the entrance of the master of ceremonies and the kilted 19thcentury William Topaz McGonnigal, both adorning “bunnets wi red wigs” and the accompaniment of discordant piping. Mr Mc Gonnigal was somewhat displeased that “the management” had insisted on only 4 verses of his 8-verse apocryphal poem on “the Tay Bridge Disaster “on the last Sabbath day of 1879…which will be remember’d…for a very

long time”. This decision to shorten the rendering was taken on the grounds of health and

safety and concerns for the assembled company. A somewhat mollified Mr McGonnigal,

having had an audience for the first time in 139 years, departed the room again in unjustified

triumph, to suitably terrible piping from Iain, much to his personal distress.

Whilst Tony Cowell (aka McGonnigal) recovered his sanity and respectable clothing, Robert

Carlisle entertained with his “Man who Walked the World” video yet again at the LTSC.

The final offering from the 20th century, was an extract from a popular and long running show

from Aberdeen, “Scotland the What”, involving yet again Tony this time as a lawyer and a

certain Mr Christie, farmer of this parish, who wished to make his will to the benefit of “his

niece who had made him a happy man…twice a week for the last 20 year”.

In yet another departure from tradition of closing with “Auld Lang Syne”, instead “the Parting

Glass” was played with a background video of “Beautiful Scotland” closing the proceedings

with thanks to all involved and attending the event. Particularly so to John Bell (junior)who

hid behind the scenes making the audio-visual content of the event seamless, which was critical

to the success of the evening………………………………………………………. Jim Sey

Photo Quiz

Where are we ?

Answers to ………. jbwoodside@talktalk.net

Last month’s challenge,

Simply impossible!

Meandering. Every Wednesday, 9.00am at the club, come and enjoy

A disabled lady on a “Gyro” platform, enjoying sailing in Copenhagen supported by the Hi-tec sail system. Note the wheelchair steering !

The dinghy fleet …. in action on the Solent, why not give it a try?

N-C-I, Calshot Tower…… Some of the crew members.

All you need……two tree trunks, one chainsaw & a chisel !

Siemens Electric Motor Sets Air-Speed Records

In March 2017. The Extra 330LE aerobatic plane, powered by an electric propulsion system from Siemens, set two new speed records. At the Dinslaken Schwarze Heide airfield in Germany, the electric aircraft reached a top speed of 337.50kph over a distance of 3km, 13.48 kph faster than the previous record set in 2013.

The World Air Sports Federation (FAI) officially recognised the record flight in the category ‘Electric airplanes with take-off weight less than 1000kg’. In a slightly modified configuration with an overall weight exceeding 1 ton the Extra also set a new FAI world record in the category ‘above 1000kg’ reaching 342.86 kph.

The Extra 330LE also became the world’s first electric aircraft to tow a glider in to the sky. The plane took a type LS8-neo glider up to a height of 600m in only 76 seconds,

“This aerotow provides further highly visible evidence of our record setting motor’s performance capabilities, says Frank Anton, head of eAircraft at the Siemens venture capital unit next47.

“Just six such propulsion units would be sufficient to power a typical 19 seat hybrid-electric airplane.”

In addition, the lightweight electric motor already held a world record for power-to-weight ratio, weighing just 50kg, it supplies a constant electric output of 260Kw, WHICH IS FIVE TIMES more than comparable propulsion systems.

As an aerobatic plane, the Extra 330LE serves as a flying test bed for the new propulsion system and is particularly well suited for taking the components to their stress limits for testing and enhancing them.

Currently there are no plans for series production of this electric plane. However, electric propulsion systems are scalable and Siemens, Airbus and Rolls-Royce intend to develop hybrid-electric regional aircraft based on this record-setting motor.

By 2030, we expect to see the first planes carrying up to 100 passengers to have a range of about 1000km, claims Anton.

(The future for cruising yachts ?) Eureka

Commonly known as…………… AGEISM

ICON RADAR IMAGING

Automakers are continuing to assess the options that will provide vehicles with increasing visibility of the world around them as the industry moves towards autonomous and driverless vehicles.

Global automotive suppliers Magna, has recently developed a radar option that it says “leapfrogs” the competition.

The ICON RADAR offers high- resolution and incorporates military technology that provides precise detection, extensive range and high resiliency.

Swamy Kotagiri, Magna’s chief technology officer, said “Our ICON RADAR takes the best of military technology and improves on it for vehicle use, taking a significant step forward toward full autonomy.

With a range of more than 300m and scan speeds 50 times faster than the time it takes to blink, the radar system continuously scans the environment in all four dimensions and can detect, track and classify individual objects. It enables the system to detect and communicate to the vehicle a rich topography of static objects such as railings, road debris, and speed bumps, as well as track moving objects such as vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and pets.

It can also distinguish smaller ‘objects’ like children and cyclists in close proximity to larger, more easily detectable things like parked cars and moving trucks, which is critical to improving safety features like Automatic Emergency Braking.

The above, recently published in the EUREKA magazine could soon give a significant benefit to most sea-going yachts in replacing existing electro-mechanical technology associated with radar, together with its many reliability issues.

Welcome Home!

The Artography Page

Lymington Town Quay

Pictured by our own local artist

Peter Sey

Cruising Hotspots

Alderney Bournemouth

Sark Willemstadt

St. Malo Carteret

Guernsey

Weather or Not?

Until the 17th century attempting to predict the weather was part of astrology, which was classed by the Christian church in the middle ages as an occult science. As far as mere mortals were concerned, God made the weather, and he alone had the power to change it.

People offered prayers to interceding saints for rain or for protection.

For example, it was widely believed that St. Dinatus had miraculously survived a lightning strike and therefore provided protection from lightning. If his protection was insufficient then it was all the work of the Devil and his witches.

While predicting was off-limits, there are still records of reported weather- usually extreme- although there were rarely any attempts to explain why it happened. We know that there were some extremely cold winters in Europe.

In 1011 the seas froze over in the northern Adriatic and around Istanbul, in 1302 French writers reported that it was so cold in December that people were found frozen to death in their beds. The period between 1313 and 1321 saw catastrophic weather, cold wet summers and autumns followed by wet springs resulting in failed harvests and famine. Even the arrival of the Black Death in England in 1349 can be traced back to some climatic catastrophe 17 years earlier.

The worst flood in the first millennium drowned seven million people in China.

Despite the passing of laws in England in 1677 which stated that (all rainmakers and weather seers) would be burned at the stake. (This law was not repealed until 1959 !) country folk accumulated a mass of knowledge on the subject of the weather, their lives depended on it. This weather natter still exists today in popular sayings such as “Red sky at night, sailors delight, red sky in the morning gives sailors warning!

Rain before seven, fine by eleven still has some meteorological value!

Others: - A ring around the Sun or Moon, rain is coming very soon.

St. Swithin’s Day…… if ye do rain, for forty days it will remain

St. Swithin’s Day…... if ye be fair, for forty days t’will rain no more.

Burns Night - a very well attended and enjoyable evening.

Office Gossip……for your diary

Wednesday 7th March 6.00pm

An evening with Tom Cunliffe

“Confessions of a yachtmaster Examiner”

Saturday 17th March 6.00 pm

“Annual General Meeting”

Open to All members

Friday 23rd March 12.00-4.30 pm

“Easter Wreath Flower Arranging Workshop

with a following lunch”

May we all offer a very friendly welcome to our

new office recruit “Emma” who seems to be

fitting into prison life very well

indeed !.........Ed.