Up until 2012, there seems to have been a gap of several years during which there were no organised St Mawes Sailing Club cruises. But last year we got things going again with a daytime cruise to Helford, in which a dozen boats and about thirty people participated. Encouraged by this excellent turnout, we propose to try to do more for our cruising sailors in future.

In February we held a meeting at the club at which a number of ideas were discussed and this web page is a follow-up of that.

At the moment it seems that there are three distinct areas of interest.

Local cruising for all types of boats, sail and motor

We have two definite fixtures in the 2013 calendar as shown below. To enter any of these events you must complete a Cruising Entry Form

July 21st/22nd – Cruise to Fowey: eating venue on Saturday night still to be decided.

August 31st (Saturday) – cruise to Helford: lunch at Helford River Sailing Club.

In addition to that, we have been thinking of emulating something along the lines of the Royal Cornwall’s “Meanderers’ Cruises”. Every Thursday in the summer, members of RCYC (whether they have a boat or not) meet at their Falmouth clubhouse in the morning, get allocated to specific boats, and then sail off to an agreed destination (dependant on wind and tide) where they moor up together for lunch. By taking their own lunches they give themselves many more possibilities with regard to destinations than if they were going to pubs or cafes.

We don’t know, of course, whether or not this would be a popular idea with our own club members but we have decided to give it a try. We have been in touch with the RCYC Meanderers with a view to joining in with them and they have been extremely receptive to this idea, So we will try this on a couple of Thursdays in the summer although we will, of course, have our own boat/crew allocation in St Mawes before meeting up with them.   Furthermore, as a weekday will obviously not suit everyone, we will try the same thing ourselves on a couple of Saturdays as well.
Dates to be decided and will be announced in future e-mails/newsletters to club members.

RIB Raids

Mike and Di Garside are already planning four trips in their own RIB and have kindly offered to coordinate things so that other club members with RIBS can join in. Mike has stressed that these trips can only be for RIBs of 4 metres and longer rather than other types of power boat, primarily for reasons of safety and seaworthiness.
The trips they are planning are as follows:

Fowey for Lunch                                             
One day 40 mile round trip.

Scillies Cruise                                                                   
3 or 4 day 120 mile round trip, possibly via Newlyn overnight stop. B&B, hotel or camping.

Southampton for Boat Show                     
5 or 6 day 320 mile round trip, via Dartmouth (outbound) and Weymouth (homeward). B&B or hotels.

Storming St Nazaire
7 or 8 day 500 mile round trip. B&B, hotels or camping to visit the scene of the historic raid from Falmouth in 1942.

Dates still to be decided – anyone who is interested in joining in with these RIB Raids, please contact Mike by e-mailing mvgarside@aol.com or phoning  01326 270852.

Worldwide cruising

At last year’s AGM, it was proposed that there should be some way for StMSC members with boats in other parts of the world to communicate with each other to share experiences of places visited in the past and plans for the future. As we now have an active StMSC Facebook page, that is probably the best place initially to get that communication up and running.

Have fun