# Sailing out of Motril/Malaga



## Guest (Jun 2, 2011)

Hiya,

I wanted to know if there are any salty sea dogs on here that are looking for additional crew.

I´ve got a 1970 Macwester Wight MkII (Ketch rigged/bilge keeler) in blighty  and really miss sailing. Given the value of my boat, it is extremely expensive to get it delivered over here - 4K + VAT  so yours truly is missing the lure of sea.

Apart from 10 years sailing experience, I´ve got RYA Competent Crew and Day Skipper qualies as well as qualified VHF Radio Operator. I´ve also got solid navigational skills.

So there you have it.

If you´re looking for crew for a days sail or something longer in this area, then drop me a line.

aaaaaaaargh (delivered in pirate-stylee!=

Yossa

ps no Pirate icons - grrr


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

Are you looking for crew to bring the yacht over here or are you looking for people who are looking for crew?? Yours, a confused sailor


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2011)

doh, it must be the altitude, as he stares wistfully into his tall, cold one...

I meant if anyone wanted a spare pair of hands, I´d be up for it.

Also interested in anyone mad enough to discuss bringing over from Newcastle. Logistically and financially a bit expensive/time consuming for little old me on me tod. 

Hope that helps...


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

OK so you are looking to crew for anyone but just a remote possibility of bringing your own boat over?


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Salty Dog ...*

Yr vessel's in Newcastle? What the devil she be a'doin' in Newcastle? Nowhere t'go sailin' out frum Newcastle...

I had a boat once - nice Sabre 27 sloop. Then I made the mistake of buying the boatyard where I moored her, on the Tamar, upstream from Plymouth. Best sailing waters south of Mull but didn't get much sailing after that. Seven years looking after everybody else's tubs...

Been thinking of doing a bit again, myself. My mate Jorgen has a 38' Colin Archer ketch, name of '_Rosinante', _on the hard in Baltimore, Maryland USA. S'posed to be crewing her back to Europe, maybe Sept. Trying to talk him into mooring in Valencia. Free guardiennage by yours truly, see? Bit of slap and tickle below the waterline, antifoulin' n'aat. Flush the spiders out the heads.

I got me Yachmaster Offshore theory exam, Y/master Ocean [tho have forgotten all the astro] and International Cert of Competence, tho that's lapsed since I swallowed the anchor.

Used to do deliveries from Plymouth to Solent. Might be interesting to help bring your'n round from that 'orrible North Sea to somewhere nice....


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2011)

I´ll ´ear nowt bad aboot sailing out of Newcastle. The North Sea sorts the men from the boys. She´s a mean mistress and one that commands/demands bucket loads of respect. Had plenty of blissful moments and a few "well, this is it..." ones as well. 

What possessed you to buy a boatyard? It like´s an extension of the old pun, "if you hate someone, buy them a boat. If you really hate them, buy them a _wooden_ boat!", if ye get my drift. It must have been some form of pennance for previous misdemeanours...

I would dread to imagine what it could be like going around Biscay in my bilge keeler. Sometimes has the performance characterstics of a submergred transit van, especially to windward. In fact, sometimes feels like she is towing a submerged transit van!

Still, I do miss her lovely, plumpish lines. CSJ Roy, her architect, really knew how to get the most out of her lines. Suprisingly beamy, given her length (9.5M). 

Nowt wrong with slap and tickle and all kinds of tomfoolery and slubberdegullionish behaviour before the mast. Tis what keeps us sane and puts that maniacal glint in our eyes. 

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrghh


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Never mind Biscay*

_I would dread to imagine what it could be like going around Biscay in my bilge keeler. Sometimes has the performance characterstics of a submergred transit van, especially to windward. In fact, sometimes feels like she is towing a submerged transit van!_

You _need _a bilge keeler in the North Sea. Never mind it won't go to windward - at least when the tide goes out halfway to Belgium you can park it up for 6 hours, float off, go home telling everbody what a great sail you had. 

My shipwright went sailing once off the east coast with one of our ex-Tamar mates in a long-keel drawing 6ft. Bob happened to see the depth readout 3 miles offshore [down west no need to check - the depth 3 miles offshore is measured in 'Big Bens', not metres] and almost passed out, "Bloody hell! We're almost out of sight of land and about to go aground!" 

Well now, the way to avoid Biscay is to do the canal route: ideal for a bilge-keeler. Across to Le Havre, up the Seine, unstep the mast at Rouen, a nice wander down thru' France, supping the delights of terroirs all the way, pop out into the Med at Sete ... job done.

Tell you what. You get it to Le Havre and I'll join you there. I've taken down enough masts and standing rigging to --- I dunno --- do it sitting down. If it's a ketch with a triatic stay, YOU go up the mast, OK?

I thought they went "Ahhhwaay the lads!" up there, not "AAAaaaarrrrrgggghhh, Jim-laaaad!" ?


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Penance*

_What possessed you to buy a boatyard? It like´s an extension of the old pun, "if you hate someone, buy them a boat. If you really hate them, buy them a wooden boat!", if ye get my drift. It must have been some form of pennance for previous misdemeanours..._

True. Must have been a pirate in a former life. My shipwright [see above] used to say, "you didn't need to buy a boatyard to go sailing".

I rented 'the fundus' of the Tamar from HRH Charlie-boy for the moorings. £5000 p.a. to rent 1/4 mile of watery mud/muddy water. I used to say, "I'm paying for That Woman's colonic irrigations" - until the incident in the Alma tunnel, anyway...

Two more yottie quips. "The two happiest days of your boat ownership is the day you buy and the day you sell" and "Fools build boats for other men to sail."

I used to sit ruminating in my office over coffee and bix with my favourite marine surveyor. We agreed that the principle appeal of sailing was in the _anticipation._

Those teachers and solicitors and bank managers, doctors and dentists, sitting in their offices or peering into someone's fetid interior in Brum or Swindon or Nottingham etc, dreaming of a G & T in the cockpit in the warm Devon evening sunlight. 

Ha! Reality! 

Unloading the car of all that gubbins in a big, wet, westerly gale, slipway 2" deep in finest Tamar mud, rowing out up-tide several times to transfer all the stuff because some other b......r has hogged the pontoon and won't go away. Finally shutting the main-hatch - down below everything steaming damply and you know it won't dry out all w/e....Oh yes, I've seen it ten thousand times.

One time, one of my regulars tied up on the pontoon after a week away - with Granny and the dog on board - and started to unload. I saw this from down the lane as I was bringing my own dog back from walkies. The wife stomped past me with her dog, face like thunder.

"Have a nice week, then?" I cheerily enquired. "Not exactly Greece, is it?" came the dour reply.

Then the sun comes out on Sunday afternoon as the yotties are packing their cars with all those soggy oilies and collapsing cardboard boxes, not to mention grim-faced wives coping with terminally petulant brats. How may times did I get, as the punters gazed round at the now idyllic scene,

"You *******s! You'll _still be here _on Monday morning!"

And if you want to know _one_ of the reasons I bought the dratted place, check out the photo gallery [ref: idyllic] of Weir Quay Boatyard.


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## Guest (Jun 13, 2011)

Yossa said:


> Hiya,
> 
> I wanted to know if there are any salty sea dogs on here that are looking for additional crew.
> 
> ...



Any good at getting an old diesel perkins working ? original engine on old classic, not been used in year and a half :-(


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Old Perkin*



ValL said:


> Any good at getting an old diesel perkins working ? original engine on old classic, not been used in year and a half :-(


Yes, I know old Perkins. Give him a few pints of the red juice and he's _"thump! thump! thump!"
_
Regrettably, the very man who would have fettled yr Perkie beautifully, my estwhile diesel engineer, died last year. There are numerous similar all over the place, esp down on the south coast where all the proper yottin' goes on. PBO will have a few in its back pages.

However, if I were you and really up for keeping this boat and the Perkie is the original engine, my money would go on a new, lightweight, freshwater cooled modern unit. I _used_ to be an agent for BETA Marine Diesels [Stroud, Glouc] and we fitted quite a few, from 4 cyl 35 hp to 12 hp twins, in all sorts of sailing boats. Without exception, all the owners were delighted at the considerable decrease in noise [freshwater cooling jacket], increased performance [take a bow Mr Kubota], better fuel consumption [take another bow Mr K] and last but not least, decrease in size down in yer bilges.

One of my berthholders had a Westerly about the same age as yours. Time came when, as he said "Every time something goes wrong now, it's a grand." Starter motor gone? Marine version - £XXX + fitting + VAT = £1k. Alternator burnt out? £XXX + fitting + VAT = £1k. So it went on. Out came the 30 year old Volvo - in went an nice shiny new BETA 25hp 3cyl. Result? Blissfull yotties. 

I have no connection these past 12 years with BETA. But if I had need of a new motor, I'd be right there. The MD is ex-Rolls Royce. need one ask for better?


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2011)

What problems are you experiencing with the Perkie? 

Would agree with Chris´s post. Beta marine are pretty funky pieces of kit. N there orange n´all!

Seriously, good pieces of kit and well priced. I helped install a wee one on Macwester 26 footer and apart from a few issues re propshaft alignment (entirely diferent motor mounts etc) and some rewiring (needed doing as original was a ugly mess o´ rat tails), the job was a good ´un.

I´ve got a BMC Newage Captain, 32HP 4Cyl beast with huge reduction gear box in my tug. Sounds sweet compared to the 2Cyl Volvo MD2´s that I used to faff about with. Surprisingly large amounts of parts available, at pretty good prices. Would be heartbroken if she gave up the ghost.

Still, if I had too swap her oot, I´d go for a Beta and freshwater cooling. Had all manners of madness with overheating engines due to raw water impeller or valve being clogged, goosed or knackered. Happens a lot in busy marinas as all manners of dross is dumped overboard by stooopid people...


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*In my day ....*

_N there orange n´all!_ [sic]

What was that about, "if you know, teach"? OK, here goes - it's 'they're', not 'there'.

Anyway, what's this about them being orange? In my day they were Routemaster Red. Why can't people leave things be? Why has Tesco stopped doing those double-length toilet-rolls? Why are we inflicted with Death Metal? Count Basie and Stan Getz are all anybody needs...


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## Guest (Jun 14, 2011)

PEBKAC - Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair...

Nowt wrong with orange. A large number of me tools have been purchased due their orangeness, amongst other things... 

I always wanted to get mine done in white, just like the Royal Navy, as you can see at an instant any leaks or dodgy gaskets and such like...

Stan Getz - hero.


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Problems*



Yossa said:


> PEBKAC - Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair...
> 
> Nowt wrong with orange. A large number of me tools have been purchased due their orangeness, amongst other things...
> 
> ...


True. All engines should be white. 

As for probs between keyboard & chair, I have probs between middle of screen [this bit] and over to the right. I dunno about anyone else but on the right side of my screen is a muchacha smiling broadly at me, dressed in multi-coloured Bermuda shorts and not a lot else.


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## muyuu (Nov 30, 2009)

The Wight intrigues me. Given the handicap she's given, I'd expect her to sail much better than I've read she does. Then I've also read of people taking her everywhere. But when you look at her tiny keels outside of the water you wonder how (?!).

I'd really like to try this boat.


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## thrax (Nov 13, 2008)

My parents were boat people when they were younger. It's an entirely different language and I never understood a word of it.


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Tiny keels*



muyuu said:


> The Wight intrigues me. Given the handicap she's given, I'd expect her to sail much better than I've read she does. Then I've also read of people taking her everywhere. But when you look at her tiny keels outside of the water you wonder how (?!).
> 
> I'd really like to try this boat.


Two tiny keels? A marine version of 1960's Twiggy ... A real pain to have to crawl around under with a 3000 psi jet-wash lance when on the hard - the boat I mean, not Twiggy.


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## Guest (Jun 23, 2011)

Ah, the secret is to jet wash her when she´s in the hoist. Tis a ****** to work with grinder or da on your back, but I did her good n proper, so antifoul only every few seasons. Don´t expect to have to work much on hull as she was done with 2 pack. Now THAT was ´orrible...

Re sailing, she is what she is and she´s pretty nimble. Under engine, she´s incredibly manoeuverable and a doddle for locking in/out on the Tyne. I used to sail a Centaur, which was a pig by comparison. Fiddly and quite stubborn in the lock or at close quarters. However she was often a little gem in the right wind when offshore.


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## muyuu (Nov 30, 2009)

Yossa said:


> Ah, the secret is to jet wash her when she´s in the hoist. Tis a ****** to work with grinder or da on your back, but I did her good n proper, so antifoul only every few seasons. Don´t expect to have to work much on hull as she was done with 2 pack. Now THAT was ´orrible...
> 
> Re sailing, she is what she is and she´s pretty nimble. Under engine, she´s incredibly manoeuverable and a doddle for locking in/out on the Tyne. I used to sail a Centaur, which was a pig by comparison. Fiddly and quite stubborn in the lock or at close quarters. However she was often a little gem in the right wind when offshore.


But you reckon the Wight is not ready for offshore, is it? because I've sailed a Westerly Fulmar and she was (bit out of budget tho). I'm 6ft2, would a Wight 32 have headroom for me?


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*In the hoist*



Yossa said:


> Ah, the secret is to jet wash her when she´s in the hoist. Tis a ****** to work with grinder or da on your back, but I did her good n proper, so antifoul only every few seasons. Don´t expect to have to work much on hull as she was done with 2 pack. Now THAT was ´orrible...
> 
> Re sailing, she is what she is and she´s pretty nimble. Under engine, she´s incredibly manoeuverable and a doddle for locking in/out on the Tyne. I used to sail a Centaur, which was a pig by comparison. Fiddly and quite stubborn in the lock or at close quarters. However she was often a little gem in the right wind when offshore.


In my boatyard, at haul-out time, we used to float a bunch of bilge-keelers up to the sea wall, haul out a few single keels while the tide served for the slipway, then go back and pick the bilge-keelers off the mud where they'd dried out. 

So muggins, being the boss, got the job of blasting the mud and barnacles off these boats because the owners had already paid for same in their annual package and it made no sense to have a skilled engineer or boatwright do a job that a pen-pusher like me could do.

But the lads on the crane would very rarely give me time to do the hull in the convenience of the slings: no, they were on with the next. "We got three more yet, boss. We'll put 'er down and you can do 'er frum unnerneath." 

So I've spent many unhappy hours lying on flooded gravel between bilge keels, tiny or otherwise, in a storm of spray and flying barnacles. On a bitter late October day, this is no milk-run, I can tell you.

Give me a single keel, long, medium or fin, any day, for all possible reasons - especially if I have to pressure wash the thing!


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## Guest (Jun 23, 2011)

muyuu said:


> But you reckon the Wight is not ready for offshore, is it? because I've sailed a Westerly Fulmar and she was (bit out of budget tho). I'm 6ft2, would a Wight 32 have headroom for me?


I´m confused 

She handles well offshore and has journeyed short-handed to Orkney, so has pedigree. She has quite good headroom in main cabin, but less in heads/forward cabin. The sprayhood was designed for someone 6´4, so cockpit should be a breeze! Aft cabin is OK, but more suitable for pilot berth or kids/people that don´t mind a squeeze.


Are you looking to buy one?


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## muyuu (Nov 30, 2009)

Yossa said:


> I´m confused
> 
> She handles well offshore and has journeyed short-handed to Orkney, so has pedigree. She has quite good headroom in main cabin, but less in heads/forward cabin. The sprayhood was designed for someone 6´4, so cockpit should be a breeze! Aft cabin is OK, but more suitable for pilot berth or kids/people that don´t mind a squeeze.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply.

Might buy one, but I think it might be a bit premature. I want to get my ICC first. Bilge keelers are convenient and drying moorings so much cheaper... but we'll see 

I'm trying to crew around here (South/South-East) to get some more experience but it's not being easy to find free berths and I'm landbound more often than not.


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Crewing*



muyuu said:


> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> Might buy one, but I think it might be a bit premature. I want to get my ICC first. Bilge keelers are convenient and drying moorings so much cheaper... but we'll see
> 
> I'm trying to crew around here (South/South-East) to get some more experience but it's not being easy to find free berths and I'm landbound more often than not.


If you join The Cruising Assoc, they keep a log of crew looking for skippers and skippers looking for crew, anything from a day out round the bay to the ARC. 

Another way is to call sailing schools mid-afternoon on a Friday and say, "Any last minute berths for the w/e at a last minute price?" Has worked for me. Last time they said, "Yeah. Half price - and bring yer passport." 

Ended up in Alderney out of S'oton then back via Poole in an ex-racer that had done the Fastnet. Lively? It was like a long, thin 38' trampoline. Came across a catamaran hove-to in mid-Channel. They hailed us. "Excuse me but can you tell us where we are?" I s'pose satnav has done away with that sort of thing now.


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## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Drying moorings*



chrisnation said:


> If you join The Cruising Assoc, they keep a log of crew looking for skippers and skippers looking for crew, anything from a day out round the bay to the ARC.
> 
> Another way is to call sailing schools mid-afternoon on a Friday and say, "Any last minute berths for the w/e at a last minute price?" Has worked for me. Last time they said, "Yeah. Half price - and bring yer passport."
> 
> Ended up in Alderney out of S'oton then back via Poole in an ex-racer that had done the Fastnet. Lively? It was like a long, thin 38' trampoline. Came across a catamaran hove-to in mid-Channel. They hailed us. "Excuse me but can you tell us where we are?" I s'pose satnav has done away with that sort of thing now.


You can bet your sailing boots that you'll be dried out when it's sunny and lashing a big wet gale when she's floated off. It is the Law of The Medes & The Persians, which, as we know from Sunday school, can never be undone.

All my bilge-keeler berth holders took moorings that floated full time except for _very_ low springs + high pressure. If they didn't they soon learned otherwise due to the above Law operating infallibly.


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