M-O-A

… for the Max from your sailing!

Welcome to the Maxi Owners Association

Please feel free to browse our public section for information about Maxi's and our Association. Members may log in at the top of the page. We always welcome new Maxi Owners from anywhere in the world so please CLICK HERE for membership information.

 

You might also be interested in Maxi Yachts of Sweden on Facebook to meet even more members of the Maxi community.

Our next south coast rally is on the River Yealm on 14th / 15th September. The Yealm is a delightful haven about 15 miles west of Salcombe. It provides very sheltered moorings on pontoons and swinging moorings. Maxis will almost certainly be berthed on pontoons that are not walk-ashore.

It’s been great to see so many cruisers from France, Belgium, Holland and Germany in the Solent this year so I will circulate all Maxi owners by e-mail as some of you are clearly a long way from home and could perhaps drop into the Yealm while passing along the south coast. Some owners may not be on the WhatsApp group although I believe Julian keeps that very well up to date.

Paul Farren (pafarren@btinternet.com) will be the principal point of contact for the rally. Barrie Hallet (barrie.hallett@btinternet.com) will coordinate moorings with the harbour master when we know how many boats will be attending,

We have a reservation for dinner at the Yealm Yacht Club for the Saturday evening, to be preceded by a pontoon party. More details of these will follow. There are three other pubs close by, all of which we visited earlier this season and can recommend. There is a water taxi available until late in the evening to avoid the need for dinghying ashore. There are also good walks in the adjacent woodland to work off dining excesses.

Steve Harridge

Steve.Harridge@tonygee.com

Boats attending:- Aloni, Asante, Blue Lightning, Cava, Lookin Foor Kloos, Wild Blue

The first rally of the season after the AGM was a mid week rally to Bembridge on the 16th and 17th April. Neap tides with low of 1.8m at 12:20 and a high of 3.8m at 18:40 were, in retrospect, not ideal but with a dry day with fresh westerly breeze meant a fairly easy passage for boats from the west and we all managed to get in without too many mishaps at around 1600.

Aloni on passage to Bembridge

Being early in the season we held the drinks party in Asante’s cockpit tent rather than on the pontoon and managed to squeeze 10 of us in. Rob and Julie on Moondust had to cancel unfortunately at the last minute having had their launch and re-rigging delayed, which meant a bit of re-jigging of the safari supper arrangements but everyone mucked in and a great evening was had by all.

Wednesday morning was still a little fresh but mainly dry and we split into two groups, one walking to the Mermaid Gin distillery near Seaview and the other across the harbour and around the coast to The Crab and Lobster for lunch. Those of us who walked to the distillery managed to resist to gin tasting session in order to stay alert for the walk back.

We were joined in the late afternoon by Chris and Margaret on Cava who managed to creep across the bar in time to join us for dinner at Brading Haven Yacht Club. The harbour taxi kindly stayed on a bit late to take us up there although again the low spring tides caused a few issues with some interesting manoeuvring in the water taxi. All was well and we had a delightful evening hosted by Brading Haven YC. The commodore was there to welcome us and we had an excellent meal served by very friendly and helpful staff.

We had arranged for a land taxi to transport us back after the meal but unfortunately we were let down. They didn’t turn up and we’re not answering the phone. Very annoying! Fortunately the bar manager at the yacht club was able to provide us with the number for Bembridge Taxis who kindly agreed to pick up 6 of us at the last minute. The walk back for the rest of the group was slightly complicated by the fact that the footpath along the harbour causeway was closed for repairs but we managed to negotiate our way over and around the barriers and all got back safely, just as the taxi arrived with the others.

Given the tidal restrictions, there was much discussion during the evening of when/if we would be able to get out. It was agreed that with HW at 08:20 a departure at around 07:30 would be feasible and give us a bit of rising tide should anything go wrong! Having organised the rally we felt obliged to head out first on Asante, followed by the remainder of the fleet at a respectable distance, all eagerly watching our depth gauges. In the end the passage out was uneventful and we all had a good sail back to our home ports.

Andy Horwood

Asante

This was the first Poole rally for some years. It was good to be back there.

Five boats attended:

Zuma Blue with Bob Miller and Nicky Hinde

Eye of Horus with Kevin Manville and Andrew

Leda of Hamble with David and David

Blue Lightning with Peter and Sarah Sands

Aloni with Sue and Steve Harridge

In addition, Rob, Frankie and Jamie who joined for the Saturday evening but, being local, their boat stayed on her mooring.

Various crews had lively passages to Poole, some with gusts up to Force 7, but all seemed to have enjoyed the trip even if was bordering on type 2 fun (the sort one enjoys after the event rather than during it).

Kevin and Andrew had arranged some excellent Asian nibbles for the pontoon party (on a newly purchased picnic table, subjected to some strong winds during the evening) after which we retired to Da Vinci’s Restaurant who looked after us all very well.

The wind was generally gentler for the trip home on Sunday, something of a relief.

1 2 3 53