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For the first time MOA held a rally on the River Yealm over the weekend 4th and 5th September. Initially the harbour master suggested restricting numbers to 5 boats but there was so much interest in attending this great location that 10 berths were arranged and 8 boats attending. The rally was perfect for bringing maxis from the Solent and the West Country together. Unfortunately, not all the Maxis could be accommodated together, half were on the visitor’s pontoon and other half on visitor buoys.
The Solent boats arrived in advance and made the most of the fine weather, giving some the opportunity to explore the wonderful coastline on foot. With all 8 boats on the River to enjoy the warm sunny Saturday afternoon, the obligatory pontoon party was held on the visitor’s river pontoon and aboard AmyLou.
In the last of the sunshine and suitability lubricated, a fleet of inflatables headed for the harbour office pontoon, making the walk along the river path to the Dolphin Inn at Newton Ferrers. With Covid plans in place we had the Pub to ourselves and had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner. The return to the dinghies was slightly more challenging with no moonlight and the remoteness of the River, the river path was interesting to negotiate in the dark. With the low tide, some returned to find their dinghies aground even though tied up on the dinghy pontoon! The final hurdle was to find your Maxi in the dark, oh the benefits of mobile phone torches.
Many new friendships were formed, with local members enjoyed their first rally with the MOA.
The weather on Sunday continued to favour us, allowing some an easy return for the local ports, other to continue with a few days cruising and the remainder a couple of days beating back east to the Solent
Maxis attending were AmyLou, Asante, Cava, Genepy, Lookin Foor Kloos, Reflection, Skyfall, and Vouvray.
Your Committee recently had a successful Zoom meeting.
In summary
- We are preparing a 2021 rally programme using, as a base case scenario, a rally structure that respects “outside” restricted social meetings. It would be good if we could find some new faces as Rally hosts, existing members will help provide guidance and support for the role. Any ideas for new locations? Please email to discuss – membership@maxiowners.net
- The MOA “Whats App” has been very successful with 44 active participants. If anybody would like tips on the best way to use this app please contact any of the committee members. One to one chat can be done using the “call” icon on the top right-hand side of the page. We have had active input from outside the Solent which has been encouraging. Please take a look.
- In order to keep track of our membership (& boats) we will continue with our annual membership levy. As there has been no MOA rally activity this year, we shall be sending members a token gift, in recognition of your continuing support.
- A couple of our long-standing committee members, Peter & Sue Stonestreet, are standing down this year after seventeen years dedicated work. Peter & Sue have been very active committee members and their enthusiastic input will be missed. We thank them both for all their hard work over the years. They will continue to be MOA members.
- Next year’s AGM location will be finalised as soon as we have a clearer picture of the COVID lockdown situation. We look forward to seeing you then.
- Don’t forget to support the UK participants in the Vendeeglobe race. The web site is full of interesting statistics, Alex Thomson is 7th, 14.1 nm behind the leader, close.
Happy sailing
Richard Sams
Committee Chair
The plans were great, there were 9 MOA boats and 20 people participating and an Indian safari supper awaiting our order from the local restaurant. Then, as so often this year, the weather stepped in!
The weather forecast was for force 8 SW winds for Friday night and Saturday morning/early afternoon. We hope that it would pass through earlier but it was not to be. Gradually boats dropped out and we ended up with only Richard and Lorraine Sams on Suive making it to Lymington having arrived Thursday for a repair. Peter and Sue Stonestreet in Blue Rider sailed to Cowes on Friday and tried to head west on Saturday but the winds were too strong. Below is the wind chart for Saturday 26th at Hurst showing what they were heading into!
Undaunted, the rally continued but in another form. Richard and Lorraine kindly hosted the pontoon party aboard Suive which saved me getting Lookin Foor Kloos alongside in the strong winds. We were joined by Peter and Sarah Sands from Blue Lightning, Peter Blade from Lapis Lady and Gary and Carole Heward from Amylou, all of whom drove down for the rally making us 5 boats and 9 people.
In view of the weather impact on numbers, and it being challenging to do a safari supper on one boat, we changed plans and went to Lal Quila, the local Indian Restaurant for a very good curry dinner. Thanks again to Richard and Lorraine and to all who made the effort to participate.
