Mark Rosenthal

After waking at 04:45, tidying up my cabin, and the arrival of our other crew member, Sean, we assisted the 3 yacht crews, rafted up alongside Flair IV, to set off and start their passage motoring through the swellies under the two historic bridges across the Menai Strait. There was just about sufficient light at 05:30 to see and navigate safely but we all had our nav lights on. The tidal stream through the swellies, on neaps, was not overpowering and we all arrived on the western side of Britannia Bridge without incident. Shortly after passing Plas Newydd thick cloud and heavy rain restricted visibility most of the way down the Strait finally clearing for a while as we approached Caernafon Bar in some short exciting swell. The individual start timing commenced after rounding C2 mark as we headed north towards Rhoscolyn Head on a great beam reach. The weather conditions were much more favourable once we had passed Ynys Llanddwyn and as usual our line, to gain the benefits of the eddies in each bay, took us quite close to Rhoscolyn Headland and then to Maen Piscar where we could see the white water swirling around the drying rocks. As we sailed further north the wind veered more to the West requiring us to go close hauled until our two short tacks approaching Porth Dafarch. Once clear of this headland, with a clear view of South Stack, we tacked again until we were opposite the RSPB centre at Tŵr Elin when we made our final tack to clear South and North Stacks. By now we should have flown the spinnaker for the last leg to the end of the breakwater but we were so far ahead that we didn’t think it worth it so we continued with the jib and mainsail watching carefully as the Stena Adventurer was sailing to the entrance to the Ferry Port. We had a conversation with Stena Adventurer to make her aware of our intentions and the radio operator kindly said that they would keep clear of our passage. Once round the end of the breakwater we only had to make one more short tack to clear the inner distance mark on the finish line. Once attached to our mooring we organised the cockpit table and had lunch, finishing up most of the uneaten food from the weekend, a fine way to finish the event.

Up early to continue with my preparations including adding fuel to the tank. Unfortunately as I poured fuel, from the plastic jerry can, I saw a lump of diesel bug flow into the tank. I had left the tools I needed, to drain the bottom of the tank, at home but fortunately Catharine saved the day by bringing said items up to the club. So having resolved that issue and with the crew onboard we managed to leave the mooring with 10 minutes to spare before our pursuit race start time. As there were light winds as the slower boats started up to an hour and a quarter earlier the pursuit race concept was somewhat compromised as the winds picked up as we rounded the end of the breakwater and we caught up with all the competition, bar Panther, as we sailed round Carmel Head. The winds along the North of Anglesey were dead astern and with the tide race this meant very light apparent winds so we flew the spinnaker without any mainsail. This continued until we came to Puffin Sound when we dropped the spinnaker, raised the mainsail and unfurled the jib to sail upwind along the Menai Strait. During which time we completed 40 tacks! Tess doing remarkable stuff on the winches! On arrival at St. George’s Pier we made fast ensuring sufficient space was left astern for Moonraker to fit on the remainder of the pier, which seemed to be shorter than I remembered. So Moonraker (LOA 44) and Flair IV (LOA 40) moored against the pier and prepared for the other 4 yachts to raft up alongside, 2 on each raft as they all arrived within a short interval. Once we were all settled in place a family of swans came visiting: Tess, Richie and Sean left with Sean due to return in the morning and after clearing things away we walked into Menai Bridge to go and eat. Matt arrived a little later and joined us at the Indian restaurant for dinner. Since we were due to depart at 05:15 - 05:30 in the morning we returned good and early so that I could discuss the arrangements for day 2 with the other skippers. We then worked to free up the mainsheet cam cleat, which had been slipping on our relentless tacking episode. Then we retired to our bunks.

After a night onboard at FlairIV’s Holyhead Mooring I woke to some rain so my plans to do some work on the external parts of the boat were impractical. I therefore concentrated on cleaning internal areas like the heads and the galley. By 09:00 the rain had stopped and this allowed me to raise the mainsail to re-stick a patch just below the 23rd batten. Tess arrived shortly after and started helping with the preparations for training for flying the spinnaker. Sean made it well before the deadline and we managed to set off just after 10-15 catching the flood tide up to and beyond Carmel Head. Having been through the setup for flying the spinnaker we kept it under wraps until we had rounded Carmel Head and sailed into the calmer waters on the approach to the Furlong mark. The launch of the kite went well except for the velcro on the bag still holding some of the sail in, once corrected it all worked nicely with the crew experiencing controlling the main aspects of the symmetrical spinnaker; the pole angle on the guy, the pole downhaul, the sheet and the two lazy contro lines. The winds being westerly and the tide at full flow our apparent wind was around 5 - 6kt but with the kite up we were making over 10kt SOG. Perfect conditions for this training session. Next came a practice on Gybing the spinnaker, this went surprisingly well considering the two crew had never really been part of the foredeck group! After passing through between Middle Mouse and the main coast of Anglesey the winds were increasing and as we approached our planned destination of Bull Bay we saw gusts of 17kt. Rounding into the bay we had an issue with releasing the guy from the pole which then meant that we had to release the guy and the sheet from the deck controls before we could de-power the sail. With limited room and the now strong winds dumping over the cliffs it was a bit of a game to recover the spinnaker especially when the port sheet got wrapped round the prop shaft. Once successfully at anchor in around 12m Tess volunteered to dive to review the problem. She reported a big knot of rope around the prop but with a number of free dives she managed to release it in its entirety, a fantastic achievement! After drying off and a warm brew we had lunch to recover before lifting the anchor and sailing back up wind to Carmel Head from where we sailed on a reach to the end of the breakwater and on to our mooring. A grand sail with lots of useful experience! Well done crew.

Good Sailing conditions. NW F4-5 backing SW dropping later. Unfortunately the crew didn’t manage to get to Flair IV in time to enable us to sail, as far as we had hoped, along the North Coast of Anglesey to check out the Viking Festival at Amlwch. However we still had sufficient time with the flood tide to get to Cemaes in some good sailing conditions NW 4-5 backing SW later. We were concerned as to how few sea birds we saw but we understand this may have been due to them having fledged and all gone out to sea. We did see a couple of harbour porpoises off the coast around Wylfa. Rounding into the bay at Cemaes we headed up under the cliffs and dropped the anchor close to the shoreline in quite deep water allowing us to drop back to a convenient position in shelter for lunch. On the return trip we had lovely flat seas and made good speed through to a point sufficiently West of Carmel Head to avoid the eddy close to the shore to make our turn to the end of the breakwater. Although we lost the wind as we entered the New Harbour it was a great sail in some lovely conditions

For once this year on a Wednesday evening the forecast was good for sailing. 10 to 15kt NNW winds stayed constant during the race. Initially we had problems with the double line Code Zero halyard which kept on twisting above the head. So we were a bit behind our planned time away from the mooring. 5 yachts approached the start line for 18:35 with Red Eye, Houdini Aqualibre and FlairIV all clear over the line. Avoiding the wind shadow of the breakwater east of the knuckle Houdini and FlairIV kept a course further south but as Houdini was pushing FlairIV off course we slowed to turn close round her stern. Now in clear wind we overtook Houdini and battled with Red Eye as she overtook us at the Clipera mark. With a couple of onboard issues FlairIV was 3rd as she rounded Meath and with more spinnaker issues lost a lot of ground down to the Penrhos mark. 2 ½ minutes separated the first 3 yachts over the line with Aqualibre and Summer Wine some 40 minutes behind. A great evening race, our thanks to Race Officer Dawn.

Wind forecast was for very light winds from the NE. As we set off there was very little wind until we got clear of the breakwater. Once out in the bay we had 7 - 10kts and sailed over to Clipera before tacking to go far enough north to make our planned anchoring point under the cliffs at Church Bay. so a leisurely lunch at anchor watching the considerable numbers on the beach. Next we inflated the tender, which hasn't been used so far this year but the old outboard refused to start so I went for a row to investigate the rocks breaking the surface to the south of our anchoring point. Back onboard we tethered the tender and raised the sails to sail back downwind. Soon however the wind died away and, as we needed to get back ashore by 18:00, we motored back into the harbour. While we had the opportunity Richie and Sean put markers at 5m intervals on the anchor chain.

There was a nice steady wind as we boarded FlairIV but within the hour the wind died to 2-3kt. 5 yachts left their moorings and motored to the start area but there was insufficient wind. We drifted out to the harbour entrance watching the little gusts on the surface but we all agreed to return to our moorings and go to the clubhouse for a beer.

Sam had been to the try a sail day at Holyhead and wanted to come out for a try on a yacht. The forecast F2 winds didn't materialise at first so we gave Sam a walk through FlairIV before raising the main and leaving the mooring. As we motored out of the New Harbour the winds were very variable from 0kt to 3 5kt much of which was our SOG. Following being granted permission to cross the TSZ we headed to Clipera buoy before turning to port to sail north. We sailed close to Live Wire before shutting down the engine to catch what little breeze was available. As can be seen from the track the tide played a significant role in determining our course. The tide turned at around 12:40. After lunch we turned and return towards Clipera and welcomed the 10kt winds to sail across the TSZ back into the New Harbour.

2025-07-05 Cruise along the coastline in Holyhead Bay I went to Flair IV for around 12:15 and sorted out a few items, including new clips for the halyards at the mast base, before the crew arrived about 13:20. The weather was bright with 16kt to 20kt WSW winds. As we discussed the plan for the afternoon we had lunch, once again supplemented by Tess’s very tasty pulses with a variety of other inputs. After clearing away lunch the crew removed the covers and prepared the sails whilst I made a final check on the rotation of the propeller shaft running in forward and reverse gear. We left the mooring with the 2 reefs in the mainsail and deployed the jib behind the main as we sailed down wind towards the Aluminium Jetty. After checking with Port Control Sean was on the helm to get us out towards Clipera on the far side of the TSZ, while I showed Tess how to remove the log paddle wheel unit to clean it as it had not been recording our boat speed for a couple of weeks. The unit was covered in tiny shrimps which had completely seized the rotor. After cleaning and re-installing the Water Speed Display immediately started showing 8 to 9 kts as we approached the end of the Aluminium Jetty. With the flood tide starting at 13:30 we had decided to just go for a sail in the bay and come back close to the shore line near Church Bay. As we approached the TSZ the Irish Ferries Fast Cat made her passage in to the Ferry Port but our passage was not disrupted as we sailed behind her as she entered the port. During the return to Holyhead a small tear in the old genoa was noticed which got worse as we entered the New Harbour area Another great day sail in some strong but very acceptable winds.

A beautiful evening with clear skies and steady F4-5 W winds. A good turnout of 6 yachts. The race was complicated by the squib flees rounding the Clipera mark at the same time as the offshore fleet but in the opposite direction! Then, due to the continued closure of Terminal 3, the Irish Ferries left terminal 5 and the Stenna ship entered the port just as the racers were sailing across the port entrance. Our thanks go to the ferry skipper’s consideration and to Holyhead Port Control. All in all a great event after a long wait for good sailing weather!