Category Archives: PCC News

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Sail Practice Events

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Amongst the racing calendar this year, the sailing committee have introduced Sail Practice Events. These are favourable tides where members can practice sailing manoeuvres such as spinnaker hoist and drops, tacking, gybing, sail trimming and helming outside of race conditions.

The remaining sail practice events for 2024 are as shown below. If your boat hasn’t been beyond the lock for a while and you’d like to practice your sailing manoeuvres in the company of other boats, these may be the events for you! Non-racing members and other Portishead Marina users are all welcome. If you are planning to go out, please let our Sailing Secretary, Matt Bundell know so he can let you know how many other boats will be joining you.

The remaining Sail Practice Events for 2024 are:

  • 11th August, HW 11h50, HT 11.m
  • 1st September, HW 19h21, HT12.1m
  • 14th September, HW 16h57, HT 10.2m

Ordinarily we leave the marina approximately an hour or so before high water and return to the marina an hour or so after high water. This is then typically followed by a pint or two at the sirens to debrief on what was seen from fellow vessels on the water!

Bristol Harbour Cruise

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Given the recent weather, a club social around Bristol Harbour may not have been a wise choice! However, for our summer social, the sun shone and everyone enjoyed a couple of hours cruising around the harbour, stopping off at the Grain Barge and chatting about the passing view or recent sailing adventures.

Boarding the Bristol Ferry Matilda at the Nova Scotia boarding stage and after dodging the many sailing dinghies, paddle boards and other craft enjoying the good weather, our cruise took in many of Bristol Harbour’s familiar sights.

From a glimpse of the MV Balmoral ensconced in dry dock as she undergoes an extensive refit to the passing of the impressively restored SS Great Britain through to sights of Bristol’s waterfront of yesteryear, it was the perfect venue for this year’s summer social.

If you’d like to join a club that has social events, cruising and racing but don’t know where to start, contact us to find out more! We have our weekly club night from 20h30 at the Old Mill pub at the seaward end of Portishead High Street on Wednesdays and new or prospective members can always be assured of a warm welcome.

Ctrl-J Scores Shanghai Hatrick

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Over the weekend of 29th /20th June, PCC crews headed to Cardiff for the second weekend of the annual Shanghai Cup, Bristol Channel IRC Championships and Nimrod Cup. This time hosted by co-organisers Cardiff Bay Yacht Club, crews once again pitted their skills and tactics in pursuit of arguably one of the most impressive cups available!

Going into the Cardiff leg, PCC boats were well placed in the overall leaderboard so stellar performances were needed to maintain their standings. In stark contrast to the first day of the Portishead leg, winds at Cardiff were light so crews had the extra pressure of keeping their sails full.

With Sunday’s conditions being broadly similar to Saturday’s, crews sailed six races across the weekend in addition to the three sailed previously in Portishead.

After the racing, crews headed back to Cardiff Bay Yacht Club for the results and prize giving and it was PCC boat Ctrl-J, skippered by Andy Williams that took first prize overall. However, the accolades didn’t stop there as this was the third time in a row that Ctrl-J had won giving them a Shanghai Cup hatrick! Jaloha, the J/80 from Pembroke Haven Yacht Club came 2nd overall and PCC boat Hero completed the podium positions with 3rd overall.

As another successful Shanghai Cup, Bristol Channel IRC Championships comes to a close, the organising committee extends their thanks to all the competitors from across the Bristol Channel for taking part and to all the race committee, mark layers, scorers and photographers who ensure that the racing can be safely and successfully run. The racing will return next year.

PCC crews will now continue their club racing before some of the boats head off to Ireland for Volvo Cork Week in the middle of July. The next big Bristol Channel event will be the Holms Race on 28th September.

If you’d like to join future races but don’t know where to start, contact us to find out about the latest crewing opportunities that may be available. You don’t need a boat to join in the fun!

Photos by Timothy Gifford

Racing & The Waverley

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Racing off Portishead often means that crews need to also share the water with other vessels either out for a sail or commercial traffic heading in and out of Avonmouth and Royal Portbury docks.

During Cockburn 2 on the 1st June, the fleet were excited to spot the unmistakable hull shape of the PS Waverley, the world’s last seagoing paddle steamer. As she docked into Portishead the fleet enjoyed great views of her from the water – and those onboard Waverley also witnessed the spectacular sight of the PCC fleet with spinnakers flying as they completed a downwind leg of the course. Arriving into Portishead from Clevedon, Waverley was making a short stop before heading off for a cruise around the Holm Islands.

Aside from the spectacle of a paddle steamer making way through our local waters, the crews were impressed at her speed too! As National Historic Ships UK National Flagship of the Year 2024, it’s always a great sight to see her in the Bristol Channel.

After a brief break for the Shanghai Cup, Cork Week and some of the club’s downside races, the Cockburn Series will continue on 28th July where the penultimate race will doubtless have a bearing on who will be the winner of this key series of the club’s racing program.

If you’d like to join future races but don’t know where to start, contact us to find out about the latest crewing opportunities that may be available. You don’t need a boat to join in the fun!

Photo Credit: Chris Armitage

Swansea to Falmouth

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Passing Mumbles Head
Visiting Dolphins
Doom Bar Outside Padstow

By Tim Pearson, PCC Publicity Officer

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt about Bristol Channel tides it’s that trying to beat them at their own game is a fools errand. So, when you put together weather, available time and tide, you end up sailing at all sorts of strange times of the day and night! However, sailing at these times often provides sights that more than make up for it.

This year, my annual sojourn with friends Mark and Jo on their yacht Molia saw us set sail from Swansea early one morning bound for wherever we got to in the days I had available.

Our first leg was pretty much due south across the Bristol Channel and a northerly wind helped us on our way towards Ilfracombe before lining up on Hartland Point and it’s infamous tidal race – no great surprise when you consider the volume of water in Bideford Bay pouring out as the tide ebbs.

Off the North Devon coast we were joined by a pod of dolphins which is always a magical sight and the first time I’d seen any on ‘this side’ of the south west peninsula. Arriving into Padstow around 22h30, we gilled around off Stepper Point occasionally nudging Doom Bar to see if we had enough water, before heading up the River Camel and into Padstow Harbour at just after midnight.

Leaving Padstow at 03h40 we passed Trevose Head and settled in as the rest of the Cornish coast passed by. Passing Pendeen Lighthouse the tides became confused and continued until we cleared Cape Cornwall. More tidal fun and games as we rounded Lands End and then it was on past Mousehole to Newlyn before heading for a welcome pint and dinner in the Fisherman’s Arms pub.

After waiting for a front to pass through which gave us time for a walk to Mousehole, we set off across Mounts Bay. With St Michael’s Mount behind us a brisk wind provided a great sail as we ‘raced’ the other boats that left Newlyn with us. Rounding the Lizard the wind dropped but then filled in again as we enjoyed another great sail into Falmouth and up Carrick Roads. Mooring at Mylor just up the river from Falmouth is always special and made for this year’s journeys end for me.

Trevose Head – early!
Rounding Lands End
Journeys End; Mylor

Shanghai Cup @ Portishead

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In partnership with Cardiff Bay Yacht Club, PCC hosted the first leg of the 2024 Shanghai Cup, the Bristol Channel IRC Championships and the Nimrod Cup in King Road just off Portishead over the weekend of 15th/ 16th June.

Unfortunately, Saturday’s racing program was cancelled on safety grounds given the strong winds and gusts over 30 knots that were forecast and which duly arrived. This meant crews spent the day either fine-tuning their Sunday racing plans or sampling the delights of Portishead’s many marina-side bars!

With new weather, Sunday provided a full racing program in near perfect conditions. Crews from Thornbury, Portishead, Cardiff and even Pembroke put their tactical racing skills into action as racing saw the fleet beat up to the outfall bouy and then back down to channel markers and laid marks just off Portishead.

With spinnakers flying and close-hauled racing, the fleet made for a great sight from the shore but it was PCC boat Ctrl-J, skippered by Andy Williams that took 1st place in two out of the three races sailed. And, in a great day for PCC yachts, the club took 1st and 2nd place overall for Ctrl-J and Hero, who took 1st place in the second race, with other club member’s boats Scrumpy-J in 6th place and Assassin in 9th. Full racing results are on the official regatta website.

The crews now head to Cardiff for the second leg of the regatta over the weekend of 29th/ 30th June where the weekend concludes with the formal prize giving.

Running a weekend regatta is a team sport in itself so PCC would like to thank our sponsors and those individuals that provided their time to be race officers, supplied their boat as the committee boat and our mark layers and photographers. Final thanks to the social team for organising another fine drinks party at the boat hoist on Saturday afternoon.

If you’d like to join future races but don’t know where to start, contact us to find out about the latest crewing opportunities that may be available. You don’t need a boat to join in the fun!

Photos by David Mumford.

Portishead to Portland

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By Stu Phipps, PCC Cruising Captain

After a fun bank holiday cruise in company up to the Severn bridges, it was time to move my boat, Segeta from Portishead to Portland.

Leaving Portishead, Martin and I had a brisk South Westerly on the nose and fairly lively conditions until we got to Ilfracombe later that evening. Overnight, the wind disappeared and we motor sailed. As the daylight returned we enjoyed sunshine all the way down the Cornish coast until Lands End which we reached in the late afternoon. Perhaps this was our reward to see the chimney’s at St Just in full sunshine after our ‘spicy’ start leaving the upper reaches of the Bristol Channel!

Rounding Lands End, we spotted fellow PCC members who had left Padstow earlier in the day and were heading just round the corner to Newlyn. Our course though was to continue to Portland and so we set about organising our overnight watch shifts. After a few hours without much breeze it soon filled in so we turned the engine off and sailed our course.

During Martin’s watch he thought he was seeing things on the AIS but in fact we were in the middle of a French yacht race with approximately 14 boats heading for us and the bobbing green and red navigation lights were headed in our direction. We were well clear of them but gave them a wave as we continued on our way.

The following morning and we were just off Dartmouth and the wind filled in on our stern quarter. This meant we could power across the significant distance of Lyme Bay and make the tidal gate around Portland Bill at 16h00. As we approached I thought we were close enough to the land for the inner route but as the tide was running fast we drifted into the edge of the race for 5 minutes. This was enough of a nudge to ensure that next time I’ll get even closer as we experienced 6 – 8 feet waves which were extremely confused!

After a successful rounding, we headed into the Boatfolk Portland Marina and were allocated a visitors berth for the evening. As ever, the staff at Portland, a sister facility to Portishead, were very helpful and came to meet us. We’d radioed them and explained we were sailing short handed and very tired having been going for 49 hours. Of more concern was the strong wind coming off Chisel Beach into the marina which made berth hunting much harder. All tied up we headed to Portland and found a local pub which although not serving food, allowed us to bring back a Chinese takeaway to enjoy with a well deserved pint. A good end to our trip!

Portland Bill. Source: Wikipedia, By Simaron.

Downtide Bank Holiday Cruise

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By Stu Phipps, PCC Cruise Captain

With some decent weather finally in sight, our bank holiday cruise program could finally get underway.

We’d like to thank the 6 boats from Portishead Marina and PCC who joined the first cruise up to the Prince of Wales Bridge on June 1st. With the wind from the north, our outbound leg gave us some great upwind sailing practice and involved plenty of tacks as we headed up through the channel markers between the two Severn bridges.

We had hoped to anchor at the unappealingly named Slime Road for a short picnic but the dropping wind meant that most of us decided to use the remaining wind for a downwind cruise back to the marina while eating.

Everyone had a great day out and the club would like to welcome Allen and Jane as new members to PCC and look forward to seeing them out sailing with us again soon.

If you have a boat and would like to explore beyond the lock in the company of some PCC boats, let us know. We’ll put your name on the list and let you know next time we’re out.

Suns Out, Racers Out!

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With a perfect evening forecast for sailing, a number of the club’s racing fleet joined the first evening race of the summer season. The evening breeze made for ideal light airs racing and the course provided ample opportunity for the boats to practice their spinnaker hoists and drops ahead of the upcoming Bristol Channel IRC Championships, the Shanghai Cup organised in conjunction with Cardiff Bay Yacht Club.

It was a win for Ctrl-J, the J/109 skippered by Andy Williams that took first place in the penultimate race of the PCC Spring Series putting him in pole position for a series win.

As is the norm, after the race the crews retired to the Sirens Calling to dissect the race, and share stories of a great evening’s sailing out on the water.

If you’ve always wanted to be part of a racing crew, get in touch. You don’t need a boat to join in the fun and PCC Skippers are always on the look out for new crew members.