Category: Social event

CA Winter Warmer Talk: Roger Clark, 12 Jan 2023

The CA Kent Section’s next talk is on Thursday 12 January 2023 at The Dog and Bear Hotel, Lenham, commencing at 20.00 when CA member Roger Clark will be giving us a behind the scenes look at the Southampton Boat Show. Roger has exhibited his Westerly Fulmar Concerto at the Boat Show in 2021, hopefully the weather will have improved by then. To register for the talk (cost £3) click the link here:   [BOOK VENUE]

If you have any difficulty with booking through Eventbrite please contact us and we will do our best to help. The hotel has requested that those wishing to eat before the meeting should telephone in advance and book a table. This meeting is open to members and non members.

The Cruising Association Kent Section Winter Warmers are held at 8pm on the 2nd Thursday of each month at The Dog & Bear Hotel, The Square, Lenham, ME17 2PG, which is 8 miles east of Maidstone, just off the A20 in the village square. All are welcome. There is a small charge of £3. Many eat beforehand and it helps speed up service if you telephone the pub on 01622 858219 and order your meal before 5pm.

CA talk, Living River Foundation, Thu 8 Dec

Thursday 8th December 2022 at 20.00 –  Engaging with the wild world of the tidal Medway – the work of the Living River Foundation by Tanya Ferry

The foundation is working to reconnect communities with estuaries. The estuaries are improving despite their characteristic brown colour in the South East of England, but the colour makes it difficult to perceive the important animals that live in it. The foundation runs programmes to allow people to explore different aspects of the estuary, tackling litter, eliminating single use items, sampling microplastics, and giving talks.

Venue: The Dog and Bear Hotel Lenham ME17 2PG

To book and pay the £3.00 per person fee please click on the link here:   [BOOK VENUE]

All enquiries to kent@theca.org.uk

MSBA talk: Update on marine electronics, Fri 11 November

For the first in our new series of monthly winter talks, Paul Smith of PSI will give us an update on marine electronics and electrical systems for our boats. Paul is well known locally for his knowledgeable, personal service to boaters and you may well have met him at national boat shows.

Rochester Cruising Club will be hosting the event. The club is easy to find on the Esplanade at the foot of Rochester Castle, postcode ME1 1QN. There is ample parking at the club and on the road outside. The bar will be open and a professionally prepared meal will be available at 7pm if you pre-order.

We will be having an “MSBA Special” of ham, egg and chips or sausage, egg and chips for £6 on the night. Desserts will also be available and the bar will be open. Please email info@msba.org.uk to order your meal.

Paul’s talk will start at 8pm and he will bring some of the latest kit to demonstrate and answer your questions.

Non-RCC members are asked to contribute £3 at the door and sign the visitors’ book.

Raybel Christmas Event, 18 Dec

We are having a Festive Open Day on Saturday 18 December from 12 noon till 4pm. Social distancing and masks will be required but it will give you a chance to see how Raybel is progressing. Access to the Raybel display in the museum will be available but small groups only. The windows will be open so please wrap up warm, and sensible shoes only on Raybel. There will be music from 1pm – 3pm and festive pizza from 3.30 – 5pm made in our own oven. Bring a torch if you are coming late as some parts of the site can be dark. If you can’t make it, you can catch up with the latest restoration blog on our webpage

Boat Jumble, Hollowshore CC, 7 Nov

Hollowshore Cruising Club at Faversham are holding a boat jumble on Sunday  November 7 from 11 a.m., to replace their usual one in May, cancelled this year because of Covid.   “With boats being laid-up, the change of date could actually work in our favour,” says secretary Mike Riches. “People will be throwing out redundant boat gear, and looking to what they need for next year,” he said.   The event will be beside the HCC clubhouse at the Youngboats yard, at the head of Oare Creek, Oare Road ME13 7TX. The bar will be open, with hot snacks available. If the weather looks threatening a large gazebo will be erected.   There is no entry fee, and non-members and other clubs are welcome to run their own stall, at £10 a stall, and they keep all proceeds from sales. For more information, contact Mike Riches at richesma@aol.com

CA Kent Section

Clifford Mickleburgh has handed over running of the Kent Section of the Cruising Association to Sue and David Long, who many of us have met at the popular Winter Warmer talks. They will be using the CA system for newsletters and Eventbrite for bookings for face to face meetings. This year’s Winter Warmer talks will be held as Zoom webinars to give some certainty. The CA Zoom licence allows up to 1,000 participants so numbers shouldn’t be a problem.

They are planning to resume face to face meetings when it is safe and financially viable to do so. Anyone who wishes to receive the programme flyer and newsletters and is not a CA member can contact Sue and David at kent@theca.org.uk to be registered as prospective CA members. They will need to agree to their name being on the CA list under GDPR regulations. The CA will contact them annually to check they are still happy to remain on the list. This will allow them to be invited to the face to face meetings when they resume.

CA Zoom Winter Warmer, 14 Jan 2021

Please see details below on how to join the meeting at 19.00  on Thursday, 14 January 2021, cruising in the USA and Canada: Cantilena of London sails Chesapeake Bay and the ‘Down East Loop.’  We all have a dream and Cruising Association members Des and Terry Crampton departed Ramsgate in May 2018 and shipped their Najad 380 Cantilena of London from Southampton to Baltimore MD, USA. Following exploration of Chesapeake Bay, they entered the Atlantic by transiting the C&D Canal and the Delaware River before sailing north along the New Jersey coast to New York City. Here they commenced the ‘Down East Loop’ which involves navigation into the upper reaches of the Hudson River and a lock-assisted climb over to the St Lawrence River.  The circuit is completed by a south-westward cruise

Cantilena lands on the deck of MV Singelgracht in Southampton

of the Atlantic coasts of Nova Scotia and New England. Des and Terry took the opportunity to extend the Loop with an eastward passage of the Erie Canal, entering southern Lake Ontario at Oswego. Cantilena was winterised and stored at Sodus Point NY, and in early summer 2019 they began a clockwise circuit of Lake Ontario which included visits to Toronto, Bay of Quinte, Kingston, and the Thousand Islands. Having made the downward passage of the giant Seaway locks, they visited Montreal and Quebec City, sailed outwards around the Gaspe Peninsula, and returned to the Atlantic via the Northumberland and Canso Straights. Cantilena was winterised a second time and stored ashore in the beautiful Bras d’Or Lakes of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. Covid-19 restrictions intervened in 2020 leaving Cantilena high and dry in Nova Scotia for her second winter There are some beautiful and stunning photographs including the whales! Please join us and make our first Zoom a success so that whilst the coronavirus pandemic continues we can still enjoy the CA Kent Winter Warmers.

CA talk: Stephen Howarth on The Shetland Bus, Thurs 9 Jan

Shetland Bus.

Operations were conducted from Lunna House, Shetland by Stephen’s father, Lieutenant Howarth, who ran the Shetland end of the operation. The crews of the “Shetland Bus” [Shetlandsgjengen] were men of the coast, fishermen and sailors with detailed local knowledge. Most came over after the occupation, some with their own vessels, others with vessels that were “stolen” with the owner’s approval. They were young men, most of them in their twenties, some even younger. Many of them did several tours in the spring and summer of 1940, evacuating British soldiers who had been stranded in Norway after the Norwegian Campaign and other British citizens living in Norway.

We are all invited to these excellent Kent Cruising Association winter warmer talks, which are held at 8pm at the Dog and Bear, Lenham, near Maidstone. It’s a good idea to book a meal (by 5pm please) on 01622 858219 for 7pm, before the talk. A special CA menu is available.