Fai Tira Sails West

Sunday 12th October 2008
Fai Tira heads west.
The decision was made to go to Falmouth rather than go to Guernsey due to the wind direction which was South Easterly and light. It would have meant motoring for 12 hours. We wanted to go sailing so we decided to go west. We set the alarm for 4.00am and woke up to see not a lot, other than FOG, “Let’s go back to bed John,” I said, “see you at first light”. First light, 7.00am brought us even thicker fog. We waited until about 10.00am when the fog started to lift.


We set off now bound for Noss Mayo. The sun came out as we got to Start Point.


We had a lovely sail to Noss Mayo arriving at about 4.00pm just in front of another Bruce Roberts boat, actually sailed by two guys, one called Bruce and the other called Robert. How spooky is that?





Monday 13th October 2008
Fai Tira heads further west.
We woke up at 06.30am and set off for Fowey. The wind was in the west so we were beating down the coast to our destination. Fai Tira was set-up perfectly and she sailed herself at 5.5 knots towards the Eddistone Lighthouse. After a couple of tacks the wind dropped off and we started the engine and headed straight towards Fowey. It was once said to me that “Gentlemen never sail against the wind they use their engine.” We did this and the damn thing kept stopping. Bugger!!!! John decided the problem was fuel so he changed one of the in-line fuel filters. This seemed to do the trick so we managed to arrive in Fowey without any drama. We then changed the other filters and went down the pub.



Tuesday 14th October 2008
Fai Tira heads home.
We set off in the dark at 5.30am with me on the helm and hit a mooring buoy and damaged the self steering gear. Bugger again! I was so mad with myself but yet another learning experience. As the light appeared over the horizon the wind came up and we started to sail at 5 knots towards Dartmouth. John was on the helm as I was down below when I heard John shout “DOLPHINS.” 6 dolphins joined us for 20 miles from Fowey to Plymouth. My best dolphin experience ever. The amazing thing was that they responded to the attention they were getting from us. When we moved away from the bowsprit they started jumping out of the water to attract our attention again. This really raised our spirits and helped me forget the damage caused earlier.


We arrived in Dartmouth about 4.30pm just as it started to rain. Immaculate timing. We had a great trip and learnt quite a bit about the boat and ourselves.

Sunday 28th September 2008

Training Starts in Earnest. Well in Fai tira really.

John and myself leave Dartmouth on a lovely sunny Sunday afternoon. The intention was to get to grips with the JRC radar. There was lots of traffic out in Start Bay so we had lots of targets on the screen.
I worked through the manual and managed how to suss out how to use the many features the JRC has. The radar is not an up to date all singing model but will be sufficient for what we need.
John took the helm and enjoyed sailing the boat around the bay whilst I tried to steer him away from any obstacles.

28th August 2008

Thursday 28th August 2008

Cruising Chute Deployed

We took Fai Tira out for a sail in Start Bay. The weather was good and we headed off to Start Point. I wanted to try out the wind vane steering so we got the boat set up on a course and then deployed the wind vane it was working really well. A result, I thought, until the time came to take it down. Fai Tira sailed on, on her own, with nobody at the wheel. What a well set up boat. We decided to anchor off at Hallsands. Edward got straight into the fishing and a couple of big mackerel were caught.
We decided to sail back just using the cruising chute. This was a bit of a learning experience as we didn’t have enough lines and shackles to make it work properly but we got it flying and we ended up doing 9 knots across the Bay back to Dartmouth.

Wednesday 13th August 2008

Fai Tira leaves Dartmouth on an epic voyage.


Wednesday.



Lunch time we were joined in Dartmouth by Judy’s sister Tracey her husband, Simon and their two children Maisie and Edward. They had had an awful time camping in North Cornwall near Polzeath because of bad weather “RAIN and more RAIN”. We discussed sailing to either Noss Mayo or Salcombe depending on the forecast.


Thursday.


We decided to just have a local sail on Thursday to see how they got on and then pick up a visitors’ mooring at Dittisham.
Well, at 16:00 after Judy had been to the doctors and Tracey had visited the beautician we were ready to go. We set off and had a great sail and ended up anchoring just down stream from the Anchor Stone, how spooky is that??? Whilst there we had a picnic and Ed and Maisie went to the top of the mast. How very brave of them both?


Friday.


We headed off in good weather to Salcombe with a bit of a head wind so we were having to tack most of the way until we rounded Start Point Edward caught some mackerel and gutted them himself.
On arrival in Salcombe were faced with hundreds of dinghy’s racing towards us. It was the Salcombe Regatta. We picked up a mooring just off the town. The wind was increasing and the weather deteriorating. We launched the tender in torrential rain and headed for the pub.
Saturday.
We all lay in bed until 11:30 listening to the rain. The plan was to leave with a favourable tide at 16:30 which we did. We left Salcombe harbour and encountered large crazy mixed up seas and a strongish wind, force 5-6. We motor sailed through this confusion until we rounded Start Point where we were able to switch the engine off. We had two poorly crew on board being sick and feeding the fish every few minutes. >.

We arrived in Dartmouth after three hours and the heaven opened once more. We decided to moor on the town quay and all headed back to Clarence Hill for a warm bath and then bed.
An interesting weekend was had by all with the normal highs and lows. I hope my crew weren’t put off by the experience!!!

On Anchor in Dartmouth

Fai Tira is now based In Dartmouth. We approached the Harbour Office and are waiting for a mooring. In the meantime we are anchored in the middle of the river. This involves one of us being on board at each
tide change approximately every 6 hours. This has been a great opportunity to get to know the boat and its workings.
I have never spent much time at anchor before so this has been a steep learning
curve for me and for John. We have had some nice day excursions on Fai Tira and Judy and Dee really like her. I went up the mast today and took these photos from the top.

Fai Tira Returns to Dartmouth

On 26th June 2008

John and myself arrived in Southampton to bring her home We set off at 11.00am into a brisk south-westerly. The forecast was force 4-5, occasionally 6. After a testing time trying to get her out of the marina in reverse we set off for the crowded area of the Solent. The tide was with us but
the wind was against us.We had a fantastic beat down to the Needles and out into the open sea where we encountered a large swell and strong winds. We had a great sail until the tide changed. Spring tides meant we had a 4 knot tide against us as we passed Swanage. We were progressing across the ground,
with the engine on, at 1.5 knots for 6 hours. After listening to the weather forecast on the VHF I made the decision to push on overnight to Dartmouth rather than putting in at Weymouth as planned. We had the tide with us as we passed Portland Bill and we were travelling at 8.5 knots across the ground. We arrived in Lyme Bay in the early hours of Friday
morning. John and I did 3 hours on, 3 hours off watch system. As dawn broke the wind dropped and backed to the south giving us a good sail into Dartmouth. We arrived home exactly 24 hours after setting off from Southampton, thoroughly exhausted but jubilant. Fai Tira had proved herself to us in some testing conditions. She went well to wind and we felt very safe on board.

Boat Trial and Survey

8th June 2008

Boat Trial
After accepting our offer David and Jean invited us have a sea trial on Sunday 8th June. The weather was perfect with a force 3, south-easterly wind, ideal for Solent Water. We had a great sail and we got to know the boat and how it handled. It sailed very well, even though we just had light breezes. Jean provided lunch so we found a nice bay and anchored. Tales of Fai Tira’s travels across the oceans were conveyed, some of which sounded fantastic and other bits scary. We took the boat back to Shamrock Quay where the Lennon’s left us on board. The following day would be the crunch day when a survey would be undertaken.
The Survey
Graham, the boat surveyor, arrived in quite scruffy clothing and proceeded to apologise, stating that when we said it was a steel boat he was expecting to get messy.
He conveyed to us that Fai Tira was in excellent condition and even the hull thickness was over spec’d compared to the design. All of the rigging was sound and in good condition as was the sails and all the mechanical bits and pieces.


When he saw the engine he was amazed at the installation and condition. He concluded his survey by saying this was the right boat for us, at the right price.
John and I had a quick chat after Graham had left and decided to ‘just go for it’ Fai Tira.
The next day with the boat out of the water we decided to anti-foul her despite the fact that she was not yet ours. I relayed this fact to the Lennon’s and said this was definitely a statement of intent.

The Fai Tira Story

After deciding to make an offer on Fai Tira we were searching the web to find out its history. We found some photos of her in Antigua taking part in the 1995 Blue Water Rally. Well, this was great, we knew we were after a yacht that had the pedigree to cross oceans.
Go to http://www.yachtrallies.co.uk/4reports/WRNArchive17.htm for details.

Fate or Fait Ira
We were sitting in the local Royal Castle Hotel one evening and got talking to one of our neighbours and good friends, Frank and Kay Morgan. They asked how our project was progressing. I told them the news that we had made an offer on a Bruce Roberts yacht. Frank retorted that his brother Bill had built a similar boat and was now living on a boat called Fai Tira 2. Well, we were all shocked when we realised that Fai Tira was the very boat Bill had built in 1996 with the help of Frank. This was Fate. But the icing on the cake was when Frank reminded me that I had sat on the same yacht in 2003 drinking Portuguese beer in Dartmouth with Bill and Frank whilst Bill was in the process of selling her to David and Jean Lennon, whom we have subsequently bought her from. Go to http://www.gannetsway.com/archive/cruise2002/02.htm The next day I rang Bill in France when he was sitting on Fai Tira 2 and he told me all about Fai Tira and that the name meant, ‘Just Go For It’ in Breton slang.

Even more Fate
Looking back to that day sitting on Fai Tira in Dartmouth I now remember having a tour of the boat with Bill and saying to him, “this is the boat I want to sail around the world in”, I also remember thinking that this just going to be a pipe dream and it would never happen. Well, it looks like it might as John and I sent the deposit to BWR office to officially book onto the Rally.

Viewing Fai Tira at Ocean Village Southampton

January 2008. John and myself had chosen to join the 2009/11 Blue Water Around the World Rally. I went to view Fai Tira at Ocean Village, Southampton and decided that this was the boat we needed. I took these photo's knowing she was out of our price range.

Fai Tira is built of steel and weighs in at a massive 18 tons. She is 44 foot long with a 12 foot beam and a draft of 6 foot

She has a centre cockpit with wheel steering and a fibre glass “dog house”.

This is the galley, well equipped with cooker, fridge and double sink unit.

This is the workshop and engine room. The bonus is lots of space to work around the engine and offers space to carry out repairs, etc.

This is the 82hp Vetus 4 cylinder turbo charged diesel engine. It uses about 3 litres per hour and has a 500 litre tank giving a very acceptable range on engine but we are hoping for favourable winds so that we will not be using it too often.

She was just what we wanted with all the right gear on board and fully equipt for a "Round the World Adventure"