Loch Tay May 2011

Loch Tay 7^th / 8^th May 2011

Having never sailed on Loch Tay we thought this would be somewhere different to sail for a weekend with the added benefit of being only an hour and a half from home. Loch Tay was promoted on the DAN website as being “with quite deep water, islands, a river complex, good eating places, easy(ish) launch, accommodation and safe harbour- just add good company and some pretty boats with red sails.”

All this sounded good, so we cleared two nights from our diaries – not that we had anything else planned – and decided to go up on the Friday afternoon to make the most of the weekend

As the rally was to be based at Loch Tay Highland Lodges, I booked our accommodation for the weekend - “cosy octagonal woodland cabins with commanding views of the Ben Lawers mountain range and Loch Tay”.

Friday 6^th May

Leaving early from work we set off in good time, planning to stop off for a coffee and a walk in Callander before arriving at Loch Tay in the early evening. After a good walk along the side of the River Leny in Callander and an otherwise uneventful drive up, we arrived at the Highland Lodges site early in the evening as planned. After reporting to the site reception and collecting our cabin keys and decided to take Braveheart down to the beach / boat parking area, before doing anything else.

The Highland Lodges site is well laid out on a steep hillside. Our cabin was fairly high up on the hill giving us a good view over the loch. The boat park being at the water’s edge was a fair distance below us and accessed by a fairly narrow site road which was easy enough to trail the boat down.

The lodge itself was great and lived up to the sites advertisement.

After dumping our stuff in the lodge we walked back down to the boat parking area to step Braveheart's masts and to see who else was around.

Saturday 7^th May

Up early and after breakfast we drove back down to the water’s edge rather than walk, as Braveheart’s sails, rudder etc were still in the boot and we needed the car to launch her. While the other boats mainly launched from the beach relying on someone with a 4x4 to move their trailers, I decided that we would use a very steep looking slipway on the other side of the site’s restaurant area. This would allow me to launch Braveheart using our car. The slipway while very confined and very steep was manageable, but the interesting bit was the fact that the concrete stopped at the water s edge and the slipway continued using steel sheet piles laid flat making the alignment of the trailer wheels critical in order to avoid them falling off!

The morning briefing was attended by the crews of all 14 boats. The plan for the day was to set off up the loch (eastwards) past Gull island to a picnic spot on a secluded beach with a waterfall behind it.

Light winds were blowing during the morning but we made good progress towards our destination. Normally when we sail I try and match performance / speed against other boats as I enjoy seeing if we can beat the larger Drascombes (little do they know that they are racing). This is a constant source of amusement / annoyance to Kathleen as she simply just wants to sail and enjoy the day out. I imagine that a number of other helms must have the same idea and also must also annoy their crews by constantly trying to go faster.

The downside of trying to be first is that I eventually realised that I did not know where we were going or to which end of what beach the organiser had in mind. There was no sympathy from the crew offered, as had we just sailed with everyone else we would know where we were going !!!!! This necessitated a run back down the loch to mingle back in with the other boats, a number of which had dropped well back and were progressing under motor.

The beach when we arrived was all that it was said to be and while it was not sunny it was a pleasant afternoon to sit on the gravel and have our lunch before going to look at the waterfall.

After lunch, the wind picked up and we all enjoyed a good run back to down the loch and into the small and sheltered harbour which belonging to the Highland Lodges site, had been given over for our exclusive use for the weekend.

A group dinner had been arranged for the Saturday evening and despite sharing the venue with a wedding party we all enjoyed a great meal with some of our more sociable members even joining in with the disco.

Total Distance 10 miles (all under sail)

Sunday 8^th May

Sunday morning brought heavy rain and very little wind, however the afternoon’s forecast promised some better weather.

As we had sailed eastwards on the Saturday it was decided that we would sail westwards on the Sunday with the aim of reaching the village of Killin via the River Dochart which flows into the west end of Loch Tay.

In pouring rain we headed west under sail, but as we entered the river and our rudder and centerboard started to hit the bottom we decided that motoring the final ½ mile was a better option. A couple of boats did actually manage to sail all the way up to the old railway bridge just below Killin and I would take my hat off to them for that achievement.

Once at the railway bridge we were prevented from going any further due to the height of our masts so tying Braveheart to a handy tree, Kathleen and I walked into Killin to find morning coffee.

Running back down the river we were helped by what current there was. With the light wind swinging around during the late morning were able to sail back to the lodges easily if not quickly, but as the sun came out at least we were not sitting in the rain anymore.

Pulling Braveheart up the slipway certainly put a strain on the car’s clutch as our BMW is geared for top end performance and not torque at low speeds. We headed off home late on the Sunday afternoon after an enjoyable if wet weekend.

Total Distance 8 miles (6 under sail)

Total Distance for the weekend 18 miles under sail 1 mile under power