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Kraken

From: Dublin Bay

Registered: 2011-02-24

Posts: 333

South Coast Social 2011

Sunday, 27th February 2011 - Sarisbury and District Community Centre

Report by Peter Cosker.

Members and their guests gathered at Sarisbury just before 12 noon and were able to enjoy a drink at the bar, whilst Olive and her helpers laid out the buffet luncheon in the main hall. It was good to catch up on the latest news from our fellow sailors and to meet new members Steve and Pam Collett for the first time. By the time lunch was prepared, our numbers had reached 25; not the biggest attendance but quite respectable.

Sarisbury Community Centre

John Tyer, our South Coast Regional Organiser, decided to move the afternoon talk into the Bar Area, which was rather more pleasant than the hall, where he introduced Colin Johnstone. Colin had started with P&O just as the first container ships were being introduced. The container ships division later became Maersk and Colin commanded many of the ships, as the size of container ships grew dramatically. In fact, one of his main themes was to do with the respective size and speeds of different ships including those smaller ships we sail ourselves. The visual images he showed were quite stunning. These included photographs inside the ships of engines the size of several houses, cylinder heads, crankshafts and propeller shafts as well as photographs from the bridge of a container ship running before a Force 11 storm and just a few photographs of the consequences of getting it wrong!

Colin Johnston

The audience watched spellbound and when Colin stopped talking the questions went on and on with everyone at the meeting becoming totally involved. After a most sincere vote of thanks to Colin, we enjoyed our afternoon tea and the raffle before making our way home.

John Cade and David Suttle

Simon Bound, Steve Collett, Angela Jones, Pam Collett, Joanna Bound and Richard Jones

Lynda Tyer, Jackie, Jonathan and Lynda Spencer and Jeff