ALCYONE CIRCLE 1986

Rally to Neuhaus (Oste)March 18th, 1986

Dear friends,

here comes the promised short summary of the decisions made at the Captains’ Conference held during the ALCYONE CIRCLE’s annual meeting in Amsterdam on Saturday, March 15th.

First of all, this is the list of participating ships (radio callsign VHF)
ALCYONE I                                                                   Mr. P.L. Giele
BANCKERT (PH 3206)                                             Mr. Drs. K.F. Broekens
ETI                                                                                  Mr. J.C. Kreb
HOOGE SPRINGER                                                   Mr. I.A. Hooke
MARIA THERESIA                                                      Mr. W.L.G. Schwartz
MAJELLA                                                                      Mr. Dr. H. Liebert
VITA NOVA                                                                   Mr. G. van’t Hull
HARMONIE VON NEUENSCHLEUSE (DFMI)    Mr. K.-G. Gerdts
MARMARA                                                                    Mrs. Drs. A.J. Scheltema
D’ OLDE ZWERVER                                                   Mr. G. van der Ham
SANS RIVAL                                                                 Mr. W. Valentijn
VROUWEZAND (PI5351)                                         Mr. H. Remmers
GEERTRUIDA (PI 6010)                                           Mr. Drs. H.G.M. van der Veld
PUFFIN                                                                         Mr. B.N. Westover

We do hope all of these ships will come and that perhaps a few more can be convinced to participate, as a fleet of this size with quite a few  very experienced skippers offers a fine chance to learn “ Waddenzee” sailing in the comfort and safety of a convoy.

The programme had to be changed in a few points as Delfzijl turned out to be not very suitable as a starting point for the journey.  Bridges on the frisian canals, namely the Eemskanaal, will not be operated on Sundays, so that some skippers might be “locked in” between bridges while trying to make their way to Delfzijl in time.
The Captains’ Conference decided to change the starting point and to declare Lauwersoog as official port of assembly for the fleet.

It is recommended that ships arrive at Lauwersoog yacht harbour on Sunday, July 13th. Sunday night, a conference of participating skippers will be held there and further decisions on Monday’s navigational programme shall be made according to weather and crew wishes.

The convoy should leave lauwersoog on Monday morning and is scheduled to arrive at Borkum on Monday evening.  The distance is about 20 nautical miles and it should really be a convenient first day’s trip.

It was agreed that Borkum’s loud and crowded commercial and Navy harbour should be avoided and that the convoy should spend the night at anchor in Borkum’s natural anchor- age, “De Hopp,” south-east of the island.  It is a perfectly sheltered, scenic place with soft white sand.  We have spent many a peaceful night at anchor or drying out there and can really recommend it.

Our vessel, the HARMONIE VON NEUENSCHLEUSE, will be there at De hopp and expect the fleet.  Local high water on Monday, 14th July will be at 16.40 hrs.

Another Captains’ meeting will then decide how to proceed further.

Communication of the participating ships before the actual assembly at Lauwersoog is a critical point and the following
solution for last minute messages was suggested:
1)    The Valentijn shipyard at Langeraar, Tel. (01722) 2117, will serve as relay centre for messages and enquiries.
2)    After Wil Valentijn and his crew will have left Langeraar on board of their SANS RIVAL, urgent messages may be forwarded to the harbourmaster of Lauwersoog yacht Harbour, telephone number to be looked up in the Almanaak.
3)    Contact between the convoy and the HARMONIE VON NEUENSCHLEUSE shall be established on Sunday evening, July 14th, at 19.00, 20.00, and 21.00 hours using VHF channel 77 which is designed for social information as well in the Netherlands as in Germany.  The HARMONIE will keep a watch on channel 77 during that period.
4)    For very important information concerning the plan, the HARMONIE can be addressed by telegramme from July 4th onwards
using the address HARMONIE/ DFMI NORDDEICHRADIO.

It was felt that institution of such a contact should be assured in case of very bad weather (since last summer everyone will know what I mean!) that might convince some skippers and / or crews to cancel their participation.

None of the participating skippers showed interest in taking part in SAIL BREMERHAVEN ‘86, so that we shall not reserve berths for any ALCYONE CIRCLE ship unless instructed otherwise by captains wishing to attend.

We learned from Mr. Schwartz at Amsterdam that the German Hydrographic Office DHI have designed a set of charts for our convoy covering exactly the area that we shall sail, i.e. from the Netherlands to Brunsbüttel (more or less a suburb of Neuhaus).  It is chart set No. DHI 3014.  It costs around 80 HFl. and is highly recommended to participating skippers, who should also be in possession of German Tidal Table DHI no. 2117 (around 4 HFl.).

The rally to Neuhaus was discussed in a splendid spirit at Amsterdam and we are really looking forward to welcoming you all here. A social and navigational programme shall be prepared for Saturday, 19th and Sunday, 20th of July.

Kind regards,
Klaus-Gerrit Gerdts