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| Editorial ArchivesNovember 2004It was a dismal summer for rallies this year. Bad weather and poor attendance helped little to stoke the enthusiasm of the organisers. Many thanks to the members who helped, lets hope for good weather and enthusiasm next season. Please remember to renew your membership promptly next March, chasing for renewals is no joke for those unpaid members who run the association. October 2004The Boat Show is over! The new Maxi brochure features a new Maxi, 42 feet in length with twin wheels. This summers rallies were plauged with bad weather or disinterest. Weymouth was cancelled, the Folly had bad weather and only one boat made it, they did have a very good time though. The Yealm rally was cancelled due to bad weather. September 2004Well the Weymouth Rally went off like a damp Squib. Only two members expressed an interest and then the weather forecast let us down. Need a Solent weather forecast when you are hiding up at the Folly, the Hamble, Cowes, Chichester Harbour? Well the Solent's Bramble Bank WEST marker post now sports a weather station. This can be accessed at www.bramblemet.co.uk and updates every ten minutes with vital wind speed and direction. You can also access this date via your WAP Phone, visit the site for details. The site also links to the similar data from the Chichester Bar beacon www.chimet.co.uk. You can also get weather data updated every 3 seconds from a private site located at Lee on Solent www.ivegotwind.co.uk Enjoy the boat show and don't forget the September rallies. August 2004Don't forget the Weymouth Rally in August, the Folly rally and the Yealm rally in September. If you are to secure your berth and place at a table in a Restaurant then we need some feedback from those intending to participate. Please see the Members' section for further information. July 2004Most of us are now off sailing on our holidays. Good luck to those going to Cork and Cowes this summer. Don't forget the Weymouth Rally in August. Berths are booked for 10 boats and if a Restaurant is to be booked then we need some feedback from those intending to participate. Please see the Members' section for further information. Quote of the month, heard on VHF radio channel 16 when yachts were seen racing to Cork. "Day Trader merchant vessel. You are a useless piece of shit" Seen later Day Trader bright and orange not a care in the world, we didn't even think about testing our rights of way! June 2004The SD Marine and Maxiowners' Rally at Hamble Point Marina took place last month. 31 boats attended and 27 boats took part in the Treasure Hunt on Saturday afternoon. All those Maxis sailing together must have been a good sight and has created an interest from prospective new owners. Please keep an eye on the rally page in the members' section for news of current rallies. May 2004The social and AGM took place last month, please see the report in the members section. Coming up is the S.D Marine rally organised by Roger Moon. 25 boats have booked berths, the event will include an afternoon sailing treasure hunt event (we hope you all enjoy it as much as we did making it up!) followed by a barbeque and drinks. See the members section for details. S.D Marine will welcome both members and non-members with or without boats to the event. Contact Roger Moon on 023 8045 7278 or see contact details in the members' section. Please check out the members' section for future rallies. If you don't see something you like then help us out and create one yourself! April 2004Don't forget the Social and AGM on the 15th of this month, come and meet us. Don't forget to book your berth for the Hamble Point event in May. The AGM has passed. See the detail in the members' section. March 2004Please look at the members pages for events in 2004. There is at least one event each month for the season April to September. Please support us and your association, don't just drop in sign up! February 2004The committee met this month to discuss the season ahead. We now have a number of new committee members extending our representation round the country. We have also decided on a rally program and the Social and AGM. Please look at the members pages for further information. January 2004This first editorial for 2004 comes from the M-O-A Eastern Region. I’m sure many members are already planning a visit to Excel for the Boat Show and next season’s itineraries; but for Vouvray, we’re still hoping for a final day sail before our annual lift out in early January. The Essex and Suffolk coasts offer such attractive, well-sheltered rivers and back waters that we are always reluctant to stop sailing until after Christmas . Some of our estuaries deserve respect, especially for the first timer, but good planning, fair winds and local chartlets are all that are needed to sample their distinctly different moods throughout the seasons. Adding to the local interests are the wide variety of Thames barges and other classic vessels, as well as picturesque waterfronts and pubs that have changed little over the years and remain relatively uncrowded. Few visitors to the East Coast seem to come from elsewhere in the UK - even though it is just 3 day-sail hops from the Solent - unless they are on an around-the-UK mission. Most visitors come across from Holland and Belgium, and likewise the East Coast makes an ideal departure for us to cross the North Sea to the Netherlands with its inland seas and canals. Earlier this year, we crossed north-east to Texel (the first of the Frisian Isles) before continuing south into the Ijsselmeer and Markermeer with their many quaint fishing ports and then returning via Amsterdam and the Noordzee Kanaal at Ijmuiden. For our next season, we’re hoping to explore new grounds towards Land’s End and beyond, and hopefully we’ll be able to meet some Maxi’s along the way. Do please remember to visit the website regularly to keep in touch, and to send in your own news and ideas. Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, Helen & Chris, Vouvray December 2003This month my interest moves to internet weather forecasts. A few weeks in Spain watching the weather at Denia for suitable kitesurfing conditions turned my attention to two weather sites. The two that took my fancy were WindGuru and USNavy. WindGuru gives 7 day weather predictions (wind, rain, cloud, temperature etc) at selected locations across the globe, the forecast seems too check out. I have been watching my local forecast and been comparing the wind with my anemometer readings and the predictions look good. The USNavy site gives 7 day weather charts and an animated sequence of isobars, rain and wind strength (flighted arrows). Why not try these sites and report back? One of our members is taking part in the ARC, read about David's Maxi 33 Kjempekjekk on the ARC website The arc has now finished and you can view or buy photos of Kjempekjekk or other boats from http://www.photoaction.com/arc03/arc03.htm Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a fantastic new sailing year. Mick Nelmes November 2003Now many members will be in winter mode with pipe and slippers to hand. Perhaps some will turn their hand at writing a short piece for the website, or finding a picture for the Picture Gallery or even thinking of joining the committee to help run the association. There is a a new article on Superted's Fastnet 2003 Race, please read it and use it as a template for your own piece. October 2003Bright sunshine and wind. Plenty of it, mid October is giving weeks of 20Kts East winds. Any members with photos of their boats are welcome to submit them to the Picture Gallery. I have received a few emails from members saying they have sent me a virus. The old Hoax virus is doing the rounds telling the user to delete a file with a bear symbol and then email their contacts to do the same. This is a pukka file! Currently there are email viruses sent as attachments to emails pretending to come from Microsoft etc. For example: Microsoft internet system, Network email delivery system, Internet mail storage system, Microsoft Net Storage Sevice. Simply ignore and delete these emails and others like them. September 2003The Southampton Boat Show is on 12-21st September and Maxi Yachts will be showing the 1050 and 1100 in berths 296 & 297. We visited the show (Monday) the show 1100 is for sale. August 2003On the south coast - Cowes week and the Weymouth rally have now passed. Weymouth was enjoyable, thanks to the five Maxis that came making it a success. Anyone up for Yarmouth or The Folly in September? - Please look at the members' area for the last of this years rallies. We are also formulating a plan for next years events - details once again in the members' area. We need some member participation to make the association successful! July 2003The next South coast rallies will at Weymouth and possibly Poole, Brighton and Yarmouth may follow if members would like to go. Please look at the members section for details. If any member is participating in Cowes Week and would like to write up their experiences for the site please contact me. Good luck if you are racing and please tell us how you get on. June 2003We are going to Cherbourg in July and to Weymouth in August, please consult the members section for details. We look forward to meeting members attending the rallies. If you would like to help and host a rally in your area you would be most welcome. Next rallies Cherbourg, W Scotland and Weymouth. Don't miss out. May 2003Bad weather hindered the Lymington rally but those that didn't go by boat went by road. The food in the Mayflower pub was excellent and is recommended. The Folly rally goes ahead with all the booked berths filled. If you want to come and haven't booked you will have to get there early or contact me to see if we can book more spaces. Watch the members section for details of the Weymouth rally in late July. April 2003We have now chosen Lymington and Folly Inn, R.Medina for our early rallies. If you wish to attend please look at South Coast rally information in the members pages and book your berths early. Please keep your eye on the site for dates of our Weymouth and other rallies. March 2003The sailing season will be here soon. On the second day of spring we had a gloriously sunny day on the Solent and up to 14kts of wind. Those who managed to get out would have had a good sail. The associations Annual General Meeting will be held in April, the date has yet to be set. We are waiting for replies from our members to our email survey; so far we have only had 23 replies even though the email has been read by at least 33 members. If you haven't replied please do so even if it is to say NO. Please don't forget, the association is a members club and we would love our members to participate. The intended South Coast rally program is in the members section, the exact dates have not yet been fixed. If you have any comments please contact us. February 2003The Rally programs will soon be posted in the Member's section. Please watch
this space! New Year 2003Wishing all a Happy new year and looking forward to seeing you again next season. The 49th London Boat Show at Earls Court Exhibition Centre starts 2nd Jan (ends 12th Jan). and Maxi Yachts will be on stand 61E will be there ready to welcome you. November/December 2002For most we are now in the winter period and thinking of maintenance and lifting for cleaning etc. Please do not forget that your engine service should be done on time as your warranty may be void if you delay more than a week or two. If in doubt ask VOLVO and not your local agent and get them to agree if the engine service schedule is to be changed. Maxi 1100 owners should read the propeller info. in the members section. September/October 2002We have just returned from the Yarmouth Rally. Unfortunately the harbour was overflowing with rallies and some members could not enter the harbour. If access had been possible we would have had 8 boats attending. Apologies to our members who could not get in to join us. Full report and photos in the members section. We visited the Southampton boar show earlier in the month. Roger and Mike from SD Marine were showing off a Maxi 1100 and a Maxi 1050. There will be one new owner out there somewhere with the Maxi 1100 ! We now look forward to presenting our outline for next years rallies. Keep your eye on the members section for details. August 2002The Weymouth rally was well attended by seven boats, thanks to those who attended, there are some pictures on the South Coast rallies section in the members' area. We continued westward after the rally and are now moored along side (1100) Blues Dancer in the Yealm ("Yam") river awaiting fine weather to move westward. We have now fixed a date for a meeting in Yarmouth on 28th September, please see the rallies section for details. June 2002Only two boats made it to the Cherbourg for the June Rally, hopefully the Weymouth Rally will attract a few more members. It has now been over a year since the website was conceived and there has certainly been plenty of interest across the globe. A number of the weather cams, that were previously run by Boatastic / Boathow are now back online, and are "Free of Charge". The new service, sponsored by SeaSprite Sports May 2002Those of you who have been reading the editorial will have noticed that I have only just made it into 2002 (I have just changed the year on the preceding entries from 2001 to 2002). This Friday, of the Bank-holiday weekend, boats have streaming out into the Solent, I hope you all had a good time and plenty of sun. Last weekend some of the Committee met for the AGM. I will post the report in the members section soon. In the meantime I would ask all who have not yet renewed their membership to either renew now or if you don't intend to renew to tell us. Whatever your intentions just let us know. That will help us to get out on our boats and enjoy ourselves. If you have lost your renewal form, one can be downloaded from the Join-US page. So far we have Rallies arranged for Cherbourg and Weymouth, please visit the members section for details. Further rallies will be forthcoming, to encourage us please tell us you will join the Cherbourg or Weymouth ones. If you are intending to attend a rally tell the organiser, then if there are any changes to the schedule the organiser will be able to contact you. In addition check out the rally section in the members area for changes to schedule before setting sail. If the rally dates and venue don't suit how about taking on the organisation of your own! All it takes is to tell me where and when, then I will put it on the website and we will wait for a response. It only takes two boats to meet up for a pleasant chat and a pup dinner! There are members isolated from other Maxi owners by location. If any of these members would like become a local representative then please let us know. The representative's function is to be an occasional contact for visiting members and a source of local information, the amount of involvement would be up to you. The benefit of becoming a representative is that you will have the opportunity of meeting and exchanging information with visiting members. April 2002
Rally season starts on the 27th/28th April. Hope to see you at Cowes Yacht Haven for the AGM on the 28th. March 2002February seems to have flown past, wind wind and more wind. Here on the south coast, we've had few days without less than 30 Knots; great for blasting on a windsurfer but not for sailing the Maxi. The committee met last month to discuss this years rallies and the year ahead for the MOA. We hope to be able to publish the rally program soon with potential meetings at Cowes, Yarmouth, Chichester, Weymouth and Cherbourge. Please visit the Members pages for further information. January 2002Now the London Boat show is over we should be seeing a few of Maxi 1050's reaching the water. According to Roger Moon, Maxi orders at the boat show were very good. Roger's own Maxi 1050 will be ready for sailing soon after it gets back from the show - so start queuing. There is now a password protected area on the website for member-sensitive information, Rally details etc. Wishing all members a Happy new Year ....... December 2001The new Maxi 1050 will be at the London Boat show in January, after the boat show it will be available for test sails at SD Marine. Contact Roger for appointments. The boat is a smaller version of the Maxi 1100. A new feature is a short re-movable bowsprit which attaches to the stem-head roller, this poles out the Asymmetric Gennica. I understand the basic boat will sell for less than £100,000 all inclusive. October 2001We have just returned from an exciting day out at the Southampton Boat show. Roger Moon was showing a beautiful Maxi 1100, dark blue hull and full teak decks. After a good look at the competition we came away satisfied that none came anyway near to the quality and value of the Maxi. But we all know that, or we wouldn't be owners, would we? I hope you have all enjoyed your summers sailing, even though the weather has been not as good as we would have hoped. There is one more Maxi meeting at Yarmouth on Sat/Sun 27 October, if any one else would like to join in please do. The Poole rally had to be cancelled due to the unavailability of the Parkstone Yacht club. If you are a member and have not received any emails you may wish to send your email address so you can be included in future mailings. These will only be used for Maxiowners business and will not be disclosed to anyone other than members. Rallies this year have not been well attended and it is unclear as to what members would like organised and what form of organisation they would like. We could just meet and have cocktails on the pontoon - that's just what a bunch of senior citizens were doing when we visited Fowey one year. If I had all those email addresses I could find out! Clearly there are members who could not participate in this years rallies due to their geographical locations, if there are groups who need to use the site for organising their own adventures tell me. I hope to include a message board as soon as I find out how, if anyone is an expert and can help ..... Soon it will be the time to antifoul and inspect those underwater fittings. Refer to propellers and anodes for information regarding inspection of folding propellers, zinc leaching and pre-mature anode erosion. So far the information on the site has been mostly my own work, if there is anyone out there who would like to contribute a little or a lot, the contributions would be welcome. Similarly the association is run by just a few members, fresh enthusiasm, ideas, organisation (for rallies etc) would be extremely welcome as would nominations for Chairman and additional committee members. The association is your association, so please help to make it a success. Mick Nelmes August 2001At the 2001 AGM at Cowes I agreed to set up a website. The object is to be able to easily convey association information and provide up-to-date rally details. I hope this may persuade more members to join-in and attend rallies - even if they decide at the last moment. I would welcome any suggestions on how to improve the site. Please tell me if you like or dislike the content. Contributions to content will be welcomed. There is plenty of information for the yachtsman available on the internet, especially weather forecasts. In the BeginningThe most compelling reason to use the internet is to access time-sensitive information normally unavailable, costly or difficult to get. For us, the most important information is the weather. The availability of FREE weather-maps (synoptic charts) for up to 120H (5 Days) is really useful. These maps can be downloaded and printed before a voyage, you can pop into an internet café and get new forecasts en-route or you can buy a notebook PC or Hand-held-PC (Palm Pilot for £100) and get weather information via the infra-red link on your mobile phone. ChartsChart updates may be available on the NET. Web CamsCheck out Boatastic web site, there is a weather station on the south coast at Lee on Solent and St Catherine's point IOW. Buoy DataWeather information - wind speed, direction, temperature, barometric pressure and tendency etc are all available on the WEB. For example, there are weather buoys located all over the world, you can choose from the world map or area maps. The Uk map shows available buoys, for the south coast there are stations at: Mick Nelmes |
Disclaimer: Whilst every endeavour has been made to ensure the accuracy of the content presented on this web-site we cannot be held liable for any consequences whatsoever resulting from the information or advice provided. Copyright © 2001-2007
Maxi Owners Association
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Today saw the launch of yet another Maxi 1100. Blues Dancer is off to Torquay
to terrorise the Brixham Yacht Club on the Race scene. She is the second Maxi
1100 to have the secret weapon, an extra set of tracks and cars for a 140%
Genoa. A test sail saw the log spin up to show 8 Kts. in little wind. The owner
is replacing his 'much chased' MG346, so don't
try to race this one; anyway Ron always wins!