Nancy's back, a near miss for the Pont Aven, buses for RWYard.... It's your Bank Holiday Weekend Beagle!

Scene on the Sound

The Beagle's maritime correspondent The Captain keeps his eye on comings and goings

It’s been an interesting few days on and around the Sound.  On land, the Big Wheel on the Hoe is now up and running, and if you pick a good day, there are some wonderful views over the City. 

Meanwhile the first three new benches are in place on the Rusty Anchor. I've been told that three more will be in place 'shortly'.

Here is the new Easterly one. The ship that can be seen in the photo is the Seabourn Ovation – the first of this year’s cruise ship visitors.  Sadly, the passengers had a pretty windy day to visit Plymouth and their boat trip across to the Barbican must have been a bit lumpy at times!

Seabourn Ovation is a 600-guest, 42,000-ton displacement ultra-luxury cruise ship. To put her size in perspective, she is only 1500 tons larger than the Pont Aven, although ‘thinner’ and 15 metres longer. All 300 cabins are ocean-facing suites with their own balcony. The base price for a cruise on her in European waters is £400- £ 450 per person per night. Needless to say, she has every facility on board that you could imagine and an unusually high staff-to-passenger ratio – 450 crew for a maximum of 600 passengers.

On the naval side, there have been more movements. HMS Sutherland (a Type 23 Frigate) has been in and out. HMS Trent, one of the second batch of Offshore Patrol Vessels, sailed from the dockyard on Tuesday, but seems to be still around – she’s probably had a crew change and is getting the new team fully up to scratch. And HMS Brocklesby, a Hunt-class Mine Countermeasures Vessel, entered Devonport on Wednesday afternoon. She has just come out of a three-year refit, so is almost certainly here for sea training.

Two foreign naval ships have arrived, probably for FOST training this week. The Dutch HNlMS Den Helder arrived on Monday 27th and is probably in port for her harbour training week. She is a brand new Combat Support Ship – akin to the British Royal Fleet Auxiliary, but naval-manned and much more capable. She is only about half the size of the RFA’s Tide-class tankers, but carries two LCVPs (Landing Craft Vehicles and Personnel) – small landing craft, with accommodation for 75 troops onboard. She also has an Oto-Melara 75mm automatic gun, a self-defence missile system, 4 12.7mm machine guns and two medium-sized helicopters. Truly, a very capable support ship. Den Helder only commissioned last November and is not yet fully operational, so she is probably here conducting early stage training.

The Royal Norwegian Navy’s Frigate HNoMS Otto Sverdrup was last here six months ago and is probably here again for continuing ‘top-up’ training and, no doubt, to reinforce the strengthening links between the Royal and Royal Norwegian Navies. As Beagle readers may be aware, both navies are buying identical Type 26 Frigates (the first two for the RN will be HM Ships Glasgow and Cardiff). In fact, because of the endless delays in announcing HMG’s Defence Investment Plan, two of the RN’s slots in the Type 26 programme have already been reallocated to the RNoN. Under the Lunna House Agreement, signed last December, the two navies will run a fully integrated anti-submarine force in the North Atlantic.

Finally, with the very strong easterly winds over the last couple of weeks, the Brittany Ferry’s Pont Aven has had a couple of ‘interesting’ arrivals into Millbay. It is understood that, if the wind is over 40 knots, she is required to take an Admiralty Pilot and one or two tugs, and over 60 knots, she is not allowed to try to berth at the Ferry Port.

On Wednesday, April 22, Pont Aven turned much earlier than usual and allowed the wind to carry her down until she was off the ferry port entrance.  The danger in this approach is that she starts to gather sideways momentum, and this can be difficult to counter.  It must be remembered that she has much more sail area than any of the great ships of the sailing age, such as the Cutty Sark.  On this occasion, the Pont Aven’s Master achieved a smooth approach, but he was undoubtedly earning his salary!

One week later, on April 29, the wind was gusting more than the week before, and Pont Aven took two tugs.  Despite this, as you can see here, she got within about three metres of the end of Millbay Pier! Fortunately, once again, the Master managed to control his ship, and she went ahead, straightened up and slid neatly into her berth – only about 15 minutes behind schedule.  The watching crowd on the Rusty Anchor were relieved, or denied their excitement – take your pick of which they were hoping.

Advertisement:

Nancy's back on The Hoe

She's been missing for six months, and she was fenced off for five more months before she was removed, but finally Nancy Astor is back on her plinth on The Hoe.

The Nancy statue – which was sculptured by Hayley Gibbs – was commissioned by Plymouth Women in Business Networking after a Crowdfunder campaign. It was then gifted to the city. The sculptor has been liaising closely with the Council and Bronze Age to agree the works.

It was unveiled in November 2019 by the former Prime Minister Theresa May. Nancy Astor was the first female to take a seat in the House of Commons and served as an MP for the city of Plymouth for 26 years.

When the statue was removed last October, Plymouth Council said the repair work would take 'up to 12 weeks'.

Bus service to the Royal William Yard amid the detour chaos

Businesses in Stonehouse severely impacted by the chaos surrounding the Evolution Cove debacle are praying a new bus service this weekend might help their fortunes.

Plymouth City Council is subsidising a 24-seater shuttlebus, the 34A, that will serve all stops along Union Street between the Octagon and Stonehouse Roundabout and then continue to Royal William Yard.

Experts have road-tested the bus to ensure it can cope with the road closures, traffic light chicanes and diversions.

Businesses in the area told the BBC that trade is down by 50%. Despite roads and car parks being open, it's thought many people are staying away due to the temporary traffic lights causing delays.

This weekend sees the return of the popular monthly good food and craft market. And Monday's Bank Holiday would also typically draw crowds to the Yard and the waterside.

The new shuttle bus will run daily every 30 minutes from 7am to 7pm.

Reader's Letter - "An atrocity has appeared"

Dear Editor, an atrocity has appeared in West Hoe Park. An enormous gaudy-looking bouncy castle. My wife looks out to the park every day and is quite disturbed by her new view. We had no objection at all to the old bouncy castle as it really did not interfere with the landscape, and the children using it had fun. But the size and the clashing colours of the new one can't be acceptable for this nice little park.

Name and address supplied