Saturday 15 December 2018

Christmas Opening Times



Christmas Hours


Chandlery

The chandlery will be open on Christmas Eve for any last minute purchases, opening again on the 27th through to New Year.   Our opening times for the festive period can be seen below.

Ardfern Festive Opening Times
Ardfern Yacht Centre Festive Opening Times

Workshop Holidays

The workshop will be closing for the Christmas break on Friday 21st December, and will be open again on Monday 7th January.   We will be checking all boats are secure before the holidays, and staff will be in making sure everything is safe over the festive period.

The staff at Ardfern Yacht Centre would like to wish all of our customers a Happy Christmas, and New Year.

Friday 20 July 2018

Crinan Canal - Restricted Lock in Times

Restrictions of sea locks operation to high tide 

Due to the continuing dry weather and its impact on reservoir levels Scottish Canals are now further restricting the operation of the sea locks to within one hour either side of high tide. In addition passage of the Crinan Canal is now only offered to vessels with a draught of 1.8m and below.

Review

Scottish Canals have said that the restriction will be in place for the next seven days and will help to preserve the depleting water levels, delaying closure of the canal at this time.
'This is a final measure following earlier restrictions which were put in place due to the continued dry weather.'
Scottish Canals are continuing to monitor the long term forecast and the effects of these restrictions on the water levels. Plans are being put in place should water levels deplete beyond acceptable levels and an update will be provided next week.

The policy of a minimum of two boats per lock in continues to be implemented for water conservation; this may cause delays of up to and over one hour.   Scottish Canals would appreciate your understanding and patience as they seek to take all steps possible to keep boats moving on the canal.

Updates

Further information is available at Scottish Canals which is  updated regularly.

Saturday 14 July 2018

Crinan Canal - Water Conservation Measures

Restrictions On The Canal

AS a result of the recent glorious sunshine the operators of the Crinan Canal are now taking measures to ensure that water resources are conserved on the canal to enable operations to continue as smoothly as possible.
"We have had to undertake some restrictions to ensure we can conserve water and remain open with some limitations,” said Donna Mallan, Scottish Canals, customer operations manager.

Further Information

Those wanting to transit the canal can find further information regarding the restrictions at Scottish Canals , which will be regularly updated if circumstances regarding canal usage change.

Saturday 7 July 2018

Round Mull Race 2018 Results

Round Mull Race 2018 Results


Spinnaker
Round Mull Race fleet under spinnaker, photo courtesy of Craig Pagett Photography

Fleet finishes

There was only one retirement in the 2018 race, Mor Toad after the first leg, the rest of the fleet completing the whole course.   Now that the Round Mull Race is over, the fleet are home and preparing for the next race, we can bring you the results.

Race results
Round Mull Race 2018 Points Summary

Congratulations to all those who competed in this years race, and we look forward to another successful event in 2019.


Round Mull Race 2018 Adjusted Results
2018 Round Mull Race Results

Tuesday 12 June 2018

Round Mull Race 2018

Oban Sailing Club's Round Mull Race takes place this year over the weekend of 29th June - 1st July.

Round Mull Race Spinnaker
Round Mull Race Fleet
Entries are still open for the popular Round Mull Race which is open to all monohull yachts with a CYCA handicap.   


Route

After a seafood buffet at Oban Sailing Club on the Thursday night, the the race follows the well established route, setting off from Oban at 1200 on Friday 29th June, racing a distance of just over 24 nautical miles to Tobermory.   Friday evening's prize giving will take place in MacGoshans.
Saturday will see the race set off at 0900 for Bunessan, at the end of which the evening's entertainment will be at the local Bunessan Hall.   The 41 nautical mile final leg will depart Bunessan at 0830 on Sunday 1st July, negotiating the Torran Rocks off the Ross of Mull, before arriving back in Oban.

Thursday 31 May 2018

Ardfern Road Resurfacing

Road works planned for B8002 - Craignish Peninsula road

Resurfacing works are planned for the Ardfern road commencing on Wednesday 6th June 2018.   They are planned to last for two weeks.


Ardfern road resurfacing
Traffic control on B8002 

Road Closure

Works are planned to start after 9am each day and will finish by 4pm.   During that time the road will be closed for up to 30 minutes at a time whilst they lay and roll  the tarmac.

Tuesday 8 May 2018

2018 Crinan Canal Pilots


CRINAN CANAL - PRIVATE PILOTS FOR 2018 SEASON




YACHTSMEN looking to transit the Crinan Canal this season can still hire assistance for their 9-mile journey from a number of recommended local private pilots.

Crinan canal
Transiting the Crinan canal
“With Yotspot no longer providing their assisted passage service this year, any short-handed sailors requiring assistance to transit can now do so from a number of our recommended private pilots,” said Donna Mallan, Customer Operations Manager at Scottish Canals.
Scottish Canals will aid boats to transit as much as possible from one lock to the next, however if boats are single handed, never transited the canal before or are looking for a speedy transit, Scottish Canals recommend contacting one of the pilots and making arrangements with them, in advance of a journey through the canal.

“The pilots on the list are all experienced, either having worked for us on the canal or having taken many boats through over many years,” she added.

Additionally, the 2018 edition of Welcome Anchorages contains a 5% discount voucher on page 5, for a transit, return or two-week licence on the Crinan or Caledonian Canals.


2018 Pilot List

Crinan canal pilots 2018
Crinan Canal Pilot list

Wednesday 2 May 2018

Spring 2018 Newsletter - Staff Changes


STAFF CHANGES

AFTER 16-years with the business, general manager, Mark Cameron, will be leaving Ardfern on 30th June and will be replaced by managing director, Andrew Ashton.
Andrew will continue to work closely alongside the existing workshop, boatyard, chandlery and office teams, together with dealing with the general business side of the company.

As a family owned business now in its 39th year we remain committed to Ardfern along with the customers and the skilled staff, without whom, the business would not operate in the way that it does.

With the majority of boats now launched for the forthcoming season Bob, Fraser and the workshop team continue to be as busy as ever completing the final stages of some larger jobs, along with spring re-commissioning, varnishing and work on customer special orders.

Over the winter, along with the standard annual maintenance programme conducted by North West Marine, all of the pontoon decking received a spring clean, while the purchase of a batch of new boat stands in the yard has proved invaluable for boat movements, with the plan being to purchase more of these for this coming winter.

We have also been working hard at solving the connectivity issues with BT regarding the installation of superfast fibre broadband to the business. Once this is up and running and stable, it is our aim to install WIFI poles around the pontoon network in order to get the best possible speed for customers to access. In the meantime we are pleased to say that the local telecoms masts have been upgraded over the winter and there is now a reasonable 4G signal covering the marina for 02, EE and Vodafone.

The chandlery continues to be well stocked and a new larger storage container was put in place behind the chandlery building over the winter, which gives us a much better space for storing the wide range of products we offer.

In the office we welcomed Bel Hawson to the team as company bookkeeper in the accounts department in mid January and Grant Lees continues with the role of marina co-ordinator alongside chandlery manager, Guy Neville, chandlery administrator Larrissa Madden and chandlery assistant, Willie Young. This summer we also have Rachel Fraser returning for a second season in the chandlery, along with keen yachtsman, James Hoad who will also assist in the chandlery and with visitor berthing/mooring allocation.

BROKERAGE SERVICE

The brokerage service run by Ardfern Yacht Centre Ltd will, however, cease as from 30th June 2018, as Andrew and the team at Ardfern focus on running the marina, boatyard, workshop and chandlery that is our core business, while Mark will continue to focus on his brokerage work under his own name.

Going forward, Mark, who completed 7 years in the workshop office and 9 years as general manager at Ardfern, will now offer an independent brokerage service under the name ‘Mark Cameron Yachts’, which will cover the West Coast of Scotland and beyond.
Over recent years the brokerage section run by Mark at Ardfern has become extremely busy and the directors of Ardfern and Mark now feel that customers will benefit further from this new arrangement. We will continue to work closely with Mark in the future, in what we are all sure will be an amicable and customer enhancing experience going forward. 

DATA PROTECTION

Lastly, from 25th May 2018 the personal data laws are changing under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in the UK. If you would like to receive any future updates from Ardfern Yacht Centre Ltd please reply to this email with the statement ‘YES’ in the subject line to confirm you would like to keep hearing from us when we send out occasional news updates by email. If we don’t hear from you we will remove you from our mailing list for all future mailshots or newsletters later this month.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Mark for all his hard work and leadership at Ardfern over many years and to wish him every success in his new enterprise, while also wishing you all an enjoyable cruising season over the next few months.

Joanna Ashton & Nick Baker
Directors
Ardfern Yacht Centre Ltd

Monday 12 March 2018

Guy Lifts The Silverware

Guy Neville & Crew - Sonata Inland Champions 2018

Guy Neville - Sonata
Guy and Crew collect the silverware after a challenging weekend
It may be early in the season however last weekend Guy escaped to compete in the 2018 Sonata Inland Championships. Despite a last minute crew change and the almost a year passing since they last sailed together Guy and the team battled through challenging conditions end the weekend in top spot.

Congratulations to Guy and the rest of the Crew.