While some charter skippers take pride in thrusting a cuppa into the hands of their charges après-dive, Richard Taffs has a trump card - bacon butties! Being based at Salcombe in Devon, luxuries are hardly thin on the ground, but in common with an increasing number of charter skippers, Richard believes in making life a little more civilised for his charges.
The Woodpecker is moored at Salcombe, from where there is access to a wealth of wrecks, with depths ranging from 10 to 60m. Parking is easy, as there is a large car park only a short walk away from the quayside.
Richard's original career was as a Royal Navy officer, before leaving to pursue a career as a commercial diver. He gained his Part III commercial diver ticket, which allowed him to pay his way through a degree in history before he took a job in the City as a headhunter. It was during a visit to Devon for the Salcombe Festival, that he met his future wife and decided it was time to move back to the coast. In 1999 he started Diventure Salcombe and bought his first boat. Recently, pressure from other work commitments has meant that Richard has franchised out Diventure to current owner Eleanor White. However, he still manages the weekend charters.
Hand-built in teak, the Woodpecker is a sturdy hardboat with a reasonably sized dive deck. However, with ten people kitting up with twin-sets and camera systems, it can become quite hectic. There is not a huge amount of seating on the boat - anyone who wants to sit down has to fight for space on the engine cover, although there is plenty of floor space on offer for a pre-dive snooze. Cover on deck is limited and there is no lift, however, a side lift is planned for next year. The absence of a lift didn't cause us too many problems, because a lot of thought has gone into the positioning of the hand-holds. Once we were shown the correct technique, using the ladder was easy.
Richard was happy to accommodate our huge pile of kit and he even filled his shot bucket with water for soaking the cameras for that all-important pre-dive check. We also made very good use of the wheelhouse for our dry gear, and not-quite-so-dry gear. The only requests he made were that his seat stayed 100-per-cent dry and that you should pump the head gently so as not to break it! During our trip someone was a little too heavy handed and… yes, we broke it!
A diver himself, although he has very little time to get wet nowadays, Richard is very familiar with the dive sites and gave accurate and knowledgeable dive briefings. The shot found its mark on every dive, although on one occasion a second throw was necessary due to a tangled line (possibly our fault for pinching the shot bucket, oops!).
Salcombe is favoured by wreck divers as the area is littered with famous wrecks. Over the weekend we had the pleasure of diving two of these - the Maine and the Persier. These wrecks fall within the 30m range, and with visibility at around 8-10m, both were impressive dives. The Persier was particularly pretty with it's covering of pink sea fans, a species that Devon Wildlife Trust is keen to protect.
Richard is a friendly guy and he does a great line in bacon butties - all fried in his much-used pan. He caters for all levels of diver, from novice right through to technical divers, who regularly visit the deeper wrecks. With a wreck range stretching from as far west as the Scylla to as far east as the Medina, there are plenty of sites to keep everybody happy.
What we liked
Great bacon butties between dives
What we didn't like
The dive deck became very busy when everyone was kitting up. And somebody broke the head!
Boat Hand-built Dartmouth 84
Moored Salcombe, Devon
Engine Ford Mermaid 135hp
Cruising speed 7.5-8 knots
Head one
Maximum number of passengers 12
Optimum number of divers 10
Range 150 miles
Charter rate £400 per day
WEEKEND CHARTERS
Contact 01548 857880 or 07920 039399
Email divesalcombe@yahoo.co.uk
WEEKDAY CHARTERS
Contact 01548 843663
website www.eleanorwhitesite.com
