intheboatshed.net

I gather from Never Sea Land that Stuart Weir’s article about the boats of Swallows and Amazons has a new home here:
http://home.vicnet.net.au/~ransome/wier/sanda.html

I’ve been searching high and low for some photos I took of one of Arthur Ransome’s dinghies in the Windermere Museum, but I can’t find the folder for the life of me. It’s a shame - it’s a nice old fashioned little Continue Reading »

I’m going sailing, so you won’t hear from me for a day or two.

In the meantime, here’s a chapter from an old book describing how to build an old-fashioned British sharpie. Not many people would build a boat like this now, but I think it’s interesting, not least because it could so easily be a predecessor of the GP14.

This chapter includes instructions and plans for the hull and spars; see part II for sailmaking instructions:
How to build a 1930s British sharpie, part II

Continue Reading »

Fireballs

Allèz, a Fireball trapeze dinghy built by Jack Chippendale will feature at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth for the next two months.

Designed by Peter Milne in 1962, the International Fireball is a high performance one-design sailing dinghy. Milne’s intention was to create a boat that was cheap, simple to build and maintain, but with exciting performance - the single-chine hull is designed for planing at low speeds (it is said to plane at just 8 knots) and is scow-shaped. Usually sailed by a crew of two, it has a trapeze and a symmetric spinnaker.

First reviewed by Yachts & Yachting in March 1962, the Fireball was an immediate success. By May of that year, 73 sets of plans had been sold for self- build, and at least one company was selling complete boats for £188. Continue Reading »

The Mersey Shanty Festival is under threat from local councillors and an arts establishment that doesn’t think sea songs are a worthwhile contribution to culture. I’ve no doubt it’s all part of the widespread but patronising and stupid line of thinking we have in England that says that culture is only worth having if it’s either posh or foreign. It’s a view that has led to many aspects of working people’s lives in this country being lost to history, including two things of particular importance Continue Reading »