Category: Racing yacht

Marcus Lewis makes the Fowey River dinghy and Troy class keelboat racers ready for the season

Fowey boatbuilder Marcus Lewis has been in touch to tell us about the work he’s been doing – and here’s been a lot of maintenance, repair and painting work to do on the local Fowey River dinghy and Troy class keelboat racers, as you might expect during the run-up to the new sailing season.

Here’s what he says:

‘It’s fairly busy in my boat shed! We have finished all the woodwork on a new Fowey River sailing dinghy, and the owner has taken it away to do his own varnishing and painting.

‘We’ve also been getting on with the sanding and painting of several of the Troy Class keelboats – we currently look after or maintain about ten of these, and they all need to be back afloat ready to race by the first Saturday in May.

The photos (above) show Ruby (no. 6) and Aquamarine (no. 16) in my workshop, and then there is the yard at the Fowey Gallants Sailing Club, where we have the masts out for varnishing, and Troys nos 1,3,7,18,19 and 23 almost done.

Ruby is now afloat, (pictured on the water above) and we have 10 days of launching and rigging of these boats ahead right now, as well as some varnishing and antifouling on a few Fowey River dinghies.

‘Also, a couple weekends ago, I organised a lifejacket clinic at the sailing club, with service engineers from Ocean Safety in Plymouth. Folks could bring their lifejackets along for a once over, and hopefully learn a bit about them. The checks were free, but any spare parts fitted had to be paid for.

‘We had a huge attendance , with 248 lifejackets looked at over six hours.

‘Attached is a pic of a typical poorly treated jacket, left in the locker all winter to decay. the rusty cylinder can chafe through the bladder, and is not recommended. The RNLI sea safety team were also there to answer questions on EPIRBs, kill switches, mob devices, and any other safety queries.’

I must say running a lifejacket check sounds like a great way to get folks minds focused on safety at a time when they’re getting their boats ready, and setting out on their annual shakedown trips.

Thanks Marcus!

The entrance to Whitby Harbour, captured by Dylan Winter

It’s usually about this time of year that I start dreaming of sailing in good weather.

Sometimes my dreams settle on faraway places, but this time my eye has been caught by this little video in which Dylan Winter of Keep Turning Left fame captures the dramatic and impressive entrance to Whitby, a place I know well from playing at the town’s remarkable folk festival.

Walking out onto the arms of the harbour, I have often wondered how it looks from a boat, and now we know. Some day perhaps I’ll do it myself…

If you don’t already know it, Keep Turning Left is well worth keeping an eye on – Dylan is clearly Marmite to some people, but for the rest of us he’s entertaining and often illuminating and a very good with a lens – if I ever sail into Whitby, I don’t expect to get half such good images.

PS – While poking about at KTL this morning, I also found an ancient TV film about the Tobermory race of 1968. More summer sailing dreams just made for the middle of winter!

PPS – The Peggy Bawn Press folks (see comments below) have informed me that they have some oline background on this race, and they do – an article by director Louis Miller, no less! Read it here.

 

Another Christmas present: the Museum of the Broads calendar

Photos by Alan Davies of the Museum of the Broads

Here’s another suggestion in a series of posts about last-minute Christmas gifts… These entertaining shots are included in this year’s Museum of the Broads calendar – I gather they’re just a £5 if you contact the museum.