Nonpareil sharpie for sale in Kent

You don’t see a sharpie in the UK too often, and a Clapham-style Nonpareil sharpie’s even rarer – even though they’re clearly a good form for large areas of our coastline.

From memory, this particular boat was designed by Colin Mudie and has been used for pleasure trips – but would nevertheless make the basis for a very nice centreboard cruiser, and would therefore would be perfect for the East Coast. Heck, if I had the time to work this boat up into a suitable cruiser, I’d certainly consider buying it…

For more photos and information see http://www.wildlifesailing.com .

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‘We went alone, with barely a hundred fathoms of line, in case he should take it into his head to sound again. The speed at which we went made it appear as if a gale of wind was blowing, and we flew along the sea surface’

Everyone’s heard of Melville’s blockbusting novel Moby Dick – but perhaps fewer know about Frank T Bullen’s real-life description The Cruise of the Cachalot or Round the world after sperm whales.

My copy was published in 1901 and I think it’s a piece of work that brilliantly captures the cruelty, fear, hardships and excitements the whalers must have known while about their ghastly trade. Here’s a short chapter that I hope makes the point – do take time out to read it; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

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Small boats of North Vietnam

Just back from a business trip to Hanoi, my brother Matt Atkin has sent me these photos from the country. He reports that North Vietnam is an astonishing place where goods are still moved using carts and oxen, and from these photos it’s a place where traditional small boats are very much in evidence.

I can’t condone the use of cute children to sell goods – though I guess it’s better than some of the alternatives, even for the kids involved – but what astonishing scenery and boats!

The little craft seem to be woven from slender wooden or bamboo laths and then sealed, I’d guess with pitch. Can anyone confirm this? Also, they’re rowed forward without the aid of any complicated rowing machinery.

This is only a small sample of the photos Matt sent over, so I’ll put some more up in the next few days. Thanks Bruv!

There’s an interesting thread on Vietnamese boats at the Woodenboat Forum and an English language website devoted to the boats of Vietnam here.

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HMS Colossus

‘The Water gained upon us fast… before day light, I was obliged to Order the People on the Quarter Deck & Poop, the Water being up to the Cills of the Upper Deck, and as the Ship rolled, struck with so much violence against the Quarter Deck, as to break several of the Beams… About 8 o’Clock in the Morning, I had the pleasure to see several Boats coming to our assistance’

So wrote Captain George Murray describing the events leading up to the 1797 sinking of HMS Colossus while anchored off the Scilly Isles. The horrific story is vividly described in an extract from the ship’s log included in an appendix to an impressive archaeological survey, and it makes harrowing reading until rescue comes in sight.

See a pdf file of the survey here; the story of the sinking appears on page 94 onwards.

My thanks to Martin Corrick of the Openboat Yahoogroup for spotting and reporting this astonishing piece of material.

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Again on the subject of the Humber sloop Spider T, owner Mal Nicholson thought I might like to share this lines drawing of her.

It was drawn by Frederick Warren in 1926, shortly before he died. According to Peter Warren, it was specific to Spider T and was a kind of swan-song for the sail-powered cargo era in the Humber.

Mal has been told that she has been called a super sloop because she is believed to have encompassed everything known about small sail-powered cargo craft design in the Humber at the time, and she’s probably the last Humber sloop to be built.

Mal says she makes a superb sea vessel and adds that the photos show what she is all about: cod headed and mackerel tailed, her bouyant bluff bows stop her diving when under load.

Visit http://www.spidert.co.uk to see details of the sea voyages Mal and friends have made in her. Also, if you’re interested in Spider T and are in the area, don’t forget the open days planned for this coming weekend.

A mystery dinghy with a rather nice old-fashioned shape. But what is she, and how old?

Mal Nicholson has sent me these two photos of a boat he has bought, and which he intends to fettle up for use as a tender with the Humber sloop known as Spider T. Read all about her here.

She’ll fit neatly on Spider T’s carling hatches – but what is she? Mal says he has a mast and sails, but there’s no centreboard and there seem to be no identifying marks.

I’d say she was about 16ft in length, or may be a foot or two longer, and that she has a rather nice shape.

By they way, on the 13th and 14th March Mal and friends will be holding an open day from 10am to 4pm at Spider T’s home moorings at Keadby Lock near the A18; she will be open from 10 am to 4 pm on the Saturday and 11 am to 4 pm on the Sunday. If you get along, do mention intheboatshed.net – I gather you might just get a guided tour!

Violet Stephen, the girl after whom the zulu Violet was named; Alexander Grieve Stephen, and the zulu Violet

Violet; William and George Stephen on board Violet, and William Stephen aboard Violet

David Stephen Rennie, great grandson of the first owners of the Violet has sent me some old photos and family history surrounding the old zulu, which is now maintained and sailed by Gary Maynard, and also of Vesper.

To read more about Violet as she is now, click here, and see the comments to this post.

The stories of old boats and of the families involved add a great deal to our apprection and understanding, so many thanks David!

Violet FR451 was built in 1911 at James Nobles for my great-grandfather Alexander Grieve Stephen (1873-1935) for about £90; the boat was named after his youngest daughter Violet (1910-94).

He had been skipper of the George Noble FR6, and during World War I he served in the Royal Navy.

When Violet was launched they went small line fishing with mussel-baited hooks and worked the herring during the season.

Originally Violet had a mast and sail, but was later converted to motor power first with a 15hp Kelvin engine and later a 30hp Kelvin, and in 1936 was fitted with a 48hp Gardner.

Alexander Grieve Stephen returned from the sea about 1931 owing to ill health and took a job as berthing master, and his brother in law James Duthie took over as skipper until about 1935. In 1934 Violet was rescued by Fraserburgh’s lifeboat.

On the 13th November 1935 Alexander Grieve Stephen died aged 61, and in that year his son John took over as skipper and was joined by his brothers George and William.

In March 1975 Violet was put up for sale owing to the failing health of both John, who was now 73, and William, who had suffered a severe heart attack. Violet was sold to the Sprague brothers and left Fraserburgh for the last time on th 12th May 1975.

The generation of the Stephen family who had known and fished aboard Violet lived for some time more, but were all gone within a few years of each other. David again:

On the 21st June 1983 John Stephen died aged 81 after a series of strokes. On the 6th of September 1983 my grandfather George Stephen died aged 74 from lung cancer, and on the 7th November 1986 William Stephen died aged 73 years and was buried on the 11th November, his 74th birthday.

Vesper FR453 was built in 1911 at Fraserburgh and was owned by George Noble and John Buchan. She was sold on the 8th April 1935 to my grandfather’s oldest brother, Alexander Duthie Stephen (Sandy) (1898-1982); by that time he had been Vesper’s skipper since October 1918.

Owing to ill health, Vesper was sold to Edwin Wiseman in 1957. It was then sold to Alexander Ross in 1958 and then in November 1970 to David and Isaac Newlands of Pittenween. In 1972 it was registered as Vesper II KY36, and then from January 1982 as Vesper II AA36 until February 1988, when it ceased fishing. (KY stands for Kirkcaldy and AA stands for Alloa – see a list of fiishing port codes here.) By the autumn of 1989 it was a ruin at Buckie, and only a few years ago it was broken up.

Alexander Duthie Stephen died on the 3rd December 1982 aged 84.

Alexander Duthie Stephen; Alexander Duthie Stephen aboard Vesper; Vesper

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Check Rule 15 – was it sponsored by the department of marine regulation at the University of the Bloody Obvious, or do the organisers have an off-the-wall sense of humour?

Sticker on a beautiful Riva, hand-cut pedal crank made from plywood

The good folks of Melbourne, Australia, have just held their first Wooden Boat Festival, and local Wooden Boat Association member Richard Monfries has put a nice report on his weblog Wooden it be Nice, and this excellent Flickr set of photos.

Another local and regular intheboatshed.net correspondent Dale Appleton also took some photos of the show. From his relatively smaller collection, I particularly liked best is the one at the top of this post about piratical behaviour at the top of this post, closely followed by the sticker on a beautiful Riva speedboat that quietly announces that it has been serviced by a company in Monaco in Europe, which even in our times must seem very exotic and distant to many of the folks of South Australia, and the beautifully made hand-cut plywood crank mechanism. After all that painstaking effort, I wonder how well it works?

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Round Britain slow sailer and film-maker Dylan Winter has put up an 18-minute piece of film about sailing around the Walton Backwaters, and about the explosives dock at Oakley Quay.

The video is part of his ongoing Keep Turning Left video project and is his first paid-for film download – for the princely sum of $0.99. There’s a taster on his homepage.

Dylan calls the new video 18 minutes of pleasure and the next best thing to sailing. It seems a trifle hyperbolic as claims go – but as we emerge from yet another nasty winter of bad weather and grimmer news and disasters, I’d say that he definitely has a point.

Just looking at the taster, clock the lovely yawl pictured in evening light early on – do I recognise a well known and recently built Alfred Strange yawl? I think perhaps I do…

The Backwaters are a small area of estuary packed with islands and channels, and make an interesting sheltered sailing areafor visiting boaters with a series of quays and settlements around its perimeter. I haven’t been there myself, but it’s definitely on my agenda, and it happens that I’ve been reading about the area while travelling to work in London this week, along with the sad, tired army of London’s commuters.

My companion on the train has been FB Cooke’s unconventional pilot Coastwise Cruising, which turns out to be as refreshing as Dylan’s film. For more on Cooke, click here.

He starts for the Backwaters from the Stour, and as he setsoff I can just smell the sea and the hot summer day to come.

‘After studying the chart we come to the conclusion that we must start at about 8am to make sure of carrying the ebb out of the Stour and down Harwich Harbour to the Cliff Foot buoy… It is a jolly morning, with just a suggestion of haze which means heat later on. We are sorry to say goodbye to Wrabness, but at the same time we are anxious to visit Walton Creek and Hamford Waters which on the chart look intriguing.

‘Getting our anchor, we start away down the Stour close-hauled on the starboard tack.’

Ahhhhh! I think Dylan and old FB Cooke have a lot in common…

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Scoter in Norway, July 1962.  Colin Grierson has his foot on the tiller. Audry Grierson is bending down amidships. The guard rail of Peter Baylis’ boat Phakoe is just visible in the foreground

Scoter in Norway again, July 1962. The boy standing behind Audry is not her son Douglas, but Peter doesn’t remember his name

Peter Baylis has kindly sent us a collection of photographs of Scoter and the Grierson family and friends during the 1950s and ’60s. A family friend himself, he says he was much saddened to see the state she has been reduced to, but pleased to learn she is to be restored. (See the original post on Scoter here.)

Here’s what he has to say about Scoter’s story during the time he knew her:

‘Colin Grierson was a neigbour of mine both in Wormit and Tayport Harbour where my mooring was alongside Scoter. After Colin died, Scoter was taken on by his son, Douglas for a few years until he sold her to I know not who.

‘Colin converted Scoter for offshore sailing and had many cruises with his family to Holland and Norway. It fell to my lot on many occasions, to help Colin load and unload the many tons of pig iron ballast Scoter had.’

Peter, who owned Phakoe and Ceildh of Fife in these photos, is particularly interested to learn about the whereabouts and history of Ceilidh of Fife - if anyone knows her story, please contact me at gmatkin:gmail.com and I will pass the information on to Peter.

(Left) Low tide in Tayport Harbour. The yachts float on very soft mud. The boat in the centre is Ceilidh of Fife, the boat Peter had after Phakoe. The stern of Scoter is lower left. (Centre) Scoter on her moorings at Tayport. The varnished boat is Phakoe. Lower left the stern of Seagrim is just visible; she’s the boat Hazel and Brian Kelly owned before they commissioned Idle Duck. (Right) Damaged slide of Tayport Harbour moorings. The varnished boat is Phakoe with Scoter next and then Seagrim. The photo was taken during the late 1950s; Peter says the harbour now is full of expensive looking yachts on pontoons

(Left) This picture shows Colin Grierson, owner of Scoter, watching the first launch of Peter’s Alan Buchanan-designed yacht Ceilidh of Fife in June 1966. (Centre) First launch of Ceilidh of Fife from Woodhaven pier near Wormit, Fife. Colin is holding the port fore guide rope. Scoter is in the centre of the picture dressed overall. June 1966. (Right) Ceilidh of Fife dressed overall on the occasion of the opening of the Tay Road Bridge by the Queen Mother, August 18 1966. The bridge can be seen in the background

(Left)Peter’s first yacht Phakoe, 1961. Picture taken in the River Tay after returning from Norway: note the yellow flag to request Customs clearance. (Right) His second yacht Ceilidh of Fife alongside in Mandal, Southern Norway. The green boat is Seagrim, the yacht owned by Hazel & Brian Kelly prior to owning the Maurice Griffths-designed yacht Idle Duck. Brian Kelly acquired Seagrim from the Kiel Yacht Club, Kiel, Germany at the end of World War II

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‘Nearly oval’ lighters on the riverbank at Newburn on the Tyne, image from Samuel Smiles’ book Lives of the Engineers, republished by Project Gutenberg. They’re a bit small to carry 20 tons of coal, but they might well be an artist’s slightly fanciful depiction of the keel

An outstanding recording of the tune known as the Keel Row popped up on my Facebook page the other day, and got me thinking about the keels of the River Tyne. The tune was played on an English concertina by a young man called Danny Chapman and must not be missed: hear it here.  You’ll notice that apart from the beautiful statement of the theme, in the way that’s traditional in the North East of England, there is a following series of stunning variations. There’s more of this stuff on this page. Well done Danny!

But what’s a Tyne keel? Believe it or not, it was an Anglo-Saxon boat type that lasted into the 20th century, though there are none around now and precious few pictures seem to exist. Still, there’s a nice history including the words of the song the Keel Row here. Jim Shead has a little more on the keel here, and the Samuel Smiles book has more to say about how the boats were used.

Finally, there’s a series of photos telling the story of the Keelman’s Hospital here. It’s a grand tale that demonstrates the independence and grit shown by the keelmen in the face of the ruthlessly capitalist coal owners, who seem to have been everyone’s enemy for centuries.

Rocinante at Reedham

Keith Johnston has kindly written in with some photos and the story of a boat that’s often moored at Reedham on the Norfolk Broads. It’s an intriguing boat that looks like a Thames slipper launch, but which nevertheless has a completely different background. I’ll let Keith tell the story:

We were approaching Reedham on the Norfolk Broads when I noticed a boat which looked rather like a slipper launch and, as I had just finished building one, I decided to make enquiries because this appeared to be a boat out of its normal habitat.

There are two boat yards at Reedham so it didn’t take a lot of searching to find the background to this good looking vessel. I found Steve Sanderson at Hall’s Old Boatyard and he was kind enough to tell me the story of this particular boat.

Rocinante as her reincarnation is called, is not a slipper launch at all but a 1903 23ft Norfolk racing launch, the original of which Steve found on a Yarmouth demolition site in an extreme state of dereliction – and about to be burnt.

However, being a proper wooden boat enthusiast he decided that the boat should be restored or at least saved. He brought the remains to his boatyard in Reedham and he began talking to his friends and neighbours about the boat in general. During this period he slowly started to restore at least the hull and over a quite long period, as this boat was his own rather than a customer’s, he got the shape of the hull and eventually the planking into a good enough condition to really go for a complete restoration. As work progressed, one customer expressed interest in having a fibreglass moulding of the boat so that he could have a relatively maintenance-free but first-class looking replica, not for racing but for general leisure use.

Another friend with a boatyard capable of making a fibreglass mould from the restored vessel also expressed interest in having a moulding and so eventually a deal was done, a mould was made and two mouldings were taken from it.

Steve then fitted out one of the fibreglass hulls as a single-cockpit picnic launch with a small diesel engine to comply with the modern speed restrictions and current ecological outlook. As can be seen from the pictures she is a very handsome launch of which both the owner and particularly Steve should be very proud.

On the way back to Wroxham I found the other hull, now fully fitted and moored in Horning. From the river and with a cover on she looks virtually identical to Rocinante – however, I am told that she has been fitted with an American marine diesel engine of 4.8 litres, which should put this launch very definitely back in the racing category!

I did some research and found that launch racing started on Thursday 23rd August 1903; the inaugural race was during Oulton Broad Sailing Regatta Week that year organised by the Royal Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club under the auspices of the Norfolk Automobile and Launch Club. Six boats competed in a single heat, and the race was won by a steam launch named Monarch – but by 1910 there were big changes. There’s an interesting club history on the website http://www.lobmbc.co.uk.

Thanks Keith! I gather one thing Keith hasn’t been able to clear up is what happened to the original boat. Was it ever fully restored, and if so where did it end up? It would be interesting to know!

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Here’s an interesting glimpse into the distant past – a collection of tunes from a book kept by a fiddle player called William Litton while he served aboard two merchant ships in the years 1800-2. The tunes here are played by a fiddler called Garrisson Frolick, and were recorded several decades ago.

My thanks to Chris Brady for pointing out this link.

The new Tideway in build at Good Wood Boat – click on the thumbnails for a larger photo

Traditionally built 12ft Tideway dinghies are available to order after a gap of ten years – and the new version of the boat will be on show at the RYA Volvo Dinghy Show.

The new Tideways are being built by Good Wooden Boat Company after the company’s Stephen Beresford met the Tideway Owners Association (TOA) at last year’s show and was impressed by the boat itself, and by the association’s activities and enthusiasm. Good Wood Boat specialises in building boats using Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) certified approved sources. (The company also builds Uffa Fox’s Redwing sailing dinghy, of which more later.)

The TOA says that the new boat has already been bought by an existing Tideway owner and its members are very excited by the prospect of the new boat joining the fleet.

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Scruffie Marine boat kit importer Whisper Boats’ reports that the 18th Scruffie kit boat in the UK is due to arrive at Tilbury in a couple of weeks.

Whisper boss Max Campbell says the new boat will be a Scintilla 24ft trailer sailer, but the most popular Scruffie model in the UK has been the Secret, of which there are 11 in the UK, nine of which are still in build. Scruffie Marine is based in Australia, and its boats are designed by Derek Ellard.

The Secret has a round bilge hull built from plywood – see the photos below showing how this is done. Here’s what Max has to say about it:

‘Essentially, we build a double chine hull, with a narrow, parallel-sided, intermediate chine panel, which is then packed out over-sized with cedar – triangle section down the edges, and square or rectangle section (about 3in thick) in the middle. This is then faired back to a profile – a piece of ply with the curve cut in it. You have then, in effect, laminated up a huge stringer, running most of the length of the boat at waterline level.

‘We hit a submerged object on the River Avon when motoring at a good 5 knots, that skewed the boat sideways a couple of feet, but the only damage was to the surface paintwork! The whole hull is sheathed with glass cloth and epoxy.’

Rounding-out the hull of a Secret: attaching chine panels, bottom panels in place, chine thicknessing with cedar, fairing along side and at transom, sheathing with glass cloth

See Whisper Boats’ Youtube homepage for clips of the Secret sailing.

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Some readers will have noticed there’s no intheboatshed.net newsletter this week. In fact, we’ve had some difficulties with the original newsletter and are setting up a new one – if enough people express their support.

What’s the problem? Our hosting company has noticed we haven’t quite been meeting its terms of service because our technology hasn’t been quite up to its strict demands. Frankly, we hadn’t noticed either. So today it’s farewell to the newsletter. The stats show it has been popular, but if I have to abandon it to prevent the website from being closed down, there’s little choice. I’m sure most of us would rather not lose an important resource.

Instead, I’ve set up a Yahoogroup mailing list that will be used only to send out the weekly intheboatshed.net newsletter, if enough readers sign up to make it worthwhile. Is that what you’d like? If so sign up today: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/intheboatshed/

It’s peaceful as I write at 7.30 in the evening – but you should see it during the day!

Giacomo de Stefano is building one of Iain Oughtred’s Ness Yawls online this week – but you may have to be quick to catch it judging by the speed he and his friends were working working at when I looked earlier today. Click on the image to see what’s going on.

I should explain that Mr de Stefano plans to row and sail this boat from London (he’s leaving on the 15th April by the way) to Istanbul in a kind of new-age bid to forge a new relationship between man and nature. It’s a big ask, but then so is his target of sailing and rowing his way to Istanbul in the space of six months with little or no financial backing.

Anyway, he plans to have his boat built in four weeks, and from what I’ve seen he’s likely to make that target. Click on the photo above to catch a little of the action. See his Man on the River project website here: http://www.manontheriver.com

For many more intheboatshed.net posts about boats built from Iain Oughtred’s plans, click here.

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PS Ryde at the Island Harbour Marina on the River Medina between Newport and East Cowes. Photo copyright Kevin Flynn and licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons Licence

I’m saddened to report that another interesting old vessel is in mortal danger – but perhaps there is just a chance that a petition to No 10 (see below) might make a difference.

The PS Ryde was built for the Southern Railway in 1936 and for many years operated the Portsmouth Harbour to Ryde Pierhead route.

Sadly, the petition is very much a last-ditch effort – for some time the PS Ryde Trust has been trying to purchase the vessel for preservation and restoration, but after promising progress negotiations have broken down, and the dismantling planned by the owners has started. The petition is aimed at halting the scrapping.

The petition, which closes on the 2nd March, can be found here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/PSRyde

Old photos of the steam keel Gainsborough Trader, supplied by the the Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society

Alan Gardiner has sent me two old photos of the keel MFH, otherwise known as Master of Fox Hounds and in her earlier life Gainsborough Trader. In doing so he’s really replying to Peter Radclyffe’s question following an earlier post about the Humber sloop Spider T.

I gather MFH is now at Falmouth; I certainly saw her there a couple of years ago and may even have a photo somewhere.

Here’s what Alan has to say:

‘Gainsborough Trader was built as what was locally known as a steam keel, though in her case she was diesel powered from the day she was built. She was, I believe, the first vessel that Dunstans built with engine power and, although these barges still had the keel tag, they were not rigged in the normal way. Their use was to act as towing barge for the company as well as carrying cargo. Often, as in the case of Gainsborough Trader, they would rig a small sail from a mast that was primarily used with a derricking pole to handle cargo.

‘Of the two pictures, one shows her very early on in her life just about to drop a tow from a wooden keel actually at Gainsborough, and the other shows her alongside King’s Staithe at York with two sloops and a lighter or keel behind that she has towed up the River Ouse. It also clearly shows the small sail that she had on her mast to assist her on the inland stretches when the wind was favourable.

‘I have not done any research on Gainsborough Trader specifically, so would be interested in anything surrounding her working life.’

Thanks for the photos Alan! If any reader has any information they would like to pass on, please contact me at gmatkin@gmail.com and I will pass the information to Alan.

Gainsborough Trader is listed in the National Historic Ships register.

See the Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society website: www.humberships.org.uk

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It is entertaining, it doesn’t last too long and it is in a good cause! And if you can’t be bothered with the video, go straight to http://www.keepturningleft.co.uk.

Charles Stock making his customary good use of his wellies. Image copyright Tony Smith (aka Creeksailor) and used with permission

I’ve stumbled across a series of short Youtube videos featuring Charles Stock, a legend among small boat sailors, particularly on the Thames Estuary and East Coast of England.

An enthusiastic sailor since he was a kid, in 1963 Stock created a new cutter-rigged boat for himself using a 16ft Uffa Fox-designed hull made by Fairey and the rigging from an old half-decker he bought in 1948. The result was Shoal Waters, a small wooden boat in which he has sailed regularly ever since without an engine and without a tender – instead, he follows the tides, moors in shallow water and, if he wishes to do so, goes ashore in a pair of rubber wellie boots.

He’s kept meticulous logs and accounts ever since, travelled over 70,000 nautical miles in his boat, written countless articles, taught sailing and navigation to evening classes for decades and wrote an excellent book, Sailing Just for Fun: High Adventure on a Small Budget, which has sold well over 4000 copies.

He also has his own website: http://shoal-waters.moonfruit.com.

Here are the Youtube videos:

Charles Stock 1

Charles Stock 2

Charles Stock 3

Charles Stock 4

Charles Stock 5

Charles Stock 6

Charles Stock 7

Charles Stock 8

Charles Stock 9

Charles Stock 10

Charles Stock 11

Charles Stock 12

Charles Stock talks about choosing the hull for Shoal Waters

Youtube tends to encourage anonymity, so at this stage I don’t really know who recorded and put the clips – but his Youtube home page and extensive collection of videos are here: http://www.youtube.com/user/creeksailor

Creeksailor also has a weblog here: http://creeksailor.blogspot.com

More photos of Shoal Waters in action appear here: http://www.saileastcoast.co.uk/shoalwaters.htm

I’ve also pasted a photo below from Paul Mullings, who has this to say:

‘Hi Gav

Surprising, isn’t it? It comes from Haiti in happier times. My thanks to Ed Wingfield of the excellent Yahoogroup Openboat dinghy cruising forum for spotting it. Here’s another – and it seems to be of the same craft, though the truck’s a different vehicle. If you’re interested in contributing to the relief effort, by the way, I guess this would be a good place to start: Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC).

Scoter in early 2010

Jan Carpenter has written in to report that he has acquired Scoter – the boat from which Maurice Griffiths took much of his inspiration for the design for Idle Duck.

Idle Duck belongs to a friend, and I have posted photos of her once or twice, while  Scoter has come up in comments on a post about boats used for wildfowling.

A beamy 14-tonner, Scoter was built in 1894 with shallow draught, a transom stern and a heavy iron centreboard and was originally rigged bawley-fashion.

I don’t yet know for what purpose she was originally built, but we do know that some time after she was built she belonged for a time to a leading wildfowler, and it’s said that with two guns mounted on each side of the foredeck for a period she became the terror of the Essex marshes in misty weather.

Jan acquired Scoter because he felt compelled to save her from being burned. Here’s what he says:

‘I’m researching the maritime history of the River Lynher in Cornwall and was made aware of her lying on one of the Lynher’s many tributaries. I felt compelled to save her and have since found out her historical significance, which led me via a Google search to the comments on your website… She’s now safe on dry land and soon to be covered for a full restoration.

‘Any info or images of her in the glory days would be gratefully accepted. So far I have info from Lloyds Register, a copy of a article by Griffiths that talks about the Scoter in relation to Idle Duck and a copy of the book Coastal Adventure by John Wentworth Day.’

In the series of comments mentioned earlier Idle Duck owner Bob Telford reveals that Wentworth Day’s book describes the owner of the original Scoter, a certain Xavier Victor Alfred Octave de Morton, Count de la Chapelle, co-founder of the Wildfowlers Association.

I’m sure we all wish Jan well with his project. If anyone has any information that he will find interesting, encouraging or useful, please send it to me at gmatkin@gmail.com, and I will pass it on. He hasn’t yet revealed whether the restored Scoter will be complete with an impressive set of guns however…

The Griffiths article linking Scoter with Idle Duck has been made available by the Eventide Owners Association; the particular link of interest is here.

PS Don’t miss the comments below – some really good information has been coming in, some of it from a previous owner.

London’s Waterways is an attractive and account in photos and captions of the capital’s rivers and canals by waterways cameraman and writer Derek Pratt, and published by Adlard Coles. You can pre-order a copy from Amazon as the book isn’t out until 1 March 2010: London’s Waterways.

I’ve lived in and around London for much of my life, and either cycled or walked along most of the canals, but I confess I hadn’t heard of the Rivers Crane and Brent, and the Wandle was only known to me as the name of a line of buses. More, I’ve always connected the name Tyburn with public executions and barely noticed that it could be the name of a river.

So, although Pratt has done a good job of many the great set-piece River Thames photos – pleasure boats, the busy London Pool and so on – as well as the canals, there are quite a few surprises here.

For example the little River Tyburn feeds the lake in Regent’s Park, and runs through Grays Mews Antiques Market, where it provides a home for a colony of goldfish.

The prosaically named New River runs for an astonishing 38 miles and was laboriously built in 1603 to carry fresh water from Hertfordshire into London. It’s still in use.

The River Neckinger, which meets the Thames near London Bridge, is said to have got its name from a spot where pirates used to be hanged using a rope called a neckinger or Devil’s neckcloth; in the 19th century it was a seriously unpleasant place that it also went by the marvellous name of The Venice of Drains.

My only complaint is that although he’s a boating writer, Pratt hasn’t devoted much of this book to boats, or, more particularly the traditional boats of London’s rivers. Perhaps these are yet to come in a future volume; it would be nice to think so.

What we have here is a coffee-table book full of nice big photos, including many set-piece scenes – Pratt seems to be particularly good at catching brightly sunlit bridges with moody backgrounds of black cloud – but it’s also more informative than many similar books, and would make a great birthday or Christmas present for anyone who has a soft spot either for London’s history or for old waterways water, or both.

Ben Crawshaw sailing Onawind Blue in ‘entertaining’ conditions

Not for the first time, in the middle of a grey British winter, Ben Crawshaw has posted a Youtube clip of himself enjoying sailing his boat Onawind Blue on a sunlit blue sea. He’s obviously having a riot and I’m filled with envy.

There’s a serious message here for all of us: even in the UK this could be you, this summer. Get or build a boat and let’s all go sailing!

For more posts about our friend Ben and his Light Trow, click here.

Gentleman’s cutter Integrity in the style of an 1880 cruiser-racer, beautifully drawn by Will Stirling. Click on the thumbnails for a bigger image

Here’s a lovely piece of work: a set of drawings by Will Stirling for a forthcoming project to be built by Stirling & Son.  She’s a 43ft gentleman’s cutter of the period around 1880 drawn with careful reference to craft of that era including Nicholson’s Marigold, Beavor-Webb’s Partridge, GLWatson’s Vanduara, Dixon Kemp’s Zoraida and Fife’s Bloodhound. A cruising-racer, she can set 2,000 square feet of canvas in fine weather, yet Will says she will snug down to trysail and storm jib in poor conditions.

Click on the thumbnails above to see the lines and boatbuilding details more clearly. As you do, it’s worth reflecting that thay have been created without the aid of computer-aided drafting software – Will completed the whole drafting job the traditional and laborious way using ships curves and calculations. I have no doubt that her carvel-built wooden hull will be equally historically accurate from stem to stern.

Many thanks for this Will! I think Integrity is bound to attract some serious attention over the coming months, and I’m delighted to be able to give the boating world this preview.

Contact Will at http://www.stirlingandson.co.uk, tel 01822 614 259.

Photos from Raid Finland some years ago (photos from Richard Wynne); there’s a report on the latest Raid Finland at Duckworks

Henley Whalers group members George Trevelyan and Geoff Probert have organised a rowing and sailing ‘raid‘ event on the English South Coast for modern and wooden boats. It’s scheduled for the few days between 28th July and the 1st August 2010, starting from the Western end of the Solent.

A raid is an organised rowing and sailing passage in company in open boats, sometimes made of wood and traditional, sometimes more modern, powered by sail and oar, and supported by an organiser’s launch or rescue boat. In addition, arrangements are made to carry participants luggage from one overnight stopover to another!

Raids are generally non-competitive events, but often include fun prizes to recognise special qualities and achievements, and there are sometimes short sailing or rowing races.

I should explain that the word ‘raid’ here comes from the French organisers of the pioneer events and isn’t meant to imply anyone plans to attack homes and villages en route.

The idea of the raids first became popular in Portugal and Scotland in the 1990s and successful events have been held on the Douro River in Portugal, the Great Glen of Scotland, and in Sweden, Finland, Italy and Holland. To enter boats need to be equipped for sail and oar, and must be able to support their crew out of water after a capsize, and to be righted unaided to carry on sailing. They will be expected to cover around 15 miles daily.

One of the organisers’ objectives is to attract users who own traditional open sailing boats on the Solent, particularly scows and prams, along with the whalers, gigs, yawls and so on more frequently seen at raid-style events. The maximum number of entries for the new event is 20 boats, so I would expect the places to sell out quickly. It you’d like to be involved, contact English Raid via its website: http://www.raidengland.org

Brites, built in 1936 crossing the Atlantic in the 1960s – her wooden dories clearly visible on deck

(Above, left )Adelia Maria, (above, right) Coimbra, both of which were built in 1948

Novos Mares

Following his tip-off about the stunning Lonely Men of the Dories Youtube videos Jay Cresswell has sent through some old photos of the last of the sailing Grand Bankers of Portugal from his personal collection.

The Lonely Men of the Dories footage shows the crews of the Portuguese Grand Banker schooners using the small wooden boats called dories for long-lining cod.

Luisa Ribau was the last sailing Grand Banker to be built, and was launched in 1953 and destroyed on the Grand Banks by fire in 1973.

A number of large Grands Banks schooners were built by the Portuguese after World War II, notably the four-masters Adelia Maria and Coimbra in 1948.

Collectively known as the White Fleet, the last departure of the schooners from St John’s in Newfoundland was the wood-built lugre named Novos Mares in July 1974. So ended the last significant chapter of trans-Atlantic commercial sail, an aspect that Jay remarks seems to be barely known about here in the UK, and which seems to have been missed by famous maritime historian Basil Greenhill when he was writing wrote his 1980 book Schooners, which was published by Batsford – although he did include the Canadian Bankers at the very end of the dory-schooner fishery on the Banks, and enjoyed rowing a dory on near his home towards the end of his life.

Perhaps he hadn’t heard about the Portuguese – the world was a bigger place in those days, and I suppose it’s a reminder that historians, like journalists and everyone else, can miss important points from time to time. What I find striking is the discovery that these large sailing fishing craft were working so late into the 20th century. When I grew up I remember everyone said that the days of large sailing craft were long over outside of sail training ships – but everyone was clearly wrong.

The Lonely Men of the Dories

Jay Cresswell has been in touch to tell us about some more video of the Grand Bankers of Portugal – see Comments in the left-hand column above left.

He’s also been in touch to say that within a few years, there will be as many as three restored four-masted schooners built in the 1930s for use in the Grand Banks fishing grounds.

But to return to the video, the material he has found is marvellous footage of the schooners, their wooden boats and the fishermen themselves – six sections of film titled The Lonely Men of the Dories – the link above goes to section 1, but the rest are linked below. By the way, don’t let the title you see in the Youtube pages worry you – the voiceovers are in English.

The Lonely Men of the Dories part 1

The Lonely Men of the Dories part 2

The Lonely Men of the Dories part 3

The Lonely Men of the Dories part 4

The Lonely Men of the Dories part 5

The Lonely Men of the Dories part 6

Flying 10s at the Lancashire Sailing Club long ago

Can anyone help Robert Macdonald please – he has written in to ask for photos and information about built examples of Flying Twelves.

I could only send him links to the posts we’ve had mentioning Flying Tens – see this and this. I should have added that early in intheboatshed.net’s career I met a pleasant elderly gentleman on a train who had sailed Twelves until recent years but I lost touch with him. The whole thing was too tantalising for words…

Anyway, this is what Robert has to say about his interest:

‘I’ve long been a fan of Uffa Fox. He has a legacy here in Toronto, Ontario where more than fifty Albacores race together every Friday night in the summer. I wish that some of his Flying Fifteens raced here as well!

‘While I was looking at the Uffa Fox website last year I discovered the Flying Twelve, the Flying Fifteen’s little sister. The idea of a sleek little planing keelboat the size of a dinghy got me hooked! I e-mailed Tony Dixon, Uffa’s nephew, and bought a set of Flying Twelve plans, which duly came in the mail. I’m not a boatbuilder and if I do build the Twelve, the project will be in many steps. I’ll probably first try a smaller flat sectioned boat, like a Mirror. If I ever do put a Flying Twelve in the water, it will be a solid and safe, and pretty boat.

‘Tony told me some about the design’s history and I found stuff on the Web (including Uffa’s wonderful story about designing the Fifteen), but there were no photos. Then I came across pictures here on intheboatshed.net of a Flying Ten at the Beale Park Boat Show; it’s the smallest of the Flying family, 14ft long, and designed for junior sailing. What immediately struck me was that it wasn’t a stubby version of the Fifteen, but slimly beautiful like its big sister. Which showed me what I wanted to see but don’t have a boatbuilder’s eye to see clearly from the plans – it’s clear that the Twelve would be a real pocket version of the Fifteen. So I’m grateful to intheboatshed editor Gavin Atkin for the pictures.

‘If you have a picture of a Flying Twelve and could forward it to Gavin (at gmatkin@gmail.com) to post for me and the world to look at, it would highlight the range of the Flying family of sailboats, and I would be very thankful. The story behind the picture would be just as good!

‘Robert MacDonald’

So… can anyoner out there help? If you can, please use the comment button below, or write to me directly at gmatkin@gmail.com and I will be delighted to pass the relevant material on to Robert.