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.
Excellent background to the evocative Tobermory Race of 1968 film written by its director, Louis Miller, and a – work in progress (please help!) – boat spotter’s guide for nerds can be found here:
http://peggybawn.wordpress.com/2013/10/01/summer-of-68-the-tobermory-race/
There’s a story – not entirely apocryphal – of the spat between Grand Turk and the Australian replica HM Bark Endeavour at Whitby when the latter was over here. The Grand Turk was usually based at St. Katherine’s Dock near Tower Bridge in London – but then she left to attend tall ship festivals. Meanwhile the HMB Endeavour was visiting the UK for the first time and so we tried to get her into St. Kath’s for public display – just as we had achieved with the “HMS” Rose a few years earlier. Measurements were taken of the entrance lock etc., and all was agreed – until the day before. But somehow the owner’s of GT found out, hit the roof, and Endeavour was suddenly homeless. Luckily the good folks of Woolwich offered her a berth and she operated days trips from the Pier there for two successive years. Then, naturally as Cook’s flag ship, HMB Endeavour went up to Whitby for a couple of summer seasons of doing day trips and moored in the harbour in museum mode. She was an immediate sensation. Indeed it was reported that property prices rose simply due to her presence!!! Sadly after some years she left to sail back to Oz. Meanwhile GT sailed round to Whitby to take her place!!! But I’m not sure if GT attracted the same level of interest though; and it was never reported if property prices in Whitby rose or fell after Endeavour’s leaving!!
Thanks for the film of Whitby – evil place in a nor-easter. Somewhere there’s a bit of film of the lifeboat rowing out in the 1950’s and and pitching almost 45degrees – RNLI archivesperhaps?
How sad it was to see the harbour almost empty of fishing boats. It just don’t do to ask why.
Cheers all
JohnB
Evil in a north-easter? I suppose it would be – and they’re not exactly a rare event. There was a fortnight down here a little while ago when that was all there was. If I ever do get to sail that way I’ll try to remember.
Fishing? Yes, you’re right. But hey, high finance is the only industry that counts now…
But hey, high finance is the only industry that counts now…
From some of the massive cock-ups, fraud and general incompetence, one would not think that high finance knew what counting was..
Cheers
John
Gavin, Thanks for finding the RNLI clip. The rowing bit wasn’t as rough as I remembered. I grew up in Scarborough and at that time when you had a trip round the bay [3d, I think] it was in a 20ft coble rowed by 1 man…so the practice was there for the lifeboat
Cheers
John