Category: Barges and wherries

Barges and wherries and other working boats originally for carrying cargoes

Refurbished Thames barge Edith May at sea and sailing well

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Thames sailing barge Edith May

Edward Gransden has kindly been in touch with these photos of the Thames sailing barge named Edith May, which has this month been sailing for the first time in ten years or more. Here’s what he says:

‘Please find attached a couple of photos from our first sail. We are intending to charter with individuals and groups up to 12 throughout the summer, operating from Lower Halstow, Chatham and Queenborough.

‘Having spent the past 10 and a half years restoring her, it was a great thrill to be able to take her out sailing for the first time, with her performance proving very pleasing. The Swale Match in August will be the first chance we get to see if she has retained the pace she was once renowned for!’

Thanks Edward! Any time you have photos and stories to share let me know.

It happens that we were over at Lower Halstow this weekend, and found the Edith May in the dock looking very smart. I took some shots with my camera phone – but I’m damned if I can get them out. It’s a better camera than you might think, but the connections and software make me curse!

Here’s an earlier post featuring the Edith May, and here’s a link to the Edith May website.

Tjalk Jantje is back on the water and will soon have a new cotton rig

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tjalk, dutch barge, sailing boat, holland, nordhorn, jantje

tjalk, dutch barge, sailing boat, holland, nordhorn, jantje tjalk, dutch barge, sailing boat, holland, nordhorn, jantje

tjalk, dutch barge, sailing boat, holland, nordhorn, jantje

Tjalk Jantje now, before she was restored, the celebration, and her sail arranged for tanning – and the pot used in tanning

In Nordhorn in Germany near the border with Holland, poor Hans-Christian Rieck has broken his foot working on his organisation’s tjalk named Jantje. Having broken my own ankle last year he has my heartfelt sympathy, and I can only hope his recovery is rather better than mine has been.

A small consolation is that he’s at last had time to tell us about the boat. Here’s what he has to say about Jantje:

‘Jantje is one of the Dutch Tjalks, in this case of a subtype called Steilsteven – it’s equivalent in England would be the Thames barge.

‘She was built in 1923 at Delftzijl on the Dutch side of the River Ems estuary and worked the Frisian Lakes until the 1960s, when she was laid up, being to small and to slow to be competitive. Sadly neglected, she spent 30 or so years on a mooring at Makkum on the Ijsselmmer.

‘Fortunately, some businessmen of our town Nordhorn came upon the idea to aquire a historic ship as a reminder of the glorious maritime past of our city, and when the treasurer of our association and myself were asked to find a suitable craft, we found Jantje.

‘She was bought, sandblasted, sprayed and then fitted out with an advanced system of ballast tanks to enable her to enter the city, as in recent times our city fathers have built bridges with very limited headroom over our canals and rivers.

‘The ship now floats at a jetty by the old town port and will frequently leave her mooring for special maritime events in our area.

‘I’ve added some photos of the renewed boat’s christening – the guy with the crutches is me by the way!

‘We have tanned Jantje’s sails the traditional way with the help of Hermann Ostermann, whom you may have heard of, one of the last guys to knows how to tan a cotton sail the proper way. We hope to have the traditional rig ready by next spring, so we can have a test sail on Lake Vechte at the next canal festival.’

Many thanks Hans-Christian! I look forward to hearing more in the not too distant future.

Stunning Norfolk wherry Solace and her pretty marshman’s punt

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marshman's punt

Norfolk wherry Solace and her marshman’s punt

Still on the Norfolk Broads, my grateful thanks go to Nigel Royall for taking me down the river from Hoveton to see Solace, a stunning pleasure wherry built in 1903, and which has been in use every year since that date.

The Royall’s business makes much of its income from hiring Broads motor cruisers and dinghies, but also does a fair amount of restoration and maintenance work, as well as the occasional small build – of which more later. The jewel of this side of the business is caring for Solace for the Rudd family, who have owned Solace since the 1940s and are only the third family to do so.

So we set off to Wroxham Broad in Nigel’s gun punt Shoveler, and while Nigel and his colleague Steve got to work putting up a shelter on  the bows of the boat, I took some shots of both Solace’s stunning exterior – it’s wonderful to see a grand old boat that is so clearly loved by its owners and carers over so many years – and one of the bows of the family’s Brown Boat or Broads One Design called Redshank.

I also took quite a few shots of the little 16ft marshman’s punt tied to her stern. Royall’s recently made this little boat for the Rudds, and Nigel and Steve describe this as their favourite small boat at the moment.

Moulded in GRP from a traditionally-built marshman’s punt Nigel built some years ago, they say that it’s a superb rower, and looking at it on the water I have no doubt that it is – and I also have little doubt there will be some others in the area who would be interested in having a similar little boat, perhaps to tow behind a Broads cruiser or tie to a dock in their garden. Would Royall’s be willing to make further examples of this pretty little boat to order? I think they might be persuaded…

There’s more on Norfolk wherries here and here (there’s quite a lot here so you’ll  need to scroll down and use the links to go back through previous pages), and more on Royall’s yard and Nigel’s small boat projects here.