Category: Barges and wherries

Barges and wherries and other working boats originally for carrying cargoes

Swale photos… I’ve got to get them off my chest so here they are!

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Smacks in Faversham Creek

Rather like the way a bundle of unexpected money can burn a hole in one’s pocket, for several days these photos have been nagging me to put them up. They’re scenes from a day’s sailing around the Swale, as locals will immediately know, and I hope they provide some interest and entertainment before we get back to the usual intheboatshed.net menu!

Thames barge Repertor

Homes at Shellness, Isle of Sheppey

North shore of the Isle of Sheppey

‘Receptive’ buoy at the southern end of Horse Sand

A fisherman in the Swale

Jetskis playing in the wake of an enormous
powerboat. Forgive them, Oh Lord, for they
know not what they do… I guess they were
having fun, but their noise and disturbance
shook my teacup and rattled the teeth I was
trying to use to eat cake!

Dylan Winter on gaffers and smacks

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The gifted Dylan Winter has excelled himself this time with his latest short YouTube video series Keep Turning Left. In this one he drools over a series of gaff-rigged yachts and smacks, and praises the English for their amazing reasonableness.

Hopefully someone, somewhere will one day have the vision to commission him to do a series of properly budgeted videos – if nothing else this hugely enjoyable series must be a great advert for his skills and screen persona. Maybe the lucky man will even be offered the rich prize of a book contract!

It seems churlish to say it but one thing I slightly regret is that chooses a lot of Irish music for these videos. Maybe he knows and has rejected the wealth of great English traditional music that might seem a more approriate accompaniment to videos that are at least for the moment centred on the English coast, but my feeling is that the Scots, Irish and Welsh will no doubt get their turns later…

PS – I was delighted to find this exchange in the comments to this video on YouTube:

‘What are you watching,’ my wife asked. ‘You’ve got that look on your face.’

‘What look?’ I replied.

‘That look that says I want to be doing what they are doing – you’re not watching porn on that thing are you?’

A trip to Oare in June

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Oare in June

Clouds and light in the Swale towards evening. Click on
the images for larger photographs

We took a trip to Oare this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, as despite a less than wonderful weather forecast we had some near perfect sailing conditions, interesting light and cloud, and some good looking old boats. I can’t imagine a more powerful reminder of why we like to sail.

Oare in June

Julie’s shot of the Thames barge Mirosa. The object on Horse Sand
to the left is a beached yacht with someone on board – hopefully
they were there to clean its bottom rather than simply stuck.
I should add that a sizeable group of seals were basking on the
beach just 100 yards away from him. I wonder if he or they knew
about each other?

Oare in June

Julie’s photo of the (hopefully) careened yacht

Oare in June

How about this? Barge yachts are a rare sight nowadays,
but were popular in the 1920s and 30s. I’m sorry I couldn’t
get closer, but we were moored at the time. I’d love to hear
more about the boat – is she the one that Classic Boat
featured some years ago?

Oare in June

Thames sailing barge Will

Oare in June

Will and Mirosa moored in the Swale

Oare in June

On the way home we dropped into Lower Halstow to check
out a cruising destination and found a pleasant, out-of-the-way
sort of place, with some fine old buildings, an old quay
next to the church, and the barge Edith May in the process of being
restored. I don’t know who’s doing it, but good luck and
more power to their elbows!

Oare in June

Oare in June