Sailing cruisers – Page 164 – intheboatshed.net

A wonderful shed at Bosham – and an even more wonderful zulu skiff!

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This all-mod-cons boatbuilding shed at Bosham is on sale via estate agents Jackson-Stops and Staff in Chichester

Zulu skiff Ocean Pearl restored by Nick Gates

Family matters and moving house are conspiring to keep me away from my computer and the Internet this week, but I’ve just about found time to put a post and these photos up from Chris Partridge. South Coast boatbuilders look out – this could be just the shed for you!

‘How about this for a boat shed? It has all the new technology including dust control, insulation, three phase power etc etc. Luxury!

‘It was built on the site of the old Combes yard at Bosham, entirely because the developer wasn’t allowed to cover the site with houses. The local council and the harbour conservancy didn’t want to lose all capacity for
boatbuilding in the area. Unfortunately, it seems likely that the shed will be demolished and replaced with a house anyway – an estate agent chum ofmine says it is to be sold with one of the new houses, and the owner is likely to hang on to it for a year, and make an application to replace it with a house on the grounds that no-one wants to build boats in it. So if anyone wants a cracking boatshed, apply to Jackson-Stops and Staff in Chichester.

‘I took the snap while out rowing, and coincidentally passed Ocean Pearl, a 1933 zulu skiff that originally fished out of Peterhead. She was restored by Nick Gates at Combes before it went under at the end of the last century. Doesn’t she look great?

‘There are pictures of the restoration on his website at www.nickgates.co.uk. The old Combes shed was definitely time-expired, but the new one deserves to have boats such as Ocean Pearl brought back to life in it.’

Warington Smyth’s Mast and Sail in Europe and Asia has more on the zulu, and explains how it derived from the fifie and the scaffie.

See Nick’s website at www.nickgates.co.uk.

Is Ocean Pearl a zulu, fifie or a baldie? Click here.

Another instalment of Jeff Cole’s collection of hundred-year old yacht racing photos

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Moonbeam as depicted in a supplement to The Yachtsman, No. 658, November, 1903. Photo is by Kirk & Son of Cowes. Jeff points out that the sides of the cockpit are rolled. I’m not quite convinced – I think there may be a tender on the port side, and a rolled-up sail on the starboard.

Double-click on all the photos for a larger, clearer image.

Tutty and Nevada battle it out in a photo from a supplement to The Yachtsman, No. 556, December 1901. Photo is by West & Son of Southsea.

Gleniffer. There’s no attribution but the image is a Photomezzotype,and was probably taken before 1895. St Andrew’s flag flies on the forepeak. She looks new, says Jeff, even in this old picture.

Iverna. Again, there’s attribution to show who took the shot. Jeff says that he thinks she is carved and gilded under the bowsprit, and adds that she’s also an interesting hull shape with lots of room inside.

Colombine, winner of the Emperor’s Cup, 1900. This photo appears in a supplement to The Yachtsman, No. 489, August 1900. The photo is by W U Kirk & Sons of Cowes.

A bonus photo tonight, but as yet with no information. This is Heartsease:

For more of Jeff Cole’s amazing collection, follow this link:
http://intheboatshed.net/?s=cole

A successful first adventure for the paddling and sailing expedition boat Expedition Mouse

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The maiden outing for Dan Noble’s Expedition Mouse seems to have been a little more exciting than anyone intended, but even with two grown men aboard she seems to have coped pretty well. Sailing nearby the Statue of Liberty seems rather exotic from my perspective in Kent, England

I’ve said it before, but boat designers love a builder who follows the plans, builds the boat well and makes good use of it. But even those of us who are lucky in our builders have at least a little nervousness before a launch, for there’s always the danger that something about the boat might not work quite as expected.

Well, Dan Noble’s done a nice job of building the Expedition Mouse, and I seem to have got away with it – as once again one of my little boats has proved to work the way it should. Thanks Dan!

The Expedition Mouse is a stretched 14ft variant of my Mouseboat series of easy and cheap to build designs, but instead of being intended for the pond or river at the end of the road, this one is intended for real trips, perhaps involving camping. Many people would say that she’s an unusual looking craft with a surprisingly large sail are, but there is method in my madness. Her scow shape and hard chine makes her stable enough to stand up to quite a lot of sail, but her entry and exit are sufficiently easy that she’s easy to paddle much like a conventional cruising kayak. Her builder has reported that she while she sails well, she paddles ‘like a dream’.

The plans for the Expedition Mouse are available for free and can be downloaded at the Yahoogroup Mouseboats.

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