Category: Culture: songs, stories, photography and art

Traditions and culture relevant to the world of real boating and sailors

Ben Crawshaw’s Light Trow appears in Wooden Boat magazine

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Light Trow built by Ben Crawshaw of The Invisible Boatshed

One of the best Christmas presents for me this year has been the news that Ben Crawshaw’s very nice project Onawind Blue built to my Light Trow design has made the launchings section of the superb US magazine Wooden Boat! Well done Ben – that’s quite an achievement with a first boat, and a plywood one at that.

I originally drew the Light Trow to be built on a strongback, but Ben built his using conventional stitch and glue at my suggestion, and we were both please when it worked perfectly. Some time I’ll revise the plans to eliminate the strongback, but in the meantime you can build the boat the same way using the plans Ben used. The free plans download is here.

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Rediscovered 100-year old photographs of the Cornish coast on show

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Rediscovered 100-year old photographs of the Cornish coast on show

Mevagissey 100 years ago

Recently discovered early 20th century photographs of popular Cornish scenes are now on show in a temporary exhibition at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

The photos of Cornish coastal locations were rescued from a recent house clearance in Kent. Very little is known about their origin, but they are believed to date from about 1912; also, as the pictures had no labels, the owner has researched each location with the help of local people.

Exhibition co-ordinator Milly Newman commented: ‘This has been a real detective’s job trying to locate where these pictures were taken. A lot of the images were taken from the water and one of our volunteers, David Wilson, has been out combing the shores of the Carrick Roads in his boat to find them.’

Not all the locations have been identified, but where they have been have been found, visitors to the show will be given recent images and challenged to match the old with the new.

Rescued Photographs of Old Cornwall will be on show in the Maritime Museum’s temporary exhibition gallery until the end of March.

National Maritime Museum Cornwall

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Phil Rhodes 45-foot centreboard yacht Undina cruising and racing on British TV

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It’s difficult to believe, but there has been even more good boating telly on our screens this week.

Although it featured three comedians well known in the UK, the star of Three Men in Another Boat is Undina, a 45ft centreboard sloop designed by Phil Rhodes, built in Germany in 1953 and owned by British comedian and TV presenter Griff Rhys Jones.

Somehow, when I recently read Jones’ story of a summer’s sailing with friends and family To the Baltic with Bob, I sadly missed the point that his boat Undina was so special. Perhaps I was put off the scent by Jones’ account of being suddenly smitten with lust for another boat he came across in some Baltic port – but having seen Undina on TV I find it difficult to imagine how he could feel that way.

The two-part reality TV show following a voyage from London to Cowes and a race against a very similar yacht, Josephine, is available from the BBC’s new iPlayer, though I’ve heard it doesn’t work if you’re outside the UK.

Here’s some further info on Undina from the British Classic Yacht Club and from Philip Rhodes Classic Sailboat Designs.

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