Category: Events

Events such as historical events, races, exhibitions, processions, regattas and so on.

More photographs from Hastings: statues and portraits of historical celebrities

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

francis drake, nelson, cloudesley, shovell, admiral, hastings, photographs, monuments, house

francis drake, nelson, cloudesley, shovell, admiral, hastings, photographs, monuments, house francis drake, nelson, cloudesley, shovell, admiral, hastings, photographs, monuments, house

The house that once belonged to Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s mum

Also in Hastings we found this extraordinary house. Perhaps the last time I walked along this road I failed to make the obvious connection, but this time I didn’t fail to make it and took the shots that duty required.

The story of Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell is that he happened to be in charge when a large but off-course portion of the British Navy hit the Scilly Isles instead of sailing safely up the English Channel, as had been expected.

It was a miserable end to what must previously been a glittering career full of successful heroics – but it wasn’t in vain because the historians say that the renewed interest in navigation that followed led to the development of the chronometer.

Sir Cloudesley’s body was found washed up on a Scilly Isles beach, and he is now commemorated in Westminster Abbey by a monument made by the legendary Grinling Gibbons, no less.

Hastings seems to be keen on its big-name maritime heroes; within a quarter of a mile of the Shovell house, we came upon these reminders of Sir Francis Drake and Admiral Lord Nelson.

francis drake, nelson, cloudesley, shovell, admiral, hastings, photographs, monuments, house francis drake, nelson, cloudesley, shovell, admiral, hastings, photographs, monuments, house

Win a Native American birchbark canoe in Penboscot museum raffle

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Win, birchbark canoe, Penobscot Indian, canoe, raffle

The birchbark canoe being raffled by the Penobscot Maritime Museum; photos courtesy of Jeff Scher

Penobscot Maritime Museum officials are raffling what I’m told is is a very fine replica of a Wabanaki
birchbark canoe of the early 19th century.

The Wabanakis were the indigenous people of Maine and New Brunswick, and included the Micmac, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Malecite and Abenaki tribes, and the canoe certainly sounds splendid from the description. It’s 16ft overall and made from birchbark lashed to white cedar gunwales using split spruce root, with seams sealed with a mixture of pine sap and fat.

It was built at the museum by a team of Native Americans from Maine and New Brunswick, led by Maine boatbuilder Steve Cayard; and the proceeds of the funds will be used to pay for another similar boatbuilding project at the museum in 2010.

Click here for details and to buy tickets: www.penobscotmarinemuseum.org/pressreleases.html

Scottish Coastal Rowing Project grows to 19 St Ayles skiff boatbuilding projects

st ayles, skiff, iain oughtred, rowing, scottish coastal rowing, alec jordan, jordan boats, plywood boats, boat kit

Rowers trying out the original St Ayles skiff at Eyemouth last weekend

Alec Jordan of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project tells me that he received the 19th order for a St Ayles skiff kit this week.

Nineteen St Ayles skiff building projects in less than a year reflects a fantastic explosion of interest in the SCRP project since it began. See my post about legendary small boat designer Iain Oughtred drawing the plans for the St Ayles skiff for the Scottish Coastal Rowers here: Iain Oughtred draws the boat that will bring coastal rowing races back to Scotland. It appeared only in July last year!

Alec, whose business Jordan Boats makes up the kits, says that planning is well underway for the first regatta at Anstruther on 29 May, and that seven or eight completed boats are expected to be ready and on the water for the event.

He’s careful to observe that some of the teams won’t have had much time to practise rowing by that time and  however, and suggests the standard of the rowing should be a little bit higher by the time of the Portsoy Festival four weeks later, when there may be even more of the new boats competing.

Other news this week is that the first official women’s crew from Anstruther will have had its first practice.

A particularly striking development is that I gather there have even been expressions of interest in the SCRP from south of the border with England…

st ayles, skiff, iain oughtred, rowing, scottish coastal rowing, alec jordan, jordan boats, plywood boats, boat kit st ayles, skiff, iain oughtred, rowing, scottish coastal rowing, alec jordan, jordan boats, plywood boats, boat kit

Start receiving the weekly intheboatshed.net newsletter: sign up here