Category: Events

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

Geoffrey Robertshaw’s stunning photos from the last days of sailing ships

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Geoffrey Robertshaw’s photos of ships’ crews in the the final days of cargo-carrying sailing ships. Click on any of the images for much larger photos

Over 70 years ago Geoffrey Robertshaw kept a personal log and took many remarkable photos of life on-board cargo-carrying sailing ships travelling between Australia and Falmouth.

The photographs were taken on a Kodak No. 2 Box Brownie camera but their quality is remarkable; they were issued by the National Maritime Museum Cornwall to promote a lunchtime talk given by Elvin Carter a little earlier this month at the NMMC in connection with the Farewell to Sails exhibition. However, life caught up with me a little and I apologise for failing to post them in time to publicise the event. Hopefully we’ll still be able to draw attention to the exhibition itself!

Some of Robertshaw’s diary entries are as striking as the photos. One reads:

‘Day 127, Friday June 29th 1934. At 4am this morning we are dead opposite the Lizard Point. I can plainly pick out the villages of Cadgwith, and Coverack and the dangerous Manacle rocks.

‘It may have been hell at times, we have been short of food, fresh water and cigarettes, we have had fights, we have been wet through and hungry and thoroughly worn out with continuous work. But it has been worth it.

‘I love the sea and what is more I love the old sailing ships and without doubt Cape Horn will call me back again, and I shall not refuse.’

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The second Light Trow is launched in Wales and she’s looking good!

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The second Light Trow is launched in Cardigan, Wales

A gentleman called Jake has  built and launched the second Light Trow at Cardigan in Wales – and readers will have no difficulty guessing how pleased the designer is.

Working with the help of an experienced boatbuilder friend, Jake has deviated from the original in several ways, with good-looking sunken decks and a nicely curved line to the foredeck’s aft edge, but the hull seems to be unchanged.

Many thanks for the photos Jake!

Jake seems very happy with the result – he says she’s a fine-looking boat and floats and rows well. He says that although she is still not quite finished and remains as yet un-named she is still a lot of fun – and I think that shows in the photos.

Some of the sailing details are clearly visible and the rig is still to come – though my guess is that some boyancy bags will be useful in the local estuary.

I’m happy for people with experience to deviate from the plans so long as they know what they’re doing. However, if you’re a potential builder and  don’t have the required experience to change the plans, please contact me before making them – it’s too easy to get into bad trouble in boats.

For more on the Light Trow and the amazing adventures of the first Light Trow builder Ben Crawshaw and  click here and for more on the Fleet Trow on which she is based, click here.

I should point out that a Mark II updated stitch and glue version of the Light Trow is planned for later this year or early next, and when it comes it will be announced here at intheboatshedf.net.

I should add here that I am an amateur designer with no formal training or education and that my plans should be regarded as experimental. I accept no responsibility for any accident or loss that results from building or using my boat plans.

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The first St Ayles skiff makes rapid progress and looks handsome!

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The St Ayles skiff takes shape in Alec Jordan’s workshop

I’m delighted to be able to report that our friend prize-winning amateur boatbuilder Chris Perkins has regained his usual confidence and interest in plywood lapstrake boatbuilding.

Chris’s standards are high, and a recent stitch and glue project left him feeling a little down – not I think because there was anything wrong with the project itself, but because it  just wasn’t Chris’s kind of project.

What’s brought the old passion back has been spending time in boat kit supplier Alec Jordan’s workshop, where he’s been working on the first St Ayles skiff.

The St Ayles skiff is a new Iain Oughtred design intended for use as part of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project, which aims to inject new life into the sport of competitive rowing  on the sea in Scotland, rather in the same way that gig racing has taken hold in the South-West of England and beyond. There’s more about this project at intheboatshed.net here and a post about Alec’s initial model here. There will be more coverage in an upcoming edition of the excellent Water Craft magazine.

You can follow Chris’s reports on the project’s progress at his weblog: http://strathkanchris.wordpress.com/ . In the meantime, I though intheboatshed.net readers might be interested to read what Chris has been saying about the project this week:

‘It’s the end of week 2, and the hull is fully planked up. The whisky plank went on on Thursday afternoon but we were too knackered to celebrate appropriately!

‘Keel and outer stems should be on by close of play Monday next and off the mould and right way up very soon thereafter. If Cromartie Timber have done their stuff by the time I head south at the crack of dawn on Monday I will be taking some very nice larch down for the thwarts and their support beams (good and strong so that larger rowers can be accommodated without fear of breakage) so that we can install them during the week.

‘The inwale and breasthook timber is already in the workshop so given a fair wind the structural work should be just about done by the end of week three. Then it will be just a bit of a paint job and then we’ll throw it in the water for a propulsion test – any volunteers?

‘The biggest delay the build is facing (and it’s a very satisfying cause!) is the stream of interested groups and individuals dropping by to see how she is coming along – there is a real buzz about this project locally and it seems to be developing a momentum of it’s own. If all the enthusiasm turns into boats, then the Firth of Forth may well have a spectacle on a par with the gig racing of the South within the next year or so.

‘I’ve included some snaps of the fully planked hull this morning – I think they say a lot about how pretty this design is turning out, and how very slippery she will be.

‘Cheers, Chris’

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