The East Coast Events folks’ annual guide is out now! What a handy thing… it’s not a pilot, but it’s full of the kind of thing you want to know if you’re planning a trip, such as what each of the main East Coast towns and rivers offer, and the dates of the area’s big events of the sailing season.
Category: Events
Events such as historical events, races, exhibitions, processions, regattas and so on.
Lifeboat Little Ship Lucy Lavers Dunkirk appeal
The folks restoring lifeboat Little Ship Lucy Lavers are appealing for financial help to get her ready for a 75th anniversary trip back to the beaches at Dunkirk. If you can, chip in your few bobs here.
In May 1940 the then newly-built lifeboat was part of the fleet of ‘little ships’ that sailed to Dunkirk to evacuate the British and Allied forces stranded on the beaches. In May this year, 75 years after the great rescue from the beaches of Belguim, she is to make a return to Dunkirk after a loving restoration and repair job by the folks at Norfolk’s Rescue Wooden Boats.
It’ll be an emotional trip together with a convoy of other Dunkirk Little Ships. Before she leaves the UK, she is scheduled to call in at Lowestoft, Southwold, Aldeburgh and Harwich (see dates overleaf), before joining the fleet of Little Ships gathering in Ramsgate to make the crossing to Dunkirk.
The crew will include lifeboat men, and at each stopover there will be a land-based exhibition and an opportunity for the public to go aboard.
After Lucy Lavers returns from Dunkirk, visitors will be
able to book a trip afloat on her in Wells-next-the-Sea, as well as see her story displayed at RWB’s visitor centre at Stiffkey.
Punt built in the Faversham Creek Trust building launched
The folks of Faversham held a launching ceremony for a 14-foot punt named Kingfisher on the town’s Stonebridge pond on Sunday.
The punt was built by local long-term unemployed people under the direction of local boatbuilder Alan Thorne under a Department of Work and Pensions-funded educational scheme, and is to be used by a local organisation, the Friends of Westbrook and Stonebridge Pond for clearing ancient waterways between the pond and the tidal head of Faversham Creek.
Alan’s workshop is in the Faversham Creek Trust’s building, which is housed in an old gasworks by the head of the Creek.
The waterways are remnants of an old gunpowder works that used leather-bound boats to transport gunpowder (rather than iron-bound wheeled carts) in order to avoid striking sparks.
The boatbuilding project was managed by The Creek Learning Project in partnership with the Brents Community Association, and aims to help local unemployed people gain the confidence to get into work or volunteering.
Friends of Westbrook and Stonebridge Pond chair Fern Alder (wearing a yellow jacket in the photos above) said ‘I would like to say a big thank you, on behalf of the whole group, for the truly beautiful and very useful punt that has been made for us.’
My thanks go to the FCT’s Griselda Mussett for the photos.
Alan Thorne can help with boatbuilding projects – constructing to plans in very tidy stitch-and-glue or more traditional techniques. Contact him by email at ajthorne3@hotmail.com or phone 07865 091155.