Category: Events

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

The race winning schooner America

America

‘The schooner, fittingly named America, was modeled on the highly successful pilot boats that navigated New York’s busy harbor. A stark contrast to the “cod’s head and mackerel tail” shape that typified British yachts, America had a long, sharp bow and a blunted stern.

‘Her masts were sharply raked and rigged with taut cotton duck sailcloth, which stretched less than the flax sails used by the British, providing more power in varying wind conditions.

‘Upon crossing the Atlantic, America’s unusual appearance made an immediate impression, with one British sailor declaring, “If she’s all right, then we’re all wrong.”‘

The story of America is a great tale and a dire warning to anyone who might be just a little too comfortable in their nice cosy paradigm. It is told at the SFO Museum website.

JMW Turner at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

The JMW Turner exhibition currently on show at the National Maritime Museum is well worth the trip for those with a romantic bent, who like the sea and who enjoy Turner’s painterly showmanship. There’s also some nice material from artists who influenced him and some from rivals (who may or may not have done so), and collections and books of his sketches.

We made the trip a few days ago, and loved it. I’d like to present a long list of my favourites here, but they’re mostly not available except at a price… So here are three of his most famous paintings, two of which, ‘Keelmen’ and ‘Temeraire‘ are in the show.

If you’re interested in seeing the show, it’s on at Greenwich until the 21st April.

Spider T draws crowds at the West Stockwith rally

10 Sun Spider T in full sail

The photo above taken by Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society luminary Dave Everatt shows Humber sloop Spider T visiting Stockwith for the West Stockwith rally, which is jointly organised by the West Stockwith Yacht Club, the Canal River Trust and the Chesterfield Canal Trust.

After all the troubles the weather and flooding has brought along the banks of the Trent in North Lincolnshire, it’s good to hear that the Spider and her crew led by skipper Mal Nicholson have been able to get out and enjoy themselves – Mal, who makes his living refurbishing and maintaining classic cars is still working getting his workshops back in order following floods caused by the big East Coast storm surge of a few weeks ago.

So it must have been especially gratifying to sail to West Stockwith, where the Spider and received as many as 2000 visitors over the weekend.

I gather that a nice came when 82-year old Frank Major was steering the Spider along the river as a guest crew member. At the age of 10, Frank was mate to his barge skipper dad, and was later a skipper himself running barges around the estuary and all her tributaries.

Someone asked Frank if he was ok, to which he replied with a big grin: ‘Aye lad I’m ‘ome again.’