Category: Events

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

Steam pinnace 199 open day at Gosport, 2nd February

Pinnace 199

The Steam pinnace 199 project is holding an open day this Saturday at the Maritime Workshop, Gosport, Hampshire, from 10am to 3pm – she’s been undergoing a refit at the workshop since February 2012.

Built in 1911, Steam pinnace 199 is a wooden-hulled picket boat powered by steam machinery and is the sole operational survivor out of 634 vessels of her type. Picket boats were essential to the effective operation of the Royal Navy: their role was to defend capital ships while anchored.

Steam pinnace 199 is thought to have served alongside HMS Monarch at Jutland during the First World War, and is operated and maintained for her owners, the National Museum of the Royal Navy.

Throughout Saturday there will be opportunities to learn about her history as well as to talk with volunteers who have undertaken over 3,000 hours of work so far.

The current group of volunteers were recently awarded a highly commended certificate  for their preservation work by National Historic Ships.

Entry is free, but I’m sure donations large and small will be very welcome!

To date the volunteers have raised £86,500 of the £97,500 required for the restoration project, including a £50,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £30,000 from the Friends of the National Museum of the Royal Navy and £1,000 from National Historic Ships.

Directions: approach via Forton Road and Mill Lane. Take the third right turn into St Vincent College grounds and proceed down to the end where there is a parking area next to some moorings. Note that the workshop’s official address is 50 Ferrol Road but this through the old shipyard entrance and access is very restricted unless you are on foot.

Shackleton Epic expedition sails into challenging weather

Alexandra Shackleton 64 nautical miles from Elephant Island. Image Jo Stewart Shackleton Epic.

The Alexandra Shackleton – a day and 64 nautical miles out from Elephant Island

The first day at sea for Shackleton Epic, the  recreation of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s legendary voyage from Elephant Island to South Georgia has seen the Southern Ocean deliver up encounters with a whale and an iceberg, a five-hour period with no wind, and later 25knots and more from the south and building seas over 3m.

As I write conditions are probably much worse, however, as the weather forecast predicted  35knots gusting to 50knots. Ugh!

The 22.5ft replica ships’ boat Alexandra Shackleton and her six British and Australian crew have covered over 60 nautical miles towards South Georgia.

Expedition leader Tim Jarvis is reported to have said that the biggest challenges his crew faces is the confined space below deck and cooking.

The little vessel has shipped a lot of water and the crew was forced to bail constantly throughout the first 24hours, with the result is that they haven’t eaten very much. ‘It’s difficult to cook, clean and make the space needed to fire up the Primus stove and it’s pretty damp in here,’ skipper Nick Bubb told the support team via VHF.

The conditions can’t have been much of a surprise to the Alexandra Shackleton’s crew – as they were very similar for Shackleton and his men aboard the James Caird, when they made the original journey. They stuck it out though through 16 days during which they covered 800 nautical miles, before spending three days climbing over South Georgia’s
mountainous interior to reach the whaling station at Stromness and organise a rescue for his crew, who were still stranded on Elephant Island.

We’re about to find out if they still make people like that!

A support vessel is keeping station with the little boat at a distance of approximately 20
nautical miles away – I gather it steams close once a day in order to take photos.

PS – Check the expedition website (link above) for how things are now. Are 50mph gusts and 7m swells enough for you? I’m glad to be home and toasting my toes on the stove…

PPS – The expedition website has a press release about the Alexandra Shackleton. Two points seem particularly worth noting: the boat was built at Lowestoft by the International Boatbuilding Training College, and its seams are caulked with cotton and paid with putty and white lead paste.

Alexandra Shackleton with crew aboard in traditional gear. Image Jo Stewart Shackleton Epic Alexandra Shackleton underway to Elephant Island. Image credit Jo Stewart Shackleton Epic

Alexandra Shackleton departs Elephant Island. Image Si Wagen Shackleton Epic Alexandra Shackleton approaches pack ice leaving from Elephant Island at the start of the Shackleton Epic expedition. Image Jo Stewart Shackleton Epic (2)

Alexandra Shackleton rounds the rocks near Point Wild, Elephant Island (not King George Island). Image Jo Stewart

Coniston Regatta 2013, 30th May to the 1st June

swallow 4

 

swallow 9 [1024x768] redwing 249, tideway and aurora 2 [1024x768] good wood 3 [1024x768]

The fourth Coniston Regatta 2013 runs from Thursday 30th May to the Saturday the 1st June, and everyone is invited – including traditional boat owners and their boats.

Organiser Greg Simpson has been in touch to say that among the boats booked in so far include a 1930s Peterborough canoe, a 1910s Thames sailing skiff, and numerous steam launches and model boats.

The events are based at the English Lake District home of Swallows & Amazons, Bank Ground Farm – which in the book is called Holly Howe and is the holiday home where the Swallows stayed each summer.

Attractions for boating enthusiasts and kids include exhibition stands presented by Windermere Steamboat Museum, Good Wood Boatbuilders, Patterson Boatworks and various other local craftsmen, and steam engines.

SY Gondola and Coniston Launch will be available for trips, there will be boats for hire and some boat owners attending the regatta will be offering sailing trips.

Children will enjoy a kids’ fishing competition and a miniature railway. The tea rooms open from 11am each day.

There are also a range of evening entertainments, including an outdoor screening of a film version of Swallows and Amazons.