Category: Racing sailing craft

Dylan Winter’s Keep Turning Left

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Keep Turning Left 2

Keep Turning Left Keep Turning Left 3

Forgive me, for I have sinned – I have quietly been enjoying Dylan Winter’s video series Keep Turning Left and have failed to mention it for far too long.

If you haven’t seen his Youtube videos about slowly sailing around our coast in an anti-clockwise direction, you should – and soon.

He’s up to over 40 episodes now and they look and sound great,  I have to say. Dylan makes excellent use of a camera, and he’s an entertaining and informative commentator with whom I find I usually agree. He’s interested in sailing, landscapes, history, the way we use our planet and in almost any kind of boat that doesn’t have a large engine and doesn’t have to move a huge amount of water to get somewhere, and films and talks about all of them.

Ah, sailing slowly around the country. I suppose I should mention that I’m prejudiced in all this. The whole idea makes me envious to the point of losing my marbles!

Holmes of the Humber explained

 

Holmes of the Humber new colour

[June 2011 – This book is now available again after selling out less than a year after publication.]

Holmes of the Humber is a new book by long-standing Humber Yawl Club member Tony Watts. But just who was the book’s subject, George Holmes? The publisher’s notes tell the story so well, I repeat them here just as they appear on the fly-leaf:

‘George Holmes lived from 1861 to 1940 on the northern side of the Humber estuary. He was an avid and accomplished sailor in small craft of his own design, in British waters and in mainland Europe, and his prolific writing and drawing have left us an absorbing and charming record of his cruises, his boats, and the people and places he encountered.

‘In common with his friend and sailing companion Albert Strange, boats were not his regular occupation but were a diversion from his working life. And along with Strange, his name is forever associated with the development of the Canoe-Yawl, now enjoying a renewed popularity. Its sailing qualities make it arguably the best choice of craft for the single- or short-handed coastal and estuary sailor.

‘Holmes of the Humber is a nautical book and a social document. Look within to appreciate the pioneering days of cruising under sail, when enjoyment and fulfilment sprang from personal endeavour and the camaraderie of the group, and were largely independent of the external forces which would control us today.

‘Tony Watts has combined original sources, Holmes’ published output and the recollections of his family, and his own knowledge and experience of the Humber sailing scene to produce this, The Essential George Holmes.’

For more information and sample pages from the Lodestar Books webpages, click here: Holmes of the Humber.

Don’t miss something good – sign up using the link below to start receiving the free weekly intheboatshed.net newsletter.

Ships we See: Frank C Bowen on Thames barges

Ships we see - barges004

Ships we see - barges001 Ships we see - barges002 Ships we see - barges003

Ships we see - barges005 Ships we see - barges006 Ships we see - barges007

Ships we see - barges008

Click on the thumbnails for much larger images

Frank C Bowen’s 1920s book Ships we See includes this chapter on Thames barges. He makes a number  of entertaining observations:

‘In the coasting business a barge captain reckons he is loaded when a robin can drink of his decks.’

‘In the old days on the Thames very few of the barges had the straight stem which is now general, but were fitted with a sloping flat bow like a lighter. Officially they were the swin-mouth type, but on the river they were more generally “shovel-nosed”.’

And he also has a good story about the relationship between captain and mate:  ‘there is a traditional story of each filling in the log for his watch. The captain in a fit of righteous indignation, finished up his information  with the item “Mate drunk.”‘

‘Immediately there was a storm of protest which the captain silenced by a straightforward question. Put that way, the mate assented somewhat ruefully that he was and the entry stood.

‘But the entry for his watch finished with the item “Captain sober.” And the skipper was righteously indignant at it.

‘”You were sober, werent you?”

‘”Of course I was.”

‘”Then the entry stands.” And stand it did.

‘All sorts of stories of this sort could be quoted about the barge hands, but taking them all in all they are a fine crowd who deserve far more respect than they get.’

For more posts relating to Thames barges, click here.