Category: River boats

104 year-old Norfolk Broads racer Maidie gets a carbon mast

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Norfolk Broads racer Maidie gets a new carbon fibre mast

Maidie in action with her new mast

104 year-old Broads cruiser Maidie gets a new mast

Friends walk Maidie’s new mast across the marshes

Classic Norfolk Broads racing boat Maidie has been fitted with a new carbon fibre mast by her owner, Mike Barnes, managing director of the Norfolk Broads Yachting Company.

One of the unforgettable moments of a Broads hire boat holiday is when one of the area’s real racers flies past, and I don’t think any do it with more panache than the 104 year-old spoon-bowed beauty Maidie, which belongs to Mike Barnes, managing director of the Norfolk Broads Yachting Company.

Maidie lost her existing aluminium mast and rigging when she was hit by another vessel recently, and Barnes took the opportunity to replace it with a carbon fibre mast after a chance meeting with Mike Harris of Polar Composites, which is based at nearby Wymondham.

The raw material was shipped from Australia to Barnes’ workshop in Reedham where he constructed the mast himself. Polar Composites was brought in to make the joints for the spreaders and crane, as they needed to be strong enough to withstand the forces of the rigging.

From Polar Composites’ press release it seems, Barnes had no qualms about replacing Maidie’s aluminium rig with the even more modern material:

‘Maidie was built purely for racing, using the latest techniques and materials available 100 years ago. The original mast was made of wooden veneer rolled around a mandrel, very like the way a carbon fibre mast is made now. It was a new breakthrough at the time, valued for its strength and lightweight property, and was used on the Americas Cup boats of the day.

‘I think it is fitting to choose carbon fibre for the new mast today, as it will give Maidie the cutting edge material she deserves and I’m confident that, had her Edwardian builders had the material available back then, they would have been using it!’ he said.

It took 15 friends to manhandle the mast over the marsh at Reedham, carry it by hand to the water’s edge and manually lift it into place just in time for bank holiday weekend. Maidie’s first outing was at her home club on Wroxham Broad the next day and Mike was delighted with her performance.

‘It has been everything I hoped it would be. The black, shining mast looks fantastic fully rigged and Maidie is sailing well so we look forward to an exciting season,’ he said.

I’m planning to take my kids up to the Broads in a few days, and doubtless the boat we’ve hired will be safe and steady – so as usual I’m looking forward to seeing Maidie and her sisters fly by under their huge rigs adapted for inland sailing. You can be sure I’ll be taking my camera and will try to catch what I can!

For more intheboatshed.net posts about the Norfolk Broads, click here.

An oar in the Australian bush carpentry style

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Australian bush carpentry oar

Australian bush carpentry oar Australian bush carpentry oar Australian bush carpentry oar

An oar, and a fine example of Australian bush carpentry, says Jeff Cole

Jeff Cole sails an Iain Oughtred MacGregor canoe and occasionally sends us photos from his wonderful and growing collection of yachting photos from the 19th and early 20th centuries. What’s less obvious is that he also has an interesting line in collecting items of old Australian bush carpentry.

Here’s what he says about the oar in the photo above:

‘This is a vernacular creation, bush carpentry at its most basic, an oar that seems old but it’s hard to tell – but very collectible.

‘I found it on the woodheap at a Mallee (sandy desert without water) clearing sale. The closest water is an irrigation channel, next to the Murray river. It’s six feet long, and made of wood, with iron spikes, some cotton sash cord, a little rubberised canvas, nails and red paint.

‘The roughly shaped triangular “blades” of the oar fixed by iron rod roughly peened over and in some cases using triangular galvanised “roves”. It’s absolutely out of balance, but a prize for my collection nevertheless!

‘Jeff’

Thanks Jeff – now that’ll give all those home boatbuilders something to think about!

For more of Jeff’s contributions, click here.

River Fal history talk at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall

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Victorian postcard taken at Tolverne on the Carrick Roads

Victorian postcard taken at Tolverne on the Carrick Roads

The NMMC is offering an opportunity to travel back in time at the end of this month, when local historian Ralph Bird presents a talk at the museum that will take his audience down the River Fal.

Timed to coincide with this year’s Fal River Festival, the talk will start at 6.30pm on Wednesday 28 May, and will look back at how the Fal has changed over the past 100 years, during which it has gone from being predominantly a river of business to the river of pleasure we know today.

Starting in Truro and ending in Falmouth, Bird will reveal places of interest and highlight the different uses to which this once-bustling waterway has been put. He will also discuss some of the many ships that have been laid up in the furthest reaches of the river – there have been as many as 70 war and cargo ships laid up in the Fal’s creeks.

For more information go to the NMMC website.

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