Could your boat be sponsored in the Sail Caledonia Raid?

SailCaledonia

The organisers of Sail Caledonia the annual sail & oar raid through the Great Glen of Scotland are inviting applications for a sponsored boat entry for next year’s race.

The race runs from the 24th to the 31st May 2014.

The successful applicants could be from a school or college, part of a community-based scheme or looking to raise money for a charitable cause.

Applicants must provide their own boat, safety gear and camping equipment, but the only other cost will be for meals. Sail Caledonia will waive the sponsored boat’s entry fees, and will pay for launching, camping and canal licence fees.

Applications should be sent to info@sailcaledonia.org by no later than 31st January 2014. The race committee will decide the winning application shortly afterwards.

The application should include:

  • type of boat
  • likely number and age of crew
  • experience of skipper
  • why the crew feel that they should get the sponsored place

For more details on the raid, including what to expect and pictures from past events, see the Sail Caledonia website. But be warned – the scenery is magnificent, and you’ll want to go there…

A 13ft stick-up sharpie afloat and sailing

Stick-up sharpie

This is one for everyone who has spent time reading Howard Irving Chappelle’s American Small Sailing Craft or Ruel Parker’s The Sharpie Book.

Perhaps particularly if you’re accustomed to British sailing boat types, you will have wondered about the funny little sharpies with strange added masts at a funny angle.

Finally I’m glad to say I’ve found photos of one online, and a sailing report – and the news seems to be that while it all looks very odd, the little boat performs as you’d expect a 13ft sharpie to do. We live and learn – that spar that’s not quite a bowsprit and not quite a mast really is no joke and the boat works. See photos here and here.

Well done the builder (a chap known only as ‘Timsboats’) for having faith and choosing to build a boat that’s outside of the ordinary…

Short film: Where Broadland meets the Sea

Where Broadland meets the Sea

Here’s a present from the wonderful Broadland Memories website – this morning they tweeted this fabulous little 15-minute film about Oulton Water and Lowestoft in the late 1950s.

I must say I particularly like the terrifying water-borne dodgems powered by electricity brought down from chicken wire above… though I think we can see why they didn’t last into the modern age!