Category: Small boats

Bob Telford’s first race sailing a dinghy with a standing lug

standing-lug-sail1

Standing lug sail from W P Stephens classic Canoe and
Boatbuilding for Amateurs

Bob Telford called by the yard currently restoring his impressive Maurice Griffiths-designed Idle Duck (type the word Idle Duck into the search box top left for more on this boat), only to find himself roped in to what sounded like an interesting round-the-buoys outing. Instead, though, it turned out to be a learning experience…

‘I knew something was afoot when I trundled into the inner sanctum known to some as Alan’s Community Center, for Retired Shipwrights, Dockyard Mateys and Associated Layabouts, and saw him and Peter look up, saying ’just the man…d’you fancy sailing in the Swale Match in me dinghy?

‘”Yes,” says I, without thinking.

‘The boat is a 10-ft lug rigged clinker job, so there I was, on my own, in a dinghy I had never rigged, let alone sailed, heading for the line for a race against four 16-ft fully crewed gaff-rigged dayboats.

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Read the rest of Bob’s story: Continue reading “Bob Telford’s first race sailing a dinghy with a standing lug”

Roach takes her first voyage after her restoration

Roach takes her first voyage after her restoration

Roach

A lot seems to have been happening over the past couple of weeks while I’ve been away. One of them has been Roach’s first voyage following her restoration. The author or Roach’s Adventures (see the blogroll column to the right of this post) reports as follows, and has posted some very nice photos:

‘I do believe it is true that yachts have personalities, and in the time that I have been working on Roach, specially afloat in the marina, we have started to consolidate our relationship. She is a tetchy little teenager that requires lots of attention – she wants good looks so that she can get a good looking boyfriend – and I am the one that has to provide the endless stream of pocket money that will pay for rather expensive top-brand make-up.

‘Roach has her tantrums, and I was on the receiving end of one in the marina earlier this week… ‘

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Read more about Roach’s first voyage here: http://roach1948.blogspot.com/

The joy of small-boat sailing 95 years ago, by Jack London

Jack London

Jack London Jack London

Here’s a quote from a fiery, passionate piece Jack London wrote for the magazine Country Life in America in 1912:

‘Barring captains and mates of big ships, the small-boat sailor is the real sailor. He knows—he must know—how to make the wind carry his craft from one given point to another given point. He must know about tides and rips and eddies, bar and channel markings, and day and night signals; he must be wise in weather-lore; and he must be sympathetically familiar with the peculiar qualities of his boat which differentiate it from every other boat that was ever built and rigged. He must know how to gentle her about, as one instance of a myriad, and to fill her on the other tack without deadening her way or allowing her to fall off too far.’

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Read the whole story: Continue reading “The joy of small-boat sailing 95 years ago, by Jack London”