Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
Chapter IV: ‘We will now consider the best means of getting our craft under way under various conditions’
Chapter V: ‘The skill of a helmsman is judged by his ability to get a boat to windward’[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”] Continue reading “Getting under way, and Seamanship under way”
Tonight we have Chapter III: in this glorious episode, our hero provides a step-by-step description of setting sail in a small cutter-rigged yacht especially for the first-time sailor. And, for the benefit of bachelor readers, along the way he explains the press studs used to do up ladies’ dresses.
Were bachelors really so different in his time?[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”] Continue reading “Cooke gets under way”
Writing shortly after the Great War, F B Cooke has every bit of the bluff, blokey do-exactly-as-I-say-and-everything-will-be-all-right style that was popular in his era, but today seems bossy and a little odd.
For Cooke the popular yachting harbours may have been full of good chaps but they were also home to waterside loafers and land sharks who would find a dozen ways to rob the poor innocent yachtsman. Rather like a sheriff in a Wild-West movie, Cooke could distinguish between them in a moment, knew exactly how to handle both types and briskly tells us how to [ad name=”intheboatshed-post”] Continue reading “Speaking of waterside loafers, land sharks and small cruising yachts”