Category: Working boats

Faversham Nautical Festival

Faversham Nautical Festival 2016

It’s almost time for Faversham’s big nautical weekend once again! I’ll be there with my camera and from time to time will be wandering around the Front Brents singing and playing… and then on the Saturday night there will be a jolly public sea song sing and tunes session at the excellent Phoenix in Abbey Street. (Outside if fine, indoors if wet, naturally… )

I’ve been asked also to point out that the wonderful mediaeval TS Hasard building will be home to an art exhibition featuring students at a local school, and the town’s art society and camera club. See the poster below! (PS – If you want to know what Boatcamp is, see this earlier post.)

Art Exhibition Flier (1)

 

 

 

Blue Mermaid at Maldon Hythe Quay 6th-8th July

Blue Mermaid, said to be the first Thames Sailing Barge built for trade since 1930, has arrived at Maldon and will be at Maldon Hythe  Quay for viewing on the 6th-8th July.

The 87ft steel barge, which will be based in Essex, was commissioned by a local charity, the Sea-Change Sailing Trust and will be used for their work with young people as well as carrying cargo. The charity works with disabled and disadvantaged young people as well as those challenged by traditional educational settings, experiencing social exclusion or at risk of offending.

The barge was built at the boatyard of C Toms and Son in Cornwall, and will now be fitted out and rigged by TS Rigging of Maldon.

Blue Mermaid is a replica of a barge of the same name, which was sunk by a mine during World War ll with the loss of her crew. As a traditional Thames sailing barge, she will not have an engine and will be able to transport the equivalent of up to six articulated lorry loads in a low carbon environment.

Sea-Change Sailing Trust’s Chair of Trustees, Hilary Halajko said the that bringing the barge to Maldon marked a landmark in the charity’s ambition to get a new sailing barge into operation. Having raised £450,000, it now has to raise £150,000, but it is hoped that Blue Mermaid will enter service during 2017.

Basketry in the hulls of Vietnamese boats

Vietnamese boats

Reader Ken Preston has just had a substantial paper published about the basket-built vessels of the Vietnamese coast and you can read it for free online. I’d guess most of us have seen photos, but this is a serious description of the various sorts of boats either purely built of bamboo basketry, or a composite structure consisting of the bamboo basketry supported by greater or lesser amounts of wooden structure.

It seems the boats are more resistant to shipworm than wooden boats, and more able to survive work in surf, and of course they are cheap to make.

Some variants have a long history, while some are localised or widespread. I have to say I do find the outboard-driven round boats quite surprising…