Newson’s officially opens its new building, MTB 102 rolls in

Newson’s new building had its official opening a few days ago. After a morning of rain and high winds, the weather broke and the ceremony performed by Lady Anne Wake-Walker took place in brilliant sunshine.

With the ribbon cut, MTB 102 was winched into the building before an appreciative crowd of on-lookers who were then given the chance to look around the new building and the boats. http://www.newson.co.uk/news/2006-12/official-opening/

For more on MTB 102, see this site: http://www.mtb102.com/ and check the Wikipedia for more on MTBs generally http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_torpedo_boat

On the subject of Newson’s, I was struck by a handsome varnish job on an Italian speedboat built in 1966 at the Bruno Abbate yard on Lake Como, Italy. The boat, which has undergone a total refurbishment, has a 144hp American-built Ford V8 Interceptor engine. See http://www.newson.co.uk/boat/abbate-villa-deste-1966/

MTB102

Fascinated by a Swedish brunette

I was pleased and interested to see this Colin Archer at Mylor a couple of years ago, but what really caught my eye was its tender, which I imagine is as Swedish as its double-ended companion.

I’ve Googled around the web and found nothing about these boats, so if anyone can enlighten me, I’d be very pleased to hear from them at gmatkin@gmail.com. I’d guess that quite a few readers would be interested to learn more about this handy, characterful and dry-looking little boat too…

Click on the images for a closer view.

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A great little magazine for boat lovers

I’ve been looking at the latest issue of the fortnightly US boating magazine Messing About in Boats, and I’m inspired to tell you gentle readers what a great little magazine it is.

Each issue of MAIB is packed full of comment, news, stories and explanations about a wide variety of small- to medium-sized boats, usually with more than a dash of the traditional about them. Where they’re not so traditional, they’re usually built or buildable by hobbyists and amateurs.

If you live in the US the annual sub is just $32, or $1.40 per issue, which seems to me to be extraordinarily good value.

In other parts of the world a subscription becomes a little expensive (24-times a year overseas postage doesn’t come cheap), but we can still enjoy the option of subscribing to the downloadable pdf version, which is nearly as good once printed out on a standard 600 by 600 printer.

The latest issue includes a reprint of an old Weston Farmer article about the Mabel (from Billy Atkin’s drawing board, I think), a story from a reader who nearly bought the elegant double-ended bilge keeler seen under the Forth Bridge on the cover but did buy a Folkboat, and articles from both John Welsford and Phil Bolger. To a European, even the adverts are a fascinating insight into how different are the kinds of boats people use in the USA compared with our own.

This is the link for the paper subscription:
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/media/maib/index.htm

And this is the link for the downloadable pdf version:
http://www.duckworksbbs.com/media/maibonline/index.htm

MAIB