Was the Cutty Sark dead before she burned?

Belem

Belem – the ship Adam Nicolson will never forget.
Photo via the Wikipedia Commons and taken by Georges Jansoone

There’s an interesting and highly opinionated feature article in yesterday’s The Guardian that made me stop and think, and may interest many readers of intheboatshed.net.

Article author Adam Nicolson compares the static state of Britain’s great old sailing ships – HMS Victory, HMS Warrior and of course Cutty Sark imprisoned in its dry dock at Greenwich – with the French cocoa boat Belem, which still sails regularly with the support of a substantial financial trust.

As he writes about his experience of sailing on the Belem, it’s clear that she made a huge impression on him; he says he would have wept Continue reading “Was the Cutty Sark dead before she burned?”

The launch of the John Nash skiff

The launch of the John Nash skiff

The launch of the John Nash skiff The launch of the John Nash skiff

The John Nash

It’s a small world, they say, and I constantly find that the people in it are connected in unexpected ways. So I really shouldn’t have been surprised when my not-especially-boaty musician buddy Richard Goodwin reported that his jazz-tinged Welsh country dance music Twm Twp had just played a gig to celebrate the launch of a new boat he thought might interest me…

As it turned out, the project had been designed and built by two people whom readers who have used the intheboatshed.net links page may well have come across: Andrew Wolstenholme and Fabian Bush.

The boat in question, the John Nash is Andrew Wolstenholme’s design for Continue reading “The launch of the John Nash skiff”

More on the John Smith 400 shallop

John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail

John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail

John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail John Smith shallop detail

John Smith shallop detail

This collection of detail photos has kindly been sent in by our friend Ed Bachmann, a regular reader and supporter of http://intheboatshed.net, and the fella who first alerted me to the John Smith Shallop. Many thanks Ed!

For more on this boat, see A 400-year-old shallop built and sailed again

Continue reading “More on the John Smith 400 shallop”