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
Norfolk Broads boats racing, photo by Robert Henson, image from
the Wikipedia. This photo is from 2004, but could easily have been
taken fifty years ago. That’s part of the magic of The Broads
•Fifty years ago, schools on the Norfolk Broads were teaching kids to build boats.
•A lifeboat restoration at Walton, Essex is nearing completion. Read more here.
•A large wooden powerboat takes shape in a boatbuilding revival at Leigh, Essex.
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Click on the photograph for a larger image
Talk of Barton Broad brings me to matters of Nelson, as it’s known that he stayed in the area in his youth, and would have sailed there. Legend even has it that he lost a chain and locket in the Broad’s depths.
And thinking of Nelson reminded me I’d taken this photo of a painting produced in 1805 by Louis Phillipe Crépin depicting the brave French ship Redoubtable in action at the Battle of Trafalgar. It hangs in the Paris Musée de la Marine.
One account of the role of the Redoubtable can found at the Wikipedia , but it’s interesting also to see Captain Lucas’s account here.
I think Turner painted the same scene several times, but I doubt he ever depicted the Victory’s Ensign hanging symbolically in the water from a broken flagpole.
An elderly retired Admiral comments: ‘Those bally Frenchmen never miss a trick when they have an opportunity to have a go at us Brits! Tried to keep us out of the Common Market several times. Of course I don’t mind going there on holiday and I’ll drink their wine, but there is a limit and these Froggies haven’t a clue where it might be… Pshaw!”
Click on the photograph for a larger image
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The Nancy Oldfield Trust enjoying a brisk breeze on Barton
Broad. Click on the photographs for a larger image
This is a Broads One Design, often called a Brown Boat, and they’re very common on the Norfolk Broads.
The Nancy Oldfield Trust is based at Barton Broad and provides activities including sailing, canoeing, motor boating, fishing, bird-watching and environmental studies for anyone who is disadvantaged or has a disability, and good for them – I imagine anyone stepping out of the boat at the end of this ride would have felt that life was good and that they were about ten feet tall.
Follow the link for more posts referring to the Norfolk Broads.
One of the Martham yard’s Japonicas reefed down ready
to face the wind on Barton Broad.
The Museum of the Broads’ steamer, Falcon
A typical Broadland river scene on the way to the
staithe at Stalham, and the Museum of the Broads. My
daughter loves coiling unused mooring lines. And note the
ubiquitous Broads mud weight!