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
Here’s a present from the wonderful Broadland Memories website – this morning they tweeted this fabulous little 15-minute film about Oulton Water and Lowestoft in the late 1950s.
I must say I particularly like the terrifying water-borne dodgems powered by electricity brought down from chicken wire above… though I think we can see why they didn’t last into the modern age!
I’ve just learned about the Robert Manry Project, which exists to remember the life of sailor and journalist Robert Manry, who in 1965 sailed solo across the Atlantic in the 13ft 6in clinker-built dinghy-with-a-lid Tinkerbelle, in 78 days.
Manry went on to write a popular book, Tinkerbelle, about his demanding and sometimes terrifying trip. He was lucky to survive.
Through its website, the Project aims to collect reminiscences, and to produce a film – there’s a trailer on the website.
Perhaps the best bit, though, is Manry’s log of the voyage – a fascinating document, particularly if like me you have previously read his book.
The schooner Bluenose in flight…
A celebrated racer as well as working boat fishing the Grand Banks, she was launched at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on March 26, 1921 and sank close the Haiti in 1946. Read all about her here.
Readers on my side of the pond may be interested to know that a replica, the Bluenose II, was built in the early 1960s, and is still afloat, between refits.