Matt Atkin takes his camera on board the R Tucker Thompson sail trainer

R Tucker Thompson 4

R Tucker Thompson R Tucker Thompson R Tucker Thompson

R Tucker Thompson R Tucker Thompson

 

My brother Matthew Atkin has sent over another batch of photos, this time from New Zealand – and once again there are some pretty special images in the collection.

Naturally, they appear here with his permission.

I just love the images he gets into his Leica, but fear it would probably not do the same for me! (For more of Matt’s shots, click here.)

These are from a trip aboard the R Tucker Thompson, a gaff-rigged schooner built in the late 1970s for sail training to a design based on the halibut schooners of the north west American coast.

Photographer Matthew Atkin in Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand Matthew Atkin boat photos from Thailand

Matt Atkin’s photos from Thailand

I never cease to be amazed by my brother Matthew Atkin’s beautiful photos of boats in the Far East.

It seems amazing and wonderful that Western and Eastern water craft should still be so different  in a globalised and homogenous era, and also given that the physics of water, the technology available for powering craft, and many of the materials available for boatbuilding are often the same or at least similar.

These latest photos from Thailand make the point. Check out the stylish young men, the older couple fishing, the elegant small canoes, the curvaceous pleasure boats and, perhaps most remarkable of all, the ferry with its astonishing truck motor balanced on what looks like a precarious pole and with a vicious-looking straight prop arrangement. I’ve seen photos of smaller craft set up like this, but this is much bigger than anything I’ve come across up to now.

Thanks bruv!

See more of Matt’s photos from Hong Kong and Vietnam.