As seen on TV – the Humber sloop Spider T

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BBC film of Humber sloop Spider T

The BBC has made a short film about the 1920s New Holland-built Humber sloop Spider T, which is now available for charter, corporate events and so on. Click on the link above to go to the relevant BBC page – I don’t think this one will be limited to UK viewers only.

Owner and restorer Mal Nicholson tells her story as the cameras wander around the boat, and there’s even a nice clip of the Spider T sailing. Priceless stuff, and well done Mal!

For more on the Spider T story, click here for intheboatshed.net posts and here for the Spider T website.

As I write, Amazon lists just two copies of a book by Michael E Ulyatt about the Humber’s legendary sailing barges, which show clear evidence of both Viking and Dutch influence in their development: Flying Sail: Humber Keels and Sloops. Also, Tony Watts’ excellent book Holmes of the Humber includes George Holmes’ descriptions of many of the Humber’s characteristic boats, as well as his own boats and voyages.

More photos of the traditional wooden clinker-built fleet of fishing boats at Hastings

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modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker

modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker

modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker

As promised, some more photos from the working beach at Hastings (see my earlier set of photos). I haven’t much to say about them, except that I’m awestruck that these old wooden boats are still working in such numbers – at one time I would have said they were reducing in numbers so quickly they I thought they wouldn’t last more than a few seasons. But a few seasons later, here they are still…

These boats have hardly changed since the days of sail, and notice that there are plastic beach boats built along the old fashioned lines. Whether sailing or motoring, it seems there’s still nothing better for fishing off this coast.

modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker

modern boatbuilding, motor yachts and boats, small boats, traditional boatbuilding, working boats, history, wooden boat, hastings, fishing boats, clinker