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
The Humber Keels and Sloops website has a nice photo record of the Humber sloop Spider T’s trip down to the Thames and back for the Jubilee last summer.
I gather from owner and restorer Mal Nicholson that a DVD of the Spider T’s earlier trip to Arbroath is now available for a very reasonable £10. Contact him at the Spider T website.
The Spider T folks are having an open weekend and art exhibition on board the Humber sloop over the weekend of the 24th and 25th November at Keadby Lock on the Humber Estuary. Click on the image above for details.
Attractions aboard the wonderful old boat include paintings by marine artist Leslie Everatt, and exhibitions and talks about Spider T’s recent adventures, including her trip to Arbroath, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant.
Mal Nicholson and the Spider T crew will have more to chew on than most when they consider their summer’s adventures, having sailed a 1920s Humber sloop from Keadby to Arbroath and back.
The purpose of the boat’s trip was to attend Arbroath Sea Fest, and join in the marking of the 200th anniversary of the building of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, by Robert Stephenson. (I’m pleased to note a connection here – in building the Bell Rock Light, Stephenson was assisted by John Rennie, whose son Sir John Rennie was responsible for the New River Ancholme Drainage Scheme, which created the river that provides Spider T’s home berth.)
As you’d expect, their trip was marked by a series of minor mishaps and fascinating encounters, unforgettable landfalls, great thundering dawns and glorious sunsets. A series of posts here at intheboatshed.net recorded the northward trip, but you can read about the whole thing on a special page on the Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society’s website.
A series of local newspapers covered the story of the Spider T’s visits to ports along the way, including this one recording the moment when the boat and crew called in at Hartlepool.
PS – Dig the great photo on the HKSPS homepage showing a keel skipper working his boat out of harbour using a sweep, with his rudder hard over and a tender in tow. Now there’s a challenge, yotties!