Tag: traditional

Windward-sailing Barbary pirates

Xebec

Xebec pirate ship

!!This post now with added singing – see the bottom of this post!!Â

My canoe sailing and building pal Jim van den Bos sent me this link from The Times newspaper yesterday:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article1449736.ece

Here’s the TS Pelican’s website, which tells the story of her interesting rig; see also this article by Philip Goode, the designer involved in the TS Pelican project: http://www.weatherlysquareriggers.com

The whole thing led me to speculate how Continue reading “Windward-sailing Barbary pirates”

The Three Brothers – a coble from the Yorkshire coast

There aren’t many sailing cobles left, and so it’s great to see that the The Three Brothers is on the water in the harbour at Bridlington, and being sailed and cared for by Brid’s own Bridlington Sailing Coble Preservation Society. Built in the town in 1912 at a cost of £75, for many years she was a fishing coble as well as a pleasure vessel during the summer. Cobles converted readily to motor power, but The Three Brothers is now refurbished as a traditional East Coast sailing coble and is sailed regularly by local Naval cadets and members of the Society.
For more on the Society:
http://www.bscps.com/
If you can add to this story – perhaps links to more photos, details of the restoration or the boat’s history – please email us at gmatkin@gmail.com . It would be great to be able to add something to what’s currently online.

A good read for a winter’s night

If you don’t already know it, Moray McPhail’s Classic Marine website is an excellent resource. There’s an extensive catalogue for all the nice bronze and gunmetal bits and pieces that traditional boats require, including a wide range of fittings for rigging, as well as navigation lights, portholes and lamps, rowlocks and the rest, and there are also boat plans from Iain Oughtred.

Classic Marine homepage:

http://www.classicmarine.co.uk

With Christmas coming up, I’d say the navigation and cabin lighting sections are well worth a look for possible presents.

Moray’s site offers more than a fascinating catalogue, however, for he has written a series of essential articles on every detail of a traditional boat’s running and standing rigging hardware. Perhaps the most useful to many will be his article Using Wykeham-Martin Furling gears – an Unofficial Guide.