New and Neglected Nautical Writing
Forgotten and lonely backwaters
Tony Smith is now the keeper of Charlie Stock’s game little 16-foot gaff cutter Shoal Waters, and has made it his business to take her the length and breadth of the Thames estuary, and into nooks and crannies most of us have never heard of, let alone visited. One such…
An invitation I just couldn’t resist
Charlie Stock was a singular sailor, who was for sixty years a part of the scenery on his home waters of the Thames Estuary. In his last book, published posthumously, he describes and handles the local features and hazards meeting the small boat sailor, not only in…
Cruising in Denmark
George Holmes’s illustrated and often hand-written cruise accounts frequently appeared in the pages of the Humber Yawl Club Yearbook, and later in The Yachting Monthly. Here is a cruise he made in Denmark in 1894, and written up a few years later. He and his companion…
Too fast for accurate navigation
The year was 1955 and H W Tilman was undertaking his first ‘sail to climb’ expedition, aiming to cross the Patagonian ice-cap in both directions—starting from the ‘other side’. This would necessitate a transit of the Magellan Strait; as Sir Robin Knox-Johnston puts it…
Strange’s MIST shortlisted for Classic Boat’s Restoration of the Year
Readers will know we have a soft spot for the designs of Albert Strange and those who work to preserve them. One such was Woodbridge-based boatbuilder John Krejsa, who in 2006 took on the virtual wreck of Mist (built 1907) and performed a magnificent…
Tilman and ‘Viola’—lost footage unearthed
The BFI has recently unearthed and put online ‘lost’ colour film footage of a number of Tilman expeditions. It currently lacks any form of commentary and needs a bit of an edit. There are links to it on Bob Comlay’s website. Two reels feature a 1971…
A bit ‘Father Ted’
I became the new keeper of the Albert Strange canoe yawl Emerald in October 2017. Although she was functionally in very good order, her external brightwork (varnish) had suffered lately, as her owner of the previous twenty-five years had been unable,…
A Strange weekend on the Deben
The weekend of 1–2 September 2018 saw the largest ever gathering afloat of yachts designed by Albert Strange; this took place in idyllic conditions on the River Deben in Suffolk, with seven boats taking part. Woodbridge photographer Gill Moon gave chase on…
Curry, duff, cocoa & rum – ‘The video’
Our co-publisher on the Tilman series, Vertebrate Publishing, has recorded a fascinating interview with ex-Tilman hand Bob Comlay, who was instrumental in drawing together the many contributors to the new edition, and in advancing the cause via the sailing press and…
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Getting sea-value
My good friend Fabian Bush built me a (-nother!) boat a few years ago and we launched her together in 2014 at West Mersea in Essex. Teal is named for the ‘small dabbling duck’ in recognition of the direction my sailing was expected to take in my dotage, and she has…
Too fast for accurate navigation
The year was 1955 and H W Tilman was undertaking his first ‘sail to climb’ expedition, aiming to cross the Patagonian ice-cap in both directions—starting from the ‘other side’. This would necessitate a transit of the Magellan Strait; as Sir Robin Knox-Johnston puts it…
A quiet sense of achievement
Spring 2009: Constance is just back from her first Old Gaffers event, the annual East Coast Race weekend at Brightlingsea, where she mixed it with craft large and small, and attracted much admiration for both her looks and speed, praise which rightly belongs to her…
Extreme limit of the credible
A correspondent familiar with the first edition of Messing About in Boats wrote to me: a delightful book of real sailing from a man who comes over as being kind, compassionate and considerate. He bought three copies of our new edition as gifts—an example worthy of…