Despite its unpre­pos­sess­ing name Hole Haven, the creek to the west side of Canvey Island on the lower Thames, is a wel­come bolt-hole for those bound up- or down­river need­ing to get some rest or wait out a tide. It has ful­filled this ser­vice since at least the 1890s…

Perhaps the most curi­ous craft which is found in use by the fish­er­men round the coasts of Britain is the Yorkshire coble [writes George Holmes in 1912]. Along with the Sheringham boat—referred to and described in a former number—this type is used for crab­bing by the…

Bob Comlay is a vet­er­an of two Tilman exped­i­tions to Greenland, and has cajoled many sail­ors, climbers and writers into con­trib­ut­ing fore­words and after­words to our new Collected Edition of Tilman, shed­ding fresh light on a fre­quently mis­un­der­stood fig­ure: I…

Like many boys reared on British rivers by the sea, David grew up with a nat­ur­al love for boats and sail­ing. In later years he would trans­late this into a busi­ness which would set trends in yacht design and con­struc­tion, but even as a young lad he was show­ing flair.…

Around the turn of the twen­ti­eth cen­tury the Humber Yawl Club exer­ted a nation­al, and inter­na­tion­al, influ­ence in the world of cruis­ing under sail which com­pletely belied the paro­chi­al hori­zon its name sug­gests. George Holmes (1861–1940) was for dec­ades the leading…

Knees are an imme­di­ate indic­a­tion of the boatbuilder’s abil­ity to make good look­ing shapes. Ideally one would like to use an oak crook. However, in these hon­est times, crooks are pretty hard to come by and also must be well seasoned before use, par­tic­u­larly if…