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…
read more
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…
read more
New Tilman brochure
We’ve produced a new 32-page brochure describing the Collected Edition of H W Tilman we have co-published with Vertebrate Publishing. It’s almost a book in itself, with articles by Bob Comlay and Tom Cunliffe as well as covers and brief notes for each of the sixteen…
read more
Stranger goings on in Woodbridge
Readers may recall a year or so ago this post on the comings and goings of some beautiful Albert Strange canoe yachts at Woodbridge in Suffolk. Well the Strange population on the East Coast has increased again, by one. I don’t wish to upstage Tally Ho’s 600-mile…
read more
Nancy Blackett meets Arthur Beale
For those in the London area with an interest in the world of Arthur Ransome, a date for your diary is 6.30pm on Thursday 16 November, when Peter Willis, author of our upcoming Good Little Ship, will be speaking on Ransome, his classic tale We Didn’t Mean to Go to…
read more
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…
read more
That unique engagement
For most of my life my sailing was of the armchair kind, and in the mid-1970s much of it was in the delightful company of Ken Duxbury, a writer whose light touch belies the skill and resourcefulness which underpinned the voyages made by him and his wife B. in their…
read more
Words written on water
Our first book had sold out a few years before, and we had the feeling it was time for a new edition in our now-standard robust softcover format, and that there remained an unplumbed audience among people who, though perhaps not habitual readers of sailing books,…
read more
VIOLA appeal launched
VIOLA, the last surviving pre-World War I Hull steam trawler, has edged a bit closer to home this week, with the launch of her official charity appeal and website. With local Hull West MP Alan Johnson as patron, the campaign seeks to raise the estimated £3 million…
read more
In all weathers by a crew of two
Tom Cunliffe writes:For fifty glorious years from the time of the 1861 Pilotage Act until the Great War nailed down the coffin lid on commercial sail, the Bristol Channel was a free-for-all for competitive piloting. This great funnel of tide-swept water stood wide…
read moreA 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…
read moreCurry, 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…
read moreNew Tilman brochure
We’ve produced a new 32-page brochure describing the Collected Edition of H W Tilman we have co-published with Vertebrate Publishing. It’s almost a book in itself, with articles by Bob Comlay and Tom Cunliffe as well as covers and brief notes for each of the sixteen…
read moreStranger goings on in Woodbridge
Readers may recall a year or so ago this post on the comings and goings of some beautiful Albert Strange canoe yachts at Woodbridge in Suffolk. Well the Strange population on the East Coast has increased again, by one. I don’t wish to upstage Tally Ho’s 600-mile…
read moreNancy Blackett meets Arthur Beale
For those in the London area with an interest in the world of Arthur Ransome, a date for your diary is 6.30pm on Thursday 16 November, when Peter Willis, author of our upcoming Good Little Ship, will be speaking on Ransome, his classic tale We Didn’t Mean to Go to…
read moreForgotten 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…
read moreThat unique engagement
For most of my life my sailing was of the armchair kind, and in the mid-1970s much of it was in the delightful company of Ken Duxbury, a writer whose light touch belies the skill and resourcefulness which underpinned the voyages made by him and his wife B. in their…
read moreWords written on water
Our first book had sold out a few years before, and we had the feeling it was time for a new edition in our now-standard robust softcover format, and that there remained an unplumbed audience among people who, though perhaps not habitual readers of sailing books,…
read moreVIOLA appeal launched
VIOLA, the last surviving pre-World War I Hull steam trawler, has edged a bit closer to home this week, with the launch of her official charity appeal and website. With local Hull West MP Alan Johnson as patron, the campaign seeks to raise the estimated £3 million…
read moreIn all weathers by a crew of two
Tom Cunliffe writes:For fifty glorious years from the time of the 1861 Pilotage Act until the Great War nailed down the coffin lid on commercial sail, the Bristol Channel was a free-for-all for competitive piloting. This great funnel of tide-swept water stood wide…
read more