Yes, it has happened. The new spritsail barge ordered by the Sea-change Sailing Trust from C. Toms of Polruan, Fowey, slipped into the water yesterday afternoon (Sunday 29 May 2016) and boy does she look handsome! The barge is a direct copy, with all welded construction as her namesake launched by Horlocks of Mistley in 1930. She has been named Blue Mermaid.

On Saturday I had a lovely chat with the yard owner/manager at C. Toms in Polruan. This is very much a family firm and all are friendly and approachable.

Here are a couple of views of her awaiting launch…

A bow view on the ways…

A view down the hatches … a pure swept hold.

Leaving the yard I spotted my good Mate on a bench on the town wharf deep in conversation with a lady – who apparently hailed from Essex and had sailed on the Thalatta as a school girl.

Mate with her friend…

Sunday dawned fine and calm. A deep blue sky coloured the Fowey waterway. This was a good day for the making of history.

At the yard I chatted with members of the Bird family – a Capt Bird was skipper on the original Blue Mermaid sunk in July 1941 near the West Hook Middle Buoy (Before it was deleted in recent changes…). This for me was also a personal journey: my childhood home, the May Flower, was sailing , tack for tack, with the Blue Mermaid when she evaporated in front of them… Incidentally, the PLA have dived on the wreck and are working on bringing a fragment up for a memento for the Sea-change Sailing Trust.

The barge was blessed after a number of speeches including a formal welcome from the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall to all those who weren’t Cornish(!) and especially those from Essex!!

The blessing…

On her way…

Afloat…

Flying the Cornish and Essex flags with a Sea-change banner between.

The Blue Mermaid sitting serenely alongside the yards pontoon – doesn’t she look gorgeous…

My last glimpse as I worked my way up the steep pathways of Polruan to the car park with my Mate.

The barge is to closed up and towed by Thames Towage to Maldon. There is to be a special reception for her on 7 July at the Hythe.

Two things that were clearly obvious: the yard’s proud delight in building this vessel and the Trust’s deep satisfaction in the achievement. She will allow all year round work with clients. Currently they could utilise two vessels…

I believe she will cause a few ripples amongst the barging fraternity…

In the June edition of Yachting Monthly there is a superb article about rubbish.

The rubbish in question is the type which finds its way into the sea. Most comes off the land now, however, seafarers are responsible for a proportion of it all, which is very unfortunate indeed. I have been banging the drum about this for some little while – being an ex professional seafarer I fully realise what used to go on…

That is as it may be and times have changed, dramatically. Recently, a ‘ship’ was fined £311,000 by authorities in the Caribbean for discharging gash overboard. Ask yourself, do I throw anything overboard that contravenes current legislation, or in fact the moral code? If so, you could have been at the sharp end of that fine. Where would the family live once the home has been sold to pay up … then there are the costs… This is a serious matter.

A boat flying plastic in the Ray off Two Tree Island in Essex… Note how it is shredded. Those particles end up in the bellies of tiny creatures, then the next ones up the chain, then the next and so on, until it ends up in the fish you eat…

Plastic of various sorts are the biggest problem. This includes facial scrubs greatly used by many lady crew members: they contain micro pellets of plastic – recycled largely which is incredible. The products used to use ground nut kernels!

The YM article goes into the number of years that various plastics take to break down in the sea. A carrier bag takes around 20-50 years and at the worst, the estimate is 500-1000 years for drinks bottles. How many times have you seen one of these scooting across the water around you. Take a walk along a sea wall and wherever there is a ‘bay’ you’ll find a plethora of rubbish, sometimes knee deep. One such collecting point is tucked in past Cliffe Fort along the lower Thames.

This picture is from the River Orwell up in so called caring Suffolk. There were a line of these craft with varying degrees of bag remnants left flying. Yes, I know why its done, but it isn’t acceptable. Fines should be levied: it is an act of blatant environmental vandalism…

The other day I was leaving my boat in Smallgains Creek and was gob-smacked to find black oil floating along my recently applied anti-fouling. Eventually after searching for the source I spotted a couple of object leaching oil drifting towards the mooring. The, amazingly, an object was seen ejecting, as if by magic, from a covered over cockpit of a motor boat. Then a body was seen hands at work stripping something off. That object(s) also ended up overboard. I was incensed!

Finding a ‘hook’ I managed to capture four lots of floating contaminant. I know there must have been more, or actual oil was ditched, for most of the oiled surface had dispersed on the ebb. There were 3 or 4 ‘clumps’ of oil absorbent mops and a plastic glove. The other of a pair, sank? missed it? Don’t know…

I took the collection round to the culprit … I’ll not say who or what boat, however, suffice to say that I pointed out the error of the chap’s ways and that a heavy fine could be involved …

I put it in the hands of my club’s commodore.

The Island Yacht Club does a regular litter pick around its marshland borders, so we aren’t all like this chap, fortunately. Other clubs also do likewise and the Benfleet clubs do a walk down ‘their’ creek too, rubbish picking…

Rubbish. Bin it, take it ashore, home, anywhere, but not in the sea…

The Faversham Festival for traditional craft is approaching well, it’ll soon be upon us.

The event is taking place over the weekend of 23rd and 24th July. Events are open between 1000 – 1800.

Various craft can be viewed and visited.

Those wishing to book berths for their craft need to contact www.faversham.org

Berthing is usually pre-planned and allotted, therefore booking is essential.

I’m unable to attend this year, however if you have a Finesse 24, do contact organisers. There is likely to be a Finesse 21 taking part.

Various activities take place on dry land as well as upon the water when the tide is in. Last year two craft owners enjoyed ‘mud swimming’ which bemused some watchers!

The pubs host numerous musicians…

It’s fun. Go, take a look if you’re not afloat…

The good ship is still propped up ashore looking ‘spick and span’ for this year’s rally. We still have a bit of her decks to finish, but the camera couldn’t see that!

The Skipper hard at work…

The finished result with lines cut in!

Anyway, we left off doing ‘bat work’ for the weekend. On Saturday we were on fatigues down at the club – jetty repairing and other stuff as well as part of two launching teams getting a number of craft back into the water.

A local walk to see how ‘our’ bluebells were getting on was the order of the day, today. The Essex Wildlife Trust were having their local jamboree in the grounds of our church (St Michael’s – Daws Heath) so we knew a roll, coffee and cake would sustain us towards the end!

The Mate in a sea of bluebells, a flower she has a particular love for…

The woods locally, Pound Wood in particular, are mostly managed by the EWLT and they as an organisation own large tracts of it, thus preserving them. The woods are largely coppices and they are worked to manage growth and habitat. We purchase our logs from them annually for those cold night open fires, ah yes…

My favourite woodland bridge…

Generally as we walk, or resting upon a convenient log or bench, I muse upon the way many trees have that natural curve to branches – perfect for a bow knee or thwart knee.

It is great to be out in such a landscape, a place we can often enjoy to ourselves meeting few other human souls – today was a little different. There were ‘hordes’ some walking others sitting upon benches on a slowly towed trailer! Walk I wanted to shout, but for many of those it is the only time they’re able to view the sights we take for granted. EWLT has done a huge amount locally to build pathways suitable for wheel chairs and the such – often greatly used by fast moving off road cycles…

I was hoping to find the Wildlife Trust ‘honey lady’ but, alas, I couldn’t find her: the local honey is sublime! The Yard Arm Community Players were in attendance by the ‘tea hut’ (Village Hall) and serenaded us whilst enjoying a roll and cake. Well, ‘relentless sailor’ I might be, but I appreciate life in general and the joys it can bring…

The band leader, a ‘mad’ Aussie!

We had been getting on with the spring maintenance for several weeks, interspersed with sailing on the tide and our over joy, walking. But this year we decided the top sides needed a little attention – mainly because a number of fastening heads had ‘popped’ spoiling the finish!

So, booking a lift out at my club, the good little ship wandered ashore in a pair of slings. A check was made on the centre plate wire bond before settling onto chocks. That achieved my good Mate was let loose with a pressure washer, a new tool which she’d had a go with on our drive, thoroughly enjoying the experience. Strange girl!

Whimbrel in the slings.

Centre plate wire bond…

Ah yes, my Mate gets to play with her new toy…

Another Finesse 24 was lifted the same day, Gypsy, my mooring neighbour. We joined another, Calluna of Dorset, which came out for the winter: her owner has been hard at it bringing his boat back up to a good standard. It is a long time since the Island Yacht Club had two or more Finesse class vessels in the club, let alone two sitting beside each other!

Gypsy and Whimbrel out of their natural element…

Calluna’s owner hard at it applying varnish to his sheer strake.

I had been informed by my insurer that the Lloyds syndicate had asked for a survey to be carried out prior to any renewal in 2017. As the boat was coming out, I booked Alan Staley of Faversham to come over and deal with the need. His final comment made as Gypsy’s owner pulled his cutlass bearing out, was exceedingly nice. ‘A very fine vessel you have…’ Referring to Whimbrel, of course!

Over four glorious days which would have been grand for sailing we knuckled down to some ‘good’ grafting. The Mate has, almost single handedly, dealt with the underwater paintwork, whilst I prepared the topsides and checked rudder fastenings etc.

A game ol’ gel getting down to business…

Topsides prepared ready for stripe coating then a final all over coat…

While all of this has been going on, on our own vessel, another, a big Seaking  32 has been stripped of her paintwork. On Sunday a ‘family’ of two youngish ladies and their menfolk sanded her clean. It was ‘exciting’ to see what were, compared to most around the yard, essentially the future of boating getting down to pure graft.

The Seaking 32 stripped bare.

Up the creek at the Dauntless Boatyard, Mariette has been buffed up and returned to the water under the care of two ex Finesse owners who are ‘borrowing’ Mariette while her owner concentrates on another project (A sailing pallet!). The owner will be using his beloved Finesse during the season too!

Mariette has had a kiss and a cuddle. She’s now back afloat and has been seen sailing by…

Oh yes, those rudder strap fastenings. I check these on a rotational basis.

The one sat below has been replaced for it was suffering from crevice corrosion.

We’re having a day off tomorrow: I’ve and interview to do over in Maldon and also, the final pdf copy (Galley Copy) of Swinging the Lamp landed on my ‘desk’ and it needs dealing with, yesterday!

At last a publication date looms ever closer.

I received this email from a Finesse group member living ‘up north’ who has, for personal reasons, got to sell his beloved craft. This is always a sad event and we will all have to at some point (as my family keep telling me!) in our lives. I can only wish them well…

Hi nick,
Find attached details of finesse 21 that we spoke about recently. Any help would be appreciated. Needs a good home!!!

FOR SALE
Finesse 21 Sail boat, No.79. Believed to be one of the last 21’s built by Alan Platt in Benfleet, Essex in 1995!

(There is a number 80 in this class)

She is currently lying on Ullswater in the Lake District. She is in excellent condition with an inboard Diesel engine. Full electrics, good battery.

All rigging in good order with Tan sails. Main sail slab reefing, roller furling jib. Bilge pump, compass,sounder, auto helm. Manual windlass. 2 ring gas cooker and grill. Fitted with sea toilet. All bunk/seating upholstery in excellent condition.

Included in the price is strong, four wheeled, purpose built trailer. £5500 ONO

For further info e-mail: graham.sowden53@gmail.com or call 07785550322.

A view looking into fo’c’s’le.

A port view inside cabin.

View across top of centre plate box/table top.

The foredeck area.

Boat on trailer – she looks like a baby Whimbrel with her colour scheme. Lovely!

She looks gorgeous and ready to begin a new life ditch-crawling. Can’t you feel the soft summer breeze wafting across the cockpit, sailing serenely round the sweet Swale…

Blog updated Tuesday 7th June with news from a reader, Leigh man Norman, owner of Shearwater, the SK23 pictured within…

I’d not been well over the weekend, spending most of Saturday prone… So, feeling a little better on Sunday, but not ready for a ‘long’ country walk, the mate and I drove down to Old Leigh for a walk along the waterfront. There’s a good little car park alongside the sea wall past the station parking lot.

Gazing across the saltings that spread out towards the remaining gut of Leigh Creek I spot two recently abandoned craft. An old fishing vessel has had a number of tides flowing through her hull and she’s no longer lifting when sufficient water fills the mud lagoons. Up against the bottom of the sea wall is ‘the pink elephant’ and was surely someone’s joke!

Old fishing boat and the ‘Pink Elephant’…

Here is some information sent to me by a reader recently…

‘the ‘pink elephant’ was owned by a guy called Gordon and basically he was a homeless individual who lived in the yard for about 26 years in various boats and caravans.

Whenever someone wanted to rid themselves of an old boat, Gordon would acquire it – which is how he came by the vessel. He was surprisingly well spoken and had an extensive vocabulary. Curious about this, since he didn’t seem to fit the normal hobo profile, I questioned him on his past and the reply somewhat staggered me. He was (apparently) a member of the South African secret police and had undertaken various activities for which the new Mandela government was not impressed.

He smuggled himself out of Africa and ‘hid’ in the Leigh Marina. Sadly Gordon died of cancer last autumn and as a memorial to him, the yard set his boat on the marsh rather than burning it.’

Fascinating – so there we are the ‘Pink Elephant’ is a memorial to an extraordinary man.

General view of saltings wrecks… The ‘cockler’ in the distance was once owned and lived on by Jim Sheldrake, a Leigh sailor.

I strode past the open gates of Leigh marina’s  hard standing, intending to dive in later… Reaching the Belton Way Little Boat Club we bumped into a group of Finesse owners – there was John C, Terry C and Paul H. The little club had just enjoyed their AGM!

The ‘Belton’ clubhouse…

Dinghies awaiting the launching of ‘mother’ ships and sunnier days… The white hulled Finesse 21 is the gunter sloop rigged Cumulus.

Two more fine looking clinker vessels were seen too…

The Finesse 21 sloop Penny taking the ground of the Billet pub…

Captured between the ‘rubbered’ piles of a cockler’s wharf sits a pretty Seaking 23.

We eventually popped into the Mayflower pub for a coffee … yes a coffee! Pottering along to Bell Wharf before my good mate decided that I’d had enough of a run out!

Leigh Fishermans Co-op on Victiria Wharf. And below the side of Old Leigh Station – Leigh-on-Sea SC HQ.

On the way back I looked at a set (?) of abandoned spars. There wasn’t any obvious ‘owner’ about. They’ll end up as fire wood, surely!

Those spars … and below racks of neatly stored ground tackle and weiths for moorings out in the Ray – Mike’s Boatyard.

I wasn’t to be done out of my wander around a yard: I knew one or two tasty craft awaited!

Little Ruth … a Dauntless. Note her ‘dinghy-like’ shape. I think her days are over…

Two views of Patrice, an Mapleleaf. Note, no tuck at bottom of transom. This is where the Finesse is King… She’s pretty though. Thanks Terry C for correcting me…

Below are two views of a craft I’ve known for around forty years … however, I don’t know her name or what she is. The name carving has rotted on her stern. She’s clearly a type of barge yacht. Perhaps I should find out…

I did find out. The vessel is the Come at Last a barge-yacht from a hundred years ago. A sailing pal, a fellow Finesse lover, came to my rescue. He wrote:

‘…the barge yacht – She’s called ‘Come at Last’ and was built in c.1908. When the infamous and eccentric Leigh character Jim Sheldrake  was a youngish man (now 67), he found the boat in Heybridge Basin and brought it back to Leigh where he carried out extensive repair work.

For years, ‘Come at Last’ was Jim’s boat and the two were inseparable sailing the East coast with various crews from our club including me on occasions. When Jim’s father died, he found himself homeless and was forced to sell the boat for a larger former cockle boat ‘Navigator’ the last wooden cockle boat afloat at the time, which he could live on.

‘Come at Last’ was taken by the yard in part exchange and then sold to a retired Detective Inspector John Palmer, who through Jim, has become a long time member of our club. Jim taught John how to sail the boat and became crew (captain) on many voyages.  Jim’s cockle boat eventually sank and is now on the marshes (Pictured above). He is living in a caravan in the yard.

Amen to that…

Fascinating, thanks again Norman.

I then wandered over to the Heron Lee. Now she is a barge yacht, built 1912, I believe. She came ashore for a refit … She’s for sale for the princely sum of £750.

Finally I found a boat I’d been looking for. She’s a Seaking 23 called Shearwater owned by a ‘Belton’ man and ex Finesse owner…

This one lifted my spirits somewhat! (Norman’s boat)

Then I was ‘dragged’ home…

All I can add to this is, go wandering, let a yard man know you’re about and essentially harmless, and poke about, investigate and look with wonder at our history oft to be found…

Out on the water one often sees lots of different boat types. Sometimes I look at the way boats are seemingly left, rotting, on their moorings. There are a number of these up my own creek, clogging a berth for someone who might be waiting for a berth, but that’s a different problem, however connected.

I had a wonderful sail on Friday, alone, sadly, in sublime conditions. As a commentator on Facebook said, ‘Looks like summer…’ and surely it had those trappings, but it was just a decent spring afternoon…

Sailing out of Smallgains Creek on a subliminal spring afternoon…

Beyond the creek, over on the Leigh flats, was a four-oared skiff, with an extra crew aboard for rotating around rowers. They were initially resting on their oars, then, at an order from the stern-sheets, began to pull in an ever increasing count… I watched for a little while until I awoke to my course deviating somewhat in the light breeze. I waved and left them speeding on their way, westwards.

Rowers out for a workout…

In the distance was a blob. It seemed to be sitting in the Ray abreast of where, for many years, the Leigh Beacon stood until it lost its will to stay upright as its pole rusted. A long and a short tack brought me up to the ‘blobs’ position. It had ‘become’ a sort of house barge. Or was it? The stern end looked new, the forward, old… Then I noticed a welded stitch line. I wasn’t being deceived.

Two views of the ship…

The bow section looks as if it could have been of a ‘Trent’ type of barge, but I’m uncertain about this… Whether or not she has some form of propulsion is also unclear. The ‘wheelhouse’ design would indicate the possibility: she had the look. The new aft section is joined on at run of aft bulwark.

Then a ‘proper’ motor barge houseboat came puttering by. She’s a Dutch type, I believe, called Beverley. She has moorings in Smallgains Creek. She’s a sweet little thing…

The Beverley motors by…

I soon left the conversion behind and sailed eastwards in the general direction of the Westcliffe shore. Off the Crowstone I sailed back west along the Chalkwell then Leigh shores, generally enjoying the conditions and musing. Whilst I was being bathed in sunshine, west, over the downs, Hadleigh was in a mist!

Off Chalkwell I passed a little cruiser, she looked forlorn. It saddened me somewhat: once she was someone’s pride and joy, maybe, she still is, but they’re unable to deal with her needs any longer – something I’ve mused on before… The little boat is called Tern.

The poor Tern…

I’ve sailed past this little ship on numerous occasions. Maybe, after another winter alone in this exposed spot and it being such a glorious day it awoke my curiosity to its plight. The rigging is already beginning to fail. Her future looks bleak. But for a first boat, a step up from dinghy sailing perhaps, a little weekender to step down to a bit of carefree local sailing… There are possibilities. I’ll continue to watch over her, surely…

Later, sailing into my own creek, I cast my eyes over several boats that have the similarly ‘abandoned’ look of Tern…

A couple of weeks ago I spoke of my belief in the immanent arrival of spring. Well it has definitely arrived.

My Mate and I got out on the tide, after I’d fitted a new oil lamp below – leaving the Mate getting the boat ready!

We’d gone creek-wards laden with a generator, drill and a new slider too – later fitted to our aft moorings after getting back in. As the tide left the boat I also went overboard (on a walking board) to use a newly acquired impact driver to loosen some screws on Whimbrel’s bow fitting. Its got to come off for re-bedding!

Anyway, the important aspect of being down the creek was to go sailing…

We slid out of our mooring a little after two hours before high water – the tide seemed to be sluggish for a 5.8 m (Southend), we thought. Sails were set whilst the boat jogged with the flood, up the creek, before tacking round to run out…

Sailing out of Smallgains Creek on a very spring-like morning…

For a short time I thought some assistance with the diesel was going to be needed as we slowly stemmed the incoming tide, but no, with patience, the game little sloop prevailed. There seemed to be a huge number of Brent honking and jostling around the base of the cord grass beds. The eel grass has long gone and I expect the wheat and barley fields below Hadleigh Castle is being cropped off regularly now! Its still at least two months before they’re due to head off, north.

Brent dabbling amongst stalks of cord grass… My mooring neighbour and fellow Finesse owner’s house sits on that yonder hill!

‘Which way?’ I asked the mate. A wave of the arm and a comment about only being aboard for the ride, I headed in the light south-westerly upstream. Off Two Tree Island, and approaching Bird Island a flock of waders lifted aff as the water ran over it. A group of gulls hung on for a little while after our passing… Then I spotted a heron watching the edges with sublime patience…

‘Harold’ the Heron…

The marsh colours today were fantastic with a decent amount of sunshine, at first, giving them a ripened glow. The new season’s growth will be beginning to show itself amongst those dead stalks. Like on land the plant world decided on spring sometime back.

My Mate enjoying her book, interspersed with watching our slowly passing world…

Some tacks were necessary as we went up towards Benfleet’s end of the creek. The Mate, after making another coffee, decided to set her reading aside and help: it helps to keep the cold at bay! We had a series of long and shorts up to the moorings of Benfleet YC. The, strangely the wind went southerly – great!

Our turn was made just beyond the club house and we noticed our mate Dick’s Mariette was still out of the water. There are two other Finesse 24s here, hiding up the Benfleet club’s back channel – I’d love to see them out!

The Island’s other yacht club through the rigging…

We were hailed by an ex-Finesse owner who was aboard his Moody 27 getting it tidy below for putting stuff ‘back in’ he later messaged on Facebook. Nice to see a friendly face!

We also saw Mister Pegotty, a Seaking 31, based at the Benfleet Motor Yacht Club on the north shore. There were several people aboard out for a spin under power… We exchanged cheery salutes…

On the way down the creek, passing Two Tree Island again, the Mate commented upon the chimney looking a little lonely without its boiler and turbine houses spread out beneath: they’ve all gone. And, that chimney will be down soon. It’ll not be there next spring. We both remarked about this with just a little sadness, but, change is continuous. The estuary is not, like the Cutty Sark, preserved in a jar of aspic…

The soon to be demolished chimney on Grain. The ship just happened to be coming up Sea Reach too…

Back down in the open a couple of other sails were spotted as we sailed on past the Island’s point. Then, whilst turning, I dispensed with the mainsail while my good Mate jogged into the creek under jib: it was time to head for home…

Yes, we had a grand sail. It was great to be out, together, enjoying the first of spring…

The Wapping Group’s annual show is about to start … it runs from Monday 29th February to Saturday 4th March 2016. It is at the Mall Galleries, just off Trafalgar Square.

Times are 1000 – 1700 Monday to Friday and 1000 to 1600 on Saturday.

Call Mall Galleries on 020 7930 6844. www.mallgalleries.org.uk

Also see my Facebook page.

The brochure shows some great pieces of art work – we have never been disappointed with this show. Often mentally spending a bag full of dosh!