After much thought we have at last made the break with the Island Yacht Club, Canvey Island.

An incident over the Bank Holiday weekend in August 2019 is at the root of this decision, which I will publicly discuss further down, but has been further driven by other more recent events.

The final straw came after we submitted a complaint about the way club members/visitors treated ‘us’ whilst Whimbrel was under going her fortieth anniversary refit.

Vehicles were being driven fast past boat by around 25% of drivers with no regard for the dust and debris being showered over varnish or paint being applied. Cones and a sign were routinely ignored…

See recent blog:

Ditch-crawler & mate give Whimbrel a Fortieth anniversary refit…

We jointly made a complaint about this with a few specific cases and the club’s response was to call just me in to a session in front of the flag officers to explain ourselves.

Just what needed to be explained?

No where was there an apology and let’s talk about this. Just a straight in and be whipped demand.

Now, the leaders of this club are the very same people who assaulted’ us back in 2019 and since the end of that affair, they have been looking for a way to get revenge.

So, we decided enough was enough and have departed.

Some while ago I wrote about life in a marsh-land yacht club and how ‘we’ looked after our moorings and club infra-structure.

There pervades at the club I have departed from, like many organisations oft heard in the news media, a problem with institutional bullying. It is led by people who still ‘live in the school playground’ and if one is not ‘in the set’ life can be precarious. These people have broken the club and made it a toxic and an uncomfortable place to be part of.

In that respect, both Christobel and I have, since the infamous RIB incident, been circumspect with lodging any official complaint about anything, which in itself has been a travesty: the bully won.

The RIB incident if 30 August 2019 will be documented in the files of the Port of London Authority. These are probably available if one wanted access – freedom of information.

It was over the bank holiday and an open cat event was being hosted by the Island YC.

So, the incident which has lived with me, in particular:

Christobel and I were making Whimbrel ready to depart our mooring to represent the Finesse class and club at Queenborough’s classic festival.

A club RIB (Furtherwick) came up the creek leaving a giant wash crashing through the moorings. I was on our fore deck clearing mooring lines. Although still aground, the boat lifted and surfed against her springs.

Meanwhile Christobel had called out, ‘Slow down.’
She was responded to with a single finger salute, which as most know, means: tickle your c—t or up your c—t. She was extremely upset.

We called the club’s commodore who said he was on way to club and would deal with.

We departed.

Nearing the outer creek, we rounded into the breeze (sw3) clear of the buoyed channel to hoist the mainsail. The boom was loosened ready. I was about to hoist when I spotted the same RIB exiting the club’s moorings.

It left the buoyed channel and came straight at us across the shallows increasing to a ‘displacement speed’ resulting in a huge wash. Christobel held her course with engine on tick-over.

I shouted ‘watch out’ and flung my arms around the slating boom as the RIB roared down our port side done 2-4 m off.

The boat dropped and then went ballistic with violent rolls back and forth. I felt the boat hit bottom.

I held on. I do not remember how I stayed aboard, but wished afterwards I’d gone overboard: it would have made what followed, easier…

Christobel was thrown across the cockpit, all but incapacitated in the corner. She eventually picked herself up and got the boat back under control.

I received wrenched leg and arm joints and Christobel a raft of bruises.

The RIB sped away rounding Canvey Point where a few cats were tuning up, then off east where others were doing the same… no one seemed to be in trouble.

Once under sail we made a further call to the club’s commodore – he fully understood the situation for I was shaking badly as I talked. Again, we got, I’ll sort it. That was the last I heard from him.

In the end after around two weeks, I filled in a Port of London incident report.

The proverbial hit the fan.

The upshot was that the perpetrators manufactured a defence (they got times wrong) and forced all discussion out of club minutes.

The outcome from the Port of London was that the club was reprimanded and reminded of how they operated etc, etc, and the driver was given a written warning. (All of this is held on file)

Whilst this sage was ongoing, I was coping with a huge lack of energy after completing radio therapy a couple months earlier and was on a programme of tablet chemo medication for prostate cancer.

The ‘three’ and cohorts didn’t give a stuff about that…

Early in the saga’s follow up, I had a call on my mobile from the chief perpetrator at around 2000 one evening. I asked where number had been obtained – commodore was the reply. I terminated the call.

On file with all paperwork of case, is an email from club’s vice commodore of time, stating that the phone incident broke club rules and national law regarding passing information.

I said it would be reported to authorities unless an apology was received. Time went by – nil response.

Towards the end of the year, a committee meeting was due and I had a call from our son relaying a message from a fellow committee member that ‘the three’ were engineering an ‘instant dismissal’ from club action against us both … unless we withdrew … because we were threatening a member…

After some thought, and with my energy problems, we wrote, saying due to my lack of energy and my mental ability coping with cancer that we weren’t able to continue … it was apparently accepted.

But, as we later found out, blood was wanting to be spilled.

For us though it wasn’t the end: whenever anything untoward occurred, I suffered from night-time ‘reliving’ of events returned with them cycling round and round with growing anxiety.

So, as said, over last few years we kept our heads low…

The pictures within the blog show a flash of our forty-years as Island YC members.

We raced with success for a decade or so. I was a work party member for thirty-three years and Christobel for a decade since retiring from teaching.

The projects, personal and joint/team, have been numerous. I looked after the creek buoys for twelve years or so. There was walling and concreting the edges of slipway, doubling its width.

During Covid, as we were a ‘bubble couple’ we replaced hundreds of walkway boards.

During the early 1990s the club’s compound was extended over rough infilled land, with layers of crushed building refuse and street asphalt scrapings. We were both part of a small team doing this midweek.

Laying of water and electricity around the extended yard…

Water services round the walkways was laid on…

Not forgetting, years and years of mooring and walkway repairs/renewals.

Sometimes it was very a very muddy experience enjoying ourselves in this marsh-land yacht club…

There were good moments afloat too. Early morning winter sails. Later winter afternoon arrivals back after a gentle potter.

Taking a cue from an ‘old boy’ now long departed, did I need one after being brought up afloat, I made visits to the boat’s mooring to check during high tides – checking and saving many another boat too at the same time.

During the last few years following the RIB incident, the mood within the club changed for the worse. Actions of the club’s hierarchy was causing angst – certainly among the club’s do-ers of the working parties – and the atmosphere was becoming toxic.

It was becoming ‘not a nice place to be’ and I silently began looking for alternatives, should that day dawn.

So, following the lodging of our complaint while away for a week at the end of June we decided to throw in the towel and make the final break.

Once our resignation letter had been sent, my anxiety cycles began to wain and a resemblance of a normal sleep pattern returned. Praise be.

Now we are gone!

Our open letter to the club’s members is unlikely to be honoured, but it is gradually making its way around via various routes from people who have supported us.

So, below is our letter. We don’t care who reads it: the hierarchy of the Island Yacht Club do not deserve any reserve…

A third page was directly to the Island Yacht Club committee and remains private.

So, farewell friends.

Some of you we will see afloat from time to time, others, well, we will both miss you. You gave us so much whilst members of a job, project, or just nattering over a piece of cake at tea time…

Thank you to all who we have been honoured to work with.

Poor Seaden has lain forlorn at Swale Marina in Conyer for some years now.

The boat has essentially been abandoned: the owner having moved onto another project. Why the abandonment, I have not been able to fathom.

In discussion with the marina regarding a berth for next week, it was mentioned by the office that there was another, ‘if I wanted one’…

Hmmm…. do I heck!

Ditch-crawler was asked to advertise the Finesse 24, Seaden…

But seriously, this is a boat that had everything going for her. She is in a bit of a state now, but could be refurbished with a little time and effort.

In just four weeks my mate and I completed a 40 year refurbishment to Whimbrel’s brightwork. All it takes is applied time and effort. Taking back to bare is something not done before, boy has it been a worthwhile exercise.

See: https://nickardley.com/ditch-crawler-mate-give-whimbrel-a-fortieth-anniversary-refit

So, if interested go and have a word and get your hands on a wonderful estuary cruiser…

Last year we’d decided that it was time to strip off all the boat’s varnished surfaces to bare wood and start again.

The last time she’d been ‘naked’ in these areas was prior to her first coats in the autumn of 1983!

Whimbrel’s varnished areas include the rudder, transom, sheer strakes and entire cabin sides.

During last autumn a ‘spanner’ was thrown into the plans. I was booked into a hospital for a new right knee – I went in a week early on our 45th wedding anniversary on 27th March!

After my knee operation, I worked hard at the physio exercises and was walking up to a 1km at the end of first week.

Whimbrel’s lift was duly booked for Saturday 20th May.

Before lift out I was able to enjoy two sessions sailing with The Boy and the Mate aboard, which was a great tonic.

It wasn’t long before the first fresh coats were being applied, starting with the transom and then the rudder.

I had chosen to use Le Tonkinois No.1 which is a semi man made concoction which I had winessed on several craft.

The rudder also was given nine coats!

A glitch occurred during the second week- my GP had decided I needed an additional blood pressure control tablet. They made me exceedingly sick. I lost appetite for any food, was nauseas and had blinding head aches, finally I couldn’t eat at all!

I took myself off and got an appointment. A sensible clinical pharmacist agreed. I was retching by then and had lost over a stone in two weeks…

I saw the chap after a week and he confirmed that I did not need the new tablets – it took that time for near normality to return!

As areas were stripped and sanded, varnish coating began. Pencil tick list to eight for each!

In between times, the hull was prepared. An all over sand, repairs as required going through the use of primer, undercoats and stripe coating with top coat. Leaving the final coat for when ready.

Having completed stripping for England and sanding for the World the mate morphed into Bilge Babe…

During the whole time ashore we had to cope with a generally easterly wind pattern and with the very dry conditions the club’s yard was a veritable dust bowl.

The majority of drivers passing us acknowledged this and passed by slowly, however, a significant minority gaily traversed the yard at a speed well above the posted 5 mph. I had to remonstrate with some.

After a ‘bad day’ we got hold of a collection of cones to screen the boat and made up a big sign saying ‘Slow’…

The cones and signs had no effect on many of the minority! One driver actually sped up followed by a white van. I shouted in frustration as I slammed brush down to fetch white spirit and cloths… a lady came back and apologised…

Several times lengths of varnish had to be wiped and redone – when going sheer strakes mainly. It was frustrating and annoying.

While away sailing for a week after the boat was launched and upon reflection, because we have never had a comfortable time with the club’s hierarchy, I made a formal complaint. It took several emails to get an acknowledgement … typically showing the club’s institutional attitude.

Another ‘bug-bear’ was the arrival of an email from my publisher with the final corrected book draft.

The next stage is a QA check and conversion to print files, when I will see the whole book together with covers…

Tired as I was, the job had to be done. I was still sick too, but checking against corrections had been the easiest of this publisher’s processes… Hey Ho!

My birthday – 68th – came round and because we could not be away sailing aboard Whimbrel, Christobel had organised a wonderful day aboard the spritsail barge Hydrogen, following the Blackwater & Smack matches.

It was a wonderfully relaxing day.

The ‘holiday’ over, it was back to work. Even on my actual birthday day, we went down early to re-coat all areas needing them!

The rest of the day was then ours to enjoy together…

With time moving on, I judged we would be ready for a launching this coming weekend and duly booked with the head of our club’s compound and moorings team.

All varnishing having been completed, the side and poop decks were prepared, meanwhile Christobel had graduated to supreme chief cleaner, working her way through the boat…

Today, we jointly finished our respective tasks!

The inside has had various areas of varnish redone. The loo compartment had been completed the week before my knee op … and Christobel’s home-sewn curtains are a treat, matching the berth and cushion colour beautifully!

So, on Saturday 17th June, just four calendar weeks after lift out, Whimbrel looked as good as the day she left Alan & Shirley Platt’s yard in the Daws Heath woodland paradise that surrounds our home on the northern edge of Hadleigh.

I am sure they and the family would be proud.

Forty years on from ordering Whimbrel, we are exceptionally happy…

Thank you, Alan & Shirley…

Some weeks ago I managed after a bit of an effort being taken for a ‘web ride’ to obtain an update for the Garmin GPSMap carried aboard Whimbrel.

See: http://nickardley.com/ditch-crawler-wants-to-thank-satnav-helpers

That was early in my knee replacement rehabilitation. Having since reached the boat, been for a sail even and completed a job of tensioning the engine belts, my mate in escort mode, carted all our life jackets and charts ashore for checking/correcting.

Upon perusing the Imray web site I soon discovered that my set of charts would need to be replaced, as edition was no longer supported. There were changes that I considered important.

I initially contacted a chandler regularly used – they failed to respond to calls and messages … great!

Series 2000 and 2100 were duly ordered direct from Imray. They were delivered one hour before I passed the front door of the chandlery the following day in Maldon!

They were probably cheaper than those from a chandlers, and nil postage was charged. Thank you Imray.

Then, of course, there was the little matter of correcting those ‘new’ charts.

One of the major changes to have taken place over the winter is the route of the River Deben’s access to and from the sea. For a number of years it has been close in and then a long run along the shingle banks in a NNE direction, turning northwards further in.

Now, it has burst through a swatch that has been growing in prominence south of Bawdsey land point. I discussed this with a brother and a cousin crewing last year as the cousin took Whimbrel into the river for the very first time. Not sure if the helm took it all in, but I was more than relaxed about his competence, watched by my brother…

So, with the charts corrected and out of the way, the life jackets were opened out and inspected. Dates and condition of firing units and gas cylinders, creases etc, etc, carried out before all were inflated.

Then there were the fire extinguishers (including the one at the home galley!) to be changed for newly purchased units!

Rarely are these extinguishers renewed where they can be clipped to the brackets already fitted. With my cockpit unit, I fitted a ‘universal’ bracket some time ago: provided diameter is similar, it is a straight swop.

This wasn’t the case in the cabin at a unit located by the companionway entrance. One of the bracket screw holes was different – making a hole filling, sanding and a varnish touch-up before job completion!

I fired off a couple of the old ones – both worked!

All of these jobs are necessary, whether replacement or inspections, during a boat’s annual ‘servicing’ – they are not onerous and give peace of mind.

I take various family members and friends sailing aboard Whimbrel so I feel such things should not be put off: it is a responsibility and a duty of care…

Not many people know much about the history of the Coastguard. It was formed in 1822 by the amalgamation of three services set up to prevent smuggling. Often the individual services were acting against one another in effect assisting the smuggling gangs.

As boaters, we are all mostly aware of the presence of the Coastguard at various times, listening to the forecasts, perhaps seeing their cutters in the distance and the rather smaller RIB type vessels closer up. Marinas are often used for mooring…

Since the 1820 professionalisation the service has been saving lives along the UK coast and at sea, as well as coordinating rescues for those in distress in international waters.

With the advent of the telephone a 999 emergency system came into being in 1937. A caller had only to call the operator and ask for whatever service needed or just state the emergency and operator directed…

However, public knowledge has been on the wain so back in 2018 a campaign was launched, based around a seaside cartoon type postcard couple…

See:

Joe and Petunia say “Dial 999 and ask for The Coastguard”

Clearly, the lack of awareness has continued to spiral downwards. It has been said that around 50% of people living in the UK don not understand this system or service, or even have any knowledge of it.

For seafarers this is a damning as it could mean literally life or death…

Now, I have been one who ’caused’ a call to be made, but it was made by a person who didn’t understand what we were doing. I had sailed Whimbrel onto a bank. It being shallow, jumped overboard to push boat’s bow round – I succeeded, but the tide still left us high and dry. A lady ashore (On Mistley Quay) called the Police/Coastguard – a life boat pitched up…

Told about in an article published by Yachting Monthly and retold in full in my forthcoming new book…

We were not in any danger.

The coastguard duty officer in discussion with my good mate (a local sailor himself and professed to grounding more than once) gave some excellent advice: If you go aground and are not in danger, let the Coastguard know so that if reports come in they can stop unwanted dispatch of emergency services…

They had this conversation at around 0100 the following morning as we reported floating and clearing away…

But the 50% figure has caused and a new website has been launched to promote awareness of the 999 service.

See:

HM Coastguard launches website to promote awareness of 999 service

When the Maritime and Coastguard Agency slimmed down its shore stations in a fit of modernisation with a centralised centre ‘somewhere in Hampshire’ from where experts , we are assured, will know a dinky little creek off a tidal waterway anywhere … many of the old CG Stations were taken over by an organisation called the National Coastwatch Institution. Many ex MCA staff transferred upon retirement – it is a volunteer organisation.

A branch opened at Holehaven – a singularly dire choice where other than big ships travelling by, little happened! They talked there way into hiring a chunk of the Island Yacht Club hardstanding, out on its south-eastern corner. A much more appropriate spot to gaze over the areas used by the general public.

The display I saw at my local library appears to be in conjunction with the new MCA initiative.

Like may organisations, the National Coastwatch are after your sevices!

So, if interested, look them up in your area and there may well be a local station.

Now this leads me onto the helping hand that has, by tradition, been freely given by one seafarer to another, for generations – the lore of the sea…

The above attempt to tow a ‘stricken’ vessel was made in 2020 during the Covid spring, when sailing was granted. The tow rope was my quickly joined mooring warps – dropped by our club workboat when they arrived to try and help. I never got the warps back from the Benfleet YC boat – it is told about in forthcoming book!

Sailing alone on a fine day with a good sailing breeze I was gazing at a little cabin cruiser going along when her mast folded at the hounds and collapsed.

There were many powered craft zipping about and a fair spread of sailing vessels. Other than myself, NOT a single one took any notice!

I sailed over to ask if they were okay and if their prop was clear. With their assurances, I left them puttering back towards leigh – all told about in my forthcoming book.

Now, recently, I heard, a vessel from my own club had run aground on a mud bank in Hadleigh Ray. They were returning to the Island YC after being ashore elsewhere. The bank, Bird Island, sits in the Ray Channel abreast of Two Tree Island and Marks Marsh Island.

I named it years ago and it was taken up be a chap at the Benfleet YC who surveyed the waterway from Benfleet YC to the Leigh Buoy – see BYC web site. I also produced a chartlet years beforehand marking where the buoys sit in relation to creek banks/gut way. It remains on the Island YC web site.

I have been monitoring the growth of this island fro a couple of decades and wrote to the PLA about it. The PLA denied its existence, but would look when next survey carried out!

I have sailed regularly up towards the BYC for decades and eventually ‘mapped’ the route from the seawall. There is a dished and fairly deep swatch to the north of Bird Island and Two Tree Island which is wide enough to tack through. The deeper and narrow channel runs to the south with hard steep banks.

The boat that grounded, fortunately ‘fell’ the right way, otherwise she’d likely to have suffered sinkage. The crew were taken off by the RNLI. A boat from the Island YC went out and plucked her off that night. Self-help at work.

Self-help does not appear to be the norm now though: I heard from a sailing friend about his problems with a folding propeller – leaving his mooring he found to his horror that the prop was thrashing about beneath the water not doing a lot!

‘I was drifting sideways up the creek…’ he said, ‘and called to people ashore at the Island to fetch a dinghy…’ The blokes stood and watched, doing nothing…

It was a passing kayaker who turned and sped up-stream to fetch out the boatyard boatman … my friend was taken in hand, lifted, sticky prop freed and greased and sent back on his way. Probably cost him, but help could have come from closer to home.

But I was dumbfounded by the lack of help from my own club members.

Shame on them!

It wasn’t a RNLI or Coastguard situation, just a simple within creek incident that was ignored by ignorance and a ‘don’t care attitude’ which I find extremely sad.

Deaths due to carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning is something to be feared, either in the home, a rented holiday pad, caravan, motorhome or aboard one’s treasured little ship, which is this post’s perspective.

Many years ago, when Whimbrel was new, I retrofitted ‘gas’ alarms beneath the drinks rack seen in the cabin view below. They were rather expensive marine units that were wired into the boat’s electrical system. They both failed – twice – before I went looking for different units.

In time I found that the best source for such items was the caravan and motorhome world. For CO units, the world wide web has a plethora of battery operated units that have a designed life-span of around seven years. An alarm sounds when battery is flat – besides, a lack of the tell-tale winking light is a damned good sign!

I have a gas alarm fitted low down under the step into the cockpit to tell of any butane/propane gas leakage. Incidentally, we have found that both will operate under ‘test’ should the mate’s underarm spray reach a sensor!

I was aghast to read in a marine industry editorial about the deaths of two boating folk in a Southampton Marina earlier this year. They were on a winter weekend. They had run the engine, a petrol unit, to charge batteries and get everything in order for a day afloat the next day.

However, during the evening/night, bothe passed away…

The report came up with the probable reason and, the fact that no alarm to monito carbon monoxide had been fitted.

See here:

Fit a carbon monoxide detector: Warning issued after Port Hamble fatalities

The number of deaths investigated by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) of the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) has rapidly risen giving cause for concern.

On inland waterways craft, they are a necessity for a licence…

The most tragic side of this is the fact that a unit can be obtained online for a pittance – £15 – buys a unit lasting seven years and operates independently of the boats power system.

Be warned, if you do not have a carbon monoxide alarm, fit one. Funeral costs a darned sight more than the fifteen quid for a little box of electronics…

So, I thought, it’s about time the satnav carried aboard Whimbrel was updated while I had the time.

The unit, a Garmin GPS Map 557, was purchased back in 2014 and it has served alongside the traditional charts carried aboard, kept updated annually (Which reminds me!) for I have never relied upon the electronic unit alone.

Last season, I finally decided that the update was necessary for there had been a number of changes which were of importance, even though I use it for cockpit observation on the whole.

I had the unit updated a few years back now some while after some major buoy position changes made in the Swin Channel, including a movement of the Maplin Sands firing range boundary eastwards. That was a waste of money!

Last summer, sailing with my youngest brother, we strayed over the line. We were steering for a green ‘dot’ away beyond the bow. A fast launch was seen astern. It was clear that it was curving our way.

The vessel morphed into the Firing Range Patrol!

‘Are you aware yo are fifty metres inside the range…’ a call floated across the gap.

‘Well yes..’ I said, adding, ‘I am on course for the Maplin Middle…’

‘You know you need to keep outside the Maplin Bell…’ the caller said.

My crew and I looked at one another. ‘Been sailing this passage for over forty years,’ I called, grinning, and adding, ‘so, yes!’

I got a wave … then the launch careered away…

While laid up nursing my new knee I have settled to dealing with all sorts. One being this update.

Easy, one would think. NO!

I trawled around and kept finding that the unit had been discontinued and was no longer supported. Garmin searches kept directing me to the ‘American’ web site.

I remembered I had a Garmin log on, and surprisingly I got on after many years of non use. Again, I saw the ‘557’ was no longer available.

All very strange as units were clearly still on sale!

I eventually alighted on a company based in Peterborough, Active GPS, which seemed to have what was required.

See: https://www.activegps.co.uk/garmin-bluechart-g3-uk-ireland-map-update-card.htm

An email discussion with James at customer services confirmed that the 2022 (current) update was available and he gave me details of Garmin UK based in Southampton, to check on the quality level of the update.

Email: marinesupport.europe@garmin.com

An email produced a telephone number and a very nice chap, Rob, confirmed that all chart corrections up to when sd cards were updated in 2022 were included. With that came a navionics link to the charts loaded onto the new card.

I ordered a new card from the very helpful Peterborough firm. Within a couple of days it duly arrived.

This last Saturday was a fine day with an early afternoon tide allowing me to comfortably board Whimbrel with my good mate in attendance.

The update instructions are short and sweet. The sheet stated it would take up to thirty minutes … in actuality, it was all done in less than ten.

While the machine whirred internally, I was able to sit back and enjoy the ambiance of being afloat on the dear old girl…

Three separate four-oared skiffs rowed past, bound, I assume for the Island YC, something I know they do from time to time. There are three rowing clubs in the Lower Thames. I didn’t see which.

I was handed a mug of coffee and sandwiches as the GPS screen went to start up – all done.

A few clicks, while sipping and munching and I was checking the Swin Channel…

A bouy marked up years ago was bang on the current charted position. I deleted the ‘mark’ for it is no longer relevant. There are others to delete as time progresses.

I then went to an area where I knew there had been a pretty drastic change to the position of the low tide mud edge over the past decade – Sharfleet Creek, which is off Stangate Creek on the River Medway system.

Last summer, after a ‘brush’ with the mud in Sharfleet, I marked the edge while enjoying a coffee and waiting for the tide to lift us…

It is clearly as good as bang on!

Lastly, upon returning to current position, the Garmin actually showed me to be sitting in the correct mooring (ignoring orientation!)

One of my club’s work boats on the way to a task on the fine afternoon.

So, now all there is to do is get out there and use the darn thing. When? Well, I’m looking to get afloat for a sail at six weeks post op, on a quiet day…

My sincere thanks to James at Active GPS in Peterborough and to Rob at Garmin UK in Southampton.

It was just so great to get such positive helpful advice. Priceless. Bless you both.

Down the Wind appeared from beneath the Christmas tree some months back – kind of Father Christmas, I thought at the time. So, I took it into hospital with me to give sailing succour when disabled with a new knee!

Have I read it before? Not sure: couldn’t find a copy on my well stocked shelves, but may have done a very long time ago.

Down the Wind was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 1966, and is a compilation of articles from varying magazines from the obscure club type to the public and excerpts from books dating back to the germination years of sail cruising with the likes of R T McMullen, Claud Worth, Sir Alker Tripp amongst others. Many pieces are by authors from club annuals, such as the Royal Cruising Club and the Clyde Cruising Club etc.

The book begins with excerpts from sailing fiction. Few will know that the Hammond Innes yarn, The Mary Deare, was spawned from an encounter at sea in real life… whilst most sailors of a broad reading spectrum will know, We Didn’t mean to go to Sea, by the inimitable story teller, Arthur Ransome – the excerpt covers the ‘realisation’ of their situation after losing the anchor and being swept out of Harwich Harbour…

There are two sections of yachts in action pictures – mostly in a bit of a blow! A few are of the tranquil ‘normal’ type…

The first thing that is clear is that it is a ‘man’ book for women are barely mentioned. There is the odd piece where a woman features, apart from the couple written by women. Racing off-shore features heavily, in conditions in which the majority would avoid or not contemplate to cruise in.

A touching piece comes at the end of an excerpt from, A White Boat from England, pub 1951, by George Millar. he and his wife depart in the hours before dawn, quietly down the Lymington River (before the advent of plastic and massed marinas) bound across channel to France. It was a good passage but with rising wind they slipped into the Pointrieux River to anchor in seclusion above a village.

After discussing differing passages, good a anchorage, warmth and comfort below, the author says, ‘It is to enhance such contrasts with the sea and the wind that the truly wise yachtsman sails in the company of a beautiful or intelligent woman- it may be his wife.’

Setting aside a tendency towards misogynism, indeed. It is the reason I have always tried to ensure the cruising comfort of my mate, not overtaxing her, that I have a dear mate still sailing with me.

How many wives/partners actually sail? Not many…

Women writers or otherwise don’t feature greatly apart from two writers in pieces from from a novel by E Arnot Robinson, The Regatta, a great yarn based around Pin Mill on the River Orwell in Suffolk.

The other, Felicity Ann in New York by Ann Davison ‘laughing’ about chauvinistic attitudes of men discussing her boat and whether or not it could be sailed across the Atlantic and certainly not with the author, a woman, who had…

Just once are children mentioned – in Dawn at Crinan by ‘TEW’ where the author has spent a lazy half-hour watching the dawn while his crew get up, commenting on the chattering excitement of two young boys with their father heading towards the anchorage and their dinghy…

Then, as he re-boarded his boat with the waft of bacon emanating from the hatch, he pauses to watch as two, ‘little girls exploded out of the fore-hatch of a boat lying three out astern of us, shouting with laughter and calling to each other…’ they scrambled ashore and raced to the sea lock.

An excerpt ‘Fitting Out‘ from, A Capful of Wind, by Aubrey de Selincourt, 1948 struck a chord. An owner is fitting out with a friend who is clearly of more robust stature and probably younger. He discusses fitting out done by owners and those tasks left to a yard. A paragraph about antifouling too…

‘Now scrubbing and antifouling a yachts bottom … is hard work. It has to be done against time, to get the paint on before the tide is up again.. The composition works extremely stiff, and certain parts of the boat’s bottom are difficult to reach. The work gives one a crick in the neck, an aching back and a numb wrist.’

I bless my dear mate: she has for so long done most of ours, leaving me to cut in and do boot top…

Most owners thee days antifoul in the boat or club’s yard, but many still use a slipway, or even the beach.

So, did I enjoy the read. Yes, I did.

Like may books in this genre, dating back to over a hundred years ago, and less, the language can be ‘old fashioned’ and, don’t be surprised to find sexism or views of a misogynistic tendency. We’re ‘better’ people now, hopefully, in inclusivity…

If you have a copy lurking on your book shelf, give it another airing. If never read, well, you’re missing out on a myriad of sailing mignons, which may set you off on finding the books from which the pieces have been taken…

Enjoy!

The Calor Saga has developed a little, but don’t become euphoric: it remains bad news.

I began to ‘worry’ about this nearly two years ago now and contacted the Royal Yachting Association (waste of space) and the marine leisure press – only one outlet initially interested the story – and eventually decided I had but one choice.

I looked at diesel cookers – problematic in fitting of a flu, and briefly considered old fashioned paraffin and even methylated spirit – sorry, but these on a boat used for long periods of the summer are not suitable.

The back story:

Calor Gas slashes bottle sizes: Ditch-crawler comments…

So, a Facebook post from a sailing friend popped up with news from the Boat Safety Scheme people(BSS) in which is an announcement from Calor of a suspension of their original public statement, however, the small 4.5/3.9 kg cylinder will be going, but in a phased manner as cylinders reach life-time limit.

The BSS main statement is copied below.

‘Our advice to boaters is to take advantage of this new Calor position and use the opportunity it affords to, if changes are necessary, find competent expertise  in local boats yards or through the Gas Safe Register www.gassaferegister.co.uk/find-an-engineer-or-check-the-register/ and ensure any changes are safe and compliant with boat LPG Codes of Practice and BSS Requirements.’

I just love the bit, ‘ find competent expertise  in local boats yards…’ presumably this would be for redesign and changes to locker access and the like.

As said in my original posts, for many wooden boat owners, a complete redesign of cockpit/locker arrangements would be required associated with problems in maintaining locker bottom drainage…

So, a major cockpit reconstruction. Are Calor going to pay for this?

Is it even possible?

See: Calor new position of filling small capacity LPG cylinders welcomed by BSS | Boat Safety Scheme | Go Boating – Stay Safe

This changes absolutely nothing for so many people in the boating and caravanning world, as the only alternative remains changing to Campingaz. That is a 2.72 kg butane cylinder at twice the price of Calor’s 4.5/3.9 kg butane/propane exchange prices.

Great!

Many east coast sailors know and love the pretty little marina at the head of Woodrolfe Creek at Tollesbury. But, how many realise that just up the road, a little beyond the tide line, sits a world beating innovative company.

I didn’t, but I have known of Tollesbury’s connection to the wider maritime world in a communications company and a ‘control’ engineering company going back to my time at sea.

Last summer while we were berthed aboard Whimbrel in Fox’s Marina, I spotted a strange looking vessel.

Upon talking to the harbour master, I discovered that it was an autonomous boat built in Essex for ocean exploration and survey work. ‘Down the coast…’ he said, presumably not knowing where.

I later found the company on a web search. It is based in Tollesbury, Essex, just up from the old fishermen’s sheds.

Information about the Essex based company, Sea Kit, can be found here: https://www.sea-kit.com/

The company manufactures these craft to exacting parameters which enables the oceanographic scientists to do their jobs…

I ‘forgot’ all about the event, however, reading a recent copy my Marine Engineering Society magazine – Marine Scientist – I alighted on an article about the autonomous survey of one of the world’s undersea volcanoes in action – described as the biggest eruption man has witnessed or recorded.

The eruption was near the Pacific island of Tonga.

Sadly, for me, the article was light on detail of aspects I thought should have been expanded upon.

The Tollesbury Company has been expanding its output to cope with an increased demand for autonomous survey vessels. See Sea Kit’s press release.

On the company’s site there was a press release. See: https://www.sea-kit.com/post/press-grelease-sea-kit-expands-production-facility-to-meet-growing-usv-demand

And another that caught my eye:

https://www.sea-kit.com/post/press-release-sea-kit-triples-production-and-expands-r-d-with-new-facility

So, the next time you pop into Tollesbury, remember that this is not a sleepy little Essex waterside mud-hole, but a place at the heart of the Tech Community, controlling autonomous vessels on the other side of the world, built metres from the mud…

Fascinating and fantastic to learn that a marshland ancient centre for boat building, repair and fishing is still producing craft.

Well worth a visit, if allowed!