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.
Our Finesse 24 Whimbrel built in 1983-4 ready for the water after four weeks ashore to strip varnish to bare and build requisite number of new coats. Hull was dished and overcoated, as well as bottom doing, of course..
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!
The Mate pressure washing ‘her’ bottom…
After my knee operation, I worked hard at the physio exercises and was walking up to a 1km at the end of first week.
Out walking…
Whimbrel’s lift was duly booked for Saturday 20th May.
Christobel applying antifouling…
Before lift out I was able to enjoy two sessions sailing with The Boy and the Mate aboard, which was a great tonic.
And here, stripping varnish off the transom.
It wasn’t long before the first fresh coats were being applied, starting with the transom and then the rudder.
Transom – first coat…
I had chosen to use Le Tonkinois No.1 which is a semi man made concoction which I had winessed on several craft.
Transom completed with name buried under the last of two of nine coats.
The rudder also was given nine coats!
Rudder stripping in hand.
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!
The Queen of strippers nears the finish line. Note rudder refitted. I got a fellow club member to make up two new fitted pintles which has taken out ‘rudder knock’…
As areas were stripped and sanded, varnish coating began. Pencil tick list to eight for each!
The port side ready for window fitting.
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.
The bilge gets chicken pox!
Having completed stripping for England and sanding for the World the mate morphed into Bilge Babe…
The Bilge Babe strikes off another milestone…
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!
A snippet of the front piece…
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 Blue Mermaid captured through a life buoy…
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…
Topsides painted and boot top cut in.
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.
The side deck painting bears completion.
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 cabin returns to normality!
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!
Ready for the water…
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…
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!
Old sets of chart (not very old!) with corrections to new editions and Deben/Alde entrance chartlets.
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.
New chart packs!
Then, of course, there was the little matter of correcting those ‘new’ charts.
Corrections in hand…There was a patch correction for the R. Crouch – note the chunk I had to cut away to avoid covering that all important compass rose! New R. Deben entrance!
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.
Inflated jackets!Cleaned and repacked.
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.
Unit kept in a cockpit locker.
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!
Companionway entrance unit.
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…
From a display in my local library, Hadleigh, Essex.
However, public knowledge has been on the wain so back in 2018 a campaign was launched, based around a seaside cartoon type postcard couple…
Item from as far back as 2018 regarding a campaign using old techniques…
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.
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 National Coastwatch look out at the Island YC.
The display I saw at my local library appears to be in conjunction with the new MCA initiative.
The Hadleigh library display.
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.
Your ‘country’s coastline’ needs you!
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…
Whimbrel attempting to tow a vessel from the Benfleet YC from a mud bank in the Ray Channel in 2020. We failed to shift her!I advised the boat’s crew to appraise the RNLI – we had already called the Port of London VTS. The RNLI later took the crew ashore. The boat sat on the bank for a couple of months while the boat’s club did nothing.
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.
A few weeks later, I passed by and had a closed look. Looks like a typical splintered wooden spar!
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!
Bird Island – Ray Channel abreast of Two Tree Island. Note: clump of cord grass to rhs.
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.
A typical carbon monoxide (CO) monitoring alarm unit.
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!
Looking into Whimbrel’s main cabin – note CO alarm on bulkhead under bottle rack.
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.
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!
Range Patrol ‘upsetting’ the quiet of our morning!
‘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.
Out on a walking exercise…
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.
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.
Section showing Sharfleet off Stangate Creek. I straight away noticed the clear loss of a ‘bay’ along the north mud edge.
I ordered a new card from the very helpful Peterborough firm. Within a couple of days it duly arrived.
Garmin sd update card.
This last Saturday was a fine day with an early afternoon tide allowing me to comfortably board Whimbrel with my good mate in attendance.
Aboard… Note down to a single walking stick by twenty days after op!
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.
SD Card update instructions.Doing its stuff!
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.
The third of the three skiffs framed by boat and my mooring jetty.
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…
Swin around the Mapli Middle – note black mark – this was marked by a New Zealander who was crewing with me a few years back, as we passed closely. Bang on!
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.
Buoy with ‘mark’ deleted.
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.
Note ‘mark’ – ‘Mud Edge’…
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!)
Home mooring!
One of my club’s work boats on the way to a task on the fine afternoon.
The ‘little’ work boat.
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 cover – did it once have a dust jacket?
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.
A scattering of line sketches throughout by artist Paul Sharp livens the book.
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…
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.
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…
Access made ‘just’ wide enough to slip a 250mm diameter cylinder in. The locker floor has a drain, but when well heeled it ‘floods’!
So, a major cockpit reconstruction. Are Calor going to pay for this?
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.
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.
The little ship under manned way!
I later found the company on a web search. It is based in Tollesbury, Essex, just up from the old fishermen’s sheds.
Alongside the dock. Vessel appears to be a sister to boat in press release.
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.
The Marine Scientist in which I read the article.
Sadly, for me, the article was light on detail of aspects I thought should have been expanded upon.
Close up of an array of craft carried by the British Survey Vessel Discovery. Courtesy: Marine Scientist.
The Tollesbury Company has been expanding its output to cope with an increased demand for autonomous survey vessels. See Sea Kit’s press release.
Close up of a sister to the vessel I saw in Fox’s Marina during August 2022.
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.
Having a professional maritime background, I knew that when the media picked up on Government attentions being drawn to the activities of the minority, then it would not be long before the associated department, the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA), acted.
The law of the sea around the coasts of the United Kingdoms has changed – the law will be taken aboard by devolved governments.
I wrote about this during the Covid-19 pandemic, having been troubled by watercraft, and witnessing crass stupidity which resulted in Essex Police being called to the Leigh-on-Sea waterfront by members of the public.
The troubles around the waterways were raised by the Times Newspaper in a leader too. See attached posts etc…
A skiff in Queenborough Harbour beam onto an approaching wash. The oarsman turned, just in time to hit bow on.
The crux of a legal case brought up the terms within the act regarding personal watercraft and whether or not they were constituted ‘a ship’ as we know we all are under the Merchant Shipping Acts, the COLREGS and SOLAS instruments that lie at the heart of ‘the sea’…
Personal Watercraft (PWC) are designated vessels and must comply to same rules as the largest container ship!
This is going to be a shock to many owners of PWC’s where owners can live far inland, have little knowledge of area trailing to, or, more importantly the hierarchy of the sea and those upon it.
So, now the law has been changed by Parliament, it is the job of the MCA to discharge and disseminate.
A personal watercraft skimming by – this one behaved sensibly.
Harbour authorities or their sub-acolytes Queenborough Harbour(?) in the first instance will be required to act and deal with. Sitting above are the police, and the law – MCA.
Confiscation and fines will be imposed, as they have by some authorities over past few years.
Many will applaud this long overdue action…
I suggest reading through all the links within the MGN684 link. It is interesting reading!
I was sitting in hospital with time, I thought, to get on with a blog I had earlier prepared. The plan was to use up those boring hours of waiting with time to muse and think…
It wasn’t to be for I was in and out after having a total knee replacement that there just wasn’t the space. Visits from doctors, nurses administering pain blockers and coping meant time ran away.
So, my earlier thoughts on a couple of news items that popped up on Leisure Marine News had to wait.
Wherever one walks around the coast of Suffolk, Essex and Kent, the story is the same. A plethora of plastic waste can be found washed up along the tide lines…
In many respects this problem has become worse over the last decade. Why?
Well, the simplistic answer is essentially obvious – it is thrown aside by the uncaring folk of the neighbourhood or from vessels. The latter is not the norm.
The littered detritus along the tide line of a sea wall along the R. Roach in Essex seen recently during February 2023. It contained large numbers of plastic items.
Some of it will be from wind-blown material, especially up within the headwaters of the waterway.
This is not just an East Coast – Thames Estuary – problem. Sailing some years ago in the Western Isle of Scotland we came across one particularly badly affected beach in a bay. In particular, I remember fish boxes from Portugal and plastic bottles with non-English labels. Never mind the rest.
To say the least, the media has been pretty forward in promoting the cause against plastic pollution but it goes on, seemingly unabated.
Boat passed locally which has been ‘flying’ plastic bags for years. I wonder why the perpetrator of the graffiti did this terrible deed?
The vessel pictured in my own local waters has been strung with plastic bags for years – over a decade at the least – and when they shred, as they inevitably do, they are ‘quietly’ renewed.
One has to ask the question: Is the owner stupid (unlikely) or just damned uncaring of the environment. The latter is the probable.
I could not possibly condone the graffiti, but clearly a boat owner, boarder or canoeist has seen fit to make a point… Forward of the ‘D’ for DICK is a crude drawing of an erect male member! The picture was taken in October 2022 and recently when passing that way the message was still in situ but the flying plastic bags have completely shredded into the local waters.
Some years ago I landed on Burntwick Island along Saltpan Reach on the River Medway in Kent. I was looking at the old remnants from a military boom defence establishment. The ‘land’ is being eaten away by the rising tides and poking out of a metre high edge some distance from the surface there was plastic! How long it had been buried, I wondered…
Evermore dire reports are floating into the media to be read by those who are interested and ignored by, probably, the majority whether or not they condone pollution or not. Most water users are as good as gold, but we have all seen some pretty bad behaviour going on.
So, what did I read that prompted these thoughts?
From Leisure Marine 9th March 2023:
The item said that:
‘Scientific study has found that there are now 171 trillion pieces of plastic estimated to be floating in the world’s oceans. The data suggests this is an increase from an estimated concentration of 16 trillion pieces in 2005.
Plastic represents a huge threat to marine life, as it can kill fish and sea animals who mistake it for food. Plastic can take hundreds of years before it breaks down into a less harmful state.’
A recent UN treaty of the seas is signing up nations to designate protected areas around the coast – the UK is part of this system already – and around 30% of the world’s oceans would become protected too.
The article went on:
‘The reasons behind such a sharp increase are not confirmed, although researchers say it could be explained by legislation around pollution being replaced by voluntary agreements. It could also be linked to larger pieces of plastic breaking into smaller pieces — or the amount of data collected.
Prof Richard Thompson at Plymouth University, who was not involved in the study, told the BBC that the estimate adds to what scientists know about marine pollution.
“We are all agreed there is too much plastic in the ocean. We urgently need to move to solutions-focused research,” he says.
Authors of the study argue the best long-term global solutions involve standardised monitoring frameworks to track global trends, and creating binding and enforceable international agreements to prevent the emissions of plastic pollution.’
There are things that yachting folk can do to help cut the volume, other than not throwing overboard. Also, in a yacht yard, wind-blown material becomes a watery hazard.
A week or so back there was a mid-week work party team combing the foreshore along the Island Yacht Club’s moorings on Canvey Island.
‘The team, consisting of scientists from Plymouth Marine Laboratory, University of East Anglia and the University of Plymouth, exposed juveniles of the mussel species mytilus to three treatments of microfibre, which reflects both current and predicted future concentrations of polyester and cotton microfibres in the natural environment.
Studies suggest that as much as 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic enter the global ocean every year.
Fibres are one of the most common forms of microplastic identified in environmental studies, accounting for up to 91 per cent of the total identified microplastics in some studies.’
The microfibres are small at around 0.01mm – 0.5mm in size and this sizing was used in an experiment with mussels in a laboratory.
The results howed slower and small size growth of maturing molluscs.
A team member said:’
‘Additionally, “Reduced growth rates could alter the energetics of food webs, as smaller mussels are less nutritionally valuable, both to their predators in the natural environment and to us as consumers of seafood. Microfibres and other microplastics expose marine animals, such as mussels, to an additional risk in an environment already at risk from other challenges such as climate change.”
Note here, plastic bag flyers:
‘Fibres that are less than 5mm are termed microfibres. These tiny fibres are predominantly generated from the fragmentation of textiles, stemming from the day-to-day use and washing of clothes, and from the weathering and abrasion of marine infrastructure, such as netting and rope.
Microfibres are typically composed of polyester, polypropylene or nylon. However, numerous studies also report the presence of naturally derived and semi-synthetic microfibres (e.g. cotton, bioplastic) in environmental samples, which have received relatively little attention compared to their plastic counterparts.’
So, to combat household washing pollution, micro-filters are being developed. The retrofit and integration of a filter to a washing machine and captures and recycles microfibres as small as one micron.
As said previously, the general public have a lot to answer for and could, at a stroke, contain much of what ends up in the seas around our shores.
Waste thrown into an emergency sluice near Conyer, in Kent on the England Coastal Path & Cycle Way.
The answer to that is highly probable. If I was ordering Whimbrel this year, and not forty years ago. Times were hugely different then. We were just getting away from the petrol or diesel fit, scenario.
My main use is for entering and leaving marinas, leaving my mooring and returning, making/completing a passage when the wind has expired and a number of incidental uses. Sails are Whimbrel’s main source of motive power.
Whimbrel sailing out of Smallgains Creek, moments after clearing her mooring.
I leave and return from my creek mooring as often as is possible. Any engine use is minimal. I have sailed into a marina, once, and sailed out of others on a number of occasions – usually early in the morning…
Now, for a new vessel, the most difficult question is, do I fit diesel or electric drive? The answer to that sits with what type of vessel, what is the main use and where – area being navigated.
New sailing yachts will be powered in this way as a norm before too long.
The news item reminded me of a Finesse 21 based down in the west country which has been converted to electric drive. The conversion work took place during a major refit after the vessel was sunk during a flash flood – fresh water from heavy rain – at the boat’s tidal mooring.
The boat was originally powered by a Yanmar 1GM diesel unit. It had a stated torque of around 34 Nm and it was replaced with an electric motor of 32 Nm torque at 1550 rpm supplied from 2 x 24 volt batteries. These were charged from solar chargers fitted on the cabin top.
Owner of Finesse 21, Ivy May, completing his new electric drive.. Courtesy: Joe Andrews.
The owner reported achieving 4.5 knots in slack water and against a gusty 20 knot head wind. Apparently, the 5kw unit and uses around 1.8 kw to achieve cruising speed.
Thanks to The Finesse Facebook Group for information.
So, that has been a successful conversion.
The duration is relatively low – reported to be around five hours. That would not suffice for east coast cruising, however, if one is able to sail up to a marina or whatever, requiring minimal use then, bingo. Slip in and plug in…
But, in the media there has been a growing number of all electric vessels coming onto the market. These, in the main, have been launches and ‘speed-boats’ with an occasional sailing yacht build being announced with electric drive.
The big problem with operation away from shore for long periods is the ability to recharge at a rate acceptable for use. When that happens, then we will be there…
There are, of course, weight considerations of the battery packs, but like their growing use in the automotive industry, these constraints are waning with technological progress.
Another news item caught my eye. This was about a maritime innovation hub which is returning to a spring boat show at MDL’s Ocean Village Marina in Southampton.
There is a host of interesting events and companies taking part.
Areas such as low carbon fuels – hydrogen and methanol, sustainable sails and sails acting as charging units. as well as ideas on protecting the marine environment.
All very interesting giving much food for thought in these ‘end days’ of winter!
In the dark days following the New Year, a rerun of the ‘Sailing’ programme Howards’ Way, first filmed and screened in 1985, was advertised on Drama Television. The series originally ran from 1985 -1990.
My mate laughed. I smiled, for a spark of nostalgia was ignited…
I was away at sea at that time and apart from the odd episode, I did not see much of it. So, purely for historical research, I have been sporadically watching some of the first series and rather less of the second. The series appear to be running consecutively.
The programme was based around an ‘old style’ boatyard – The Mermaid Boat Yard in the Southampton area. The yard in reality is the Elephant Boat Yard.
For those that have never heard of the series or know anything about it or the boats the programme was built round, look at the following web source:
The Finesse 24 Frith awaiting hauling for keel bolt renewals at the yard. Credit: Alexis Harrison, owner.
In an early episode, I clearly saw the shapely hull of a Finesse 24 up on the yard’s hardstanding. Amazing! To cap that, a friend took his ’24’ to the yard for keel bolt renewals last autumn, showing that ‘Jack Rolf’ the Mermaid’s owner was right: there will always be a place for a good honest traditional yard…
View of the Elephant Boat Yard -courtesy of EBY web site.
The series opens with yard problems and a growing ‘community’ where sex, family infighting, double-dealing and financial intrigue swirls back and forth at every twist and turn of the tidal eddies…
However, it was the boat, the Barracuda, that has always interested me: one of the class has been in our yacht club for a number of years.
The boat, herself, has had a bit of a murky past of late, being involved with people smuggling for which the perpetrators are residing at His Majesty’s pleasure…
Summer Breeze, owned at the Island Yacht Club.
The boat was severely ‘stripped out’ by HM Customs & Excise at Ramsgate after their ‘collaring’ before eventually being placed on the market. I have to say, under new ownership, she looks a treat.
Apart from the people and the rather dubious fashionista content, central to the plot were the yachts from the yard and those early flashy motor cruisers then beginning to infest the waters marketed by ‘Ken Masters’ … a waterside dodgy dealer similar to the oft lampooned car salesman type!
The boats: The Flying Fish, a Laser 28, was the family owned yacht of the Howard. Then along came the Barracuda of Tarrant, the prototype of the Sadler Barracuda 45 a vessel which came from ‘Tom’s’ drawing board after being made redundant as an aircraft engineer. Another was the Spring of Tarrant, the prototype of the MG Spring 25. Both the Barracuda and MG Spring were in reality designed by the inimitable Tony Castro!
Sadly, the programme makers had the boat – the Barracuda – designed and built in just a few weeks worth of the first series. Of that, very little appeared on the screen and I was too slow to grab a camera shot of the first boat being laid up in resin bonded cedar round her formers. It is a system used by Ipswich builders, Spirit Yachts.
The boat’s hull, when GRP sheaved was used to make a plug used for the production of following craft in GRP. There were a few shots of the boat’s hull being laid up. Then, as if by the waft of a wand, she was launched and sailing!
Barracuda on ‘sail trials’ in 1985. Courtesy of Drama Television.
She had a lifting wing keel, carrying a large part of her ballast. The boat certainly shifts and can broad reach at well over 20 knots. Her twin rudders were a bit of a rarity back in those days but it wasn’t long before they became common-place, especially from the big French yacht makers who ‘grabbed’ the mass market that grew exponentially during the 1970s and into the 1990s. Now the mass of gleaming white GRP has reached saturation: marinas are overstuffed with oversized and underused craft!
A marina stuffed full on a gorgeous sailing day when just a few, very few, craft came and went… Dwarfed by her larger sisters’ Whimbrel has her bunting up during the 2021 Finesse Rally.
I missed an episode or so and came back in with the daughter of the boat’s fictional designer on her way across the Atlantic, sailing to New York, on a stunt. It made great television and publicised the boat. However, in reality, the yacht did not take off and fly… Only around a dozen boats came off the ways, as it were.
Sorry about the clarity – from the screen! Courtesy of Drama TV.
There was an ill-fated catamaran – it sank and blame was inferred with the designer. It turned out to have been an accident, exonerating the yard. The craft seemed to ‘disappear’ into the ether…
Most people know of the MG class of yachts. Many are still seen sailing around, although as with cars, the class boats grew in size, leaving behind a market tapped by the French and German industrially built boats, until they themselves went into ever larger craft.
Now, there are few ‘pocket’ cruisers for the first timers, who, in any case, become dazzled at boat shows and slick marketing executives, buying a 35-footer as a first yacht!
A long flat bottom section is a hallmark of this yacht and others that followed. Summer Breeze at the Island YC.
Two of this countries casualties were Sadler (the actual builders of the Barracuda) and British Hunter based at Sutton Wharf, Rochford in Essex – just down the road from me. I used to know the company’s sales executive!
Nostalgia eh.
History, perhaps, in a way.
Whatever, there is an absolute plethora of ‘stuff’ on the web about this series, dubbed, Dallas on Sea by the media. Take just a little look and let yourself smile your way into spring, and into real boating…
I have been forced to be very selective about when to go for a sail with a knee that is a little unreliable … therefore the number of times I have got out has been reduced. I am pleased in a way that the weather has helped in my decision making!
So, after helping out at our club for the early part of the morning until ‘tea break’ we readied Whimbrel and slid out as soon as the boat picked up. The tidal cycle was neaps, rising, however the tide seemed to take forever to come in and we floated later than usual for predicted tide…
Christobel tweaking the jib foot tackle…
It was a bit of a grey day but there was a decent enough breeze to make sailing worthwhile.
It was good to hear the rustle along the boat’s sides as we forged over the flooding tide. We cleared the creek and ran eastwards to abreast of the Crowstone before making a long tack inshore taking us to the Essex Yacht Club, which seemed devoid of life.
In towards the Essex.
A further long close reach took us out close into Canvey Point, passing two of the Lower Thames Rowing Club boats.
Jolly Boats!
Bird life was a little like the weather, devoid! There were a few Brents about but I suspect many of them were in amongst the winter wheat under the Hadleigh Downs. There were a couple of swooping flocks of waders in the distance over the Canvey saltings. I mused to myself about the nearness of spring: it’ll not be long before the terns are back in residence … I’ll be ‘on the beach’ by then ‘banned’ from sailing until my new knee allows.
Whimbrel was still sporting its temporary main hatch while the actual unit has been undergoing a small repair and a complete strip down and recoating. (It is now back in place, looking resplendent after nine coats of varnish)
We sailed up into the Ray to the Two Tree Island slipway where the mate took the helm. As Christobel brought the the boat round, I slipped the main down as we came through the wind, stowing it while she ran back towards the creek. A well practised procedure, as many of my crews will vouch for.
Upon entering the creek a bee-like buzzing had me searching the sky around – annoying to the extreme – and i found the source. A drone hanging just off to our starboard filming us close to. So bloody rude.
Drone hung in the air filming our activities at close hand – intrusive and damned rude.
Pity the drone wasn’t around to shots of us on an earlier January sail – they never make contact and offer a picture, unlike this person did…
Thank you David.
Whimbrel captured by a fellow Finesse sailor as we crept in during a late January sail…
It was good to get out, especially with the mate. Bless her.
Happy Valentines Day dearest, and I hope you enjoy our ‘dirty weekend’ in Faversham … I promise not to gaze too fondly at boats!
This is no longer a joke. Boaters and caravanners to an extent will be champing a the bit in frustration at the news from Calor that the small 4.5/3.9 butane/propane cylinders are discontinued as of now.
The size that has replaced these are 7kg/6kg butane/propane which are appreciably taller and will not fit most locker compartments built into boats especially. A new regulator will also be needed for the butane cylinder. The larger sized bottles are 495 x 256 mm whilst the smaller 4.5/3.9 kg butane/propane bottles are/were 340 x 240 mm. A bit of a difference.
Looking down into Whimbrel’s gas locker. Note: width 250 mm achieved by scalloping cockpit structural fore & aft member. The calor cylinder at 240 mm (nominal) diameter just slips in.
Now, I launched a ‘campaign’ last year, following on from problems of the previous year, and I asked the Royal Yachting Association (RYA) to investigate and put pressure on the gas supplier.
The RYA could not even be bothered to respond to my letters (emails) so it was clear that an organisation that is supposedly looking after boating interests is not interested in the problems of its cruising members one minute jot. Gold medals is the only thing that activates them.
I terminated my forty year RYA membership in response.
During 2021 whilst away for the summer cruising on the east coast we had to change to propane due to acute shortages of the 4.5kg butane cylinders at all marinas we enquired at. Propane 3.9kg was little better, but we managed…
2021, when we were forced due to shortages of butane to change to propane. A new regulator was ready waiting to be fitted too…
The available bottles from Calor are ‘huge’ in comparison to their small bottles and there is absolutely no way for me to fit one or even two with a locker bottom above the waterline to achieve gas drainage.
Calor says: If you’re unable to increase your storage facilities, an alternative could be found through Campingaz (907 = 2.72kg). We recommend reaching out to a local gas safe registered engineer who can safely advise on any changes required to your gas cylinder set up.
Wonderful!
Camping Gaz R907 holds just 2.75kg of butane (they do not do propane) and will keep a two burner cooker going for just eight hours. Bloody wonderful.
Courtesy of ‘Getoutwithkids’ web page
Yes, the bottle which has a diameter of 203 mm will fit into gas lockers specifically designed for the Calor 4.5/3.9 (butane/propane) bottles, but this is not the point.
Aboard Whimbrel, our Calor bottles have consistently lasted around three weeks when away summer sailing. The Campingaz will need changing almost weekly in comparison and at around twice the price.
New camping gaz bottles with an exchange agreement cost around £90.00 and a refill costs anything up to £45.00
Yes, one could turn to diesel cookers. I investigated these and as a flue local to cooker is required, it would be under water when sailing….
We could go backwards and use a paraffin cooker, but, bloody heck, they take time to get going. Methylated spirit is needed – dodgy stuff – or even a meths cooker. Meths and cooking do not make good partners. No thanks…
My good mate says that tomorrow whilst out for a sail on the tide we will take a look aboard and decide where to keep a third campingaz bottle!
I will follow up…
This is the response received from Calor Gas after I sent a complaint:
Does anyone believe this. I certainly don’t!
Since writing the above, I have looked at other gas bottles on the market of the smaller sizes.
Flo Gas: has a 5 kg (patio) cylinder measuring 384 mm in height and 305 mm diameter.
Flo Gas has a Leisure 6 kg cylinder measuring 495 mm height and 256 mm diameter.
Calor have a 5 kg patio cylinder (propane) 314 mm in height and 306 mm diameter.
I found a BOC 4.5 kg propane cylinder: height 390 x 270 mm diameter, but BOC are not easy to obtain other than online/direct. Again, size is a problem.
None of the above could be fitted without major cockpit reconstruction!
It would appear that Flogas has a ‘calor’ sized bottle: Propane, height 340 mm x 240 mm diameter. It would need marinas to stock these to be of any real use.
However, I am currently investigating the possibilities of a ‘Calor’ sized cylinder with a different supplier. I will follow up…
The only alternative, as Calor say on their web site, is a Campingaz 907…
Update 17 Feb 23:Company I wrote to failed to respond – well what a surprise!
Practical Boat Owner has an article in its April 2023 issue which gives the ‘Calor Line’ but does not cover the other issues I found by talking to the marina outlets and other suppliers over the past two summers.
It is a great shame that the media and our industry did not take up this issue when it first surfaced. We have been failed by all those that supposedly look after our interests.
Article courtesy of Practical Boat Owner – April 2023 Issue.
Good luck to this coming summer. Be prepared to rejig systems, change regulators and cylinder size and ‘lash’ a bottle wherever it can be safely fitted!
The misuse of jet skis in the Lower Thames (Sea Reach), River Medway and Swale has been an ongoing and increasingly dangerous problem for many years. This of course has been a problem not just within the mentioned areas, but everywhere.
During the Covid-19 pandemic many people new to water borne activities purchased personal watercraft (jet skis) for they knew that a summer holiday abroad was an unlikely scenario.
When we were all released after the first lockdown (April-May 2020) to go afloat, the water became at times a night-mare place to be due to ‘virgin’ operators with little or no experience whizzing wherever they minded to without a care for others on the water around then.
This one chopped across our bow…
I would add that not all operators acted thus and I am sure experienced jet ski operators may well have been eaqually aghast at the antics seen.
Police were called to the Leigh-on-Sea waterfront due to adverse activities on one particular day. My wife and I were ‘cut up’, circled and suffered close passes too – which was written about at the time.
The Times newspaper even picked up on it with an article and a leader column too. The Government said that the Maritime & Coastguard Agency would be looking at the legislation and stated they would act if the regulations (law) required to be changed.
I wonder if Kelly Tolhurst, a Member of Parliament for Rochester & Strood, who was working in the ‘shipping’ Department was involved: she had direct access to The Medway & Swale Boating Association, a powerful lobby group acting for and in the interests of boaters.
There has been a couple of ‘missives’ from the Port of London Authority (PLA) on water safety, the effects of wash and draw-down which was aimed at all craft including merchant vessels in the spirit of co-existence and education.
The PLA have also successfully prosecuted mindless jet ski owners in the last few years. Picture evidence was crucial in this.
From the Marine Industry News web magazine 18 January 2023:
‘The UK is introducing new legislation to crack down on the dangerous misuse of watercraft such as jet skis, with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) being granted more powers to prosecute perpetrators of accidents.
The new law will come into force on March 31 2023, before the busy summer period, and will enable watercraft users to be prosecuted and bound by the same laws that apply to ships to help to prevent accidents.
This follows a boom in the watercraft industry during the pandemic, with the number, size, power and availability of watercraft like jet skis increasing, and their use in UK waters rising.
The government says today’s move (18 January 2023) will help ensure the UK continues to have some of the safest waters in the world.’
It should be remembered that personal watercraft were not covered by maritime safety legislation. The new law will mean those found guilty of using their watercraft in a dangerous manner could receive an unlimited fine and even up to two years in prison.
The article went on to say:
‘For those who cause accidents involving loss of life, the new offences could be used to better prosecute perpetrators alongside wider manslaughter charges.
Personal and recreational watercraft will also be bound by the “highway code of the sea” — international regulations which require users to act safely by maintaining a lookout, driving at safe speeds and outlining their responsibilities to other vessels.’
Indeed.
But, beware: the same regulation will surely cover all craft.
Best advice as an ex merchant seafarer: Keep a log, as one is duty bound to do under the current legislation.
This is not a problem just associated with jet skis. RIBs, sailing yachts (usually faster and larger) and motor boats can be a menace too.
We all make mistakes, but there are errors of judgement and plain barmy decisions…
Not always a RIB or Ski Bike. Here we were cut up by a large yacht, initially heading across our stern. She changed course and passed along starboard side. Her stern ‘passed under our bow’ as she swerved and subsequently gybed ‘behind’ our sails during which a man below leapt onto the helm – air flow deflections.
It was in the early part of the new year just a few years ago that I was alerted to the evils of Prostate Cancer while listening to BBC Radio 4’s morning programme. Again, this year there was a fresh ‘bash’ at the subject with a strong message for men.
The current UK total of cancer cases stands at around 380,000 cases per year, of that 40,000 are of the ‘Man Disease’ – Prostate Cancer. That is a little above 10% of all cancer cases.
The rough split is Men 53% of cancer cases and Women 47% of cancer cases.
(2018 Statistics).
How often do you see men as advertising targets – NOT BLOODY OFTEN.
It is about time the NHS bucks up and calls men in for testing, as women are for cervical and breast screening.
It is tragic.
Many of you will know of my story, or some of it. The whole is contained in a link below:
The BBC Radio 4 programme had a lady from a leading research charity speaking and later a ‘boffin’ who filled in the details.
There seems to be a ‘post code lottery’ but I believe this more down to reticence on the part of men.
Generally, Scotland has 1 in 3 men who when tested find that it has reached the metastatic stage – Gleason level 3 to 4. In Yorkshire and the North East of England the figure is around 1 in 5. The rest of England and Wales varied towards 1 in 8 in London. The eastern region has the more savvy men!
The cancer charity spokes person said: ‘Men should get a test regularly from around age of 45 and if a known family problem form age 40.’
Caught in the early stages, prostate cancer is highly treatable – specialist used the word curable…
Me on the ‘slab’ undergoing radiotherapy… Early stage treatment is often by drugs alone.
The specialist said that the biggest problem rests with GP practices. They do not like invasive testing. Been there! Christobel was in tears at this point…
Both guests said that although the NHS and other cancer web sites give a list of symptoms, however, it is more often than not men who have no symptoms who have the greater level of cancer when finally tested.
I had no symptoms, just a gut feeling. The information needs changing…
Now: the first test is a simple test of a blood sample – this should be offered (done) when one is called for blood tests or for any other test as a matter of course, cost is infinitely small.
If the test proves positive, a second blood test is likely. Then a knowing finger up bum feeling just inside close to the prostate is carried out. Enlargement can be detected here as well as any lumps on side felt.
Next a biopsy is carried out. Clearly, this is the test for a yay or nay… You leave the clinic smiling or bloody frightened.
NHS Wales has been carrying out a one day screening programme – probably as a trial for UK wide expansion. I don’t know how that has progressed.
The specialist also went on to say that men should ask and be demanding (I was told not allowed, so I banged the health nurses desk – that made her sit up!)
The specialist reiterated the need for men to get this test regularly to catch at earliest stage: then it often means a curative outcome.
Once the level 4 region has been reached, it is curtains.
The start of 2023 came in wild, damp and depressing, weather-wise. It also ended a very good year afloat aboard Whimbrel and I haven’t much to complain about.
2023 also marks a milestone for Whimbrel: she was ordered and largely built during 1983, forty years ago. There will be more of this later in the year.
A large job looms over us this year, well, as soon as the weather allows, for Whimbrel is to come out so that we can strip the varnish from her coach roof, sheer strake, transom and rudder.
However there is a glitch in all of this: I have been nursing a ‘poorly’ right knee for some time. To cut a long story short, at the beginning of December 2022 a knee specialist booked me in for a knee replacement – in two to three months he said…
I have ‘bone on bone’ contact in my right knee… Pain killers have been keeping me relatively mobile, if a little fractious at time!
So, I am hoping for as early a date with the saws as is possible for one can’t, or aren’t meant to, even drive for two whole months afterwards. Sailing? The ‘law’ is already being laid down…
Bloody Heck!
Knowing only a little about the procedure, I went in search on the web for some pictures!
Courtesy of Zain Ritchie -a type of replacement…
A friend has advised me not to watch a video available on the NHS web site – quite frankly, I don’t want to know…
As the New Year ticked round, I popped down to the boat on a dry period during a miserable windy and dank week to remove Whimbrel’s main hatch and fit a temporary affair I made up some time ago. I have ‘spares’ for both.
Whimbrel fitted with her spare main hatch.
It has a little work needing to be done and the outer surfaces will be stripped back to bare before re-varnishing. It has never been completely stripped…
Hatch drying out in the comfort of our conservatory!
Any way, after the poor weather during first few days of the new year, a window opened with a decent SW 3-4. It was due to increase later but after my return, so I got out afloat…
It was virtually windless in actual fact, but enough to make over the tide out of the creek. Dozens of Brent geese kept swimming across the boat’s bow, in the creek and as the moorings were left astern. I saw a Little Grebe in amongst the ochre-grey withered stalks of last year’s cord grass, hunting for its lunch.
The water’s surface was all but glass, but in the near distance a ruffling on the surface indicated greater breeze – there was.
Leaving the creek.
There was sufficient wind to get across the Leigh Flats to near the Essex Yacht Club. I reached west to the cockle sheds to get a good slant back out to the Ray. Indeed, the breeze increased somewhat and Whimbrel clipped along in flat water.
Reaching out to the Ray Channel.
A few short tacks soon had Whimbrel inside the Island’s marsh point where sails were stowed. On the way in, I tried to get at a wandering creek buoy which had lodged up against the saltings just down from my mooring a week or so ago.
Unfortunately, there was insufficient water and allied to an onshore draft, I abandoned the attempt. With a crew, I might have succeeded in hooking it clear! Hey Ho.
It was great to get out, but I missed my mate who was suffering from a bit of a cold…
Statistics from Whimbrel’s log show that 982 N. miles were covered. 45 litres of diesel were purchased and the boat was in use for 105 days of 2022. Seven different individuals have crewed aboard, plus usual two of course…
Between Christmas and New Year the BBC Radio 4 breakfast programme has a guest editor each day. Their job is to work with the programme team and introduce a subject or subjects that interest or concern them.
There were three that particularly caught my attention: Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, The Head of UK Intelligence Services at GCHQ, Sir Jeremy Flemming and The Swedish singer-songwriter Bjorn Ulvaeus (ABBA).
All three had one commonality: the power of communication.
Nazanin recounted being allowed a television restricted to safe channels … except one safe channel showed a day at Wimbledon on the day Andy Murray won the men’s challenge cup. It gave her huge hope…
The others had far deeper communications thoughts. I loved a section where the head of UK ‘spying’ interviewed the head of US ‘spying’ – with an interesting discussion on why they both agreed to alert the world to Putin’s invasion plans earlier this year…
But, it was Bjorn Ulvaeus who caught my ear, keeping it riveted. He was having an interesting conversation with an ‘unlikely’ guest: Sir Ben Ainslie.
Now, what do the two men have in common. Not a lot at first glance, however, they do in so many ways: communications. The use of AI (a recurrent feature during the week).
Sir Ben began to outline the use of modern communications and electronic wizardry in sailing – his type of sailing.
Recent British America’s Cup entry skippered by Sir Ben Ainslie – courtesy of a Team New Zealand post.
As all or most (for I hate the term all – such as ‘…we all love football.’ No, we don’t all love football!), so, most sailing folk know a little about the America’s Cup and the fact that having lost it in the inaugural race ‘we’ have never again held it. Sir Ben was explaining the intricacies of marrying a sailing vessel to AI and what he called ‘human machine interfaces…’
Sir Ben said tech was used to improve a boat’s performance to maximise potential – my words.
The boat though isn’t really a boat. Yes it floats, but a boat in normal language, no these ‘things’ aren’t. They are machines. Flying boats or aircraft if you like, but not, to my mind, a boat.
Yes, I know one has to have a broad outlook to ‘the sport’ and some good stuff filters down, but this form of ‘sailing’ is as much connected to the run of the mill boater as Formula One motor racing is to driving a family car, even though there are numb-nuts out there who think otherwise…
And, there is a similar breed afloat now. One can see them when out on the water. They stand at the wheel of a yacht of ever greater length and girth, staring fixedly at the big screen in front of the wheel, oblivious to craft around them and their need to obey the Rule of the Road.
In the past couple of years we have had to take avoiding action to preserve our wellbeing on several occasions!
That human machine interface needs a proximity alarm that cannot be switched off…
As my good mate remarked, having heard a piece of the interview: ‘…interface…’ she quipped, ‘that’s when I’m calling the depth when you drop the anchor…’
Indeed!
One of my favourite moments and pictures of the past season: Whimbrel in close quarters with the spritsail barge Blue Mermaid. Real sailing…
Aha, here comes a little addition for on New Year’s Eve, the Today programme continuing the theme of the week had the brilliant British-Nigerian computer scientist, Anne-Marie Imafidon guest editing. She first appeared on the programme some years ago – being a child prodigy in science, maths and languages – when she took he GCSE’s at 11.
Now, we were in for a stormer: there was a preamble about the fact that so much of our lives depends on SatNav – the Global Positioning System or GPS. The mathematics for this was largely proved by Dr Glady’s Mae West (b. 1930) from West Virginia, who first came to prominence during early NASA missions. Anne-Marie talked to the great lady’s daughter and there was a snip of an interview with the venerable doctor.
Two great ladies indeed and when one considers what the Taleban in Afghanistan are doing to women and girls’ education, who knows what minds are being stunted…
The GPS system was one bit of gadgetry that has benefited us yachtsmen to a level my grandfather could never have dreamed…
But, thank you BBC Radio 4 – it has been an enjoyable week listening over breakfast whilst champing at the bit to get out o the water.
Being prevented from grabbing a sail by damned weather…
AI can’t fix that!
Happy New Year to all my readers. We both wish you well for 2023.
Although Christobel cancelled our subscription to the Royal Yachting Association when I decided to close our membership down over their total indifference and lack of care regarding the extreme shortage of bottled LPG and Butane gas cylinders of the most common used sizes over past two or more years, the quarterly magazine continues to arrive. I suspect it’ll not stop until the spring-time renewal period.
anyway, absently leafing through before chucking into the recycle bin, I spotted this headline: ‘Your membership makes a difference.’
Courtesy of RYA.
Then further in I found a longer article headlined: ‘Your membership matters.’
Courtesy of RYA.
Of course, our experience of this self-congratulatory organisation is far, far different.
If the Royal Yachting Association REALY cared then the head honcho would have come back to me as promised by her PA earlier this year.
The front piece rattles on about lobbying (I sense ‘gravy trains’ here) assisting with proposed legislation – possibly the only plus – and all the benefit advantages of being a member with over eighty partners who would love us to entangle ourselves, none of which we have ever wished to us: I don’t want a Volvo, expensive insurance or stay at Portland House for instance!
I only ever asked the Royal Yachting Association to do something about the paucity of bottled gas. It affected many boaters and caravaners alike. They failed.
The second piece warbles on about getting the mist out of your chosen activity, inclusivity- which has been gradually covered more, but look at adverts for holidays and they are still showing blond he men and women on the whole – protecting freedoms ( severely curtailed for those unable to change an empty calor bottle over recent years), sustainability and growing together.
Excuse my language, but, Bollocks!
The Royal Yachting Association has not an iota of care for the common sailor. They are all about themselves, endeavouring to boost Royal Yachting Association membership and what they do for ‘the Nationals’, the Olympic team and other high profile events – largely based down south near where they hang out.
I’m not prejudiced. Observation is the key: I have been a member of the Royal Yachting Association for over four decades and I see what I see.
A straw poll of my club’s work party (sailors and motor-boaters alike) shows a dearth of Royal Yachting Association membership.
