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

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

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

Old fishing boat and the ‘Pink Elephant’…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The ‘Belton’ clubhouse…

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

Two more fine looking clinker vessels were seen too…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen to that…

Fascinating, thanks again Norman.

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

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

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

Then I was ‘dragged’ home…

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