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:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howards%27_Way

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…

The Elephant yard survives. See: www.elephantboatyard.co.uk

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…

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!

See: 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!

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!

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.

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!

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…