nautical links

For love of a boat – in Northumberland, England

/ Bill / 2 Comments

Seahouses, Northumberland, UK 2004

AA commented to my last post:

“I have often heard it be mentioned for aircraft “If it looks good it will fly good”.
I guess it applies to all things, boats included 🙂
Beauty, efficiency, utility, it all lies with the right proportions, maybe just the right mix of good and bad design (as nothing is perfect).”

I definitely agree with this. There is also the thought that “form follows function”.

When they reached the final design for the coble, they must have explored a whole seried of boat forms before they decided that this was the one that ideally suited the coast on which it was to be launched.

In the image above, there is the opportunity to compare the coble with the more recently designed Drascombe lugger – conceived and built in the south west of England.

This should also please Mr Boating who commented: “Looks good but I think you can add more photos from other sides, can you?”

Sometimes you take several images, sometimes you don’t.

For love of a boat – in Northumberland, England

/ Bill / 3 Comments

Seahouses, Northumberland, UK 2004

For a Cornishman used to Atlantic swells and surf-swept beaches, inshore craft have always been a facination. As a teenager, I read Edgar March’s ‘Inshore Craft of Britain: in the Days of Sail and Oar’ and was hooked. The facination comes from the way boat design developed over the centuries to suit specific coastlines. Local conditions and local materials requred local solutions.

(WIth no apology for repeating myself) . . . as the world gets flatter, and commercial and political expediency blur the old boundaries, we have gradually (rapidly in many cases) lost the individuality in skills, knowledge and experience that go with it. You can still find it (as with this coble) – but you have to look hard.

The coble may work as a boat in Cornwall but it was shaped to deal with the tides of the North Sea and the beaches of the North East of England, no less than the boats of Southern Europe were shaped to deal with the relatively tideless Mediterranian.

Enjoy the difference and keep looking.

For the origin of this series – here

For love of a boat – in Crete

/ Bill / 1 Comment

Aghia Galini, Crete 2005

I had intended posting a single image each week with no text. However, there was a comment to my initial post that took me by surprise and has made me reconsider.

Usually when I wander round a harbour looking at boats, especially in the Mediterranean, I am far too late to see the boats going fishing – they would all have been out earlier in the morning.

Therefore, of the many images I have collected over the years, only a few show boats as they should be seen – with crew – working. This image of a gentleman from Aghia Galini, rolling his sleeves up as he sets off, has long been a favourite. There is a promise of more to come – and a fine boat to accomplish it. Look at the wake.

So much for the romance. It was AA’s comment that concentrated my mind. He has kindly given me permission to quote the following:

“The preservation of some of these boats is an issue that is not met positively in Greece as well (which is where i am coming from originally)

Only for the last year or so there has been a society formed for the preservation of these boats but things are moving very slowly.

The boat you are showing is “lucky”. It has not been swept away because of a political decision to scrap it, like this one:

http://www.greektube.org/content/view/21126/2/

The government (prompted by some EU financial analysis) is trying to decrease “Professional Fishing” by giving money to fishermen to give away their older wooden boats. So, what do you do with a wooden boat once you have “bought” it in this way? Well, you scrap it in the most hideous way.

Some people have found ways to convert the bigger old fishing boats to recreation vessels for small tours and things like these but the majority of these boats end up chip wood.

The way i see it, these boats are products of a tradition that goes way back. Looking at them is like looking at a compact form of knowledge and experience…The boat is like a library but it has the fate of the Library of Alexandria.”

The last paragraph says it all. Watch the video carefully.

Now my simple pleasure has gained an extra dimension – and I add ‘Maritime History’ to the category list for this series of posts. There’s more to come.

The Cloud Appreciation Society

/ Bill

We were charmed to look up at the mountains across the water from Korcula to see this cloud formation.

 

I had never seen a cloud like this and wondered if it was a local phenomenon or whether we were just unobservant.

It remained over the peak for a long while and slowly developed.

 

I don’t think it is related, but that night we had a thunderstorm and a half. The lightning was right overhead and the thunder claps deeply thunderous. At one point, our window blew open.

Anyway, I have looked up the type of cloud (Google) and find it is a Wave cloud. This particular form is called Lenticular:

“Another way that wave clouds can form is where air flows over a mountain or hill. If a cloud forms on this wave, it is called “lenticular” (which means “lens-shaped”) cloud, which has a very smooth, symmetric appearance”

In my search, I came across The Cloud Appreciation Society. Now, I’m ashamed to say I laughed. What! There are people who watch out for clouds and take pictures of them!!

And then I paused – Oh . . . . . . .

Well, here are two more untouched images – (taken two days later on the ferry from Korcula to the mainland) 

 

  

– and long live The Cloud Appreciation Society.

 

 

 

The Art of the Charter

/ Bill

We had been looking down on the harbour of Cavtat for some time, before we noticed the obvious – “That mast is very tall.”

We are in super-yacht territory, and this is ‘Only Now’  (and here) – loa: 104.10 ft, lwl: 90.78 ft, beam: 21.82 ft.

Yours to charter – for a fee, complete with crew.

We had been admiring the fleets of charter boats sailing between the islands, especially the 40 – 50 ft boats.

Yachts like ‘Only Now’ raise the game to a different plane altogether.

 

We didn’t see her leave harbour, but we did watch her out at sea, tacking among the islands – stunning.

 (Oh – and she’s four times the length of Blue Mistress!)

 

For love of a boat – on the Dalmation Coast, Croatia

/ Bill / 7 Comments

The problem is this: here is a fine-looking, well-built, working boat sitting on a beach.

“

It’s not in its original condition. The hot sun shines on it every day, the seams have opened, a piece of the forefoot has come away. Whether this is repairable or not is irrelevant, this boat is no longer required for its original purpose and it will finish its life as a theatrical prop on a beautiful beach in Croatia.

So, do we care? After all, there are plenty of other boats in the world. What’s special about this one?

Well,  somebody had the idea to build it. Perhaps he designed it – or perhaps he took the lines off another boat-  (I say ‘he’ because it’s less likely in this country to be ‘she’ – but not impossible). Somebody sawed the timbers and found the rest of the materials required, then they built it. Maybe he sold it or maybe he used it himself to fish from, and certainly he would have put in the time to maintain it.

You see, this boat has gathered a history around it. It is the story of a life lived on the water. We may never know the details of that story, but it deserves some respect and, at the very least, it can be preserved in a picture.

I hope to post pictures of similar boats (most of them in a better state than this one) regularly.

Back from holiday

/ Bill

 We have just returned from a holiday in Croatia – not sailing, but walking, busing and ferrying along the Dalmatian coast and through the islands – another opportunity to wander around small harbours, (some very small indeed), looking at boats.

Hvar Town

I am fired up with a new enthusiasm. In the face of some of the more elegant and expansive examples of modern yachting (of which more later), I understand why Blue Mistress suits me and have an inkling how to evolve with her over the next few years.

I come from the Robin Knox-Johnson first era – (his first circumnavigation, rather than his second), and, while watching (and enjoying) the more extreme examples of modern sailing, which a younger generation takes for granted, I am able to pause and wonder what are the things that are being lost in the rush for the new that would be worth highlighting.

There are skills and knowledge that grew over time (because they took time to grow) that will be lost in half a generation. Some are obvious, and some we do not need any more, but there are others that we will miss when they have gone. And they are less obvious than you would think.

Blue Mistress’ lines were taken from the Folkboat, (which was designed in the 1940s), but she is not such a classic boat that we can’t put some new materials and innovative ideas into her – and still have a fine boat. We can straddle the generations and see what comes out of it.

Even if we wanted to, we cannot avoid the modern – it constantly hits us in the eye. But we can take the time to look a little further, trawling beneath the surface. And wondering along a coastline, wherever you are, is doing just that. Some of the knowledge and skills I am talking about can still be found in places like the little harbour below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s in a word?

/ Bill

It has taken me a while to grasp this – I am a bit slow.

If you look at the entry list for the Artemis TRANSAT, it reads, for example,  Gitana Eighty – Loick Peyron, Telecom Italia – Giovanni Soldini.  

On the other hand, in the entry list for the JesterChallenge, it’s the other way round – the sailor is the entrant, the boat his/her vessel.  

This is because the entries to the Artemis TRANSAT single-handed race are Team entries; the entries to the JesterChallenge are Single-Sailor entries.  

Both events have instrinsic value, but it is the concept of single-handedness that differs. The meaning has become confused – in the context of this particular race, at least.

I look at the entries in the TRANSAT as a small boy must look at Formula One cars – from afar.

I look at the entries in the JesterChallenge with genuine understanding and fellow feeling.