Houseboats

One of the major yachting centers in the UK, Hamble is not immediately associated with houseboats. While there are a few live aboards in the saltings between Bursledon bridge and the motorway, below Bursledon pool the river scene is dominated by shiny white hulls and silver masts.

However just downstream of Hackett's Marsh and Universal Marina is Salterns Creek (above), where a small community of live aboard steel barges lie on the mud, waiting for the tide.

If you know where to look there are quite a few more houseboats, hidden away from the main river.

Surrounded by woodland, coming right down to the water's edge and completely invisible from the busy river, one of these would make a fantastic weekend retreat.

Haul Out Time

It's that time of year when we yachtsmen prepare for the annual winter ritual, haul out, maintenance and anti foul.

Many of of us do our own anti fouling and grumble at paying £80 for 2.5 litres, but spare a thought for this chap, I hope he had a big roller!

Windy Weekend

The wind touched 50 knots on Saturday morning, that's over 57 MPH or for those on the metric system 84 Kilometers per hour. It was a day for staying in.

By Sunday afternoon things had settled down a bit, so I rowed down to Greta, our gaff yawl, to make sure she was alright, out on her mooring.

It was late afternoon by the time I'd finished, the river was quiet and the sky overcast, when the last of the sun broke through.


What a great day to be out.

Winter Outlook

I’m never sure if November is late autumn or early winter, one thing is for sure the season of long nights and cold days is upon us.

Gazing out of the office window, I realised that the trees had shed most of their leaves, to reveal the view down the valley, which has been obscured since the spring. As if on queue, the black horse, who lives in a neighbouring field, walked into view contentedly grazing.

Later a large dog fox walked, confidently and unhurriedly past in full view. I realised that it won’t be long before we see the deer darting out nervously from the woods, or coming into the garden to feed on the last of our acorns, as this one did last summer.

Erica has just ordered up extra bird food, so the garden is busy, the normal tits and finches have been joined but a couple of woodpeckers, a nuthatch and of course the squirrels.

We don't often get snow, being too far south and too near the sea, last winter however it snowed and settled, if only for a little while. Here's one of the local squirrels kindly clearing snow off the bird table!!

This seasonal visitor was a regular, we haven't seen him for a while, so we think he must have died, but he used to come every morning when we called his name "Fat Robin".

There’s a lot to be said for winter.

Local Boat in France

Well OK, actually she’s Plymouth registered, but since she’s a Warsash One Design I consider that local enough.

I’ve always thought of the Fred Parker - Warsash One Design as a Folk boat with a counter stern, which might make me slightly unpopular with the class owners.

Ondine had just arrived in Marseillan, John, her owner had sailed her down the Atlantic coast of France, from his home port in Plymouth, and then from Bordeaux made a transit of the famous Canal de Midi which exits into the Etang de Thau just to the west of Sete.

These 28 foot craft are undeniably tough, Sherman Wright sailed a heavily modified one, Andromeda in the 1996 Single Handed Trans-Atlantic Race (STAR) and again as an unofficial entry in 2000. Another WOD Vacuum with Junk rig, was prepared for the 2006 Jester Challenge but pulled out before the start.

Currently Ondine is laid up in the little local marina for the winter, while John gets her ready for some cruising around the Mediterranean in the spring.

Amble up the Hamble

I joined the HBBR - UK Home Built Boat Rally on Saturday for their "Amble up the Hamble". Setting off from Swanwick Hard, we rowed upriver past the moored yachts which characterise the lower Hamble.

Well most of us rowed, but it was good to have a support boat standing by. I was really taken with this Selway Fisher design "Penny" - I'm thinking she would make a really nice yacht tender.

And one of us had wind assistance

What contrast between the lower and upper Hamble, the upper Hamble features wooded shores which come right down to the water's edge. Here the fleet is making our way up to the Horse and Jockey pub, we were a bit early on the tide, so in the narrow confines of the last stretch we carried the flood, rowing seldom and grounding often.

Arriving well before high water, made getting ashore a sometimes tricky and sometimes muddy experience. Having gone to all that trouble, the pub was closed!

Undaunted by the pub with no beer, we rowed up the alternative creek which took us to Botley where the well stocked Co-op provided sandwiches and refreshments.

Rocket Ship!!

I spotted this rocket-ship while walking through the marina back in the summer. Essentially it’s a 35 foot very high performance, trailer day-sailor. Produced by CPY in New Zealand it’s constructed in high tech composite.

There are some really nice features, it has a retractable bulb keel, which lifts vertically much like a Laser SB3 making it a relatively easy boat to trail. The rudder is an especially neat solution, to make the balanced spade rudder removable, the entire rudder assembly fits into a well, set through the hull.

With a beam of 7’3”on a 35’ LoA, and an all up displacement of 2.4 tons, the boat is a flyer.