Another Mystery Boat

Dylan Winter has got himself a new web site where you can see his progress sailing around Britain in an elderly 19 foot, Mirror Offshore yacht, he even has HD video.

In the scuttlebutt section Dylan has a clip of an unusual and interesting day boat at the Walton Yacht Club.

With carbon spars and a Laser style drop in dagger board, she looks fast, the raised floor suggests she might be water ballasted.

If you know more, please drop me an email.

The Worst Sailing Innovation Ever - Tillerman Writing Challenge

Is without doubt Howards' Way.

Apologies to those who in response to Tillerman's writing challenge, came up with entirely plausible lists - I completely agree with Desert Sea Sailing who's number 17 is Teak “LEAK” decking, EEK, what a FREEKIN' BLEAK REEK! - Work of the devil, best place for a teak deck is the barbecue!

Then there was Adam Turinas and his recalcitrant outboard. but really anyone who has ever owned a British Seagull outboard will have had exactly the same problems, plus you can always use it as a kedge!

And of course there are lots of annoying sailing people, like America's Cup lawyers - thanks Capt JP, and the very act of sailing itself according to Chris Partridge.

But none come even close to the appalling low budget drama, based in the fictional Hampshire sailing community of Tarrant - Howards' Way

To start with there was Tom Howard and his radical ULDB yacht design - that's Ultra Light Displacement Boat an acronym which never caught on - no surprises there!

Boatyard co owner Tom Rolf always muttering into his beer about "real wooden boats", in a later episode he gets a Queens' award for Industry for the Orcadian - which was actually made of plastic!

There was Jan Harvey who went from angry, lunching housewife to running an international fashion house, but not before working for Ken Masters, having an affair and wearing the most ridiculous feather headband ever seen on television.

Leo started the series as the environmentalist son, but later took up powerboat racing!

And then there was that gold swimsuit!

Honestly you would have thought the script writers would have all had a good laugh and then gone down the pub, but no the program ran from 1985 to 1990 in the hugely popular Sunday night spot.

Apologies to overseas readers who might not have seen the series, there are several clips on youtube.

But the worst thing of all is the fact that it was filmed here in Bursledon!!

High Pressure

With a high pressure system forming to the north of the UK, there's talk about a return to Arctic conditions for the week ahead. Weather forecasting is always a tricky business, but most predictions are for some clear sunny days as well, which is when the river is at it's best.



You would have to get up pretty early in the summer to see the river so tranquil and so lovely.

Nice to see a splash of colour among the hundreds of white hulls and decks.

And what about this beauty, keeping up that immaculate varnished hull must be hard work and expensive, but on a day like this it looks so worthwhile.

Winter Afternoon

The nice thing about winter and the odd high pressure weather system we get, is the quality of the light. We were down at the quay in Hamble the other day and while there was certainly no "red sky at night" there was the most delightful pink hue to the oncoming evening sky. It reminds me of some of the early impressionist paintings, that I saw in Paris back when I was a student (just waiting for someone to comment that they were freshly painted back then!!).

And of course the light did wonders for our very own Hamble Ferry which was just winding up for the day.



This looks like a Maurice Griffiths designed Eventide, highlighted against the woodland backdrop, notice the ebb is running really fast.

The last ferry was really struggling to make progress against the tide. It was getting cold and with the last of the light slipping away, a warm fire and a pint of beer was calling us indoors!

Lady Marmalade

Do you remember Labelle belting out "Voulez-vous coucher avec moi (ce soir)?" and wearing those wild, silver outfits? Well this is altogether less exciting.

The green grocer was selling off the last of the years' Seville oranges and Erica suggested that we make marmalade. Not having the recipe to hand, and given that they were at a knock down price, I bought 3 kilos.

Three kilos of oranges makes quite a lot of marmalade. In my defense I did squeeze all the juice, and remove all the pith and finely chop all the rind. Even so we maxed out the jam pan and had to call in a couple of other saucepans to handle the volume.

Erica is a pretty good jam maker and the results are delicious, all 22 jars!!

Gitchi Gitchi Ya Ya Da Da (?)

Gitchi Gitchi Ya YaHere (?)

Mocca chocolata Ya Ya

Creole Lady Marmalade - as they said in the song!

Old and New

Opposite ends of the boating spectrum, an old gaff cutter lying alongside a modern racing yacht, well sometimes things are not quite what they seem.

The red boat, belongs to my friend Mark and is an Oyster Lightwave which has been converted into a fast cruising boat. Mark worked with local yacht designer Stephen Jones to modify the rig and make it easily managed by a crew of two. Below Mark and partner Amanda have installed a practical and comfortable interior. They returned to the Hamble last summer after a year long cruise of the eastern Atlantic including the Canary Islands and the Azores.



And that old gaffer, well gaffer certainly but perhaps not so old. I don't know the background but I recall the hull being finished in a local yard a couple of years ago. The give away though are those black carbon spars!

Diversions

What with the snow and I admit some general lethargy, winter work on our yawl Greta hasn’t been progressing especially well, so I was determined to get some work done at the weekend.

On my morning run, early Saturday I spotted a boat leaving its mooring in Bursledon. There was a perfect, if chilly northerly wind, as the small yacht rounded Lands End Hard they set the genoa to sail off down river. It was before 8 o’clock, the river was peaceful with only the curlews and oyster catchers breaking the silence - perfect winter sailing.

I resisted the temptation to take the dinghy out sailing and knuckled down to some work down at the boat yard. Within a couple of hours I had the rudder off, the prop shaft and cutlass bearing out and ready for a replacement, one of the bigger jobs I planned this winter.

Sunday was busy, I started the day with a slight hangover, then I had to go to Portsmouth to pick up my daughter who had just got back from a ski trip. I think she must have had a bob sleigh in her luggage - it was huge! After that, and making lunch, I managed to get the hull polished and if I say so myself, looking pretty smart. Then it was back home in time to take Joe to the swings in the park.

Anyway there was no wind, but the sun did come out for a while and very nice it was too.

Pictures are of Greta last summer by Eddie Mays