Thursday 7 July 2011

Regrets

A large area of saltings run to the west of Lymington down to the entrance of the Solent at Keyhaven and Hurst. The area is a nature reserve and although the sea defences have drained some of the land many of the creeks, streams and salt water lakes remain.

It’s been seven years since we took this picture of an old boat abandoned and rotting in one of the small creeks, it’s lines spoke of an efficient working boat combined with an elegance and grace in shape and form. At the time it occurred to me that it would be worthwhile to take the lines off and record them, but with a busy schedule and other distractions she was soon forgotten.



The intervening years have taken their toll, the transom has fallen away and the hull has lost the shape that caught my eye on the previous visit. When I took the original photo I hadn't realised that the hull had been sheathed in fiber glass, but if you look more closely you can see it by the rounded corner of the planks as they meet the transom. Sadly pretty much all that now remains is the sheathing.



What is sad is the loss of yet another example of our maritime history

1 comment:

  1. I used to own this Dinghy a few years ago and was free to anyone who wanted it.

    Surprised it is still there,
    The History I had of it was it was called "Miss Arley" and was built some time in the 1920's and was a Rowing Dinghy, at some time it was converted to a sailing Boat and that had weekend her Keel and Structure.

    We removed this gear, but her Planking was getting too rotten to remove the Fibre Glass sadly.

    As I recall it rowed very well and rowed to Lymington and Keyhaven very well in the 1980's.

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