Nice skiff

 This lovely skiff came past as I was walking along the river and I was fortunate to catch up with them on the slipway at Swanwick hard. The owner built after reading up on ceder strip construction to an American design. It looks like it may be the Annapolis Wherry.  Whatever the design he has made a great job of it.

 

French Classique

 Back in the mid 1970's, if you couldn't afford a Yamaha FS1E, then this (or a Puch Maxi ) were the transport of choice for a budding 16 year old wanting to get mobile.

 Forty-nine cc's and mandatory pedals to give some sort of notional hint that it was a bicycle, no ears just a centrifugal clutch, twist the throttle and off you went. Cheap enough to go to school on.

An enterprising bicycle shop had these for rent and leisurely tours around the local hills and mountains, not sure how they would get on with some of the steeper inclines, maybe that's where the pedals come in handy? 

Seagull Saturday

Or maybe not

 

Yawl

Perhaps it's just me but I seem to see far too few boats that set my heart racing, or maybe there are just so many look alike white boats the ones that are described as "euro style" or less kindly "lozenge".

 This yawl is a stand out with sweeping sheer, short raised cabin and lovely counter stern. I'm guessing it's around 65 or 70 feet which is really too big for short handed sailing, but it's probably the length that allows the lines and proportions to work well. 

XoD Morning

Local XoC in the early morning, thing of beauty

 

Contrast

 Interesting contrast tradition and modern on adjacent moorings, I'd be happy sailing either and both.

 

Castles, towns and villages

I've written previously that the southern parts of the Massif Central in France must have been a lawless place back in the old days as it seems like every village and town was fortified, many still survive intact today

There is probably no better area to visit than on the Route de Larzac in the Averyon region where we were staying during the summer. The route is world heritage site, a a series of villages which were owned and protected by the Knights Templar during the eleventh and twelfth centuries and the 100 years war.

Right at top is St Jean D'Alcas which was actually an authentic Cistercian village fort, built as a refuge in 1356 and completed in 1443.

Second photo down is the church at La Cavalerie which was, is part of the ramparts

Above La Couvertoirade, the most complete village which has survived without very much subsequent development, apart that is from the buildings being converted into cafe's and gift shops and thewhole place having the feel of a theme part rather than an ancient monument, such is the popularity of such places.

 I forget which village this fabulous residence was in, I just remember thinking what a cool place to live or maybe have as a holiday accommodation.

Storm Ami

 Storm Ami was still raging on Saturday morning when we went for breakfast in Lee on the Solent, the wind and waves coming down the length of the Solent from the west and breaking on the shingle beach, white caps everywhere.

 Apologies for the poor resolution, but there were actually a couple of yachts out off Cowes, which was presumably in a slight lee of the Isle of Wight or possibly they decided to go out and practice for real in the 40 knots guts which were predicted.

 

Tonnant

 Back in 2005 Bursledon Regatta suggested as part of the event a reenactment of the battle of Trafalgar, using dinghies which were made into "fighting ships" with the addition of wrap around hardboard or plywood panels. Actually one of the entries went a little further, it was pretty much a scale model with full rigging based on a mirror dinghy hull.

 My effort was somewhat more modest with masts from PVC pipes and fully armed with plastic buckets and water pistols for full broadside. 

My plywood panels are long gone, can't even remember what I used them for, but along the river is a nice reminder of that battle 20 years ago.

Great set of pics here  in fact pictures of all the recent Burelsdon themed regattas.

Roller Reefing

 Who thought roller reefing or more accurately roller furling only started about 100 years ago with Wykham-Martin?

 Presumably the wooden sails have quite a lot of windage anyway even with the cloth sails furled, so maybe they were set during light winds, like an early sort of Code Zero.

Classic Yard

There's always a good crop of classics on the moorings at the Elephant Boatyard.

Too often I just pass by, so on a quiet and early Sunday morning I thought I'd paddle over and take a closer look

 

Odd aspect

From a distance I couldn't figure out the aspect and indeed what this this boat silhouette actually was, a little later despite the very light winds it came closer and all was revealed.

 

French motoring

Being land locked in the mountains on holiday there wasn't much opportunity for looking at boats but as consolation there were a few interesting cars

Above a hot rod Renault Dauphine, no idea what engine or modifications were made, but the matching green wheel centers are a nice touch. 

Actually not a Topolino, above these were also built by Simca in France from 1936 to 48 and while production slowed during the war it continued, apparently many being commandeered by the Germans as staff cars
 

A regional rally which seems to be an annual event gathered in the nearby town with stages in the surrounding mountains. A lot of the entries were souped up hatch backs ranging from older 1980's Peugeot 205 to more current examples, and a few modern sports cars like this lovely Renault Alpine below, we spent a pleasant couple of hours in a bar, watching them return to the town square at the end of a day's racing.

When four wheels are too many and two wheels are too few, lovely example of a BMW with sidecar, guessing from the 1960's was in immaculate condition. 

With the temperature up around 38 degrees C it would have been a shame if we hadn't seen a Citroen Mehari, for anyone not familiar it's a lightweight recreational, beach vehicle with a fiberglass body fitted onto a Citroen 2CV chassis and running gear that only the French could do, fantastic colour too. Mrs BB would love one if we lived somewhere warm and sunny, but I got quite a shock when I checked prices.

Underwater Advertising?

 Possibly to attract business from passing scuba divers or submariners?

 

Société des Régates de Courseulles

Which presumably is the local yacht club at Courseulles who seem to have a couple of nice J80's in the fleet.

I really like these boats, some friends had one about 20 years ago and I remember having some of the most fun sailing in all sorts of conditions, screaming up and down the Solent.

We went out to see the start of the 2005 Volvo around the world race start off Cowes and wanting to keep well out of the way ended up heading east back towards Cowes after the fleet had passed only to encounter about 100 or more power boats at full tilt, chasing after the Volvo fleet, causing most horrendous wash and chop, the J80 just ploughed on through it all.

 Some good pictures on the Société gallery

Malawi

 Mrs BB and I were not the only ones who've been away over August,

Joseph together with thirty-five Hampshire Explorer Scouts returned home after almost a month in Malawi where they were joined by local Malawi scouts undertaking work on three village schools, building 181 new desks and repairing further 41, repairing and painting 17 classrooms which were badly in need of attention, also constructing a kitchen and a toilet block.

 

The outbound flights, first leg London to Ethiopia with a five hour stopover before taking the second flight to Lilongwe the capital of Malawi took around 24 hours followed by a very bumpy 6 hour bus journey to the Ntchisi forest where they camped for two nights to become acclimatised, daytime temperatures 25 degrees cold at night and with tropical twlight falling around 17.30 the evenings were dark. Another very long and bumpy bus journey took them to Mzuzu where they set up camp for the work on the local schools.

The uncomfortable bus journeys were just an introduction to how different things are in rural Africa. Cooking for example throughout the month was done over open fires, there was a rotation every 6th day when each of the teams took a day off the work on the schools to cook for the whole group which involved a trip to the market for supplies. One day chicken was in short supply so “Jeremy” was acquired at the market and carried back still alive and clucking, which was a first time, close up experience with the food chain.

Building desks involved going to the market, selecting and bartering for a huge pile of raw timber, which then had to be transported, sawn and cut before being made into desks. Previously in many of the classrooms the students sit on the floor which is especially a problem for the girls who culturally are under pressure over modesty, so sitting at a deck is a major improvement in their ability to participate in class.

 

Many of the classrooms required substantial repairs to the concrete floors and walls and with that completed all 17 were repainted, many for the first time and with murals to make school a much better experience. A library was built at the Mpamba Primary school. The local economy is so poor that money isn’t available for even basic repairs.

The construction of a kitchen at the school means that that children can be fed which encourages attendance. The kitchen was very basic, just walls and a tin roof. There is a preparation area, a pantry with cooking done on open fires.

A couple of local builders were brought in to help with the construction of a toilet block at the campground which is used by local scouts. Again nothing very sophisticated just walls, a roof and no plumbing, it’s called a “long drop” for obvious reasons.

During the stay a local businessman heard of the project and kindly donated 2million Kwacha (about £800) to the project, a lot of which was used to provide books and mosquito nets which were distributed to local families as malaria is a major problem. He also returned with a Malawi television crew who broadcast a news feature about the project.

It wasn’t all work, the team had Sunday’s off and visited local churches and other recreational events. When the work was completed there was yet another bumpy bus ride to a beautiful  camp site at Makusi on the shores for Lake Malawi for a couple of days, followed by a safari at the Nkhotakhota reserve.

 

At the end of the project the team also donated their expedition tents to the local Malawi scouts.

Returning back to England after 24 hours of traveling was an emotional experience for the explorers and families alike, with no phone or internet coverage for over a month the only communication had been 3rd hand updates on a face book group. All of the explorers were asked to give their reflections, many of which were about the huge disparity between life in Africa and England, the life lessons and especially resiliency and team work they had learned and most significantly the warmth, friendship and appreciation of the people in Malawi. 

Sailors away from the sea

I've long had this thought that the only place a sailor can live away from the sea is in the mountains, that and thoughts about perhaps not impending, but not too distant retirement led to us spending three weeks in a mountain village in southern France to test the theory.

The region comprises lowish mountains, ranging upwards from 250 meters above sea level, at one point the motorway reaches1120 meters (3600 feet if you don't like the metric system), not dissimilar heights to the Lake District but with sunshine and good food.

 

The idea was to see if we really might enjoy living in the mountains and perhaps the nearby rivers might be enough to satisfy the water lust, but if not the Mediterranean is only an hour a thirty minutes away. 

Ancient woodland paths abound, this one a section of what was a pilgrim way which connected Nimes to Santiago de Compostela, shaded by boxwood trees there were literally clouds of butterflies on hot days, not to mention a rather large black snake which I later identified as probably a Montpelier snake, venomous but not fatal.

The softer low hills soon give way to sheer cliffs and plateau, so a 5km hike is very different proposition to my daily walk along the Hamble river, but the views were spectacular. Below Mrs BB leads the way past some significant boulders.

 The nearest town and shop was 5 miles away and 200 meters down in elevation, so walking back from the pub was definitely a non starter. Although there were a lot of cyclists it being France, I did bicycle to a nearby village which was pretty much all uphill, nothing that an electric bicycle wouldn't solve and concluded that we'd need three cars just for redundancy to get around.

Almost every village and town had a twelfth or thirteenth century bridge, church, tower and often all three.

During the whole time we were there we only saw 6 English cars and four of those were at a not too nearby major town which is popular as a center for kayaking and rafting. What was noticeable was how friendly and welcoming everyone was. those who could would often reply to our school level French in English and those who couldn't we managed to get through with a smile and "pas problem, merci and/or bon journee.

Looking good

Making South Street look good, not the average builders sign, spotted in Emsworth

 

Hamble History

 A couple of Hamble views that have cropped up recently on local social media. 

Below 1930's view up the river, it's hard to pinpoint exactly the location, but looking up river somewhere adjacent to the current HYS, Port Hamble marinas or possibly the old Luke's yard now the Royal Southern YC

And famously a cover of the Radio Times from 40 years ago, featuring the Laser 28 Flying Fish (which is still moored in the river) and members of the cast who appeared as Leo, Tom and Tracey Howard. 

There are some episodes on youtube, it's pretty bad but back in the day I was an avid watcher and might even admit to having had a bit of a crush on Susan Gilmore AKA Avril Rolf daughter of the curmudgeonly owner of the Mermaid yard. 

 Must have had a deep influence on me as I scraped together enough money to buy my first yacht shortly after, it was the 80's and all that.

Floaters

 Slightly risque named cafe just below the motorway bridge on the way up to the upper Hamble.

 Great for kayaks, paddle boarders and the like, there didn't appear to be access from the pontoon, hopefully they get enough passing trade, who can also hold on tight when the tide's running fast.

Going to need a bigger boat

As Jaws celebrates 50 years since the movie launched I though this was an appropriate post.

 

Curious sculpture at Warsash

 Curious sculpture set in the mud adjacent to the Warsash SC pier on the river. I can't decide if it's new or just something I haven't noticed before. 

 I sometimes launch a kayak from the hard and paddle upriver to home, but I think this is the first time I've launched at low water so may have been covered by the tide on other occasions. 

Moths

Recent meeting of Moth dinghies at Weston SC, Moths are a development class with a long history going back more than 90 years

The fleet was mixed with traditional designs presumably dating back to the 60's and 70's up to the winged Moths, all pre the foiling designs which became popular in the early 2000's

I believe these are called classic or international Moths, although I don't know the dates the varied designs show variously an open transom and gunwale extension for better hiking. 

The open transom proved it's worth in the breezy conditions, a couple of boats like the one below came up full of water and quite unstable after capsize.

Winged designs also made up the fleet with the characteristic narrow hull.

Out on the water both types were mixing it up on the race circuit.

Another variation of a winged version with solid wings more or less an extension of the gunwales, I think the owner said it was a German boat originally. I don't get a photo but one of the Weston members sails a low-rider type which I believe is based on the Australian scow hull design which was very fast

 

CVDA

The Classic and Vintage Dinghy Association met at Weston SC recently with some lovely boats and unfortunately I was doing safety boat duty so took far to few photos.

Above a very nice Albacore (I think)

 Wooden classic Moth, the varnish finish was fantastic given the age of the boat, guessing it's stored indoors. 

 Below beautiful International 14, built in Brancaster on the Norfolk coast

 Presumably cold moulded construction (could equally be hot moulded?) and immaculately finished showing some of it's heritage back to the Uffa Fox designs

Out on the water