At anchor

Nice classic an anchor in Swanage recently, wonderful steep sheer-line, raised doghouse and rounded full stem with what looks like enough sail area to punch through the local often choppy seas.

 

SCOWs & Western Solent

Members of the Hurst Castle SC (of which I'm one) have been sharing pictures of SCOWs sailing in the Western Solent and Keyhaven harbour, with kind permission presented here for your enjoyment.

Possibly on what might be a cold winter's day taken with a with a cup of hot tea or coffee and thoughts of the summer past or the summer to come.

 

Gaffers

Couple of local gaffers, the top one with very practical raising bowsprit to keep the marina costs down. I wasn't paying much attention and can't tell from the photo but I had it in mind as a Heard 28 (apologies to the owner if it's something very different). 

However the Heard 28 is an interesting story of itself, in the early 1960's Terry Heard a Falmouth boat builder in consultation with architect Percy Dalton took a mould from carvel-built timber local working boat named Saint Melorus, to build in glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) boats that matched the legendary underwater profiles of the classic Falmouth working fleet. The first built was Terry's own boat, named Melorus. 

Below what I think is an open Skanner 19 with a distinctive canoe stern, a heavily built, traditional classic-style small sailing yacht and motor-sailer with a long keel, designed by Michael W. Hawes and first built in Cornwall, UK, in the early 1980's,

And friend Gerg's Memory 19 "The Flugal" looking great and glad to be afloat after a bit of a prolonged stay ashore.

RAFYC Launch

The RAFYC have a new launch which has a very traditional look, almost like a miniature air sea rescue boat from the 1940's.

Apparently it can carry 12 but looks  possibly to be a little cramped.
 

Remembering Stuart

My friend died very early in 2020, over the years we sailed together and enjoyed the occasional evening sipping whiskey. This was a bottle of 12 year old single malt Stuart had given me for a birthday present so it seemed like a fitting tribute to put a ship in it.

 His yacht was an Oyster 43 named Porcelain (last seen locally preparing to head off to the Caribbean with a new owner) so something modern with fore and aft sails seemed more appropriate than a traditional square rigger, plus I like schooners and the additional mast and length seemed to fit the bottle pretty well.

As with many projects life and work get in the way and the parts stood neglected at the back of my office for far too long, but it's finally up and sailing and a nice reminder of days spend with a good friend and mentor.

Shipping Lanes

I'm sure with the optical foreshortening that the two small yachts are no where near the shipping lane, but it's a useful comparison of the types of vessel that share the same and relatively small piece of water. 

 Taking the deepwater shipping  exiting Southampton Water and taking the channel west of the Bramble Bank, before turning east along the Solent and out past the remains of the Nab Tower. Ships operating have a moving exclusion zone 1000 meters ahead and 100 meters to the side, any vessel under 20 meters in length or any sailing vessel is strictly prohibited from entering the zone.

@61

Having attained a few years past 61,  I thought to take issue with the shop owner, "who are you calling antique" but then read the rest of the sign.