if you want to feel young again go to a boat jumble

[Seajet]

I remember Old Harry ( Peytons' not BORGs' equally National Treasure ) on seeing his first Windsurfer with the guy holding the rig up,

" It's a scandal the job riggers get away with these days "

 

[langstonelayabout]

"Old Harry" and "Sods Law of the Sea" are certainly classics, but they relate to a yachting scene that no longer exists. Has nothing like them been written in the last thirty years? Or has British yachting become distinctly unhumorous?

Both fine publications and of a similar era to Michael Green's Art of Coarse Sailing and Art of Coarse Cruising, both of which are firmly in my downstairs 'throne room' book pile.

Have there been any similarly humorous cruising related publications since then?

 

[langstonelayabout]

Would his gizmo for flinging teabags be acceptable to day!

Splendid stuff. Wasn't there a competition to see which companionway-mounted contraption could fling the used teabag the furthest? Sadly at that time I was a dinghy racer and such erudite magazines as YM were ignored in favour of a magazine that had a '&' in the title...

 

[JumbleDuck]

Both fine publications and of a similar era to Michael Green's Art of Coarse Sailing and Art of Coarse Cruising, both of which are firmly in my downstairs 'throne room' book pile.

Have there been any similarly humorous cruising related publications since then?

"The Art of Coarse Sailing" is my all-time favourite sailing book.

 

[mjcoon]

I'm building a downstairs loo at present, and I'm grateful for the nudge to build in a 'boaty book rack'.....

Recommendations are invited for the first dozen tomes to take up residence .

Here's a few of not very serious yachtie books from my bookcase, not necessarily recent.

"Where did You Leave the Admiral?" by Libby Purves & Paul Heiney

"Three Sheets in the Wind: thelwell's Manual of Sailing" Norman Thelwell

"Up the Creek with Old Harry" J. D. Sleightholme

"You Know You're a Sailing Fanatic When..." Ben Fraser

"Libras Don't Say No" Rosie Swale (autobiographical but not actually about sailing, unlike her "Children of Cape Horn" which I don't have)

Mike.

 

[Seajet]

I forget who it was by, but I liked the American Dictionary Translation of Nautical Terms;

' Propellor - underwater winch designed for gathering in rope lines '

' Yawl - Southern version of Ahoy '

 

[JumbleDuck]

I forget who it was by, but I liked the American Dictionary Translation of Nautical Terms;

' Propellor - underwater winch designed for gathering in rope lines '

' Yawl - Southern version of Ahoy '

Those would be from this book:

 

[solent clown]

Best thread drift ever, all very fascinating and amusing.

 

[Blue Sunray]

"The Art of Coarse Sailing" is my all-time favourite sailing book.

I'd forgotten that, it's going back a bit but I remember enjoying it, I must see if I can find a copy and revisit it. Thanks for the nudge.

 

[mjcoon]

Those would be from this book:

I have that one too. Bit relentlessly American...

Mike.

 

[PhillM]

I'd forgotten that, it's going back a bit but I remember enjoying it, I must see if I can find a copy and revisit it. Thanks for the nudge.

It is available on Amazon (this is NOT an affiliate link and provides no revenue to anyone) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Art-Coarse-Sailing-Michael-Green/dp/186105002X

 

[stevepick]

The art of coarse sailing is an excellent book. The impractical boat Owner by Dave Selby is , I think, a modern classic

 

[JumbleDuck]

The art of coarse sailing is an excellent book.

My young crew has read it. He occasionally addresses me as "Beaver".

 

[Kukri]

I found myself quoting the advice on Large Boatyards in "Sod's Law of the Sea" to a friend, who had just been confronted with a bill for four times what he expected, a couple of months back. Some things never change.

 

[AndrewB]

Going back to boat jumbles, in my part of the world if you ever needed a trip down memory lane it was in the second hand section of Nydri Marine, Levkas. Kit there which was obsolete 50 years ago still with fading price tags by hopeful owners who have probably long since gone to their Maker. (Seafarer Mark III echosounder, minus transducer, anyone? Decca Navigator? There would have probably even been a No. 3 Rippingille Stove somewhere about.)

I always loved a browse, before actually buying something proper in the main part of the shop. But today I find it has CLOSED DOWN!! So there goes another boating institution. No matter that they never sold anything - they could have charged people like me merely to look round and blither on about the good old days.

 

[Seajet]

Remember ' Ladyline ' - no not dealers in naughty stuff, they had a branch in Bristol where I got my Zodiac dinghy and a few good bits and pieces - never felt or smelled quite like a proper chandlery though.

Captain OM Watts at the proper Earls Court Boatshow - now that was the real thing complete with smell of tar !

 

[Praxinoscope]

The art of coarse sailing is an excellent book. The impractical boat Owner by Dave Selby is , I think, a modern classic

Michael Green also wrote ‘The Art of Coarse Cruising’ another good read.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Going back to boat jumbles, in my part of the world if you ever needed a trip down memory lane it was in the second hand section of Nydri Marine, Levkas. Kit there which was obsolete 50 years ago still with fading price tags by hopeful owners who have probably long since gone to their Maker. (Seafarer Mark III echosounder, minus transducer, anyone? Decca Navigator? There would have probably even been a No. 3 Rippingille Stove somewhere about.)

One of the remaining computer shops of Tottenham Court Road (Shyamtronics?) has a brand new IBM Thinkpad X31 in the window, which must have been there for fifteen years now. Just out of interest I asked the price a year or so ago. Six hundred pounds.

If anyone desperately wants an X31, I can let you have two for a ten quid donation to the RNLI ...

 

[solent clown]

thanks you lot, now I am all the poorer - mostly for following links and buying books

 

[Concerto]

Remember ' Ladyline ' - no not dealers in naughty stuff, they had a branch in Bristol where I got my Zodiac dinghy and a few good bits and pieces - never felt or smelled quite like a proper chandlery though.

Captain OM Watts at the proper Earls Court Boatshow - now that was the real thing complete with smell of tar !

You obviously never visited Thomas Foulkes premises in the 1960's, everything from chandlery to ex MOD equiment. Then there were the traditional hemp ropes and the smell of tar. Those were the days.