Just bought my new ECP.

[oldgit]

....................and printed out the updates from their website.
Lent my earlier version of ECP to some so and so and never got it back.
Considerable revisions and so much more detail and lots more photographs than in previous versions.
As a East coast boater of several decades and many groundings.....found it worth every single penny.
....and did pay full price from my local chandlery.

 

[fredrussell]

A fine publication. I have a first edition which I will sell one day and use some of the proceeds to buy a 50ft Oyster.

 

[tillergirl]

A fine publication. I have a first edition which I will sell one day and use some of the proceeds to buy a 50ft Oyster.

Blimey, you are going to have to live a long time before anyone will buy it. Actually I have two copies of the first edition, one used, one completely unused. Offers please? . I am sure you really mean ECR first edition. But you will still wait a little for the 50ft Oyster! I have just dug out my copy of the first edition of ECR. Lovely bit of history. Such as berthing in Felixstowe Dock or paying 10s for a pilot to enter the Ore.. Gosh, how busy it was in those days at Burnham. But a bit of a slap for Burnham courtesy of Jack Coote "Undoubtedly Waldringfield is becoming the Burnham of the Deben. But unlike Burnham, the surrounding scenery is very attractive and clean landing is possible" Not one marina, not one gliberfast boat.

 

[PeterWright]

Well Tiller Girl, you do disappoint me, I was hoping to sell off earlier editions of both ECP and ECR in order to fund both the purchase and, more importantly, maintenance of a Thames barge. The ECR's I have include one first edition, which came ashore a few years ago when I mistakenly let on to Cantata that I was still using it to get around the East Coast, so he shamed me into buying a copy of the then current edition of ECP, since also replaced with a later edition.

Peter.

 

[tillergirl]

Well, I didn't intend to particularly make you disappointed, I just thought Fred needed to increase his savings.

One must admit that Cantata's insistence might be worthwhile. You won't need to try to find the 'can R W Cheq Gp Fl(2) 10 sec' or 'Spher B W H S Fl 5 secs' any more. But, but, but...

ECR 1 in 1956 was 9s 6d. Let's call it £0.50. Today a 1956 10 shillings is considered to be £14.75 today! ECP 3 is..... eek But, but, but, Amazon are discounting ECP 3 at a fiver off. Buy it now!

 

[PeterWright]

While I did, ultimately, come to accept the passing of the pre IALA buoyage and soundings in fathoms and feet, using the '56 ECR well beyond its natural expiry date always brought back memories of sailing these waters in the early 1960's which were always full of great memories. I can still remember going into Felixstowe dock on Uncle's Dragon (Armorel, DK 133) as a young boy in the late 50's - all before the days of pulpits and lifelines.

Peter.

 

[tillergirl]

Blimey. I can't claim that one. I did (and still) got confused by the digital world. I upgraded the echo sounder to one of those Seafarer circulating things that also had a digital read-out. I have told this one I know but it always makes me smile; once in the Barrow Deep in foggy weather I suddenly saw 0.9 on the digital read-out. Panic, heave-to, out with the sounding pole (aka an oversized book-hook - never did know why I had one that large). Utter panic, no bottom here, out with the leadline, no bottom here but there ain't no water either. Hey, it is fine, it now says 19.2 metres. Off we go and ..... panic 0.9m again. She, who knows everything, asked 'what is that knob for? Ah x6. 20.9 metres! RFM.

 

[MikeBz]

A 1956 edition of ECR would make interesting reading, especially for those of us who were 5 years pre-conception at that time. I’ve had a dig around online and found a third edition (1961) going for £19, a 1974 edition for £11.35 (prices include shipping) and one whose vintage isn’t stated at £6 - here it is, any ideas as to the year?

 

[PeterWright]

Blimey. I can't claim that one. I did (and still) got confused by the digital world. I upgraded the echo sounder to one of those Seafarer circulating things that also had a digital read-out. I have told this one I know but it always makes me smile; once in the Barrow Deep in foggy weather I suddenly saw 0.9 on the digital read-out. Panic, heave-to, out with the sounding pole (aka an oversized book-hook - never did know why I had one that large). Utter panic, no bottom here, out with the leadline, no bottom here but there ain't no water either. Hey, it is fine, it now says 19.2 metres. Off we go and ..... panic 0.9m again. She, who knows everything, asked 'what is that knob for? Ah x6. 20.9 metres! RFM.

That's a great story. I had a Seafarer whirligig echo sounder on my first proper yacht, but that didn't recognise metres, just the good old fathoms and feet, and no digital read out, just the flashing neon. The principal was very simple - the neon would flash as it passed zero, that being the transmitted pulse then again when the reflected pulse was received by which time the neon had moved around the scale. The longer the pulse took to get back to the transducer, the further round the dial the secknd flash occurred. The perimeter was marked with numbers which served for either fathoms or feet according to how fast the thing was spinning - when you selected fathoms it spun at 1/6 the speed it ooerated at for feet. The real skill was a knob labelled gain, too high and you would get second (or in shallow water 3rd.) reflections, too low and it wouldn't see the first reflection. The gain needed to be increased for geater depths. No wonder we mostly doubted what it was telling us and relied on sounding poles and lead lines for a reliable answer!

Peter.

 

[Jan Harber]

A 1956 edition of ECR would make interesting reading, especially for those of us who were 5 years pre-conception at that time. I’ve had a dig around online and found a third edition (1961) going for £19, a 1974 edition for £11.35 (prices include shipping) and one whose vintage isn’t stated at £6 - here it is, any ideas as to the year?

View attachment 148041

It is the 11th edition 1983. The front cover image (supplied by the Space Department Remote Sensind Unit at Farnborough) was taken in 1979 by a Landsat multi-spectrum scanning unit. This edition of ECR had new larger scale charts, redrawn by Roger Robinson.
Jack had already re-drawn all his original charts, to convert from fathoms and feet to metric and also to comply with the then new IALA buoyage system, for the 8th edition in 1977.
I am lucky enough to have a complete set of all 20 editions, many of them are salt-stained and battered, with heavily annotated pages. In the era of the 1st 1956 edition there were still flying boat sheds and slipways near Felixstowe Dock, where Jim was last seen rowing ashore from Goblin in the fog. Nostalgia‘s not wot it used to be…

 

[sailorman]

....................and printed out the updates from their website.
Lent my earlier version of ECP to some so and so and never got it back.
Considerable revisions and so much more detail and lots more photographs than in previous versions.
As a East coast boater of several decades and many groundings.....found it worth every single penny.
....and did pay full price from my local chandlery.

it must be 50 yrs ago when I bought my first, but copy, and of ecp?

 

[Capt Popeye]

Why keep on renewing ones ECR or even an EC P , surely them East Coast rivers have remained largly as them were 60 years ago ?
With the use of Binos , Lead Line , Compass ,. Colour of the water , prior knowledge , a lifting keel , etc etc etc one should be on easy cruising grounds ?

 

[tillergirl]

Bit of genuine nostalgia: I think I have posted the images beffore. But these were in 1958 or 59 so not long after the first ECR. We had gone to Brightlingsea to look at the boat that Dad was interest in buying (and bought).

scan0005 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

scan0006 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

I remember the Hard came to life at HW and was (at my age then) very exciting. I recall the boat was taken out to Colne Point and back to show her off. She had a clinker pram dinghy and seagull - great fun.

A note to Capn. Popeye: I am afraid the waters do change here; indeed no Pilot Book can keep up with the River Deben entrance: the Spitway ( a major swatchway [in the sense of busy]) has moved a couple of miles, the Ray Sand channel has gone (1956 comment "dive-bombing practice is now a regular and noisy activity, the target area is well marked (R Y V S), there are marinas, even local buoyage, is there a channel into Tollesbury? (well yes, sort of), does guidance change? Yeap "it is best to start well down river below a black can buoy before coming up well inside a line of withies marking the inner edge of a long spit of mud. Continue until the first few moored boats come in line to port, then it is time to turn to port to pass close to theboats; meanwhile keeping a lookout for two small white leading marks seet up on the saltings below a field in which caravans are parked. After sailing about a hundred yards on these marks, it will soon become obvious that the channel turns sharply to starboard" Wheras today "Oh s*d, I am too lazy to write it out - just accept that a nuclear power station has been and gone, leaving some odds and ends.

This is a vibrant bit of the country with a wonderful wide choice of different places to go and sail, exciting passages across the Estuary, easy transit to Europe. You need to come and enjoy. Whoops, no, stop. Don't come here, all sorts of people write books about here just to hide all the defects that cause havoc, there isn't room, you can't sail here, no room.

 

[sailorman]

Bit of genuine nostalgia: I think I have posted the images beffore. But these were in 1958 or 59 so not long after the first ECR. We had gone to Brightlingsea to look at the boat that Dad was interest in buying (and bought).

scan0005 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

scan0006 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr

I remember the Hard came to life at HW and was (at my age then) very exciting. I recall the boat was taken out to Colne Point and back to show her off. She had a clinker pram dinghy and seagull - great fun.

A note to Capn. Popeye: I am afraid the waters do change here; indeed no Pilot Book can keep up with the River Deben entrance: the Spitway ( a major swatchway [in the sense of busy]) has moved a couple of miles, the Ray Sand channel has gone (1956 comment "dive-bombing practice is now a regular and noisy activity, the target area is well marked (R Y V S), there are marinas, even local buoyage, is there a channel into Tollesbury? (well yes, sort of), does guidance change? Yeap "it is best to start well down river below a black can buoy before coming up well inside a line of withies marking the inner edge of a long spit of mud. Continue until the first few moored boats come in line to port, then it is time to turn to port to pass close to theboats; meanwhile keeping a lookout for two small white leading marks seet up on the saltings below a field in which caravans are parked. After sailing about a hundred yards on these marks, it will soon become obvious that the channel turns sharply to starboard" Wheras today "Oh s*d, I am too lazy to write it out - just accept that a nuclear power station has been and gone, leaving some odds and ends.

This is a vibrant bit of the country with a wonderful wide choice of different places to go and sail, exciting passages across the Estuary, easy transit to Europe. You need to come and enjoy. Whoops, no, stop. Don't come here, all sorts of people write books about here just to hide all the defects that cause havoc, there isn't room, you can't sail here, no room.

that hoto is little different to our first visit from ramsholt in our silhouette mk 2, it took get passed Clacton pr?

 

[tillergirl]

"Across the water are wafted the brazen strains of an indifferent band, whilst, off the pier head, is a flotilla of pleasure boats of the 'shilling-an-hour-and-row-yourself' order. With a shudder we turn our backs on Clacton and hasten away down the Wallet"

 

[Mirelle]

I’m sorry, but you are all mistaken.

I have a copy of the original “East Coast Rivers” published by J. D. Potter at 145, Minories, in 1903.
It was written by Lt S.V.C. Messum, R.N. and was the original of the “little drab book” which gives the key to the villain’s real identity in this book:

 

[Mirelle]

Here we are:

 

[Mirelle]

Some more pages:

 

[Mirelle]

and more:

 

[Mirelle]

And a last set: