Just bought my new ECP.

[Mirelle]

It’s 120 years old and still more or less usable, with allowances… there is no longer 5ft at low water neaps in the channel at Woodbridge…

Will swap for carbon mast for Nic 55…

 

[Kukri]

"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"

Someone channeling F.B.Cooke, methinks.?

 

[tillergirl]

Yeap.Kukri, spot on. FB has a lovely turn of phrase. And Mirelle, good to see you back but I did earlier refer to Messum. Have a very good copy. Love his tide data.

 

[Mirelle]

Yeap.Kukri, spot on. FB has a lovely turn of phrase. And Mirelle, good to see you back but I did earlier refer to Messum. Have a very good copy. Love his tide data.

Mirelle shouldn’t be here; she has gone to live in the Beaulieu River and wears a white ensign, now that she is once more being kept in the style that she was accustomed to as a young boat before the War. Her ghostly presence in this Forum is due to an error in logging on to the ybw.com forum, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to correct it.

 

[Wansworth]

I thought Mirrelle was Kukri

 

[Mirelle]

I thought Mirrelle was Kukri

Correct!

 

[Wansworth]

Correct!
View attachment 148114View attachment 148115

Thanks ,thought I gone into a time warp?

 

[oldgit]

Having boated on the Merdeway for both pleasure and employment , even proposed to my first wife (49 years so far )while off afloat. , have definately noticed the changes in draft on the river, mainly since the departure of the commercial traffic.
Even in Chatham town centre care has to be taken especially around LWS.
The most dramatic reduction has been above the bridge.
However on the up side the wildlife and return of the vegetation has been promising.
Can remember when towing lighters up to the paper mills that the water was frequently covered in a foamy brown scum and absolutely nothing could survive between the low water mark and the bottom of the seawall.
Trees and bushes now reach down to the HW mark and reed beds cover much of the foreshore.
You may well see a kingfisher or two among the Herons and Cormorants on the way up to Allington and feel sure have spotted a Buzzard ?

 

[tillergirl]

Oh a bit of passage planning advice for timing from Allington to West Mersea.

Once upon a time, SWMBO and I met my old boss and his wife in that very nice restaurant by Aylesford Bridge. We went by car. We enjoyed the meal very much and we dallied over a nice cup of coffee before driving home. When we arrive at the Strood at Mersea Island it was then 1am....... which was exactly the moment when not trying to ford the early flood tide over the road! It was a large spring tide so it took 3 hours before we could get home. I thought SWMBO's opinion of passage planning was a little unreasonable. Non navigational issues must always be taken into account.

 

[Jan Harber]

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:

View attachment 148088View attachment 148089

You are quite correct. Lt Messum RN compiled the first book with the title East Coast Rivers, published by Potters in 1903. My copy, originally Jack's, contains carbons of the correspondence that Jack had with Maldwin Drummond in the 1980s regarding the 'drab little book'/Riddle of the Sands connection. Maldwin was then researching for his excellent book The Riddle. Copies of the Messum book were hard to find even back then. Maldwin did not originally have one and asked Jack if he would sell his copy.
To muddy the waters of ECR history a little more, I should mention that in 1927 YM published Rivers and Creeks of the Thames Estuary, The Yachtsman's Pilot, by Lt Cdr John Irving RN. It was based on a series of articles by Irving that has previously appeared in YM. A second, revised edition was published in 1933.
In a similar fashion some 25 years later Jack had articles published in YM, which led to the first edition of his book ECR being published in 1956. Jack's charts and some of his text were very similar in style to Irving's. Quite why YM used Messum's title I am not sure...

 

[PeterWright]

I truly envy thise who have a copy of Messum, I had previously heard of it, but never seen a copy. Thank you particularly to Mirelle for posting the copies of extracts.

On the outside chance that one if you wants to sell, I would be interested.

Peter.

 

[Kukri]

I truly envy thise who have a copy of Messum, I had previously heard of it, but never seen a copy. Thank you particularly to Mirelle for posting the copies of extracts.

On the outside chance that one if you wants to sell, I would be interested.

Peter.

I am thinking that my copy would be better in other hands. I bought it from Chris and Sue Briggs at their shop in Trinity Street, Colchester, around 1984, and I think Chris went into a fair imitation of the sort of horse coper’s crouch affected by the late Frank Knights when selling a boat, and charged me £30. Which was a Lot of Money as I had just hocked myself to buy Mirelle through David East for £16,500.

Anyway, there’s another book to consider; this one is from the sign of the wooden midshipman, just slightly further along the Minories, and is a 1938 second edition:

 

[Jan Harber]

Not heard of this one. Surprised my dad didn't have a copy of it. Intrigued...

 

[Kukri]

Not heard of this one. Surprised my dad didn't have a copy of it. Intrigued...

I think it must have been expensive. It is comprehensive and is cross referenced everywhere to Imray’s charts, though it’s own charts in the text are very nicely drawn.

 

[Concerto]

I am thinking that my copy would be better in other hands. I bought it from Chris and Sue Briggs at their shop in Trinity Street, Colchester, around 1984, and I think Chris went into a fair imitation of the sort of horse coper’s crouch affected by the late Frank Knights when selling a boat, and charged me £30. Which was a Lot of Money as I had just hocked myself to buy Mirelle through David East for £16,500.

Anyway, there’s another book to consider; this one is from the sign of the wooden midshipman, just slightly further along the Minories, View attachment 148138and is a 1938 second edition:

View attachment 148136

I raise you an edition from 31st December1949.





At the back of the book is a pocket with 2 charts.





I can also add The Yachtsmen's Pilot by E Keble Chatterton in 1933. Although this covers the harbours of the UK and Continent from Ymuiden to Bordeaux, there are 32 harbour plans which includes Lowestoft, Southwold, Deben River, Harwich, Crouch & Blackwater & Colne Rivers, River Crouch (larger scale), Thames Estuary and Ramsgate.





Then there is Sailing Tours, on 4 volumes by Frank Cowper published in 1893. I only have Part II that covers The Nore to the Isles of Scilly.

 

[Wansworth]

How wonderful,information at your fingertips not reliant on electric power

 

[Wansworth]

Much of the looking forward to a cruise was ordering the pilots and relating them to the charts………..and reading the warnings that in reality applied to big ships?

 

[tony_lavelle]

....................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.

Just to be clear, are we talking about ECP 5.0? I've had mine for a few years so i wondered if you'd got a newer edition.

 

[tillergirl]

There is a quite a surprising aerial photo in the first edition of Imray's Pilot Book (1934) of West Mersea at LW. The photo is repeated in later editions certainly to 1953. The photo shows Cobmarsh Island is a lot, lot more substantial than today (hence the re-charging project) and also the Nass is a very substantial drying spit - which is no longer there. The erosion during the 90 years has been pretty dramatic.

 

[Kukri]

There is a quite a surprising aerial photo in the first edition of Imray's Pilot Book (1934) of West Mersea at LW. The photo is repeated in later editions certainly to 1953. The photo shows Cobmarsh Island is a lot, lot more substantial than today (hence the re-charging project) and also the Nass is a very substantial drying spit - which is no longer there. The erosion during the 90 years has been pretty dramatic.

This one?