Ostar 1980

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Hello

I've been watching a YouTube video on the OSTAT 1980 race and wonder if anybody knows where the fleet assembled in Plymouth, it looks near the Brittany Ferry berth, now the King Point Marina, but some things on the video just don't line up with today's landscape.

Thanks

Sandy
 
Sandy said:
Hello

I've been watching a YouTube video on the OSTAT 1980 race and wonder if anybody knows where the fleet assembled in Plymouth, it looks near the Brittany Ferry berth, now the King Point Marina, but some things on the video just don't line up with today's landscape.

Thanks

Sandy
Click to expand...


Some of the dock was filled in to provide extra shoreside facilities so it now has a less regular shape. There is also the semi private Millbay Marina and flats in the SE corner, by the RNLI post. The silos were around till relatively recently, being knocked down about ten years ago. All this has changed what was a pretty dusty industrial vista. A number of sheds and buildings have also gone with new buildings going up.

For the Ostar events, and the Plymouth boat shows, advertising hoardings were used to screen the piles of coal on the dockside.
The council have plans for it to become a - gateway into the city. Estate Agents are now calling it the "Maritime Quarter", in the old days it was certainly the red light quarter. Walking around in the evening I understand it is still a convenient way of making new friends.
 
A1Sailor said:
Is this what you were watching Sandy?
https://youtu.be/g-WfFCi6Ir4?t=11m49s
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It was :)

I've moved the boat to Plymouth and just discovered the history of where she is now alongside her pontoon.

I'm prepping the boat for a few long distance voyages, once I give up the day job, and it looks like a lot of other far more famous and comptent sailors have left from the same place!
 
doug748 said:
Some of the dock was filled in to provide extra shoreside facilities so it now has a less regular shape. There is also the semi private Millbay Marina and flats in the SE corner, by the RNLI post. The silos were around till relatively recently, being knocked down about ten years ago. All this has changed what was a pretty dusty industrial vista. A number of sheds and buildings have also gone with new buildings going up.

For the Ostar events, and the Plymouth boat shows, advertising hoardings were used to screen the piles of coal on the dockside.
The council have plans for it to become a - gateway into the city. Estate Agents are now calling it the "Maritime Quarter", in the old days it was certainly the red light quarter. Walking around in the evening I understand it is still a convenient way of making new friends.
Click to expand...
Thanks Doug

It is indeed an interesting place to wander about after dark and sometimes in daylight hours. Still Lidl is not that far.

I wonder how big the new buildings will be when those cranes finish their work.
 
A1Sailor said:
Strange how you find out the history of places. I watched a programme last night and discovered Kerrerra/Oban Bay was a base for a squadron of RAF "flying boats" during WWII.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episo...he-scottish-islands-series-2-4-so-near-so-far
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My late father was OIC at Lyness on Hoy when I was a toddler. My brother and I went back last year and found the history of the place amazing. Lyness is one of my destinations on the "warm up lap" of the British Isles before heading over the pond.

I've long heard it said that MT Boats were built in Fort William, I'll need to follow that up.
 
Sandy said:
. . . I've long heard it said that MT Boats were built in Fort William, I'll need to follow that up.
Click to expand...

I don't know if any were built there. HMS St Christopher was a MTB / MGB training establishment based on what is now the Dive Centre pier. There was an accommodation ship moored there and a depot ship which did all the repairs and rebuilds on the fast boats.
 
Motor_Sailor said:
I don't know if any were built there. HMS St Christopher was a MTB / MGB training establishment based on what is now the Dive Centre pier. There was an accommodation ship moored there and a depot ship which did all the repairs and rebuilds on the fast boats.
Click to expand...
Thanks Motor_Sailor.

I wonder if the repairs were passed down to me as build. One for the West Highland Museum to answer.
 
Sandy said:
My late father was OIC at Lyness on Hoy when I was a toddler. My brother and I went back last year and found the history of the place amazing. Lyness is one of my destinations on the "warm up lap" of the British Isles before heading over the pond.
Click to expand...
We went into the museum at Lyness and spent far longer than we intended...
 
The buildings on the north east side will be 7 storeys and there's one planned where the rough PPS car park is that's around 10-12 storeys high. And another of similar size on Clyde Quay itself.

The basin was one of IK Brunel's and is in astonishingly good condition. Originally the entrance was central to the basin, and the basin was effectively twice as big, but the western half was filled in to claim land. It used to dry out on this side, and is also where the dry dock was. Brunel's original cast iron pontoons have only just been broken up and removed, lord knows how old they were.

It is earmarked to be the jewel in the crown, with apartments, restaurants and cafes enjoyed by beautiful slim white people according to the architects sketches. Similar to Sutton Pool, which now has one solitary restaurant, and ironically, an architects office. That's a bit of a disaster really, it's mainly occupied by people walking round the basin grumbling about the bridge being shut.

In the 1980's this basin was pretty much the only place to moor a yacht. I think there was one newly constructed marina and a lot of naval dominance. They were still bombing the Mew Stone for practice, so if you fancied a day trip to the Yealm you had to give the island a 5 mile offing.
 
A1Sailor said:
We went into the museum at Lyness and spent far longer than we intended...
Click to expand...
My brother and I spent all day there, only to find out 20 mins before the last ferry that our next door neighbour was still on the island.

I wrote at Christmas and we are now exchanging letters. :)
 
ronsurf said:
The buildings on the north east side will be 7 storeys and there's one planned where the rough PPS car park is that's around 10-12 storeys high. And another of similar size on Clyde Quay itself.

The basin was one of IK Brunel's and is in astonishingly good condition. Originally the entrance was central to the basin, and the basin was effectively twice as big, but the western half was filled in to claim land. It used to dry out on this side, and is also where the dry dock was. Brunel's original cast iron pontoons have only just been broken up and removed, lord knows how old they were.

It is earmarked to be the jewel in the crown, with apartments, restaurants and cafes enjoyed by beautiful slim white people according to the architects sketches. Similar to Sutton Pool, which now has one solitary restaurant, and ironically, an architects office. That's a bit of a disaster really, it's mainly occupied by people walking round the basin grumbling about the bridge being shut.

In the 1980's this basin was pretty much the only place to moor a yacht. I think there was one newly constructed marina and a lot of naval dominance. They were still bombing the Mew Stone for practice, so if you fancied a day trip to the Yealm you had to give the island a 5 mile offing.
Click to expand...
Thanks Ronsurf some fantastic history there.

My late father joined his first ship, an RFA, in Plymouth so from a family history point of view it is rather special.
 
I too joined my first ship, a grey funnel line frigate, in Plymouth.:encouragement:
I went out to her moored in Plymouth Sound by boat, bravely climbed a ladder, then next morning stood proudly above the bridge as she returned to Devonport following a 5 month South Atlantic Patrol.:o
698314.jpg
 
I had an uncle who had perhaps the best job in Scotland, served in the Arctic Convoys in WWII then went to Glasgow to do medicine, ended up being the Port of Glasgow MO.
 
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