James_Calvert
Well-known member
See my PM...
Sailing fifty years ago
- Thread starter BelleSerene
- Start date
See my PM...
fisherman
Well-known member
bro passing out at Dartmouth, I, eleven or twelve, standing on the bow of a dirty grey cutter doing boathook drill as we passed RY Britannia.
eddystone
Well-known member
Brilliant cartoons- think Giles must have known a bit about yachting particularly from the last two.
fisherman
Well-known member
He was a friend of the RNLI and did cartoons for their cards or calendars. St Ives, I think.
dancrane
Well-known member
Talking of cartoons, I hadn't realised that Bill Beavis did anything else...(matter of fact, now I'm wondering if his work was the columns, or the accompanying illustrations)...
...forty years ago rather than fifty, but does anybody remember his "A-Z of Cheaper Boating"?
...forty years ago rather than fifty, but does anybody remember his "A-Z of Cheaper Boating"?
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chriss999
Well-known member
My Kingfisher 20 would have been almost identical 50 years ago. Apart from her jink rig, the only new things on her (currently) are an outboard that works, Seafarer 501 depth and h/h VHF. Oh and an iPhone.
edited to say that the seafarer probably was actually on board 50 years ago
edited to say that the seafarer probably was actually on board 50 years ago
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zoidberg
Well-known member
It's about 50 years since I first got soaked in briny and I'm currently working through aged F-in-L's collection of boaty books. Re-reading Dr Lewis' 'Ice Bird', it's remarkable to reflect just how much gear and kit has changed - which we mostly take for granted.....
Breathable foulies; drysuits; lots of dry bags; wicking layers and hollowfibre sleeping bags; GPS in everything; underwater setting epoxy; satphones; EPIRBS; electronic chart plotters; LED lighting; PV panels; agm/sealed batteries; freeze-dried food.....
Not that I have the slightest intention of going anywhere near 63° South and the Shrieking Sixties!
Breathable foulies; drysuits; lots of dry bags; wicking layers and hollowfibre sleeping bags; GPS in everything; underwater setting epoxy; satphones; EPIRBS; electronic chart plotters; LED lighting; PV panels; agm/sealed batteries; freeze-dried food.....
Not that I have the slightest intention of going anywhere near 63° South and the Shrieking Sixties!
Debenair
Active member
On post #96 I also enjoyed the 1st Little Heath and Potters Bar Sea Scouts , although I had left by 1967.
Giles kept a Nicholson 38 Ketch on a mooring under the cliff at Waldringfield on the Deben and some of his work adorns the Maybush Inn.
Waldringfield SC has an annual race for the Cartoon trophy.
Giles kept a Nicholson 38 Ketch on a mooring under the cliff at Waldringfield on the Deben and some of his work adorns the Maybush Inn.
Waldringfield SC has an annual race for the Cartoon trophy.
doug748
Well-known member
It all comes back.
I learned to sail at the Herts Young Mariners Base on that water and Stanborough Lake, Welwyn Garden City.
I capsized the big old plywood boat during the test for my dinghy ticket but got it anyway, for being game in the rotten conditions. My wristwatch never did go properly after that.
John the kiwi
Active member
Almost 50 years ago i bought my first boat. A New Zealand P class.
Vastly superior to the horrible Optimist that has recently invaded these waters.
All NZ s top sailors were P class kids.
At 12 years old i would attach my sail bag to my bicycle, say good bye to my parents and go off to the yacht club to meet my mates. I kept my boat there and at 12 years old could rig it and launch and retrieve it solo. It was just what you did in those days.
On non race days there were quite literally no adults around. We would get fish and chips for lunch from the chippy close to the yacht club, sail to an island in the harbour and beach for lunch. Occasional, mostly good natured, wars with other factions of similarly aged sailors involved scooping up jelly fish in ones bailer and hurling them at the opposition. (We knew the difference between the type that sting and those that just go splat!) We learned self reliance but also to look out for each other. We rescued each other from rigging and other failures.
What strikes me most as i view these same waters now is that though there is a lot of sailing activity for kids, it is all 100% structured!
We had some training but more often did our own thing with no adult supervision and relished our freedom.
Now i see groups of kids in Optis and toppers and 420s. There is always some fat old barsteward (who looks a lot like me to be fair) in a center console rib who is never more than 50 metres away.
The kids are almost certainly being taught better sailing techniques than we were but are missing out on so much.
A bit of me dies every time i see this.
Vastly superior to the horrible Optimist that has recently invaded these waters.
All NZ s top sailors were P class kids.
At 12 years old i would attach my sail bag to my bicycle, say good bye to my parents and go off to the yacht club to meet my mates. I kept my boat there and at 12 years old could rig it and launch and retrieve it solo. It was just what you did in those days.
On non race days there were quite literally no adults around. We would get fish and chips for lunch from the chippy close to the yacht club, sail to an island in the harbour and beach for lunch. Occasional, mostly good natured, wars with other factions of similarly aged sailors involved scooping up jelly fish in ones bailer and hurling them at the opposition. (We knew the difference between the type that sting and those that just go splat!) We learned self reliance but also to look out for each other. We rescued each other from rigging and other failures.
What strikes me most as i view these same waters now is that though there is a lot of sailing activity for kids, it is all 100% structured!
We had some training but more often did our own thing with no adult supervision and relished our freedom.
Now i see groups of kids in Optis and toppers and 420s. There is always some fat old barsteward (who looks a lot like me to be fair) in a center console rib who is never more than 50 metres away.
The kids are almost certainly being taught better sailing techniques than we were but are missing out on so much.
A bit of me dies every time i see this.
Robert Wilson
Well-known member
Necessity is the mother of invention.
If at first you don't succeed, try try try again.
Two or the most important and helpful sayings/guides that have got me through life (so far :encouragement
and made my life rewarding in so many ways.
mjcoon
Well-known member
fisherman
Well-known member
I remember standing by as my 14 year old daughter struggled and eventually succeeded in righting a dinghy. It was only when she complained that her evil brother was throwing mud at her we realised she had struggled because the mast was stuck in the bottom, the mud was dropping on her head as she got going again.
mjcoon
Well-known member
Wansworth
Well-known member
Took one of the clubs fireballs out ended up downtide and down wind so put a reef in the main ....black looks from the class captain
Sniper
Member
That is very similar to my experience, albeit on the other side of the world on the Orwell. Racing for those who wanted it, but otherwise messing about on the river in an assortment of boats, getting into scrapes but almost always sorting them out for ourselves. I agree, the emphasis these days appears to be on structured race-based training which doesn't seem to be doing much to move youngsters out of the mentality that boats are solely for going round the cans. We were occasionally lent a very small YM Senior - huge responsibility at the time as it was such a big boat (!) but a wealth of possibilities and sowed the seeds of understanding that there was interest to be had in sailing round the next headland.
LittleSister
Well-known member
I hadn't realised that Bill Beavis did anything else...
...forty years ago rather than fifty, but does anybody remember his "A-Z of Cheaper Boating"?
I have a copy, but only bought it second hand a mere twenty or so years ago. Not sure his 'weld your own anchor out of some old scrap pipe work', etc. would have much currency these days!
Seven Spades
Well-known member
This is 58 year ago but it is amazing. In the beginning they visit Spain where women carry things on their head and they had to collect water. A lot has changed in a lifetime.
dancrane
Well-known member
Sadly, it probably wouldn't be regarded as practical, today. Ironic - it must have been sincerely intended as the essence of practicality, originally.
Considering I've just spent a very 'dirty weekend' in the garage getting dusty from sawing and sanding, sticky with epoxy and finally spattered with paint, on the plywood platform I'm making to support my spinnaker chute and bowsprit, all unscientifically devised, I still find the hands-on approach to boat equipment solutions vastly interesting and satisfying...
...I'm just not sure whether (had it been possible to buy a chute and bowsprit-launcher) I would have preferred to shell out, rather than figure it out. I hope I would still have preferred to do it myself.
I'm also hoping the white paint covers some of the 'handmade' appearance.
STATUE
Active member
A darling little George Hurley ply Silhouette called 'Je Naka' which in Malay means "Practical Joker" and purchased from the head of the new School of Navigation in Fiji. .
