Twenty Five Years Ago

[thejonesey]

Have just enjoyed a lazy start to the day (tea and MBM in bed) I wondered if it mught be fun to join in with their celebration by sharing our own boating experiences twenty five years ago!
I had just got my first boat, a Fletcher 140 Arrowflyte with a, very cool Suzuki 65hp outboard on the back. Why so cool... because it had oil injection so no more mixing fuel!! This is us viewing her for the first time on her state of the art Indespension trailer, when rollers were a new idea.

She topped out at 40mph according to the old school water pipe speedo and I spent many summers using it as a way to attract the opposite sex! (I was 16!) She only broke down once and that was entirely my fault... Luckily one of the tour boats kindly gave us a tow back from Old Harry Rocks.

The bald gent with the reactolite shades was my Dad and being a safety conscious chap we had spent a week the previous summer doing our day skipper course aboard a fantastic Fairline Turbo 36, including a night passage down the Solent on a flat calm moonlit night.

Anyone else willing to share!

 

[RobWales]

EEEK! 40 years ago in my case....jesus where has the time gone?
Cut my teeth on one of these (not the actual boat I'm afriad) my Dad's loftus bennet 16' which had a Johnson seahorse 20hp hanging off the back, spent many haapy hours fishing on it as a kid and.....and having a backhander off the old man when I hooked up with my first ever Bass and shouted out f**K me I'm in......lol happy days!

 

[macnorton]

Again 25 years ago, this is "POACHER" a Palomino 24 and my first proper grp boat, it replaced a plywood Dolfin that used to sink on regular occations

Spent many hours on board with my girlfreind (now my wife), the first boat I took to sea on my own, sold it to buy a house.

Thats the wifes Renault 12 TL in the foreground.

 

[epervier]

Can't find 25 years ago photos..............

but, I can do 1976 and 1979, 36 and 33 ago

New boat bought at SIBS 1976 with maximum recommended hp 115 tower of power Merc

When the warranty expired I had the transom beefed up, and bought a V6 175hp Merc 1979

 

[VicS]

When the warranty expired I had the transom beefed up, and bought a V6 175hp Merc 1979

And probably invalidated the insurance!

 

[Wavey]

If we're going down memory lane then here's mine

Tough's Cobra with twin 6354 Perkins. Photographed outside Tough's old yard where she went to have the osmosis sorted. The work snowballed a bit and ended up with a complete paint job, engines out and re-built, engine space re-vamped, new screens and specially fabricated folding aluminium arch and numerous other bits. Came out looking like new . I still have the photos of all the work done somewhere.

Named "Linton Lass" she is apparently now on the Norfolk Broads. If anyone knows where she is please let me know as I'd love to see her again. So many happy memories of her and the exploits we got up to

The boat project behind her is the Richmond Venturer which was the subject of one of Challenge Anneka's TV programmes.

 

[Richard Shead]

Funny enough I was thinking about Annekas Challenge this morn! I was the one who gave her (ok handed her) the white tender on there....Also I think that big thing in the background was Gary Linekers mothers...

Correction that was their mate, theirs must be out of shot...

I went on to live in one of the apartments that was built on there, good fun but living above the lifeboat station could be a tad annoying if some clown jumped off Richmond Bridge at 0200 in the morning...

Will dig out a couple of pix myself, ok this was near enough 25 years ago (maybe a couple less given it was sponsored by MBM!) the Round London Inflatable Boat Race, I did work experience for MBM and no I have not been there ever since.....

 

[SlimRick]

This pic was only taken about 10 years ago, but I'd had the boat since I was 17 (22 years ago).

This was taken shortly after its sinking in a Leicestershire marina

 

[SP2]

More than 25 years

Well this all brings back very happy memories - here are a few of mine!

1975 - my Dad's Tough Cobra 33 looking rather sad as he was then owning 2 boats (but he did allow his 17 year old son take her out with his friends )

Also 1975 - our Ocean 37 Lin-Ke-Ley II in September 1975 in St Katherine's for the Last Night of the Proms. We had had a fantastic season starting from buying her in Newhaven, crossing to France and then 3 glorious weeks in Holland - our first serious cruising.

Finally 1981 = my 21st birthday and I'm helming our Alfred Milne designed 42 footer "Celastrina". We are on a St Kats run (again!). After we sold her she went to the Med for 15 or so years and then came back and was a cruising liveaboard on the Thames. I saw her in Chatham around 2005 and then she appeared on eBay - sorely tempted to buy her back then.

Happy days - would love to know where any of them are now!

 

[Tremlett 15]

Dads cruiser that he built in the late 30's / early 40's, photo taken at Groomsport, Belfast Lough late 40's / early 50's, dad & mum on cabin roof...before my time...

our first boat, that we built 1967 / 68, base on a Tremlett hull but we built in ply clinker on oak ribs....all by hand...!

our 2nd boat built 1971 / 72, a Class 3A 14' raceboat, we bought a Stage 1 Tremlett hull and then cold moulded the transom, outboard well & deck onto the hull ( all curved ) and then completed the fitout.

our 3rd boat, built 1973, fitted out as a 15' ski boat, again we bought a Stage 1 Tremlett hull & we fitted out all as above, Tremlett 15 I still have and use a few times each year, still has its original 1976 Merc 500 with original spark plugs, prop etc...

our 4th boat......a 1967 Borresen Dragon Int which we bought around 1984 ( ish ) and raced in Belfast Lough, my brother restored it last year & is still racing in a few events

a few more boats since then but they fall into the under 25 years....

 

[thejonesey]

Sorry for double post!

Early onset of Alzheimers? 25 years on the sea has taken a toll on my memory! Great stories, please keep them coming! Best gadget at that time anyone?

 

[SP2]

No GPS...

Undoubtedly the most hi tec thing we carried was a Seafix RDF -

Spent hours trying to find the "null" from North Foreland.

Oh, how we knew how to live in those days.

Our early communications were via the Ajax A25:

Never managed to speak to anyone but good for listening to the cricket...

Then they introduced the Seavoice RT100:

Our lives were transformed!

No GPS or chart plotters that we could afford. Decca Navigator and Loran were just things to dream of.

 

[thejonesey]

Old school kit

Our friends had a huge VHF and used to get asked to marshal the Cowes to Torquay powerboat race because of it's impressive range!

Other great improvements of that age:
Not having to pull a knob to stop the engine
Recoil on the pull start after years with a Seagull
Hot water without having to boil a kettle

Slightly surreal point...
Having not owned a boat between 1991 and 2006 the GPS revolution passed me by. You can imagine the looks when my wife and I went on a training course and asked "what's a chartplotter?" in 2007. It was like all my Christmases had come at once....

Will try to hunt out some more pics later.