Col
New member
You may remember, a couple of weeks back, I was due to escort an old 1936 boat from our yard to Portsmouth. Weather and other things conspired against us and it didn't happen.
Saturday morning, sat on the boat, moby rings. It's the guy with the boat! "Are you OK to go today?" I was on my own, so I rang BurgundyBen, as he had said he wouldn't mind coming for the trip, after assuring him we wouldn't sink/catch fire/blow up/injure ourselves or any other calamity, he was up for it, so rang matey back and agreed to go.
Now this boat has a strange gearbox arrangement a bit like a cars' (it has a clutch)
The clutch wasn't working, so to change from forward to reverse (or visa versa) you have to stop engine, otherwise GRIND, GRIND, GRAUNCH, CRASH, BANG, WALLOP !!
First hurdle was to get out of yard, Skipper kept selecting reverse. Less said about that the better. First hit the pontoon, then the yard dinghy etc: etc: Suffice to say B/Ben And I were killing ourselves.
So with the crew of me, B/Ben & Les from the boat yard, we followed the boat out of the Hamble towards Portsmouth at about 5.8 knots, nothing else for it, best have a beer. Burgundy ( just need to go to the loo) Ben drove for a while, then more beer. After another beer, we opened up a couple more tinnys to pass the time. B/Ben went to the loo again ( I'm sure he hid something down there, and had to keep checking up)
After a completely non eventful journey,we arrived at Portsmouth, some two and a half hours later. We celebrated with a beer.
We waved our intrepid heroes in the wooden boat goodbye, the decided to have something to eat. We called over to Gunwharf Quay, and headed for the Indian.
Very strange place.
BurgundyBen checked out the loo's, declared them OK, so we sat down to eat.
Various waiters in "chief petty officers uniforms" kept appearing and dissappearing.
After a chicken jalfrezi each, we felt much better, and after waiting for Ben to come back from the loo, we set out for home.
( I can't see any yellow bouys) Les from the boatyard drove back. We had a bit of a treat, with firework displays everywhere as we creamed down the solent, music courtesey of "Blondie" playing on the CD.
It was a good day out really, I even think B/Ben enjoyed it, but you'll have to ask him.
By the way, can anyone (Byron?) identify this boat?
Apparantly a Naval (pinnacle??) from 1936.
There is another pic in the picure park below.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/colspics> Cols Picture Album</A>
Saturday morning, sat on the boat, moby rings. It's the guy with the boat! "Are you OK to go today?" I was on my own, so I rang BurgundyBen, as he had said he wouldn't mind coming for the trip, after assuring him we wouldn't sink/catch fire/blow up/injure ourselves or any other calamity, he was up for it, so rang matey back and agreed to go.
Now this boat has a strange gearbox arrangement a bit like a cars' (it has a clutch)
The clutch wasn't working, so to change from forward to reverse (or visa versa) you have to stop engine, otherwise GRIND, GRIND, GRAUNCH, CRASH, BANG, WALLOP !!
First hurdle was to get out of yard, Skipper kept selecting reverse. Less said about that the better. First hit the pontoon, then the yard dinghy etc: etc: Suffice to say B/Ben And I were killing ourselves.
So with the crew of me, B/Ben & Les from the boat yard, we followed the boat out of the Hamble towards Portsmouth at about 5.8 knots, nothing else for it, best have a beer. Burgundy ( just need to go to the loo) Ben drove for a while, then more beer. After another beer, we opened up a couple more tinnys to pass the time. B/Ben went to the loo again ( I'm sure he hid something down there, and had to keep checking up)
After a completely non eventful journey,we arrived at Portsmouth, some two and a half hours later. We celebrated with a beer.
We waved our intrepid heroes in the wooden boat goodbye, the decided to have something to eat. We called over to Gunwharf Quay, and headed for the Indian.
Very strange place.
BurgundyBen checked out the loo's, declared them OK, so we sat down to eat.
Various waiters in "chief petty officers uniforms" kept appearing and dissappearing.
After a chicken jalfrezi each, we felt much better, and after waiting for Ben to come back from the loo, we set out for home.
( I can't see any yellow bouys) Les from the boatyard drove back. We had a bit of a treat, with firework displays everywhere as we creamed down the solent, music courtesey of "Blondie" playing on the CD.
It was a good day out really, I even think B/Ben enjoyed it, but you'll have to ask him.
By the way, can anyone (Byron?) identify this boat?
Apparantly a Naval (pinnacle??) from 1936.
There is another pic in the picure park below.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/colspics> Cols Picture Album</A>
