Yacht Plans..

[rogerthebodger]

I was indulging in a degree (arf, arf) of artistic licence there.

I too went to a secondary modern (a very poor one, at that, I can now see) and left at 15. I ended up there following a house move after being in the top stream of 9 in an excellent comprehensive, and the inexplicable decision of my mother to dissuade me from applying to go to the grammar (I had no idea at the time what the terms meant and the huge significance of the difference). I don't think I learnt anything in the two years at that secondary modern apart from basic physics and how to avoid being beaten up.

The careers advice we received was minimal, and along the lines of 'If you're good with people, work in a shop; if you're good with your hands, work in a factory; and if you're good with numbers work in an office'. We were given occasional access to a small cupboard with pamphlets about various careers (the only one that interested me was the Customs and Excise, as they went around in motor launches, it seemed).

The school did once mention 'If you are very clever, and work really hard, you might possibly be able to be a teacher'. That was thrown into stark relief many years later, when I became friends with a couple who had been to the local grammar I would have been applying to previously, and one of them happened to mention their careers advice included 'Well, if all else fails you could be a teacher'!

I'll spare you the sorry tale of my financial trajectory through life (a.k.a. the slings and arrows of outrageous lack of fortune), suffice it to say I now subsist on a very modest pension, out of which I have to support the lifestyle of my landlord, and can only hang on to a boat that realistically I can't afford by assuming I'll pop my clogs at a not too advanced age.

Well I don't think I could afford to live in the UK as well as I do with my pensions where I live.

At school I was pretty good at technical drawing so took an apprenticeship as a draftsman and went to college night school and day release. school did not suit me but tech did and I blousemed at college and uni

 

[LittleSister]

At school I was pretty good at technical drawing so took an apprenticeship as a draftsman and went to college night school and day release. school did not suit me but tech did and I blousemed at college and uni

That's reminded me that I did learn some tech drawing, too, at secondary modern.

That basic tech drawing, together with having later worked wiring a wide variety of telecoms equipment, enabled me to at one point get to job as an electronics draughtsman (unqualified but sufficiently capable, which was the test in them days) in a small specialist firm developing and building absolutely state of the art equipment using lasers (then the preserve of boffins in labs, rather than something you could buy on eBay) to measure e.g. turbulence and particles in the exhausts of jet engines. (That firm still exists, but has expanded substantially and, I suspect, been bought out a few times.)

I did enjoy working at a drawing board, and liked my boss (there were just the two of us in the drawing office), but always felt something of an outsider amongst the staff of advanced engineers and scientists, all of very different backgrounds (and income!) to me, and it wasn't long before distractions outside work led me elsewhere.

 

[rogerthebodger]

That's reminded me that I did learn some tech drawing, too, at secondary modern.

That basic tech drawing, together with having later worked wiring a wide variety of telecoms equipment, enabled me to at one point get to job as an electronics draughtsman (unqualified but sufficiently capable, which was the test in them days) in a small specialist firm developing and building absolutely state of the art equipment using lasers (then the preserve of boffins in labs, rather than something you could buy on eBay) to measure e.g. turbulence and particles in the exhausts of jet engines. (That firm still exists, but has expanded substantially and, I suspect, been bought out a few times.)

I did enjoy working at a drawing board, and liked my boss (there were just the two of us in the drawing office), but always felt something of an outsider amongst the staff of advanced engineers and scientists, all of very different backgrounds (and income!) to me, and it wasn't long before distractions outside work led me elsewhere.

strange the way life takes up

I started in Mechanical Engineering but got involved in PLC's then custom electronics then computer Mainframes then PC's

Alsi started to use microcontrollers building and writing software. Finally developing PC software for calculating Customs duties and producing all he customs and shipping documentation . Retired in 2011 after building and launching my current boat.

I did have a small motor boat in the UK on the grand Union canal near Northampton.

Not split my time playing with my cars at home of on my boat in Richards Bay

 

[Wansworth]

Yachting World editor wants me to send link of the page about yacht plans I have no idea how to do that

 

[Sybarite]

I still have a set yacht plans for a Lysander designed by Percy Blandford sadly no longer with us

That's what I learned to sail in.

 

[Bajansailor]

Yachting World editor wants me to send link of the page about yacht plans I have no idea how to do that

If they deleted it from your original post, can they not have a rummage through the trash bin and find it there?

 

[Wansworth]

If they deleted it from your original post, can they not have a rummage through the trash bin and find it there?

Who knows?…..Maybe YW don’t talk to the other magazines,they are a bit posher