Young sailing celebrity Jack Daly opens the new Hollowshore Cruising Club...
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Jack Daly shakes hands with our justly proud commodore, David Williams The Hollowshore Cruising Club’s new premises were officially opened this weekend by one of its youngest...
View ArticleThe River Thames in 1935, and oyster fishing at Whitstable
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Colour on the Thames – footage from the Thames dating back to 1935 Here’s a sweet piece of film of the River Thames years ago spotted by ‘Carl’, who belongs to the Dinghy...
View ArticleLechlade Raid, the Beale Park Thames Boat Show, and this year’s Watercraft...
[ad#intheboatshed-post] A rare moment of bright sunshine at an HBBR meeting The Home Built Boat Regatta folks are planning what sounds like a jolly river trip. It starts at Lechlade on the 1st June...
View ArticleJohn Welsford on choosing a dream boat
[ad#intheboatshed-post] An outstanding example of John Welsfords Rifleman light outboard motor boat. This one was built by a retired professional boatbuilder and is the best John has seen One of John’s...
View ArticleWater Craft magazine preview – and subscribe through PayPal now!
Water Craft is a great little magazine and, after talking with folks who edit it, I've decided to publish previews's of each issue. Hopefully it will remind people to nip down to their newsagents - or,...
View ArticleSeamew & Co
[ad#intheboatshed-post] ‘There is one thing I can depend on when I’m cruising with you.’ ‘What is that?’ ‘Variety.’ This is the first chapter of the highly entertaining Seamew & Co by Courtenay...
View ArticleSpindrift, a Scotish fifer-style boat built in New Zealand
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Spindrift Phil Smith, who recently sent us a fascinating report of his experiences sailing a converted airborne lifeboat, has written for us again. This time his story is about...
View ArticleF B Cooke on Single Handed Cruising
[ad#intheboatshed-post] The mystery of Gadfly II’s origins and her link with the Blackwater sloops reminded me of yachting author F B Cooke, who I seem to remember owned a Blackwater sloop in the...
View ArticleF B Cooke falls a little in love
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Drawings of T Harrison Butler’s single-handed cruiser Like many of us, F B Cooke was clearly a bit of a boat dreamer, and in the early 1920s seems to have fallen very much under...
View ArticleA Paradox, up close and personal
[ad#intheboatshed-post] The Dinghy Cruising Association’s boats assembled at Beale, with Al Law’s Paradox Little Jim in the foreground A highlight of the Beale Park Boat Show last year was meeting Al...
View ArticleWe launch our Phil Bolger Auray punt
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Our new Auray punt tender on the lake behind Jim and Eileen’s house We finally launched our new Phil Bolger-designed Auray punt tender with the help of our good friends Jim and...
View ArticleJuly/August Water Craft magazine preview includes free boat plans – subscribe...
Water Craft’s July/August edition is a cracker The latest issue of Water Craft sounds like a real gem – probably the best I can recall. For the first time, editor Peter Greenfield has included free...
View ArticleDetermined and brave: Ben Crawshaw fixes his rudder and sails back to Spain...
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Onawind Blue some months ago after Ben fitted her with new sails Ben Crawshaw has successfully sailed home to Spain from Ibiza via the Columbrete Islands in his 15ft-something...
View ArticleWho can save this Johnson & Jago 2 1/2 tonner now lying at Maldon?
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Johnson & Jago-built 2 1/2 tonner Dzorbha Marinestore at Maldon sent an email to me (and probably many others) appealing for someone to take on this 1936 Johnson &...
View ArticleBBC Rivers series reaches the rivers of the Fens, the Broads, and finally the...
[ad#intheboatshed-post] The latest episode of Griff Rhys Jones’ BBC series Rivers visited the Fens, the Norfolk Broads and the River Stour last night – and delivered him to his own front door, which...
View ArticleThames Festival Classic Rally at St Katharine Docks, 2009
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Jim Vandenbos’s mobile phone photos of the 2009 inaugural Thames Festival Classic Rally. If anyone else has photos they’d like to share, please email me at gmatkin@gmail.com The...
View ArticleThe English yachting narrative with particular reference to Cornwall
[ad#intheboatshed-post] The June 2009 edition of the NMMC journal Troze is now online and and is packed with gems from the history of yachting. The article in question is titled The English yachting...
View ArticleTony Bibbington sails and paddles Macgregor’s route in a Rob Roy canoe
[ad#intheboatshed-post] Rob Roy canoe gear – click on the drawing for a larger image I’ve just learned that Mersey Canoe Club member Tony Bibbington last year sailed and paddled from Oslo to the...
View ArticleVeteran East Coast small boat sailor Charles Stock caught on video
Charles Stock making his customary good use of his wellies. Image copyright Tony Smith (aka Creeksailor) and used with permission I’ve stumbled across a series of short Youtube videos featuring...
View ArticleTiernan Roe starts work on a Karl Stambaugh Catbird 16 small cruising sharpie
[ad#intheboatshed-post] It may not look like much at the moment, but this is the very beginning of a new project for Tiernan Roe. Tiernan is a South-West Ireland-based boatbuilder who has recently...
View ArticleSummer on Lake Rotoiti
I reckon Paul Mullings is out to make us winter-bound Northern Europeans envious with these shots taken in high summer down in New Zealand - which he sent in an email in which he signs off ‘Keep warm...
View ArticleA beautiful and touching short video made by friends of Ben Crawshaw
This is a lovely piece of film, but don’t let that distract you from noticing how Ben Crawshaw has the art of launching down pat – or the way he uses a topping lift to enable him to row … Continue...
View ArticleDon’t miss the new Dinghy Cruising Association website
I’d like to draw readers’ attention to the Dinghy Cruising Association’s splendid new website http://dinghycruising.org.uk. It has always been packed with goodies – articles on dinghy sailing and...
View ArticleFrancis B Cooke’s writing republished in blockbuster manual of traditional...
Francis B Cooke was one of the great yachting writers of the 20th century and more – a long-lived man, he was first published in 1883 and was still writing in the early 1970s, by which time he was in...
View ArticleBill Serjeant visits Oare Creek and Faversham
I see from Bill’s Log that small boat cruiser and gentleman of the waves Bill Serjeant is spending a little time at Oare Creek and visiting Faversham, where he seems to be enjoying himself. Here’s his...
View ArticleTwo new volumes from Lodestar Books – just in time for Christmas!
++++ Check the bargain at the bottom of this post! ++++ East Coast cruising sailor Richard Wynne’s wonderful Lodestar Books has two smashing books coming out in the first week of December – just in...
View ArticleLiving in a cruising dinghy
Roger Barnes of the Cruising Dinghy Association demonstrates the appeal of dinghy cruising and explains something of how it can be done, though I still don’t think it’s for the faint hearted…
View ArticleCatboats en Ballade
Cruising in a small catboat… One of the keywords is ‘Atkin’, so I’d guess the boat was a design of William Atkin’s – possibly Turnover (17ft in length) or Speculation (18ft), but I’d say Cupid was the...
View ArticleA robbery – but was the evidence what it seemed to be?
Widebeam canal and river cruiser sailer Ian Buchanan has kindly written in with a scenario that will be familiar to many boat owners… ‘It was almost dawn on a chilly December weekend morning. Still in...
View Article
