It might be that the mooring arrangements have changed since then. It is nine years since I last went, and in those days there was generally plenty of room when you turned to port after entering, but there had been the odd time during Ramsgate week when we were sent over to pontoons to the north...
YouTube's algorithm recently decided that I wanted to look at ice yachts. I have to admit that they are impressive, and, as you say, sail close-hauled most of the time. What impressed me was that in the USA there is a culture of preserving and racing vintage ice-yachts from the early part of the...
My boat will comfortably do a sustained 8kn in the right conditions but if I check the average at the end of the leg it is always much lower, maybe 7.2 or so. To average 10 knots you would have to be pushing 12 much of the time I reckon.
I have sculled an inflatable often, but I have stopped short of carving a notch in the stern and proceeded sideways using the rowlock kindly provided by the Avon people. This is not especially efficient but it gets you there.
For some reason, when we watched fishermen in Mevagissey doing this...
Avons may not row efficiently, but they are pretty safe. On our first ever long weekend away in 1972 I had to report to our children’s grandmother by phone. This involved rowing a Redcrest from Pyefleet to Brightlingsea to find a phone box. This is a fair way and involved crossing the river...
Well done indeed. A very similar thing happened to me with our flimsy but adequate pram. An oar broke on the way to the boat on a windy grey evening (the outboard being defunct). I managed to get to the shore and sent my wife off to see what she could borrow, she returned with a paddle which got...
I believe the compact type is more or less circular, which makes yours regular, as in this randomly-chosen example:
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When I...
It’s certainly not genetic. I have had four siblings, none of whom showed any interest at all in sailing or the sea. My own children adored sailing but moved inland with family commitments.
10/10 for spelling bermudian the old way. I’d like to bring back spinaker as well, just to annoy the young.
My father’s sailing career was nothing like as romantic. He took the family on the Broads, and I have quite a lot of cine film of this from about 1935. They used to have a mixture of...
I got the impression when I was there that Brighton marina has base of chalk, with some mud overlying it, so that staying upright might be a matter of pot luck.
Apart from the distinctly unelectronic Walker log from about 1971 and a Mini hand-bearing compass of the same age, I think my oldest e-possession is a digital tuning Seafix which replaced a Hitachi radio with a rotating aerial, probably in the '80s.
I had one of those on my Mystere. It was curious trying to steer with it because this involved turning the compass in the ‘wrong’ direction. I worked quite well and I even had the wind vane, except that after some hours of use the tension of the band squished the grease to the other side of the...
In practice, I find it rather clonky, but it gives a reasonable indication of direction and roughly what sort of strength. I haven’t checked but I imagine that the coefficient is taken into account. For critical situations I have always used the diamonds on Admiralty charts, often easier than...
The unisex shower block under the arches was quite an experience in ye olden days. It was all highly organised with uniformed attendants, and the showers were good.
Things have changed a lot in the last few years and I think it must be ten years since we visited Ramsgate. Greasy spoons have become less greasy and all this foreign stuff is all the rage now. I’m happy to do the fine dining if you are paying.