These fun boats can still be had for about £600 - and of course you can keep it in the front garden.
Ah, such memories of idle summers spent on the river between Woodbridge Tide Mill and Felixtowe Ferry with a boom tent and a crate of Tolly
Friday, 28 April 2017
You can never have too many boats ....
A bit of a fuss in the papers at news that Nick Serota's retirement gift from his colleagues was to be a boat. It's pretty certain that what's intended is something like the Enterprise pictured below rather than an Oyster 82.
These fun boats can still be had for about £600 - and of course you can keep it in the front garden.
Ah, such memories of idle summers spent on the river between Woodbridge Tide Mill and Felixtowe Ferry with a boom tent and a crate of Tolly
These fun boats can still be had for about £600 - and of course you can keep it in the front garden.
Ah, such memories of idle summers spent on the river between Woodbridge Tide Mill and Felixtowe Ferry with a boom tent and a crate of Tolly
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A bloody Oyster 82 - Jeezus H Christ. They cost an arm and a leg. An Oyster 82 costs well over 3 million, and that's just the basic package, which is practically next to useless these days if you want to actually get out of whatever marina you've berthed it in. The only upside to this is that poor old Nick will have to stump up the berthing fees, which at 82 feet promises to be quite a substantial amount every year. Then again he can sell his current boat to fund the fees, and then there is 28 years of inflated salary to fall back on as well.
If I worked for the Tate, all he'd get from me is a "Fu*k Off" Pill.
There is a great saying in boating - "the amount of fun to be gained from a boat is inversely proportional to its size".
On another note, I am currently reading Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransom. I know its meant to be a childrens book, but secretly it isn't. The book is designed to take adults back to their childhood where such fun was once had and where summers always started in May and finished when school term started in September. If you weren't fortunate to have had such a childhood, this Swallows and Amazons mentally implanted it for you.
That little boat with its blue sails would be just the ticket as Spring turns to summer. Radders - is that your boat?
Pc - I had one like it with rusty brown sails back in the '70s, but this one is currently on eBay; I look from my alpine fastness and remember the dried salt spray on my lips, the soft slap of the bow, the taut sails and the bloody shin-scraping centreboard and remember I had a bloody wonderful childhood.
They have lakes here but no tides or proper winds, so I can't be bothered. Plus it's only fun when you're 7 stone and lithe as a serpent. There's something about sailing in waters connected to the sea that opens the entire world to young minds - and Hamford Water, south of Harwich, was also a hidden delight with secret silver sand beaches and miles of creeklets to explore.
Takes me back to the days I worked for a very well known high street fashion chain. I remember whenever a chief buyer (very well paid + car + perks)had a birthday, the girls who worked under her for a pittance and a kind word, would club together and strive to buy her something beautiful, unusual and outrageously expensive. It struck me as very wrong but there was such fear of these powerful buyers that maybe the girls felt they had no option.
Oysters, not for me thanks. You pay tons of money and even then the keel can fall off. :-)
I've my own little sailboat tucked away on Longstone harbour, 5 minutes sail from the Solent. Lovely. It's on my other blog, the skint sailor.
But it's a bit much asking for contributions for a dinghy. Is a nice pen no longer sufficient as an office leaving present then? Maybe I've been short-changed in the past. :-)
I bought my son in law a wooden Wayfarer on ebay; £200 for serial no. 144 which needed complete restoration. I trailered it from Cornwall to Norfolk for him.
He's done a grand job on it and now the grandchildren are having the childhood they so richly deserve.
I live quite near Felixstowe Ferry (which is the name of a place for those who don't know) but my sailing days are long over. The currents round there are pretty fierce. As a child I grew up near Southend and my older sister had a small yacht (a Cadet) and we spent every summer swimming or sailing. A magical childhood - very much shades of Swallows and Amazons.
I liked the old GP14.
That's a real wooden one in the picture, isn't it. Bell Woodworking kit? Just like the one my dad and I built in our garage, ca. 1964.
Ah those were the days.
Well we were in Portscatho (Cornwall) just after the end of the war. My pa had converted a lifeboat into a cabin cruiser, and we used it regularly. However, my memories aren't nearly so idyllic as most of yours!!
I remember that the lines we used for mackerel fishing hurt my hands dreadfully - so this little lass had to stop trying! Then, when we did catch fish, they seemed to me to suffer terribly as they died. Of course, Pa said I must learn to be sensible - fish are known for having expressionless faces, and people have to eat. Then again there was the time we had a terrible and terrifying 'gale' while we were out. I don't remember any more trips.
For a few weeks, however, we did live on the boat - in a nearby bay, I think perhaps Pill Creek. My main memory of that is of travelling out to sea one day, and passing an inbound Royal Navy ship. The sailors looked down at us children: "Oh look! Now that's what we've been fighting for!"
Standing on deck by the sail, my father was unimpressed. "Hah. They think they've won the war, but they haven't; they haven't won anything. We've all fought our hearts out, and the b******s have given us away. They've betrayed us utterly."
My mother protested, citing Churchill's patriotism and good intentions. Pa insisted that though Winnie probably had done the best he could, he really hadn't been able to do more than delay the wills of Roosevelt and Stalin.
I don't think my old man was alone in recognising the truth at the time. I suspect many others were also aware.
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