ONBOARD
Classic Classes
Here at last, after more than 12 years in the making, is the updated compilation of Classic Boat magazine’s Class Notes, covering the design and class histories of 156 different types of sailing craft. It’s a book to take sailing with you, with a ready-reference two-page spread of sail numerals and devices to help identify boats when out on the water. It’s split between dinghies and dayboats, yachts and then Olympic classes, again for ease of reference, and includes a huge range of boat types, from the humble Optimist or Mirror dinghy up to the J-Class. Vanessa Bird took up the task of compiling these notes, which appear in the magazine every month – it must be one of the longest running series of its type in a magazine anywhere. Even when she left the staff of CB and moved over to Yachting Monthly, she continued to
DVD Keep Turning Left By Dylan Winter
To the casual observer, Dylan Winter might look like just another middle-aged bloke in an ugly boat – a 19ft (5.8m) Mirror Off shore called Slug in this instance. Then you learn that he’s sailing around Britain – very slowly. He left Bembridge on the Isle of Wight four years ago and he’s only reached Wells-Next-the-Sea. The reason? He stops everywhere, talks
to everyone, sails local classes at every port and sails up every river he sees. Dylan’s logic is that of the true Corinthian: get the boat you can aff ord now, and go. It is his 250-plus short fi lms, though,
that have won him an audience of thousands on YouTube. Dylan is a professional cameraman and has been chronicling the trip in this series of short fi lms about the places, people, wildlife and the traditional boats he comes across. Some are set to music but most are accompanied by his entertaining, often acerbic commentary. On marinas: “I like them – they keep plastic, white boats off rivers.” On Slug: “She sails like a pig.” Slug’s minimal 2ft (0.6m) draught was too much on the East Coast, so Dylan went to the local DIY shop, bought some ply and built a duck punt in a week: the fi lm shows him sailing in 3in of water. What a guy, and what a series. See his fi lms online or buy the DVD. SMH
Keep Turning Left DVD, £15, 4 hours,
www.keepturningleft.co.uk
BY VANESSA BIRD
write the page, and it was an original ambition to compile them into a book. And it’s a surprisingly good read, not to mention the fact that it’s packed with information. We learn how classes have benefi ted from the resurgence of interest in classic boats as techniques for restoring them have been rediscovered. Some classes took a mould from an older boat and recreated them in glassfi bre, widening their appeal to new owners. And while the book does not claim to tell all the history surrounding the boats, the ‘notes’ are more than enough to give readers a good background. We hope it proves useful and serves to inform readers, (not just the waterborne) of the hugely varied types of boat which we call classics. And if the boat you’re interested in does not appear here… well, fi rst she may not be a classic – the
DVD Red Sails Directed by Michael Maloney
The rebuilt Thames Sailing Barge Cambria features heavily in this fi lm, which is all about the TSBs and their role in trade and now charter in the waters around the Thames Estuary – the London River. And this is not surprising, since director Michael Maloney lives in Faversham, where Cambria has been restored, to sail again last year. The fi lm covers the vessel from when Bob Roberts famously captained her as the last vessel of her type trading under sail in the UK. Roberts is somewhat unkindly referred to as a misanthrope – when he clearly wasn’t – but no-one belittles his sailing ability, or carrying on an age old tradition when the rest of the world had installed an engine. The fi lm also features sailmaker
Jim Lawrence talking about his fi rst job on the Gladys and other barges and we meet Steve Hall, another sailmaker, as well as other
craftsmen associated with keeping these workhorses of the Thames going. A good buy, and an enjoyable watch for anyone interested in these craft or Thames history in general. DH
Red Sails, DVD, £15, 49 mins,
www.cwideprods.co.uk/dvds/ CLASSIC BOAT MAY 2011 71
defi nition is necessarily subjective – but also of course, it may just be that we have not got around to writing about her yet.
In which case, I am, ah, sorry to
say, you may have to wait for Volume II, which by my reckoning should appear sometime in the early 2020s. CB’s publishers do appreciate and thank you for your patience. DH
Pub Adlard Coles, 2012, 160pp, illustrated hardback, £19.99 ISBN 978-1-4081- 5891-3
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100