Up the Hamble again

Up the Hamble again today, with Home Built Boat Rally friends Chris Waite, Paul Hadley and Phil Oxborrow with dog Gem. Here is Paul at the oars of Octavia while Chris sits regally behind, directing.

Old Gaffer and blog reader Bernie turned up at the Swanwick hard to take a look at our boats, as he has bought the plans for a Selway Fisher 12ft Thames Skiff and needed to decide whether to make the beam 3ft 3in or to go for the 3ft 9in option. He has gone for 3ft 3in, wisely I think.

It was nice to meet you, Bernie, and I look forward to you joining us on future expeditions in your Thames Skiff!

Went to the Horse and Jockey at Curbridge and, joy, they were open, welcoming, and serving a brilliant breakfast consisting of a real proper sausage and lots of other stuff including bubble'n'squeak. And they had a new (to me, anyway) real ale from Gales called Seafarer, which is light, refreshing, suitbable for lunchtime quaffing when one has to drive home, and £3 a barrel goes to the maritime charity.
So my curse on the H&J is hereby rescinded, repealed, revoked and rethingied.
Talking of charities, I passed the YMCA training centre and was pleased to note:
a) someone has a sense of humour;
b) they still remember the unassuming local man who went round the world without hype, hoopla or commercial sponsorship.

More on the Bursledon Gig

Boats get labeled in some odd ways. The Bursledon gig started life as a Falmouth workboat that ended its days donating its body as a plug for Cygnus Marine's CY15, made for years on the Fal.
Then the Bursledon Regatta committee got concerned about the lack of rowing on the Hamble. Jim Chadwick-Williams takes up the story:

"When the Regatta discovered that rowing was dying, about 10 years ago somebody bought four shells from Cygnus Marine. On the back of enthusiasm generated by re-fighting Trafalgar with 45 three-masted Mirrors under oars in 2005, I was Regatta Chairman and got fed up with people saying there weren't enough Gigs. So I was Cygnus's biggest customer for their CY15, before they went into liquidation. Its advantages to us were that it is manoeuvrable in the river, can be used for family picnics and is good for Sea Scouts because you can put up to seven in a boat and only have one safety boat. With fast sailing dinghies you need almost as many adults as Scouts.
There are fourteen on the river now and we are thinking of doing another batch as there is new interest, and we might get Sea Scouts interested as part of their curriculum is to learn about 'pulling'."

The next Bursledon Regatta is in August - see here for details. A pirate theme - I suspect that dinghies up and down the Hamble are being converted into miniature Hispaniolas and Black Pigs.