Thursday 30 June 2016

Stern first


Sunday 26th June

Victoria may be the only one of the many hundreds of boats travelling to Brest this week and next which will do so stern first. Howard is now busy converting the back of her lorry for this purpose.

There's a nice "back to front" story about Thomas Poole, the Police Inspector who commissioned Victoria to be built in 1897 for the Colchester Borough River Police. (The beginnings of our boat are well documented in the Minutes of the Watch Committee of the Borough but the Inspector's acquisition of her, for himself, for racing, at around about the time of his retirement (and hers) in the late 1920s was not quite so transparent).

Poole was quite a character and owned or part-owned so many boats in his lifetime that when he tried to compile a list (for the author Hervey Benham who tells this tale in his book "The Last Stronghold of Sail") he gave up trying to remember them all and threw his list in the bin. Benham recounts that one of the boats Poole owned was a double-ended sailing boat which had been tender to a larger vessel. Poole got the boatyard to re-rig the boat back to front, renamed her "Vice Versa", and went on to win races in her with what had been her aft end first. So he clearly had an eye for boats, though what he would make of us carting his Victoria around in this fashion we shall never know.

Victoria weighs 3.2 tons which is rather a lot for a 21 foot boat. It's partly down to her double hull as she was built clinker and then "carvelled over" a few years later. The reasons for this are not stated in the Watch Committee Minutes, the expense is just cited as being for "major work" or words to that effect, but I like to think it was for stealth, that for her work in those days before many boats had engines it was useful to be able to move about quietly. She also has a very heavy lifting keel made of iron. 

When we last took her to France on the lorry (for the Semaine du Golfe du Morbihan in 2011) she went on bow first with her nose poking through the V which Howard cut in the metal plate - see photo below. The truck drove OK but it did look a bit back-heavy and the hope is that with Victoria on stern first we'll be better balanced.

So what Howard has now had to do is to rearrange those 2 diagonal black bars from their previous vertical positions and he will then cut a new transom shape in that plate for her rear end to sit as far forwards (or do I mean backwards?) as possible. Our friend Pete the Knife did some of the heavy welding for us and we'll be calling on him again to help finish off these modifications.


There used to be a ladder built into the bars on the left - not sure how I'll clamber up onto the boat without it






Luckily only one of these extra supports, the short bits, added in 2011 will have to be moved forward.

Note the smart new red paint job - I am working on tarting the boat up a bit now - more of this tomorrow


Tuesday 28 June 2016

Animal or vegetable?

Saturday 25th June

Howard peering to inspect the growth on Victoria's hull as she is lifted out, Sarah supervising


Our sailing club, the Harwich and Dovercourt, has a policy of members mucking in and helping each other out. Howard does "working party" duty on Tuesday evenings and I serve behind the club bar now and then. Which is how it came about that whilst Victoria was lifted out in the pouring rain I was watching from the comfort and shelter of the bar. Our friend Sarah nobly performed the role of strop mistress (ask her!) and rope tweaker and Victoria was soon safely on her trailer.

The reason for yesterday's slow passage became abundantly clear:


Truly disgusting - these things squirt water at you as if they were vengeful sea creatures but I am told they are seaweed

My bar duty continued until relief cover arrived back from a fishing trip so I missed out on the damp and very smelly task of scraping this all off. What luck! 
And well done Howard, my hero!


Second attempt


Friday 24th June - Walton to Harwich

So this is why we are proud owners of so many "spare" Vire 2 stroke engines in various states of disrepair. For a cleaner brighter carburettor!

Lovely day for a motor: our friend Sarah kindly agrees to run us to Walton so we don't end up with a car in the wrong place. She waits around while Howard fits the replacement part and runs the engine and then when all seems well, she leaves us to it and off we go.


I get to sunbathe on deck as we motor out of the Walton Channel

Howard not sunbathing

We do have a Plan B by the way in case of further engine problems - we are carrying a rubber dinghy and an outboard which if necessary we can deploy to tow or push ourselves along. Howard had this kit with him yesterday too but having seen how hard it was for Alistair to tow him with his launch he's decided on an upgrade: Sarah and Clive have kindly lent us their outboard which is 4hp to our 2hp.

Thankfully no such drastic measures are required, though it's a rather slow progress we make, we think because it's been so long since Victoria's bottom was cleaned.

Two and a half hours to cover what can only be about 6 miles, bouncy as we get out into the bay with wind over tide, and then quite a struggle to get round the corner into Harwich. At one point Howard is giving it plenty of welly on the throttle and we are still edging gracefully backwards as the current rushes round the corner towards us. A Harwich Pilot boat pauses in its work to watch us as we sneak closer and close in towards the Navyyard wall until we can almost hand ourselves along the black tire fenders and only then do we finally creep round. We wave a polite thank you for their vigilance.

Tie up safely inside the Ha'penny Pier and put the cover on for the night.



Howard's happy to have these 2 big extra fenders and hopes they'll stay all night, though this is unlikely

Monday 27 June 2016

Rescue in the Walton Channel

Thursday 23rd June - Walton to Harwich, first attempt, failed.

Alistair with his launch - no name just "Tender to Witch"

This portrait was taken on Sunday prior to Alistair's departure with his lovely old gaffer "Witch" (heading in the same direction as we will be going in Victoria, namely to the Brest Maritime Festival, only he's going by sea). As you can see he and his tender were going nowhere fast yet due to the lack of water, but the tide was on its way in.

The reason for showing you Alistair and his little launch is that on Thursday they rescued Howard and towed him in when Victoria's engine failed as he started out for Harwich.

The plan was beautiful in its simplicity: we would drive the car to Walton, Howard would motor Victoria (without her rig) out of the channel, across the bay and in to Harwich Harbour. I would not be needed on the voyage and instead would drive the car home and be on the Pier ready to take his lines on arrival.

The phone call came as I was paying in the butcher's shop: "Engine misbehaving, I'm turning back, might get to Titchmarsh Marina, might try Bedwells, will let you know". So a quick dash home to put the meat in the fridge (hottest day of the year so far), then I set off back to Walton. Next call said "I've anchored and asked Alistair for a tow, still not sure where to" and then finally "we are back in the pond".

Not much more to be said really (apart from a big thank you to Alistair). We are right back to square one but with a clogged up carburettor.

Things not to say in this situation include "we are right back to square one" and "why didn't you take any photos for the Blog?"

Here's Witch sailing in 2010 - she's on her way to Brest now: safe trip!



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Saturday 25 June 2016

Wheels upon wheels

Wednesday 22nd June

Now here's a difficult photo to make sense of: the first set of wheels belong to our red white and blue Anglo-French lorry, the second set with green bars belong to Victoria's trailer which in this picture has been lifted onto the lorry for transportation to the boat yard.
Anything else around is just random farm machinery.


Wheels upon wheels

I wrote the above and then planned to add something along the lines of "This blog will get more interesting when we take to the water" but don't tell Howard I was going to say that as he'll think I tempted fate. It did get interesting but not in a good way...

Wednesday 22 June 2016

Cover off, mast away

Saturday 18th June

The first job for Victoria's lorry now it is back on the road is to collect her mast. It's been supporting her cover all winter but the cover's coming off now so that Victoria can be motored round to Harwich for her annual makeover.
It's only going to be a short trip for the boat so it's not worth the trouble of rigging her and putting all the sails on: it will all need to come down again for the crane-out.

Howard used a rubber dinghy when he fitted the cover but he reckons it can be removed without this aid: our nephew James is on hand to help with this job and it's a test of his gymnastic abilities as you see:



James untying the cover - he managed this bit without getting wet....


Then it's mast onto the trailer - luckily it's fairly short (we're gaff rigged) and it's light. It's hollow in fact - the story goes that back in 1897 her mast was made from the old spinnaker pole of a J-class yacht but I'm not sure how we could prove or disprove that. 

For anyone interested in this kind of trivia, here is what the mast section looks like (ignore the filler piece in the middle):

The steel clad bottom few inches of Victoria's mast were removed a few years ago so when we changed from keep stepped to deck stepped - that change made this lorry transportation lark  possible so don't knock it.

Job done - thanks James, mast ready to go





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Monday 20 June 2016

MOT test 15th June

Victoria's lorry has had so much TLC it really should pass the test...

Howard's 4 litre Mercedes



Looking good with cornflour blue boards and red oxide everywhere else (EVERYWHERE!)


...and Yesss! We passed! Result!!!    Brest here we come...

Saturday 18 June 2016

Fitting out...a lorry


June 7th to 9th
Sorry to begin a sailing blog with motor mechanics but before we can start the Tales of Sailing Victoria we have to tell the tale of getting her ready to go. The plan is to take her to the Brest International Maritime Festival in July by road. She has her own lorry but it hasn't been used much recently and needs an MOT.


Howard posing for his next Facebook profile picture - anyone who knows him will recognise him from this

Track rods needed new rubber bushes - if that means anything to you. It doesn't to me except that it involved Howard crawling about underneath the cab as you see. There was also some tweaking needed to the starter motor although that wasn't going to be a show-stopper, which is just as well as whatever he did hasn't worked.

This won't be my next profile picture as no one would know me from this
We reckoned that the MOT testers would be better disposed to us if the lorry looked loved but I have to say I didn't love it much whilst crawling about painting 16 horizontal steel bars and the frame of the flat bed, top and bottom, in fast congealing red oxide paint. And I didn't love it when it took 2 and a half days and I had a headache for 2 of them, presumably due to inhaling noxious fumes all day but perhaps not helped by recuperative beers afterwards.

Test date is set for Wed 15th - fingers crossed