Huge apologies to Mark Chapman. There I was shouting out for bits on the Medway Match and Mark reminded me that only on the 14th June he posted me a link to his on-barge video of the Match. I had used it in Twitter, so some of you may have seen it, but had failed to post it to here. It is a superbly evocative thing – Mark has video’d with the sound on, so we hear all the on-board noise, winch pawls clanking, Skipper Ian Ruffles shouting instructions and other crew (Mick Nolan and Reggie Andrews) comment, the wind and the waves. As well, there are, of course, all the lovely visuals, barges alongside and behind us, the river and shoreline. Occasionally, Mark points the camera inboard, so we can see deck activity. Let that tops’l draw! Can you pull the main brail in a bit! Wind this wang in a bit! Is our bowsprit clear of ‘is mizzen? Nice and gently – we’re in his shitty wind now! Lee HO!
Mark Chapman Medway Video
24 minutes, 16 seconds of pure joy! Thank you very much to all involved and especially to Mark for the edit and production. It all comes flooding back.
The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTZ6OdH5aK8&feature=youtu.be
Thank you to Mark and your goodself for the link.
Interesting to see how the mainsail is reefed so that it does not cause inconvenience to the (fare paying?) ‘passengers.’
Was this, reduction in power, the reason why we (Cambria) did not win outright or because of the additional weight of the necessary items of fixtures and fittings required for her to pay her keep?
I think it was more down to the mixture of little wind at the start and squally wind when storm hit and little wind mid way. Her beam in comparison to the other barges came into it aswell I think. Skipper Ian Ruffles would be better placed to answer this question though. Hope you enjoyed the video.