Tag: Facebook

The Call Goes Out

Stairs down into our main hold, now beautifully boxed in

Stairs down into our main hold, now beautifully boxed in (Pic by Dave Brooks)

Hi. The call has gone out on Facebook and via email. We have some big, busy weekends coming up and if you can see your way clear to giving us a few hours as a volunteer then either contact us via CambriaTrustSecretaryt@live.co.uk, or come and find us moored at Standard Quay in Faversham. As Dave Brooks puts it…..

Calling All Cambria Volunteers and anybody else who would like to get involved.
We have a massive weekend coming up.
8/9 March. We are taking the poly tunnel off and the gear is going back up. We need volunteers especially on the Saturday as we need to get the polythene folded. 8.30 to 9.00 am start.

Then

15th March. Continue with the rigging
22/23 March General Maintenance and Painting

Urgently require painters.

29th Mar to 14th Apr dry dock and hull painting.

Please can you let me know via the cambriatrustsecretary@live.co.uk address if you are able to attend any of the above dates.

PLEASE HELP OUT IF YOU CAN.

Move to Oare

Cambria arrives Oare Creek 010313

Cambria arrives Oare Creek 010313

If you have been following the progress of this winter refit on our calendar page you’ll have been expecting a “Tow to Oare Creek” where the barge goes into dry dock for painting and attention. Dave Brooks has been on the case and has posted some nice pictures in the Cambria Sailing Barge area of FaceBook.

Dave supplied the following commentary. “Cambria made it to Oare creek safely today. Whilst she is at Oare, Tim Goldsack will be carrying out a list of jobs we require to be completed before she sails in April.
Also whilst she is in dry dock we require as many painters as we can to smarten her up. This year we will be spared the mucky job of anti-fouling as Tim and his team are doing it.
If possible we would like to get the hull scraped and painted.
This weekend, if weather permits, the mainmast needs painting. (Access to dry dock with extreme care this weekend as only a temporary gang plank, fixed gang plank will be in place next weekend.)
Next weekend the re-rigging will start so as many hands as possible to help with this and the last of the painting would be appreciated, please lat me know if you can attend”.

Thank you to all the volunteers who can help with this – please get your ‘bids’ in to Dave as soon as possible

 

 

Dave McCabe and Vigilant

Friend and Face-book Fiend Annie Meadows high lights a nice piece of video available from BBC News covering the rebuild of SB Vigilant down in the South West by boat builder Dave McCabe. It’s on  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21525933 if you fancy a look. It’s only a few minutes long but shows some nice rebuild shots. It even includes some clinking pawls (and regular readers will know how much I love that noise!). Dave says that he intends to actually use the barge, once restored to try to move some cargo about, perhaps potatoes. I did smile though as at one stage the sprit-pole winching results in a huge baulk of timber swinging against the wale with a resounding clunk – I suspect Dave would have prefered they edit that bit out.

Westmoreland model 220213

Westmoreland model 220213

Meanwhile in our own ‘barge building’ – the model sized version of SB Westmoreland currently being constructed by Dave and Tony Brooks, Dave has the following update. “The model continues to move forward. With the hull practically complete we have started to move up. The mainmast is now in place and the iron work almost complete. We fitted the jackstay tonight which was quite intricate work. We also worked on the Sprit. Fitting the muzzle, and preparing the Stanliff. We are hoping to be able to hang the sprit next week”.

 

Thanks for the update, Dave

Small World (even in Ireland)

Edith May Year video

Edith May Year video; screen-grab from Ed Gransden’s Facebook time line, grabbed by Matt Care

Edith May’s Ed Gransden has posted a nice video on Facebook reviewing their year. It’s in 2 parts, the first being http://www.facebook.com/ed.gransden?fref=ts . I will publish details on Part 2 when I have them. I think I’m right in saying these are within FB rather than being available on You Tube as a whole (is that right, Ed?) so you may need to be a registered FB user to get at them. They are very good – short video clips inter-leaved with ‘slide-show’ stills taking you through what has been a very good year for them. Not only were they nominated as National Register of Historic Ships flag-ship, but they have also had a host of different bands playing aboard and there is stuff too from some fine dining events and even a crab-winch winding competition. It’s well worth a look.

 

Meanwhile I had a nice barge-y coincidence happen to me just pre Christmas. Buying this house in Ireland, we were excited to learn that the seller had Whitstable connections, having lived in Kent for a while and her partner having family there. We went through all the house-move trying to keep on friendly terms with the vendor and have since become quite good friends. The couple have actually been here visiting a few times to see what we’ve done to bring their family’s derelict farmhouse back to life. Just pre Christmas they dropped by en route to Knock airport (which is only 20 minutes away) and the partner, Paul, noticing my barge pictures, commented that I might know his 2nd cousin, none other than Roger Newlyn!

 

Once they’d departed, I emailed Roger just to tell him of this and was delighted to receive back the following detail. “Paul’s Dad, Don”, said Roger, “was a shipwright and cabinet maker working for Anderson Rigden & Perkins in Whitstable.  A perfectionist. If it wasn’t right, he smashed it up. He built several boats of which I had one. It was an over-sized Mirror. If I didn’t have it the hammer would have come down on it. He improved the handling by making it that little bigger. Always after perfection. He is coming up to being 91 and still rides his pushbike down into town”

Small world, indeed.

 

Japanese Hi Tech

Japanese hi-tech sailing cargo ship project

Japanese hi-tech sailing cargo ship project, UT Wind Challenger, picture is a screen grab from the Project Press Video

Here’s something a bit unusual. This video report caught the eye of our friends at Sea Change and they published a link to it on their Facebook timeline. The video is on  http://on.aol.com/video/harnessing-wind-power-for-cargo-ships-517452210 and features interviews and graphics from some Japanese engineers working on the fitting of huge hi tech sails to modern cargo ships. The project is called UT Wind Challenger. The engineers think that in 10-20 years time it will be unusual to see a (new) ship without sails. This is a good thing, they comment. Ships powered by fossil fuels have  range limited by financial pressure; the cost of fuel. As Sea Change have it, “Wind powered cargo ships. Discuss”

Orinoco Storm

Orinoco Storm; Storm over Sheppy pictured from SB Orinoco

Orinoco Storm; Storm over Sheppey pictured from SB Orinoco

I was impressed by this fantastic photo taken by one of the Crew on SB Orinoco (Sorry, not sure who) who captioned it “Thunderstorm rolling over Sheppey whilst we sit in the sunshine.” Orinoco have kindly allowed me to reproduce it here. Orinoco are, of course, old friends and fellow Faversham-based bargemen. I do not think they have their own website, but they do have a Facebook presence as http://www.facebook.com/SBOrinoco . Nice one guys. I hope you didn’t get rained on.

Tri-Colour Leeboards

That well known ‘social networking site’, Facebook has become a rather lively, entertaining place in which to pick up the latest info on Cambria’s where-abouts and the comings and goings of plenty of other barges, including Edith May, Kitty, Thalatta, Xylonite and many more. If you don’t “do” Facebook, merely because you have heard bad things about it or you are nervous of it, then I’d urge you to go dip a toe in the water. You don’t have to open the flood gates to all sorts of idiocy, you can pick and choose who you would like to hear from and what you’d like to hear. Just join groups like “Sailing Barge Cambria” (or others) and all you’ll get is the “feed” from sources you like and respect.

Tricolour Leeboards; Image by Dave Brooks

Tricolour Leeboards; Image by Dave Brooks; painting by Richard Tichener and the Sea Change Sailing Trust

Lately, ‘we’ have been at Pin Mill where Skipper Richard Tichener has had the barge up on the blocks so that he could get the trainees hoe-ing barnacles off the bottom and lower sides, and painting. Roving reporter Dave Brooks took the opportunity to nip to Pin Mill and got these superb and unusual views of Cambria. Says Dave, ” The locals didn’t recognise her with the black leeboards so when in Pin Mill do as Bob Roberts would have done and paint them”. Tim Kent of SB Xylonite catches us up with the latest “youth-speak”, telling us that his 12 year old son says she looks “sick” but that this is a good thing, the latest modern version of “wicked”.  Shipwright Ryan Dale chips in that it looked better last year with black leeboards on which was written “RYAN” in good gloopy brown Faversham Creek mud. (Nice one Ryan! Wonder how that got there!)

There are also some nice pictures posted of Cambria moored by (and then seen through the windows of) the Butt and Oyster pub in Pin Mill.

© 2024

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑