Tag: Ian Ruffles (Page 2 of 3)

In Safe Hands

May 13, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Reggie Andrews, 3rd Hand; picture by Denis Johnson.

I hear from a variety of sources that the Cambria Team are currently well pleased with the three guys who have become our regular crew. Obviously we know from past experience of the Skipper Ian Ruffles and First Mate Denis Johnson but we now have a brilliant new-ish recruit as 3rd Hand, Reggie Andrews. These guys all work together really well and we have some recent pictures of examples of this. They are particularly good with the Young Carers who come to us on sail training breaks sponsored by the Rotary Club and we have had lots of good feedback from the trainees.

Warping Cambria alongside; picture by Basil Brambleby

Reggie is a dab hand with the barge boat and our new, more powerful outboard which he has found can be used in some places as a very effective method of propulsion in and out of confined spaces. Cambria, as you know, has no engine, so moving when there is no friendly wind can be an issue and Gillingham Pier, where we are currently based, is one where the tide goes out, leaving you high and dry. The guys can now bring Cambria in towards the Pier ‘too early’ when there is not enough water, so that she grounds near to the dock. Reggie hops into the barge boat and runs a line ashore so that as the tide finishes coming in she can be ‘warped’ alongside as she would have been ‘back in the day’.

Reggie mans the boat for a shove; Picture by Basil Brambleby

The barge boat (and Reggie) is also the method for getting her out to deep enough water for a day’s sailing when the trainees are due to arrive at a time which would be low tide. The barge is moved out at high tide and the trainees are ferried out in the boat. She can also be turned round at the dock using this method. The stem or stern are secured and the barge boat used to swing the ‘other end’ round. It works as long as there is not too much tide or windage. They tell me the boat is good for about 3 knots, so provided any adverse tide flow and/or wind do not combine to more than that we can still move in the direction we want to.

Sounds like fun but I’m sure it’s all hard work and hard-won skills. Fair play to Reggie and the guys. There are plenty of us who envy you the chance and the life! Well done to you for making it happen.

Centre Fold

April 21, 2013 / / 2 Comments

Thank you to both Skipper Ian Ruffles and barge book author Nick Ardley for your clarifications on the role of the long-stay in barge rigging. Thanks too, Ian for today’s beautiful picture of Cambria moored off Gillingham in the Medway, at sunset. Our new 3rd-hand, Reggie put this one up on Facebook (from where I nabbed it!) and promises to look out and take more for us.

Cambria moored in a Medway sunset; picture by Skipper Ian Ruffles.

Onto the doormat this morning plops the latest edition of ‘Mainsheet’, periodical magazine from the Society for Sailing Barge Research (SSBR, see also http://www.sailingbargeresearch.org.uk/ ) This is their Spring 2013 publication, Issue No 93 and marks their 50th Anniversary Year, so it is a bit special.

Most strikingly the cover picture runs across the whole front and back cover like a centre-fold. It is a gorgeous shot of Maldon waterfront taken by Geoff Tyrell in 2010. In the foreground are the hulks of SB Oxygen and SB Scotia with assorted ‘live’ barges dipped down between the saltings banks on the low tide, all overlooked by the lovely old tower and spire of Maldon Church.

The mag is, as ever, a FEAST of pictures, letters, well researched articles, reviews and comment. It includes, in full, Richard Walsh’s eulogy on the late Mark (Nozz) Boyle and momories of Catherine de Bont. It has a good few responses to an earlier piece on Mauretania, an item on the 1953 floods at Whitstable, an item called “A Winter’s Passage” about SB Colonia which is full of first hand memories, and another “A Voyage Round My Father” (in this case, old Skipper ‘Jack’ Josh). Another item summaries some of the stories our friend Tricia Gurnett has posted in “The Barge Blog”. There is much much more – this magazine and it’s hammock partner “Topsail” are reason enough alone to pay your subs and join SSBR. It finishes with a nice piece by Charles Traill who was ‘dragged off’ (OK, probably quite willingly!) on a holiday away from barges, to get all cultured by looking at an exhibition of Pre-Raphaelite art in the Tate, and came upon a picture of an auburn haired ‘lady of negotiable affection’. This picture, by John Rodden Stanhope in 1858 called “Thoughts of the Past” shows ‘your wan’ gazing out of a window upon the River Thames where, in the background are… you guessed it…. spritsail rig barges quite clearly unloading at a wharf and a stumpie out in mid stream. “Salvation!” says Charles. Nice one.

Thanks for that, the Team at SSBR.

Shake-down Sailing

April 7, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Winch drum assembly; Picture by Dave Brooks

As promised a while back, a shot of those winch drums built by our Master Shipwright, Tim Goldsack and now installed in their axles/bearings in the main mast case (tabernacle). For fast but harder-work straight-through winching of lighter stuff you wind your rope round the upper drum and crank away. For heavier work where you want a bit of mechanical advantage from the gearing down (looks like about 2:1 but might be 3:1) and slower is OK, you wind your rope round the lower drums and crank the top one.

These last couple of weeks Cambria has been out on her shake down with the crew of Skipper Ian Ruffles, 1st Mate Denis Johnson and 3rd hand ‘Reggiee Andrews’. I am sorry of that looks a little unlikely for a spelling but he comes up spelt that way on Facebook and who am I to argue? Ian tells us that Reggiee is doing brilliantly and learning fast and it was Ian with just Reggiee to assist, who brought the barge onto Gillingham Pier for the first time (ever?) when they were avoiding some bad winds recently. A safe pair of hands, Reggiee. Fair play to you.

Talking of increasing sailing skills, the barge’s ‘sparks’ Owen Pihama and Miranda, who was ‘Mum’ to the Volunteers, tell us that the two girls who worked so hard and well as Volunteers for us and gained Volunteer of the Year awards from National Historic Ships are now going through some sail training of their own. “Han,” says Miranda, ” is currently doing the very last bit of her Gold Duke of Edinburgh with the Tall Ships Youth Trust aboard one of the Challenger yachts. She sailed from Portsmouth yesterday and will hopefully be going as far as the Channel Islands. The trip lasts a week and she will hopefully qualify for her ‘RYA Competent Crew’. She was very chuffed as they have already asked if she would like to sail with them as a volunteer.

However, poor Bee’s sailing lessons (courtesy of National Historic Ships prize money) was unfortunately postponed due to wind chill factor and sea temperature (apparently they spend a fair bit of time in the water when they first start!). We have re-booked for later on when the weather hopefully gets warmer”.

Possible future barge crew and Skippers, there, Miranda?

Cambria at Gillingham Pier; Picture by Dave Brooks

Meanwhile, Basil reports that, “Cambria’s first charter didn’t go to plan. She was meant to be at Gravesend by now but instead the weather forced us to try out Gillingham Pier earlier in the season than we anticipated. It was quite a surprise to receive the message from skipper Ian Ruffles telling me that he and Reggie our new third hand had brought the barge in to the pier. We believe this is a first for the Cambria. It has been a few years since barges occupied the pier though Ian remembers Portlight and Ironsides and two other barges sheltering there after a rough Medway race early in the Nineties.
She makes an interesting picture, and will be there until Friday (12th April)”. Basil also asks that if “Anybody is interested in doing some painting, please to contact him”.

Master Class

March 21, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Sail-maker Steve Hall helps rig the Cambria March 2013

The Cambria team were treated to a real master class in rigging over the weekend. The tops’l had been damaged at some point while the gear was down by, we believe, some careless use of an angle grinder by a quayside contractor using an angle grinder to cut away (perfectly useful!) old mooring chains. The shower of sparks had burned small holes in the sail cloth. With our gear still down, our Sail Maker, Steve Hall from North Sea Sails (Tollesbury) was booked to come down to patch a repair into the sails prior to heaving up.

Driving all the way from Essex, Steve decided to bring friend and fellow sail-maker, Jim Lawrence down to help him. I apologise for the pictures which make these barge-world VIPs look like soggy scarecrows, dressed as they were in wet weather gear as befit the day, but apparently they all had a brilliant time and were treated to a master class in rigging, sail repairing and heaving up by the visitors. Jim apparently kept up his usual flow of anecdotes and chatter, both the guys were stitching at one stage and we even had Jim on the windlass helping to heave up. We are honoured humbled and delighted.

Thank you Jimmy and Steve, Thank You Skipper Ian Ruffles and Mate Denis Johnson, and I have also seen Basil in other pictures from this set which were taken by (Thank You, too) Dave Brooks.

Former Barge Skipper Jimmy Lawrence aboard Cambria

Thames Match Poster

March 15, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Thank you Ian Ruffles for this poster, which I am happy to publish here. If anyone has anything else they would like me to put up, please do send it in or, as Ian did, publish on Face book and then ask me to display it here. It is nice that it has a little inset pic of Mark (Nozz) Boyle. Thanks Ian.

2013 Thames Match poster (fs)

Re-Rig and a new Cabin

March 10, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Happy Mothers’ Day to any Mums out there from all the team at Cambria. Today a lovely selection of pictures of the current works aboard the barge. We have the re-rig going on courtesy of frequent Skipper, Ian Ruffles, First Mate, Denis Johnson and (introducing) our new Third Hand, Reggie. He’s the guy there in the Davey Crockett head gear. I have to admit my spies have been a bit quiet on this one and the first I had heard of him was when he appeared in an email in these pics. Welcome aboard, Reggie. Hopefully the spies will do me a better introduction soon. Also ‘a bit quiet’ would describe the construction of a new cabin on the aft end of the main hold, port side. I have 2 pics here and my guess would be that this is either John-the-Joiner’s work or one of the original shipwrights, Ryan or Tim maybe. Again I’ll let you know.

Anyway, here are the pics.

Gear Down; into action!

February 19, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Cambria’s gear is now down for maintenance and rigging.

A busy weekend for the Volunteer team. They have wound the gear down for maintenance, painting and ‘bending on’ the sails (fixing them to the spars). Dave Brooks on Facebook tells me, “Here are some pictures of Cambria yesterday morning and yesterday afternoon. Gear is down ready for painting the mast and sprit and then for the epic fun that is re-rigging. Lots of very hard work ahead of us plus a visit to Oare Creek. At least the sailing season is a another step closer”. They will miss Nozz, I am thinking. He was an expert on de-rigging and re-rigging.

Meanwhile in an email I get a nice programme of events, which I will add to the calendar when I get a chance. There is also a progress report as follows, from DB.

“It was a busy weekend on the Cambria. Yesterday Skipper Ian Ruffles and Mate Denis Johnson came down and got the masts lowered ready for painting. Today Boss of Volunteers, Basil has cleaned and sanded the topmast in readiness for oiling and varnishing. Mark Chapman and I have washed and sanded the sprit, and thanks to the weather we managed to get it painted as well. Julie Brooks has been busy getting the galley ready for the new season. She was duly dispatched off to Tesco’s for Mr Muscle oven cleaner and the cooker is now looking like new again. Word for all our prospective charterer’s (And Skipper’s cooking Pizza) the Mr Muscle oven cleaner will be in the kitchen cupboard”. I think we’ll take that as a ‘pointed’ comment, Dave!

“Lowering the Gear” Video

October 29, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Lowering Cambria’s Gear; Still from a video taken by ‘Den Johnson’s Carol’

Something a bit different today! Mark Chapman has sent me a link to video of the Cambria’s gear being lowered in Faversham’s Standard Quay a couple of weekends ago, Skippered by Ian Ruffles. If you’ve ever seen this process in action you’ll know it’s not a quick job, so the video is 13 and a half minutes long. We are not sure yet how to, or whether we can, embed video in this website so it’s been posted on that haven of cute kitten videos, You Tube. Click on the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMcFsLWLGDM&feature=player_embedded. It was taken by Denis Johnson’s Carol, so thanks for that, Carol. In Cambria’s case the gear, as lowered, is watched continuously to ensure the spreet and then the mainm’st and topm’st do not foul first the mizzen itself with its radio aerials etc, then the mizzen shrouds and boat davits and finally the wheelhouse. Obviously too, all its own stays and tackle have to be slacked off or manouvred accordingly. The spreet ends up sitting on the metal fairlead on the starb’d side of the saddle-chock (aft rail) and the mainm’st sits in a notch at the top of a thick plank stood on it’s end just aft of the main hold hatch. It’s a fascinating process to watch and even better to be part of. You might be able to get involved in this kind of thing if you join the Volunteers team. Thank you for the link Mark, and thank you again for the video, Carol.

Call to Arms

October 27, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Duvets and bedding stowed below in black bags in a cabin to keep dry. Picture by Basil Brambleby

As our picture shows, it’s not all getting cold and wet, struggling with ropes in a force 8. Cambria is now back in Faversham and being snugged down ready for the winter. This post is a call to arms for any Volunteers who have time over the various weekends to come and help out including doing this simple cleaning, tidying and stowing, in this case, the bedding into dry black bin liners to keep them from the damp through the cold months. The rigging has all been lowered after the sails were unfurled on a sunny day to let them all dry, so that the working sails could all be ‘unbent’ from the spars. The gear will then be raised again less the sails and will stay up for the winter, the lowering also having given us a chance to check the blocks and fittings which are normally 70+ feet above the decks. Skipper Ian Ruffles has been on hand to manage these operations.

If you would like to volunteer for any of these duties – cleaning, snugging, painting etc please either come on down to Standard Quay in Faversham, or email us on CambriaTrustSecretary@live.co.uk

One Final Charter

October 8, 2012 / / 0 Comments

Gravesend Chart; Picture by Matt Care

Cambria is now getting readied for her final charter (as far as we know at present) of 2012. These last three are the Young Carer ones sponsored by The Rotary Club, the first two (now completed) were skippered by Ian Ruffles, the final one this weekend will have our Master Shipwright, Tim Goldsack in charge. After the weekend sail they will finish up in Faversham where the barge will be prepared for winter and any maintenance she requires. In all three charters the Crew has been our old friends Denis Johnson and Shipwright Ryan Dale both of whom are, by all accounts, thoroughly enjoying the experience and getting used to the role and very good at it. It’s no easy thing sailing a barge anyway and to mentor the sail trainees and keep them safe and well at the same time while ensuring they enjoy the break is an achievement worth ticking off on your CV. Well done to all four of you guys. You are part of the Trust’s pride in our old girl and the good works she is currently involved in.

Once she’s in Faversham, of course, the usual opportunities will start up to try a bit of volunteering yourselves. We use volunteers for all kinds of tasks from tidying and cleaning to painting and to showing members of the public around the barge, selling merchandise to polishing the brasses, helping with lowering the ‘gear’ and messing with rigging. It can be hard work (if you want it to be) or it can be simply “messing about in boats”. If you are interested in getting involved, contact either Secretary Dave Brooks, or Company Secretary Basil Brambleby, both on CambriaTrustSecretary@live.co.uk . Give it a go!