Tag: Nozz

Old Gaffers’ Ode

February 24, 2013 / / 0 Comments

If I may, a quick thank you for those welcome comments from Oliver Boyle, Nozz’s brother, and from Bill Nance. We always welcome feedback – apart from anything else it re-assures me that someone is listening!

Kinvarra fishing trip-boat Skipper

Meanwhile Dick Durham has found a superb poem as part of his Yachting Monthly writings, in this case coming to me through the RSS feed. “Yachting Monthly can reveal”, writes Dick, “one of the shanties which will be performed for the Old Gaffers Association’s 50th anniversary. It is written by cartoonist Mike Peyton, 92, who is an East Coast section member and the only original founder member of the OGA left alive. Performed by the Brandy Hole Shantymen, it is a poignant dirge of seven verses”.

Here is (part of) the The East Coast Old Gaffer: – you will have to go to the Yachting Monthly website or (gasp) buy the magazine to see the Ode in its full glory. I’m guessing from the structure and rhyming scan that it is sung to the tune of that well know folk song “I’m a rambler, I’m a rambler, from Manchester Way….” It goes along the lines of ….

“I’ve sailed all over, from Orford to Dover, Boulogne and Breskens as well,
I’ve brought up in the Quarters, and Walton Backwaters, been sick as a dog with the swell.
My blankets have often been sodden, in the bunk where I rest my old head,
But rather than pack up my sailing, I think I would rather be dead!

(chorus)

“I’m a sailor, a sailor from Maldon Town way,
I get all my pleasure when I’m under way.
I may be commuting on Mondays, but I sail my old gaffer on Sundays.”

Excellent, Mike Peyton and thank you Dick Durham for keeping us entertained. Fingers in ears, lads… and…. SINGING!

The picture, by the way is just a superbly bearded fishing trip-boat Skipper who caught my eye in Kinvarra (Co. Galway) whilst tracking hookers, so it is kind of Gaffer related even though it may have nothing to do with the OGA.

Farewell to Nozz

January 12, 2013 / / 0 Comments

Mark Nozz Boyle Order of Service text

Bear with me for just one more sad post. Today I have just the ‘Order of Service’ for the laying to rest of our Friend Mark (Nozz) Boyle on January 9th. I think I will leave the words on the service to say it all here. Lovely Bloke. I’ll miss him.

Mark Nozz Boyle Order of Service, Pictures

Mark (Nozz) Boyle Funeral

December 30, 2012 / / 0 Comments

The following has just come in from “The Barge Blog” (Tricia Gurnett)

“We have been advised that Mark Boyle’s funeral will be on Thursday 10 January, at 2.40 p.m. at Barham Crematorium near Canterbury, (postcode CT4 6QU).

It is Christine’s wish that anyone who wants to come and share in this non-religious celebration of Mark’s life will be welcome. It will be followed by a gathering at Whitstable Yacht Club”.

Thank you for that update, Tricia.

Mark (Nozz) Boyle, RIP

December 20, 2012 /

Mark Nozz Boyle who passed away Weds 19th Dec 2012 (on the left here with Basil Brambleby) , Picture by Matt Care (Feb 2011).

I am sorry, once again, to be the bearer of sad news. Too soon after the tragic loss of Catherine De Bont, we hear that Cambria Shipwright, fine brush-work painter, caulker, volunteer and rigging expert, Mark (“Nozz”) Boyle sadly passed away yesterday, Weds 19th. We will miss him. He was often down at the Cambria helping out through the renovation, even when he was not being paid as a Shipwright, doing his deck caulking with the molten pitch or what ever task. He’d be down there as a volunteer helping us out. He was the skilled painter who did all our fine sign-writing, the “three dimensional” lettering on the transom, the gold scroll work and names at the bow and the gold streak along each rail. He was always there when any rigging or de-rigging would take place and you only had to listen to him chatting away to be in awe of his knowledge of all the halyards, down-hauls, stays and vangs.

The name ‘Nozz’ apparently comes from a black 30’s Jazz singer who was nicknamed “Nozmo King” (=No Smoking) although I was never quite clear on how Mark came to be so named. He used to be a font of such stories – I remember he once told me that “Frog” (another famous current barge-man) got his nickname because he “first came up Faversham Creek in a boat named Frog. He may have been teasing me!

He’ll be missed, for sure. All of us associated with the Cambria extend our sympathies to Mark’s family and friends. We are thinking of you at this sad time.

Forgotten Sailors

December 7, 2012 / / 1 Comment

Metal rigging blocks under repair; Picture by Nancy Brambleby

The work carries on behind the scenes. These are some of the metal rigging blocks which are being dismantled for cleaning, greasing up and painting, in this case by Boss of Volunteers, Basil. There’s a lot of this goes on out of sight through the winter. Mark (Nozz) Boyle tells me that some folk even slacken off all the bolts they can get at on things like mast cases and deck winches, grease and re-tighten, just so that they do not seize up and rust over the years. I don’t know if we are being THAT diligent on Cambria but if you get bored over the winter, please do volunteer!

My RSS feed from Yachting Monthly has a nice item today written by Dick Durham about the tragic level of suicide (jumping over board) due to loneliness and feelings of being badly treated among modern merchant seamen. “Merchant seamen,” says Rev Andrew Wright, quoted in the article on

http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/news/533186/forgotten-sailors-jumping-overboard ,

” – once held in high regard – are now among the forgotten lost souls of the workplace”

The Rev is determined to raise their profile and has been working alongside the MCA (Maritime and Coastguard Agency) to that end.

The chaplain and director of operations at the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen, and honorary chaplain to the Isle of Wight for The Mission to Seafarers, Rev Andrew Wright takes up a new post as Secretary General in February 2013.

I will let you read the full article if you are interested.