Tag: Rotary Club

Movements update

Cambria drifts aft from Gillingham Pier on the dolly line.

Cambria drifts aft from Gillingham Pier on the dolly line. Picture by Dave Brooks.

The following update on Cambria’s movements comes from Dave Brooks. We must also thank Dave for this lovely pic of Cambria leaving Gillingham Pier under sail power. The barge is here being allowed to drift aft on the tide while the dolly line, controlled by those new-start sail trainees from Rotary Club, keep the bow on station. When the bow has cleared the pier and the tops’l simultaneously set, the line is let go at the Pier and reeled in and the bow drops to starb’d to let the sail fill with wind. The crew quickly brail out some mains’l and we are under way. The trainees have her under sail, partly by their own efforts, within seconds of casting off which is always a complete thrill for them, and is poetry in motion for anyone on the quayside.

Dave’s update reads, “We have just completed a series of successful Rotary charters and have also competed in and won our class in the Medway Barge Match. We have also experimented with a new berth at Gillingham Pier and it has been a great success. It is really something to watch the barge arrive and leave under sail. We are very fortunate to have an extremely good crew as it takes a lot of skill to do this in an engineless barge.

We are also very pleased to welcome our new third hand Reggie who has been learning the skills of barging from Skipper Ian and Mate Dennis and coming on really well. He is also a big hit with the kids on the Rotary charters.
Cambria will now be going off on her Sea Change Charter and she will be competing in the Gravesend to Pin Mill Passage Match next Saturday. She will also be competing in the 150th Thames Barge Match which has additional significance that it is the Mark Boyle Memorial Match who sadly died late last year. Mark was instrumental in the Thames Barge Match and also in the Cambria rebuild. The match is on the 13th July and can ben seen from Pier Road Gravesend and at the finish at Erith.
It is expected that Cambria will be at Pin Mill again on the 5/6th July to be prepared for the above race.
A few changes going ahead with Cambria’s programme. She was expected to be in the Colne Match but has not been able to get a charter. She will now be entering the 50th Southend Barge Match (25th Aug). The whole match can be viewed from the end of the pier. We may have limited space available for the match. We will also be entering Swale Barge Match (3rd Aug) will advise of spaces for this match as I have the information.

Will advise of further activity later”

Thanks for that and for the photo(s), Dave.

 

Latest Newsletter is Out

Rotary Club Charter Briefing

Rotary Club Charter Briefing

Just to let you know that the latest version of our newsletter is ‘out’. This is May 2013 and contains some nice updates on what we’ve been at in winter work and the painting by my Oppo Richard Weekes PLUS a good article by Dave Brooks who was following the Medway Match from the Committee Boat (Medway Surveyor). I should possibly also bit this blog’s farewell to Capt. Roy Stanbrook who I got to know quite well when we moored at Gravesend, as his work had him at the PLA offices nearby. He has now stood down as a Trustee of the Cambria Trust as he has upped sticks and is now Harbour Master at Gibraltar. We’ll miss you and your superb sense of humour. Thank you very much for all your support of the barge during restoration and subsequently.

 

Thank you, also Dave B for this picture of the latest batch of Rotary Club sail trainees here moored at Gillingham Pier receiving their briefing from Skipper Richard Tichener and one of the Rotary Club officials prior to leaving the Pier under sail alone. Dave has more pictures of this, which I will post soon – the trainees love it because they are straight way into getting physical with the barge, in this case keeping our head as close to the pier as possible by winching a line to a bollard, while we drop sternward clear of the Pier.

Crackin’ Along

14 knots on the GPS

14 knots on Cambria’s GPS navigation kit; Photo by Ryan Dale.

Cambria is currently in the capable hands of Skipper Ian Ruffles and Mates Denis Johnson and Ryan Dale (who is also one of ‘our’ Shipwrights) and is out on 4 short charters with the Rotary Club sponsored young carers. Ryan posted this photo of the GPS navigation kit recording a GPS speed (speed over the ground, i.e. including any help from the tide flow) of 14.2 knots which is fair pasting along. Ryan tells us they peaked at 15.9 knots not long after this shot was taken. You can see from the screen map that they are off Shelly Bay which is an industrial oil-terminal ‘inlet’ (a man made bay) on the north shore of the Thames estuary between Stanford-le-Hope and Coryton. Tricia Gurnett adds that this is “the end where Shell Haven was” so possibly explains the name. These speeds mean the sails must we well stretched and set up beautifully and the rigging tuned to perfection after the Summer spent at the hands of Richard Tichener and the Sea Change team and then more recently by the current crew. The hull will also be nicely scraped and smooth, free from barnacles after her visits to the blocks at Pin Mill. Well done and Thank you to all of you. We’ve got us a fast barge!

Ipswich Wet Dock

While the website is briefly distracted by the Swale Match, Cambria is out there working hard for a living and we receive the latest three ‘Cambria Watch’ reports from Hilary Halajko.

“This week has flown by”, she reports. “After our fast passage to Stone heaps we had a short sail to the clamp house and the following day a sail up to Ipswich wet dock. A tow through from the harbour launch and the Dock master playing “Red Sails In The Sunset” over the p.a. system! Made us feel really special. We unloaded our concrete and aggregate and then had a massive clean up on deck and down below as everything seemed to be covered in fine concrete dust. There was then a need for essential shopping to get the dongle working again and a visit to the swimming pool. Last night we had a celebration supper at the local Chinese and today we say goodbye to Rachel and Katherine. Yesterday’s reception for the IMT went well, more from Don on that later. We are washing and shopping today and off tomorrow, Blackwater bound”.

“We had a busy Saturday (11th Aug) in Ipswich Wet Dock”, she goes on. “The morning saw our load of cement go to two good causes, one via the Rotary Club, the other rather aptly towards work on Pin Mill Hard. During the afternoon the Ipswich Maritime Trust held a well attended reception aboard, under their vice chairman Des Pawson. We were also visited by groups interested in coming away with us next year and by Brett Aggregates, who had kindly donated aggregate samples to complement the cargo”.

Cattle Cake

Cattle Cake picture by Sea Change Sailing Trust

Then at Midday Monday “To commemorate Cambria’s last trading passage, which carried produce for making cattle cake, we made an edible cattle cake. It looked a lot tastier than the original!
During the afternoon we were pleased to welcome Bob Roberts’ daughters Gill and Ann, who had many reminiscences about their time aboard as youngsters when their father was skipper”.

A further piece at 6pm Monday says “We locked out of Ipswich wet dock at 11 am. The small harbour launch gave us a tow but her engine over heated so we dropped the tow just before the Orwell bridge. Short tacking all the way to Harwich, having to drop and reset the foresail at times and at one point having to quickly anchor as there was not enough room for us and a coaster. Cambria is fabulous, we were sometimes having to tack as soon as she had way on but she did it!! We are now anchored at Wrabness in the river Stour, very pretty place. I think we may be Crouch bound tomorrow”.

Thank you for all those, Hilary. It gives us ‘out here’ a real flavour of what the Cambria is up to and the good work you are doing.

Cambria, California, USA

Hands up who knew there was a town called Cambria in California, USA? Certainly not me. Who knew that the Rotary Club had a (huge) organisation with branches in USA and, in fact, all around the world, with 34,000 clubs worldwide and 1.2 million members?  Nope, not me again. I am ashamed to say I thought it was just a British thing. I now feel humble at my level of ignorance of the group who are currently a major sponsor of our operations.  I was surprised as anyone when the Rotary Club (UK, obviously!) presented us with this flag on the occasion of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant and our hosting of their group on the day. It is from the Rotary Club group from Cambria, Ca. Thanks to the local Rotarians and also to the stateside club!

Pennant donated by Rotarians from Cambria, Ca.

Pennant donated by Rotarians from Cambria, Ca. Photo by Dave Brooks

 

Meanwhile I have now received from the BBC on line shop, my copy of the “Britain’s Lost Routes” series with Griff Rhys Jones. You will recall that this series contained the episode where SB Dawn is used to ferry a load of hay bales up to Horseguards Parade, having all manner of adventures along the way. If you are in UK you may be able to get this on i-Player but here in Ireland, where we don’t pay UK TV Licence fees, we are not allowed that, but happily, the BBC are willing to sell you the DVD of the series for £19.49 inc postage and it is, in my opinion, money well spent. I have only seen the Dawn episode so far and it is brilliant, with lots of Rhys-Jones tom-foolery and plenty of loving footage of Dawn in action, including plenty from overhead (presumably helicopter shots) and some below decks. In one hilarious sequence Griff cooks them a traditional bargeman’s plum duff and they all try it out, with varied (mainly ‘not much!) enthusiasm. Brilliant.

 

3 days to Go-Live on the new site……

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