Tollesbury

Steve Hall sailmaker

Our mainsail, which just about fitted into the back of an enormous Japanese 4 wheel drive (someone was actually wondering whether we might be able to wangle some sponsorship out of Mitsubishi for the pictures!) has now made it as far as our sailmaker, Steve Hall of North Sea Sails, Tollesbury, for some repairs. Readers will know that the sails were originally made there using the mainly traditional methods by Steve. They were unfortunately damaged last winter by some sparks thrown up by the injudicious use of an angle grinder on the quayside by a contractor working for the landlord, cutting off old mooring rings.

There is a lovely series of pictures of the sailmaker at work, taken by Maggs Casey-Kelly and posted on our group page on Facebook. Thanks for those, Maggie. I reproduce one here just for the non-FB folks to give a flavour.

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

Tag: Tollesbury

Sail Repairs

Master Class