Tag: volunteers

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.

Wells Harbour Day

Wells Harbour Day 2013

Wells Harbour Day 2013

Hilary Halajko of Sea Change posted this lovely picture of Cambria at the Wells Harbour Day, dressed in all her finery. “Cambria”, says Hilary, ” is the centre of attention at Wells Harbour Day. Lots of visitors interested in learning about Sea-Change and two of our current young crew are from the town”. Thanks for that Hilary.

 

It brings me neatly on for another date for your diaries. Cambria will be at St Katharine Docks (London) from Friday 6th September round to Sunday 15th September as part of the St Katharine Docks Classic Boat Festival. She will be open to the public from the Saturday morning, ‘crewed’ by volunteers from the Cambria Trust to show her off to the public. She will be locking in on Friday pm/night while still on charter with Sea Change Sailing Trust, Skippered by Richard Tichener, with Hilary Halajko as First Mate, with that batch of trainees enjoying the excitement of a lock-in on the final evening and night of the charter, so she will be off limits to anyone not involved with that specific charter till Richard hands her over at around 10 am on the Saturday.

 

Hopefully we will see you there?

Call to Arms

Black bags

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

 

 

Volunteers of the Year!

Wow! A breathless e-mail from the painting volunteer teenage sisters, Bee and Hannah Pihama! Hannah writes,

“Hi Matt

We have just got back from London for the (National Historic Ships, Volunteer of the Year) Awards ceremony which we won!  We had a simply amazing day and really enjoyed meeting Princess Anne, thanks you so much for nominating us.  We got a framed certificate and a cheque for £250 each.  Beth said she will write something for the blog asap.  The National Historic Ships said the press release should be done by tomorrow.
Hannah
xx”
HMS Belfast

HMS Belfast; picture from the Belfast website.

We (the ‘grown-up’ Volunteers) had seen the advert for this and, after secret discussions, had sneakily applied on behalf of Bee and Hannah, filling out the form and describing in the most favourable way we could, their brilliant contribution to the Cambria from slapping on anti foul and paint to the underside and wales in the biting Nor’easters of that bitter winter, to hands-and-knees shovelling out old sawdust from the limbers through to the more pleasant tasks like cooking delicious chocolate cakes for the Volunteer session tea breaks. We told how they delighted us by joining in fully with our little community, swapping banter with the older Volunteers and getting fully involved in the conversations and jokery. They really were a joy to work with and we know they loved it too.

We sent off the forms to National Historic Ships and quickly heard back that the girls had been invited to attend the Awards Ceremony aboard HMS Belfast in the company of HRH Princess Anne but we did not know whether they’d actually won anything. We selected their Dad, Owen Pihama as the ‘Responsible Adult’ from the Trust to accompany them and the three of them had to submit their particulars for security checks and so on.
I will wait for Bee’s ‘Roving Report’ for the rest of this story.
Well done Girls (and Dad).
You earned it!

Painting Volunteers Needed

Webbing

Webbing; Picture by Matt Care

It’s that time of year again. Now that the barge is back in Faversham for the winter we have a need again for pairs of hands to do a bit of painting. Please if you have an hour or so free on any weekends through the winter, join our happy crew and come down to help get the barge ready for the next season. You can contact us via the email address (CambriaTrustSecretary@live.co.uk) or, if you’re in the area, come down to Standard Quay and hail somebody aboard (“Oy! Cambria!” generally works!). There’s generally a small group of happy chatty folk at it and some breaks for tea and cake. This can be ruffty-tuffty painting, outdoors in the cold wind, or it can be more like house decorating down below decks gliding a nice coat of gloss onto a galley wall. For a week or so we will also be in the dry dock so there will be a chance of some barnacle scraping and anti-foul slapping down below on the flat bottom, if you’re feeling more extreme, but nobody will insist you do anything you are not comfortable with. We can also cope with sessions outside of the weekend under some circumstances. Give it a go! The Cambria thrives on Volunteer help and you would know that you had been there and done that!

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