The News, Culture and Practice of Sailing woodenboats
in Australia, New Zealand & The South Pacific.
Watching During Lockdown-"Shackleton's Captain”
Shackleton’s Captain uses Hurley’s original footage and embellishes it with a cast of modern actors, experts and graphics to explain how important Frank Worsley, the Endurance’s captain was to the expedition.
Reading During Lockdown- “The Riddle of the Sands”
When Charles Carruthers accepts an invitation for a yachting and duck-shooting trip to the Frisian Islands from Arthur Davies, an old chum from his Oxford days, he has no idea their holiday will become a daredevil investigation into a German plot to invade Britain.
“People of The Sea” James Wharram’s Autobiography
The Wharram Catamaran has always held a fascination not because its a thing of beauty but because they reek of the promise of adventure. And not a modern day adventure clutching a GPS and Sat Phone, but a 1960’s hippy adventure with free love, tropical islands bare tanned skin, and the rejection of boundaries imposed by a disapproving society.
The Endeavour Returns a Bounty!
Ouch, The title of this article is so bad it actually hurts! Surely you can do better! Why not enter THE SWS I CAN DO BETTER Competition. And there’s a PRIZE!
Rain on The River
We lit a fire in the rain, which spluttered into life and then went out, so we drank some whiskey removed a leech or two and retired to our sleeping bags listening to the rain drum on the fly sheet.
ZACA & the FISH Templeton Crocker & Toshio Asaeda
While researching the elusive Errol Flynn and his yachts, see Hobart to Hollywood SWS 3rd June, we discovered Templeton Crocker, the original owner of Flynn’s schooner the ZACA. From 1929 during a global Depression, Crocker spent his huge railroad fortune building and fitting the yacht and embarking on scientific expeditions in the Pacific.
A WEEK OF VOYAGES
What makes it different to the previous six books in this column is that it’s an adventure brought on by necessity rather than free choice. It’s a story that is playing out in some form or another every day of the year in 2021, whether it be in the Mediterranean, the Indian ocean or the Caribbean. Normal people, whose mere existence is under threat, take to a small boat, to escape to a new life.
PLEASURE PER DOLLAR
Don’t Get Me Wrong. I love a big, glamorous, highly varnished yacht as much as the next person. However the reality is, most of us are attracted to this corner of the maritime world not because we aspire to have cocktails on the aft deck at Les Voiles de St Tropez, but because somewhere deep down, we have a respect for history, traditional craftsmanship and a quest for adventure.
Tangaroa Completes A full Circle
I’m Thinking, Is This An April Fools Prank From A Mate Or A Genuine Attempt To Return A Significant Piece Of New Zealand’s Wooden Boat Building History To New Zealand? The fantastic story of TANGAROA by Larry Paul
Beale The Store, No More
Grace’s Guide to British Industry says that Arthur Beale was established as a rope maker called John Buckinghams circa 1500. Our Sign says “Established 400 years” but the sign is 60 years old!
You and the Sea
We memorize the rising and setting points of stars and use those to orient ourselves in our physical space so that we can navigate from place to place. I used to think that we would go to things. But that island out there was always there and all you’re doing in your place is you’re making it come to you.
Esperance to Fremantle in 16 days
A second wonderful piece from Tim Phillips aboard the Jane Kerr. Tim is undoubtably one of the last true woodenboat adventurers. An inspiration for those of us looking for more from our time on water than sailing well varnished, museum pieces, around in small triangles!
The Winner That Wasn’t: WILD WAVE
Quick trivia question : Name three yachts that arrived off Battery Point, at the end of the Sydney-Hobart, believing they were line honours winners, only to be denied by the protest committee?
The Line Honours Rescuer
Peter Warner may have won line honours in three Sydney to Hobart Races and narrowly missed a fourth by less than a minute but perhaps he was better known for his rescue of 6 Shipwrecked,Tongan teenagers.
A Special SALAR is for Sale
Salar 40s were designed to be safe, comfortable, and seaworthy, and to travel long distances. ‘A round the world yacht’ was the marketing slogan when the boat was built, and it wasn’t just hot air.
The Kent Group — I just love the place!
After a tumultuous 2020 and a busy Christmas period we decided on a turnkey cruise! Squally Cove is beautifully set-up and so, so easy to live on. The Kent Group — I just love the place… Fishing, walking, swimming, scenery, it’s got the lot.
You’re invited inside the Shed
The greatest celebration of Wooden Boats and Maritime Culture on the planet*, welcomes you attend the 2021 Maritime Trail.
Can The County Shutdown Tally ho?
From the get go, Leo harnessed the power of social media to broadcast his story building not only a boat, but a remarkable community of volunteers and supporters.
Estlander - Sails and scandi structures
The second article in Charlie Salter’s series highlighting the relationship between architects and wooden boats.
Baader-Meinhof & William Golding
it was at sea, aboard the wild rose, that golding could escape the demons of class, inferiority and what we might now call post-traumatic stress that haunted him all his life.
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