Classics again - therapy please

A modern classic?

I admit that in the past I've suffered from it myself in the past, but I'm pleased to report that I'm nearly cured. I mean of course speculating about what is or is not a classic boat.

Every now and again a thread is started on a forum somewhere and the old craving to take part nags away, like the reformed nicotinic's inner compulsion to light up. Currently one is running on Classic Boat here and I'm trying to resist.

Matters aren't helped very much by the availability of magazines with names like Classic Boat, organisations like the Freundeskreis Klassiche Yachten and the British Classic Yacht Club and at this time of year events all over the place with that word in their name. Dammit, next week Stroma and I are off to the Crinan Classics.

Many years ago, before I was cured, I was involved a bit in the nascent European Classic Yacht Union and travelled great distances for meetings, where defining a classic became a major topic for debate. I became convinced that everyone regards his or her own ship, or the one he or she aspires to own, as a classic. Consciously or not we try to broaden the category to suit our subjective taste and exclude ships we simply don't like, or those made from materials we don't like.

My late friend, sometime mentor and gentle eccentric David Ryder-Turner provided a thoughtful piece on the subject for the Freundeskreis, which can be read here. He may have intended it to be the last word on the subject, but predictably it started yet another thread running. David was a Fife addict with a love of long overhangs and it shows in his article, despite his obvious struggle to be fair and objective.

British Classic Yacht Club also share the enthusiasm for long overhangs and it's easy to overlook that they were regarded as ugly when they arrived on the scene. They're not all that practical either, as they usually don't achieve their intended aim of extending by very much the immersed length of the hull. Personally I find some of the state-of-the-art racing machines attractive as having genuine functional beauty.

It's a lot easier to say what isn't relevant to being classic. Authenticity certainly hasn't got anything to do with it, because surely an incredible design from the past could be regarded as classic even if the actual ship didn't exist any more.  Whether a particular object is original, a rebuild, a restoration or a replica is only really of interest to those who regard these objects, like Barnato's Bentley, as investments rather than  aesthetically.

Easiest of all is just not to get involved in the discussion and to spend one's time doing something useful. I'm off to put some varnish on the toerails and if that doesn't work it'll have to be therapy.

Glasgow Museum of Transport opens

Transport Museum by Paul Kennedy

Today sees the opening of Glasgow's new Transport Museum, housed in an utterly astonishing building designed by Zaha Hadid and built right in the heart of where ship-building on the upper Clyde started. It's more or less where Messrs D & W Henderson constructed gigantic racing yachts to designs of George Lennox Watson for characters such as Kaiser Bill and his uncle and sparring partner the Prince of Wales, about which I've already written here.

In common with many other Glaswegians I was introduced to the ship-models at Kelvingrove as a child and they soon became a weekend pilgrimage. I suffered real withdrawal symptoms when most of them later went into storage, there being insufficient space in the old transport museum. From the elegant creations of Watson and the Fifes to the battleships and liners of John Brown's they were an inspiring demonstration of the range of design and building skills to be found in and around the city in its industrial incarnation. It will be good to meet these old friends again, once the opening crowds have died down a bit.

The building is a huge shiny organic thing that snakes about on the banks of the river, perhaps like a metamorphosis of a few industrial sheds that have fused and twisted themselves together under some cosmic influence. It provides a perfect setting for the city's tall ship, the Glenlee, which together with the Waverley is virtually the last of our heritage still floating.

The Glenlee passes Ailsa Craig, by John Gardner

Like virtually all of Glasgow's municipal attractions the new museum is free. If there were no other this would be a good reason to visit the city. Details of the museum can be found here.

The Waverley passes down river, image by Paul Kennedy

Sailing to Arinagour

 

In July 1978 Peter and I were at the end of a wet fortnight aboard Stroma, much of which had been spent storm-bound in Mallaig. We had finally left and drifted South, more with the tide than the wind, in a dreich grey day of the sort that makes you wonder why you ever took up sailing. The intention was that if the weather picked up we would sail back to our mooring in Oban via the outside of Mull, such is the optimism of the young. In the event progress was so slow that by early afternoon we were only at the South end of Eigg. As the tide would now set against us it was an easy decision to stop there and spend the rest of the day trying to catch our supper.

We anchored in about two fathoms inside the island that protects the bay. Our efforts at fishing were just as pathetic as our day's sail had been. The fish that swam about under our keel were so small that they had no difficulty in nibbling the bait from our hooks without any risk to themselves. After a walk ashore, when we discovered that at that time there seemed to be no facilities whatsoever on Eigg we turned in for an early night.

At about five in the morning I was woken by Stroma rolling on an Atlantic swell which seemed to be setting in. I took a look out and noticed that there had been a definite change in the weather. We now had a very clear dry summer morning and there was a breeze. By this time Peter was also awake and after some discussion he agreed to assist with getting the anchor and setting sail, provided he could  then return to his bunk to complete his night's repose.

Thus at about 5.45 am Stroma was underway. We slipped out Southwards from the bay and were soon on a close reach in a sparkling fresh Northwesterly breeze. I was pleased that I was alone in the cockpit and could treat the beautiful morning as my very own. Actually I was sharing it with various seabirds and the occasional fishing boat could be spotted far off when we rose on the swell.
           
The Islanders are wonderful boats on a reach, when you really feel the power of the mainsail. Soon Coll started to appear on the horizon and then we were in flatter water as we sailed down the East side of the island to Arinagour.

If you are engineless it is always better to pick a safe spot to anchor where you won't require to get underway during the night. I was glad that Peter was now awake as we had some tight tacking to get into the chosen spot some distance from the steamer pier. By nine thirty we were anchored and ready to spend the rest of a lovely summer day ashore.

After a third of a century Peter is still willing to come sailing with me, but now his son Ken also comes along. You can read about more of our excursions here and here
      
      
 

Aftermath

Shona battles it out, photo courtesy of RGYC

Since the wind went down (a bit) the salvers and surveyors have been busy at work, but our coast is still strewn with wrecks. Most of the fallen trees have been dealt with, usually by locals who turned up with their chainsaws and got things moving before the council was fully awake. One of the local landowners was out late at night collecting the unexpected windfall for his woodstore before anyone else got it.

I have a huge respect for the professionals who deal with the sea and its behaviour, having in an earlier life done work for a diving company who handled some of the trickier jobs in the early years of the Scottish oil industry.  I learned that in dealing with any disaster one must resist the natural temptation to rush in.

In those days the older fellows had acquired their skills during the War. Along the coast just now a new generation is making assessments of risk to life and the potential for damage to the stranded vessel and working out ways to proceed. Estimates vary, but it seems there are between 100 and 200 incidents to be resolved, so they will be busy for some time. (We've now learned that the wind at its height reached speeds of nearly 100 miles per hour.)

Locally Tony Ratcliffe and his team from North West Marine are working on the rescue of the Elsa, a nice American-designed centre-boarder that is perched on a rock ledge, pretty well undamaged but above the level of the pathetically small tides we have just now. With extreme high pressure forecasted there's little hope of improvement in the near future.

 

Longer term there are bound to be effects on yachting as a pastime. If you can suffer such weather in what is traditionally the mildest time of year many people will be looking critically at the sport. Although this storm was exceptionally fierce we have been seeing much stronger winds and wetter summers in recent years. Costs are bound to rise, as insurers consider the impacts and pressure increases on bases that are particularly sheltered. This may eventually lead to an increase in the number of smaller boats being dry-sailed, as one would certainly sleep better with one's pride and joy safely parked in the garden.

First storm of 2011

 

We were warned, at least those of us who followed the Met Office, which correctly predicted a tight low pressure system on Monday, although I suspect that they underestimated the wind speeds we actually got. Even that vapid child on the telly warned that it would be windy, if you could make out what she was saying. I got the Kelpie and Peigi safely onto dry land and checked that everything aboard Stroma was secure.

It started blowing on Saturday, a very brisk and ominous Southerly. It's a time for Spring breaks and a few boats went off, one returning after an hour or so. Sunday continued in the same vein, then on Monday morning it struck. Straight out of the South west and almost unobstructed came a wind of incredible force, raising a blanket of foam a couple of metres high. It was difficult to walk in the prevailing wind, which was, I guess, well over gale force. The gusts were another thing again.

 The first couple of yachts came ashore at Fearnach in the late morning, being joined by three more as the day progressed. The roads around here were quickly blocked as trees laden with new foliage came down. We're in neap tides just now, but it didn't matter as the tide didn't actually go out, giving rise to fears that the evening high would cause flooding.

The marinas at Ardfern and Craobh Haven were directly in the line of fire, but spared the terrible swell that started to come in at Fearnach. In our little corner at Loch na Cille the boats were spared the worst of it, as by the time the wind backed West much of the force had gone and everything stayed afloat.

This Tuesday morning the wind is down to force six with showers of hail and we believe that the electricity, which went off when some poles came down yesterday, may come back on by this evening.

So far this year after fifty days afloat we've managed two short sails. Much more of this and I may take up gardening (only joking).

The Kennedy Brothers

The magic spinner

Over the next few months you can view images of your editor and his brother in Glasgow's St Vincent Street as part of one of the Braewell Galleries' celebrated public art projects.

It's a little disconcerting to find yourself portrayed in quite such a public fashion, but as it's fiftyseven years since the original family snaps of two Kennedy brothers were taken our appearance has maybe moved on a little.

The artist Paul Kennedy and his brother Adam are also forging an identity as the Kennedy Brothers and are having their first joint exhibition in Glasgow this summer. I will post fuller details of this nearer the time. Meantime their work can be viewed online at www.paulkennedyart.com and http://adamkennedyart.com and Braewell Galleries can be found at http://www.braewellgalleries.co.uk

St Abbs 1954

Tall Ships Gallery

Wyldeswan, image courtesy of Richard Sibley

The maritime photographer Richard Sibley has introduced me to his fascinating website, www.tallshipsgallery.co.uk and I'm delighted to have added a link to it. Richard writes:-

"My site provides a gallery of tall ships and traditional sail images as well as other related articles, you can also purchase copies of the images printed on fine art paper and canvas.

The galleries feature the more picturesque images that I have taken and I also have an extensive library of contemporary Tall Ship images collected over the past few years. Enquiries welcome."

North Sea Regatta, courtesy of Richard Sibley