What Is A Barque?

[Polly]

On the Severn, to get up to Bewdley,  they used trees to create flash locks, letting the depth build up behind  the blockage then coming though on the wave created when these were pulled aside. 

Once the canal was built into Stourport the practice was redundant and Bewdley declined as a port.

[Polly]

Thanks for posting your quiz Vaughan. I have only sailed on a tall ship once, and for a brief trip; but would happily go again, it was awesome!

[Timbo]

Thanks guys...I'm fairly sure as a forum we could give any Radio 4 panel game a run for it's money!

Vaughan I think the last post...all salute...hit the spiky thing on the cranium. I've still not done my homework. I did try sir but I got distracted. Even resorting to Google didn't help that much. A bit like all that sign ,cosign and tangent stuff at school. I saw my old math teacher in Tesco last year and I had to approach her cap in hand and apologise. I had told her that I would never use any of the gubbage she had taught once I left school.
"I know, I saw you on a documentary some years ago plotting finds and I thought 'I taught the ungrateful Herbert how to do that'."

In the next couple of years I am going to learn to sail...everybody watch out!

[JennyMorgan]

20 hours ago, Vaughan said:

This iconic photo, by Beken of Cowes, is the topsail schooner Margherita, built just before WW1 by  Camper and Nicholson.

The big (indeed huge) sail between the masts was called the fisherman, and was only set on a reach. Behind it can be seen the main topmast staysail. Because of the triatic stays between the masts, both of these sails as well as the fore topsail, had to be lowered before the yacht could be put about. The photographer counted at least 36 crew on board, one of whom can be seen standing on the cross trees of the foremast futtock shrouds.

 

It must be fifty years ago that I met an old man called Ted Gilby. Ted haunted the Anchor Bleu pub at Bosham, always wearing a 1920's/30's era blue jumper with the name of a one time racing yacht embroidered on the front. Ted's family were all South Coast boatmen and what a fascinating man he was. Ted was one of the crew members who would remain aloft for the duration of a race, whatever the weather. He was equipped with a small axe and knives, ready to cut away any gear that became snarled. Ted was also a walking edition of the Ashley Book of Knots, his knowledge gained practically.

[JennyMorgan]

Here is another photo from Beken of Cowes, probably the iconic shot from Beken and the Big Boat era itself. On the Broads, however much smaller, is Maidie, sail number 52, a survivor of that era when winning mattered and the cost didn't.

[Polly]

Brilliant beat Maidie once...on a run up Wroxham Broad, when it came to zig zagging we were no place 

[Vaughan]

I seem to remember that Beken image appearing in several Giles cartoons? I wouldn't like to try and name all those sails, or hoist them, for that matter!

Mike Barnes, who owns Maidie, agrees with me that she must have been designed as a small version of a "J" class in those days. Evening Flight (My Lady) also.

The J class were, like Broads Cruisers, grossly over-canvassed and were only raced in protected inshore waters, such as the Solent, or Chesapeake Bay. If they actually crossed an ocean, it would be with a greatly reduced sea rig or, more normally, on the deck of a cargo ship.

Your photo of Maidie shows why she is so fast. When she leans over into the wind, she almost doubles her waterline length. Speed on a displacement hulled yacht is a great deal to do with "wetted surface".