What will Katie wear to the ball?

Katie Beardie is still getting more admirers than any of the other boats on this site, and for very good cause, she is an attractive girl. Her various pages have been getting consistently more hits than any others for the past few months. As well as her own Katie Beardie page and the  Katie gets full colour spread page, interest has now moved on to Katie's New Twin-Set so I do wonder whether anyone is having a go at building her. It would be great if they were. 

I've been giving more thought to potential sail plans, the last version  with its big main sail and long yard swinging aloft looked like it might be a bit cumbersome and I've been wondering about something a little different so here are the latest ideas from the Port-na-Storm Etch-a-Sketch.
  Influenced by the fully battened rigs used by the ancients and their modern equivalents, the CoE is still in roughly the same place, the sail area is a bit smaller but probably a little bit more efficient, and I'd hope to build in an easy reefing system utilising the full length battens. The version above still leaves a lot of pole up when reefed so of course the natural thing to do is to make it a Sliding Gunter. 

The idea would be to have the bottom two panels reefed bringing the mainsail down to the same size as the Mizzen. 
Just food for thought...........................................we'll see how many clicks this page gets. 

Pam Paddles On

Great news from Paradox Pete. He's been out adventuring with Adrian G in their canoes. 
Its really good to see Polythene Pam getting used, and in such super countryside. 

In Pete's own words,

"Adrian and myself managed to squeeze in another impromtu hbbr meeting on Wednesday. 
After a grey start it turned out to be a fine and pleasant day.
Once again there was Lekker Ding and PP forging our way between 2 fine pubs!
The 12 mile round trip was between The Fromebridge Inn (on R Frome) and The George Inn (on R Cam) via River Frome, Stroudwater canal, Gloucester Sharpness canal, River Cam and a sneak along Wicksters Brook. The Timothy Taylor's Landlord at The George,  and Darkstar, American Pale Ale at Fromebridge were both excellent! The rivers Cam and Frome were absolutely beautiful with a portage of about 20 metres between the Frome and the Stroudwater canal  leading to a nose rubbing low bridge... Not for the squeamish. 
We didn't go too far up Wicksters brook because I didn't fancy back paddling for too long to get out again.
As it was I needed a 27 point turn with PP's stern and stem both stuck in the reeds on the river bank." 

Here's some video Pete took of their trip. 

Excellent!

Through The Eye of a Needle.

This is the Needle's Eye Cafe. 

It has been one of our favourite haunts for almost 20 years. 

It is very down to earth and does great Egg and Chips.

" Two egg and chips please". 

"So that's double egg and chips."

"No that's double egg and chips twice, please" 

"Wha?"

"Double egg and chips, for two people please"

"Ah!"

Its situated on the shore at Milford on Sea, at the western end of The Solent. 

A New Build, for sale just behind it is on the market for £1.4 million.

This is the view from the lounge 

This is the view, from the cafe on a very hazy day. 

The good looking girl in front is the unsung heroine of Port-Na-Storm, aka The Tooth Fairy who is currently recovering from her second knee replacement.

She's doing brilliantly and will soon be walking the legs off me again.  

The Audacity !

Blogging can be a bit of a mugs game. Sometimes it feels like you are shouting down a long dark tunnel and there's no way of knowing whether there is anyone there to hear you. 
The software tells you how many hits a page is getting but how many of those are from robots, trawling silently through the dark searching for e-mail addresses and how many are just accidental landings from some lonely heart in search of firm buttocks? 
I do know that if you mention the name Oughtred the world will come seeking the enigmatic master and I suspect that Katie Beardie has a secret admirer as she seems to get an inordinate number of hits.  Maybe its those buttocks again.   
Sometimes there is a faint answer in the darkness, a voice you haven't heard before, who actually knows what they are talking about and that can be very encouraging. 

You'll remember I posted a wee while ago about this little boat in Fairey Princess or Ugly Duckling well I've had a couple of comments and it turns out she's not a Fairey, or Ugly.......

Anonymous said...
Not Fairey,not ugly.

She is an Audacity class designed by Laurent Giles for JOG. Built from 1959 until the mid sixties. There are elements from Sopranino in the layout.
She has a deep drop keel and rudder. The side fins on this boat are non standard but practical.
Supposed to be a good performer. I think it very handsome but the side windows are a little large.

And Jim Bresson wrote to say.

Hello,

I confirm, she is an Audacity 21.
The side "keels" are not on the original design.
I bought one of those in Plymouth last year and we sailed her back to Britanny, France, my brother and I.
She isn't the prettiest boat, but I must say she has her look and her sailing performances are surprising. We did the Plymouth Aber Benoit passage in a sloppy sea and it was quite windy. cast off at 6 am, we were on the other side in the middle of the night and had to slow her down to be able to land in Saint Pabu in daylight.
The interior is well design for a 21 feet boat and you can go almost everywhere we the board up.
She is mentionned in the Lee/Philpott book on Laurent Giles.
Built by Walter Lawrence , an aerocraft factory.
I don't think there is a lot of them sailing out there, and never saw any on the water.
I hope this one will get back on the water one day. She is really a fun and interesting sailboat!

If anyone wants more info, don't hesitate.
Take it easy,

Jim

So there you go an Audacity 21. designed by Lauren Giles no less, there is even one for sale on  Apolloduck it looks in quite good condition. 

There's another one here  boatshop24

I feel encouraged, so for now I'm going to keep shouting down the tunnel, don't forget to shout back now and again. 

Local Skiffs

 Here we go round the blog circuit again. 
Max of Bursledon Blog has posted about some local skiffs and suggested that we might have something similar at the Ancient & Vulnerable St Deny's Sailing and Rowing Club and indeed we do. 

This is none other than Chris Partridge of Rowing For Pleasure trying out Merlin. 

Merlin is our oldest boat and is well over 100 years old. She was indeed built by Dyers boatyard just down stream of the club. 

Below is Alan Blandford, left who is almost as old as Merlin giving her a spruce up aided by Reg.