Category: Our Stories
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A gaffer beating bermudans
It’s been great to sail aboard the 1984 28ft Heard cutter Isabel in the Sussex Yacht Club pursuit series of races this year. Owner Aidan Tuckett, a former wooden boat sailor, recently bought the boat… […]
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Setting a square sail on a yacht
by Will Stirling There are many ways to set a square sail on a sailing boat; this is one of many; simplicity is a virtue. The following method has four ropes and a halyard.… […]
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Mooring line made of recycled plastic bottles
Marlow Ropes is launching a mooring rope made using 100% recycled plastic. Blue Ocean Dockline, is the first ‘technically better’ premium dockline rope manufactured using yarns wholly made from plastic bottles. “The development and production… […]
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Folkboat is faster
There exists, or used to exist a video showing a race(!) between a Sparkman & Stephens quarter ton class design from the 1970s – the Blue Bird 25 vs a traditional Nordic Folkboat, conceived as… […]
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Blackbeard’s Ghost
1968 Dir: Robert Stevenson Walt Disney 107 mins Talk like a Pirate Day is on September 19 and, if you’ve any inclination to pull off more than a few “aarrs” or a “Jim-m’-lad” or two,… […]
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Down to the Sea in Ships – Reviewed
1949, Dir Henry Hathaway, B&W, 20th Century Fox, PG, 120mins The character development in this classic New Bedford whaling tale makes you realise how much of modern cinema is rubbish. Its three central actors visibly… […]
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Captains Courageous
1937, Dir Victor Fleming, B&W, MGM, DVD, U, 112mins It’s not just the star-studded cast that brings this movie to life – much of the footage takes place aboard real working Grand Banks schooners of… […]
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All Is Lost
2013 Dir: JC Chandor 106 mins This is a contentious review because many sailors just hate this film. It has a cast, of one – Robert Redford, who has about one main word of dialogue… […]
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Knife in the Water
1962, Dir Roman Polanski, B&W, Anchor Bay, DVD, PG, 90 mins This black and white film from behind the iron curtain in 1962 is quite a revelation. Like: they had yachts in Communist states? Who… […]
