members 3

Tony & Pat Collins

I joined P&O Bulk Shipping Ltd straight from school in 1973 as a cadet, and after gaining my 2nd Mate's "Ticket" continued with them on their gas, tanker and bulk fleets until 1985. My wife, Pat, sailed with me for five years, signing on articles as librarian, secretary etc, but also completing her Steering Certificate during that time. Pat "signed off" in 1982 when she fell pregnant with our daughter, but thoroughly enjoyed the five years tramping the oceans. In 1985, I changed employer, becoming a Sea Fisheries Officer with the Scottish Government, rising to Master Mariner, and eventually into senior management at headquarters in Edinburgh. In 2011, I got the opportunity of an excellent early-retirement package, which I jumped at. Our boating career started in 1979 when we had our first holiday on "the cut" (the old boatmen's name for the canal system). We have holidayed most years since then, waiting for the opportunity allowing us to have our own boat. This happened in 2012, and we started looking for a suitable boat/builder. "Paws 4 Thought" was launched on 8th April 2014. She is a 60ft semi-trad narrowboat, built on a Tyler/Wilson shell, and fitted out to our own spec by Top Notch Boat Company of Cradley Heath. She has permanent berths for two, but we can sleep four at a push. We have retained our house in Scotland, but hope to explore as much of the canal system as we can, living aboard for 8-10 months per year. Although our base is at Fazeley (near Tamworth), we expect to be out and about most of the time. We have a blog of our adventures (including a real-time tracker). We are also happy to have other members join us for short trips. For website address and contact details please see members' directory.

Paws 4 Thought

Tony & Pat Collins

Brian Long

This is “Arabesque” at Charfleet, just off Stangate Creek. My wife Denise and I raft-up regularly with some friends most weekends. I sail mostly single-handed as Denise is not the best heavy weather sailor, although she kept her calm in a 41knot south-westerly a couple of years ago, coming home from the east coast where we go for 3 weeks every year - Ipswich, Deben, Burnham. I also love night sailing and sail to Ramsgate through the night and have done Dunkirk twice through the night. We love Dunkirk, and now I am on a 2.5 day week, finishing Wednesday 12.noon, I am hoping to get to Boulogne, a trip my mate Peter has done many times. In the past, as part of the commitment to other sea farers, I have assisted Thames Coastguard. Once, in response to a pan-pan when a yachtsman called up to say he thought he was sinking as smoke and water was filling his boat off the Clacton coast, I called the Coast guard to say I had experienced the same not so long ago. They put me in touch on channel 68 and I talked him through to check his exhaust connection. Sure enough it had failed, filling his boat with water and steam. He was relieved and the coast guard thanked me, as he was happy to continue to Shotley. I got a second call early evening. as I was on my way out to Charfleet, when a mayday went out as a gin palace had lost all engine and was being blow onto the Forts in the River Medway. I was first boat there and had to move quickly as I draw 1.70mts Fin keel. I managed to throw him a line and towed him back to our fuel pontoon at Gillingham. Well that’s about my sail, been sailing for 45yrs now so I am an oldie - 62 this year.

Arabesque

Bryan Dillon

The following was received from Bryan on 30th August 2015: “I have just returned from Punta Arenas in Southern Chile where a group of local businessmen are trying to purchase from the Chilean Navy the former Iron Sailing Vessel now hulked “ The County of Peebles” in order to restore her. I was able to locate for them the original plans and original certificate of registration. At the moment they are still in negotiations with the Chilean Navy to be allowed to purchase the Peebles. They plan to build a pier around the hulks with a dry dock in the middle, so that the Peebles and the other two hulks have the dry dock built around them and then rebuild to Cutty Sark Standards.” This looks like a fascinating project which, hopefully, we will be able to follow through to completion.

Stephen Hill

Please find attached a picture of Clearwing, my Mirage 26, which I have owned for just over two years now. I sail mainly around the Thames Estuary but have been to Calais and was hoping to do that again this year until the lockdown started. Still, gives me time to work on bits at home ready for when we can get to our boats. May 2020

Page 3 of 4

My current boat is the EMMA LUCIE Profile 33 twin engine Volvo Penta 42 hp diesels 1.1 Ltrs per Nm, one of the second batch built by Maidboats of the Thames 1988. I joined the Training Ship INDEFATIGABLE at the age of fifteen and left for sea at sixteen to sign on my first ship WAYFARER of T&J Harrison of Liverpool. Did a while with that company and then various others as A.B and lamptrimmer, twenty years in all. Only have ICC & CEVNI, VHF certs in RYA but studied a bit and have no problem taking my boat up the East Coast, France, Belgium, Channel Islands. Used to sail as well but can't handle that now owing to health problems, now seventy five and retired but studied Bookbinding at college and still take on commissions including logbooks when required have just done No 105.

EMMA LUCIE

John Hayward

Greg Moger

I keep Malindi, a Profile Pursuit 34 1980, in Gloucester and cruise both upriver and the Bristol Channel, I still work as relief Master on the large passenger vessel MV Conway Castle and the ex Dunkirk fomer Thames passenger vessel MV Queen Boadicea 2.

MALINDI

“Conway Castle”

Roger Francis

I own a narrow boat on the Mon and Brec Canal, and she is berthed about 3 miles from Brecon. As the canal is not connected to the sea, nor to the rest of the network, we have no involvement with the Coast Guard, nor indeed the rescue services, of which I am well aware, having spent 21 years as a Trinity House Deep Sea Pilot! Our narrow boat was formerly in the hire fleet of Cambrian Cruisers. She was built in 1988 and we started hiring her for our holiday cruises in 1990. Around about 1994 she was rebuilt and, as we were the principal hirers of the boat called “Angharad”, we were allowed to suggest the layout best suited to us. There was a carpenter working at Cambrian who was a craftsman. He was one of the carpenters that restored the woodwork of Windsor Castle, after the fire. He rebuilt “Angharad” in teak and oak to a very high standard, and so we asked to be considered when the boat came out of the fleet. This happened in 1997, and we became proud owners of the boat. Length wise she is 40 feet, which is an ideal size for the twists and turns of the Mon and Brec, where the max is around 55 feet. John Greenland, the carpenter, has since modified the interior to form a double bunk in the after part of the cabin and a pull out settee at the forward end, to make a second occasional double. She has Ebersbacher central heating, as well as a log burning stove. The bathroom has a pretty powerful shower and the toilet is a Sealand drop through type, with a tank that is capable of running for over a week before pump out. I do most of my own maintenance and painting as you would expect, and especially as I am now Chairman of the Mon and Brec Canals’ Trust, and it would not do to let the side of the MN down! I have attached a photo of her, taken for a calendar about three years ago.

ANGHARAD

This my barge “PEKE”, she is 22 metres x4.05 x 1.2m. Originally a sailing barge built in 1917 now powered by a130 hp Perkins. Based in Burgundy.

David Warren

PEKE

On November 28th 2014 this truck finished up in the canal at Pont Royal. My boat is just visible through the bridge ( the blue one) at its winter mooring. I was summoned by VNF on the afternoon of the 28th to be there on Monday to move the boat out of the pound so that it could be drained to recover the truck’s load. After driving 500 miles on Sunday I found it was not possible to move the boat as the pound below the next lock was empty so I said that my boat could rest on the bottom and the other owners agreed. This is what happened despite the local manger insisting all boats were moved, she did this whilst sitting in an office 50 miles away. All is now OK but some of the load was Champagne the bulk of which disappeared over the weekend!

Truck Crash

“Overlord” is a 100 Square Metre Seefahrtkreuzer (German Square Metre) Class yacht built by Abeking & Rasmussen at Lemwerder, Germany in 1936. Under her original name of “Pelikan” she was based in Kiel and used as a sail training vessel by the Luftwaffe in the Baltic and North Sea. “Pelikan” sailed throughout the war years, winning at least one regatta in the Baltic in 1943. In 1945 she was taken by the British services as a one of the “Windfall” yachts, renamed “Overlord”, and continued her career providing adventurous sail training - but this time with The Royal Engineers and then Royal Army Service Corps (notably under the command of Capt. J A Venables in the mid-1950s). The Army campaigned “Overlord” with notable success in most of the RORC series until, in 1961, she was dismasted and put up for sale by The Treasury. Tony Venables bought her unseen, having made a bid based on the scrap value of her lead keel and set about re- commissioning her, with the intention of sailing her for a couple of seasons before selling her on. However, his friends were so taken with sailing “Overlord” that, instead, in 1963 Tony had the idea of setting up a members’ club to own, maintain and sail her. The Offshore Cruising Club is now approaching its 50th anniversary, has around 220 members, and is affiliated to the RYA; and although retired from skippering, Tony remains its Admiral. Her size and “traditional” design make “Overlord” a fantastic, and very safe, bluewater cruising yacht capable of covering large distances. She has a very busy and varied sailing programme, spending 130 to 150 days at sea every year which typically include week-ends in The Solent and Channel; long distance deliveries; exploring new coastlines in the sunshine; and racing in the JOG series, RTIR, Royal Escape Race (a winner in 2010 !) and classic regattas. Every few years a two year “back to back” programme is organised to give greater scope for exploration, with “Overlord” being laid up for the winter in places such as Croatia and Turkey, or just sailing the winter through in the Canaries ! The OCC has cruised “Overlord” extensively throughout European waters, including the Baltic (as far as Estonia), Scotland, Eire, France, Spain, Portugal, the Mediterranean (including North Africa), the Adriatic, the Aegean, Madeira and the Azores. And pretty much everywhere in between! “Overlord” has never been restored, but rather actively sailed and maintained for her entire 74 year life, with any major work being carried out in her annual winter refit. Originally 6 berths, she unfortunately lost her original mahogany and leather interior when she was converted to take 10. “Overlord” had an engine fitted in the mid-1950s; was replanked below the waterline in 1979; had her deck replaced in 1982; and has since had parts of her topsides re-planked (largely so that the chainplates could be replaced). From 1961 “Overlord” sported a “cut down” aluminium masthead rig designed by Illingworth & Primrose, which was replaced by another aluminium rig to the original ¾, 100 Sq m design for the 2000 sailing season. Membership of the Offshore Cruising Club is open to anyone who would like to take an interest in a historic yacht, novice and experienced yachtsman alike. More information can be found on the Club’s web site at www.sailoverlord.org.uk . Yacht Description Owner: Offshore Cruising Club Designer: Henry Rasmussen Class: 100sq m Seefartkreuzer Year Designed: 1936 Year Built: 1936 Builder: Abeking & Rasmussen, Lemwerder Germany LOA: 17.4 m (57 ft) Beam: 3.4 m (11.2 ft) Draft: 2.3 m (7.6 ft) LWL: 12.39 m (40.8 ft) LOD/LWL Ratio: 1.4 Displacement: 18.3 Tonnes Hull Material: Mahogany/Iroko Hull Construction: Carvel Hull Frames: Steamed Oak & Iron Rudder: Keel Hung Sail Material: Terelene Deck & Superstructure: Composite Ply Teak Laid Superstructure Profile: Low Coach Roof Interior: Classic Cruising Steering: Tiller Transom: Aft Sloping Rig: Bermudan Sloop Engine Make: Yanmar Engine HP: 47.6 Engine Mounted: Under Companionway Propeller: Feathering Propeller Blades: 3 Mast Material: Aluminium Mast Configuration: 2 Spreaders Keel Configuration: Long Keel Material: Lead

MNABC member Ian Milner has sailed and helped to restore “Overlord” over the last fifty years or so as a member of the Offshore Cruising Club.

Ian Milner

Merchant Navy Association Boat Club

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