An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Kirbstone
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Great Indian Summer here, wall-to-wall sun today, but chilly (13deg.C) Good forecast for coming w'end. More galley-slaving scheduled for Sat. AM.

Just been invited for a day's sail on L. Derg (Shannon) for next 27th Sat. Can't refuse. Winter gear, I expect. L. Derg is like Lake Windermere, but nearly 10 times the surface area. 24 mi. long, 8 mi. widest, most of it being 2-3 mi. wide. Largest of the Shannon lakes, but only third in the country. Neagh & Corrib are bigger.
Pal has a 27 ft long-keeled Albin Vega, sloop. Perfect for that lake. Wind direction largely decides where we go for lunch. The 120-odd-mile shoreline is peppered with little villages, all with harbours and cosy gastro-pubs. Spoiled for choice, really.

Tom
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weeladdie18
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Thanks for the pictures , Tom . 27 feet is a good length for a Three man Yacht.....I went on a 31 footer on the Helford River ...............
She was built in Spain and had a very small cockpit for five people ....Probably designed with a large dining table....a yacht for socialising.

I have never sailed on a large lake ....I wonder if it is likely to become claustrophobic if one ends up sailing round in circles ...L.O.L.

Good dry weather for Cornwall for the weekend. Bit cold late afternoon....Best of luck with the Galley Slaving......

The Cornish Pilot Gig racing is popular rowing sport with the lassies these days. The crews train in G.R.P. boats and keep the
traditional racing gigs dry in the Boat Store.......Quite often this is an old life boat house used by the old R N L I rowing lifeboat......Rod
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Kirbstone
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Coastal rowing is very popular here country-wide. Spectators get good value as the course has start and finish in one place. Crews row out to a turning point and back again. Most popular boat is the 'four oar', a trad. clinker or carvel boat with one rower per oar sitting on staggered seats with thole pins or gates on the gun'ls. Coxed, of course.
Affluent populous clubs will also field Seine Boats, larger carvel built, 6 oars, two men per oar and a cox, 13 crew in all. I have seen modern four-oar boats with chopper blades and everything hi-tech, too.
Currachs are also raced, 2,3 &4 places, two oars per man. Light, stretched & tarred skin over a lattice frame. High bow. Fast.

True of lake sailing. To go elsewhere from L. Derg, for instance, one must plan well, unstep the mast and motor downstream under various bridges, through the Ardnacrusha power station locks, 100 ft drop in two chambers, 40 ft & 60 ft. Dock in Limerick city & re-step the mast, rigging &c. Then the World's yer-oyster.
In 2003 we (5 of us) bought 'Vivienne' a 1997 centre-cockpit Moody 40 sloop at Portumna on L. Derg. We debated having her put on a lowloader and driven per road to Dublin/Dun Laoighre, but three of us prevailed and we trial-sailed her the 24 miles down the lake to Killaloe, unstepped the mast and put it longways fore & aft for the trip through the locks & bridges to Limerick. Two days later we sailed her down the estuary (40mi.) to Portrush marina, thence out to Sea, round Sybil Head to Dingle in Kerry. We swopped crews at Kinsale and the others took her round the S & E coasts to Dun Laoighre, where we kept her for 12 years to 2015.

Tom
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Kirbstone
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Yesterday was a peach of morning. 15 deg.C. Sun, no wind. Neap tide, so dry portaging of our VIII over the weir onto the tide. Fab. row to the docks & back and we were caught in the act. Not so pretty as the 'framed photo', but it's us. I'm at No.4 with the bobble hat, just visible.

To put things in context I submit my photos, The one looking East with the Beckett Br. was taken from the nearby Fr. Matthew Br., a swing pedestrian bridge, featured in the pic. looking West towards the city from the Beckett Br.

The tall ship is a 20th Century accurate re-creation of that emigrant ship, The Jeanie Johnston which transported hundreds of famine victims to the New World. She took part in a 2005 tall ships race/event at Waterford, but nowadays is permanently moored as a museum.

Tom
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weeladdie18
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Thanks for photos Tom...It is a shame that replica ships are used as museums and not used by trusts for adventure training
under sail ...Rod.
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Tom...Our Cornish weather is much the same as yours... shirt off for sunday in the garden
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Kirbstone
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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In the boom time two replica famine ships were commissioned in Ireland and were crewed up until the bust in '08. They are now both museums, the other one being the Dunbrody, in New Ross, near Waterford.

The official Irish sail training vessel however was the Asgard II, a wooden ship built in Arklow, but she struck an object while under sail in the middle of the night off Belle Isle in Biscay and sank in 400 feet of water. All crew got off safely.

With her sank the Irish sail training faculty. It was bust time and the government of the day took the 3.8 million insurance money and left the Asgard on the bottom. Obscene. She would be perfectly salvageable....by the Dutch! The big mistake was to build her in wood. If she were steel hulled she'd have survived that nocturnal impact.

There is now talk of buying in a sail ship and restarting the programme.

Tom
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weeladdie18
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Tom. Would it have been the original Asgard ..a steel ship used as a drugs runner , burnt out and rebuilt as a tall ship in Portland harbour
and Weymouth ... The concept of a heritage training vessel owned by a trust is interesting ....some of these vessels lead colourful lives.

It is unfortunate that your Pics of your tall ships show modern vessels.....The images of the sailing fleets are timeless

..the last grain race....1938..39 ? Ireland to Australia in pig iron ballast...returning to Ireland with a cargo of grain................Rod
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Kirbstone
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Pie-in-the-sky, Rod.
Erskine Childers's original Asgard in which he did the gun running from Germany to Howth in 1914 was wooden, 51 foot long and far too small to be a sail trainer. She is restored and on display at the National Museum, Collins Barracks in Dublin. There is a plaque on the quay wall in Howth where they landed.
Erskine, of 'Riddle of the Sands' fame had served in the Royal Navy, was a Barrister-at-Law in London, had high connections and managed to persuade the British to turn a blind eye to his yacht for its voyage to Ireland from Germany. Normally it would have been boarded and the weapons seized.

Asgard II was built in 1981 and was 87 feet long.

Tom
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weeladdie18
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Tom, I apologise for an error... ASTRID... was the name of the drugs runner rebuilt as a tall ship in Portland and Weymouth Harbours.....
after being burnt out so she must have been a steel ship.
Tuesday is a sunny day in Cornwall. temperature was 10 C at dawn.....................I like the Asgard Yacht in your photo..
I sailed on a 50 square metre used by German military and claimed as war repatriations..I believe she had steel frames... Rod
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Friday in cornwall ,Cooler day in a NW wind............,temperature down to single figures early morning and at sunset...
N W 4 to 6 fx for Saturday with morning showers.
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Kirbstone
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Yes,
Our forecast is for pretty cold, too. 1 deg. C. overnight, which means getting frost off the windscreen tomorrow morning for my trip down SW to the lake. My skipper says wrap up well, so it'll be gloves, too. Just 6 deg. forecast.

They've just made it Law here to automatically disqualify drivers over the 50mg/liter limit and they do random testing, so we'll have to forego the Juniper juice in the cockpit prior to lunch with a pint of Guinness. Spoilsports, the lot of 'em.

Tom
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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I quit drinking in 1992 here in the USA because they were getting serious about drunk driving and let me tell you I did more then my share of it.
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Well, not in Cornwall actually, but not so very far away.

Today I was away SW in no hurry, breaking no speed limits and 100 minutes later greeted my friend at Dromineer on board his tidy little Swedish sloop 'Breakaway'. It was a sparkling cold day (6 deg.) with some 24 knots of Northerly, about Force 6 and 100% sunshine. Winter gear & gloves.

We headed out West on a beam reach with two reefs in the Mains'l and a heavyweight smaller fores'l instead of a genoa. Good thinking as we got some gusts up to 36 knots. The boat revels in such conditions and on the lake, although we got plenty of popple and spray over the bows, there is no swell, as one gets on the ocean.

We visited Mountshannon, Co. Clare, but the local pub was closed for renovations, so we headed back East to Garrykennedy, Co. Tipperary where the pint & pub lunch were to die for. Then afterwards we tacked up the lake and visited a large island, privately owned, but didn't land. Just had a good look at how the Other Half live, before heading back S.E. to Dromineer with the wind well aft of the beam. Great progress, and under headsail alone we got 6.4 knots out of her.....her hull speed.

Back in port for 4PM and a cuppa in the cockpit before I headed home. A great day out. It's good to be alive!

Tom
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Re: An Autumn Day in Cornwall

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Saturday was a cold and showery day with a brisk NW Polar Maritime wind ...spectacular clouds in the sunshine.....................
Plenty of crisp golden autumn leaves on the roads.
..........see what happens today, a sunny Sunday in Cornwall
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