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In praise of Malcolm Barnsley
A decade ago I read an article about two men setting out to break the outright world speed sailing record – then just over 45 knots. They were proposing to build a radical new kind of sailing boat....
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Ansel Adams on digital photography, from 1983
An exhibition of Ansel Adams photographs is on at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich until April 28. We duly took our eldest, who likes to take the odd photo. Sadly, the exhibition was heaving....
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Google Earth as a tool for planning dinghy cruises
I enjoy cruising my sailing dinghy around the rivers and coastline of Essex and Suffolk, and have recently discovered a feature in Google Earth which makes planning trips that little bit easier. Google...
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“Let’s prod the beast, and see if it’ll move”
In last week’s Spectator there’s an article by Peter Lilley. It is subtitled thus: “Today’s MPs are no longer scared of the whips. Instead, they are scared of their constituents. That’s a good thing.”...
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Dinghy desire paths
GPS tracks after 3 years sailing the River Blackwater. I bought Wanderer 446 (a 14 foot sailing dinghy) nearly three years ago. She’s given me much joy as we’ve explored the River Blackwater in Essex....
View ArticleBen Moon is 49
Ben Moon is 49. 25 years ago he climbed Hubble (8c+), then the hardest climb in the world. Last week he climbed Rainshadow, a 9a route at Malham Cove. In my late teens he and Jerry Moffatt were our...
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Crazy Frenchman + Small Open Catamaran + Circumnavigation = Much respect
Sometime tomorrow morning Yvan Bourgnon will sail into Ouistreham Riva-Bella after a 30,000 mile / 220 day circumnavigation in a 6m open catamaran. That’s “open” as in “has no shelter”. It’s like a big...
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‘No pay, no prospects, not much pleasure’*
H.W.Tilman’s accounts of his mountaineering and sailing escapades have long swirled around the edges of my consciousness. Now I’ve no excuse, with a gorgeous new collected edition of Tilman’s work...
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Sailing from Brightlingsea to Burnham and back – 8 Oct 2022
Back in October, my friend Chris and I went for a long day sail in Spiders, my 16ft Wayfarer dinghy. We decided to take advantage of a rare combination of Westerly offshore breeze and ideally-timed...
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