Bit of a slim-line edition this – but that’s not too unusual for the winter slot. One or two items promised/pending but, beyond the deadline, I thought I ought to push this one out before the crocuses are blooming.

Held again on a beautiful, crisp December Saturday morning, from Greg a note :-

And talking of the Christmas do, I had a reel of 36 brilliant and revealing photographs taken at the event, one or two to be discretely reproduced in this edition of NL. Regrettably, my steam driven non-digital camera, famous Japanese antique technology, doesn’t have a way of showing whether there is a film in the camera or not. So a week or two later, I opened it to find out. And all 36 exposures hadn’t been wound back. No bribe from Millicent either – promise. But sorry about that… Anyone else got any ?

I’ve had a couple of ‘prizes gained’ lists returned, from the form and plea circulated last time. I could no doubt add some from chance local knowledge – but I’m sure there are more, which could be submitted. As said earlier, I will leave it till the next edition and then send out what I have so far. So please, if you have some silverware stashed away somewhere, please let me know about it !

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The father of the fleet as ‘twere, the Memory “Sif”, has passed into the ownership of Bernie Muir. So she will be staying in Cornwall – which will no doubt please her no end, since this particular boat appeared to have personal conversations with Derek, if you recall. Bernie says she will now be acquiring a trailer in order to ride around the south west coast to show off at events. You’ll notice that she got herself into the ‘Classic Boat’ magazine – again.

John and Zoe Turner’s “Boy Matthew” is now to be looked after by Clive Bourchier, Hampshire;  Another one which, pleasingly for some perhaps, will come down to the Solent hunting grounds.

The new, black hulled Memory, now nearing completion at Salterns, is likely to join the east coast fleet and will be launched by Dick Cash with the lively name of “Blackadder”. (See picture page this edition) 

Both “Shimmer” and “Sid’s Memory” are we understand up for sale at present, so other changes to be notified later no doubt. (Contact Greg for details). And more than probable two other new Memorys in the pipeline – good to see. The three new owners above were happy to be roped into the MOA club – equally pleasing to note. Memory owners don’t necessarily go around saluting commodores and shouting ‘water !’ – but still happy to know who and where we all are.

Another well known east coast boat has changed hands. Trevor Fulcher’s “Irene” has passed on to Terry Smith,  Terry says that “Irene” will stay up in the Blackwater river till about May of this year at least. Then she may or may not come down to the Solent.

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As some might have seen, this was the front cover story of the Classic Boat magazine. It was a competition run by CB to identify the top 200 boats featured in the last 200 issues of the magazine – according to the votes of readers. And the Memory made it into this ‘elite’ group…..sadly the other allegedly gaff rigged boats of similar size and market slot didn’t. But then, what do readers of boat magazines know about boat

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(In the winter, maintenance time, issue of the Newsletter, I push Greg to comment on the various alterations/suggestions that owners have come up with. As he was the first to note, so much can so often be just a matter of opinion or personal preference but, nevertheless, I reckon a well informed opinion helps keep the dialogue going, from which some of us less adventurous mortals can glean what might be best for our boats. That’s the point of the NL after all. So here’s the latest from Greg :- )

‘TEL-DEK’ and ‘FLEXITEAK’

They look OK alongside varnished mahogany etc., as a contrasting finish; the pictures of Fred Reid’s boat “Young Pretender” (Oct ’04 edition) look good. Unfortunately they’d still look fake alongside a real scrubbed teak cockpit coaming etc. On the other hand, it is extremely hard wearing and was originally designed for cruise ships. It offers no stiffness and is no good for strengthening up a wobbly old Memory deck – but it would bounce up and down with it, flexing under-foot, which is good news. Coincidentally, we were involved with the ‘Flexi-teak’ people in developing ideas for joining it up together for yacht decks, making the margin boards for example. We made the prototype which was displayed on a Sealine power-boat at one of the big Italian boat-shows, about 5 years ago. I remember it being very heavy and I believe one of these stink- boats, after being literally covered in this decking, then struggled to get up on the plane afterward !

Roy Hart and Nick Hillman have obviously been having a ball racing one another all season – good for them ! I was amazed that “Greensleeves” gains an extra half knot by lifting the plate down-wind; I always assumed that any gain would be marginal. Mind you, this comes from not having anything more scientific than throwing stuff overboard and counting to ten – or whatever it is that you do to measure speed. All these logs and GPSs – too clever by half. And a ‘hooray’ for Roy using the 3.3 Mariner Outboard. It is trim, half the size and weight of a 4 h.p. but nearly the same power output. The only downside is no reverse, but so what ! This engine fits nicely down the Salterns outboard well and is virtually flush with the deck, as the motor ‘head’ is much lower than the 4 hp type.

I’ve seen several of these where the builders have tried to reduce the height of the outboard by lowering its mounting. This is all very understandable – but – they are reducing the effective freeboard inside the well. A reduction of an inch or so is not a problem, but most I have seen I believe to be bordering on the wrong side of safety and downright dangerous. It is not only the possibility of getting the odd wave slopping over the edge of the well, which must be considered. For example, if a Memory were knocked down in a sudden heavy gust and the cockpit thereby part filled with water, any major reduction in freeboard within the well would allow water to pour in over the lip and cause the boat to sink in moments. Another major point is that the gear change adjuster, which is inside the leg of the outboard, is then immersed if the water-line is much above the outboard’s wash-plate on the leg. This will corrode solid (usually mild steel !) in a season’s use and render the servicing of the water-pump ( inside the foot) almost impossible.

From my own experience and that which I have gleaned from others, the Memory goes much better with a bit of an aft rake on the mast. It also looks a lot better – and you know what they say about if a boat looks right then ….

A long and complicated story, but briefly :- Balcotan, which Mike Hawthorne used on “Neried”, is a wood-bond and much like other polyurethane based foaming adhesives, which tend to get referred to as ‘woodsnot’ in male dominated boatyards. It has the moisture-curing advantage if used in a damp boatshed and it is very easy to dispense. There is no mixing and it comes in a squeezy bottle and is very easy to clean off the job. A minus point is that it is a swine to get off human skin ! It has no gap-filling qualities, as an adhesive. If the joint is not perfect, it will fail instantly. This limits its viability and its foaming properties make it difficult to glue sheet materials together. Epoxy-resins – are the most versatile adhesives. The West System is the best known and has the best back-up service for construction in wood. SP is more or less identical. The advantage is that you can bond almost anything to anything with it. Using the correct filler powder and in the right conditions, it is amazing what can be achieved using these systems. They are far beyond just being adhesives. The downside is that Epoxy needs to be carefully mixed and needs some degree of knowledge about when and how to use, otherwise it won’t work properly. Excess moisture, low temperature, incorrect mixing and application and use of the wrong filler - all will have an adverse effect, running from a slight reduction in strength to nothing sticking at all ! Sikaflex - is not really a glue, or is it ? The standard 291 Sikaflex is not just a sealer but also an adhesive. Most car wind-screens are stuck in with a very similar product. It will glue wood, glass fibre, metal and leather exceptionally well. In my view, I think Sikaflex is really a cut above the marine sealants; I’ve been most impressed with its performance and flexibility.

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The Chinese have a curse that goes 'may you live in interesting times' and the start of our new boat, Nipperkin's season had some very interesting times indeed! I had taken all the measurements of our old Memory “Dram” and had made all the new rigging to length. Patrick's sails looked great, Greg had built a superb looking boat, what could go wrong? Well, two days after delivery, boat met water and the problems began. Setting off on our first trip we lowered the centreplate on its natty little winch - there was a dull thud and the winch went slack. The plate had not located on its stop pin and Nipperkin consequently now drew about seven feet! The boat was pulled from the marina and Greg shot up from darkest Hants to insert another pin. The moulders had placed it almost an inch too far back. Problem solved. Next morning, prior to launching, I decided to antifoul the plate while the opportunity presented itself. The plate dropped four inches and then stuck fast. It became apparent that the epoxy Greg had applied to the pin had sagged allowing the plate to move a tiny amount, but enough. Greg shot up from darkest Hants, and after a couple of hours with what looked suspiciously like a high class set of burglary tools the plate was moving.
Boat back in water - all well. For several weeks we enjoyed some great sailing and were delighted with her balance and sailing ability. It was now getting close to the annual East coast OGA race to be followed by a week of racing on the Blackwater. We set off for Brightlingsea and were twenty miles down the coast when the clew blew out of the main! Apparently due to a faulty eyelet. Thus ended our main racing for this year. Patrick supplied another sail but it took the shine off the new boat. When we finally did race later in the year the boat performed very well and we are very pleased with her.
You only find out how good your garage is when things go wrong, and both Greg and Patrick did their best to sort out problems that weren't really of their own making, consequently, I think that we now have a better boat for it ! Race results ? Next year !

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First Memory experiences (Brian Riches)

The Salterns Memory “Ruffler” now has a new home with us down in Chichester Harbour, and a mooring at the Hayling Island Sailing Club. I first saw a Memory on the front cover of ‘Practical Boat Owner’ in 1997. And that was love at first sight. “Ruffler” is the second boat that Greg built, an open boat version with lifting hatch to cuddy and a Lombardini air-cooled inboard engine. She is now black hulled instead of green, a job done to perfection by her previous owner, Geoff Hughes. He also made a lovely ‘brew-up’ box, complete with little kettle and gas stove, a small luxury much appreciated by my wife Pat. A topsail has been ordered to keep the said crew busy (these ex Hornet sailors are a bit feisty at the best of times, so no doubt it will be the asymmetric spinnaker next !) Joining in the evening cruiser races has already been suggested.

I had dashed down to Falmouth in early August to see “Sif” and Derek let me have a wonderful sail in her (Thank you Derek !) Though a venerable version, the Memory seemed everything I wanted and I was working out what modifications I would want to make, e.g. outboard well etc., when “Ruffler” came on to the market with everything on my list ticked off. It does seem that Memorys haunt us, for during a hell of a blow late August, when we were battling our way onward in our Drascombe Lugger, and I was wondering how we would cope with a Memory, we noticed “Merganser” sailing beautifully with two reefs in the main and towards East Head. Next, we went to the Emsworth Slipper SC to look at a Shrimper called ‘Gribble’ and there, parked next door, was – of course – another Memory, “Girl Friday” complete with owner. I introduced myself and was welcomed aboard the tented temporary workshop; I was impressed with the new spray-hood. Half an hour later, I was dragged out by my furious wife and a non too pleased Shrimper owner.

At time of writing I am trying to sort out the bits of string; fortunately Geoff had little wooden name tags for everything – but not attached; Greg’s little Handbook helped enormously. Still need to decipher the inhaul/outhaul on the bowsprit. Whilst fitting a winter cover, I gave the bow a good shove – and heard the sound of water sloshing around inside, too much to be just condensation. Consulting Greg, I drilled a couple of drain holes through the cuddy bunks, and drained out gallons of rain-water from under both of them. Seems the 2004 summer weather had somehow entered via the samson post, so I’m going to work with the Sikaflex ! Worth checking this ‘bunk-water’; put the fear of a Shrimper in me ! Easy enough to put two properly fitted plastic hatches around the drain holes. I am not now worried about sailing the beast, only getting all the ropes, halyards, cleats etc. back into correct positions in the first place – then raising the deck-stepped mast before the re-launch……………

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I’ve had the ex Salterns small jib for some time and finally got around to fixing a tie-down point at the stem and its own separate halyard. “Adrienne V”, the Salterns prototype Memory, had been out of the water most of last so-called summer but with update modifications was fed back into the water in Autumn for some possible winter jaunts out of the Hamble. One such in early January saw the boat-builder sir and potential Memory customer potter out of the creek at high water, me pacing the bridge as captain doing nothing much at all. It was a good five probably gusting six in the open water. When time is of the essence, for the peculiar but very useful Solent double high water, the comparatively new Yamaha 4 stroke, in its new well, helps get down the longish Hamble river into Southampton water fairly quickly. However, mysteriously (and still !) the engine blew up red hot a little way into the journey. Cooling water running, the oil still there – but if Greg hadn’t noticed the change of tone first the metal itself probably would have melted besides all the rubber seals ! So end of engine. The Hamble runs pretty much north-south and the strong wind coming up the river was just a little west of south. Because of the likely conditions we’d tied in both reefs and bent on the small jib rolled up on the foredeck. Seemed the wrong thing to do to turn and run back with the wind so the double-reefed main and small jib went up. The Hamble here is deep but not wide and is of course just crammed with boats at moorings either side. I’d never used the small jib and double reef in the main before so wasn’t too sure how much balance or control we’d have when needing to weave in and out of obstacles against a head wind. But I needn’t have worried. The boat behaved beautifully in a series of short tacks, shaving to within a foot of the various moored boat sterns and gaps between posts as required. That gave the chance of using the full width of the shallow waters on the east side of the river knowing that we had the high tide beneath us. So the last leg could take us out over the trainer bank at the river entrance with the centre board halyard at the ready – and our potential Memory owner showing that he and a Memory seemed to understand one another very well indeed. Out in the stretches of Southampton water, this wind gave a super controlled sail with a creaming wake way astern. Tiller free, she’d carried on where she was put quite happily. And sailing back up the river, wind behind, and eventually dropping a bit, gave the opportunity to dump the small jib and use the bigger one to sail into the creek and straight into her comfy mud berth. Certainly with anything up to a force seven, I was pleased to see that the balance between the small jib and double reefed main was just about perfect – for a fast, comfortable, non threatening ride. Nice to know that; I’ll worry about the engine repair later !

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“Flugel” is presently hibernating outside the Salterns workshop now under this rather splendid cover (see pics. page) It is rather crudely tailored but is immensely strong, being made of a heavy truck tarpaulin type of material. Two single props, with a fork at the top, provide support for the ridge pole, which is an old wind-surfer mast with a boat hook protruding from the end for extra length. Most importantly, the tops of the chain plates are protected with a piece of hose-pipe to prevent the cover from rubbing/splitting from the wind movement. Certainly an improvement on that flimsy flapping stuff so often advertised as tarpaulin coverings.

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See the picture  - snapshots of the centre-plate recently taken out of “William Bligh”. Salterns were doing this job for Ian and Annie Templeton and I noted Greg’s comments :-

‘When we removed this centre-plate it revealed an alarming history. Curiously the half inch steel plate had not been made to the original design, which has a thinner quarter inch corner section, at the top at the top of the shorter leg (A) to allow for a more substantial tackle. Because of this misunderstanding, the tackle was minute and, looking closely, the previous lifting wire had obviously given up and had been cut off, with the present piece of the line remaining tied to the stub end. It was all just about hanging together. As you can see, the hole for the pivot pin had worn but wasn’t too bad given the age of the boat, likewise the degree of corrosion. What was more disturbing were the now redundant engine beds which we found had been bolted through the outside of the hull – and had been counter-sunk into the GRP so that they were invisible. If it had not been for a small leak through one of them, they would have remained unnoticed under several layers of anti-fouling. Putting holes through the hull beneath the water line – is not a good idea ! The old engine beds were remove and the hull made good as the new centre plate was fitted, q.v.

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“Black Pearl” The much neglected and now rescued “Martha Knowles” will be metamorphosed into “The Black Pearl”. Nick Howells, who has taken on this project, has been in the throws of house moving but hopes to be operational, boat-rescue wise, by the end of March. Luckily, Nick has an undercover workshop available. Virtually everything inside the boat has had to be stripped out; the cabin was ready to fall out anyway. But bulkheads were still fairly sound. The inboard engine (remains of) will be replaced by outboard and an outboard well. The deck sections are having to be replaced and a new cabin built. Nick said the spars were OK and needing only to be taken down to the wood again and re-varnished. All standing and running rigging will need to be replaced but the sails are new, unused and bagged, from decades ago. Nick is planning to build a trailer, for an end of summer re-launch (virtually first-launch really) onto a tidal mooring in West Wales.

Ray Evans, up in the Isle of Arran, had some nasty illness to contend with and “Saorsa” wasn’t out and about much during the alleged season, but recovery led to a few local sails later on - and a major event. In some fine weather Ray finally managed to persuade wife Liz and daughter Kirsty into a Memory. That is with sails up and floating on the water like ! A la Nick Hillman’s ‘sail balancing act’ piece last issue, Ray said a friend passing in his boat a little way off had managed to get some photos of “Saorsa” under sail (doesn’t usually happen much, unless ‘arranged’ - well not in the wilderness of Western Isles sailing anyway) - and that really brought home where the set of the sails could be adjusted/improved. A recommendation, from convalescence: an old black and white film called “Maggie” (about a boat) is really worth a look-see if you come across it; probably for those of us who remember B & W films as ‘normal’ ?

“Merlin” , that much travelled Memory, now sailed by James Green, had her go on the water just for the end of season races. James is one of those who get roped in for other big boat sailings, but “Merlin” is now being prepared for a spring-time re-launch; it’s her turn this season….

Just to balance the discussion, heard around sight of “Nilla”, who has had her new Yanmar inboard for a good year, which replaced a new outboard in well :- a definite advantage in noise reduction – and – ease of mind in not having very inflammable petrol on board – and – much easier access to controls – and – a lot more ‘oomf’ at an easy six knots – and – 5 hours per gallon, no problem – and – power for electrics and GPS – and - all aft end storage space available – and finally – no problems with step-over or step round; the top of engine at level of cockpit seats, for lunch to be laid upon (not carrying three adults and four children admitted). So there ! Mind you, Peter said, the blade of the rudder just snapped off from the stock and floated away one afternoon. Not anything to do with engine though ; more like Royal Naval College torpedo practice.

“Talitha” was the latest casualty to screwed-on 18 mm ply-wood gaff- jaws. A force six wind with two reefs in finally finished them off. Giles used the remains as a template and is making new ones, properly constructed from solid wood. Perhaps more on this little event later (but see picture page, Ed.)

“Memory” was the Memory which Mike Townsend owned and used for the very old tradition of punt gunning in the reed beds and marshes of the east coast. Mike retired from sailing and she is now owned by Brian Kennell. Brian is in the east coast boat restoration business and has done quite a lot of work on “Memory” already. An early Bergvist boat, she has had a new centre plate fitted, standing rigging and running rigging replaced, re-epoxied bottom and re-fitted out for a spring launch, still with her cutter rig. She was turned out for the Mersea regatta in 2004 and doing more than well, until Brian turned left instead of right (his own admission). But later got a second place in the Town Regatta. As Classic Boat readers may have noticed, Brian is intimately involved with the restoration of ‘Pioneer’ , the largest of the old Essex Smacks, originally launched off Newhaven in 1881. Already he has two months of sailing time this year booked with ‘Pioneer’. Possible therefore that “Memory” might be up for sale, if it turns out she is not likely to get much use…. ?

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Recommended read

For small boat cruising sailors who haven’t come across it yet, the Charles Stock paperback republished in 2002 is worth a read through. I’m sure the east coast lot will have passed by his little 16 footer “Shoal Waters” many times. Based in the Blackwater he cruised this boat around the east coast, Thames estuary and beyond, from the late 60s onwards. I remember passing him by more than once in the Solent. Sadly I think he died fairly recently. His book is called ‘Sailing Just for Fun’ and is published by Seafarer books. Fully rigged as a gaff cutter, with topsail, trysail and spinnaker used as weather demanded, he built “Shoal Waters” on a Fairy Falcon hull, hot moulded veneer with centre plate, and accumulated all sorts of small tricks of the trade for cruising – always without any engine – from the Wash to the Isle of Wight, day and night and all times of the year. You learn a thing or two that way, far more than I’d ever cope with that’s for sure ! 

This year. I’ve even taken this line from one side of the boom, up to the hounds and down to an eye and tie off cleat on the other side of the boom. You loose some of the purchase but the topping lift cum lazy jack can be managed entirely from the tiller position and with the help of a shoulder under the boom doesn’t seem to present any problem in lifting it up easily enough. Another interesting bit I’d like to try, ex quote – "‘ Once in the Thames, the tide was with me but I had to beat and for the first time this holiday it was almost reefing weather. Before getting out into the chop of the wide River Thames I hove to, a simple business of rolling up the jib and easing the mainsheet, in order to stow the gear properly, for I had not had time to do so when getting under way that morning"

Normally, being hove-to means backing the jib and then playing with the mainsheet to bring her almost to a halt. I’ve heard of this before though, usually with Bermudan boats, of being able to hove to quite happily with the mainsail alone. Has anyone tried it – for reefing down the main if the wind gets up ? Anyhow – quite an instructive little book for pottering small gaffers. (Ed.)