We were delighted with today’s BBC1 coverage of Lady Daphne in Heir Hunters, Series 9, Episode 5 (of 20), “Morris/Evans” (09:15, Friday, 27 February 2015).  Not only did they have a great case to solve with Robert Evans, and made it interesting, but also included a lot of footage of sailing barge history:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b054b4pq

“After the heir hunters race to find her, one heir visits the home of the relative she never knew. Surprisingly, it is just ten minutes down the road from her own house.

Whilst on another case, the heir hunters experience a strange sense of déjà vu. They find themselves tracing heirs to an estate of a lady whom they have met before, and their search uncovers the remarkable history of Thames bargemen.”

iPlayer link – http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b054b4pq/heir-hunters-series-9-5-morrisevans

I do remember it was a cold and wet afternoon back in October 2013 when we did the filming – yes, nearly 18 months till airing.  It was great to meet Robert Evans, who seemed really pleased to learn about his family history.  Anyway, if you just want to watch Robert and “Mike”, the other star, with the grand old Lady, our section starts at 30:00/43:50.

By the way – Lady Daphne available for bookings from 1 April! – www.lady-daphne.co.uk

The observant among you may have noticed that the Mainelli’s spent two weeks of August in Scotland, followed by Wales, and sailing in England.  We left in early August when polls for the Scottish Referendum predicted a 22 point “No” lead, and returned to England to hear about a predicted “Yes” lead.  Suspicious?  Go figure.

Of course, all I’ve learned about political diplomacy I’ve learned from Samuel Johnson, whose Scottish admirer and biographer, James Boswell, 9th Lord of Auchinleck, treasured and recorded such snippets as:

[Boswell:] “Mr. Johnson, I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it.”

[Johnson:] “That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help.”

[Johnson]: “In England we wouldn’t think of eating oats. We only feed them to Horses.”

[Boswell]: “Well, maybe that’s why in England you have better horses, and in Scotland we have better men.”

Feeling a bit sheepish about the fact that an entire nation seemed happy to never see our family again, I returned with my passport just before the referendum in order to save the nation.  Taking a wild chance I sailed the Clyde, along the way buying my dear friend, Eric Smith, a new red duster as a boat-warming gift for his Colvic Watson 28, Serendipity.  It also encouraged me.  Without a successful exertion on my part, the ensign might have had a mere few days of validity, so it’s good for me that the vote was for union, otherwise I would have been a bit sodium-chloride angry (salt-ire, or is that “sailor rage” or “sea rage”…) if it had been money/currency-union wasted.

And a nice view of Arran Isle too!

One of the joys of restoring a Thames Sailing Barge, our beloved S B Lady Daphne, is racing her.  Racing her?  Indeed.  Thames Sailing Barge racing is the oldest continuous boat racing in the world and, despite the size, slow turns, and wide tacking angles, possibly the hardest in the world.  There is a full set of races each year off the east coast of England masterminded by the Sailing Barge Association.  On Sunday, 24 August, we were racing off Southend-on-Sea, passing by its famous pier, sometimes quite closely!

I have written a bit about this racing in the past:

• Barging About In The Solent, Michael Mainelli, August 2003.
• Dropping The Hook To Win The Race, Michael Mainelli, Yachting World (web edition) 5 August 2002.
• Racing With The Settees, The Kids, And A Roaring Fire, Michael Mainelli, Spring 2002.

And a lot more is contained on the Lady Daphne news area.  This year we managed to win the second place trophy in our class, but the privilege of racing continues to astound us.  And for those of you who know Southend, you’ll have to admit that it’s a special group of boats that can make the town look this pretty!

[photo courtesy of Mark Duff]

For over two decades my great sailing buddy Axel has gone on and on about Helgoland, sometimes rendered in English as Heligoland.  The wonderful sail, the interesting tides, the fantastic island, the duty free.  But for those two decades and more, the weather isn’t quite right, the tides don’t favour us, or Kieler Woche calls.  I long ago started calling it “Never Never Land”.  But J M Barrie might be proud of this shot finally approaching the island – “Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning. ”

Helgoland is a small German archipelago in the North Sea. Formerly Danish and British possessions, the islands are located in the Heligoland Bight in the south-eastern corner of the North Sea. They are the only German islands not in the immediate vicinity of the mainland and are approximately three hours’ sailing time from Cuxhaven at the mouth of the River Elbe. In addition to German, the local population, who are ethnic Frisians, speak the Helgolandic dialect of the North Frisian language called Halunder. Helgoland was formerly called Heyligeland, or “holy land”, possibly due to the island’s long association with the god Forseti.

The long accretion of fortifications is well worth the visit alone – tunnels, submarine bases.  There is also extensive wildlife with seals so calm around humans that they just sit and stare at you.

At the end of the 18th century, the English supported Helgoland smuggling when such activities harrassed Napoleon.  After England took proper possession in 1807, much of the population perished of starvation as the English stamped on smugglers.  In 1890, Helgoland was swapped with Germany for Zanzibar.  Then in 1945, the English took possession again, deporting all the islanders.  From 1945 to 1952 the uninhabited Heligoland islands were used as a bombing range. On 18 April 1947, the Royal Navy detonated 6,700 tonnes of explosives (“Big Bang” or “British Bang”), creating one of the biggest single non-nuclear detonations in history.  The blow shook the main island several miles down to its base, changing its shape (the Mittelland was created).  Possibly due to this history, during my visit,I seem to have forgotten to mention I was visiting from London.  It was a magical island and the people were most hospitable, though not worth the wait.  We should have also gone twenty years ago.

This rhyme about their flag is well-known in Germany:

“All Aboard for Clays in Central London” (John Hargreaves’ shoot off Lady Daphne), Michael Yardley, Sporting Shooter, Archant Specialist, Issue 23, September 2005, page 11.

[This article was published by Yachting World, on the official Cowes site (www.cowesweek.co.uk) – Monday 4 Aug 2003]

Barge matches date back to the late 1700s, even if their meetings were not known by that name then, but it took until 2000 for this particularly challenging form of sail racing to make an appearance within Skandia Cowes Week.

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This year’s event became a match race between Daphne (built 1923) and Kitty (built 1895) because a number of engine and weather problems kept other potential contenders away.  But the pair still managed to show 870 other Cowes competitors a thing or two on Saturday by getting away on a very light breeze at 1000, three hours before the main classes commenced their starts.

Starting these vessels in tide without wind requires an extremely conservative approach to avoid being over the line.  Intent on reversing her fortunes this year after striking a yacht and retiring in 2002, Kitty quickly crossed the line within a minute or so of the gun and struck out on a tight reach for the first mark, Marsh, over on the eastern shore.  Lady Daphne followed about six lengths behind.  Both boats managed to keep their momentum despite the light breezes, no bad thing as you don’t restart over 80 tons of boat lightly.

Gordon Diffey used to be a trading bargeman in the 1960s and crewed on Lady Daphne on Saturday.  Despite his age, he was remarkable at showing the young, amateur crew what it really takes to sail these creatures.  With such light winds, there was time for a few tales, including the race Gordon had won when the skipper had taken to his bunk due to sickness.

Lady Daphne managed to keep nipping at Kitty, but Kitty kept her well covered.  Just before the first rounding, Lady Daphne attempted to overtake.  Kitty vigorously defended her position with an assertive luff, costing Lady Daphne a few lengths at the first rounding.  Lady Daphne sought shallower waters by the shore to cheat the tide while Kitty took the direct line to the next mark, Royal Southern.  As both boats came into the mark, neither strategy had paid off and Kitty held an almost identical lead.

Things got very interesting at the Royal Southern rounding.  Kitty misjudged a difficult tack in tide, hitting the mark.  Her skipper, Wayne Norris, took the rounding mark penalty and then struck out for the island shore, apparently counting on winds freshening rapidly.  Lady Daphne, skippered by James Kent, went north to Calshot to play with small tidal differences and gambling on the wind building slowly.  The strongly diverging strategies led to over three miles of separation at one point.  Both boats seemed to sail in and out of wind holes and pockets.

The result? Lady Daphne stormed down from the north with increasing wind and tide to emerge some 12 minutes in front and tacked ‘nimbly’ (two minutes on a Thames barge!) across the finish line.

The informal match chairman, Roger Marriott, hosted the prize-giving on Kitty, which he owns, returning the match cups to Lady Daphne.

There have been a number of improvements to the Thames Sailing Barge racing at Cowes over the last four years to ensure that port-starboard incidents with yachts are minimised.  The barge course is now separate from the smaller boats and the finish line has been moved away from the front of the Royal Yacht Squadron.  These two changes have been strongly supported by the barge skippers and are likely to lead to quite a number of vessels returning to Cowes for 2004.  There is also talk of introducing a handicap system that has been successful for a few years at the Thames Match.  See http://www.thamesmatch.co.uk for more details.

[This article was published on the official Cowes site (www.cowesweek.co.uk) – Monday 5 Aug 2002]

Barge ‘matches’, a phrase dating back to Queen Victoria’s era, constitute the oldest continuous racing series after the America’s Cup.  The Solent’s largest match so far was in 2001 with six of these enormous boats.  On the Kent, Essex and Suffolk coasts, barge matches can attract nearly 20 vessels, with an average size near 80 tons and a typical length about 85ft.  Nevertheless, the three who made the Skandia Life Cowes Week start line on Saturday morning, the 1923-built Lady Daphne, old-timer Kitty (1895) and youngster Alice (1954), still made the lengthy Squadron start line seem small.  It’s tough to get any boat that size moving when the airs are at their softest, but the barges managed to set off on a rainy run down the west Solent at 1000 when later classes had to wait some hours for wind.  From the start, Lady Daphne and Kitty gained and lost the lead numerous times in a close tacking duel that had the tacticians biting their nails on the way down to the Skandia Life mark.  Tacking these big vessels through 110 degrees takes several lengths and a few minutes, making tactics quite complicated.

SB Lady Daphne ahead of SB Kitty heading for the finish

Alice was an unknown quantity in her first-ever match outing under skipper Sean Jacob, but held close enough to worry the leaders as they tried to hold cover.

At first the duel was out in the deep water with the tide.  As the tide began to flood, the fight moved to the shallows on the Hampshire shore.  When the light winds stopped, the tide could be cheated no longer and the barges took to kedging, twice hoisting their anchors to grasp at hopeful puffs.  Two ton leeboards are raised and lowered on each tack, so during kedging pauses, the crews tried to catch their breaths, only to lose them again winding anchor windlasses.

After the second kedge, Lady Daphne and Kitty set out again chasing another zephyr, still neck-and-neck.  Just one tack afterwards, Kitty had an unfortunate port-starboard incident with a yacht.  The yacht was on starboard, but failed to realise that while tonnage can move swiftly, it turns slowly.  Kitty was unable to avoid piercing the yacht’s mainsail with her bowsprit.  Fortunately, there were no injuries.

With Kitty disqualified, Lady Daphne held a commanding lead over Alice and, given the weak breeze, the course was shortened at 1500.

Two bargemen who served in trade decades ago took part in the race, Jimmy Lawrence on Kitty and Gordon Diffey on Lady Daphne.  Both commented on how little had changed in barge racing since their youth – “although we could have really used GPS in a London fog.”

At a remarkably jolly prize-giving for such a gruelling, wet race, Jimmy Lawrence presented the winning trophy to James Kent, skipper of Lady Daphne.

These ochre-sailed, majestic boats are a welcome reminder that age is no barrier to a competitive boat race.  You can view further details of them at www.sailingbargekitty.com (Kitty) and www.4charter.co.uk (Alice).

Sailors are only young once – for this sailor it’s once a year at Kiel Week.  An old J-24, old sails and a 43 year old man felt young again from 22 to 25 June.  Kiel is tremendous – 6,000 competitors and 2,000 boats, double the size of Cowes.  We are sailing at the 1972 Olympic center on the northwest side of the bay.  Kiel also hosted the 1936 Olypmics and is making an impressive bid to so again in 2012.  Submarines and square riggers are out in numbers.  A few kilometers away in the old Hanseatic city there is an enormous annual festival with some hundreds of thousands of people participating in a four kilometer party (www.kieler-woche.de), but I don’t have the time to visit given all the sailing and partying here, and this is my third Kiel Week in a row!

The Kiel Week organisers seem obsessed with reminding you of the years they take away by posting the birth dates of all skippers and crews with each set of results.  Looking back to 50-something Horst Rieckborn at the helm of his J-24, I remember that he is the oldest J-24 skipper, competing in his 25^th Kiel Week.  Axel is the 39 year old youngster hopping around the cockpit doing all the winching.  Hans is my 49 year old buddy scrambling across the deck at each shout of “Wende!” (tack!) while Volker’s weight on the foredeck is another reminder of some of the disadvantages of age.  Our boat is named Pathétique.  I reckon that Horst added up the age of his crew and arrived at a number near the year when Beethoven composed his eponymous sonata.  I’m told the name sounds better in German, but surely they’re referring to the music?

My notional job is tactics and navigation up on the rail.  Notionally, I speak a form of halting German that becomes abrupt, braking German when things get hectic.  In all the confusion and fun, I manage to throw a few suggestions in and, as is usual with tacticians, remember making a massive contribution to successes and no contribution to failures.  Off the course, the organisers and competitors couldn’t be more welcoming to non-German speakers.  Everything is provided in English and German.

While I enjoy the majesty of Brest, the warm welcome of Cork, the thrills of the Solent and the fun of local regattas, Kiel has become my annual highpoint.  Three things stand out – keen competition, fantastic organisation and good value.  Starting with the keen competition, in truth, Kiel Week might be more accurately called the Two Kiel Half-weeks.  The first four day regatta comprises various international classes with 2 races on the first day, 3 on the second, 3 on the third and 1 race on the fourth.  The second four day regatta comprises the Olympic classes.  Throughout there are classic and offshore races.  Professional committee boat starts in several separate areas are a far cry from the self-centredness of the RYS line at Cowes.  The racing is very international.  Most of our competitors are top sailors in their own countries.  Sailors from over 70 countries are competing in various classes, for example the Chinese windsurfing team.  This year our class of 36 J-24’s has Dutch and Swedish entries alongside the top German sailors.  In previous years we’ve had US, French, Swiss, Italian and other nations.  In the bars on Monday and Tuesday sailing gods such as Sailing Hall of Fame’s Mark Reynolds rub shoulders with mortals out for some good fun.  The blend of competition and camaraderie leads to genuine convivialité or gemütlichkeit depending on your linguistic preference.

For once a national stereotype has a very positive side – fantastic organisation.  The support Kiel’s organisers provide to competitors makes you feel special.  There is a detailed weather briefing each morning from a national TV weatherman, complete with handouts so you don’t need notes.  The race results are efficient and timely.  The cars to and from the car parks are frequent, with televisions so you don’t miss World Cup games, although because the television only operates when the car is stopped there tends to be a bit of stop-start braking of the shuttle cars in time with radio announcements of things worth watching.  There is a wide, varied selection of food, from fast food of all sorts to restaurants.

As the Rolling Stones prove, with enough drink, it’s never a drag getting old.  While I know little about “mother’s little helper”, there is an even better selection of drink, drunk from glass not plastic.  The varied evening entertainments are a wonderful combination of music and humour.  One group, United Four, seems to have become an annual double fixture singing cover tunes with an enthusiasm that has an audience of several hundred chanting along till past midnight.  Seeing their six and half foot lead singer do a very passable vocal and visual send-up of Britney Spears brings tears, of humour, to your eyes.  Their self-deprecating humour makes you question other German stereotypes.

To address good value, €180 provides all race fees for the 9 races, berthing, boat lifts, car parking, very frequent shuttles back to the car for forgotten possessions and hats for the crew.  Contrast this with €260 or more for an equivalent Cowes entry for 7 races without berthing, lifts, parking, etc.  Hotel accommodation less than five minutes walk from the boat set us back €50 per evening.  Two beers, a steak, salad and chips in a nice restaurant set our budget back a chilling €18, and, no, we hadn’t made reservations a year in advance.  True, you have to get to Kiel, but with discount flights to Hamburg, Bremen or Lűbeck often running at £120 or less it looks competitive with public transport to Cowes.

Sure, there are some problems.  Three Musto dealers were of no use on a problem with Musto’s HPX gear, although Musto UK sorted it out gratis.  The committee boat tangled a start of one class with the finish of another, wasting an hour.  The tideless Baltic will never match the complexity of the Solent.  I think the final word on Kiel ought to go to old-timer Horst, who has seen the racing double in size over the last quarter of a century.  Asked about his plans for his 26^th year, Horst said, “I couldn’t miss the best competition in all of Europe”.

So how did we do?  Well to use an old Irish expression, it took a lot of people to beat us.  We tried to help them by being too lazy to change up to the genoa when the breeze reduced in one race (age you know), or by diving overboard in disgust at having to take a 720 penalty (well, I may have not quite understood the German warning that the 720 was about to start).  Despite our best efforts, we placed a credible 15^th against the 35 other youngsters.  More importantly, we placed our reservation for next year.

Michael Mainelli has been racing traditional craft and plastic boats with equal enjoyment for over 30 years.  He is a Royal Corinthian Yacht Club member and a committee member of the Thames Match.  Michael has been racing at Cowes since 1990, much of that in the Sigma 33 fleet.  Since 1996 Michael and his wife Elisabeth have owned S.B. Lady Daphne, see www.lady-daphne.co.uk or call (020) 7562-7656 or email michael_mainelli@zyen.com.