Wednesday 10 July 2013

Working boats in Denmark "Sjaegt"

On a recent holiday to Denmark we camped at Hjarbaek on the fjord. This is an inland sea in the middle of Jutland. This fjord is part of a much larger part and is open at both ends to the tidal sea. Hjarbaek fjord has now been dammed and is almost entirely freshwater. These working boats were originally built   as working fishing boats and are rigged with a square mainsail and foresail. In lighter airs they also use a triangular topsail. They are especially adapted for the shallow waters of th fyord and have no centreplate and rely on hull for for stability. This type of boat is unique to this rea and this clu bactively sail them and during the summer race every tuesday evening.(no tides to worry about)

The members were very welcoming and told me all about their boats. It looked the ideal location for a Drascombe Rally although space was limited in the harbour.





Topsails stored on the pontoons









Tuesday 15 January 2013

Book review "Solent Hazards"

An excellent book which is now in fifth edition. It gives and excellent description of shoreline navigational hazrds for both East and West Solent. The description starts from Cowes in a clockwise description. It is a book to be kept at hand in the boat as some of the descriptions are very detailed and you need a large scale chart to hand when reading the text. I would thoroughly recommend this book.