Elzorillo, that must be one of the most beautiful sailing craft ever built! Just stunning, seeing a picture like that can genuinely make me a little teary. (Sniffle).

Should have thought of East Portlemouth, that’ll be around here, then:

CZ, that’s the scruffy end of it, but yes! 🙂

Bikebuoy’s pic is of the right end of EP.

It’s certainly the scruffy end! But a good vantage point for a pic across to Salcombe. That was taken last year, I was staying round in Beesands and exploring along the coast a bit. EP is nice, but I like the pub in E Prawle a lot, very nice beer!
Having said that, the Cricket in Beesands does exceptional food, and excellent beer too.

Can’t beat the Ferry Steps Pub in Salcs…

Rockets on the startline at Salc’s..

And my faves.. Nat 12’s.

Whooo hoooo.. typical conditions…

Ohh, if we are on nice boats…

God a Tempest..!! Last time I saw one of those it was whattzhiname at Alverbank Sails on the stick at Carsington way back when..

I’m not a sailing person, but I love sail and sailing boats. Thanks all for this thread, I’m enjoying it immensely.

Count, how about a little more sailpron for you?

Provi

Hoshi

And now, let’s get really dirty….

Velsheda and Windrose, chasing Ranger

And, going modern;

The Maltese Falcon.

Aye, Tempest. 24sq m upwind and nearly 50sqm downwind 8)
Gets hairy between two of you.

Can we have an ocean edition?

Only if we have some multi-hull action as well

One of my dreams it to have a go on one of those proper huuuuge multihulls at speed….

proper huuuuge multihulls at speed….

l’Hydroptère, perhaps?

I so wont to have a play on this!

Oh, and how about combining two of my favourite things. Wakeboarding and sailing….
ABN Amro plus wakeboard…

Tell me the opening scene of Brossard overtaking here is not breathtaking?
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWINygISxDE[/video]

I’d love to have been in the bar after that little regatta! WOW!

I’m a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to sail, I love gaff-rigged boats, for some reason, and Norfolk Wherries and Thames Barges I really love, but l’Hydroptère? OMG! That’s really something, and Hoshi, and in particular Velsheda and Windrose; fabulous! Thank you for posting those. I have a book that I bought cheap in a bookshop in Bath that specialised in seconds called the Big Book Of Sailing, a large format hardback full of classic b&w photos of big J-Class racing yachts under full sail. It’s a wonderful book, full of fantastic, classic boats. Lovely stuff. I’m just going to grab a handfull of tissues… 😯

I’ve just dug the book out, and it’s called The Big Book Of Sailing, by Grube/Richter, published by Barron’s, New York, ISBN 0-8120-5324-9.
I’ve photographed this pic, from 1903, of Reliance, which beat Shamrock III, Sir Thomas Lipton’s boat, in the America’s Cup:

Beautiful yacht.

This is a double-page spread from the book. The large photo is of Lord Dunraven’s boat Valkyrie III, which carried 13,000 sq.ft of sail on her mainmast alone! She was launched in 1895. Stunning vessels, for me, these are just about as perfect as a sailing boat gets.

I think Valsheda was down there last year when we were around, can’t be sure though. Apparently, Salcombe gets some exotic visitors. Have a look at the animal at the bottom of the sign…

A gorgeous yacht we saw going out a couple of years back

Some more gorgeous Yawls

A Musto Skiff having a play in the estuary,a bit quick to be in the estuary in the summer IMO, looks fun though.

J Class

18ft Skiff for being absolutely nuts…

I saw this little beauty in Salcombe a couple of years ago when I first stayed in Beesands, after around thirty years absence from the area:

I spoke to the lady sailing her, and she’s an almost exact replica of a 1930’s boat, the hull’s glass fibre, the mould taken from a wooden original, but all her fittings are teak and brass. The first thing I thought on seeing her was ‘Swallows and Amazons!’, and by a strange and spooky coincidence, the owner’s a member of the Nancy Blackett Trust, who own the boat of the same name; Arthur Ransome’s boat on which he wrote We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea, and on which the Goblin in the book is based.

Sambob, I think big cats and baboons can probably be lumped in with kangaroo as pretty exotic visitors as well!

Ah, well if you want trad(ish), then you may like my boat at work 8)

Drascombe Gig by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

Drascombe Gig by matt_outandabout, on Flickr

Not bragging honestly, but since this is going down the ooooh ahhh route..

I did the first cowes week on this: Basilica Extreme 40 with James and Alistair (I’m a member of HISC) this was before it became the iShares series. Thats us out in Hayling Bay doing some promo shots.

And had a go on this when we did an event in Lorient;

The Ez40 was by far the hairyest boat I’ve been on.

‘Boat envy’

This is the only downside to owning a boat.

Still on the sailing theme.. 15 minutes of pure relaxing bliss.. Whack it on full screen and take in the amazing sights..

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSQP-Qf9eRk[/video]

Matt, she’s lovely, and Bikebuoy, that Ex40 is awesome!

Slight hijack; anyone want to buy my gf’s parents houseboat? (converted Dutch barge and blooming gorgeous it is too!). Details here: http://www.jjfoxproperty.com/PropertySaleDetails.aspx?bl=src&PropertySalesID=1475

A little bit of powerboatpron, anyone?

Hmmm. Tasty! A Riva Aquarama.

A little bit of old school British muscle?

Fairy Swordsman. (Needs a quality hand on the throttles there, I’d say!)

And, HSL102. Saw her in the flesh the other day for the Jubilee. What a wonderful blend of beauty and beast.

*has boat-play envy at bikebuoy*

I just have boatplaypron envy! 😯

Amused/intrigued by the Salcombe Yawl love-in. The girlfriends parents have one (Stones built, I think) but it lives in Suffolk on the Deben these days. We spent some of today getting it off the trestles and back on the trailer ready for launching later this week.

Nice river the Deben, friends have a Najad at Waldringfield. Just nice boats Yawls, cost an absolute fortune for what they are though.

Here’s one of my old ones:

(And some EP:

)

Hmmmm, Fireball! Old school cool!

Yawls* are a wonderful thing. Race hard and cruise leisurely in one boat. Also, lovely to look at. For a large part of my early days, I grew up on the Estuary so they’ll always be special to me.

*Any other version just isn’t a Yawl, IMHO. 😉

It is a Stone’s built yawl – I can’t remember whether it was built by Hugh Cater before he moved to Bantham, but I think it might have been.

We also used to sail from Bantham in my grandfather’s yawl (either 52 or 54), which had an inboard Turner engine – apparently they built her as a test, and then decided “Never again!”

The boat I really miss is our old Bantham boat; for anyone who’s heard of them, she was one of the first 4 built, and had the original bamboo mast and spars, and the copper buoyancy tanks. We used to race her against the yawls in the handicap races at Bantham, and she was quite a handful. Hugh Cater was banned from racing her because he always won, and the people we sold her to had to get a smaller suit of sails made because she was too much for them!