Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Sunday, 14 October 2012

Captain Jeremy Roche RN

This question piqued my curiosity in the 'Dinghy Cruising Journal' that has just dropped through my letter box.

"Have you ever heard of Captain Jeremy Roche RN who, in 1677, sailed a small open boat from Plymouth to London and back?"

Ha!  I sense some Internet research coming on....who was this mad RN Captain?  It nearly killed me sailing Arwen to Salcombe and back a couple of years ago. London...and back again?  Was he a fool? An extraordinarily skilled seaman? What was it about him?

I know not but I sure do intend finding out and I can't wait until the next quarterly edition when they promise to reveal all then.....way too long a wait.......I mean is this a potential Easter holiday trip for me and Arwen; could we do London and back again in two weeks?

Me thinks not ( I suspect it will need a couple more days than that !!!!!!!!) but I will have fun finding our how one Capt'n Jeremy Roche did it and I will share my findings on the blog in due course. Doesn't one just love a mystery!

Steve

The Dinghy Cruising Association publish a quarterly journal of dinghy cruises carried out by members, technical articles about dinghy cruising etc. It is a well written, well edited and professional looking glossy journal. A source of information and inspiration along the lines of Steve and his voyages in Spartina, it is well worth joining the DCA just for this.
Go to
http://dinghycruising.org.uk/

copyright The Dinghy Cruising Association website: 'crossing the saltings'
 

3 comments:

dnjost said...

Beautiful navigator! I just got the study plans from welsford, but would love to see more photos of the interior layout.

Happy sailing.

David Jost, Boston, Massachusetts

dnjost said...

Beautiful navigator! I just got the study plans from welsford, but would love to see more photos of the interior layout.

Happy sailing.

David Jost, Boston, Massachusetts

steve said...

Thanks David.
Arwen is actually somewhat beaten up but I love her. For elegant navigator interiors use the links on the right of my blog posts and go look at Dave's, Joel's, Kevin's, Wayne's and Rob's. Craftsmanship at its best.

I think the April 2012 folder has some interior shots of Arwen which I did for Lars (another brilliant Navigator I might add so go find his as well and I did a post on his launch in the September folder this year. I have tried to post links to many navigator video clips on youtube also on righthand side of the blog and these give good insights in to how people have done different interior arrangements. I think John has updated navigator plans since I built Arwen five years ago especially around the centreboard arrangement

blog me any time you need help. Go for a navigator - brilliant boat. Join JW's yahoo forum as well - an astonishing mine of information from extraordinarily talented people

Steve