Kid's Stuff

   My daughter Vanessa says she likes to hear stories about my childhood days in England. Well, my memory is not what it used to be so, nowadays, I take things on the fly so to speak. So, let me tell you a bit about my model sailboat.

   When I was thirteen, I had an utterly stupid self inflicted accident which ended up with me virtually cutting my left ear off. Our family doctor came to the house and stitched it back on, on the couch in the living room ---- without anaesthetic!!!!!! I can still feel every one of the 26 needles going through my ear. The only relevance in this part of the story is that, I suppose to soften the blow of the accident, a friend of my father's, Ralph West, gave me his beloved model sailboat.
   This sailboat was built by Lines Brothers in London circa 1925 as far as I can tell. She was kept in a well made wooden box specially designed for her. Until a few months ago, she probably had not been out of that box for 40 years. I took her out around Christmas and she was not in too good a shape. The hull is made from some sort of wood and still has the original paint. The keel and rudder appear to be steel and have heavy weights embedded which help to provide the rather crude automatic steering. The deck is a beautiful piece of  mahogany. The sails are linen and have discolored with age. I dared not use bleach on them, but soaking in cold water has cleaned them up a bit. The rigging had totally rotted over the years, so I had to replace all of it -- a slow, fiddly job. I gave the deck a coat of poly-urethane to bring back the brilliance and repainted the blue color around the edge of the deck where it was chipped from bumping into things over many days of sailing. So, now she looks pretty good again and she sits proudly on show in Vanessa and Doug's house in Gig Harbor. I gave her to my grandson Danny and he is seen with her in the photo.
   There are quite a few stories that could be told about this boat but, one that comes to mind happened some time in the late 1940's when I was sailing her with my cousin Michael on the River Thames on a fairly wide stretch near Shiplake. As I said, the boat has automatic steering so, if the sails are adjusted correctly, she will tack to follow a given direction. The problem comes if she hits something in the water, she can then be misdirected. We had been sailing her across the river and back, missing boats that were passing, when she hit something floating in the water and became pointed straight down the river towards Shiplake Lock. She is a very fast little boat even in a light wind. Michael and I were chasing her in a canoe and she was gaining on us. In the distance, the lock gates opened and out came a Salters steamer. These are fairly large boats for the river and carry 200 or so sightseers. Well, the two boats were on a collision course, so I said goodbye to my brave little boat. Then, a miracle. The captain of the steamer actually gave way to sail and virtually stopped his boat while we retrieved the little one. So she got to sail another day. Naturally, I have had the greatest respect for her, and that captain, ever since. Now that she is looking beautiful again, maybe Doug can teach Danny how to sail her. But, Danny, watch out for the ferries!