The last cape horners

[thomas michael]

this i watched on youtube last night, a documentary from gary kerr i believe he is australian, a remarkable story of the last great years of sail in the late 1930s into 1940s, tales by real seamen from wallaroo australia to europe around the cape horn, with some good film.
tom

[Keith Tindell]

Lovely old film Tom, they were some tough boys,. Is this the link ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbyeIXeVr7c

[thomas michael]

hi keith #2
good evening, thats the one i watched last night, i have seen a few on the same subject and its hard to believe that we are now living in a age where kids are scared to go out into the rain, never mind climbing a hundred foot mast walking out on the yard arm and reefing a out of control billowing sail in a rising gale, without anything other than their crew mates and their bare hands to get through it safely,
thanks
tom

[j.sabourn]

Isn’t Walleroo where Cappy was shipped back to the UK from , gossip has it he had a choice of a Windjammer or the Avonmoor , he chose the Avonmoor then had the nerve to complain about it . JS

[cappy]

Isn’t Walleroo where Cappy was shipped back to the UK from , gossip has it he had a choice of a Windjammer or the Avonmoor , he chose the Avonmoor then had the nerve to complain about it . JS

should have chose the jam butty.......R683532

[Tony Taylor]

hi keith #2
good evening, thats the one i watched last night, i have seen a few on the same subject and its hard to believe that we are now living in a age where kids are scared to go out into the rain, never mind climbing a hundred foot mast walking out on the yard arm and reefing a out of control billowing sail in a rising gale, without anything other than their crew mates and their bare hands to get through it safely,
thanks
tom

They are still out there Thomas, they just don't get challenged or have the inclination to go out and get it. I still see little kids 5 years and up, out playing football in freezing cold rain / sleet, fading light and think to myself these kids have to be tough to want to play in these conditions so potentially could be capable of doing tough jobs, but the incentive is just not there to go out and find them when they grow up.

[thomas michael]

hi tony #6
good evening, on reflection from what you wrote, i was wrong to generalise in the case of youth, and it was just a throw-a-way line, im sure that a majority of kids would be able if they where set on the right course,
tom

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Thomas.
If you can get the book, {The Last Time Around Cap Horn}It's a good read. About the last grain race between the Pamir and the Passat in 1949, my brother was so lucky to get a berth on the Pamir. I was on my first trip across to Galveston when the Pamir was in the South Atlantic but we never saw her.
Des

[thomas michael]

hi des #8
ggod afternoon, thanks for your tip, sadly although i used to be a avid book reader for many many years, since i found youtube a few years ago the only book i have been reading is heavy weather sailing and although i encountered this particular book twenty five years ago i still pick it up and read a couple of pages, the author is K Adlard Coles and he was a yachtsman and yacht racer before the second world war and after, until the late sixties, his and his crews testimony is sometimes frightening when you imagine yourself on that boat at that particular time he is writing of, His book is entirely about racing and gales in small boats that he has owned, and it is a remarkable tale, his summing up together with weather forecast and sea condition imformation backed up from individual weather stations for the particular races is second to none,
as i have stated i now see all i wish on youtube with film and narrative which brings a whole new meaning to the learning of these historic events because real seamen are interviewed about these events, Pamir a four masted barque together with her sister the peking also a barque i recently saw a documentary on them and the owners the p line. i envy your brother of his time on pamir i can only say that to me sail its the best way to travel, and i do it for enjoyment and i have no pretensions about this green nonsense, only common sense.
tom

[Keith Tindell]

Have read the same book Tom, AC sailed in a bygone era, no luxuries like toilets, bucket and chuck it time. I sold my Westerly Centaur a few years back, had that boat 16 years, and many in between, but now just do a day sale on a friends Moody 29. After i gained my Yachmasters i did some volunteer work for the Island Youth Water Activity Centre (now folded), but packed that up at 70 odd, that was on a Contessa 32, a lovely boat to sail.