Jason provided the above picture of himself and the boat he made with four other apprentices

Dear Joan

Reading the article by Ross Murray in the spring issue of the Bulletin and noting his comments regarding the RNSA 14 foot dinghy he acquired for cruising gave me cause for thought, especially when he made the remark that only a few exist apart from those in museums.

I have often heard the remark “time and tide wait for no man”, but it comes as a shock when one discovers how quick time is passing. Let me explain. In 1949 I commenced a five year apprenticeship as a shipwright in Sheerness Royal Navy Dockyard. I started my sailing in a friend’s Cadet built by his father from orange boxes, covered in canvas and tarred. Since then I had been eagerly awaiting the day when I could become more involved with boats. The first year of our apprenticeship we spent making various strange tools but then we really started to become more involved. We commenced building a RNSA 14. It took the five of us three or four months to complete. When it was completed and resplendent in its many coats of varnish a visiting frigate captain commandeered it for his use. A few days later I saw it submerged in the tidal basin, waiting for its planks to take up, the usual practice. The basin at the time was full of driftwood brought in by the tide and the water surface had a pretty multihued appearance due to the oil floating on the surface. I could have wept.

Sailing the waters of the Medway in those days one was struck by the huge number of naval craft laid up in mothballs. In Stangate Creek, Gillingham Reach, Short Reach and Cockham Reach were lines of destroyers, frigates and sloops, moored to buoys at bow and stern, sometimes three and four abreast, the water gurgling by their rusting sides. Sailing between them one quickly learned about tides and wind shadows, being pinned against a huge mooring buoy with one’s paint being ground away at an alarming rate certainly improved one vocabulary but not all the words were from Webster’s!

Sailing apparel would give the modern yachtsman the shivers due to the fact there wasn’t any. If there was we could not afford it in our part of the world. One wore the oldest and warmest clothes. Mine consisted of a pair of grey flannels, an old pullover and an ex army cape. Bare feet were the order of the day.

One last point may be of interest. Like all navy craft carried on board ships all craft had to carry personnel for life saving purposes, the RNSA had to carry 12! Regards JF