JUNK RIG Issue 67 Association Magazine February 2015 Pugwash at the 2014 Tall Ships Regatta Junket in New Zealand - page 56 last five years have seen new people magazine. Please make her task an easy JRA members will do the same, for From the Editor with new ideas creating a rejuvenated and pleasant one by timely submission publication in issue 68. Even if we by David Tyler and vibrant JRA where the junk rig of your articles and items of news. don’t manage to design a small junk sailors of the world can find a place to Remember - the purpose of this rigged boat that Annie likes so well This will be the last JRA magazine that meet, talk and exchange information. magazine is to reflect and record the that she just has to build it, we might I edit and lay out. Over the last five Long may they continue to do so! activity of members of the JRA. It is to well come up with a design that other years, I’ve served on the JRA record what we are thinking, JRA members like so well that it Committee as Webmaster, Chairman Please look at the Notice of AGM (page 50), inviting nominations for election to designing, making and doing, as we becomes a kind of de facto “JRA 26”, and Editor. I’ve served my time, and build and use our junk rigs. Please give with plans available for all of us to use. it’s time to step down and to invite the Committee, and give some thought to how you could build on the some thought to what you could write Wouldn’t that be a fine thing? fresh blood to take over. I believe quite about for the next issue. Could you, for strongly that having the same people in foundation that I and recent members Again, give it all some thought. And of the Committee have laid. example, respond to Annie Hill’s Sib- don’t forget - your letters and short the same jobs, year in and year out, can Lim Challenge (page 20)? I’m working only lead to stagnation. In contrast, the Lynda Chidell will be editing the next items of news will always be welcome. on my response, and I hope that other The Sib-Lim Challenge page 20 Junk Brains page 49 On a Shoestring Budget page 23 Notice of JRA AGM page 50 Contents: Guidelines for contributors: Serena to Scotch Mist page 28 From the chair page 50 Letters page 3 We can receive your text in most formats - .txt .rtf .doc and .odt being Golden Lotus - Finale page 30 UK Rallies 2014 page 51 Major J K (Jock) McLeod page 4 the most commonly used. There is no need to spend time on formatting Slow Boat Home Part 3 page 33 Laodah’s corner page 54 the text, as we will do that, setting everything in our house style. Subterranean Homesick Hestur’s Homecoming page 36 Tall Ships Junket, NZ page 56 Blues page 8 Please email your photos separately from the text, in .jpg format, just Auklet's Junk Rig Conversion Empowering the JRA page 62 as they came from the camera. Add a caption for each one. The better Hall of Fame - Tom Colvin page 38 Advertisements pages 64, 65 the quality, the larger they can be displayed in the magazine. We will page 14 crop, straighten and retouch, as necessary. We can accept your Wishbone Junk page 17 A Busy Day! page 42 drawings and sketches in other formats, such as .dxf A Call for Action! page 19 Nuthin Wong page 44 If in doubt, contact us at the addresses given below for guidance. The JRA Committee Treasurer Sailing Secretary Magazine Team Chris Gallienne Annie Hill Editor David Tyler Chairman [email protected] [email protected] Lesley Verbrugge [email protected] [email protected] Webmaster Committee members Associate Editor Paul Thompson David Tyler Secretary Lynda Chidell [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Roy Denton [email protected] Membership Secretary Ash Woods 53 Penoweth, Mylor Bridge, 4 Choppards Buildings Lynda Chidell [email protected] Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 5NQ UK Holmfirth HD9 2RW [email protected] Library and Junk Shop Custodian 01326 377089 West Yorkshire, United Kingdom Robin Blain Proof Editor Annie Hill [email protected] Page 2 The JRA Magazine issue 67 February 2015 Dear Lynda, Euromillions prize to get myself a Thank you for your e-mail and fantastic junk and sail her around the Letters encouragement for “a great year of World. Dear Lynda, junk sailing”. Although I am 85 and Regards and best wishes for 2015 have never set foot at either the JRA or Sebastião de Castello-Branco Thank you for your membership on any junk, I have always been keen renewal reminder. I think that it is about sailing. And I hope in the sadly time for me to up anchor. Last September I was sailing in Mr. Hardy (10' 6" Mirror, junk-rigged of course) in the Estuary and managed to tip her over. This should not be a great problem, I righted the boat easily enough. However I no longer have the strength to climb in ! I rigged a strop between the limber holes in the transom and had a few trips but finally passed the boat on to a couple of local lads. The paper magazine has been a cracking read and I will miss it. I had looked forward to a sail in a slightly bigger boat. This did not happen as I no longer drive, (cue: Hearts and Flowers) and so am not so mobile. So it is Goodbye from me and I wish you all a peaceful Christmas and lots of sailing under Junk rigs; and huge thanks to Robin Blain who gave me the bits that got me into J. R. sailing. Yours sincerely Charles Birch. Zebedee at sunset, in Bay Prony February 2015 The JRA Magazine issue 67 Page 3 Major J. K. (Jock) McLeod An Obituary Jock McLeod’s legacy to British fill of Brazilian carnivals but wherever yachting went way beyond being that they went Jock always won the hearts of dedicated practitioner of the junk of the locals. After 15,000 miles in 16 rig. He was soldier, engineer, single- months, Peter Pye’s words say it all: handed sailor, author and raconteur. “Much of the credit…goes to Jock. His He was also a cruising yachtsman in unfailing good humour, his the finest traditions of cruising under seamanship, his willingness to make sail. Moonraker a ‘family ship’ has given Jock was born in 1929, in what is now Anne and myself a great deal of Pakistan, but his family home was on pleasure”. the Isle of Skye. Perhaps Jock’s most long-lasting and In 1949 he was commissioned into the influential friend was Blondie Hasler. Seaforth Highlanders and had some They first met in 1961 at Muirtown unpleasant times in the swamps and Basin, at the east end of the Caledonian jungles of Malaya. He started sailing in Canal, after Blondie had asked a friend 1955 and shortly thereafter became a if he knew anyone who’d be able to part owner of April May, a 30’ help with the Loch Ness Monster Buchanan sloop. investigation. Jock joined Blondie for a two week recce on Loch Ness on his Jock was invalided out of the Army in junk-rigged Jester and the two of them 1961 and spent a month that summer immediately clicked. cruising with Peter and Anne Pye, aboard Moonraker, their 29’ Looe On his return from Brazil he rejoined fishing smack. In this confined space the tail end of the Loch Ness Patrol and the three of them got on well and Jock in 1963 Jock agreed to join Blondie as signed on in April 1962 for a major business partner. Jock was a very voyage to Brazil. Many of the odd jobs precise mechanical draughtsman and fell to Jock: rigging awnings in the was adept at assembling Hasler wind- “inferno” of the Doldrums, climbing vane self-steering gears, out of the mast in mid ocean to re-reeve the countless parts manufactured by Mike topmast halyard and plugging the Gibb. For a while he lived and worked leaks of Moonraker’s ancient decks. The at Blondie’s house, The Old Forge, near D C Thompson Skipper didn’t allow Jock his desired Southampton. He was often to be found crouched under the low attic © Jock McCleod Page 4 The JRA Magazine issue 67 February 2015 roof, sitting on a little wooden stool sailing. This was a significant project, with STOREMAN painted on it, because she was the largest vessel yet wearing an authentic storeman’s brown to be commissioned with the Western cotton coat. It was uncomfortable version of junk rig. Her cockpit was work, but there were never any only a few feet fore and aft and could complaints from Jock. He was kind be completely covered by a sliding and unassuming, but also adventurous hatch with a cupola, which with a quirky, witty, sense of humour. incorporated the pram hood first He was a big sociable character who used by both Jester and Galway Blazer. liked fast cars and noisy parties. Jock often had problems with the skin In October 1965 Blondie asked Jock to on his hands and found that the be his Best Man at his marriage to totally enclosed control station, from Bridget Fisher. Jock moved out of the which the boat and sails could be Old Forge and rented a house nearby, entirely handled, helped manage the but came over each day.