BIG thanks to everyone who joined us on Tues 24 Sept at Long Beach in support of Great British Beach Clean Week 2024. Your support, along with 1000s of other people across the UK, helps keep our beaches clean and safe. AND … you helped collect important data, which the Marine Conservation Society will use to lobby Governments for legislative change, influence industry practices and drive campaigns. Over 800 pieces of rubbish collected!
Author: zana
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Gamecock Rum
Help support the Gamecock restoration whilst enjoying the great taste of rum!
A dark rum produced by Canterbury Brewers & Distillers both celebrates and supports the restoration of the Whitstable Gamecock. This rum is initially aged in a first-fill Bourbon cask, then further aged in Virgin American Oak, and finally finished in a Virgin English Oak cask.
Supplied in a presentation box with a Gamecock Illustrated Glass, a portion of the proceeds goes directly to support the restoration work.
Order your bottle from the Canterbury Brewers & Distillers website.
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Supporting Kent Wildlife Trust
THIS POST NEEDS MORE INFORMATION AND A PICTURE
70% rubbish collected was plastic based, followed by cloth, glass and metal.
Over 650 pieces of rubbish collected in just 1.5 hours!
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Metal Fixings or Trunnels
You are probably aware that we are using trunnels (wooden pegs and modern glues) on Gamecock rather than metal fixings, but do you know why? There are two good reasons, both relating to the environment.
Firstly, when cutting curved pieces of timber out of planks there is inevitably a high amount of waste: and Gamecock has a lot of curves! This is particularly distressing when the timber is rare and expensive hardwood. So there is an immediate benefit if we can cut the pegs out of the waste hardwood. The fixture is at least as strong as metal nuts and bolts. In a test on the East Quay the Volunteers had great fun using trunnels when moving their workshop, a large metal container full of tools.
Secondly, we are expecting the use of trunnels to extend the life of Gamecock beyond 60 years. The April 2024 edition of the American magazine ‘Wooden Boats’ has several articles expounding the benefits of trunnels following the capsize in 2017 of a 25 foot Nordic Folkboat built in 1951. When the craft was recovered it was clear that the metal keelbolts holding the one-ton cast-iron keel had come away and all of the ballast was now on the bed of a Norwegian fiord. Outwardly the keelbolts looked healthy but they had corroded to thin needles because of galvanic action and acidity in the oak.
Apparently as the metal corrodes it diffuses positive ions in to the water so that only electrons remain in the iron and they react with water and oxygen to produce rust. Stainless steel is less prone to this process but the more resistant forms are significantly more expensive and, off course, do not utilise the waste oak. The other consideration is corrosion of metal fixtures from the acidity released by wet, salty timber. Oak has a high level of acidity but even Douglas Fir, popular with boat-builders, can degrade metals. Our Volunteers spent over a Year extracting deeply embedded and corroded metal fixtures from timbers on Gamecock that we wished to retain.
When trunnels are used they need to be of a similar density to the wood they are fixing. If the trunnel is too dense then it is likely to split or distort the timber in to which it is being driven: if not dense enough then it is likely to come loose over time. So, in the case of the Gamecock the waste oak is ideal for fixing to the oak frames and fits well with our attempts to protect the environment.
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Beach Clean
Great Beach Clean by Whitstable Maritime team!
Top find: toy soldier!
Surprise find: lots of wire mesh! -
Pride in Place
Whitstable Maritime has been awarded a ‘Pride in Place’ Grant in support of the Gamecock’s restoration.
Canterbury City Council (CCC) is the local lead authority for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund which is a central pillar of the UK government’s Levelling Up agenda and provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life changes across the UK investing in communities and places, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus
Whilst the fundamental restoration work has been completed, funding is now required for the next stage of Gamecock’s restoration journey:
- restoring deck-beams and replacing the hull planking;
- production and strength testing of trunnels (tree nails);
- developing the Maritime Curriculum including a training programme tailored to the Oyster Yawl;
- developing educational activities focused on the coast, eg marine conservation, local ecology, oysters and mans impact on the environment.
Follow the restoration journey on www.whitstablemaritime.org.uk
For more details, or to Volunteer, contact whitstablem@gmail.com
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Gamecock Progress
The first part of the first plank fitted.
You can see the amount of twist in the plank. This meant it had to be steamed. Steaming makes the wood go ‘rubbery’ temporarily. It is then clamped into position and as it cools it hardens up again in the new shape.
Watch this space for more planks being fitted…
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Dredging for Cockles
The cockle boats are easy to spot in the Harbour because they are painted a distinctive blue and carry a large hoover on deck that runs the length of the craft. They are here because the Thames Estuary sustains some of the largest populations of common cockles (Cerastoderma edule) in the UK. Reports that the Thames fishery is one of the oldest and most important in Europe with a total of 2560 tonnes of cockles being landed in Kent in 2022, worth over £1.75 million.
The cockle enjoys clean sand, muddy-sand, mud and muddy-gravel as found in tidal estuaries because they are a shallow burrowing bivalve. They live within the top 5cm of the surface of the mud so they can reach the overlying water for feeding and respiration. Cockles are active suspension feeders using a siphon tube to hold the food suspended in the water column. The shell reaches a maximum length of 5cm. The outer shell is off-white, yellowish, or brown.
Most cockles live for 2-4 years, but some individuals have been found to be over 10 years old. The cockle’s predators are brown shrimp, shore crabs, starfish, snails, worms, flatfish species and a variety of wading birds such as oystercatchers and knots. Cockles mature after 2 years, spawning in the summer when individuals can produce 200,000 to 700,000 eggs per animal. Cockle larvae are planktonic and spend 3-5 weeks floating in the sea before they metamorphosise and settle on the seabed between May and September.
Photograph. Toby Roxburgh, Kent Wildlife Trust The Thames cockle fishery is the only Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fishery in Kent. The fishery is limited to what they can catch during specific months of the year and can only harvest cockles of a minimum size and quantity. This makes sure the shellfish have time to reach maturity and reproduce which is a key part of fishing sustainably. It also factors in the needs of estuary wildlife such as wading birds that overwinter on the tidal banks and feed on the cockles.
The large pipe on deck is the Hydraulic Suction Dredge used to capture the cockles. This is one of the few methods allowed to harvest cockles and is the most efficient. The Kent boats fish by towing the hydraulic dredge along the seabed at speeds between 2 and 6 knots. The blade on the dredge is set to penetrate a minimum depth of 5cm. and the minimum landing size is 16mm. The fishing season runs from July to October.
This item is based on an article provided by Max Renton, a Consultant with Adonis Blue Environmental Consultants, associated with Kent Wildlife Trust, is an ecological consultancy which returns all profits to conservation work in Kent.
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Size Matters
The typical Whitstable Oyster Yawl was between 40 and 45 foot in length. There were exceptions, for example the Rosa & ADA (F105) was 47 foot and Thyra was only 36 foot. For the yards along Island Way these were relatively small. Much larger craft were built on the slipways and then let down in to the sea at a time when there was no sea-wall.
If you are interested in learning more about the larger vessels, then the Merchant Ships of Whitstable by Wallace Harvey (Emprint Publications, 1993) is a good source.
Some larger sailing ships registered as Whitstable built
NAME BUILDER BUILT TYPE TONS BELMONT Whitstable Shipping Co. 1895 Schooner 139t EQUIVALENT James Daniels 1847 Schooner 187t FANNY GANN Thomas Gann Schooner 97t GRATITUDE Whitstable Shipping Co. 1875 Barquentine 298t HANNAH William Blackman 1841 Schooner 113t MARY ANN GANN Thomas Gann 1847 Schooner 177t NELLIE S. George Henry Gann 1876 Brigantine 282t SUNSHINE Whitstable Shipping Co. 1890 Ketch 119t TANKERTON TOWER Goldfinch Bros. 1884 Schooner 118t ZEBRINA Whitstable Shipping Co. 1973 Schooner 156t Mary Ann Gann -
Gamecock Structure
Fundamental structural work has had to be undertaken … look at Gamecock’s skeleton.