PRESS RELEASE
BOATS IN THE BAY 2010 - another
success for St.Ives.
As the day
approached things were looking bleak for the organisers
of this annual celebration of luggers held at St.Ives - poor weather had deterred the star performers Barnabas
and Happy Return from attending and Ripple, having sprung a
serious leak, was escorted back to Newlyn by the
Sennen Cove lifeboat. As it turned out last
Saturday's Boats in the Bay proved to be another joyous
occasion drawing at least as many participants as last
year and considerably more interest. The annual event, now in its’
5th year, is organised by the St.Ives
Jumbo Association and is the only one of its’ kind on the North Cornish
coast.
In addition to
the jumbo William Paynter, newcomers this year
were Celia Elisabeth, a stout open lugger
built by the Falmouth Marine School which made the trip 'round land'
sailed by her current owner Peter Morgan and Holly Mae, a brand new
35' gaff cutter designed and built by Joff Rorke of Gulval which made
a surprise appearance.
Fears that St.Ives' flagship lugger Dolly
Pentreath, built by Norman Laity and friends,
might be sold away seemed a distant memory as her new owner John-Paul
Bassett and members of this well-established St.Ives
family enthusiastically got to grips with 'dipping the lug' for
the first time.
Supporters of
the Jumbo Association manning their information stall beside the Shamrock
Lodge were kept busy throughout the day and raised nearly £600 through sales
and new memberships which have now reached 160. Their co-ordinator, Andy Smith exclaimed "We've seen
a new level of interest and goodwill expressed by passers-by
which suggests a growing appreciation of our aims and confidence in our
ability to achieve them."
Meanwhile
out in the Bay some 30 sailors were enjoying their first taste of lug
rig - a role for which the jumbo is ideally suited. Among
them Andrew George MP, who chose to celebrate his birthday with his son
crewing aboard William Paynter. Another
cause for celebration - this time, a wedding anniversary- prompted a lady to
buy a membership for her husband whilst he sunned himself on the beach. Minutes
later he was 'having the time of his life' out on a jumbo!
The first jumbo
Celeste was helmed by her owner 'Bean' Goodden
and his son Luke. Bean, who had the courage to finance her building in
2007, deserves credit for making jumbos a reality for today.
As the boats
returned to the harbour, they were greeted by the
voices of the Cadgwith Singers who had struck up
outside the Sloop. Janette Eathorne, who has watched
the Jumbo Association develop since the launch of a replica of her father's
punt in 2005, was on hand with her entertaining anecdotes to present the prizes
donated by Seaware of Penryn and The St.Ives Fishermen's Cooperative.
"Every
year we have been lucky enough to build on our previous success and evidentally today has been no
exception." said spokesman Jonny Nance
"This is
only possible because of the generosity of the
contributors which allows us to run the event without a budget for the
benefit of an increasingly engaged and growing community."
The evening
concluded at the Castle Inn in the company of the Cadgwith
Singers; their striker, David Muirhead (recently
inaugurated as a bard for his services to Cornish fishing) declaring the
evening 'a great night!'
ENDS