Famous stories and our own family story that is still in the making (Sailing in the “Swallow”, our Iris and Owen’s Laser)

Well, yesterday the “Swallow” came to Fell Foot and Owen sailed in her, in a very light wind. She is the renovated little clinker dinghy they used to film “Swallows and Amazons” in the 70’s, who has been bought by a group of enthusiasts and renovated by Pattersons.

At the same time I have been looking at our old cine footage and in between real work edited out a clip of our own “Swallow” who actually was Iris. The boat that my Dad and Grandad were sailing in on the south coast in the last blog entry.

If I can I will put the link in here. Iris is the boat, that according to my Mum, I was in, on the water at 6 weeks old. A babe in arms!

The shot is of Iris in the distance from Gummers How looking down to a tiny spec then another tiny clip of I think five of our family and friends sailing her, with Dad at the helm. (You may need to log into facebook to see it but I have put it access everyone)

Also not to forget the current generation, a stormy gybe in the laser from Owen. Grandpa, resident coach ” You could have got that sail back in faster, (true) but at least you did it all safely in the strong wind ( well done, a positive ending Grandpa!). We also fitted in a couple of hours at Blackwell Sailing, our local Sail-ability centre who had an open day, a gig in a local village hall and a Jacob Join in the sailing club.

It’s off to the lake this morning to try & get Owen some more safety boat time for the long distance race today. He’s still in bed, typical teenager so I had better go and play my wake up duty. Hope these clips work. If not I’ll do them in Vimeo later.