Empire of the Seas

[Silkie]

I'm thoroughly enjoying this and hope you are all watching. The first two episodes are still available on the BBC iplayer.

There was something vaguely familiar about the presenter Dan Snow and a google revealed that he is the youngest son of that sailing sultan of the swingometer Peter Snow. Despite the nautical upbringing (and his father claims he has his Yachtmaster) he does talk some utter ballcocks about hardware being ripped out of the deck if you have too much sail up. Such a thing would certainly never happen on the good ship Silkie.

[lady_stormrider]

Also it's handily repeated on a Saturday night. Useful when going out in Glasgow for a drink.

[sawdoc]

Good series - I enjoyed the episode i saw recently. Good to see the presenter obviously into sailing himself.

[Julian]

I'm thoroughly enjoying this and hope you are all watching. The first two episodes are still available on the BBC iplayer.

There was something vaguely familiar about the presenter Dan Snow and a google revealed that he is the youngest son of that sailing sultan of the swingometer Peter Snow. Despite the nautical upbringing (and his father claims he has his Yachtmaster) he does talk some utter ballcocks about hardware being ripped out of the deck if you have too much sail up. Such a thing would certainly never happen on the good ship Silkie.

Apparently and on the contrary to your posting above, in some places we are supposed to hate the Snow family and hate the program and hate just about everything the bbc has ever done. In fact, we are meant to hate the relationship between a father and his son too.. Ye gods there are some forums, ok, there is one forum on the web which really makes me cringe and rather embarrassed to be British.

Oh yeah, I too am really enjoying the series, I like the format, I really enjoyed his last full series on battles in the 20th century. Ok, it may be a little lightweight in places (there I go again, miserablitusybw is catching) but then I will pick up a book and gain better knowledge that way. He is presenting a particularly difficult subject to make interesting, especially for people who have no previous interest in our history, with no film to pull from the archives etc. I for one have learnt a great deal and am looking forward to the final programs. Long live the bbc.

p.s. I hope Andrew Marr makes some more political history programs..

[Julian]

Good series - I enjoyed the episode i saw recently. Good to see the presenter obviously into sailing himself.

Any idea what the yacht he was sailing was, the one which looked like (and apologies for this) she had wood effect formica top-sides.. I thought it looked.. well I didn't like it, but er indoors took the opposite view and thought it beautiful and wanted one..

jees, I can't even tidy up the rubbing-strake on ours, the least wood as possible for me, plastic-fantastic-bastic!

[Silkie]

I agree with your sentiments on wood v plastic and I didn't like the look of the yacht in the second episode either but for slightly different reasons. If you are going to build a double-diagonal (I assume) strip-planked hull and varnish the topsides why would you paint a big white stripe around it under the gunwhale?

[aquaplane]

That one he was sailing (off France, Quiberon Bay?) in the last episode was a Sunsail boat, presumably from the Solent.

[Silkie]

Hmm. On closer inspection it does look a lot like Formica and not at all like strip-plank construction.

[Julian]

Taken some screen dumps.. no way is this sunsail













Any ideas anyone? She IMO is definitely GRP, so the wood (look) has to be cladding, no?

[Telo]

Looks to me like some very expensive Italian job, which means, I suppose, it'll be real wood. Millionaires don't do Formica, IMHO.

[aquaplane]

Taken some screen dumps.. no way is this sunsail

Oh that one, different boat.

I can't decide if I like that one, the wood looks good (if it's someone elses to maintain) but the design looks 1960s/70s and naff.

[puddock]

Looks to be cold molded construction (Strips of thin veneer, layed up and bonded in defferent orientations)?
I'm not sure if I'm keen on the look though

[claymore]

Looks similar to the stuff Amel use so it won't be cheap.

Quite common to see the white stripe on wood strip planking/moulded boats. There is a beautiful yacht in Fleetwood - Amoress - done like that

[Rowana]

The ropes on the deck in the last shot look a bit cheesy

[Julian]

The ropes on the deck in the last shot look a bit cheesy

I do that with our sheets.. though only when we are tied up. It allows you to stand on them, put bags down etc. etc.

It isn't cheesy, I think it makes sense personally.

J