Pre war sailings of Carrina
A quote from the daughter of the second owner, Mr. H.F. Blackborow (10/08/1895 – 24/09/1966):
For the moment, as H.F. Blackborow’s only surviving daughter – living in Italy – who as a little girl spent two entire summers (I think) on Carrina, I can say that my father did not race with Carrina. He almost always took the helm, but we did have a small professional crew. I can maybe fill out some information about the years between 1934 and the outbreak of war. I know my parents sailed in the Channel and the Baltic and were in Kiel harbour not long before the start of world war II. I think they also sailed as far as Casablanca and the Canaries. After the war, when Carrina came out of hiding, we sailed in the Channel from Poole in Dorset and did a lot of mackerel fishing. During a gale-force onshore wind, while we were in Portland harbour, her anchors dragged and we were almost dashed against some enormous cement constructions built in the middle of the harbour during the war for defence purposes. The naval launch that put out to help us damaged the launch and the side of the boat. As a result we were guests of the navy for several days while they put her right and spent time on board submarines, cruisers and mine sweepers!
Elizabeth Blackborow
Launch 1929 Carrina, R.J. Perkins Whitstable.
Great news, yesterday I got a picture of the official launch of the Carrina. One I’ve never seen before. One of her former owners sent it to me.
Have a look. With great grace Carrina went down from the slipway in Whitstable. With this launch it all started. All her adventures. All the fun she donated her crew and passengers.
In a couple of weeks I’ll make a new page on the renewed site of Carrina.
In the Carib
Sail charters in the Carib, the history
Yachting in the English-speaking West Indies did not accelerate into modernity until 1947, just after World War II, when an unknown photographer and journalist named Carleton Mitchell sailed up the Lesser Antilles in a 46-foot ketch** and wrote an amazing chronicle of his trip, Islands to Windward (1947).
Chartering started in 1949 with the Nicholson’s family. With the 70 ft. schooner Mollihawk. She was the grandmother of the fleet in the early fifties and gradually joined by vessels as the 86 ft. schooner Freelance, 54 ft. schooner Carrina, 63 ft. ketch Georgiana and 70 ft. ketch Pas de Loup.They were run by European Captains, the pioneers that laid the foundation of what is the billion business of the charter industries what we have today.
I’m working on some research about the Carrina in that era. While it’s such an important activity in her past, I want to add a story about the Carrina charters on her website. So keep stayed on and in a few weeks I hope to have a nice article about her.
Carrina’s new website is… Online
Het is gelukt. Tenminste op mijn test browser verschijnt ook de site onder de simpele url: carrina.nl.
Dit is een belangrijke fase en maakt het updaten van de site een heel stuk eenvoudiger. Ik zal nu er naar streven om de site ook actueel te houden en er kan zelfs geblogd worden.
Ondertussen is er nog wel een link met de oude site, maar ik hoop deze in de loop van de tijd ook volledig in de nieuwe te hebben verwerkt.
Commentaar is altijd welkom en maakt de site alleen maar beter.
Groet
Willem
Welcome to the new site of Carrina
Almost a week I’ve worked very hard to get the new website for the staysail schooner Carrina ready. I’ve made it in WordPress with the theme Enfold. With these tools it was a joy to build it.
I hope everyone will enjoy it. And feel free to respond and make your contribution.
Regards,
Willem van der Velde, skipper and owner of Carrina
Me, Willem on the wheel of Carrina.