Yachting, Vol. 2Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Blackwood, Marquis of
History
Yachting, Vol. 2
Dufferin and Ava, Frederick Temple Blackwood, Marquis of
Yacht racing; Yachting; Yachts
On every Whit Monday there are great goings-on at Oulton. There is for
one thing a regatta, and the Broad is literally crowded with boats;
and for another it is the smacksman's yearly holiday, and he is very
much in evidence both ashore and afloat. It is, however, but fair to
say that the disgraceful scenes of drunkenness and fighting which
formerly characterised Whit Monday are not so marked. The smacks'
crews are now so well looked after by mission-ships afloat and
Salvation Armies ashore that a most gratifying improvement has taken
place in their manners and customs.
[Illustration: A start.]
On a Sunday morning it is interesting to stroll round by the fish
wharves in Lowestoft and listen to the outdoor services and services
on smacks, and note the intense earnestness animating the
rough-looking seamen who are the speakers, and the respect with which
they are listened to even by well-known rowdies.
We leave Oulton Broad in company with several barges, and it is a race
between us to get to Cantley, on the Yare, in time for a regatta of
the Yare Sailing Club. Our wherry is gradually left behind by all the
barges, but they have to wait at Herringfleet Bridge on account of a
train, and as we come up just as the bridge is opened we are again on
even terms with them, and are third out of six as the procession files
along the narrow Haddiscoe Cut. At Reedham we meet the contingent of
trading wherries which have started from Yarmouth with the flood, and
several yachts on their way to Cantley, so that as we pass the
picturesque village of Reedham and turn to windward up the broad
reaches of the Yare the scene is a very animated one. At Cantley it is
difficult to find a mooring-place, and the northward bank is lined
with yachts for half a mile.
After the regatta we can sail up a most interesting part of the river,
by the pretty ferries of Buckenham, Coldham Hall, and Surlingham,
exploring Rockland and Surlingham Broads in the dinghy, and so on up
to Norwich, just below which city the riverside scenery is most
beautiful.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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