Polishing the Silverware

Here is the haul of Blue Mermaid’s cups from 2021 before the new racing season starts. Last year we were able to compete in all the matches, an unintended Covid dividend as residential youth work was beset by regulations at the start of the season. The honour of keeping them is heightened by the enjoyment of polishing them, and boy it takes some work to do them justice, inside and out to ensure future winners stay healthy when filling them at the bar. More enjoyable still is reading the names of past winners. Some of these cups go back years, like the 1954 cup presented by Eastwoods to the Thames Match for the restricted staysail class of which half the cup has survived. It was presented to the renewed Thames Match by Barbara Benham and since 1988 has been awarded to the skipper of the winning champion bowsprit barge. Hence it features illustrious names starting with Bob Wells until 2002 when the name of the barge replaces that of the skipper, maybe requiring less costly engraving or maybe as the words of the gift became more difficult to read with polishing. Then there is the cup for the first bowsprit barge presented by Everards and since 1996 featuring Edme eight times, Adieu and May each four times and Xylonite three times.

The Sailorman Trophy at the Colne Race was presented in 1974 by the “Director and Crew of the film Sailorman”. There are many films about sailing barges, but this one made by David Gowing remains one of the best and is a fine testament to his memory, as is the remarkable smack Sunbeam which he bought out of fishing and commenced restoring before his untimely demise. By a quirk of history, the “Wind, Tide and Oar” film by Huw Wahl will be circulating in the fifty-first year after “Sailorman” and will (I hope) be a just reminder of some of David’s sentiments in creating the earlier film.

Blue Mermaid will compete in some matches this year where a charter can be arranged. Sadly, this has not been possible for the Medway Match this time. There are places available for guests on the Blackwater Match so please get in touch if you would like to join us.