About the Wind, Tide & Oar film tour

As part of evaluation for the National Lottery Heritage Fund, who kindly funded the tour, we made this short film with the help of film-maker Huw Wahl. The point about just-in-time refers to the success of achieving the tour schedule April to July 2024 under sail and is the phrase used to describe supplies arriving “just-in-time” for a manufacturing process, thus saving inventory – the kind of thing that led to problems during covid where foreign supply was involved. When Bob Roberts was asked when he would arrive in Cambria (the last commercial sailing vessel to deliver cargo in the UK in 1970), he would always answer “three o’clock on Wednesday” irrespective of what might happen, as he could not guarantee a time and any other answer led to long debates. When planning the tour, we were sure weather would lead to lateness for at least one of the eleven venues, but in fact the barge was on time for each one. Interestingly enough, the same was the case in 2022 when we delivered ten consignments of beer in Essex and Kent. Taken together these voyages demonstrate the dependability of coastal sail cargo delivery. What we need next is a set of local delivery networks, with electric cargo bikes, to link them together by sea. Any takers?