Making waves, well, 'Ripples' of unrest?!

Things seem to be coming to a head for the Ripple restoration project mastermine, John Lambourn - read all about it in the Cornishman!

Drizzle 'n mizzle

There's a whiff of urgency over where the masts are being prepared for the Ripple as John Lambourn has been served with an eviction and needs to get the masts in the making elsewhere!
the main mast to be clearly showing the growth rings......
second trip this year for the Little Pearl away on the sardines again, 3.5 tonnes tonight
as the rain, forecast since the weekend, finally hits the town.

Things returning to normal after the unsettled weather..

This was the North Quay at the weekend - all but the Elizabeth Caroline away to sea, apart from the others in refits or repairs....
new trawls being fitted on the Filadelfia....
after weeks on the anchovies, away through the gaps steams Cornish Sardine chasing Little Pearl........
closely followed by the Resolute...
over on the new quay, Nathan and the rest of the crew are obviously delighted to be back aboard the CarolH....
brand new strops going on brand new anchors......
the Rowse fleet are busy putting ashore their latest haul of crab.....
as champion Harvey's crabber Matthew Harvey, under the command of captain Francis, pop the remaining jacks out of the fishroom and into a bongo before going up on the quay.

Seafood Cornwall Quality awards for 2007

News straight from Seafood Cornwall's press officer Sarah Henshall reads;

Newlyn’s Toughest Tribe Nets Vessel of the Year

The Skipper and Crew of the Newlyn beam trawler “Billy Rowney” PZ532, have netted the coveted Seafood Cornwall Vessel Quality of the Year Award for the second year running.

The Seafood Cornwall Quality Vessel scheme recognises those boats consistently landing top quality fish through improved gutting, washing and icing of the catch whilst at sea and on the market. The Billy Rowney achieved the highest average score of samples carried out throughout 2007.

Other categories included Best Beamer, Best Netter, Best Trawler and Best Under 10m vessel and the winners respectively were, the Newlyn vessels “Billy Rowney”, “Carol H” (Sk. Phil Mitchell), “Nantewas” (Sk. Roger Coutsoubos seen here chatting at the market berth) and the Cadgwith based “Scorpio” (Sk. Danny Philips).

Robert George, Seafood Cornwall Quality Adviser, commented on the success of the scheme,” The standard of the fish landed on Newlyn market has continued to improve from all sections of the whitefish fleet during 2007. The Billy Rowney has again consistently landed fish of excellent quality, no doubt partly due to their practice of immersing the fish in slush ice before stowing in the fishroom. The use of the insulated bins has seen a dramatic improvement in the quality of fish coming out of the smaller boats.”

Skipper Steve Moseley and the crew of the “Billy Rowney” featured in The World Toughest Tribes series on Discovery Channel last year. After receiving the award, Steve said, “We take great pride in landing consistently high quality fish, it’s good to get some extra recognition for all our work.”

“This is a real good news story – this whole scheme has been about recognising those skippers and crews that go the extra mile, often in very tough conditions, to make sure that the fish being landed in Cornwall really stands out as top quality”, said Nathan de Rozarieux, Project Director of Seafood Cornwall. “What has been great about these awards has been the level of competition between the boats and this has really helped raise fish quality across the board” he added.

Seafood Cornwall, an Objective One Fisheries Programme grant funded project, offers advice to industry on fish quality issues and is working to improve the marketing and promotion of fish and seafood.

Spring is in the air!

No puff in the wind, a blue sky and 15 degrees - seems like Spring has arrived early as the netting fleet take ice for the next tide....It's time for the Carissa Ann to come out of the water for a refit ready for the season...
Farm Machinery Services (01736 740579) take care of lifting her out of the water.... as her now slightly more relaxed Dad, Mike Dyer adjusts her resting place....

Golden Harvest is first in line to take ice for the forthcoming tide...
owner, and ex-skipper Kenny Downing looks wistfully out to sea, he's strictly a cruise-ship man these days!....
Britannia takes back her boxes and....
several tonnes of ice before picking up the rest of her gear on the quay........
Shaun has fired up the main on the Girtl Patricia.....
as the Golden Harvest moves from the ice berth......
some seriously fine gear goinmg aboard the CarolH who has just been sold to Ladram Bay Trawlers, skipper Phil and the crew now all back aboard and chuffed to be there!.....
Roger chews the fat in the early morning sun alongside the deserted fishmarket.

Friday night Lightroom creative

With most of the beamer fleet at sea and a spring tide, harbour activity is low - so here's a chance to take advantage of the light at 'crepsicule' ......and some further enhancements using presets in a piece of software called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.... a conjoining of the old and the new - fathom out the join between the new extension to the Orion gallery and the original granite building...but where has the tree come from?....
thankfully the door proper has been installed and replaced the rather ugly piece of plywood!.....
meanwhile 'Tom', is surrounded by excavation work being carried out to shore up the weakened beach area....
he can just be seen here between the steel containers and the earth moving kit....
and has a small dump truck for company this weekend....
in the harbour, Anthony Hosking's Silver Dawn is at rest alongside the fishmarket....
while the Valhalla's boxes wait alongside the iceworks to be put aboard...
the old JTA lays quietly in what used to be a busy berth. This is the first quiet spell of weather since last year, some boats might manage to get in a full trip at last!

Shellfish activity

a shelterdeck handrail has now put in an appearance aboard the ABS.....
Dom Bosco, lit up and with a sound system that can't be missed!....
Dora Rosa's whelk pots come ashore at speed!

Bit of fish for Monday from a handful of netters

As ever, the Sowenna has put in a trip despite the weather....

and a very decorative bunch of buffs she sports too!....

Silver Dawn was one of only a handful of the bigger netters to get away this neap tide....

The Scilly Boys boat, which is entered in this year's Woodvale North Atlantic Challenge is seen here resting on the lifeboat berth - check out the website for more info on this epic adventure - the boy's will of course be the only crew, 'rowing for home'! - their main sponsor is Tresco Estates from Scilly.

There's more serious construction work to be done aboard the old ABS. The ABS, a Sputnik class trawler built by the Berwick Shipyard in Aberdeen, Scotland spent many years in Newlyn owned by Stevensons fishing first as a sidewinder before being converted to beam trawling. This major refit will see her having a third life as a crabber.

Masts and the master

For all the art lovers able to get down to the Orion Gallery, the first year's show begins on the 23rd January.....
Master tree surgeon, Dick Ede has been at work with his chainsaw on the mast timbers for the Ripple.

Little action under the decklights

Thursday night saw the CKS laying deserted alongside the market...
and the Jacoba has yet to put to sea this year down the end of the new quay....
Sea Horses II against the market...
PZ10, unusually on the north arm also lights up the quayside..
as the market ghost exits the auction hall - well, a gust of squally wind anyway!
Newlyn Coombe river is swollen after days of heavy rain..
so for anyone visiting Newlyn at this time of year they could do no worse than avail themselves of some fine Mediterranean style cuisine at the Pizza Patio restaurant!

Planning permission passed for £7 million pound project

Penwith District Council passed planning permission on Tuesday night for a new £7 million development at Newlyn Harbour. Modern facilities in a temperature controlled auction hall will also feature a remote computer fish auction in order to compete with other key ports in the region.

A wild and windy weekend

Friday night it lashed down...
as over 1000 whelk pots wait to go aboard the Doreen Rosa...
the boats in tier strained against their moorings...on Saturday morning new warp wemt aboard ....
on the slip, the Trevessa IV gets a bottom clean...
with high pressure washers....seems this boat hasn't been to sea for a while!
blown back by the weather all to soon, PZ 198...

a desolate harbour car park...
even at low water seas came over the lighthouse in the gaps....
with the view across to the Mount looking poor enough