Spectacular Sea, Salt and Sail festival - a celebration of traditional maritime skills and boats!

Despite the weather forcing half a dozen boats due to sail from Falmouth having to turn back on Thursday this year's Sea Salt and Sail festival played host to a big turn out of classic sailing and working boats...

the harbour lends itself so well to recalling what it must have been like back in the days of sail when Mousehole, like eery other harbour around the coast, would have been home to dozens, even hundreds of fishing and working sailing vessels of all shapes and sizes...

represented today by the biggest visitor, the incredible Swallow, whose largely French crew spent the weekend wowing the crowd with their display of seamanship - manoeuvring the engineless boat in and out of the crowded harbour with ease...

to one of the smallest...

during Saturday's race, a stiff breeze grew in strength kept the flags flying...

 and capsized one of the boats...

things were a little quieter in the harbour at the end of the day...

as the Swallow was brought in...

trippers on the Scillonian III were treated to the spectacular spectacle as they headed to the Scillys...

made all the better by a sparkling sea...

Clare Bowen and Tim Hall, both members of Cornwall Plein Painters were among many artists who captured the festival over the weekend...

with sights like the fleet at anchor in the Bay...

decorated masts...

or just a classic view through the gaps...

sailing boats like the local lugger Barnabas sporting her brand new Scots pine masts fitted by the boys at Ullapool boatyard...

or rowing tender, Dreckly provided endless subjects subjects to enjoy - not a boat to hitch a lift on for anyone wanting to get anywhere quickly...

the smallest boats with...

their red...

and tan sails

like those on the Barnabas and the Gladys would have been a familiar sight years ago...

originally built as a Nobby over 100 years ago, the Gladys had a standing lug when fishing as a herring boat out of the Isle of man...

these was more than enough breeze to power the boats like Radiance at speed between the quays and St Clement's Isle...

each time she passed...

Guide Me gave a perfect demonstration of how a dipping lugger changes tack...

here the local Porthleven built lugger Happy Return tries to fend of the fully restored Maggie Helen, now owned by Benoit Cayla who also owns the Rose d'Argyle and Swallow...

a fleet of luggers heading away from the harbour, what would have been the daily diet of Mousehole life in the past...

some, took it all in their stride...

while the Maggie Helen made the most of the breeze to sail past the anchored Swallow...

the 1911 built Guide Me, a legend in lugger circles, in her time has been the engineless home of the Brickhill family in which time they sailed her to South Africa via Brazil, over the years she has won countless races, especially in light winds, when she seems possessed...

Gladys goes for it...

at the closing award ceremony and auction, a special moment for the crew of Swallow, and not hard to guess from where most of them hail, as they receive the award for the winning Class 1 boats...

and, after a special mention for Leon and Sylvia Pezzack who were the inspiration and driving force of  Sea Salt and Sail from day one, the auction saw local artist Lizzie Black's painting reach a magnificent £2,750 - the  biennial festival continues to be a huge success for all concerned!

First #FishyFriday in July.

It's another dull start to the day and hard to believe it is July...

but, there's plenty of fish on the market with good shots of hake from the netters like the  Ajax...

and Britannia V...

big bream were a thing...

as were some decent turbot...

a few trawl hake...

seasonal craws...

and plenty of beam trawl megrims...

and lemons...

top drawer fish included these bass...

and red mullet...

along with monk tails...

and John Dory...

compare and contrast...

plenty of ray too...

the working deck of the beam trawler, Our Charlie Mia...

more signs the sardine season is underway, dozens of 400kg bins begin to muster by the new ice plant.

 

How the General Election went in fish boxes for Cornwall.

 

Last night the political map of Cornwall was represented by a single colour...

by the time the fish auction started this morning, blue boxes had been replaced by red...

and orange

Sardine season off to early start! Fire up the BBQ!

First to take the chance and dip the net, skipper Will Treneer loads the award winning Inter-Nos with bins and ice...
 

before heading out across the bay looking for sardine marks on the sounder that have been reported over the last few days...

and in the early hours of Wednesday morning he and the crew were rewarded with the first shot of the season...

being pumped aboard the boat to fill her innovative seawater tanks...

to the delight of fishmongers like Jonathon Norris! Stay in touch with the exploits of all the Cornish Sardine fleet by following them here @CornishSardines and here on Instagram at Cornish Sardines.

Fisheries Innovation & Sustainability (FIS) is Seeking a New Chairperson

FIS, the coalition of experts driving innovation for a prosperous and sustainable UK seafood industry, has announced that current Chair, John Goodlad, will be stepping down from the Board in December 2024. The charity, which is governed and funded by M&S, Sainsbury’s, Young’s Seafood, Seafish and the Fishmongers’ Company, is now seeking a new chairperson to lead the FIS Board of Trustees.

FIS is calling for applications from industry experts and experienced advocates for innovation and precompetitive collaboration, who will support FIS in its remit to facilitate, coordinate and leverage investment for innovation in UK seafood. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview in Autumn, with the new Chair welcomed at the FIS AGM in December 2024.

This appointment of a new chair comes at a time of significant momentum for the charity, which last year expanded its remit across the UK while driving forward projects such as AI-empowered selective fishing gear, Smartrawl, and pioneering new designs for net zero fishing vessels.

John Goodlad has been Chair of FIS since its inception in 2014 and brought his wide experience within the seafood industry to this post.

On his decision to step down, Goodlad said:

“Chairing FIS has been a great honour and privilege. The scope of work that FIS is now undertaking on behalf of the UK fishing industry is quite remarkable. With the support of a great Board of Trustees and an excellent Executive Director, the new Chair will be well placed to take FIS forward.”

Executive Director of FIS, Kara Brydson, said:

“With John at the helm, FIS has leveraged more than £3 million in investment into innovation for sustainable UK seafood. The issues facing our industry today point to an even greater need for innovative thinking. We look forward to welcoming a new chair to champion innovation projects which will make the greatest positive change for the UK seafood industry and the people driving it.”

To learn more about the role, please contact Kara Brydson at k.brydson@fisorg.uk.

Link to full vacancy advert: https://fisorg.uk/chairperson-vacancy/

It's only the last flaming #FishyFriday in June!

It's the end of first time stop-over for the guard ship, Karima as she heads out through the gaps...

leaving a quiet port this morning...

and a less busy than usual market for a Friday, with a few end-of-season spider legs...

now, these guys are very tasty...

plaice don't come much bigger...

and the big tubs keep coming...

bass from up the line...

while the port's two big beamers kept the buyers busy with the two species for which beam trawling is synonymous in this part of the world, megrim sole...

and monk tails...

slim pickings for the mackerel men again...

there's giant Meccano kit arrived in the harbour...

arrived on the back of some Uggie Newport transport...

which need to be unloaded...

for Joe and the boys to put together...

in the form of a back-up ice plant, courtesy of Padstow's changing fortunes.