Club Lectures

My most popular club lecture is a fully illustrated Powerpoint presentation about the development and safe use of navigational electronics. It masquerades under the title of From Grandfather’s pocket watch to the Digital Chart Plotter.

The talk is a friendly and irreverent look at the changes many of us have seen from the days when I found Barbados after 42 days at sea with no chart at all – just a lat/long to shoot for, a sextant and my grandfather’s pocket watch – to my current PC-driven chart plotter that still manages to lead me astray.

I generally sell signed copies of my DVD The Electronic Yachtmaster afterwards at a special knock-down price, which enables me to keep the fee for the talk to an affordable level. Depending on where you are, there may be some modest travel expenses.

My new lecture is called The Boats that Built Britain and is based on the TV series shown in May. It gives an insight into the presenter’s lot and is well illustrated, including a few out-takes.

Also on offer is a talk called ‘Down to the Westward‘ . This recounts the history and background of the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters and their relevance to the boats of today. It is full of life and is as much about the colourful characters of the Edwardian waterfront scene, as it is about the magnificent boats themselves. It is fully illustrated and includes many original images taken from Magic Lantern slides, as well as up-to-date photographs.