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By Nigel Barraclough
I always thought that one of the great shames of the Trafalgar 200 event in July was how few people would realise just what was involved in putting on the battle re-enactment. Let us consider how the event may have gone from idea to reality…..
I had an idea…..
Why don't we organise a "little" sailing demonstration of some close quarter ship handling, maybe a little battle scene thrown in for good measure? A real test of seamanship! Also lets not restrict ourselves to just a club event but let's make it really big - a few square riggers, say 150 -200 feet long drawing, I don't know, about 15 feetish, maybe a bit more?
We don't want to make it just a British event so we could invite a few ships from other nations: the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Scandinavia.
To make it more interesting we will do it in confined waters where it is not fantastically deep and where there are a couple of mud banks that "dry out" at chart datum and do it at half tide or less. That way we will keep the navigators on their toes.
By the way, we don't want to restrict or affect the movement of other shipping very much. Perhaps somewhere remote and deserted - spectators can always come in by coach or even sail in.
Now this seems a great idea - it will take a bit of organisation to do it but I like it.
OK, so how do we do it? Tell you what, let's take it to the Queens Harbour Master at Portsmouth and see what he thinks. On the way you have another idea, doing it at night will be even better, make it far more spectacular! What is more, while standing outside the QHM's office you realise what a superb location Portsmouth Harbour entrance would be! It has everything you need, plenty of space for the crowds (boats included) and you will publicise the event widely. Also it has all the navigation hazards you could wish for and a place for the boats to moor in afterwards.
You can imagine QHM's reaction: no b***** likely ! There is no way you are going to do that, let alone here! He is absolutely right of course, it would be totally mad. OK- a brilliant test of seamanship, very spectacular but totally impossible!
As all of us who enjoyed the Trafalgar 200 celebrations will testify it did all take place. It was brilliantly done but how many of the 10s of thousands who were there realised just how difficult it was, how well it was done?
Think about it, if you had this for an idea no one with any sense would ever let you do it - let alone at Portsmouth! But someone did have the idea and when it comes to putting on events like this it just goes to show who is the best at doing them.
We are!