Calendar focuses on serious work as well as fun

THE lavishly-decorated backside of a Brixham fisherman will help to raise what should be a very good windfall indeed for a charity which works tirelessly to help the port’s skippers and crews through hard times.

Should you purchase a copy of the fishermen’s calendar currently doing great business in Brixham and worldwide, we commend the wheelhouse portrait for the month of June to you.

The tattooist’s art has rarely been put to better use.

There were high spirits all round at the launch of the calendar the other night, and the bold fishermen who posed in the nude were rightly proud of their efforts.

But it was also right to point out the serious side to their efforts, and the extremely valuable work of the Fishermen’s Mission, which will benefit from every copy of the calendar sold.

As the man from the Mission said, when the weather is good and the catch is good, all is well when you are a Brixham fisherman.

But when the weather is bad and the yield is leaner, hard times can come very quickly. These days the Mission’s work is not just about taking care of those in peril on the sea. It is just as much about looking after their families back on shore when that peril leaves bills unpaid.

We tend to take our fishing fleet for granted. We see the boats in the harbour and admire their speed and agility on Trawler Race day.

But all of their hardest work is done out of sight, beyond the calm confines of the bay. The calendar launch event was an opportunity to turn the spotlight on some of the hardships they face when things go bad.

Our copy of the new calendar will have pride of place from January onwards, and we hope it sells well.

The Fishermen’s Mission has a very good purpose for the money it raises.