Weekend festival-goers all set to recall glory days of humble coble
THE SCENE is almost set now for the 2017 Sailing Coble Festival at Bridlington harbour this weekend.
Eight cobles are taking part in this year’s festival – five which are moored in Bridlington harbour during the summer and three visitors.
When they leave the harbour together to sail around Bridlington Bay, they will recall the era when cobles were the mainstay of the inshore fishing industry.
“Sailing cobles are not something you see in this day and age. It is quite a unique experience to see them sailing,” said organiser Paul Arro.
“They can get up to six or seven knots under a dipping lug sail, which is quite a speed.”
Sailing alongside the more traditional cobles, will be the transom-sterned Tyne workboat built in the 1930s, by R D Lambies of Wallsend – a firm specialising in clinker built wooden boats, ship’s lifeboats and workboats for Trinity House.
The very last boat built by the Siddall boat building firm at Bridlington will also take part. She was built in 1972 by Jack Siddall and was regularly used in the harbour during the summer months.
Creating a nautical atmosphere on the harbourside will be “The Brid Fiddler” Jim Eldon who will be performing sea songs, shanties and locally-themed maritime songs during the event.
An added attraction for aviation enthusiasts will be a flypast by the Douglas Dakota of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight early on Sunday afternoon.
The festival has been organised by the Bridlington Sailing Coble Preservation Society with The Coble and Keelboat Society, in co-operation with Bridlington Harbour Commissioners.
Crews will begin to muster at the Harbour Heritage Museum on Harbour Road around 9.30am on the Saturday to ready the vessels for sailing.
Cobles were once common on the North-East coast, and were used for potting for crabs and lobster, netting and long-lining – with the larger versions used for herring fishing.