Waiting for the tide
Now, I may be misquoting a well-known photographer, or thinker here, but I had a conversation with a friend over Christmas in which the advice was: ‘Pay less attention to historic, unchanging objects; it is better to take photos of things that will change.’
So, the theory goes that if you visit a historic monument, make sure you take photos of the reception, the gift shop and the ticket counter – these are the bits that will elicit gasps of wonder in years to come. The monument will remain unchanged forever.
It has been a privilege to publish Keith Wheeler’s boating journey (page 26) from rescuing a dory from the seabed in 1978, via six different family sailing cruisers to becoming a motorboat owner since 2009.
Taken together, his images are a historic tour through the last 40 years of UK leisure boating.
The historic preservation of HMS Medusa is important work (page 52), but we also like the untidy, unglamorous story of the dozen or so other 1940s HDMLs that are ‘in restoration’ or ‘being used as houseboats’. We view them as stories waiting to be told.
And PBO is breaking new ground this month with Kass Schmitt’s first regular review of online sailing video-blogging channels – the soap operas of sailing (page 13). We want to celebrate these vloggers (SV Delos, La Vagabonde, Sailing Uma etc) in their prime; praise them, criticise them, laugh with them (and at ourselves) and enjoy the ride. It could all look so different in such a short time from now!