Those of you who got to know Skipper might not know that our surname allegedly means ''as mad as a box of frogs", well according to the fishing community in scarborough anyway.
Heres an examples of the family experiences.
Yorkshire television decided that they wanted to do a programme about the scarborough cobles and for some unknown reason decided to use my uncle Colins coble Faithful SH174 if memory serves me. The decision to use this famous little fishing boat is a mystery to me, as anybody knows who has visited the scarborough lifeboat house will know that this has to be the most rescued boat in the harbour (although it has gone these days sadly).
Uncle Colin was the smallest of skippers brothers but just as eccentric in fact some might say more so. Anyway on the day of shooting the Calender team turns up in the tea shack on the pier to meet Colin and my dad Brian who was crewing for him potting at the time whilst he was home from the merchant navy on shore leave. The crew decided that they would like to take shots of them leaving the harbour and returning with interviews before and after as usual, then at the last minute the presenter decided he would like to go along for the trip, without the camera crew of course as the boat was only small and in them days the cameras were massive.
So off they went in what turned out to be a beautiful yorkshire summers day, the sea like a millpond with not a cloud in the sky, they sailed north after passing the far pier and the crew followed them along the marine drive to get some more footage until the reached scalby nab and then the road stopped. The crew returned back to the harbour to await the return of the party and enjoy an ice cream on the promedade.
Within an hour of the camera crew arriving back at the harbour the weather turned and an hour later full white horses were dancing on top of the waves in what must have evolved into a force 8 northerly gale, the forecaster never saw it coming and neither did the tv crew, but of course uncle Col and my dad knew it as they had spent his lives at sea, when I cast off the mooring ropes I couldnt help noticing my Dads and uncle colins knowing little grins when my Dad shouted "Dont bugger off billy lad hang around it should be interesting".
At around 4pm with the waves bursting over the marine drive the little coble was seen in the distance. the lifeboat was on standby but they had radioed in to say they were ok and didnt need assistance. I waited at the entrance to the fish pier for them to round the lighthouse pier and to be ready to grab the mooring ropes for them as they hit the fish pier. To my absolute astonishment as they rounded the wall I noticed up forward an apparition the likes of which I had never seen before. The presenter who had left the harbour in his lovely faun duffel coat was now hanging onto the foremast with what looked like the biggest safety vest I had ever seen strapped around him. When the coble came alongside I grabbed the mooring ropes and made the boat fast, the camera crew had filmed them coming round the back of the pier and into the harbour and were still doing so as uncle Colin stood on his coble and explained what had happened....
"Da sees", says he "When it started to blow a bit, the tv bloke here tells us that he cant bloody swim, so I left it to our brian to sort him out, we only had the one spare lifejacket and he said that he still didnt feel safe so our bri decided to make him more buoyant and used the pot buoys to do so, so der du has it, back home safe n sound".
Pot buoys are basically 10 foot bamboo poles with a large block of polystyrene wrapped around the middle and a flag on the top, they are thrown overboard before the crab pots are thrown into the water to which they are attached by rope, after the last pot is despatched into the sea the second pot buoy follows it, both buoys float on the surface and the crab pots sink to the sea bed. When returning to haul the pots the next day the flags which are unique to each boat clearly identify each fleet of pots.
You have to imagine for yourself now the reporter with four of these bamboo poles sticking up complete with flags, wrapped around him with the polystyrene floats around his body each the size of a keg of beer, all the spectators could see was his red head and feet in a blaze of colour trying to get off the boat before they had been removed to hide his embarassment, cameras still rolling and curses flowing from him he leans over to grab the ladder and step off the boat, uncle Colin, ever the showman, accidentally hits the throttle and sprung the boat off the wall and you guessed it the reporter disappears overboard, buoys and all into the murky harbour water, my dad sees the camera panning from the floating reporter to the boat back and forwards, the camera crew panicking by this time he picks up a couple of bits of wood off the boat clapping them together shouts......
"Cut, thats a rap everybody"
Classic :-)
