Mutiny on the Shamrock!

Shamrock's weekend trip, to Plymouth's Royal William Yard, has been cancelled due to a variety of reasons, low tides, lack of tows and finally the lack of crew!! Most of the existing crew are either on holiday or entertaining guests and a press gang is no longer an option.

On a more positive note Nancy Belle has now completed three successful river trips to Morwellham and due to demand more trips are being planned.

Last trip

Shamrock is scheduled to have it's last trip of the year (unless Shaune knows different) to the Royal William Yard (RWY) Plymouth on Friday 30th August with the return trip on Monday 2nd September. She is due to depart Cotehele Quay at around 11am with signs of life, loading, coming from the boat shed from about 9am. The leisurely return trip should be leaving RWY at about 1pm on the Monday.

New Donations Box

A couple of weeks ago a half barrel type water pitcher arrived in the boat shed, in pieces. After a bit of soaking and a few aborted attempts it was finally assembled only to pose the question what do we use it for? Answer, lets make a rustic donation box which is going down very well with visitors to Shamrock.

River Tamar Trips

The National Trust property Cotehele is now offering a limited number of river trips, in the Nancy Belle, with the first one successfully completed on Tuesday 13th August.

Trip details:

Starting from Cotehele Quay the Nancy Belle will head up river past riverside woodlands, under the railway viaduct, past Calstock and deeper into the valley and on towards Morwellham Quay. Throughout the trip there will be commentary on the valley's fauna, flora and history. The trip will last approximately 2 hours and on returning to Cotehele Quay everyone will be invited to the Edgcumbe for a pasty lunch.

Trip dates:

27th & 28th August & 12th September - 10:30am to 12:30pm, 15th September - 2:30pm to 4:30pm.

Ticket price (includes trip and pasty lunch) £12 per head (sorry no price reductions).

To book please ring 01579 352720.

Proceeds from the trip will be used to help maintain Shamrock.

Shamrock Traditions

Since the completion of Shamrock's restoration in the late 1970's a couple of traditions have started to emerge.

Perkins Pile
This refers to the pile of gear that is offloaded from Shamrock on completion of a trip and just dumped in the boat shed ready to be stowed at a later date. This is named after Tom Perkins who started the pile tradition. Tom was the shipwright who spent two weeks patching Shamrock's hull to get her to float on Hooe Lake and then be allowed to be towed past Plymouth dockyard and onto Cotehele for the restoration. He was also the shipwright in charge of the restoration and worked and sailed on her for many years after the restoration.

Nutty Slack
A coconut and biscuit base cake covered in chocolate. Not sure of the exact recipe but on most trips Sarah, Peter's wife, usually supplies Peter with enough slices of this for the whole crew. He's not allowed to take it back so I am afraid that any extra just has to be eaten. What a shame!!