Photo-a-Day  (Friday, 22nd September, 2023)

Perfect conditions for Saling I would imagine, Harry. I don't know much about saling, but nice to watch.

A bracing photo Harry, you can almost feel the wind & hear the slapping of the water. Was Scotsmans Flash formed because of mine workings ? At the Nene Valley Country Park at Peterborough where we go sometimes, there are 3 lakes fromed from old gravel pits, we like to watch the sailing there.
Really good & different scene.

Love it.

What is the difference between these boats and yachts.
Forgive me if its obvious.

At first I though it was Pennington Flash. Nice photo Harry.

A good photo, and somehow an unexpected one of Wigan. I remember my brother, (19 years my senior), going fishing there when I was a little girl in the 1950s and 60s and he always said he was "gooin' fishin' o'er t'Scotchmon's" ... it makes it seem posh with all the boats on it now; I never knew Wigan had a sailing club.

Great photo, bet it's windy and cold on those boats. Never realised that there was a sailing club there until I saw them whilst passing over the new racetrack that they have built down Westwood Way

Good to see a photo from you Harry I have always loved your photos. It’s nice to see them pop up from years ago.
I like this one as well, who’d have ‘thowt’ Wigan had a posh Sailing Club! It does look very bracing and fresh.

Nice to see you back on p a d Harry. I knew it was you when I first saw the boats.

A nice refreshing photo Harry, keep them coming.

It always puzzles me Harry how these sailing boats can go just as fast against the wind as they can with it,we pass the Scotchmans(Scotmans Flash) regularly peddling along canal towpath its a great surface from Wigan to Platt bridge.

This stretch of the cut that runs between Scotmans and Pearsons flashes must be one of the nicest views for visiting canal boaters when they are passing through Wigan.
Yes keep them coming Harry, its been a two horse race for so long on PAD, if you know what I mean Harry.

need photos of narrow boats not poncy yotnots, who think they are at Cowes. Strong breeze - there was stronger wind blowing from Market Place lavvies > good photo tho' are 'arrie

Nice one Harry.

Cerebrum is after a reaction.
Let's not bite.

You are right Garry it saves aggravation ,,

My thoughts too Garry.
Great photo Harry.

It was caused by mining subsidence Helen, and at one time was owned and used by the electricity board to dump waste. I don't know who actually owns the bulk of it now, but the council seem to have laid their claim to it by holding Ruddy Duck shoots and other leisure activities there.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/fight-to-save-ruddy-ducks-tops-979930

Here's the History of Wigan Sailing Club:
https://www.wish-sc.co.uk/history

The Sea Cadets have gone a long way too from when being in the ancient building on Hardybutts:
https://www.sea-cadets.org/wigan/what-we-do

mining subsidence might have helped, but is not the total reason for the formation of scotmans flash.

Sorry Harry , but I’m juste about to hijack your p.a.d. I’m afraid , and for this I offer my most sincere apologies . The reason being that I have yet to discover a means of communicating with posters that may possibly be familiar with my ramblings without having to lower my standards and resorting to the communicate section on the general board .

But firstly , I feel obliged to make it most clear that I’m currently in the process of testing my home made blackberry and beetroot wine , so if any irregularities in the script should occur , then I would be obliged if you could ignore them and put it down to the strength of the brew, … of which,… and in the absence of a hydrometer , I’m not yet able to ascertain an exact figure … but an educated guess would be around the 13 % -14% mark .

Not immensely powerful when imbibed in small quantities I’ll admit … but one small quantity , does does have the potentially lethal tendency to lead to just another small quantity .

It’s the “one more for the road“. syndrome I guess .

Moving on …

By force of habit , I do still have a tendency to look into this god forsaken site periodically , and on this particular occasion I just happen to have noticed that there have been a number of aspersions cast upon the lifestyle of a particular antipodean acquaintance of mine who would appear to have innocently become the victim of certain spurious and potentially libellous comments .

Notably by ex crew members … or mutineers might be a better description for the blaggards I guess …

Ha!…let’s see you try to defend that one eh! …
And don’t give me any old bull about having to iron your living room carpet either .

Sorry Harry , ……
Although It was my original intention to dispel these
vile and erroneous allegations , the lilac wine unfortunately appears to have taken control of my sensibilities … therefore I thought it wiser to leave my response to those scurrilous allegations until such time as my wine cellar becomes empty .

My best estimate at this point would most likely to be Tuesday week .
………………….

I may have to bid you all farewell at this juncture as I appear to be currently experiencing double vision , an experience I haven’t experienced since I experienced a similar experience at a spectacular curry & Warsteiner experience in the Brocket last Thursday .

Au revoir mes amis … et je t”adore au fond du mon tonneau.

Great photo Harry, missed you and your photos. Keep them coming.

Harry do you own one of these boats, they look amazing.

I hope there's room in relation to Harry's photography.
Really lovely to see your photos Mr H, we've missed you.

Welcome back Harry, interesting photo and different. Thanks.

You were right all along Dtease he is holed up in the shelter! Brewing beetroot and blackberry wine of all things they must be growing outside the shelter! . I would have expected vodka at least. And where’s Big Sheila alias Miss Barbarella / Miss Tittibong circa 1980 when she’s needed? Get your head under the cold tap Ozy before you lose your bottom set! I thought you were in Vloddybadsock near the Donbas region doing your bit reporting with your bullet proof jacket on your back…Kate Adie will be informed mark my words….never mind the French it’s Ukrainian you should be speaking ..or is it double Dutch due to the beetroot and blackberry wine..
I take it it will be Tuesday before you lift your head up and open one eye..tut, tut,

Have you been imbibing of Ozy's 80% proof Bramble nectar too owd deputy, be careful as I've heard that if the coal's damp in the Aga he splashes a couple of glugs on it and it's blazing away in no time, and he also uses it to strip years of paint off pine. Have a read of this essay by Dr Mark Champion and Patricia Rigg. You'll recall that Mark was a ranger at the Scotmans Flash, so who better than someone who knows all there is to know about it, and he like many others in Wigan also says that it came about due to mining subsidence:- https://www.carbonlandscape.org.uk/sites/default/files/History%20of%20the%20Wigan%20Flashes.pdf

Nice photo its a lovely and pleasant area Harry, it really knocks the spots and lots more off Aspull, they can keep it Id rather have here Westwood and Parsons anyday.

Do I detect a hint of bad feeling towards us Veronica? Is our former leader attempting to blame his loyal crew for the loss of the good ship Chocolate Bounty? He seems to be unaware of the devastation that Big Bertha wrought upon the crew when she finally caught up with us. By the time we managed to calm her down two of the ‘Ladies’ from Liverpool had taken to their hammocks suffering with nervous exhaustion, at least I think that was what they were doing, any way they were still there when we finally had to abandon ship. Mind you they seemed happy enough when they went down. Of course, the fact that they were surrounded by empty rum bottles could have something to do with that.
Meanwhile, our not so gallant leader has been holed up in his tin shack trying to preserve his wretched bones in home made hooch!
Never, it seems giving two hoots for poor old GW who was forced to get a job herding chickens across Winter Hill in the depths of Winter just to keep body and soul together.
Sadly, Big Bertha also went down with the ship. After she had caused such havoc we deemed it wise to lock her in her cabin chained to the bunk.
I did call for a volunteer to go back and help her. Under the circumstances we deemed it best not to risk it.
She’s a big lass she’ll be fine was the general view.

Nice to see you back Harry, missed your photos.
This one's a belter.

Please don't spoil the post with nonsense talk about yourself or personal opinion antics, it has nothing to do with Harry's photo or indeed other post. Chit chat nonsense should be on communicate.
Let's keep P-a-d special and meaningful.

Now now Ged, nowt wrong with Aspull.

Ged a matter of opinion, I much prefer to have the beauty of Aspull.

I total agree with wiganer.

It’s the hooch Dtease when it’s wore off he’ll see the light ( if not stars) he’d have been better baking a Beetroot and Blackberry crumble at least he wouldn’t be seeing double.

If Brian or Ron were to tell us to keep our ‘chit chat’ buttoned I would take it on board Wiganer in fact it needn’t have ….but not from you. In fact I am surprised it was posted anyway. Thank you

Thanks all , I am glad you like the boat pics. Alan a small boat like this with sails is a sailing dinghy. Norman I was a member and have owned different classes of boats one Heron (two Enterprise two man boats the ones with blue sails) and two Solo single handers, Veronica and every one I will try to submit some more. cheers.

There are typically 2 main differences between a sailing dinghy and a yacht -
1) a sailing dinghy is launched from a beach and sailed for a few hours before being taken back on land, whilst a yacht normally stays on the water and can be sailed for days.
2) A sailing dinghy requires the crew to balance the boat by moving their weight to counteract the overturning power of trhe sail. A yacht has a weighted keel which opposes the sail and doesn't require the crew's weight.
Regarding the question of wind and the speed of the boat, the fastest boat speed will be attained when the wind is at 90 degrees to the side of the boat. The slowest speed is when the wind is directly behind the boat. Generally speaking the boat will be unable to move forwards when the wind direction is dead ahead and up to 45 degrees either side of dead head. In this situation the boat will need to veer away by tacking

its easier to use an outboard motor.

That’s interesting Arthur G.