Tom Cunliffe finds a Northumberland Coble and remembers his youth

The Northumberland Coble, along with its neighbour in Yorkshire, is a unique open fishing and pilot vessel. I used one years ago as a young man. The working boats are nearly all gone now except for a few restored originals and new builds run by enthusiasts who keep the faith alive. I found this one derelict on the coast, looking out towards the North Sea and Norway. Join me for a run-down on how they work, how they were built and what the were like to operate in a big surf on those wild coasts.
#sailing, #boat, #tomcunliffe, #northumberland
If you’re interested in sailing, things maritime and the salty road to freedom, you'll enjoy my channel, so pour yourself a glass of the finest and settle down with my personal mixture of yarns and useful instructional material. When I’m away cruising, I never know when I'll get the opportunity to upload. If you can't wait, why not become a member of my website club? You'll find lots of members-only videos and articles, not available elsewhere, and have a chance to join in a regular online forum.• Website: - www.tomcunliffe.com/ • Become a Member: - www.tomcunliffe.com/my-accoun... WAYS TO MAKE CONTACT WITH ME and JOIN THE CREW• Website: - www.tomcunliffe.com/ • Twitter: Join the conversation - / cunliffetom • Facebook: Let's meet up here - / tomcunliffesailor OTHER PRODUCTS• Articles: - www.tomcunliffe.com/product-c... Books for sale: - www.tomcunliffe.com/product-c... • Audio Books: - www.tomcunliffe.com/product-c... FOLLOW ME ON KZbinHit the SUBSCRIBE button. I'd appreciate it if you joined my channel 'Yachts and Yarns'.Hit the LIKE button when you enjoy an episode - it's free and that way I'll know what sort of content you like.Tap the BELL icon, to get a ringing bell. Then you'll always be notified when the next video blog appears. Welcome aboard!TomCopyright Tom Cunliffe 2022

[@bruceweber2361]

Thanks, Tom. Edifying as always.

[@BrownianMotionPicture]

I was laughing as I shared your joy here. A profound vessel really, I just love it.

[@Clipper024]

Among the best descriptions of a Coble, I have heard. Thank you Tom. I built a smaller 14ft version (designed by Selway Fisher) for use at the cottage, sails and rows beautifully, very stable and easy to haul out.

[@johnsmall9729]

Thanks Tom. Wonderful presentation on a wonderful craft 👍

[@DrCrabfingers]

Seeing the boat in its entirety...wow...what an amazing shape....almost reminiscent of a Viking long boat. I hope we never lose the skills to build and sail vessels like this. Totally love your channel Tom. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your passion and knowledge.

[@TillerQueen]

I recognise both this coble and the stretch of coastline here because I'm from only a mile or so further south. Cobles are absolutely beautiful boats and I really loved hearing you talk so passionately about them. Many good memories as a child watching them heading out to see from Amble harbour. Thanks!

[@dominicmacklon7225]

Just marvelous stuff Tom. Can’t get enough of your channel. Keep it coming in 2023!

[@coolnautics1260]

Wonderfull! Thx for making these nice films

[@rangie944]

Thanks for featuring the Coble Tom. Beautiful boats from whichever angle you view them from, even a touch of tumblehome, a feature no longer in production. I remember them as the Whitby Coble, maybe a feature for another day?

[@chrismccartney8668]

Excellent Video i have Met Tom at a Boat Show he is a real expert..

[@colrodrick8784]

Thanks Tom. I knew nothing about cobles (nor seen that coastline- it’s many years since I visited the UK last, and I am not sure that I ever will again, regrettably) before your video but I can see the advantages of that design. As my grandfather used to say that was a time of iron men and wooden boats. I can’t any whimps like me rowing out against the surf.

[@chocksaway100]

My first job on leaving school in Sunderland at 16 was working as a share fisherman in a coble 32 foot coble we shot our 650 yard drift net 2or 3 times per day and hand hauled it back in I was always on the lead line our target species was salmon and sea trout which sold at that time for £1.00 a lb our boat had an engine and a length of scaffold pipe for a gear shift , my job god forbid I crunched the gears , the share was third for me ,third for the skipper/owner , third for the boat ....Good days.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

What a grand memory. I spent my boyhood holidays at Roker and my Granddad was preacher at Dock Street Chapel. I still recall hearing the steam hammers from the shipyards running all night long, and the roar from Roker Park when I wasn't there with my grandpa.

[@chocksaway100]

@@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns Yes, we lived at Whitburn nr the Bay Hotel, I went to Redby Boys school a stone's throw from Roker Park, and our coble used to put out from a dock close to the boilermakers club memory is hazy, the money working on the coble was amazing, as a 16-year-old I earnt more than my stepfather.

[@lincorrie5894]

Thanks for that Tom. I've seen cobles for years but was totally ignorant of their finer points. I've just learnt a lot about these wonderful old craft.

[@petemacfarlane6478]

Dear Tom, chanced upon your channel when looking up self-tailing winches, of which, as a dinghy sailor, I've no experience. I was all set to put sailing aside for a while (not family friendly enough) but now my wife and I are looking for a 30-ish foot yacht. We're both nearly 50 and have decided that for our middle-age travelleing we'd much rather sail than tow a caravan, as most Australians do. I blame you!

[@jonathanwetherell3609]

That was Brilliant! Thanks Tom. I always wondered about the variations to the form as you move up the East Coast. I read "Willy Nilly to the Baltic" as a youth, a Coble sailed to the Baltic. From memory Willy Nilly has lee boards as well.

[@johnparsons9084]

Thanks for introducing me to this wonderful little beauty.

[@trevorashworth7307]

I well remember the cobles on Cullercoats beach when I was young in the early 50s.All gone now. What a shame.Many thanks.

[@zeilgenot]

Another great historic video Tom. Thanks so much & have a merry X-mas for you and yours! Best, Harry

[@peterbeyer5755]

All these old boats need to be preserved and used, to much of our seafaring history, history, skill and techniques is being lost where soon we might need it again.

[@ianski65]

Excellent as usual, great passion for old boats. 🤙🏽

[@brad1046]

🇯🇲 Marvelous work. Thank you for rich insight, well presented. Great things ahead no doubt. God bless us all.

[@reloadncharge9907]

Merry Christmas Mr Tom! Fun episode….thanks, Andrew in Florida

[@jamescrego5904]

Just another insightful vedio Tom!!! She has beautiful lines and that georgious sheer! Merry Christmas from Bradenton, Florida!

[@AdventuresofanoldSeadog]

Loved the video. I know the boats from when I was up Yorkshire way.

[@johnharpin8039]

I remember the cobles well all along the NE coast, particularly those from Amble. Wonderful craft, seaworthy and very capable of working in rough conditions.

[@MrDbone75]

A very merry Christmas to you all from Wellington Somerset

[@jacilynns6330]

Merry Christmas to you Tom.

[@billturner6564]

Thanks 4 that I am a Wooden boat man and just love any and all of them

[@Mick028]

Very interesting, thanks Tom!

[@paulvr3158]

Thank-you Tom, and compliments of the season to you and yours!

[@timgriffin2664]

Really interesting thank you . Fantastic stuff on this old boat

[@magdakaniewski]

What a wonderfully practical design. Easy system and does the job perfectly. Thanks for sharing

[@stevecass7575]

Wonderful as ever, Tom. You always make me wish I'd been a sailor. I was born in a town on the coast of the Bristol Channel but for whatever reason, the sea never made much impression on me. Maybe because being always present, familiarity bred contempt. Anyway, thanks so much for your informative and enthusiastic videos.

[@PillSharks]

What was the town if you don’t mind me asking?

[@stevecass7575]

@@PillSharks Clevedon

[@PillSharks]

@@stevecass7575 I know it well.. my first girlfriend lived in wellington terraces near the pier which over looked the channel…I met her on Victory night and 15mins later I smashed my fathers Land Rover into the back on my mates metro on copse road. Lol. I remember back then there was a Chinese on the corner and the owners came out to sweep the glass up! It’s such a shame that the local council have been allowed to destroy the town with its so called road improvements..

[@stevecass7575]

@@PillSharks Agreed. Haven't lived there for over 25 years now but still go back and keep in touch with the town happenings.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Fun to hear these replies. My wife Roz was a Clevedon girl!

[@TermiteUSA]

Thanks Tom, that was like surprise Christmas present. Fair winds!

[@grahamsmith7394]

Lets hope that some enthusiast will take on this piece of history and make her new again. Great feature Tom. Happy Seasonal Greetings to you and Ros.

[@philipmasters7491]

I believe there are 3 Sailing Cobles at Bridlington and there was One at Whitby. By the way I used to spend my holidays at Staithes as a boy and used to go out fishing with Bill Harrison on the motor Coble Coronation Queen, Bill carried a mast and Sails with him but unfortunately I never saw them used. Thanks for the Video good to see, and I learned something new re. Building the Transom on last!

[@BoatDawg]

Loved it. Have a great holiday Tom

[@SoItGoesCAL34]

Love your stories. Thanks so much for sharing.

[@oundhakar]

What a lot of experience and craft went into developing and building these beautiful boats. Thanks for the video, Tom. A very merry Christmas to you and your family.

[@peterwelch7745]

Am restoring the old Lundy coble at the moment and was interested in your description of the rudder, and especially how to rake the mast, which i will endeavor to experiment with, also small jib.

[@johnwaga3702]

Fascinating as ever. I wish you and yours a very Happy Christmas!

[@SirPrancelot1]

Thanks Tom. Fascinating.

[@hewyn1]

Oh! The ingenuity that comes forth from plain old fashioned need. I have never seen a coble before but what a hull shape! What a rudder too. It never fails to amaze me just how many hull forms there are for plain old fashioned fishing boats around even just the British isles. Contrast that with a classic fishing boat from Cap Griz Nez. They are worlds apart though only 400 miles from each other. Anyway, thanks again, Tom. You made an ignorant owner of a 70s plastic fantastic Brit boat a (little) wiser man. May your winds be fair. Cheers Nick

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Cheers Nick. You can't beat a 70s plastic boat. Got one from the 80s myself!

[@914va]

Thank you! Merry Christmas my friend!

[@fosterkennel649]

Thank you sir a very informative video. Blessings to you and yours coming at you from the hills of Southern Oregon

[@danknox9986]

Enjoyed that. Thank you.

[@tomglase5333]

looks like a prehistoric fish making the transition from sea to land.

[@LNM0000]

What an excellent video. Want one !!

[@Vince-ml9gw]

Excellent video Tom👏👏👏

[@metalhad101]

There are very similar boats in Klim Strand Denmark, they even fish off the beach today! Highly recommend to check videos here on youtube.

[@redjacc7581]

nice one TC

[@michaeldomican]

Nice one Tom! And all new to new to me, growing-up on the south coast. Merry Christmas!

[@markusvanryan7394]

Fantastic thank you for these videos so enjoyed your explanation, I sail the south east of England also i wish you a happy Christmas.

[@darrylmcleman6456]

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAT! TOP OF THE MILK from westcoast Vancouver Island in CANADA! CHEERS!!!

[@williamavery9185]

A really good film. The hull configeration is quite interesting but i can see how well it would work. Has this hull design been found outside of uk ?

[@frederickbowdler8169]

Wantc to make one !

[@glenfordburrell1076]

To see is better than to be told a thousand times. It would have been nice if he set sail in it!

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Sadly, it doesn't always work like that. Wind back the clock 55 years and I'd show you how to tack one as well!

[@stephenhenion8304]

Great bit of seafaring history! Really enjoyed this video and I hit the Sub Button... here in Southern New England.

[@peterward4005]

Still sailing at brid once a year far as I know

[@basilroland]

i love you viking cinematic universe. There is a large trust in these stories. but not the start of a material proof. 500 years before any writing trace , it is amazing to see how many you british know about what append there.

[@rexhake1]

Lovely stuff .Have very fond memories of holidays in Bridlington and all of my paper round money spent on fishing from Cobles off Flamborough Head . In the 1960s by then motor powered of course , However did see one being built there , with sails and varnished instead of the usual Blue / Red , she was named ACORN and would love to know what happened to her . Lovely boats and a boyhood ambition to own one that never came about .

[@DavidPaulNewtonScott]

My son was restoring the Team an old river Tyne pilot boat exactly the same lines. Unfortunately he had to sell her and she is now in a pub garden as a play boat for kids.

[@chrisryan3770]

I think there’s still a Harvest Home at the prawns out of Seahouses. Fibreglass trawler now but the families keep the same names going. Up here in East Scotland either religious names such as; “True Vine,” “Lead Us,” “Golden Sceptre,“ “Grateful.” Business wishes such as; “Bonaventure,” “Endeavour,” “Good Intent.” Or farming references; “Ocean Harvest,” Harvest Hope,” “Reaper,” are the common way to name fishing vessels.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Nice comment Chris. One of my favourites was the hugely successful Barry pilot cutter 'kindly Light'. Her pilot was a local preacher.

[@davidprentice5442]

On the beach at Boulmer

[@fliedaway]

A lot of us in the North East have Nordic ancestry, however everyone on the U.K. has salt water in their veins.

[@billhanna8838]

KISS still works for me .

[@robertsigsworth8229]

when I was a lad I used to skive off school and go down to Gordon Clarkson's Shed in Whitby and watch him build these boats, all motor boats by then and the fascinating thing was watching how they built the tunnel for the prop so it didn't catch on the sand. A mate of mine still has one and last year I went out mackerel fishing with him for his pot bait. In those days 1960's there were at least 3 boat yards building cobles and another one at Sandsend.

[@PaulBKal]

Never heard of them! Thanks Tom for letting us into the secret. I found another video of them sailing at Bridlington. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHyvi2igmLJmaqM

[@josephinebennington7247]

Tom, Only to add…there are many working or derelict cobles hauled out in most of the coastal towns, all the way up from Tynemouth to Boulmer, (where you were). There is a small working one in Amble, and a full size one. They certainly “look right”. They seem to be the only craft of that size that employ a half-pyramid dodger attaching to the triangular whatsit. Any further info on that?

[@altoids784]

👏👏👏

[@philgray1023]

Coming from Cullercoats we just thought these were normal boats. The rest were a bit strange.

[@DavidPaulNewtonScott]

I am from this area these could be the Spray mark 2 with a higher freeboard.

[@timelwell7002]

A great explanation, as always from Tom. But I have a question: Was there no drop centreplate? If not, how did it manage to sail upwind, if all it had was two very shallow keels?

[@spudflap]

The combination of the deep forefoot and the long rudder provided grip on the water for upwind sailing.

[@mikefule330]

Many working boats had no drop centre plates. A centre plate case takes up valuable space. Think about the age of sail, and the galleons, and ships of the line: none of those had drop centre plates either. The same effect was achieved by the shaping of the underwater lines of the hull. Even many modern leisure craft have no drop centre plate. See the Drascombe Scaffie, for example: an open cruising dinghy with plenty of space for camping on board. You lose some upwind performance but gain in convenience. Of course, a modern racing dinghy has virtually no underwater shape: they are designed to plane over the surface of the water. On such a dinghy, a centre plate or dagger board is essential.

[@germanalvarez3785]

De construcción náutica no sé nada. No entiendo el inglés. Veo y escucho mucha pasión en el relato. ¿Hay un traductor para KZbin? Alguien que me pueda desasnar?. Y viendo este casco.¿ Cuánto de diferencia hay entre un dragón viquingo??. Bueno hermoso bote. Saludos

[@glennwoodbury7384]

She might have been built as a sailor, and converted to power. It looks like there's a tack leaf on the sheer right above the "D" in Kindred.

[@Burvedys]

Why don't they make a bending ruder on joints?

[@backtothebarky]

Sounds like it'd be quite a task to tack in a good blow! A dipping lugsail that's called isn't it? What's the difference between that and one where the yard stays on one side I don't quite get it..

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

One-sided lug is called 'balanced 'lug. It stay up though the tack and doesn't need to be dipped onto the leeward side to get the proper shape. Handy, but not so powerful.

[@backtothebarky]

Love simplicity. Hope to have a go in a lugger one day 👍🏻

[@timequest9802]

Hey Tom. I have to ask which you enjoy the most. The Sailing or the Destination?

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

If the weather is good I love the sailing just for itself. Whatever the weather, arriving in a new land driven by only the winds of heaven was very special indeed. Even with auxiliary power these days it’s still great to be in sole charge of my own destiny.

[@Calum_S]

Is that Boulmer?

[@davefoote5360]

Yes

[@weedfreer]

Where abouts were you born Tom? I'm trying to place your accent...although I read you're now based in the New Forest I'm picking up accents anywhere from Lincolnshire to Harrogate.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Manchester, with extra colour from five years living in Yorkshire and a childhood lived partly in County Durham. All diluted now after being married to a public-school girl for fifty years! Well done for picking me.

[@andrasvarga4066]

Ez A te Bálnád ,!!

[@stepheneurosailor1623]

Boulmer Northumberland

[@Sandhoeflyerhome]

It is a Cob-le

[@1258-Eckhart]

Does anyone speak pure Northumbrian any more? In Newcastle 50 years ago, I got asked for a favour by a random Geordie, but I couldn't understand what he wanted.

[@richardhanson8776]

Back when ships were made of wood and men were made of steel.

[@HeidiLandRover]

Heart of Oak are our ships, Jolly Tars are our men, We always are ready: Steady, boys, Steady! We'll fight and we'll conquer again and again.

[@richardgiles2484]

Shame Kindred couldn't be restored 🙄

[@BoomVang]

I don't understand raking a rudder forward. Deflecting it creates a downforce and extra drag.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

Yes it does, but the rudder must follow the run of the transom for its pintle and gudgeon which rakes as it should.

[@TomCunliffeYachtsandYarns]

It wouldn't be nearly as strong.

[@stephenjdixon1]

poor sound