What to do in The Winter Season
Catch up on all those Endeavour tasks you put off during your busy summer sailing months.
Of course you made a list (?), now is the time to get those jobs done and tick them off your list.
There is nothing more satisfying than hoisting your freshly washed sails aboard your polished yacht with it’s gleaming woodwork & sparkling S/S fittings.
Or you can brave the cold winter weather and sail in your Clubs winter series, often a Pursuit.
HBYC’s is the Brass Monkey Series & here is how some believe it got it’s name.
Brass Monkeys
An explanation of an old mariner's saying.
This was information that I didn't need to know, but was pleased to receive anyway.
I'm sure that it will add greatly to your already extensive lexicon of diverse knowledge.
In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine, which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of thirty cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon.
There was only one problem -how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling out from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with sixteen round indentations. But, if this plate were made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it.
The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realise that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.
Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!"(And all this time you thought that was a "dirty" expression didn't you?)
Submitted by Alec Newing, Williamstown Historical Society Member.
| Here Mark Sheahan in his previously owned E24 H64 “Cathmarine” close on the heels of H3 “Gracie” Odessey 35d |
 |
