Fishing - Seamanship

Saxonia Charters 01206 823373 info@SaxoniaCharters.co.uk

Saxonia Charters, 28, Vine Drive, Wivenhoe, Essex, CO7 9HB. Tel: 01206 823373

Special events -

Saxonia Charters, 28, Vine Drive, Wivenhoe, Essex, CO7 9HB. Tel: 01206 823373

Trawling and dredging.

Saxonia is equipped with a range of authentic hand-operated fishing gear - oyster dredges, beam trawls, shrimp trawls and herring drift-nets.

Come out on one of our fishing days to experience at first-hand the fishing techniques used over 100 years ago.

You can keep all fish caught - shrimps are cooked and eaten on board.

The type of gear used depends on the time of year and the fishery.. Generally oysters and herring-drifting in winter and trawling in summer.

Spratts are no longer fished from Brightlingsea but herring, sole, cod, whiting, skate, lobster, shrimp and oysters and mussels can all be found.

Oyster dredging - West Mersea

The Mayor of Colchester on board Saxonia to open the Colne oyster fishery.

Oyster dredging

Saxonia - 1953 off Southend Pier with a deck full of whitebait.

Traditional seamanship.

Saxonia weighs 20 tons - there are no winches or modern aids - everything is done by hand the traditional way.

Come and learn some of the tricks, techniques and traditional skills of seamanship which enabled our forefathers to handle these heavy gaff-rigged fishing smacks and their gear. Ideal for those with some sailing experience and an interest in learning more about sailing traditional craft.

An excellent complement to RYA practical courses in seamanship and navigation which will give you confidence in handling a very traditional bawley.

Topics covered - Awareness of local wind, tide & currents; boat-handling etc.; handling gaff-rigged sails, anchoring, heaving-to, reefing etc.

Fishing / seamanship.