Free DVD "Serious Fun" Now Available

You may remember from earlier posts that Salar, Aquaholic, Arron and I helped last year with the filming of the Sea Angling section of the new DVD from the RNLI. This as now been published and is available free from this link to the RNLI web site - just log your details and they will send you a copy.

QHM Nav Warn: a double warning

A bland but helpful statement from QHM Portsmouth today:
Nav Warn 08/09 Nab Outer No:1 Buoy
The Nab Outer no:1 Buoy Pos. 50 38.18N 000 56.88W has a damaged top mark. Mariners navigating in this vicinity should do so with caution.

Now have a think about this one. This is a large, well-lit and charted buoy on the main approach channel to Portsmouth. Buoys don't just fall apart on a clear day, something large and blundering must have hit it. Could this be any more of a warning to get the heck out of the way of large ships in the area? They can't always miss a large buoy, let alone a small angling boat.

Serious Fun

You may be wondering whatever happened to the RNLI film on sea safety for anglers that Arron and I helped with back in June. Well, the project was part of something much larger than just a safety video - it is a whole safety, information and of course fund-raising programme branded "Serious Fun" that will run for the next few years.

Apparently the RNLI revenue from legacies is declining, the value of their investments has been hit in the current financial crisis and quite rightly, they are making leisure users of the sea aware of their need for funds. The Serious Fun DVD will be launched at the Excel Boat Show in London (9-18 January) and covers all aspects of leisure boating with short films on each category of water sport including our sea angling film stars "Salar" and "Aquaholic". As soon as the DVD is made generally available I will put links on my web site. We wish them all the best with their campaign, and if you feel like subscribing, I recommend an annual membership by Direct Debit, it is quite painless and also very helpful.

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Film Stars

The RNLI invest a lot of time and money trying to reduce the number of distress call-outs by working to improve safety and knowledge of everyone who goes on (or even by) the sea. Recently they analysed the call-outs to leisure craft and discovered no less than 11 different categories of marine sports that have resulted in distress calls. To try and improve safety awareness, the RNLI are making a series of short educational films, one for each of these different sports. It will be no surprise that one of them is sea angling.

I was contacted by Simon Jollands of The Knowledge Zone, a film company based in Cowes that have been commissioned by the RNLI to make these films. They needed help producing footage of real anglers, real angling boats and real fishing situations. Of course I was delighted to help, not just because it was supporting our favourite charity, it was also an excuse for a fun and different day afloat. I asked Arron to help out with Aquaholic, and last Tuesday Simon arrived at the marina in a huge and impressive RIB with his cameraman Steve Sleight, and Richard Devereux from the RNLI.

We spent an hour or so alongside the pontoon going through the script and filming sequences like engine checks, safety equipment (oops, my flares are out of date - best check yours too!) and radio procedure. Then we went out into Langstone Harbour for some simulated fishing and some moving-boat shots. Richard came along with me to play the part of a keen angler (although he wasn't).

I thought feathering for mackerel would be an easy start, but I didn't realise how easy it would be. I gave Richard a rod rigged with feathers, showed him how to drop it over the side and then jig it up and down. On the second "jig" his rod came alive and he was straight in - that was all of 15 seconds. So why did it take me over an hour when I really needed bait last week? Richard could not be persuaded that fishing can actually be quite difficult, and proved his point by hooking (and losing) a reasonable-looking bass!

Simon and Steve put some good sequences of Salar and Aquaholic in the can, and we are looking forward to seeing ourselves in action. When the set of films are finished they will be distributed free by the RNLI, I hope to have a link to the relevant ones on http://www.boat-angling.co.uk/ . The photo above shows (left to right) Simon, Steve and Richard after we had finished filming.