everybody has a story to tell about their life

Going out Sundays and Yachting

Joan Murray and Yvonne Cleave, 2013

Joan Murray: I used to go out there and threaten to take the boat out Sundays. That was taboo.

Yvonne Cleave: You never used to go anywhere on a Sunday

Joan Murray: They used to say six days out of seven, and that was it.

Joan Murray: They always used to wear their Guernseys. It was the navy blue ones during the week, but Sundays was always the white one with the name of the vessel.

Yvonne Cleave: When the men finished yachting they would bring all these beautiful clothes. Serge suits with brass buttons, and all these Guernseys. They would be handed down, and even the old grandfathers would wear them. You would see photos of the grandfathers all wearing these Guernseys.

Interviewer: How many of them went off with the yachts?

Yvonne Cleave: Most of the village really, May to October.

Joan Murray: That was like uncle [Joe Honey] really. He said he went to sea when he was a boy of 12 and he was shipwrecked the first night he went out. I remember saying to him how did he get in. He grabbed a plank of wood and paddled himself in somehow. Sea was in all their lives, uncle, my dad, my three boys, my ex.

Interviewer: When they went on the yachts where did they sail to?

Yvonne Cleave: Mostly they were Isle of Wight and out in the Med. They used to race, but our men never saw much of it, they were down under. They had to clean the decks and polish the brass, and get everything tip top, and then they would have to go down under, apart from the captain and the first mate and second mate, whatever, that run the yacht.

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