Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Ramsgate 'Too Weird For Words'

I see my old broadcasting chum Dylan Winter has, er, captured the essence of the Millionaires' Playground as part of his circumnavigation of Britain, which he's doing piecemeal at the weekends and in any other spare time he gets in a 40 year old sailing boat he purchased for a mere two thousand quid.

It's interesting to have an outsider's perspective on the place, but it's a bit rich, if you ask me, being labelled 'weird' by someone who lives a stone's throw from Milton Keynes! Anyway, here's his Ramsgate instalment:

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How come such a smart arse is attempting to circumnavigate the coastline with a dodgy gearbox?

Anonymous said...

I hope he pays for his own rescue.

Anonymous said...

Ha! This was actually very funny. Love the Lambada bit at the end.

Peter C said...

Hahaha, hilarious!!!

And just exactly who were/are The Smack Boys (can you enligten us Michael?).

Richard Eastcliff said...

As far as I can make out they are/were nothing to do with smacking but are/were something to do with fishing smacks.

Anonymous said...

I remember from my visit to Ramsgate in the rain last year :
along Military Road and you'll see on your right a building with the words “Smack Boys Home”.

The Smack Boys were very young boys, some as young as 10, many from the workhouse in Minster, who worked on the fishing smacks. This was in the days when Ramsgate had a large fishing fleet.

Michael Child said...

Yes in this instance it means fishing smacks, these were fishing boats in the days of sail and the smack boys were their apprentices. When the fishing smacks were at sea they lived on the boats and were fed as part of the crew.

However when the fishing smacks were in harbour they were often left to fend for themselves causing social problems in Ramsgate.

The town solved this by first housing them in the top the sailors church and then building the smack boys home.

I haven’t had a chance to see the film yet as the only computer in the shop with speakers has gone wrong.

Peter C said...

Thank you everyone! : )

I guess the current Smack-Heads of Margate having nothing to do with boats (except possibly smuggling)...