COTIDAL: The Appledore Chapter “What do you see when you see the sea?”

What do YOU see when you see the sea and what would YOU like to share or tell others about the sea?

With a deadline of February 28th, the Time and Tide Bell charity is inviting you to create and submit your own short films or audio content, recordings which share what you feel about the sea.

COTIDAL is an ambitious new creative artwork by the Devon based artist Tania Kovats, commissioned by the Time and Tide Bell Organisation. Tania’s ambition is to create a 24 hour and 50-minute-long film, the length of a lunar day. Her film will track the movement of high tide around the UK. Made up of community contributions, films and sound recordings, the film will be edited with Kovats’ own filmed material and woven together to create a cinematic celebration of our island's tides.

The first chapter of this film is being made in North Devon, where the inaugural Time and Tide Bell was placed on the seawall in Appledore. The hour-long film will be the opening episode of this exciting national project. The project and film will gather together people’s feelings about, and responses to, the sea which surrounds our island. It will be a visual and community driven representation of how the tide is a wave that connects us. The film will be screened, for free, in north Devon later in 2022. After which it will be available to view online.

Tania is offering an open invitation for you to share what you see when you see the sea. As an artist her work “Addresses our relationship with water, rivers, seas, oceans and our liquid selves. We live on a small island, with a dynamic coastline, and I believe this shapes who we are and how we think. We all have a relationship with the sea. COTIDAL hopes to help us share our thoughts and feelings about the sea with each other. As land based creatures, we forget how important the health of our seas is to our planetary survival. COTIDAL hopes to explore both personal and environmental thoughts about our collective waters.”

Film and audio recordings, up to 2 minutes long, can be submitted for inclusion in the film. Content can be uploaded to the Time and Tide Bell website - https://www.timeandtidebell.org/cotidal-upload/. Excerpts of submitted content may be included in the hour-long film.

Remember the deadline for submitting your films or audio is February 28th 2022.

To find out more and to take part in COTIDAL 

visit our website https://timeandtidebell.org/cotidal/. 

 

 

Photo credit Tania Kovats

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Follow COTIDAL on social media,

 
 >Instagram: cotidal_

 >Instagram: Kovats66

 >Facebook: @cotidalproject

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ABOUT Time and Tide Bell Organisation & Artist Tania Kovats >

Appledore Shipping Forecast. Great news fairweather on its way for Appledore Shipyard.

Great news fairweather on its way for Appledore Shipyard. The yard recently purchased for £7m had a visit from the Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday 25th August. That Babcock sign on the door will soon be changing to Harland & Wolff...

350 vessels were built here before its closure on March 2019. The Appledore Yard was founded in 1855. The last vessel to be built at the yard was the LÉ George Bernard Shaw, an Irish Naval Service vessel. 

The photos below features the Appledore Yard on the Torridge Estuary, with its doors open, were taken on 29th April 2018. North Devon coast and countryside heritage come together, farming, fishing industry and shipbuilding. 

On the horizon you can see over to the Goldcoast across Bideford Bay and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

Appledore Shipyard on the banks of the Torridge Estuary, North Devon Photo copyright Pat Adams North Devon Focus (All Rights Reserved)

  The quaint fishing village of Appledore across the Torridge Estuary, frigate alongside Appledore Shipyard. Photo copyright Pat Adams North Devon Focus (All Rights Reserved)  

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READ ALL ABOUT IT 

• Appledore Shipyard: ‘Delight’ as deal for site is reached North Devon Gazette  
• The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson made a trip to Appledore Shipyard in North Devon following the announcement that the historic site is set to reopen. North Devon Live
• Appledore Shipyard to reopen after £7m InfraStrata deal "Speaking during a visit to Appledore on Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the shipyard had a "massive history but it's also got a great future" BBC News Devon

Short Film: The Bideford Pilot - Out in the estuary whatever the weather.

Yes, the weather's dreadful but spare a thought for those whose work continues rain or shine, day or night and whatever the swell out in the Torridge estuary.  

The Bideford Pilot is an insightful and dramatic new short film showing the work of the pilot, Roger Hoad, who guides ships safely into Bideford, Appledore or Yelland.  In the film, Roger says "People from Bideford often open their curtains to find a ship down at the quay. They go to work while the ship is being loaded and the next morning it has vanished again."

The Bideford Pilot is one of ten short films in the Boat Stories series and local historian Peter Christie, who presented the Bideford premiere screening of the series, commented "I was delighted to see the films which really explored one of those parts of the North Devon economy that we all talk about yet very few see at first hand. It was especially good to see the film on Roger Hoad, the Bideford harbour pilot, whose essential work often happens at very unsocial hours (tides wait for no man not even Roger) and is often very challenging."

Before she began research on the film, Boat Stories producer Jo Stewart-Smith thought that escorting incoming ships over the notorious Bideford Bar would be the most difficult part of the pilot's job.  Jo commented "I know now that transferring the pilot on and off the big ships, gaining the trust of a new captain quickly so the pilot can effectively control the ship, guiding the ships up and down the tidal river through the narrow constantly changing channels and turning a 6,000 tonnes ship against a flood tide - are all tough, challenging tasks."

The work has its rewards as well as its challenges and crew member Thom Flaxman says "I get to see some lovely sunrises and sunsets and appreciate the beauty of the river at all hours of the day and night. Some winter nights the deck of the Pilot Boat is just a sheet of ice. When you're hauling on a line it's worth hanging onto the boat as there's nothing to stop your boots from sliding straight over the side."

John Pavitt is coxwain of the pilot boat and it's his job to keep Roger safe, positioning the boat so they are not in danger of squashing him or breaking his legs.  He tells us "For all the technology that has come along nothing has changed from the pilot’s point of view. He is still hanging on to a rope ladder on the side of the ship under any conditions and it’s the crew of the pilot boat that have to get him safely off and on..."

During the recent storm 'Frank' the pilot crew were out working in winds up to 30 knots, escorting the Celtic Warrior out from Yelland Quay. The ship's master was concerned that transferring the pilot down the long ladder would be too dangerous due to the pitching and rolling but as Roger Hoad said in typically understated fashion "in the event all went well and the crew did a good job in quite testing conditions."

Watching the film has had a lasting impact on Instow resident Jim McCormack "I can see the estuary from my garden and when I'm outside at night I look out across the bar and spare a thought for the Bideford pilot - remembering that dramatic scene in the film where he takes his life in his hands as he jumps from the small pilot boat onto a rope ladder dangling from the giant cargo ship."

You can watch the Bideford Pilot along with the other nine Boat Stories short films at www.boatstories.co.uk.

SHORT FILM: WINNER TAKES ALL - APPLEDORE PILOT GIG CLUB LADIES A TEAM

North Devon film making project Boat Stories has come up trumps again with Winner Takes All, an exciting short film capturing the thrills of women's gig racing in North Devon. The five minute documentary follows Appledore Pilot Gig Club Ladies A Team as they compete on home waters at last year's Appledore Gig Regatta. When Boat Stories Producer, Jo Stewart-Smith met the Ladies A Team she immediately spotted a good story "I was impressed with the welcome I was given" says Jo "how hard the teams trained through the winter – how competitive they were and yet the friendships they made through the team and the club carried on into their social life so that they were a tight knit group at work and at play. " Emily Lea, Vice Captain of the team says they were really excited when Jo approached them with the idea of making a film and they are thrilled with the result  "The film captures the great passion and incredible dedication members have at Appledore Pilot Gig Club. While watching the film, I went back to those gruelling training sessions, those competitive, goose bump moments where we almost beat our rivals and that sheer feeling of giving all you have got, for those incredible minutes of racing!" "Rowing is already a popular sport, but with the help of this film, I feel it will promote the sport in a positive light, and encourage more people to get fit, and what better than to row in a boat!"

The sport is popular with both men and women, a lot of Appledore Pilot Gig Club members are married, which brings healthy competition between the sexes. The ladies have three racing teams, A, B and C crews and an intermediate group, who will be forming a D crew this season. There is also a group of 'women of a certain age' and Emily says "We are very lucky to have the amazing "hot flushes" they compete in the vets and super vets races, and often win silverware for the club. We are all very close and it just proves age really doesn't matter when it comes to rowing." "Women of today are so busy juggling home and work life, rowing is a welcome escape, you can step into the boat in a stressed and bad mood and leave after a good row feeling refreshed, confident and ready to face the world!" The team's next battle will be in The isle Of Scillies at the World Championships where they will be rowing hard but also celebrating 4 hen dos. Emily notes "This of course will be happening after we have competed. There is a strict rule amongst the woman of no drinking until the last day ... that's the beauty of rowing though, we don't need alcohol to have fun!"

Along with the other Boat Stories short films Winner Takes All can be viewed at the Boat Stories website www.boatstories.co.uk where you can read more about gig rowing in North Devon and the making of the film.

Appledore and Lundy Granite

Post by North Devon Coast & Country Chronicle.