John Boyle

TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE – PART 4

And now the best part of the trip…

So far the trip has had its ups and its downs. Particularly in the early stages! My fault – we left too early in the Baltic boating season to get the best out of it. As a result we encountered empty harbours, closed fuel stations, and not the best of weather. But we had succeeded in our mission – taking my Princess 39 to St. Petersburg. Well after St. Petersburg we left Cecienne in Helsinki in the care of Mats Carlson, the Princess agent there. And a month later I returned with a new crew to complete the voyage. And when we returned it was to a very different Baltic. Here’s what happened…

The Archipelago Sea

Stretching from Helsinki islands spread the whole length of the coastline. So despite windy and choppy seas we could always find somewhere to shelter in the 3 days that we threaded our way to Turku, the most southwesterly city in Finland. And then we jumped off into the amazing Archipelago Sea. Because this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, countless thousands of islands seemingly stretching for ever. And every night we found a quiet anchorage all to ourselves.

Cecienne at anchor somewhere in the Archipelago Sea

Cecienne at anchor somewhere in the Archipelago Sea

The wildlife was incredible

Floating nest at Kumlinge

Floating nest at Kumlinge

And the anchorages countless and totally deserted – can you spot Cecienne in here?

Cecienne at the perfect anchorage among the islands of the Archipelago Sea

Cecienne at the perfect anchorage among the islands of the Archipelago Sea

 

St. Petersburg's Golden Domes

To Russia With Love Part 3

St. Petersburg…at last!

After all the rollercoaster of departing from Estonia – will we or won’t we make it? – yes, we make it to our Holy Grail of this trip – St. Petersburg. According to the shipping agent we are the first of only 4 boats from the UK that will visit the city this year. But it is worth every second of the trip. And here’s the video.

 

History and beauty

And what an awesome city! I don’t know what I’d really expected… something from a 1960’s spy movie with cigarette smoking men in long coats following us everywhere we went! Instead we found a vibrant and beautiful city, with an incredible history.

Everyone knows about Stalingrad in the Second World War, but the story of St. Petersburg – then Leningrad – is just as horrific. Besieged by the Germans and effectively totally cut off from the world, during the two and a half year siege around a million and a half died of starvation.

Secret filming…

After all the warnings and worries, the border formalities were no worse than anywhere in the world – and way better than some – though I don’t think they would be happy that I snuck a couple of photos on my phone!

Marine Border Crossing Point Fort Konstantin

Marine Border Crossing Point Fort Konstantin – secret phone picture from stern of Cecienne

Our marina berth…

Our marina berth was just inside the River Neva, and immediately opposite the St. Petersburg World Cup Stadium.

St. Petersburg Football Stadium

St. Petersburg Football Stadium

Military Museum

And one of the highlights for me was our visit to the Military Museum where the weapons on display I’d only ever seen before on Cold War newsreels!

St. Petersburg Military Museum

St. Petersburg Military Museum

John Boyle

To Russia With Love Part 2

Here’s the second of five videos charting our trip on Cecienne to St. Petersburg in Russia last year.

Things start to get a bit sketchy and I begin to doubt if we will ever reach St. Petersburg…

And we have our first run-ins with Frontier Police – maybe a taste of what is to come if we leave the EU?

Cecienne at ChristiansøJohn Boyle

To Russia With Love!

Cheesy title but that’s what the magazine are running the series of articles and videos under.

Part 1 is in this month’s Motorboats and Yachting Magazine, and here is the link to the first video of last summer’s Baltic adventure!

Stage 1 of the voyage – after a smooth trip up Channel and through the Kiel Canal we have our first taste of The Baltic

 

Rustler 37 in the Helford River

Filming Boats – Rustler Yachts

A favourite client…

One of my favourite clients is Rustler Yachts. Filming boats for them is a guarantee of a great day at sea.

Rustler 37
Rustler 37 at anchor, Carrick Roads

Rustler have a reputation for handbuilding high quality yachts. Based in Penryn, Cornwall, just a few miles from our studio, it’s always a pleasure to work with them.

Rustler’s workshop alongside the River Fal is crammed with skilled craftsmen of every type. It’s companies like this that keep the art of boat building alive. No GRP production lines here as you find in the huge French yacht manufacturers. Here at Rustler they give every detail minute and skilled attention. That’s the joy of owning a Rustler yacht.

Filming at sea

Well, so far our films have focused on individual boats. We wait for perfect conditions at sea off Falmouth and spend a day at sea filming by drone and boat-to-boat as one of their skippers puts a yacht through its paces. Here’s a clip of their Rustler 42 that we made for them.

A film brief with a difference

But the latest project – although still fun  and still filming boats – was very different. In the Penryn boatshed Rustler are building their biggest yacht to date – the Rustler 57. So we came up with the idea that we would film that critical moment when they laid the deck on the hull and attached it.

And of course there is a great deal of work done before that happens. But it’s still a great moment to capture. So with the help of some of the craftsmen, Fionn and I set up 3 Go-Pro cameras each filming different angles of the process.

It’s not dramatic – in fact it’s a precision process that the craftsmen have carried out many times on other boats. They have raised and lowered this deck countless times already to ensure that when the final time comes the fit is perfect. But in time-lapse it’s still great watching that moment when the deck is finally lowered and then fixed in place.

Here it is!

Princess Motor Yachts French Rendezvous

One of our niche skills is marine filming – filming at sea whether drone filming, boat to boat, or even underwater filming. Working with Princess Motor Yachts gives us a great opportunity to showcase these skills.

Princess Motor Yachts  are one of the UK’s foremost builders of luxury motor yachts. The statistics are impressive. According to Wikipedia, “Princess Yachts operates in 119 countries and employs over 2,600 people worldwide. Whilst their shipyards cover a combined area of over 1.1 million square feet.”

2018 French Rendezvous

Based in Plymouth, they have been a client we have been keen to work with. Particularly as I own a Princess boat – Cecienne – albeit the very smallest of their range. Over several years Fionn Crow and I have taken her from Africa to the Antarctic, and on those voyages have developed a considerable expertise in marine filming – an expertise that I am happy to say Princess have recognised.

Each year they arrange a cross-Channel adventure for Princess owners. Last year was from the Solent to Guernsey, an event that we filmed for them. So I was delighted when we were invited to film this year’s event – from The Solent to Cherbourg and then on to …

With my crew of Elliott Harrison and Reef Slack, we headed up to the Solent River, where we had an overnight mooring arranged for us. We arrived in good time for the skippers’ briefing by Jon Mendez, who had led last year’s Guernsey trip. Then an early night ready for an early morning departure.

The crossing

To get our drone footage, we ran ahead of the rest of the flotilla. Conditions were perfect for drone filming.Jon organised the boats into an arrowhead formation passin