There will be some real Mischief Among the Penguins this weekend as I battle to control a large waddle of them in our new Christmas window display. However this will be a mere mini-adventure compared to the antics of our friend H.W. Bill Tilman! H. W. ‘Bill’ Tilman was one of the greatest adventurers of his time, a pioneering climber and sailor who held exploration above all else. He made first ascents throughout the Himalaya, attempted Mount Everest, and sailed into the Arctic Circle. For...

If you get into a bit of a tangle with your hitches then why not come along to Arthur Beale on the Thursday and brush up on some basic seagoing knots. There are still a few places left. Price £5.00 includes some practise ropes etc. Please email talks@arthurbeale.co.uk to reserve your place.

On Thursday evening we had a virtually full house to hear Philip Temple talking about the adventurous expedition that he took part in to land on the remote Antarctic Heard Island and then climb its 9,000ft volcano which happens to be the highest peak in Australian Terriory. The yacht was skippered by none other than H. W. Tilman. The story is also told in full in the newly released book "The Sea and the Snow" which would make a great read for anyone interested in expedition sailing. The...

6th October at 18:45 Our next event should be a corker, especially if you have an interest in real adventure and high latitude sailing. Fifty years ago ten young, or youthful, men set out to climb one of the world's most inaccessible peaks—an unclimbed 9,000-foot volcanic island, thousands of miles to the south-west of Australia. To make sure they got there against the prevailing winds—and back—they had as their Skipper none other than the renowned high-latitude sailor H. W. 'Bill' Tilman. One...

Melanie Georgacopoulos - Shackle Cufflinks 18ct yellow gold, white freshwater pearls Well why not! We had a wonderful exhibition of marine paintings by Martyn Mackrill and it was a great success so when we were approached about a collaboration with Central Saint Martins for an exhibition of jewellery inspired by our historic shop and all the nautical gear that we stock we thought let's see what happens. Over the past few months we have taken small groups of jewellery lecturers into the basement...

Our staff enjoy working in the shop mainly because of all the wonderful people who visit us. Take yesterday evening when we met Dr Irving Finkel who was drawn into the shop after spotting our coracle window display. Dr Finkel is the President of the Coracle Society but after a fascinating conversation we discovered he is also a specialist in cuneiform inscriptions on tablets of clay from ancient Mesopotania and looks after the British Museum’s collection of 130,000 pieces. It was amongst these...

To celebrate the release of the fully updated second edition of his famous book "Hand, Reef and Steer" Tom has agreed to give us a fully illustrated talk on the trials and tribulations of sailing with a gaff rig. 15th September 2016 at 18:45 In Hand, Reef & Steer - winner of the Best Book of the Sea Award - Tom explains the different sailing characteristics of classic craft and shares his knowledge of the special skills required to handle them. He describes how to manage heavy loads using...

We are really pleased to announce that Oliver Coghlan has joined the team at Arthur Beale. Oliver is a very keen sailor with a Yachtmaster Ocean certificate and at least 5,000 nm of ocean sailing experience. Although he has worked on large super yachts and sailed big Oysters his passion is racing the XOD keelboat "Athena". Of course Cowes Week starts on the 6th August so Oliver will be competitively racing all week. We will have to cope without him for a while but we expect him to win some...

Well it is for me! No exotic plans this year. We may potter over to Holland if the wind is fair otherwise we will probably take the lovely clinker dinghy down to Pin Mill on the Orwell and mix a bit of sailing on Sumara (shown above) with some dinghy sailing, rowing and maybe running along the Suffolk Coast Paths. No doubt we will go aground somewhere and whatever happens we will definitely end up covered in mud - oh joy. See you in August!