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You are here: Home > Forum > A Place of Safety > Literary Merit > No Borderlines by Andrew Foote
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No Borderlines by Andrew Foote  [message #71469] Mon, 02 May 2016 18:47 Go to next message
solsticeman is currently offline  solsticeman

Likes it here

Registered: November 2012
Messages: 109



Do give yourself a treat this wonderfully gentle tale presents a most unusual boy as foil to the narrator, a slightly older boy with a sense of right thats getting badly in his way at the moment Smile

Find it here:  http://iomfats.org/storyshelf/hosted/andrew-foote/no-borderl ines/01.html

Andrew is a talented author who specialises in the gentle tale that would convert any newly come-out boy's mother.

If you prefer romance to romp, then his work is for you.
Re: No Borderlines by Andrew Foote  [message #71470 is a reply to message #71469] Mon, 02 May 2016 18:49 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



I agree! Andichan creates a very carefully researched, well crafted tale.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: No Borderlines by Andrew Foote  [message #71639 is a reply to message #71470] Sun, 29 May 2016 22:25 Go to previous messageGo to next message
rontexas2 is currently offline  rontexas2

Getting started
Location: Northeast Texas USA
Registered: April 2016
Messages: 5



As a devoted follower of Andy's literary endeavors, I can only comment to this as another of his wonderful, heart warming stories; thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated.
Re: No Borderlines by Andrew Foote  [message #71641 is a reply to message #71639] Mon, 30 May 2016 06:38 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



Andy put in a great deal of research to ensure the maritime details worked. There may be minor areas where you have to suspend disbelief, heck, it's a story, but the essential technical details, the ones where folk might yell, "NO! That is just wrong!" those are correct.

His vessels work. The range works. The navigation works.

The rest is the story, underpinned by reality.



Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: No Borderlines by Andrew Foote  [message #71643 is a reply to message #71641] Mon, 30 May 2016 08:33 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nick Deverill is currently offline  Nick Deverill

Toe is in the water

Registered: November 2012
Messages: 78



Indeed, the bits of the story where he puts the maritime radios into it are correct, very few get this right (I have a licence for much of the gear).
Re: No Borderlines by Andrew Foote  [message #71645 is a reply to message #71643] Mon, 30 May 2016 12:02 Go to previous messageGo to next message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



To be fair, "real" fishermen hardly bother with correct radio procedure. You shoudl hear them effing and jeffimg on the radios here! And they would probably have used boats names, not side numbers (fishing boat registration numbers) or OfCom callsigns, but, as Andy's maritime consultant, I helped him get those right, plus estimating fuel consumptions, engines and tankage. Also IALA A vs IALA B!

Yup, I'm a boat nerd!

I also like the way he used the MAIB report to create an incident that had validity for the vessels in the story.

Anyone who has no idea what I'm talking about, you are in the majority! But getting it right for the expert minority is important, too.

Gay blokes also skipper boats!

[Updated on: Mon, 30 May 2016 12:03]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
Re: No Borderlines by Andrew Foote  [message #71649 is a reply to message #71645] Mon, 30 May 2016 12:50 Go to previous messageGo to next message
Nick Deverill is currently offline  Nick Deverill

Toe is in the water

Registered: November 2012
Messages: 78



"Quote:"
timmy wrote on Mon, 30 May 2016 12:02To be fair, "real" fishermen hardly bother with correct radio procedure. You shoudl hear them effing and jeffimg on the radios here! And they would probably have used boats names, not side numbers (fishing boat registration numbers) or OfCom callsigns, but, as Andy's maritime consultant, I helped him get those right, plus estimating fuel consumptions, engines and tankage. Also IALA A vs IALA B!

To be truthful, virtually no-one with a radio licence operates correctly most of the time, but again, no one in officialdom is listening. VHF doesn't get very far, hence why the HF (short-wave) radios were in the story. Made me sit up too, as that is not the sort of detail even in most stories.

I'd no idea that the fuel consumptions were a good estimate, but the thing that does come out of the story is that they are consistent. Many authors including such stuff would have had a boat go from amazingly good to bad without even a comment, so the story does well there too.

Plus, at the end of the day, it's a good read! 

[Updated on: Mon, 30 May 2016 12:51]

Re: No Borderlines by Andrew Foote  [message #71650 is a reply to message #71649] Mon, 30 May 2016 13:44 Go to previous message
timmy

Has no life at all
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13739



Fuel was relatively easy to estimate. Once we'd settled on horsepower that gave us a rough litres per hour at, say, 8 knots, and the vastly increased consumption if one could push the boat to 10-12 knots. We estimated 12 knots as maximum theoretical hull speed for that type of hull in that length, assuming a clean hull. Then time and distance and fuel consumption could be guesstimated.

Tankage was guessed in metric tonnes, whch convert easily to litres. That gave us range, albeit at different speeds. All Andy had to do then -all! - was work out whether they were in a hurry or not.

I work afloat for a harbour authority, so my own radio procedure must be 100%, and I know well how insecure most folk are on the radio, and how they get it wrong. No-one is listening, unless of channel 16, when everyone is! A radio call that is not ambiguous is one that works! And I have had to issue my own Mayday! call, something I hope to do only once.

Andy researched very carefully, hence HF. I admit I would never have considered it.

We also looked at tidal ranges later, but that is past where we are today.

A reader with more knowledge than I is wondering about Lowestoft. On the basis of his wonderings Andy has made a small alteration to the tale which relieves the concern

[Updated on: Wed, 01 June 2016 09:18]




Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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