Seagulls: a force of nature

What was the original purpose of these ancient contraptions, asks Dave Selby

- Dave Selby

The outboard shed at Stone Sailing Club on the River Blackwater is a grotto of mystic wonder. Long, long ago, three and a half weeks before the beginning of time, locals began to refer to it, with hushed reverence, as the ‘Temple of Gloom’. That’s because ever since man discovered fire, the shed lights have been on the blink.

Yet for all I know it may be a Masonic lodge, for as you peer into the murky depths, the dim outlines of mysterious ceremonial objects gradually take form. And though I be unschooled in the ways of the brotherhood, the symbolism is plain. Here are 13 odd galoshes seemingly scattered randomly to avoid making a pentangle; there, the sacred left cup of a bikini, wellies, waders, innertubes, rubber gloves, a flip-flop, foot pump, a thong – all clearly instruments of ritual, perhaps even sacrifice. For an altar, the thwart of an ancient Avon Red Crest, bespattered with what in my innocence I once took to be red anti-fouling.