KeepTurningLeft Season 8 film 18 The Kyle of Lochalsh 

there are a few more films to come Just to keep you up to speed - I have nine more films in the can - unedited. Then I will have run out of material. I am currently working on the delivery trip films (the last sail on Harmony) where I quickly took her the 250 odd miles down the scottish coast in September and October. I have seldom seen the highlands and islands looking more beautiful. Just the narrative of a journey - no history or poking around ashore. I am planning to post the journey as a series of nicely recorded blogs - one for each day of the journey - so the first day in tobermory it rained and rained so it is a very short blog..... about the rain. I sold Harmony for £8.5K in Glasgow and, as agreed with the bloke who had her before, I gave him half of that. So I had the use of the boat for a year - I did not make much money on the boat - you know how any boat swallows money and she was in a bit of a state when I got her. Then I spent the following summer exploring the shallow bits of the the East Coast of Scotland in the 22 footer with full crouching headroom. I had dumped her in Edinburgh where she had sat in a dinghy park on the Forth. That will be four films as I took the boat all the way to the top of the Forth, Tay, Moray and Cromarty. Then I brought the Trailer sailer home and dumped it in the garden under a Tarp. Then I bought a cheaper Centaur in Cornwall for £5.5K and sailed that to the west coast. I spent a summer up there filming (4 more films I think ) before again running out of cash. I sold that Centaur in Scotland in January after owning her for 13 months I sold her for £8.5 K and that cleared the debts. I have not been sailing in Scotland this past summer and I think that I am unlikely to get back there with a tough, warm, waterpoof boat this summer either. I will see how the cash flow goes over the remaining nine films and see if they earn enough for another crack at the Hebrides. Sailing in Scotland is a £6,000 a year habit what with killing cars, petrol, moorings, storage ashore - while sailing the 22 footer on the Deben close to the house costs £140 a year, If the final films earn enough doe then I will follow through by buying a Fisher and starting again where I left off. If they don't then that journey will have to go on hold for five years when the pension will kick in. But then I won't make any more films because there will be no need Dylan

thanks L... we shall see what happens... no more filming this year I fear

I am afraid my films are a bit misleading about scottish weather - it rains more than it seems from the films.

hoping to return with sweet pea

time you bought a small sailboat John

not always terrible orthodox though..... different boat on PBO front page - www.pbo.co.uk/publication/pbo/february-2018

well done that man

jolly good

but that was the end

sadly sharing is such a terrible way of getting paid for making films that the project has gone bust, I have sold the boat and and filming has stopped - on the bright side though, youtube will supply you with an endless supply of nicely made films of pulchritudinous. American girls in bikinis sharing their summer sailing in the caribbean. Some of them get filmed feeding swimming spotted pigs on a lovely beach or emoting at dolphins from the foredecks of their 40 foot yachts - lovely stuff. Good for the soul.

Sold the boat! OK, probably you had your reasons to not keep it. Is there any hope of another vessel? If so, what are you aiming at? What would you prefer, from your experiences, to be a nice sailer in those waters? Do I get it right, that the pennies you get from YT are more of a pain than a cheer, in comparison to the efforts made? Questions - many, yes. I reckon from your answer above that you might not be in the mood for any exhaustive replies… Reasons for asking are that personally I quite heavily consider to step into this way of living, in full time, in some years. And if someone like you freely can tell about the disadvantages to be calculated, I reckon that time is now.

the answer is that unless you can shoehorn bikini shots into your films then any project is a toughie. It is a pretty crowded market - the two top boats - la vag and Delos are earning in excess of $10,000 a week. I assume that no-one else is even covering their costs. These are the details of where I stand www.keepturningleft.co.uk/sailing-around-britain/the-future-for-the-ktl-films/

Yes, I found out about your future plans on your site just before. Over all the videography quality is low on YT sailing channels. Some compensate with bikinis, some with music, some with “telling how things shall be done” and so on. But then there actually are channels that have a decent quality, nice footage, no (or almost no) bikinis, good storytelling, DIY, and do interesting stuff. Should there be a better forum for them? Vimeo generally has a high technical quality but not necessarily a good story. A combination of YT and FB seems to get more followers and helpers on Patreon. PayPal is more of pocket change or what?

paypal is the only revenue. FB does not work for my viewers - who are mostly men aged 50 to 70. I am afraid that the mantra that if it is digits it is free is so engrained in us all that it is an uphill task. I have around 6,000 people who watch every film - well over 97 per cent of them have never chipped in ever. This is higher than the bikini channels who get around 99.5 per cent of regulars who never ever chip in.... but of course the bikini channels can count on 250,000 views per film. Incidentally they also make no money from youtube - usually because of the music issue. The adsense rate is around $1 per thousand views so even 250,000 views would not cover any of the expenses.....

If you watch the next 12 blogs you will see how often rain stops play in scotland so I need the smallest, toughest, best sailing motorsailor ever made www.google.com/search?q=fisher+25&client=firefox-b&dcr=0&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAzLDUo5nZAhVlIcAKHUOsB-cQsAQIOA&biw=2400&bih=1220

That looks like one tough cookie to me also expensive looking as well,I could do with one myself. lets hope it works in your favour.good luck.

I am 62 now so I have to start protecting myself and the gear from the cold and the damp. Cold, old blokes are dangers to themselves. We shall see what happens.

damm it!! i'm 66 so must be very dangerous but I do stay in the south.btw,what would one of those cost a fella?.

25K - I spent two winters sailing in scotland in open cockpit boats with no heating.... I was overcome with damp

some would agree with you.....but the MacKay story is a special one I think

KeepTurningLeft the Mckay story is brilliant thanks there’s also Mckays on Uist too I guess they’ll be connected to the Sutherland ones from some time in the past. Love your videos I’m just getting ready to sail the west cost too 😎⛵️⚓️🌅

thanks for asking - water under the bridge now but painful at the time www.duckworksmagazine.com/11/columns/guest/winter/index.htm

over fishing is..... politics

@@KeepTurningLeft Well I know a little about Scottish fishing having worked in Orkney, Western Isles and Shetland as well as having been a Fisheries Officer in London/ Lowestoft/ Falmouth in the early 80s just when the great fishing sell out to the EU was beginning and the magenta spjned EU directives were arriving at Horseferry Road. Of course none of us realised the enormity of what was happening.

unearthed.greenpeace.org/

PS does this count as politics?

The introduction of the quota system was one of the worst ( I could say evil things that the EU ever did and it doesn't just apply to fish ). It basically means that corporations can colonise the right to produce anything from milk to fish. And that is what is happening. You seem to have got a bee in your bonnet about my original politics comment. Well It's your blog (or whatever) you can say what you like and I can read it or not.