Wind, Tide & Oar: Siblings' sailing film to hit the big screen

Huw Wahl used 16mm footage to shoot the film, which will premiere in London on 26 April

Siblings who spent three years shooting a film about engineless sailing will see it hit the big screen in London.

Rose Ravetz and Huw Wahl documented the lives of people who travelled by boat using a 1960s hand-wound camera.

Wind, Tide & Oar was chosen to premiere at the National Maritime Museum before it embarked on a three-month tour of ports in Essex and Suffolk.

"I'd never been sailing before - it was an incredible sensation," Mr Wahl said.

The film saw the siblings travel through rivers, coastlines and open seas across the UK, Netherlands and France, filming their encounters.

It showed the trials and tribulations of engineless navigation they faced during their travels, they told BBC Upload.

Rose Ravetz wanted to showcase the romance of engineless sailing

"I was trying to do as much as possible without using the engine and Huw saw my commitment to that and was taken by it - and by the cinematic potential of sailing," said Ms Ravetz, a student at the University of Essex.

"The idea of the film started from a very innocent, organic place. We didn't really know what exactly why or where it was going.

• LISTEN: How Wind, Tide & Oar was filmed

"Over the years of making it, it's become much clearer that it has this philosophical side to it."

Mr Wahl added: "The thing that was cinematic was the hardship of it, because Rose was living on a boat in the middle of winter."

Huw Wahl realised the "cinematic potential of sailing" during a visit to his sister's boat

Following the film's premiere onboard Thames barge, the Blue Mermaid, on 26 April, it will set sail from Greenwich on a unique tour running until July.

It will stop by ten ports across Essex and Suffolk, with the boat's hold being transformed into a floating cinema for intimate screenings.

"I've learned that both sailing and filmmaking are sensory experiences that we feel," Ms Ravetz said.

"Film making can really convey a story in a very felt, experiential and sensory way."

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