AS RATTY tells Mole, in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind In The Willows:

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

And for most small boys, never was a truer word spoken.

These would be sailors were messing about with pond yachts in 1954 at what we think is Paisley's Barshaw Park.

The old boy in the bunnet is a certain Mr Bain, the man who had built the entire flotilla.

Quite what today's generation of tech-savvy weans would make of the simple hobby, we don't know. Although, we suspect, like boys of any age, they would soon be hooked.

Now, with the breeze picking up, it's time to run to the other side of the pond...