All Aboard the Moonraker

When the weather is fine, then you know it's a sign, for messing about on the river; as do these ladies sunbathing on board their boat as it saunters along the Ouse through York.

A home movie of a superior kind, as the family of Leeds amateur filmmaker Ken Leckenby spend hours relaxing on a glorious summer’s day in 1975 boating along the Ouse to York. One can vicariously enjoy a day on the river with Mrs Leckenby, taking in the sun, looking out on the banks at York as the boat drifts lazily by.

This is one of many films made by amateur filmmaker Ken Leckenby. Ken was a member of the Mercury Movie Makers Cine Club of Leeds. MMM made films as a collective, but Ken also made many films of his own, including a series of films he titled ‘Out and About’, which brought together film and information of local places and events. The name of the boat isn’t a reference to the 007 film that came out several years later, but, presumably, to a small square sail set above a skysail; or perhaps it refers to the old Wiltshire tale about smugglers feigning madness to fool the revenue men by pretending to rake the shadow of the moon on the waters.