Beating the tide to deliver the goods

l A race against the clock for drenched brewery boss Steve Skinner (left) and Cornwall surf team manager Minnow Green

June 18, 2007: They weren’t exactly trying to emulate King Canute, but all concerned were very aware that time and tide wait for no man when a very special Skinner's Brewery delivery was completed with minutes to spare at Newquay’s Lusty Glaze Beach on Friday.

In the tightest of time slots, expert beach drivers Minnow Green and Ben Granata — surfing pals of brewery boss Steve Skinner — drove 7,500 bottles of lager and beer and 5,000 pints of Cornish cider to Lusty Glaze for the three-day Fat Face Night Surf event.

Skinner's regularly deliver to Lusty Glaze and normally handle the last lap on foot — repeatedly climbing up and down the 133 steps on the face of the 120ft cliff.

But this time the company decided to opt for wheels and a tight two-hour tidal window of opportunity for two four-wheel drive vehicles to be twice driven over to the beach from Newquay’s Sea Life Centre and then back again after unloading. Failure to complete the job in the time available was not an option, with everyone acutely aware that other such vehicles — not Skinner's — had already fallen victim to the tide between Newquay harbour and Lusty Glaze.

The Skinner's expedition was successfully completed with, Steve estimated, just five minutes to spare. At Lusty Glaze, the beach owners laid on a dozen people to help with the unloading.

“All told, from the first departure from the Sea Life Centre to the last return there, it took 90 minutes in torrential rain throughout,” said Steve.

“They all did a splendid job, but we estimate that it turned out to be a pretty close thing. On the last return, they did have to drive through an area of incoming shallow sea water. You could say a lotta bottle was required to deliver so many bottles in this fashion!

“Staff at Lusty Glaze offered coffee and something to eat at the end of it all, but this was declined — which was just as well as it turned out!”

Steve added: “We had studied the tide tables and were satisfied that this was one of a small number of times in the whole month when we could safely deliver right into Lusty Glaze by driving along the shoreline and then getting back to the harbour before the tide returns.

“It was definitely the most unusual delivery job we have ever handled, but it was worth the effort. We have some very fit draymen, but this was a very big consignment and we thought they had earned a break from all those cliffside steps!”