Fowey boatbuilder Marcus Lewis went to this years Thames Traditional Boat Rally and kindly sent me these shots – he knew in advance that I wouldn’t be able to attend myself.

Here’s what he had to say about them:

‘Hi, I thought I would send you some pictures of the Henley rally in case you were short of material this week!

It was super weather, bright sunshine some of the time, with a breeze on the river (bit more on Sunday) and the atmosphere was very relaxed and calm, no-one getting their knickers twisted!

There was a marvellous selection of craft, a large collection of Dunkirk Little Ships - even a motor launch that used to ferry passengers from Fowey to Bodinnick - and a very good commentary from people who clearly know the boats, the owners, and what they can get away with commenting on!

The boat jumble was ok, not over-busy, but there were a few treasures to be found if you were looking.

The illuminated parade was a little under-subscribed, but those that took part really made an effort.

An excellent event that was blessed with fine weather, and the red kites soaring overhead gave something for my partner Sue to watch when she got tired of looking at the boats!

Cheers, Marcus‘

Many thanks Marcus! It looks a very jolly party – I really must go along some time. I only have one concern: what exactly are the rules about how to dress for the occasion?

Speaking of schooners, as we were in a recent post about the type’s origins, my friend Mike Goodwin worked on the building of the schooner Virginia, which completed in 2007, and was lucky enough to be a member of her crew when she won the Gloucester Schooner Race the same year.

Here’s his animated photo-record of her from the beginning the building to the finishing line of the race. The baulks of timber involved are awesome, but then it gets better…

The music comes from artist and composer Michael Shantz.

The original early 20th century Norfolk racing launch – clearly showing lines that are not  fully developed for planing

Readers may remember the intriguingly incomplete story of a Norfolk racing launch spotted at Reedham some time ago. Keith Johnston takes up an entertaining and interesting story:

I was delighted to receive an e-mail from intheboatshed.net’s editor, in which he passed on an e-mail from Melanie Farrar giving a different history of the Rocinante. Very soon after that we received a couple of fascinating emails from Mike Barnes, the owner of the second hull made moulded using the original early 20th century boat mentioned in the post linked above, and then later again I had a telephone call from Rocinante’s builder himself, Richard Farrar.

With all is separate threads drawn together, the collective story is as follows:

First Melanie Farrar’s reply:

‘Rocinante is owned and was built in its entirety by my father Richard Farrar. The original hull was indeed once owned by Stephen Sanderson but was passed to my father upon the sale of the property where it was stored. Unfortunately, any restoration work which had taken place had deteriorated greatly. In any case, my father’s intentions had always been to take a fibreglass mould from the hull. This he did himself at his home just outside Cambridge. Two mouldings were laid up, one of which, as you rightly said, was passed to a friend (the new owner of the property whence she came). He then proceeded to fit a small diesel engine and to complete all the bright work etc in Rocinante himself. My parents have enjoyed taking her on a voyage down the Soane and across the Etang du Thau into the Canal de Midi in France. We are very proud of my father’s achievements in building Rocinante on which we have had many many hours of pleasure. I just wanted to set the record straight.’

Now to the reply from Mike Barnes the owner of the second launch moulded from the 1903 original.

‘Further to Mel Farrar’s response above; I am the owner of the “other” boat, which is called Hazard, and I confirm that her account is pretty much the way it occurred. I was privileged enough to be able to buy Holly Farm from Colin Sanderson and family when they moved in 1995. The original launch was left in the garden when they went, and so its remains became mine. It had indeed been rescued by Steve Sanderson from the river bank at Yarmouth where it would surely have soon ended its days. It had not however been subject to any works thereafter and if there was an engine with it then, it had quite literally fallen through the bottom and disappeared by the time we found it. My company has restored many wooden boats a lot older than this, so I can say with confidence that it was beyond repair with one caveat – had we been able to find any provenance, there might have been some reason to retrieve it but as with so many old launches like this, they spent very little time in their original use and ownership, and very many years as day hire craft during which much of the original boat’s details were lost.

Dick Farrar approached me with a proposal that he should take the remains and would try to repair and reinforce it to a fair enough shape to be able to take a mould off it. If he was successful, I would get use of the tool for one moulding and if he was unsuccessful, well he would save me the trouble of disposing of the wreck. Dick made a fantastic job of saving the hull shape and fairing the remains, and I was very pleased to take a very clean moulding out of the tool.

Dick completed his boat first, very much like a slipper launch in layout, with the engine up front under the foredeck and one large cockpit with Lloyd Loom chairs. At Dick’s suggestion (I suspect to preserve the uniqueness of his own boat!), I went a different route, with the engine mounted dead amidships under deck hatches and with two small cockpits, one in front and one behind the engine. The engine is a Chevrolet 6.5 litre V8 diesel that  ”pushes it along nicely”. All construction was done in my workshops at home (where the original boat was), between myself, Alan Lee and Maynard Watson.

Aside from the hull, all construction is teak, selected by me in India and being mostly the off cuts and scraps from the restoration of the Wherry Ardea that my company was performing at the same time. Many people have complimented me on the finished article but to save anyone asking, Dick Farrar has never given permission for any further copies and I doubt he ever will!

Regards, Mike Barnes, managing director Norfolk Broads Yachting Co.’

So that is the basic story of these two beautiful replicas. However, following a couple of supplementary questions from Gavin Mike came back with more information as follows:-

‘On the measured mile, Hazard was timed at a relatively sedate 25 knots. It would obviously be even quicker with a lighter engine of similar output, but actually I like the way it feels – which is substantial! These boats were originally built at a time when planing hull design was in its infancy (the thinking then was narrow and long was equal to fast) and the hull form is too narrow really to be a proper planing hull – it is more semi-displacement – but it does get up and go although being so long, it has a big turning circle. I also have a wooden 1950s Chris-Craft Continental, which planes easily and is much faster with the same engine, as it is much wider in the beam and flat aft so planes cleanly, it also turns on a dime such was the way hull design moved on between the wars.

We did do some further research on the boat after the replica Hazard project got under way and although we certainly never found any inkling of who might have been the builder or even the date of build or first owner (in fact not an iota of solid information from before Steve finding it), we did date it according to contemporary hull development and similar racing craft, to a probable build date of around 1910. It is possible that the boat could be one of a clutch of local boats built for Howard Hollingsworth, who also much later commissioned Ardea, but before the first war was a launch racing enthusiast.

He raced here in Norfolk and in Monaco (he had that sort of money) and I have a picture of him sitting squarely in a large overcoat driving a very similar looking launch at speed.

The critical thing to recognise with dating hulls from this era, is that both hull design and available engine output were of a similar level of development before the first world war and planing hull design only really developed when available engine output increased to a level where planing became feasible. A Brooke Marine engine of the time would have been of heavy cast iron and brass construction, and would have struggled to put out 30hp for launch of this size, whereas the first war prompted development in aviation engines that within the next five years saw engines built lighter in aluminium and out puts increase by a factor of 10.

This was why launch racing was transformed the moment the war was over, as there was a huge surplus of otherwise worthless aero engines that innovative builders snapped up and used to build racing boats around them. Then you had Malcolm Campbell and others vying for new world records seemingly in successive weeks and the rest is history. The boats from before the war, such that they were, were rendered obsolete overnight and thus consigned to the ignominy of being used as hired day boats, if in fact they weren’t simply destroyed, which is why so little is known of them now.

Many years ago, myself and colleague Steve Evans worked on a very old speed boat called The Bat Boat, which dated from 1912. It was a preserved example of an experimental hull design and was actually one of the very first stepped-hull hydroplanes to come into existence, and powered by a vast 12-litre V8 aero engine. The reason for the step was to enhance the performance of the floats on early sea planes, as the step in the hull promoted aeration of the water flowing underneath, which in turn promoted planing at a lower speed. These two areas of development ie flying boat float and fast hull design thus had much in common from a very early stage and knowledge of that development enables us to tie down the hull age pretty closely of the original boat.

Regards, Mike Barnes, managing director Norfolk Broads Yachting Co.’

‘Following these emails I then had a telephone call from Dick Farrar himself. He really is an interesting chap and spoke at length to confirm all the above information and to add that he also built the Bermudan sloop that can be seen moored on the inside mooring in the picture of Rocinante in the original article.

Dick summed himself up by saying that the name Rocinante says a lot about himself. The launch is named after Don Quixote’s horse, which carried him through a life of jousting with windmills. A lot of us get a great deal of satisfaction from following our dreams and can wholeheartedly empathise with Dick. Very many thanks to Melanie Farrar, Richard Farrar and Mike Barnes for telling us this great story.’

I’d like to add my thanks to Keith, Mike, and Melanie and Colin Farrar for taking the time to tell us the stories of their beautiful boats, one with a (to me) huge engine and the other so well travelled. Dear readers, if you see them passing by, remember their stories and give them a wave!

Mike Barnes photos of his boat Hazard

I’m reading the 1922 second edition E Keble Chatterton’s book Fore and Aft Craft, which explains the history and development of the fore and aft rig, and in particular the influence of the Dutch. It’s an eye-opening work and I was particularly struck by this section on the invention and origins of the schooner. I remain puzzled by the fact that two-masted fore and aft rigged craft are depicted earlier in the book and I’d be intrigued to know what other countries known for their schooners (such as the Portuguese) would say were the origins of their craft. Even more, I find the image he includes difficult to interpret – but what he says is intriguing and certainly makes a good story. (Beware though – the comments below strongly suggest it may not be entirely true!)

It all starts with mention of two masted sloepes depicted in painting dating from 1629 to 1642.

‘Some of these so-called sloepes were about 24 ft long in the mainmast, 42 ft in length overall, with a beam of 9ft. Now we referred some pages back to the colonisation of northern America by the Dutch, who called their territory the New Netherlands, and that which is now known as New York was called by them New Amsterdam.  Along that Atlantic coast stretching northwards to Gloucester and Boston, are to be seen to this day perhaps the very finest class of schooners in existence, or ever conceived by the mind of designer. The reason is to be found in the fact that the Dutch colonists took over the Atlantic not merely their ideas of cutters and single-masted sloops, but also the other notions of craft, including this kind of vessel depicted in the Boijmans’ Museum.

‘It was in 1664 that, during the Anglo-Dutch War, the British seized New Netherlands, but that did not mean that the whole Dutch colony vanished , nor that the Dutch-American shipping was instantly to be swept out of sight. Undoubtedly, this two-masted sloepe held on. But in the year 1713 there came a change: there was seen to be room for improvement, for it was realised this “two-sticker” could be made a better craft by adding a triangular jib as in the single-masted sloops. And so this was done. The foremast was already very far forward in the eyes of the ship, and so a broeksprit or bowsprit, had to be added also on which to set the jib, and so with this the schooner as belonging to the years 1800  to 1850 came into being. It was then distinctly a Dutch-American craft, and not British, and the date of the first of this new type was, as stated, 1713. Captain Clark relates that as she was leaving the launching ways some one exclaimed: “See how she scoons,” and from that day this prototype and her descendants have been called schooners.

‘The place where this vessel orginated was Gloucester, and this early reputation for the two-masted fore-and-after has been since continuously maintained by that port. Two separate reasons have contributed to the development of the Gloucester schooner. First there was a demand for an able type of vessel that should be capable of riding out bad weather in the Atlantic; and, secondly, the type that was required muust also have a good turn of speed, for two separate kinds of people needed just such a vessel as possessed these qualifications. In the first place there was the brotherhood of pilots, who were so keen on getting to the incoming ship that they would race for many a long mile out into the ocean so as to arrive first. Secondly, there were the fishermen who earned their living by going to fish off the Grand Banks. Having filled up with the spoil of the sea, it was their duty to hurry back to market, and obtain the best prices for their catch.’

Julie took these shots of Sea View One-Design dinghies at the village of Seaview on the Isle of Wight during a week’s holiday last week.

The boats are built by the local family firm of V A Warren & Son, and apparently there are about 200 now in existence, and as many as 198 sailed past the local Sea View Yacht Club for the class’s 75th aniversary. The class was founded in 1931.

I knew of their existence but hadn’t realised there were so very many of them – this is a seriously impressive local racing class.

The class has a website that’s currently in development and I look forward to reading more about these boats some time.

I should add that Seaview is famous for a few other things too, including the Mermaid keelboat class, and also as a launching pad for Operation Overlord – the invasion of France and the beginning of the big fightback to rid Europe of the blight of Nazism. Now that’s something well worth knowing about too.

Edward Gransden has kindly been in touch with these photos of the Thames sailing barge named Edith May, which has this month been sailing for the first time in ten years or more. Here’s what he says:

‘Please find attached a couple of photos from our first sail. We are intending to charter with individuals and groups up to 12 throughout the summer, operating from Lower Halstow, Chatham and Queenborough.

‘Having spent the past 10 and a half years restoring her, it was a great thrill to be able to take her out sailing for the first time, with her performance proving very pleasing. The Swale Match in August will be the first chance we get to see if she has retained the pace she was once renowned for!’

Thanks Edward! Any time you have photos and stories to share let me know.

It happens that we were over at Lower Halstow this weekend, and found the Edith May in the dock looking very smart. I took some shots with my camera phone – but I’m damned if I can get them out. It’s a better camera than you might think, but the connections and software make me curse!

Here’s an earlier post featuring the Edith May, and here’s a link to the Edith May website.

A Brown Boat at the start of the Three Rivers Race, 2010

Troubled as I am by continuing problems with our Internet connection – please get on with it Plusnet and BT, it’s been more than two weeks now! – I can’t actually look at Dylan Winter’s videos of the start of the Three Rivers Race this year.

Still, I’m more than sure they’re well worth seeing; those starts must be a sight in themselves, and it’s difficult to imagine any where else in the UK where one could see so many well kept traditional craft on the water in one place.  Dylan would like information about the boats in the videos, if anyone can help.

If he was watching the start of the Three Rivers, he must have been in the area at the same time we were at Barton Turf, enjoying the good company of the HBBR meet there this year, and sailing the Barton Activity Centre’s boats on Barton Broad.

Now, though, apart from getting a decent Internet service, I want to hear how he gets on sailing around the North Norfolk coast, the Wash and the southern end of the long Lincolnshire coast.

The July/August issue of Water Craft – subscribe online now!

The July/August 2010 issue of Water Craft magazine is out from the 24th June contains the usual fine collection of articles! This time, editor Pete Greenfield says it includes the following:

Designer Paul Gartside presents full plans and offsets for a shapely 18ft (5.5m) gaff-rigged centreboard dayboat. I’d say that was unmissable…

Roger Dongray introduces his new 25’ (7.6m) Golant Yawl, which follows on from the success of his widely admired 19ft (5.9m) Golant Gaffer design. This issue includesfeatures on both.

Boatbuilder Gail McGarva completes the construction of two traditional 32ft (9.8m) Cornish pilot gigs.

Reporter and photographer Kathy Mansfield goes to the recent ‘Oughtraid’ held in Holland. Apparently it was relaxed gathering of Iain Oughtred’s elegant boat designs in the Netherlands. I hope the weather was good.

The issue also includes the next instalments of its Grand Designs series, including a lovely double-page  feature about the Light Trow, and  all the usual regular features.

For more on Iain Oughtred’s designs, click here.

For more on  Gail McGarva, click here.

This year’s Art in Action show at Waterperry, near Wheatley in Oxfordshire, takes place from the 15th to 18th July.

If you’re in the area, it might well be worth dropping by, for this year the woodworking section of this exhibition of art and craftsmanship includes exhibits from the Boat Building Academy folks at Lyme.

I’m rather tickled by the organisers’ description of the BBA as a ‘young very hands-on academy in Dorset‘. I wonder if they’ve noticed how many more mature as well as young students find themselves at home at the Academy each year?

I’m afraid that they didn’t include any detail about the boat in the photo above – perhaps someone can fill us in please? As always, I’m at gmatkin@gmail.com.

Peter Worlock – see the comments below – knows the show well and says he cannot recommend it highly enough. Sounds good to me…

PS – I’m sorry about by long silence and the delays in posting some stories recently – we’re just coming to the end of ten days during which we’ve had a intermittent and very slow  Internet connection.

Pipkin, Curlew and Aileen

The pontoon at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall is busy again, now that summer is here: after a winter in the museum workshop Curlew, Aileen and Pipkin are all in the water. All three can be seen sailing up and down the river Fal throughout the summer.

Curlew is the oldest boat returning to the pontoon. A Falmouth quay punt that has travelled the world as a yacht, her career is one of the most varied, as it ranges from fishing boat to leisure cruiser to race winner.

Aileen is the very first St Mawes One Design. She was designed by Frank Peters after he was defeated in races off St Mawes, and was built for speed. She won three Falmouth Town Regatta Class races.

Pipkin is based on the design of the Cape Cod catboats and is used by the volunteers to hone their sailing skills.

On the subject of the NMMC, I’ve been asked to ask a favour of intheboatshed.net readers. It seems that the Our lighthouses: life on the rocks exhibition has made it to the semi-finals in the Best heritage project category of The National Lottery Awards, and needs your votes to make it through to the final.

Just 10 Lottery-funded projects are in contention. Voting is now open now and ends at midday on Friday 18 June.

To vote call 0844 686 7951 (calls cost 5p from a BT landline) or log on to www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards (which is free).

Go on someone – take this one on, and you could become a restoration legend!

Click here to buy her for a princely £100!

My thanks to Dave Rowlands for spotting the advert.

Round the Island yachts racing off the Needles (thanks to Onedition), the 43ft Fred Shepherd designed Maybird, and Ocean Pearl (Vanessa Bird)

This year’s Round the Island Race is coming up on the 19th June, so this seems like a good time to draw attention to this amazing annual spectacle of getting on for 2000 boats all sailing in the same direction for most of a day – if you don’t count the spectators and sight-seers.

Among that huge number there are bound to be quite a number of older and traditional craft, and the photos above are of two that took part last year. My thanks go to Peta Stuart-Hunt for her help in providing intheboatshed.net with its special needs!

Maybird is a Fred Shepherd 43ft (52ft LOA) gaff-rigged ketch that will be competing in her first race since being restored at Saxon Wharf when she comes to the start line on 19th June. She was designed for Lt Col WCW Hawkes DSO, Indian Army (retired) and built by Jack Tyrell at Arklow, Co Wicklow in 1937. She’s had quite a history – in her time, she has been a gentleman’s auxillary yacht, an ocean passage maker and a Greenpeace protest vessel, and now she’s available for charter.

Also a contender last year in the traditional gaffer class, Ocean Pearl was built in 1933 by Nobles of Fraserburgh and registered at Peterhead in Aberdeenshire. At 37ft 6in LWL, she was just under the 40ft length restrictions, which meant that she could fish within the three-mile limit of shore, and between 1933 and 1939 she was worked with nets and lines out of Peterhead. Between 1939 and 1945 she was requisitioned by the Navy and served as a supply vessel in Scapa Flow, before returning to the fishing industry after the end of the war.

She then fished until 1967 before selling her to Joseph Anthony Moore Phillips, father of Captain Mark Phillips, the first husband of HRH Princess Anne, who based her at Whitby, North Yorkshire. In 1981, three owners later, she was taken to Staines in Middlesex to be restored, but was eventually abandoned in a disused tarmac works, where she lay for 15 years before being taken to Combes Boatyard in West Sussex.

Nick Gates took over ownership in 1999 and over the past 10 years has rebuilt her, converting her from motor to sail. She is rigged as a Manx nobby, with standing lug main and mizzen, and sets 1600 sq ft of canvas. Ocean Pearl has been mentioned several times at intheboatshed.net – for earlier intheboatshed.net posts relating to her, click here.

Heroes all: the Newquay lifeboat crew on the occasion of a Royal visit in June 1909.

‘A site was chosen in the hollow, a Life-Boat house built, and a concrete slipway constructed in order that the boat might be launched into deep water within easy reach of the open sea and command the whole bay… When required the boat is brought to the edge, and the crew, having donned their oilies and “Kapok” life-belts, climb in and take their places. The masts are stepped, and, at the word of command, she is released, shoots down the slipway and dashes into the sea in a cloud of spray.’

To see the rest of this series:

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part I

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part II

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part III

Also, Ed Bachman has collated these individual pages into two pdf files. Thanks Ed!

The Lifeboat pdf part I

The Lifeboat pdf part II

Semaine du Golfe press photos – the top photo was taken by Quivillac, the following three by Lamour, and the final shot by Boisdron

Another day, another excuse to put up some atmospheric photos! These shots are from the Semaine du Golfe, which takes place every other year in the wonderful Gulf of Morbihan, on the coast of France. Next year it runs from the 30th of May to the 5th of June.

There’s the usual busy programme of sailing, racing and partying, and this year the attendees include a special flotilla from Wales and a delegation from the southern Basque Country.

For more information, see the impressive press pack.

Jan Carpenter has written in to ask for information about this local wreck. Does anyone have any answers for him please?

‘Hi all, looking for any info about what’s said to be a Thames barge named the George Murray, which is now a wreck lying in Forder Lake just off the River Lynher in Cornwall. However, I’m thinking that it may not be a Thames barge.

‘There have been several hypothesis for this wreck and several different names have suggested, but the locals seem to remember her as the George Murray. However I suspect she wasn’t a Thames barge because I cannot find any trace of a barge called George Murray anywhere! I was hoping your website may jog a few memories or direct me to somewhere I can find lists of vessels I have not yet come across…’

‘Kind regards, Jan

‘PS I have had three 40ft larch logs delivered for the planking of Scoter and a fine selection of oak knees!’

I should explain that Jan is the new owner of the important Maurice Griffiths-designed Scoter, and that his postscript is great news for anyone interested in seeing her afloat once again.

As for the George Murray - from the look of her she certainly could be a Thames barge, and given the thousands that used to work in the Thames, I’d guess there could easily have been some about which there’s little documentary evidence left today. Would the PLA’s archives include some information, I wonder?

For more on Scoter, click here and scroll down!

Can anyone help identify this boat bought recently by boatbuilder Kyle Abingdon?

Here’s what he says about her:

‘Gavin.

‘Please can you and your readers help to identify this mystery boat I have bought with mind to restoring her this winter? She’s a beautiful 14ft 7in x 5ft 2in carvel wooden sailing dinghy. She needs a lot of work but I couldn’t help myself.

‘She is quite heavily built. She has an elm transom, keel and stem pine planks and a mahogany sheer strake. She is a Bermudan sloop with a bowspirit and has a heavy galvanised centre board.

‘She looks a bit like an old Torbay J Class or West Lancashire Seabird but is a lot smaller than either of these. Please can you an your readers give me your ideas?

‘Regards, Kyle Abingdon

‘Abingdon Marine Carpentry, www.marinecarpenty.co.uk, tel 07737868421′

Thanks Kyle!

See an earlier query from Kyle about the AH Comben’s-designed Nosila here.

Two other recent requests for information concern Firth of Forth dreg songs used in the oyster fishery and a canoe yawl built by the Thames. If any boat boffins can help with any of these questions, I would be most grateful!

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‘It may seem strange that a cause launched with so much enthusiasm, and supported by such influential men, a cause appealing so strongly to the feelings of our countrymen, should have languished and almost died. But the nation was going through a time of deep distress and agitation, and many people thought the State itself was on the verge of shipwreck.’

How little things change! Hopefully, this time we’ll keep the lifeboats in service.

Here’s the second serving of The Life-boat and its Work, the history of the lifeboat of 1911 I started putting up a few days ago.

To see the rest of this series:

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part I

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part II

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part III

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]]> http://intheboatshed.net/2010/05/11/the-life-boat-and-its-work-a-history-from-1911-part-ii/feed/ 1 http://intheboatshed.net/2010/05/05/the-life-boat-and-its-work-a-history-of-1911/ http://intheboatshed.net/2010/05/05/the-life-boat-and-its-work-a-history-of-1911/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 12:42:57 +0000 Gavin Atkin http://intheboatshed.net/?p=9976

‘It is impossible to assign to any one person the merit of inventing the Life-Boat’

Based on a 1910 Royal Society of Arts lecture, Sir John Cameron-Lamb’s small book The Life-boat and its Work was published in the following year, and sold for the now-laughable sum of one shilling. I promised the gentlemen who look after Southwold’s historic Alfred Corry I’d scan this book, and so here’s the first instalment!

To see the rest of this series:

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part I

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part II

The Life-boat and its Work, a history from 1911 – part III

]]> http://intheboatshed.net/2010/05/05/the-life-boat-and-its-work-a-history-of-1911/feed/ 4 http://intheboatshed.net/2010/04/28/marcus-lewis-restores-a-troy-and-plans-to-make-clinker-dinghy-drawings-available/ http://intheboatshed.net/2010/04/28/marcus-lewis-restores-a-troy-and-plans-to-make-clinker-dinghy-drawings-available/#comments Wed, 28 Apr 2010 06:44:25 +0000 Gavin Atkin http://intheboatshed.net/?p=9897

Troy class yacht Ruby restoration

Taking the lines from a 1947 9ft dinghy

Down in Fowey in Cornwall, boatbuilder Marcus Lewis has been as busy as a bee, and a few days ago wrote to tell us what he’s been doing, and about some of his plans. Here’s what he has to say:

‘I have been busy building another Fowey River class dinghy, which is due for launching in a couple of weeks and I’m also part way through a serious restoration of Ruby, a  Troy class yacht built in 1930. She has needed 75 per cent of her planking replaced; lots of new parts including new horn timber, transom, transom knee, stem and stem knee, and gunwales, steamed oak timbers and keelbolts; and new  ply deck. Hopefully they will be enough to see her through the next 80 years!

‘I have attached some photos of a 1947 9ft rowing dinghy that is past repair. I am taking the lines off her in order to make some moulds and to make up plans that I intend to make available.

‘Also, have cleared out the internal bits of the Percy Mitchell-built tosher and will also be taking lines off her in the near future. If there are a couple of interested people who wanted to spend the weekend helping to take off the lines, and then have a copy themselves, I would be glad of the help – and it would galvanise me into getting it done!

‘Marcus’

Thanks Marcus. That dinghy is a nice shape – I will be delighted to help you promote the plans when you have them ready. I’d have thought there would be someone out there to help you take those lines, not least because it would be an opportunity to practice something we normally only read about in books.

If you’d like to help Marcus take the lines from the tosher in his yard, contact him at Fowey, Cornwall on tel 07973 420568, email marcus@fowey9.freeserve.co.uk . His website is at www.woodenboatbuilder.co.uk.

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A kind invitation from Rob Bull of the Leila Trust took us to see Leila in the shed at Southwold where Rob and his colleagues are restoring the old boat to sailing order.* She’s certainly impressive as she towers over visitors with that 8ft keel – the photo at the top of this post tells no lies.

Talking with Rob, one can’t help but be awed by his enterprise and determination, and that of his co-workers. For more about Leila’s story and the appeal, see a previous post.

If you like what you see and can offer the Trust money or help to get her back on the water to begin her new life in sail training, you know what to do!

*Special thanks to Derek Simpson for tea in bed and a killer breakfast.

Scenes from previous Beale Park Thames Boat Shows

Scenes from the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy (last two supplied by the organisers, but I think taken for them by Kathy Mansfield)

Two of the most important boat shows featuring wooden boats are coming up – but for some reason this year I don’t seem to be hearing much about them from anyone.

The shows in question are the Beale Park Thames Boat Show from the 4th to 6th June  near Pangbourne on the River Thames (click here for information), and the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival on the 26th-27th June at Portsoy (click here for more information).

You exhibitors out there, why don’t you get in touch and tell me what you’re going to be showing and why you’re so proud of them, and why people should go along and see your stuff – and throw in a couple of photos while you’re at it? There’s still time, it’s very easy, I can be reached at gmatkin@gmail.com, and this site gets 800+ interested visitors a day. It should be a no-brainer…

Southwold’s famous Sailor’s Reading Room was built in 1864 in memory of a Captain Rayley, who had been an officer at the Battle of Trafalgar, and had died the previous year.

I knew the building as a boy and remember thinking it was as fabulous then as I think it is now. It really hasn’t changed in close to 50 years, and the only sadness is that photography is forbidden and I can’t show you how splendid it really is.

What I can say without fear of contradiction is that the old reading room is packed with a huge variety of treasures, including photos, models and other memorabilia of the local fishermen, sailors and coastguards of years gone by.

Often generations of brothers, fathers, sons and cousins worked at these trades at the same time, and because they so often bore the same name they were often given colourful nicknames – I particularly like the name of one bearded old salt whose photo appears on the Reading Room’s walls.  He must have gloried in his handle of ‘Crikey’ Rogers!

Of course, many of them were also lifeboatmen, and since we’ve been to the old town recently in a day or two thanks to some great local friends I’ll add some photos of the restored local lifeboat now on show in a new home near the beach, and some shots from the harbour – including the wonderful Leila. Make sure you come back!

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The May/June issue of Water Craft magazine is about to come out, and editor Peter Greenfield has sent us his customary preview. Here’s what he says:

‘April, moaned Mr Eliot, is the cruellest month. Obviously, he also had suffered the seemingly interminable wait for the weather to warm up enough for varnishing the gunwale. What to do while you’re waiting? Well, the new Water Craft is out on the 22nd, with…

Two French connections: last year, Tim O’Connor loaded his elegant Oughtred Acorn on the car roofrack, hitched up the caravan and went sailing the lakes of Limousin. And much more recently, in March in fact, Kathy Mansfield caught the Eurostar for a long-planned visit to the amateur boatbuilders of Nautique Sevres, near Paris.

Back in Dorset, professional wooden boatbuilder Gail McGarva builds Cornish pilot gigs and in the first of a two-part series, she explains not only how but why. However, If a 32ft (9.8m) clinker rowing skiff is a tad too ambitious for you, see Paul Gartside’s complete plans for a 12’ (3.7m) outboard skiff. Clinker too challenging? Build the hard-chine flat-bottom pocket cruiser called the Stevenson Weekender, like Jeremy White. Or you could go to boatbuilding college, like Lars Herfeldt from Berlin who learned to build a Petersson Runabout at Lyme Regis.

Still too wintry? Time to read designer Andrew Wolstenholme’s report from Dusseldorf on the latest in electric propulsion… And designer Paul Fisher’s description of his new Felix electric launch… And designer Matt Newland’s introduction to the Bayraider 17, which he hopes to exhibit at the Beale Park Boat Show, 4-6 June. Where you’ll also find Water Craft, together with a St Ayles Skiff – see W79 – and one of Gail’s gigs.

Finally, it must be warm enough now! Time for a varnishing workshop with master boatbuilder Colin Henwood…

It’s particularly good to see the Home Built Boat Rally group’s Tim O’Connor getting a mention, and also Lars Herfeldt – see photos of the the launch of his handsome gentleman’s runabout here.

You will be able to find the May/June 2010 issue in good UK newsagents from the 22nd April – this website will find you a newsagent stocking the magazine. Alternatively, buy a subscription here and support both Water Craft and intheboatshed.net at the same time.

Leila needs more repair work than expected

A group caring for a rare National Historic Ships Register-listed 42ft Victorian racing cutter at Southwold are urgently appealing for more manpower and financial help.

Leila was built at Charlton, London in 1892. She’s a striking and unusual yacht: above the waterline she looks very much like a smack, but below the waterline she’s clearly a racing yacht with an impressive 8ft deep keel.

In her early years sailed with the Royal Temple Yacht Club at Ramsgate, and won the Round Britain Race in 1904. From 1961 until a few years ago she was kept at Fisher’s Quay, Great Yarmouth.

When restored and brought up to the relevant Coastguard standards, she will be used for sail training local youngsters, and will again operate from Fisher’s Quay. I hope to visit this weekend and take some more photos.

The Leila Trust has so far raised £50,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund, £2000 from the National Maritime Museum and £40,000 from private donations – but are now having to appeal for an extra £30,000 after finding unexpected areas of rot in the hull that have been caused by leaks around iron fittings around the forward beam shelves.

To find out more, and to offer help etc, contact the Leila Trust via their website: http://leila2c.org.

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These photos come from a viewing of the items being auctioned at Turk’s Boatyard at Chatham on Saturday.

Julie and I went over in the company of a clutch of other boating enthusiasts, and a pleasant, sociable and productive time we had, as you may gather from Chris Partridge’s post about the outing at his Rowing for Pleasure weblog. And yes I did manage to snap up a nice pair of oars and a sign from a hire boat business – as Chris observes, Turk’s are disposing of generations-worth of old-style hardware, models, rigs and who knows what else.

By now, I’d hope that most trad boat enthusiasts who use the Internet regularly are probably aware of the astonishing auction of equipment and craft belonging to the Turk’s business. If not, I’d advise you to quickly take a look at this earlier intheboatshed.net post about the sale, which closes on the 14th April.

Jolly outing though it was, however, I was a little saddened and surprised by how few other people were looking at the lots on Saturday. If this was close to indicating the level of interest in the auction, I thought, the sad end to all this could be that a number of interesting, even historic, craft will be disposed of in some other way, possibly even burned for all I know. But looking at the prices at least some of the boats are attracting that doesn’t now seem so likely – though after seeing the lots I can say for certain that there are still some real bargains to be had.

Doug Grierson has sent in some more old photographs that will no doubt delight the large numbers of people who have been following the Scoter story. Thanks Doug!

For more on this famous old bawley-derived yacht that was so admired by Maurice Griffiths and which passed through a long line of owners including artist Colin Grierson and son Doug, click here.

The first image is from a postcard sent by an earlier owner of Scoter to a recipient in Essex in 1907; Doug doesn’t know how or when it was passed to his mother.

The two photos of Scoter from 1994-5 at Woodbridge and Maldon show later coach roof and original windlass and circular fore-hatch; the final item is a scanned image of a water-colour by Colin Grierson dated 1932 showing the rig she had when he bought her in late 1930.

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What can I say? This time our hero Dylan Winter is fascinated as boatyard owner Brian Upson of the River Alde caulks a hull that probably needs a new plank or two.

Click here too for a moment of peace as Dylan fearlessly sails his fixed-keel boat up the narrow channel towards Snape. I really should tell him about the Blaxhall Ship before he moves on…

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Toby’s photos of flat-bottomed boats on the Dordogne river

Toby Churchill has sent in these shots of fishermen’s boats from the Dordogne, in France, which he found and photographed while holidaying with his family near Souillac. Here’s his story:

‘One day the lad and I took a Canadian canoe down the river. On the way we saw the old wooden boats, and later on, on a walk, we saw the others. The river, on the stretch we were on, consists of short sharp shallow rapids, and longer deep slow lagoons. Some stretches of the river are overlooked by quite steep cliffs – one enterprising fellow had a boathouse cut into the cliff, about 20 feet up, with davits to lower his barque into the river.’

For an intheboatshed.net post about the flat-bottomed boats of the Loire, click here; for a still earlier post about flat-bottomed boats in France, click here.

Photos from the Fishing in Cornwall exhibition. Top, rogueish fishing crew at Mousehole, circa 1910, taken by an unknown photographer; a probably publicity photo of fishermen in heavy weather gear from Mevagissey in around 1920 shot by S Dalby-Smith; and fishermen ‘tracking’ or towing a boat out of the harbour by hand at Porthleven, captured by A H Hawke of Helston

An impressive photographic exhibition exploring fishing in Cornwall in the days of sail and oarhas just opened at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall at Falmouth. Click on the thumbnails above to get a better look.

The beginning of the 19th century marked the last days of fishing by sail and oar around the Cornish coast, but it was also a time when photography came into wider use. This exhibition includes photos of the various types of boats that were used; the catching, landing, and marketing of the fish; the communities involved; and of the skills necessary to support the industry.The photos come from the Pentreath Photographic Archives.

The exhibition runs until 30 May.

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This motor launch is on sale at Turk’s

An astonishing sale of boats, many of the interesting and old, is going on at Turk’s of Chatham, Kent, apparently due to a relocation. See the lots here: Turk’s auction.

The story here is that this collection was part of a business providing boating film props that are no longer need – there’s more on this at Rowing for Pleasure. I do hope the important boats all go to good homes!

My thanks to the good folks of the Openboat Yahoogroup for bringing this to public attention.