Month: August 2007

SketchUp models of some of my free boat designs

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Little Breton

Flying Mouse Oarmouse

Lapstrake tender Little Breton, kids’ small sailing boat Flying Mouse (there are details for a rudder too!), and the Mouse-derived small rowing skiff Oarmouse

I’m very tickled this morning to hear from Kellan Hatch, who got in touch to deliver the news that some little boats I designed for home building a few years ago (the lapstrake tender Little Breton, the Flying Mouse and Oarmouse) have made it into Google’s SketchUp galleries. I think they’re a hoot – even if they aren’t very classic! Go to the Google 3DSketchUp gallery for more – I got these by searching on my own name, Gavin Atkin. I have to say that this is the first time following up my own name on the Internet has ever led me to unexpected nudity, but there’s a first time for everything.

The boat designs are available free from various places, including Continue reading “SketchUp models of some of my free boat designs”

Flying 10s at the West Lancashire Yacht Club

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Flying 10

Flying 10 Flying 10

Flying 10 racing yachts in the 1050s. The tiny keelboats were designed by Uffa Fox

Tonight’s pictures are of a fleet of Uffa Fox’s sweetly diminutive Flying 10 racing keelboats that were kept at the West Lancashire Yacht Club, Southport, in the 1950s. They make quite a sight, don’t they?

Brian Smith saw the post I put up earlier about a Flying 10 I saw and photographed at the Beale Park Boat Show, and was kind enough to send me the photos, together with the pages below from Click here to read more Continue reading “Flying 10s at the West Lancashire Yacht Club”

Steve Taylor’s 1923 Hillyard Dorma back under sail again

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Dorma

Dorma Dorma Dorma

Steve Taylor’s 24ft Hillyard-built yacht, Dorma, and Steve himself

Some days ago, Steve Taylor, Bob Telford and friend Paul Tambini took Steve’s newly restored 24ft 1923 Hillyard yacht Dorma out for her first successful sail after a well executed but respectful restoration. Well, I suppose one could say it was successful in a sailing sense; the engine proved to be a disaster area. (I don’t know Paul, but gather he’s currently fixing up a Blackwater sloop by the side of Faversham Creek and runs a tool store – see the link below.)

Bob takes up the story:

‘The wind was perfect, the sun shone, the tide was right and everything was set for Dorma’s first proper outing.

‘We had taken her out once before, briefly, and had to return early when the bobstay parted; that’s what a shakedown is about, after all. Repairs and improvements completed, we awaited everything to be in place for a proper first sail.

‘When the day came, the engine took us down to the Swale, by which time we had raised the main; the jib and stays’l took over from the engine – and the suddenly quiet was shattering. Now I know why people hated those diesels thirty years ago.

‘We left a reef in until we had the feel of her; it was four gusting five and we wanted to stretch her gently, especially after our first experience.

‘She sailed well, seemed well balanced under reefed main, and Click here for the rest of the story: Continue reading “Steve Taylor’s 1923 Hillyard Dorma back under sail again”