December 2007 – Page 8 – intheboatshed.net

A brief escape with Onawind Blue – and some other weblogs

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Ben Crawshaw’s Invisible Workshop always provides a welcome dose of sanity when it’s needed, and his new post yesterday was no exception. In fact, it was better than ever: as I watched his video on YouTube I could feel the breeze and the water, the roll of the boat and the sense of freedom – until it was all over. Then when I had a chance I played it again, and again… Thanks for letting in a little happiness Ben!

Elsewhere on the Blogroll, we have A Shipwright in Training, in which a lucky psychologist sees the light and trains to be a boatbuilder, the Classic Sailing Club has several kinds of unpredictable fun on the Orwell and elsewhere, and Dale Austin’s Egret gets more and more interesting as his boat built to Commodore Monroe’s legendary design approaches completion.

And don’t miss Roache’s Adventures, which include some historical material, a trip to Woodbridge in company with some gorgeous Strange yachts, and some heavyweight advice to ‘dreamers’.

Falmouth quay punt Teal – a brave little boat for sale

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Falmouth quay punt Teal on the Baltic

Teal is for sale.

She’s a brave little gaff-rigged wooden Falmouth quay punt, and has quite a story to tell.

Teal was built in 1914 by the well-known Cornwall shipwright W E Thomas for the writer and artist Percy Woodcock, who called her Little Pal. At the time, Woodcock wrote an interesting article about her for Yachting Monthly, which includes her lines and layout, and some photos.

Since then she’s had an interesting life, having been rescued, renamed, restored and repaired many times, and has featured in Classic Boat on two occasions. Just back from the Baltic, she’s now in Tollesbury and I’m sure she would be a great buy for someone!

Have you got an interesting boat to tell us about? Contact me at gmatkin@gmail.com.

Two more Ian Proctor plastic classics: the Wayfarer and Topper

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Wayfarer

Designer Ian Proctor put it this way:

‘This is what the Wayfarer design is all about, with its robust and beamy hull, its fore-and-aft buoyancy tanks that can be used for dry stowage of cruising gear, its flat, raised, draining cockpit floor, its pivoted mast lowering in a tabernacle, its sidebenches that can be removed and swung around athwartships to provide more sleeping space on the floor as well as greater night time stowage, its sunken self-draining aft deck.

‘And when we came to think of a name for this boat I called her the Wayfarer…..a wanderer, a stroller from place to place.’

Today, the 15ft 10 in long by 6ft in beam Wayfarer is one of Proctor’s most famous designs: a boat which has successfully bridged the gap between racing and cruising dinghies. It is also very popular for teaching novice sailors, as it inspires confidence with its feeling of safety and stability. He was inspired to design the boat while working on the design of racing dinghies, and could not resist building some racing performance into the design.

Today there are many sailing clubs with substantial racing fleets of Wayfarers, and there have been some seven different versions of this classic boat, from wooden hulls through to high-tech composites, and approximately 10,000 have been built.

Perhaps the most famous Wayfarer is Frank and Margaret Dye’s much-travelled and much loved Wayfarer dinghy, Wanderer, which can be seen on the ground floor of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall.

Topper

While the Wayfarer may be Proctor’s most loved design, the 11ft 1n by 3ft 11in in beam Topper is probably his Continue reading “Two more Ian Proctor plastic classics: the Wayfarer and Topper”

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