Month: April 2009

Troy number 28 Red Beryl built by Marcus Lewis is launched at Fowey

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The launch of Troy number 28 at Fowey

Red Beryl is a new Troy class yacht, built at Fowey in Cornwall by Marcus Lewis for a customer on the other side of the river in Polruan.

Marcus has been boatbuilding in Fowey since he left school 25 years ago, and has been working in his own own workshop for six years, during which time he has built four Troys – hull numbers 23, 25, 27, and now number 28 has been named  Red Beryl.

The 18ft Troys are an important part of local sailing in Fowey, and this year they celebrate their 80th anniversary as a class. There’s a nice gallery of photos by Phil Egerton at the foweyphotos.com website, and also a history of the boats. It seems the first Troys were built for racing on Fowey Harbour in the very late 1920s and that most of the early boats are still kept in racing condition. I gather also that Troys can often be seen racing on Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons in the season.

The Troy name comes from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s Troy Town series of novels, which are based on Fowey. Built using traditional carvel construction, they have 30ft masts supporting nearly 300sqft of sail intended to catch light winds on the estuary, which is surrounding by sheltering hills. They must to be built on the estuary in order to conform to class rules.

Marcus Lewis is based at Fowey and can be contacted on 07973 420 568.

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WWII fast patrol boat Garth on show at the Beale Park Boat Show

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Garth

One of the last of the WWII fast patrol boats still afloat, Garth, is to appear at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show.

In the months leading up to the D-Day invasion of France, a key concern was that the landings planned to take place along the Normandy Coast would be tremendously difficult for the Allies. Field Marshal Rommel was in charge of the defences and there was every reason to believe that the landings would be hard going, and that there would be many casualties.

In order to help defend the troops in landing craft and amphibious DUKWs, the Britishy Army was given 80 fast patrol boats armed with anti-aircraft and assault weapons, one of which was Garth, pictured above.

In fact, these Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) boats were never used for this purpose – the date of the landings was brought forward and they were not ready to be brought into service at the time of the invasion, and instead they were sent to various hot spots around the world including Egypt, India, Hong Kong and the Middle East.

Garth is maintained by workshop staff serving with the British Army and is kept by the Coastal Motorboat Heritage Trust. The CMHT exhibits a number of craft from this era on behalf of their owners, including MGB 81, the gunboat that led the American attack on Omaha Beach on D-Day.

The designer grins as the first Julie skiff is built and launched in Florida

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Bill Gay’s Julie skiff

I’m really chuffed today because the great news this morning is that Bill Gay has built and launched the first Julie skiff. From what I can see she still needs some work, including knees at the stern (they’ll add a lot of strength) and the breasthook (which will add some strength and provide a place to attach the essential painter), painting and some drain plugs for the boxed-in areas, but she’s looking good and will look even better (and go faster and further) with the batteries in the middle of the boat.

‘After three weekends of hard work the Julie Skiff saw the flats of the Intercoastal of Fl today. What a great boat. It will be great to fish, clam and camp out of for years to come.’

Thanks for the report and the photos Bill! She looks like a winner to me. To download the plans Bill used to build this 15ft 7in rowing skiff, click here.