Category: Events

Events such as historical events, races, exhibitions, processions, regattas and so on.

Two great postcard shots – but can anyone identify the yachts?

Laura Haggarty Katydids Cards postcards of yachts

Laura Haggarty Katydids Cards postcards of yachts

Click on the thumbnails for much larger images

These magnificent shots come from postcard dealer Laura Haggarty who would be grateful for some help identifying the vessels in these shots.

Does anyone know which 19th century yachts these might be please? Let me know at gmatkin@gmail.com and I’ll pass the message along. They may well be well known racers if someone has gone to the trouble of producing postcards, and it’s been suggested that the yachts in the lower photo might the J Class.

The cards will be available for purchase from Laura – if you’re interested, contact her at katydidscards@gmail.com.

PS – I have noticed the trailing line in the upper image. These embarrassing things can happen to professionals too, but it doesn’t seem to be slowing them down!

PPS – Intheboatshed.net reader Donan Raven has written in with some information relating tothe lower image of three cutters racing. Here’s what he says:

‘This was definitely shot between 1892 and 1906, and are most likely either 40-raters (for example Queen Mab if the photo is before 1893) OR 52-footers from the Linear Rating Rule such as  like Penitent, Gauntlet and a few more.

‘I think it’s too early for 15 Meters yet, and they are certainly not J-Class.

‘If they are 52-footers, they could be any of the following:

  • Penitent, designed by Arthur Edward Philip Payne, Jr, 1896
  • Gauntlet, designed by Arthur Edward Philip Payne, Jr, 1901
  • Lucida, designed by William Fife III, 1902
  • Britomart, designed by Alfred Mylne, 1905
  • Sonya, designed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff, 1905

‘Or they might be any of the earlier 40-raters, including Mohawk, Deerhound, Castanet, Reverie, Creole, Thalia, Corsair, White Slave, Lais, Vendetta, Queen Mab or Varuna. But I am quite sure you can omit the ones designed before 1891-1892, as they would have had clipper bows, not spoon bows as shown in the picture. Queen Mab, Lais
and Vendetta are the best candidates if this picture predates 1896.

‘See the table in the book Yachting in the Badminton Library of Sports and Pastimes edited by His Grace the Duke of Beaufort KG and Alfred ET Watson for more on these boats.’

Thanks Donan – I’m sure Laura will be delighted.

Faversham Creek Trust launched to revitalise historic waterway

Faversham Creek Trust leaflet

The Faversham Creek Trust launched yesterday will ‘work with both local and national government to regenerate shipbuilding and marine activity, creating a vibrant, revitalised working creek and skilled jobs for local people’.

That sounds like good news to me – if the council and landowners allow the new trust to achieve its aims.

A press release issued by the trust puts it this way:

‘Dedicated to protecting and promoting Faversham’s centuries-old maritime industry, the trust intends to reverse the recent decline in the creek’s fortunes for the benefit of the whole town, which is an ancient Cinque Port 10 miles west of Canterbury.

‘The trust has invited creekside land owners and operators to participate, and has produced a colour brochure detailing the creek’s history and its importance to the town. It sets out plans for a successful, sustainable future for this tidal link to the Thames Estuary, guaranteeing real employment and training opportunities.

‘The trust is asking the local authority, Swale Borough Council, to commit to protecting Faversham’s heritage and has plans in place to raise funds once the future of significant creekside sites can be secured.

‘The launch of the Trust comes at a time of widespread public concern for the creek’s future: in particular, the immediate threat to traditional boatbuilding jobs at Standard Quay. Around 1,000 people have already signed an e-petition to the council, calling for the quay, a national centre for sailing barge repair on the site of the famous Goldfinch shipyard, to be protected from inappropriate development.

‘Faversham is practically the last stronghold of the world-renowned Thames sailing barge. Safeguarding one of the town’s last surviving pockets of creekside maritime industry is an urgent priority for the new trust. But its scope and ambition extend much further.’

Trust spokesman David Gwyn Jones said that current proposals to allow the historic listed buildings on Standard Quay to be used for restaurants and shops would deny them to the maritime users and barge repairers on the waterfront.
‘We are not opposed to house building or business development,’ he said, ‘but new housing has already encroached upon much of the creek. Other sites are suitable for development which do not threaten the marine heritage of Faversham and its people’s jobs.

The trust’s plans include include:

  • creating more than 50 new jobs
  • bringing the swing bridge and creek basin back into proper use and resolving the present silting problems
  • new facilities, including slipways, dry docks, a dinghy building school, a blacksmith’s forge, a marine engineering workshop, and a museum
  • creek festivals and sailing events

Faversham’s a great place, but just think what it could be if this new trust gets it’s way!

March/April issue of Water Craft out soon

Water Craft March-April 2011

That’s an impressive looking lot of sail!

The March/April 2011 issue  of Water Craft will be in the newsagents from 24 February.

Inside, you’ll find:

  • Colin Buttifant’s latest Broads yacht is fast – she can hold her own with the stripped-down local racers but she’s as cosy as a country cottage down below, according to Kathy Mansfield.
  • In Pen-Hir, leading French naval architect François Vivier has created an elegantly simple cruising yacht he calls a ‘Folkboat for the Future’ – and his son’s boatyard Icari is building her in sustainable birch plywood.
  • Boatbuilding materials are rarely – if ever – cheap, so when Ian Parsons decided to build his first boat, a stitch-and-tape Stornoway 14 dayboat, in order to avoid expensive waste he bought a pre-cut kit of plywood parts.
  • When Dick Phillips took over Phil Swift’s Willow Bay Boats range, he was undecided whether to offer the popular dayboats as bare hulls for home completion. So he went to see two of Phil’s customers who had done just that..
  • Gentleman-chandler Moray MacPhail leads a fact-finding mission of East Coast luminaries to Klassieke Schepen, the Dutch traditional boat show.

This is not to forget all Water Craft’s other features, regular and irregular, and – inevitably – a reminder from the editor about the Cordless Canoe Challenge at the Beale Park Boat Show, in which contestants compete to win a bag full of brand new Makita power tools worth over £1200.

Click here to order your subscription now!