Category: Small boats

A regatta to celebrate 100 years of the International 12 Foot Dinghy Class

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Main photo: the 2011 International 12 Foot World Cup racing at Venice, attracted over 100 entries from 10 (photo: James Robinson Taylor); Sylvia, built in Switzerland in the 1920s; recent Dutch championships (photo: Hanneke Gilissen)

West Kirby Sailing Club and the International 12 Foot Dinghy Class are expecting 30 or so boats to take part in a special regatta this summer to celebrate the centenary of the class’s first regatta in 1913.

There is information about the event here.

The first recorded regatta took place on the Marine Lake at West Kirby, Merseyside, on the 4th October 1913. The club had just taken delivery of a fleet of six 12 Foot Dinghies, and decided to publicise the class by inviting representatives of twelve sailing clubs from the north west of England to take part in an inaugural regatta.

The winner was Thunderer, which represented 12 Foot Dinghy designer George Cockshott’s own sailing club, the Southport Corinthians.

Cockshott himself was present and crewed in the boat representing Rhyl Sailing Club. One of the original 12 Footers, the recently restored Royal Oak, is still at West Kirby.

Elsewhere in the UK, a number of old boats are being restored for the event and several new boats are under construction.

This summer’s regatta takes place on on the 28th-30th June 2013. Most boats will be travelling from the Netherlands, but there will also be competitor boats from Germany, Switzerland, France and Ireland. Racing will take place on the Dee Estuary and on the Marine Lake – the scene of the 1913 event.

Several members of the Cockshott family will be present as guests.

The Merseyside club is also home to another of George Cockshott’s designs, the West Kirby Star class.

Does anyone know the history of this Stebbings scow now in South Africa please?

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South Africa resident Pippa Jarman has got in touch from South Africa to ask whether readers can provide further information about the earlier history of her boat Clemency, Stebbings scow number 238.

Clemency is a Burnham or East Coast scow, and Pippa’s information is that she was built at Burnham on Crouch, Essex, by William Stebbings in 1954.

The scow type of 11ft dinghy is common around the Solent, and various towns and villages claim their own variants, including Lymington, Keyhaven, Yarmouth, West Wight, and Chichester. They each have a standing lug sail, a pivoting centre board, a small foredeck, a transom fitted with a transom-hung rudder.

It’s said that more than 400 scows, both clinker and GRP built, are currently active at clubs around the Solent Clubs, and I gather that the type is still being produced.

The Burnham scow variant was derived from the West Wight model, which was designed in 1923 by Theo Smith of Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. They were built of elm on oak, with spruce spars.

Clemency was owned by John Davies from around 1979 and then passed to his daughter, Niki Lili, who had her until 2012. Niki told Pippa that her family used to sail Clemency in Chichester Harbour, from Itchenor and from the beach at West Wittering in Sussex. When Niki’s moved to Cornwall in 1990, they sailed her in the Fal Estuary, from Loe Beach, near Truro, and from Falmouth.

Clemency was restored by John Claridge of Lymington between August and November last year (the final photo above shows her before restoration) and was then transported to South Africa, where she became boat no 578 at Knysna Yacht Club at the end of December.

PS – in a comment below, Bursledon Blogger Max says there’s also a Hamble scow, and he has a fibreglass Nottingham scow.

Just look at this beautiful half-sized sgoth niseach built by BBA student Mairi Macleod

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I’m blown away by Boat Building Academy student Mairi Macleod’s photo log of the building of her half-size sgoth niseach. This boat that Mairie built is 16ft 6in compared with the full-sized boats of 30ft.

Sgoth niseach means ‘Ness-type skiff’, Ness being the northernmost part of the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides where the boats were used for fishing.

The boat is to be called Runag, which is Gaelic for Little sweetheart, and was planked in Alaskan yellow cedar on oak, with the planks and ribs fastened with traditional rose head copper nails.