Category: wooden boat

Umfreville Laws-designed 1907-built sailing cruiser Dawn II for sale

Dawn-II

Ben Boardman is regretfully selling his part-complete restoration project Dawn II as a result of changed circumstances – and very much hopes that she will be taken on by someone who sees her as a classic.

Built in Falmouth in 1907 by WE Thomas of Falmouth, she has a splendid history. When owned by CJ Munford, Dawn II was the first winner of the Houghton Cup in 1911. This was the first UK offshore race: it was organised by the Crouch Yacht Club and the prize went to the first boat to sail from Burnham, round the Cork Lightship and return to Burnham.

Later, and rather strangely, she spend WWII stored in a naval stores ship.

Dawn II was written up by Francis B Cooke in one of his early books – the description appears in the book Cruising Hints published by Lodestar Books:

‘Another attractive design is that of a 5.75 ton canoe yacht, designed by Mr G Umfreville Laws for Mr H Algar, and now being built by Thomas of Falmouth. The yacht will be sloop rigged and fitted with roller-reefing gear. Her internal arrangement is excellent and she will sleep three, two in the cabin, and one in the fo’c’astle. She has a flush deck and a lifting skylight. The cabin is lined with ¼-inch kauri pine, and the bunks fitted with kapok cushions. To avoid spoiling the profile of the keel, 400lbs weight of iron has been placed inside in the form of a cast iron mast step.’

Ben says Dawn II’s pitch pine on oak hull is sound, and she has new oak deck beams and 75 per cent of a new coachhouse, and the hull is glass sheathed to a high standard. She has lots of original fittings and is currently stored under cover. He has lots of photos detailing Dawn II’s restoration to share and discuss with anyone interested in taking her on.

More information is available through the Canoeyawl.org website.

Stangate Creek. It makes you think about times past…

These days Stangate Creek on the south side of the Medway is a popular stop for cruising sailors and motorboaters – it’s sheltered, and visitors are surrounded by low-lying land and islands and saltings, and some impressive bird life.

But this peaceful spot has a heck of a past, and was frequently a less than happy place.

With the Naval dockyards at Chatham just a few miles away up the Medway, the Navy has at times used it intensively as a place to moor ships when necessary.

From 1712-1896 it was used for quarantining ships. For example, there’s a story that in 1832, the barque Katherine Stewart Forbes set out from Woolwich with a complement of male convicts for Australia but then anchored in Plymouth Sound after cholera broke out. She was sent back to Stangate Creek for many months – of 222 convicts aboard, 30 men developed cholera and 13 died.

There’s an account of how the quarantining started here.

During the Napoleonic era, French prisoners of war were coonfined in prison hulks on the River Medway, where they were subject to cholera, smallpox and typhoid, and many of those who died were buried on Deadmans Island on the eastern side of the Creek.

And of course it was close at hand in 1667 when the Dutch captured Sheerness, invaded the Medway and threatened Chatham. The Wikipedia has the story, including a wonderful painting.

In the early part of the 19th century Turner depicted it in one of his watercolours of English rivers, and much more recently, the extraordinary cruising film-maker Dylan Winter visited Stangate and seemed to fall in love with the place.

Most of the photos of Stangate Creek above including the Finesse class small yacht, the  smack, Buccaneer and the barge yacht Whippet above are mainly Julie Atkin’s shots. Only the shots showing the flooded saltings are mine…

Rescue Wooden Boats celebrates its second birthday

Norfolk’s Rescue Wooden Boats has just celebrated its second birthday and published the latest edition of its newsletter – and there is lots of news to share.

The first phase of the visitor centre just beyond the High Sands Campsite office at Greenway Stiffkey (NR23 1QP) is now open at weekends from 10:30am to 4:30pm for the summer. On display are films, photos and artefacts, and the restoration work going on in the workshop on the lifeboat and Dunkirk veteran Lucy Lavers. George Hewitt and Ben Riches have been fitting a new centreboard, and David Hewitt is working her canopy.

Rescue Wooden Boat’s online collection has now reached 80 short films and sets of photographs that provide an insight into the lives of the people who crewed the boats and used them to make livings through them using them.

Built by Billy May in 1974, the Norfolk crab boat Pegasus has been in Scotland for about 15 years in the hands of Bernard Thain.

During this time she has earned her keep supplying their restaurant and farm shop with seafood, but Bernard and family have decided to give Pegasus to the Rescue folks, and she arrived home in July.

See the Rescue Wooden Boats newsletter here.