Two new Marcus Lewis Fowey River dinghies launched

  

 

Fowey-based traditional boat builder Marcus Lewis sent over this clutch of photos of two new Fowey River dinghies that he built over the winter, and which were launched over the last couple of weeks

FR 63 Kittiwake and FR 64 May both had their maiden voyages on the River Fowey and will be kept and raced locally; Marcus comments that the sails owners specify for these boats seem to get more colourful with every new boat!

The launch of Kittiwake was accompanied by a dolphin swimming in the river – although I gather Marcus had quite some difficulty grabbing a shot to prove it.

Marcus is busy scraping, sanding, painting, varnishing and launching Troy Class Yachts and other dinghies for the season at the moment, but is looking forward to starting restoration work on a 1938 Uffa King National 12 that is about to arrive in his workshop.

I’ll post photos about the new project as soon as I have them, together with some historical information about the boats.

Redwing dinghies racing at Looe in 1963

Redwings racing at Looe in 1963

Spotted on Youtube: artist and filmakerStuart Armfield shot a series of films between 1958 and 1970 in and around the port of Looe in South Cornwall, including these clips of Redwing dinghies built to Uffa Fox’s design.

It’s lovely footage, but it’s a shame we can’t hear more of what’s being said in the background, as it sounds interesting. I picked out a snatch of an old boy saying ‘A Redwing hadn’t been capsized before, and I was the first one to do it.’ No doubt there are a few good stories in there somewhere…

Armfield’s original footage is held by the South West Film and Television Archive.