Tag: ships

Vintage Wooden Boat Association

The Association has over 900 registered boats ranging from classic racing dinghies to wooden ships. Membership extends world wide and there are a number of Regional Sections holding regular meetings; members meet at a national rally and at boat shows.

One of the VWBA’s current projects is compiling a pictorial and historical archive of registered craft that will provide a lasting record for the future.

For more on the VWBA:
http://www.vwba.org

Each month the site features a different boat, and at the time of writing it was Cordon Rouge, a 28ft 1930s Broads sailing yacht built by Applegates of Potter Heigham:

A barge with a Viking-style square sail

The Humber keel Comrade is a rare surviving example of a type of craft evolved to work the difficult Humber Estuary, and its tributaries and canals. She was built in 1923, at Warren’s shipyard at New Holland, and was originally named Wanda. At 61ft 6in in length and 15ft 6in in beam, she had a hold capable of carrying over a hundred tons in cargo.

The Humber is very much part of Viking invader territory, and I do wonder how much this unusual square sail may owe to those invaders of more than a thousand years ago.

For more on Comrade and her sister ship Humber sloop Amy Howson,  see http://www.keelsandsloops.org.uk/

 

The boats of Working Sail

Working Sail’s designs are based on the lines of 19th century pilot cutters from the Isles of Scilly, a group of islands in Cornish waters lying at the entrance to the English and Bristol channel. They are said to make excellent yachts due to their excellent seaworthiness and sailing performance. In a way, the fact that pilot boats evolved these qualities should not be surprising: as pilot boats need to be very capable, weatherly and fast in order to make sure their pilot reaches the incoming ship before its rivals.

I’d just like to add that while Lulworth (next post down) makes my jaw drop, the boats of Working Sail below quicken my pulse much more. The boat below is Ezra.

For more from Working Sail:
http://www.workingsail.co.uk

Ezra, built by Working Sail