Tag: Uffa Fox

An airborne lifeboat on the Isle of Man

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Mk 1 Airborne lifeboat

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Martin Birchenough’s Mk 1 airborne lifeboat

I’ve posted about Uffa Fox’s fascinating airborne lifeboats several times now (see post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5). They had an amazing story in saving downed airmen’s lives during World War II, and after the war their lovely lines enabled them to be converted into sporty big sailing dinghies. Old Uffa could certainly draw a hull!

I’m delighted to be able to post some more photos, thanks to Martin Birchenough, who lives in the Isle of Man.

Here’s what he says:

‘My airborne lifeboat was one of four Mk1 boats that were based at Ronaldsway Airport in the Isle of Man during the Second World War.

‘It ended up in the grounds of a house at Castletown near Ronaldsway where it was damaged by cattle but was rescued by an elderly chap who patched it and then painted it with bitumen and moved it to his property in Kirk Michael where it lay for some years.

‘I had reason to visit him and saw the boat, spoke about it and he said he had been trying to find a home for it for some time but no one would take it on and I eventually took it on as a restoration project.

‘It was in pretty bad shape and after scrapping the bitumen off and repairing the holes the only way to save the hull which had become springy was to use West epoxy and clad it. I obtained plans from the RAF Museum at Hendon and had the dagger board and rudder fabricated locally and It is now solid but obviously not original.

‘I have added a fore deck and gunwales and had a rig designed by Jeckells and have made a mast. I sailed it with a bit of a jury rig prior to making the mast and it went like a scalded cat – it was so quick that it was in danger of sailing itself under water while close-hauled.

‘I am hoping to have it back in the water set up for the Peel Traditional Boat Weekend in July 2011.

‘Regards, Martin’

That’s fabulous thanks Martin. If you get some sailing photos sometime I’d love to see them please!

Gavin

PS Do check out the Uffa Fox website – there’s a terrific film clip narrated by him that includes Drumbeat cracking along in a good breeze, and even a snatch of the old boy singing.

Call for pictures and information: the Flying Twelve!

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Flying 10s at the Lancashire Sailing Club long ago

Can anyone help Robert Macdonald please – he has written in to ask for photos and information about built examples of Flying Twelves.

I could only send him links to the posts we’ve had mentioning Flying Tens – see this and this. I should have added that early in intheboatshed.net’s career I met a pleasant elderly gentleman on a train who had sailed Twelves until recent years but I lost touch with him. The whole thing was too tantalising for words…

Anyway, this is what Robert has to say about his interest:

‘I’ve long been a fan of Uffa Fox. He has a legacy here in Toronto, Ontario where more than fifty Albacores race together every Friday night in the summer. I wish that some of his Flying Fifteens raced here as well!

‘While I was looking at the Uffa Fox website last year I discovered the Flying Twelve, the Flying Fifteen’s little sister. The idea of a sleek little planing keelboat the size of a dinghy got me hooked! I e-mailed Tony Dixon, Uffa’s nephew, and bought a set of Flying Twelve plans, which duly came in the mail. I’m not a boatbuilder and if I do build the Twelve, the project will be in many steps. I’ll probably first try a smaller flat sectioned boat, like a Mirror. If I ever do put a Flying Twelve in the water, it will be a solid and safe, and pretty boat.

‘Tony told me some about the design’s history and I found stuff on the Web (including Uffa’s wonderful story about designing the Fifteen), but there were no photos. Then I came across pictures here on intheboatshed.net of a Flying Ten at the Beale Park Boat Show; it’s the smallest of the Flying family, 14ft long, and designed for junior sailing. What immediately struck me was that it wasn’t a stubby version of the Fifteen, but slimly beautiful like its big sister. Which showed me what I wanted to see but don’t have a boatbuilder’s eye to see clearly from the plans – it’s clear that the Twelve would be a real pocket version of the Fifteen. So I’m grateful to intheboatshed editor Gavin Atkin for the pictures.

‘If you have a picture of a Flying Twelve and could forward it to Gavin (at gmatkin@gmail.com) to post for me and the world to look at, it would highlight the range of the Flying family of sailboats, and I would be very thankful. The story behind the picture would be just as good!

‘Robert MacDonald’

So… can anyoner out there help? If you can, please use the comment button below, or write to me directly at gmatkin@gmail.com and I will be delighted to pass the relevant material on to Robert.

Thames Festival Classic Rally at St Katharine Docks, 2009

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Jim Vandenbos’s mobile phone photos of the 2009 inaugural Thames Festival Classic Rally. If anyone else has photos they’d like to share, please email me at gmatkin@gmail.com

The first Thames Festival Classic Rally at St Katharine Docks, London last weekend was a success and seems likely to be be repeated next year.

I couldn’t make it for reasons not unconnected with my broken ankle, but my pal Jim Vandenbos dropped by to see Lord Boris’s Thames’ Festival after the cricket at Lords finished early.

Among other things he was keen to see the rally at St Katharine’s Dock and beetled over to take a look. When pressed for numbers he guessed that there were something over 30 classic boats in the dock, including Arthur Ransomes’ Nancy Blackett as seen in the novel We didn’t mean to go to Sea, and a very nice Uffa Fox Fairey Marine yacht. He also says there were a good number of visitors strolling around the dock.

If Jim’s right, I’d say 30 boats was a good, healthy number.

Event organiser Ian Welsh told intheboatshed that the rally had been a success. ‘It went very well indeed, the entrants loved it and so it seems did the St Katharine’s people – so fingers crossed we’ll do it next year again. We already have lots of ideas for next year.’

More photos have been posted by the organisers on their website.

The rally also made The Times – see the story here.

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