My Boat
Tell us about your boat and help get to know each other and exchange tales.
For just a £5.00 donation, all of which will be gifted in total to the charities and voluntary organisations that provide the website with content. We will publish on-line, up to 2 pictures of your boat together with an article letting us all know a little more about you and your boat.
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Details of all payments paid out will be published on this website.
4th June 2007-£25.00 given to the River Stour Trust.
4th June 2007-£25.00 given to the 3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts.
I am grateful to the following boat owners who have helped with this small fundraising project, whilst at the same time letting us a know a little more about their boat.
Andrew Richardson, Mike Finch, Les Airey, Alan Davison, Rob Brooks, Roger Brown, 3rd Sudbury Scout Group.
Ernie Shaw & Mark Osborn
The Waitrose bag pack at Sudbury, held over the Christmas period in 2007 raised £2800 for 3rd Sudbury Scout Group, and was attended well by all Scouts sections. At a Leaders meeting in January 2008 it was decided that some of the money raised could go to the purchase of two new Canoes. By the end of January we had the boats delivered to our Sudbury Scout HQ in Quay Lane.
On Saturday the 2nd February the new canoes were both launched and named. One boat was named after former A pack Cub Leader and Group Scout Leader Ernie Shaw, who sadly passed away in 2007 and the other boat was named after Mark Osborn, a great fund raiser, friend and supporter of the Scout group, who sadly passed away in January 2008. Both of which will always be remembered at 3rd Sudbury.
The crews for the first outing were 3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts Sailing Instructor Nick Powell, and Sudbury District Water Actives Adviser Julian Stiff, who was also there to test the new Canoes and give them a Scout Registered Sticker after they had been swamped tested. Rob Palmer 3rd Sea Scout Leader and Boathouse Master for the Scout Group completed the group.
We headed out of the Gas Works Cut and out on to the River Stour, turning left and heading down River to the River Stour Trust, Visitor and Educational Centre (VEC) at the Cornard Lock site. On a cold, but clear winters day we took a leisurely paddle down the river stopping only to talk to member of the Sudbury Canoe Club who had also braved the cold weather. Some of which had been doing a spot of litter picking on their way back up river. We continued on to our destination. When we arrived at the VEC we tied the Canoes up to the landing stage, and wandered over to the veranda. Rob set up his Stove, got the kettle on and made the guys a hot drink. We sat and chatted while we waited for the kettle to boil. Once we had our drinks we had a group photo of our trip before we packed up and headed back to the Canoes. We paddled back to the river against a strong and bitterly cold wind.
Before turning right into the Cut and under the old railway bridge, past the rowing club and the Granary and up to the slip way, the Canoes were then swamped tested and I am pleased to say both passed.
The New Canoes have now both got Scout Stickers and are ready for the start of the boating season. We hope these boats will add a new dimension to water activities at 3rd Sudbury, and would like to thank all the Waitrose staff and customers that helped make this possible.
Rob Palmer -3rd Sudbury Sea Scout Leader & Boathouse Master
In Spring 1991, having recently retired from my job in London, I was looking for something new to keep me occupied. I was still quite involved with canoe instructing, but my enthusiasm for serious involvement in racing and all the training entailed was waning as my 50th birthday approached, and wear and tear in tendons and joints was getting to the point where it could not be ignored. Besides, I’d been consistently getting 2% slower over each of the last few years.
Quite out of the blue a friend appeared at our house with a hefty canoe mould on his trailer, with the suggestion that it might be worthwhile using it to make one or two glassfibre craft and then see what interest there might be among local canoeists. Some time earlier I’d made a very lightweight GRP hull for a flat-water racing canoe, and that had turned out reasonably well, so I was very keen to see what sort of a job I could make of a much more capacious general purpose open canoe, and perhaps even make a modest profit.
The Oulton Broad 16 Open Canoe mould had been taken off a very handsome wooden touring canoe, 16ft long with a 30inch beam and sleek rounded lines, designed for a single paddler. I consulted one or two books and manufacturers’ brochures and settled on a specification for the hull layup that seemed a good compromise between weight and strength, and then bought materials in bulk.
That summer, my wife Sylvia and I started to make the GRP hulls in our 16ft garden shed. Laying up the resin and glass commenced at dawn, finishing by 10am to avoid the heat of the day, so that the resin would not cure faster than we could work (absolutely flat out). It was a horribly messy job, not made easier by the very limited space available, and I was amazed that my wife was willing to get involved. Ventilation in the shed was not very good either, and headaches from polyester fumes were common. Cutting out glass cloth and matt from patterns was done on our lounge carpet the night before, on condition that I immediately vacuumed all the tiny sharp strands up. Again, I was lucky that Sylvia was willing to put up with the mess.
Much more enjoyable was fitting out the bare shells with timber gunn’ls, thwarts and seats – a very pleasant single-handed job carried out at leisure on the lawn. What a contrast with laying up the hulls in the mould ! The weight of the bare GRP hulls came out consistently at 40lbs, and a fully fitted-out canoe weighed 60 lbs. The construction was almost entirely of woven glass cloth and polyester resin, with a minimal thin layer of the cheaper glass matting next to the gelcoat outer finish. This was a more costly method than some commercial builders were using at that time, but it was generally accepted that it produced a lighter and more resilient hull that would stand up to a certain amount of knocking about.
Canoeing friends began to express an interest in what we were doing, and several craft were built at their request. By springing the gunn’l width out to 35inches, a slightly more roomy and stable hull resulted. The increased beam also had the effect of forcing more rocker into the fore and aft hull shape, making for better manoeuvrability on the water. The OB16 hulls were not as stable as many of the family type open canoes on the market, having a more rounded cross sectional shape with a softer turn to the bilge; on the other hand they were more responsive and somewhat faster to paddle, performing well in local races during the 1990’s.
The photographs show one of the first OB16 which we made, and were taken at the River Stour Trust’s family picnic held near Bures in August 1991, where several Trust members came out for a trial paddle. One of our OB16’s is still owned and used by a Trust member, and can sometimes be seen on the Stour.
If I’d still owned one of these in recent years, I would certainly have put a sailing rig on her.
With her very easily driven, manoeuverable hull she would I’m sure have sailed very well with a smallish rig of about 45 sq ft – probably all she would comfortably carry bearing in mind her rounded underwater sections.
3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts-"Passion Fruit"
Passion Fruit Sail Number - 5857
Is a topper sailing dinghy, and was donated to 3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts in 2005.
We were bag packing at the Waitrose store in Sudbury over the Christmas period in 2005, when Mr Bacon, a customer of Waitrose, stopped to look at some of our photos. He told us that he had an old topper in his back garden that his children and grand children had learnt to sail in . He said that it would be great if others could get some enjoyment out of the boat as it had not been sailed for many years! We exchanged contact details and agreed that we could meet up and have a look at the boat in the new year.
It was now the end of January, and we had not heard anything from Mr bacon, then we had a ’phone call following up from Christmas asking me if we were still interested in the topper.
That day I used the works van and drove to Mr Bacon’s home in Assington. The boat was old and a bit weathered but the sail, mast, boom and foils were in good condition. We loaded the topper on to the van. I thanked Mr Bacon before bringing the topper back to its new home at the boathouse within the groups headquarters at Sudbury.
During the next couple months we spent some time cleaning up the boat and making sure it would pass the scout boat inspection at the start of the new season. The boat passed the inspection and was named by the Sea Scouts as ‘Passion Fruit’ it has been used on Thursday nights and weekends throughout the summer ever since.
Passion fruit is one of four toppers that are owned by the group and can be seen sailing on the River Stour at Sudbury.
I would like to thank Mr bacon for his donation on behalf of everyone at 3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts.
Rob palmer-Sea Scout Leader & Boathouse Master
Andrew Richardson-"The Carolina"
I hadn’t Kayaked since middle school but had always meant to, when I reached my forties, I final got around to doing it again! My early boats were a couple of tired old fibre glass singles purchased of e-bay for thirty pounds, these were quickly followed by a rather sleek ‘Granta’ double purchased in the same way while looking for paddles! Having decided I was well and truly hooked (after completing the River Stour Trusts ‘Sudbury to the sea’) I thought I’d seek a boat that was a little more durable preferably in plastic. My first mistake, I brought a Piranha 300 great for white water and going round in circles but lousy for gentle touring.
A visit to the mother in laws is rarely an inspiring event in any mans life! However on this occasion I was fortunate that she lives close to Nucleus water sports in Holland on Sea, at the front was resting a second hand Perception Carolina, touring specification with two hatches for weekend expeditions, large comfy cockpit for the mature figured man, and to cap it all a rudder worked by foot pedals! Paid a deposit straight away, and got a good price for the piranha in part exchange. That was two years ago, the Carolina has given me many happy hours of carefree paddling. The tracking is so good that I ceased using the rudder and removed it as excess weight last summer. My only complaint is that the boat is so good at going in a straight line it often feels like I’m turning the QE2.
The Carolina has made an excellent ‘sweeper boat’ for Sudbury to the sea as I can carry all sorts of emergency kit in the hatches. I use her at least twice a week during the summer, no better way to relax..
I built this sailing canoe in January/February 2003. I’d not long finally retired after ten years working at the Sailing Centre at Alton Water Reservoir (my “retirement” job), and I was lucky enough to be able to use their very roomy lecture room for the project. Far more space than in my garage at home.
After a couple of summers’ experience of sailing the “Huron” canoe, I thought I’d now like to try a canoe that was designed primarily for sailing, but could be paddled if needed, and see just how much the sailing performance would be improved. The plans came from Selway Fisher Design, and she’s built with five plywood planks per side, epoxy fastened. She was completely open for about half her length, with fore and aft sealed ends. Unlike most Canadian type canoes, which are usually the same shape at each end, the “Carrick” is very markedly asymmetrical – her maximum beam is about three quarters of her length aft from the bow, and the front half of the hull is very narrow with sharp hollow sections below. Effectively, most of the boat is near the stern, with the front end acting like a long lean knife blade. The idea behind this being to improve her windward performance by having more of a grip in the water.
The first photo shows her at Sudbury in May 2003, when I took her along to the National Trailboat Festival which the River Stour Trust had organised (very successfully). The 37 sq ft rig is from an Optimist dinghy, as is the rudder, while the single leeboard (port side) used to be a Merlin Rocket’s fixed rudder blade. As usual, all these items were scrounged off other boats and cost me nothing. With the helmsman seated somewhat aft of amidships, near the point of maximum beam, it is just possible to use a conventional tiller plus extension, unlike the “Huron”.
Sailing at her usual venue, Alton Water, it was soon obvious that the knife-like bow did not lift at all over steep waves, but rather went straight through them, filling the boat rapidly in anything above a moderate breeze, necessitating a swift retreat to the nearest shore before she submarined. Modifications were obviously called for, so I extended the foredeck back a further three feet and added side decking, reducing the big cockpit to a short, narrow sealed footwell. Even this still filled in choppy conditions, but it could now be bailed out whilst afloat.
The second photo shows her sailing at Alton Water after these modifications, using her normal 55 sq ft rig, cut out of an old Byte dinghy sail. I did actually have to pay £10 for that sail but the spars, from a damaged Laser, were free as usual. Using a standard Topper rig her windward performance is improved even more, better than the “Huron” with the same rig (as expected), but with the wind free I feel that the longer “Huron” is slightly faster for a given sail area.
At only 15ft 6in long “Carrick” is a foot shorter than the “Huron”, although she’s a couple of inches wider than the “Huron”’s 2ft 10in beam. But she feels noticeably less stable since she does not carry her maximum beam over very much of her length, the lean front half of the hull not contributing very much at all to static stability; with an 80 sq ft spritsail rig she seemed to me to be very twitchy even in quite light winds, needing quicker reactions and a lot more agility to keep her upright.
With her very small cockpit she comes up from a capsize completely empty of water but, floating so high and being narrow, she is not so easy to climb into without capsizing her back onto oneself. I found that bringing her round beam onto the wind and then sheeting in worked, the two opposing capsizing forces cancelling out. (Quite different from the completely undecked“Huron” which, despite her 200lb airbags, floats nearly awash after capsizing and is very easy to slide back into. But at this point, holding about half a ton of water plus her helmsman, “Huron” is as unstable as a log and needs emptying with a large bucket urgently)
“Carrick” is now owned by a considerably younger and more agile friend of mine, and is sailed at Alton Water in the summer months. Yet more modifications are in hand, and she’s currently being converted from the leeboard arrangement to a daggerboard installation, with the aim of further improving her windward performance.
Meresig is a small dinghy of very traditional shape and size but made of glued clinker plywood. She was designed by Iain Oughtred and called a ‘Ptarmigan’ by him, and I built her in my garage. He has now modified the design and calls it a ‘Guillemot’. Iain doesn’t have his own website but there are lots of references to his designs in boat magazines and on the Web. Some of his plans are stocked at Classic Marine in Woodbridge – who also sell useful and attractive fittings such as bronze rowlocks.
Some dimensions: Length: 3.5m/11ft 6 ins Beam: 1.35m/4ft 5 ins Depth: 0.5m/1 ft 8 ins Sail area: 5.76 m²/62 sq ft Weight : about 55kg/121 lbsShe can be rowed by 1 or 2 people, sailed or powered by a Minn Kota electric outboard. 4 adults are about the most she can carry. Because she is a general purpose old-fashioned shape she is adequate for all these roles, but is not specialised in any of them. But I think she looks lovely and I want to repeat my thanks to her designer for all the pleasure she has given me.
I started building her in the winter of 1993/4 but didn’t finish until spring 1995. The principal wood used is 6mm thick mahogany plywood made by Bruynzeel. The transom is from an old mahogany table, the main thwarts are made from Douglas Fir, the stem & keelson & gunwale rubbing strips are Iroko, the sternsheets (or rear seats to me) are from a piece of Elm driftwood, and there are also bits of Applewood and Philippine Mahogany in her. She was initially built upside down on moulds to give her the correct shape. The planks are cut to shape and glued to each other and also to the stem and transom with epoxy resin glue. Then I turned her the right way up and added the thwarts, centreplate case, floors, knees, sternsheets, breasthook, skeg etc.
I modified the design a bit so that the some of the sternsheets hinge up; that way I have the option of sitting on the bottom boards to sail her with my back supported by the sternsheets, which can be quite comfortable. When he saw that change Iain had a little moan that ‘no-one builds my boats exactly as I design them’. After that all you have to do is coat her with epoxy resin to keep her waterproof, than add paint or varnish to taste. Oh, and then you have to make the oars and the mast and the boom and the rudder and the centreplate. At least someone else (Gayle Heard of Tollesbury) made the lugsail. And that is why I took so long, even though Iain reckons it should only take about 200 hours to make her.
I exhibited her at the 1995 wooden boat show at Greenwich (now sadly defunct - but the Beale Park show in June is some recompense) and won a prize, so other people think she looks nice as well. There have been some photos of her in Lock Lintel and a good one by Linda Barrell on the Electric Boating Association website www.electric-boat-association.org.uk/images/Stour2004/pages/015.htm, but the one I show here is myself sailing her in Tollesbury Fleet in 1999. I also row and sail Meresig on the Blackwater.
Rowing or electric outboard power on the Stour are both fine by me. My most memorable moment was in 2005 when I saw Kingfishers taking food into a nest they had built in earth attached to the roots of a fallen tree at Cornard. So the death of a tree helped give life to Kingfishers. My most embarrassing point was just after launching, when I found out that there was a small leak where the centreplate case was fitted, and I received a few choice comments from onlookers, but it was quickly corrected. The worst moment came when some officious canoeist on the Stour complained that I was on the ‘wrong’ side of the river. I had a TV crew of 3 people (Producer, Camera-man, Sound-man) in her in 2005 when filming Trusty II; they said the rowlocks and oars were too noisy.
I have yet to go all the way from Sudbury to the sea in her. It’s too hard for one person to lift her weight around all the portages (but 2 people might manage it) and I’m not sure how we would manage in the shallows. Perhaps I will build a canoe in the meantime so that I can make that trip in my own boat. My aim is for everyone to be able to row all of the Stour – just look at those photos of the Edwardians enjoying a trip on the river or read ‘3 Men in a Boat’ to see what I mean. - and is the main reason why I would like to see through navigation restored
My grandfather was a mariner; he was Master of a trading ketch based at Braunton in North Devon for many decades, making a precarious living carrying coal from South Wales to North Devon and Cornwall or sand from the Taw estuary to help build Barry Docks or any cargo he could get. You can just make out the last remains of his boat Bessie Clarke on the River Torridge near Appledore, where she was abandoned after World War 2 following service as a mooring point for a barrage balloon. I hope he would have approved of Meresig.
Why Meresig? It’s the Anglo-Saxon name for Mersea, and I like to name boats after islands.
Mike Finch
3rd Sudbury Scouts-"Johnny Rescue"
(This boat has now been sold and replaced with Kingfisher-Launched April 2008-article coming soon)
As an ex-sea scout I have developed a growing interest in boats, especially in a retired RNLI Rib called Johnny Rescue. She is an orange and grey 4m Avon rib with a 50hp 4 stroke outboard engine. She does safety boat work along the stretch of river from Ballingdon Bridge to Cornard Lock when she is crewed by qualified leaders of 3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts. All of our power boat helmsman (and women) hold the RYA Power Boat Level 2 qualification, as I do. This is a 2 day intensive practical and theory based course held at a coastal school. It is a great help having a safety boat out on Thursday evenings and weekends when we have a range of sailing dinghies, rowing boats and kayaks out on the river. Each year Johnny Rescue is on call to Sudbury Rowing Club helping to keep the water activities safe at the annual Regatta. On some weekends she likes to go and stretch her propellers and go for a spin around the coast of Brightlingsea and Mersey Island. Sea Scouts do coastal sailing from Brightlingsea where we team up with Brightlingsea Sailing club and on the River Deben at Felixstowe Ferry when we launch from Bawdsey. Johnny rescue is invaluable on these occasions and is really put to work as our safety boat.
Johnny rescue is owned by the 3rd Sudbury Scout Group and was purchased with money raised by fundraising including our Group Scout Leader Toby Patey running in the London Marathon which raised £1000, our Sea Scout Leader Rob completing a 5 day expedition in the Lake District and the Sea Scouts who raised a further £500 from a sponsored Bike Ride. A year later a new outboard, engine and VHF/DSC radio were purchased with money raised from the bag packing that they do at Waitrose.
Johnny Rescue is a Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat (RIB for short), she is excellent matched to the task of a safety boat having a high load carrying capability, has soft sides which makes for less damage when in contact with other boats and is extremely stable thanks to a flooding hull that empties at speed to enable her to plain at 25knots plus (not on the River Stour though)
There is quite a bit of specialist safety equipment on the boat such as fire extinguisher, tool kit, bailers, towline, first aid kit, survival bags, flares, bolt croppers, knife, spare shackles and cordage in a boson’s bag, binoculars, maps, charts, compass, hand held gps/chart plotter and spare propeller.
I would like to thank Rob Palmer of 3rd Sudbury Sea Scouts for letting me have the pleasure of driving Johnny about, and hope to do so for a while longer.
Sammie Meekings-Explorer Scout (Sea Scout Skills Helper) More pictures and details of Sea Scout activities can be found here-Click
The Construction of Dolly.
We started talking about acquiring a workboat for the River Stour Trust in December 1999, and after Susan found some pictures in old canal books I proposed a spoon-dredger in January 2000. In principle this consists of a large long-handled shovel or spoon worked either completely or partly by hand over the side of a punt-like workboat. I realised the hard work could be removed from the early operation by using a powered winch to do the lifting, and managed to obtain two old scaffold winches, one electric and one petrol-engined. The electric one was not suited to working on water, being 240 volt, and the old Villiers engine refused to give any spark.
The dredger project was really kicked-off one autumn when an anonymous benefactor watched us struggling to hand-dredge weed from the Granary Cut using the three ex-Boathouse GRP dinghies lashed together. When told of my previous offer to the Trust he agreed to donate £800 in two parts to fund the basic workboat to be built as a private venture. The size of the boat, to be made of welded steel sheet in the form of a large punt, was dictated by the need for stability when lifting about 100 kgs (2 cwt) of sludge over the side. The thickness of the steel was dictated by the need for the boat to be easily transportable, possibly on the trailer already used for the electric tripboat Rosette.
The chosen dimensions were 7m long by 2m wide with sides 0.5m deep. If constructed in 3mm thick steel, arc-welded with 50mm by 6mm flat bar stiffeners and gunwales, the finished weight would be under 0.75 tonnes - (15 cwt) The dredging equipment would consist of the winch and a fixed crane made from scaffolding, all to be added after launching the basic boat. Fabrication started in October under the guidance of a retired friend who had lectured in welding in evening classes. My previous welding experience was in hard-facing the augers used in my drilling and piling business. It was disconcerting to find this steel sheet bending so much when being arc-welded - always in the wrong direction.
My small work force was regularly called in to help in handling the 2m by 1m steel sheets, which had to be turned over to weld both sides of each seam. The size of sheet to be turned eventually grew to 5m by 2m, at which stage the sides were assembled and welded into position. The sloping end-sheets, gunwales and walkway supports were then added. All seams were finally continuously welded from both sides. This involved pushing the boat out of the barn and tipping it by forklift onto each side in turn. Of course it rained heavily during this operation!
Before lowering the boat back onto its wheels, the underside was given two coats of paint. The pulley system for the lowering operation was not thought out very carefully and Les and Susan nearly got catapulted through the back of the barn as Dolly (named about this time) crashed down onto the 4" diameter rubber wheels. One of the temporary internal braces sheared through its 10mm fixing bolt, and the rubber wheel under this point was hopelessly split by the impact. Dolly had been pushed out of the barn, but had to be winched back in because the rubber wheels were becoming badly distorted under the load. The four centre wheels were replaced with fabricated resin-filled steel ones.
The walkways were decked with non-slip glass fibre grids as used by the Environment Agency for canoe portages. Although expensive, this material has a gritty surface and hopefully a very long life with no painting required. A simple method of anchoring the boat while working was chosen at an early stage. An 18 inch length of 2 inch steel pipe was now bolted vertically on the outside of each corner. Two 10 foot lengths of scaffold tube are dropped through any two of these to nail the boat into the river bed. They are pegged in the raised position when travelling.
Dolly was tested for leaks by filling with 4 inches depth of water, as I had guessed that she would float unladen with a draft of 3.5 inches. Two weeping welds were found, so these and several other poor-looking seams were ground out and rewelded.
The finished boat was given 3 coats of .green oxide- rumoured to be red oxide with green dye added! Sand was sprinkled on the gunwales and sloping ends. The Villiers engine was replaced by a slightly newer 10hp Briggs & Stratton, which gave satisfactory performance on tick-over after several oil changes, cleaned magneto points and a carburettor kit.
The spoon was fabricated from a 4m length of thin-wall steel tubing, and after assembly the scaffolding crane and winch were load-tested to 125 kg. A 2hp outboard engine was mounted on the stern, and a hand operated bilge pump is provided, although in practice its quicker to use a bailer and bucket!
Dolly was launched on 14th March and the dredging attachment tested satisfactorily on the 15th. She carried 1.5 tonnes of sawn green oak downstream to Cornard Lock, and was used as a work platform and wheelbarrow bridge for maintenance work on the lock in April. My total time to make Dolly was just over 400 hours.
Roger Brown
Thanks to: Les, Laurie, Phill, Ralph, Susan, Dick, Chard, Clive, Sandy, Frank, Hugh, Judith and Bob.
I built “Lily” during the winter of 2003/4 in my garage. The plans came from Selway Fisher Design, who describe her as a 15ft canoe yawl of a type popular in this country over a hundred years ago. As designed, she was a largely undecked craft with a long shallow centreplate and carrying lugsails on both main and mizzen.
I made quite a few departures from the plans including raising the freeboard, adding much more extensive decking, building in six sealed buoyancy chambers occupying two thirds of the total hull volume, and fitting a deep daggerboard in lieu of the centreplate. I also installed 100 kg of scrap lead ballast bolted inside her bottom. The idea was to make her more suitable for single-handed estuary/coastal sailing. Stability tests at Alton Water in April 2004 showed her rapidly self-righting from 120 degrees of heel with only a few gallons of water in her enclosed cockpit; it was gratifying to see my calculations proved to be fairly accurate. I also changed from the designer’s traditional lugsail rig to a high-peaked gaff mainsail, with a bowsprit-set jib and a spritsail mizzen.
She is built with seven planks per side, epoxy fastened, and then the entire hull and decks epoxy saturated inside and out(I used 35kg of epoxy resin for the entire job). Bearing in mind the 100 kg of lead inside, I double planked her bottom and triple planked the wide garboard strakes for extra strength. I built her hull to last, of the best quality materials, but regarded the rig as experimental and likely to change until I find what suits us best. Thus I put the rig together at virtually no cost, out of scrounged bits and pieces - old Laser spars and blown out dinghy sails. My wife has become quite resigned to cutting down and reshaping mainsails which, although sound, are past their best as bermudan sails but can set quite well with a gaff or sprit.
With her modest beam and fine ended hull she is quite tender under sail but performs well. In strong winds she will sail and tack reliably to windward under jib and mizzen alone and make good progress. In May 2004 we won the Classics trophy in the Stour Sailing Club’s 21 mile race from Mistley out to Stone Banks and back to Wrabness, including a tedious beat against the ebb tide outside Harwich, so I was quite pleased with her performance. I keep her on a mooring at Manningtree, up towards the railway bridge, and find her draft of only 10 inches (with the daggerboard and rudder blade right up) very useful. With the wind between SW and NW I can often sail away down the narrow channel on only the first two hours of flood tide, scraping along in a foot of water.
The photographs show her on her very first trial at Alton Water in 2004, not yet painted, and a year later at Manningtree with a further modification to the rig. Sylvia cut down the mainsail(for the second time) to a lower gaff angle, and made a topsail out of a discarded Mirror dinghy main - it’s yard is a very light windsurfer spar. I’m not sure if she sails any better in light winds than before, but I like the look of it and there are even more ropes to play with.
I trailed “Lily” to Sudbury for the 2004 Steam and Electric event held at the Granary and took visitors out for short trips under power using a borrowed electric outboard - there’s a photo on page 9 of the Lock Lintel magazine.
She’s 14ft 10 ins long on deck, beam is 4ft 8 ins , draft 3ft with daggerboard right down. Hull and rig weigh 200kg, plus the 100kg of lead ballast. Sail area with topsail is 130 sq ft.
I first met this craft in 1987; a friend in Ipswich Canoe Club had just brought it down from the makers, McNulty’s up in the Northeast. Not long after that it was acquired by the Ipswich Waterways Club as part of their fleet of canoes and kayaks which we used to take members (with learning difficulties) afloat on the Stour, including the annual Sudbury to Cattawade cruise each May with an overnight camp in the grounds of Nayland Primary School. It gave some eight years of very hard service and I’d done many repairs to its GRP hull - splits and gouges sustained after numerous weir shoots. There was a major rekindling of interest in Open Canoeing in the UK at the end of the 1980’s, mainly due to Colin Broadway’s firm Mobile Adventure who started importing the American Old Town range of really good designs, made in very tough plastics (much better when bouncing off rocks and concrete). Several diehard kayak instructors, myself included, were persuaded to gain Open Canoeing qualifications.
I came to own the Huron when the Waterways Club had to close in 1996, but made little use of it until I fitted it out for sailing in 2001. I was well aware how many hard knocks the hull had taken over the years and that it was no longer up to much more use like that. So I thought that it would be best suited to a more gentlemanly life under sail (as indeed would I !). I installed a 50 sq ft spritsail rig from my old Manningtree punt, a rudder from my deceased Firefly dinghy and a pair of bolt-on leeboards made from scrap fencing planks. It first went afloat at Alton Water, and it went to windward a lot better than a gun punt did. With a couple of like-minded friends, we three sailed our open canoes on a number of occasions from the tidal barrage at Cattawade, on the rising tide, up to Judas Gap weir. It was always an interesting sail, with numerous shoals and narrowing sharply over the last mile. With a view to sailing in much deeper water I fitted a pair of (scrounged) 100lb buoyancy bags.
Several different rigs have been used, from a 37 sq ft Optimist up to an 80 sq ft spritsail (most of an old Wayfarer main) and also a standard Topper rig. Last year, using the Topper rig and a pair of much bigger leeboards (actually Enterprise centreplates) I raced her at Alton Water a few times in the evenings and was pleased that she would compete well with Topper and Topaz dinghies, even upwind. Very satisfying considering that the conversion to sail cost me nothing at all – spars, sails and all other bits and pieces were scrounged and modified. The photographs were taken two years ago and show the biggest rig in use. The mast is a Laser top section and was not really stiff enough for the job. The 16 ft sprit was two pieces of carbon fibre windsurfer mast sleeved together. The 80 sq ft sail is only really suitable for up to 10 kts maximum wind speed.
I’ve stayed with sailing punt practice and simply hitch the mainsheet to the boom and slip it under a thumb cleat on the gunn’l and directly back to one’s hand– no purchase at all. It is harder to sheet in but a lot quicker to let the sheet out when overpowered and, if losing control downwind, it is possible to let the sheet go completely and then the sail is free to spill right forward of the mast. Tacking or gybing requires the sheet to be slipped under the opposite cleat. Gybing needs a bit of care with such a narrow undecked craft. The very modest freeboard allows the gunn’l to ship water easily, so one gets used to sailing with a fair amount of water aboard. Sitting some 7ft forward of the rudder rules out the use of a conventional tiller/extension. I use a long push/pull tiller attached to an arm on one side of the rudder stock It proved easier to get used to than I had thought.
The conversion to sail was quite simple. The most time-consuming job was converting the handsome curved canoe stern to a narrow transom that would accommodate two eyebolts to serve as rudder hangings. After a season’s use I beefed up the ageing gunnl’s amidships, the mast tending to twist the front of the canoe to leeward, my weight on the gunn’l twisting the stern half the other way. Had the old gunnl’s failed I think the hull would have torn in two amidships. I’ve tried sailing her downriver from Sudbury but, apart from the stretch along Friars Meadow, everywhere else the trees blanket the wind and try to ensnare the rig. I’ve also sailed her from my sailing club at Manningtree; great fun in the sheltered creeks but very wet indeed where the estuary broadens out and there’s a wind against tide chop. Overall the best conditions for her are at Alton Water, where I keep her in the summer.
I find her a very interesting craft to sail; she needs a bit of care at times if it’s gusty/flukey, but rather satisfying in that she sails a lot better than one might have expected. And the whole outfit cost me virtually nothing.
Never having owned a boat before it was somewhat of a shock to find that a silly bid of £300 on Ebay had won me a Falmouth Bass Boat based out of Wells Harbor in Norfolk. Called the James Doe Built by Tom Pearce in Little Flushing in 1959 it appeared to need some work. The bid included trailer and 4hp 2 stroke engine so it seemed pretty reasonable.
The trailer being serviceable both myself and my wife towed it home and immediately tried it on the river to see if she floated. Apart from some rotten floorboards all appeared perfect.
I worked on the boat to bring it up to a standard befitting its popularity and adapted the easily removable centre board for river use only. I have of course kept the sails and rigging. Work was completed in this first year of 2005 After joining the River Stour Trust many a wonderful day was spent on our famous river given both myself and my wife an insight into the real beauty of the Valley from a unique view point.
Tradition was established by our grand children opting out of the usual young children’s parties and enjoying a birthday on the meadow including boat trips (usual safety measures in place). The odd thing was a queue appeared one day of about 30 unknown children and parents waiting to pay for the trip! Not having any liability insurance prevented me becoming rich over night, although I redirected everyone to the Granary notice board.
As is the usual course of action, money started to be channeled towards the boat with the purchase of a new and robust trailer and an Eco 4 Stroke engine from Suzuki.
In 2006 after 37 years of a perfect marriage sadly my wife, Rosemary, died of cancer after 6 months of warning aged only 54. We had no regrets over our time together and we lived the 6 months to the full, including many picnic boat trips on the river. The boat is now renamed Rosie J and has been used a few times to give couples, in a similar condition to what both rosemary and myself found ourselves, the peace and tranquility that is sometimes required when you know that only a short time exists to enjoy life.
I continue to use the boat on the river as much as possible and welcome a wave. I especially welcome any advice as I am still very wet behind the ears (bad rowing style!)
Buying the boat was probable the best thing I have done. I no longer spend my life as a marketing director for a major Company and all that entails, but enjoy life in Sudbury at a pace that makes sense to me.
Les with his daughter Angelina leaving the lock at Great Cornard on the first day of S2C (Sudbury to the Sea). S2C is an annual event held in September. For pictures and a report of the 2006 event-click here
The boat was formally owned by Laurie Burroughs. Les and Laurie used to spend many weekends exploring not just the River Stour but many of the navigable rivers throughout East Anglia including the Waveney and the little Ouse.
Les Airey is the Harbour Master at Sudbury and can be contacted through the River Stour Trust if you require moorings for your craft at the Quay Basin.
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Please email me jeff@riverstour.com if you are interested. Thanks.