Lakesailor
New member
I wonder if anyone on this forum has any experience or recollections of a gaff-rigged Rivers Class yacht called Clwyd? I think she as built in about 1903. There seemed to have been about 10 of the class boats built. A few still survive. I think Styx is a quite well known example. Styx for Sale
I sailed with a friend and his father, who owned it, on the Humber in the late '70s. Prior to that I found this recollection of her.
"She was owned then by Ken Colley. He was a partner in a business on the banks of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal near its entry to the dock system. She spent the war years hauled out in a field at Hall Road but was eventually moved to Ken's works in Bootle, repaired and fitted with a small cabin top.
She was launched into the canal, towed by man-power down to the Stanley Dock where they stepped the mast and then sailed out into the Mersey with one crew member still aloft reeving off the peak halyard. That was the start of a cruise to the Menai Straits with four adults aboard and towing a 10 ft dinghy.
A week later they left the straits for the return passage, meaning to enter the Alt on the Sunday evening tide. They were late, having to beat all the way and were coming into the entrance on the Monday morning when one crewmember fell overboard. Luckily I believe he was able to grab the dinghy and hang on until he was hauled back aboard Clwyd in the calmer waters of the river."
I hadn't appreciated at the time it was a pretty nippy boat, but I did enjoy sailing on her very much. Which is why I still enjoy the sport.
I sailed with a friend and his father, who owned it, on the Humber in the late '70s. Prior to that I found this recollection of her.
"She was owned then by Ken Colley. He was a partner in a business on the banks of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal near its entry to the dock system. She spent the war years hauled out in a field at Hall Road but was eventually moved to Ken's works in Bootle, repaired and fitted with a small cabin top.
She was launched into the canal, towed by man-power down to the Stanley Dock where they stepped the mast and then sailed out into the Mersey with one crew member still aloft reeving off the peak halyard. That was the start of a cruise to the Menai Straits with four adults aboard and towing a 10 ft dinghy.
A week later they left the straits for the return passage, meaning to enter the Alt on the Sunday evening tide. They were late, having to beat all the way and were coming into the entrance on the Monday morning when one crewmember fell overboard. Luckily I believe he was able to grab the dinghy and hang on until he was hauled back aboard Clwyd in the calmer waters of the river."
I hadn't appreciated at the time it was a pretty nippy boat, but I did enjoy sailing on her very much. Which is why I still enjoy the sport.
