How yachting has changed

[Wansworth]

My brief time at David Hillyards a wooden yacht builder which had seen it’s hey day probably before the war although it was still going strong in the 1950s ceased at least new boatbuilding by the beginning of the early 1970s as fibre glass begun to make its mark.One feature of GRP yachts was they found all year round berths afloat in marinas whereas the wooden boats were hauled ashore or left in mud berths over the winter.Atypical Hillyard would come back to the yard in early September the mast would be lowered and stripped of the rigging and placed in a mast rack.Then the interior was emptied by the owner into a store in the yard.Comethe large tides the yard launch towed the yacht into a mud berth where a full cover was erected over frames .All thi work must have been expensive involving lots of man hours although by the early 70s owners had started to be allowed to do work on their boats.Many a Brigadier with his regimental tie holding up his twill trousers set to work in the Spring varnishing !

There was only one apprentice in his final year whenI was ther and the workforce were all in the main past 50 probably another reason theyard closed.

In the Spring owners were anxious to have their boats afloat so they were floated out the mud berths and the masts restepped and storerooms emptied back aboard .At this time on the dry dock owners would have the topsides painted and bottoms antifoul by the yard if the owners could afford it.

 

[ylop]

About 80% of that still describes boating in Scotland.

 

[The Q]

Similar to the Norfolk Broads, old classes like the Yare and Bure one design of 1908 are removed from the water for the winter.
The Glass fibre Yeoman / Kinsman class is often sailed and raced all year round with just a haul out for a bottom clean / antifoul.

 

[Concerto]

I remember when my parents bought their first yacht in 1967, a glassfibre Kingfisher 30. A solicitor, my father knew, had delivered a Hillyard, about 30ft long, a few months later. I always thought the Kingfisher sailed like a brick, but the Hillyard sailed like a breeze block. I do not think he kept it that long and I doubt it is still around today, whereas I know the Kingfisher was in S Wales a few years ago.

Shortly before Hillyards closed, the manager wanted to buy a quantity of teak from me after seeing it on eBay. He never came up with the money, but someone else bought the teak. It was bought my father in the very late 1960's when a local shipyard closed. It was from Burma and how I wish now I had kept a bit more of it.

 

[johnalison]

Similar to the Norfolk Broads, old classes like the Yare and Bure one design of 1908 are removed from the water for the winter.
The Glass fibre Yeoman / Kinsman class is often sailed and raced all year round with just a haul out for a bottom clean / antifoul.

We used to go on the Broads in April and we would often see boats at Herbert Woods being brought out from the sheds, or, like the first Summer Breeze, being launched.

I have some cine film, now on disc, of my family with two Y&Bs sailing/racing each other some time before the war. At one point there is a collision which was the subject of extremely ill-tempered argument that was still continuing when I was a teenager, though it seems clear to me which was the guilty party. The only photo of one of these boats is this White Myth from about 1948, with me looking daft and needing a haircut, and I think a cousin in the bow.

 

[Wansworth]

I remember when my parents bought their first yacht in 1967, a glassfibre Kingfisher 30. A solicitor, my father knew, had delivered a Hillyard, about 30ft long, a few months later. I always thought the Kingfisher sailed like a brick, but the Hillyard sailed like a breeze block. I do not think he kept it that long and I doubt it is still around today, whereas I know the Kingfisher was in S Wales a few years ago.


Shortly before Hillyards closed, the manager wanted to buy a quantity of teak from me after seeing it on eBay. He never came up with the money, but someone else bought the teak. It was bought my father in the very late 1960's when a local shipyard closed. It was from Burma and how I wish now I had kept a bit more of it.

I remember when my parents bought their first yacht in 1967, a glassfibre Kingfisher 30. A solicitor, my father knew, had delivered a Hillyard, about 30ft long, a few months later. I always thought the Kingfisher sailed like a brick, but the Hillyard sailed like a breeze block. I do not think he kept it that long and I doubt it is still around today, whereas I know the Kingfisher was in S Wales a few years ago.

Shortly before Hillyards closed, the manager wanted to buy a quantity of teak from me after seeing it on eBay. He never came up with the money, but someone else bought the teak. It was bought my father in the very late 1960's when a local shipyard closed. It was from Burma and how I wish now I had kept a bit more of it.

Hillyards at some point had Laurent Giles design a 36 foot glassfibre yacht theteak may have been for that.I never understood why Hillyards deviated from their business of building and repair of wooden yachts as wooden boat ever really went away and actually made a big comeback …..hence the growth of the Classic Boat etc

 

[ianc1200]

My interest in Littlehampton boatbuilding was ARC Marine Ltd, on the other side of the river. In the late 90's the Hillyard chandlery was run by Peter Davies, who lived above the chandlery. He had worked for ARC Marine three times in his career & lent me a small suitcase full of that boatyard photo's he'd taken, for me to scan.

 

[Wansworth]

My interest in Littlehampton boatbuilding was ARC Marine Ltd, on the other side of the river. In the late 90's the Hillyard chandlery was run by Peter Davies, who lived above the chandlery. He had worked for ARC Marine three times in his career & lent me a small suitcase full of that boatyard photo's he'd taken, for me to scan.

Inthe late 1980s I worked for ARC Marine in the yard adjoining Hillyards ……..at that time they still moulded the odd Cobra Butthey main business was small GRP runabouts .I bought stuff off PeterDavis .In 1988 Iought all the pig iron I could find in Hillyardsfor ballast for my boat,Culingford the nephew of Hillyard was the owner of Hillyards and was very he was very help full although he didn’t remember I worked for him back in 1969

 

[ianc1200]

Surprised to hear ARC were still going in late 80's! They went bankrupt about 1954, but did build at least two Everymans 1955/56. They then were fitting out GRP sailing boats (SCODS?) early 60's and they then disappeared. Peter Davies said the ARC owner E Ward was a bit of an Arthur Daley character, buying materials/engines on the cheap. I've just bought a lot of paperwork re the ARC run ins with a Goverment overseas trade promotion dept, and can see from the British Newspaper Archive the same exaggerated claims from the owner. Currently my gaff cutter on the hard next to the second oldest Hillyard (the owner says) still sailing, from about 1928/29, Lindy 11.

 

[Wansworth]

Surprised to hear ARC were still going in late 80's! They went bankrupt about 1954, but did build at least two Everymans 1955/56. They then were fitting out GRP sailing boats (SCODS?) early 60's and they then disappeared. Peter Davies said the ARC owner E Ward was a bit of an Arthur Daley character, buying materials/engines on the cheap. I've just bought a lot of paperwork re the ARC run ins with a Goverment overseas trade promotion dept, and can see from the British Newspaper Archive the same exaggerated claims from the owner. Currently my gaff cutter on the hard next to the second oldest Hillyard (the owner says) still sailing, from about 1928/29, Lindy 11.

That was the name on the gate!

 

[samfieldhouse]

I was at school with Cullingford’s daughter, she caused 8 year old me much heartache.

Not sure where my Cobra was moulded - and fitted out - she’s a ‘79 so could have been Portsmouth or ‘LA’ I guess.

 

[Wansworth]

I was at school with Cullingford’s daughter, she caused 8 year old me much heartache.

Not sure where my Cobra was moulded - and fitted out - she’s a ‘79 so could have been Portsmouth or ‘LA’ I guess.

When I started work at ACS in Littlehampton I became friends with the designer David Feltham,all the mould were heaped up in a corner in the yard .that must have been 1987/88 there was no sign of a production of Cobra yachts and the people I worked for were gearing up to build runabouts .Inthe timethresomecobra boats were moulded and Ifitted knees to a thirty footer and the bilge keels.

 

[samfieldhouse]

David was a nice chap, I came to know him just before he passed away - he gifted me his archive of plans and drawings.
Shame about the moulds, I wonder what happened to them.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

This was how it used to be for me ... aged around 7 in a family of 5.

 

[billyfish]

This was our first 'family cruising yacht' I remember going to Hillyards don't know why but we got a Kestral in birdham pool about 65. Both parents died this year and I found a box of cine 8 films. Found a second hand projector and it all came flooding back . Sometimes literally.

 

[johnalison]

This was our first 'family cruising yacht' I remember going to Hillyards don't know why but we got a Kestral in birdham pool about 65. Both parents died this year and I found a box of cine 8 films. Found a second hand projector and it all came flooding back . Sometimes literally.

We knew a couple who had a honeymoon on a Kestrel. The marriage survived, though she succumbed to something unpleasant some years later.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I never sailed in anything bigger than a 505 until I was about 20. And mostly a lot smaller. I thought that was fairly normal for kids from the 50s and 60s. We didn't know anyone with a yacht. Ownership is a lot more widespread these days, for sure. Which has everything to do with the demise of Hilliard's, and the rise of GRP. Much of that sailing for me was at Worthing and Littlehampton. I would be surprised if the young man Wansworth didn't see the short trousered me at some point in the 60s or 70s.

 

[johnalison]

I never sailed in anything bigger than a 505 until I was about 20. And mostly a lot smaller. I thought that was fairly normal for kids from the 50s and 60s. We didn't know anyone with a yacht. Ownership is a lot more widespread these days, for sure. Which has everything to do with the demise of Hilliard's, and the rise of GRP. Much of that sailing for me was at Worthing and Littlehampton. I would be surprised if the young man Wansworth didn't see the short trousered me at some point in the 60s or 70s.

My father ordered a boat from Mitchell's yard at Portmellon but changed his mind and decided to go to war with Germany instead. This yard also built Helen for Helen Tew's father which she later took over and crossed the Atlantic in when she was about 90. I remember looking at yachts being built in the yard when we were on holiday there, but I didn't give it as much attention as I now realise I should have. We occasionally saw yachts anchored in the bay. They looked very big to me but were probably no more than about 32'.

Although brought up on Fireflies, originally with cotton sails, I was accustomed to Broads boats, even 36' motor boats that we slept in. I hired (as it was called) sailing boats on the Broads when I was a student and later got the urge to hire a big one with a bowsprit to terrify the locals with. With my wife and young son, I borrowed a nephew to make up the numbers and had a very enjoyable week on a Leading Lady before being seduced by Poseidon and ordering a Cirrus the next year.

 

[Wansworth]

I never sailed in anything bigger than a 505 until I was about 20. And mostly a lot smaller. I thought that was fairly normal for kids from the 50s and 60s. We didn't know anyone with a yacht. Ownership is a lot more widespread these days, for sure. Which has everything to do with the demise of Hilliard's, and the rise of GRP. Much of that sailing for me was at Worthing and Littlehampton. I would be surprised if the young man Wansworth didn't see the short trousered me at some point in the 60s or 70s.

My father joined the Arun yacht club in 1964 and kept the “Dora” on the mud so I never mingled with the posh lot who had Fireballs and EnterprisesThe river then was full of interesting wreaks and houseboats and a massive Brixham trawler that eventually put to sea.In the sixties Hillyards seemed to be thriving full to busting with wooden yachts

 

[johnalison]

Still on the Broads, this was my mate Terry, who wasn't very bright but managed to get through the course after a couple of failures. The picture shows him about twenty minutes after I had put him into a sailing boat for the first time in his life.


This was my other mate Paul, who eventually became a consultant. He prepared himself for the trip by reading books and practicing on Regent's Park pond. As you can see, even at the end of the week he hasn't a clue what he is doing. He never had any idea what the wind was doing and was a menace if left on the helm, which just goes to prove something or other.