Howard's Way... Go on then - what boat?

emsworthy

emsworthy

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Must be really bored and frustrated at not sailing as I Googled this expecting to find a Sadler Barracuda but it's clearly not... so what is it?



To my untrained eye it looks vaguely Impala-ish but I'm sure you experts out there will know exactly. Nothing other than idle curiosity of course! :)

Really brings back memories too!! Bath night, for one!!
 
emsworthy said:
Pretty emphatic there!! ;) Well this may well turn out to be the shortest thread ever!

Still Impala is not a bad guess... apart from the lack of transom hung rudder and 3 foot of length that is!! :o
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I thought the Flying Fish was 28 feet?

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4498198.Sunk_Howards____Way_yacht_will_sail_again/

It's about the only boat I don't remember well - growing up in Hamble, it was quite a big event!

Although most of the sailing was filmed in Lymington.
 
Indeed I was racing our Impala against her only last week.

They're similar in many ways but the Laser doesn't have the transom hung rudder and has flatter Hull form aft of the keel meaning she should plane more easilly. Accomodation wise they lack sea berths but are probably more comfortable for two in harbour with a cut down Bretton layout which Hunter eventually adopted for their successor model the 27OOD.

Performance wise there is little to choose between them so its a great time to be racing either in the Solent. Moondog and Blazer are usually among the front runners in JOG class 5 whilstbFlying Fish tends to do more of the inshore races. Her owners, Kathy and Rupert Smalley are the brains and driving force behind the IRC Solent Series and have also been organising a regatta for boats less than 33' Los in July (which sadly clashes with the Impala Nationals).

THe Laser 28 was conceived by Laser in the late seventies/ early eighties to capture those moving on from their dinghies. It was designed by Bruce Farr (himself, none of this FYD nonesense). Like the Impala it has had a keel redesign at some stage but not all of them had it which is why there are such differences in handicaps between them. There was also a divergance between owners who went for a Genoa rather than the original gib.

The last few built in the UK were by Hedley Bewes (of Foxer fame) and the design ended production as the Red Fox 28.

As for Howards Way, FF was the boat Tom had at the start of the first series, the plot being that as an aeronautical engineer he had designed it himself and cleaned up with his family crew which gave him the confidence to design the Baracuda and then the Spring before getting involved in America's Cup and Freer Trophy projects.
 
emsworthy said:
Must be really bored and frustrated at not sailing as I Googled this expecting to find a Sadler Barracuda but it's clearly not... so what is it?



To my untrained eye it looks vaguely Impala-ish but I'm sure you experts out there will know exactly. Nothing other than idle curiosity of course! :)

Really brings back memories too!! Bath night, for one!!
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FYI, Spring of Tarrant lives on a mooring just part the left turn at the top of hayling, on the way to Northney.
 
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Flying Fish

Judders said:
Indeed I was racing our Impala against her only last week.
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So pleased they got her back together after thier sinking incident. I hadnt seen her back on the water before we left last summer. Kathy taught me most of what I know about astro-nav.

btw, we met the then owner of the MOBO that appears in the closing sequence a couple of months ago in La Linea. I also had a mate called Howard with a J24 around the time the show was first broadcast - we tried quite hard to get him to rename it Howard's J :)
 
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Everyone who was around the Hamble has a Howard's Way story. Two that spring to mind are Derek Munday of the mooring contractors Tucker and Monday made a brief appearance taking Abby Urquart out to the Needles when Leo is coming back round from somewhere or other.

An old skipper of mine tells the story that none of the actors could helm and act at the same time, so his father was often lying on the floor of the cockpits helming blind just out of shot.
 
Unless there was another incident I didn't hear about, the ' sinking incident ' was the wooden prototype 'Barracuda of Tarrant ' at Bembridge Ledge ?

I was out that day, listening on the VHF and 10 out of 10 for the owner, Bob Fisher, on the radio " She's breaking up now, cracks appearing all over the hull, we're getting into the liferaft; so your getting here soon would be appreciated ! "

Probably the coolest transmission I've ever heard. :)
 
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The most scary thing is that, when I first saw it, it seemed so big! Now you tell me that it was less than 30 foot?
 
maby said:
The most scary thing is that, when I first saw it, it seemed so big! Now you tell me that it was less than 30 foot?
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Yes when I read Impala I thought nah, it was miles bigger than that. And I used to fancy that Jan Harvey, she's 20 years older than me...:o
 
djbreeze said:
And I used to fancy that Jan Harvey, she's 20 years older than me...:o
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tourcast-1-jan-lge.jpg


One lump or two? :D
 
Seajet said:
Unless there was another incident I didn't hear about, the ' sinking incident ' was the wooden prototype 'Barracuda of Tarrant ' at Bembridge Ledge ?

I was out that day, listening on the VHF and 10 out of 10 for the owner, Bob Fisher, on the radio " She's breaking up now, cracks appearing all over the hull, we're getting into the liferaft; so your getting here soon would be appreciated ! "

Probably the coolest transmission I've ever heard. :)
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The Flying Fish sank in the Hamble River entrance in July 2009 -

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4498198.Sunk_Howards____Way_yacht_will_sail_again/
 
Chanelyacht,

Ta for that info'; in the 1980's a chum and I went halves in an aged International 14 dinghy, at my chums' suggestion we painted it yellow and called it ' Cowards' Way' :)
 
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