...in Lloyds Register?

dur

dur

Well-Known Member
Joined
19 May 2003
Messages
420
Location
Chichester
www.gaff-rig.co.uk
Hi

I wonder if any who have the odd copy of Lloyds could have a look for my Maurice Griffiths, Wind Song? Built 1929 by George Feltham in Portsmouth for a Mr Henry Tompson.
27'6" with 2'6" / 5' draft. Also owned by MG himself for a couple of years in the early 50s. and Dr Rhys Jones in the 70s. I have a few bits and pieces of info. but also several holes and it would be interesting to know where she was around the War for example. It could be she was not registered as she was built as Mr Tompson's winter boat (for wildfowling).
Many thanks!
 
Wind Song was MG's first commission and this first design and her building at Feltham's in Portsmouth is described in Dick Durham's The Magician of the Swatchways:
'The 28 footer drew 2ft 6in with the centreplate and rudder hauled up. She had a cosy cabin with berths for two and a forepeak for the guns and lurcher dog, warmed by the obligatory coal stove.'

She was designed as a wildfowling boat to 'creep up the creeks... and sit like a duck at low tide...'

In 1949 MG moved to Chalkwell near Westcliff on Sea and then bought Wind Song '...as her shoal draft would be ideal for the mud and pebble flats off Chalkwell railway station and... he could see her when he stepped aboard his train to Fenchurch Street every morning...'

Apparently after two years MG moved back to Shenfield and returned to West Mersea for his mooring, this time with Tamaris, another of his own designs.

MG himself describes Wind Song in some detail including the L shape centreplate arrangement in his book Sixty Years a Yacht Designer published by Conway Maritime Press in 1988. He said then that '...she is still afloat, now Bermuda cutter rigged and with her third engine, a small diesel.'

In Little Ships and Shoal Water, MG describes the centreboard arrangement again, with drawings, and refers to his 'two early centreboard designs _ Wind Song 7 tons and Loon 9 tons...'

In my 1967 Lloyds Register Wind Song is down as being owned by P.F. Gerrard and her home port was Dover. Then in the 1978 Register she is owned by Dr and Mrs Rhys Jones, home port West Mersea.
Hope this helps.
 
I have

'35 Col Frank Searle, CBE DSO, at Bosham, 2 cyl parafin motor
48/49/50 Lt Col JA Douglas at Portsmouth 4 cyl gray
51/52 MG at Portsmouth
53/54 Cuthbert Grasemann at Portsmouth
59/61/64 FP Jaques at Hoo, 2 cyl Coventry Victor
Not in my 69 & 73 Registers
80' Dr & Mrs Rhys Jones at West Mersea with a Sabb engine installed 71'

regards

IanC
 
Wind Song

1948 boat 7599; owner Lt. Col. J. A. Douglas; port Portsmouth; built G. A. Feltham, 1929, Portsmouth. Fitted 4cyl Grey 36 petrol engine 3.25/4.25"

1960 Boat 8678; owner J. P. Jaques; port Portsmouth

1970 not listed

1980 boat Y191129; owner Dr. & Mrs. E. Rhys Jones; port Portsmouth; fitted Sabb 1971 8hp 1 cylinder oil engine.

Did not look at other years.
 
Thanks so much everyone. It is great to get some names to fill some of the gaps. When I get a moment I will add this to what I have. I had picked up the various bits from MG's books but I obviously need to add Dick Durham's book to the collection. I have copies of a few letters from MG to the previous owner during her restoration (and return to gaff rig) and he mentioned selling to a friend - the publicity manager for Southern Railways. Now I can see that was Cuthbert Graseman (what a great name!) confirmed by a quick google.
Evidently there was a fire, I guess '69 or '70 and the cockpit and coachroof were rebuilt by Frank Knights of Woodbridge. I guess the Rhys Jones bought her somewhen in the mid 70s. I will have to re-read Griff's books to see if there are some clues though as Griff is no great fan of the boat (or wasn't as a youngster at least) this might be a bit futile. Thanks 2700 for taking the trouble to scan. She is in the first - exciting to see it in print and to see that she had a Coventry Victor engine. I would think that suited her very well and will have been a fraction of the size and weight of the current Volvo MD11.
I guess she will have been in a quiet mud berth or something in the war but obviously back in service at least not too long after.

Thanks again. Very much appreciated.
 
I don't think MG was a fan of his very early designs. I like the ones with almost a flat deck shown in several late 20's/early 30's photo's and about 25' long (similar I suppose to a Mk1 Crabber). I sent some photo's

http://www.eventides.org.uk/images/Silver Fox 2.jpg

into the Eventiders Group (which is for all those interested in MG related designs/writings and one chap sent in photo's of his one, see about 3/4 down the page at

http://www.eventides.org.uk/kylixpic.htm

John, who runs the site and knew MG, says he didn't like these early gaff rigged boats; I think they are wonderful!

IanC
 
Thanks Ian

The last pic on the Eventides site is mine - just after we bought her.

In one of the early MG books I am pretty sure that there is a comment to the effect that Bermuda rig has no place on a cruising boat but evidently once he was converted there was no turning back. Wind Song was converted to Bermudian early on - I would like to konw when - but I think it was not a successful rig for her. At one stage the mast was 40' tall - her gaff mast being about 28'! I have a CB article in which he describes her as a great success and he seemed to have been quite happy with her in his various letters The centreboard arrangement is unusual in that it is well forwards - to enable operation via a tackle through the foredeck, but it works pretty well all things considered and fulfills MG's own brief in a 1928 YM magazine article for a centreboard of the no-trouble kind. In this first article the design was named Wild Lone 2 but the name was changed at Mr Tompson's request and the old name used later for another design.
 
Nice to get into a bit of nostalgia, particularly having owned a Griffiths boat (the first Eventide to be built properly to the revised plans by Hartwells) for 30 years - and met the great man on a number of occasions!.

Wild Lone 2 probably had the most eventful life of the early designs. Owned since the war by the same family in N. Ireland. Cruised extensively including a trip round Russia through the rivers and canals, sunk entering its home port a few years ago, but salvaged and rebuilt.

Another interesting early design - also for winter wildfowling (things they got up to in the '30s) was a double ender called Loon with an L shaped centreplate. It lived for many years in Mitchells yard in Poole where I used to keep my Eventide. Always coveted it - something about a black hull, varnished coachroof, gaff rig and tan sails.

My favourite is a design called Symphony, dating from the mid-30's. Originally a gaff yawl, but also drawn with a very tall bermudan rig. Promised myself I would build it one day, but instead squandered the money on a Bavaria - which is called Symphony and has a framed print of the "proper" Symphony on the saloon bulkhead just to remind me of what might have been!

Enough of this. Just hauled my Eventide in preparation for a final refit hopefully to see me out. Still, I have my Bavaria to play with in the meantime.
 
As it happens we have a picture on board of Loon. I think the two shared many of the MG's ideas for a "husky" centreboarder at that time. Hoping to get down to Poole very soon if the weather is particularly clement. WS ought to be in her element in all that shallow water. Shame I don't have the duck guns though!
 
ah well! if you go into the museum in Corfe Castle you will see how it is done properly as there is an original Poole Canoe and a duck gun on display.

John Way Hope, who owned British Seagull until his death in the 60's lived in a caravan with his labradors at the bottom of the factory land which then backed straight onto Holes Bay. Very keen duck hunter, but method probably would not find favour today. Perhaps ironic but the new fire station is on the reclaimed land that used to be his marshy fiefdom.
 
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