Sailing boat Museum

I was going to say Wayfarer and Vega (well I would, wouldn't I) but I see someone suggested them already :)

How about a modern AWB in an 'exploded view' exhibit, showing how the deck/hull mouldings are made and the joinery slots into place. More science museum than maritime museum, perhaps, but I think it would be interesting. Obviously the keel would have fallen off long before it got to the museum so it would be fairly easy to fit the exhibit in.
 
Mavanier said:
Obviously the keel would have fallen off long before it got to the museum so it would be fairly easy to fit the exhibit in.
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Which AWB was it that did a full week's charter with the keel missing - the previous charterers had whacked it off on a rock somewhere - and nobody noticed?
 
How about the She 36 ?

A big boat for 36' with a large following, commanding big prices secondhand now, a classic in the same way - but more versatile - as the E-Type Jag'.

Lorelei did fantastically well in the 1979 Fastnet, I remember a painting at Redcliffe YC Wareham of her rescuing unluckier contestants from a liferaft, with an inscription by Lorelei's owner on the lines of ' she'll never let me down ' - I feel the same way about my Anderson 22.

Another boat I think worth a mention is the Aphrodite 101, designed for the ' Offshore One Design ' competetion but losing out to the OOD34, which didn't do well in the '79 Fastnet to put it mildly; being wide beam with a realtively low ballast ratio they stayed inverted after being hit by huge waves, leading to some casualties.

The 101 looked a real sailors boat, she had ' sails like a witch ' written all over her.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=a...=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=jbOIUqupG8GUhQfgwIG4Cg
 
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Mavanier said:
I was going to say Wayfarer and Vega (well I would, wouldn't I) but I see someone suggested them already :)

How about a modern AWB in an 'exploded view' exhibit, showing how the deck/hull mouldings are made and the joinery slots into place. More science museum than maritime museum, perhaps, but I think it would be interesting. Obviously the keel would have fallen off long before it got to the museum so it would be fairly easy to fit the exhibit in.
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:D

I guess the idea is very sound though, a section through any boat or yacht would add a great deal to the interest of the museum for some I reckon.
 
Scotty,

I agree, think it would be a good idea to have views of boats sectioned down the middle, maybe something like a 17' and a 40' to show the comparison ?

I could suggest the odd owner who ought to be incorporated in half from head to foot too !
 
I'm finding it noticeable that Uffa Fox designs are coming up on here repeatedly; must say something !

I read one of his books about taking the International 14 dinghy ' Avenger ' across the Channel then ending up in fog on the return tied up to a bell buoy in the Solent, can someone remind me of the title please ?

I think at the same time he had a house upriver from Cowes, was infuriated by a chap cycling down the footpath, so placed a pre-expired rabbit on the far side of the footpath then lay in wait, blowing the cyclists' front wheel out with a shotgun, saying he was going for the rabbit; who could fail to buy a boat from a genuine English mad as a box of frogs eccentric like that ?! :)
 
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Seajet said:
I'm finding it noticeable that Uffa Fox designs are coming up on here repeatedly; must say something !
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Post 2nd WW Uffa Fox designed sailing dinghies for the Oxford and Cambridge sailing races. They were a one-off design and they were built by my

Great Grandfather in his 'Stevens boats' workshops on The Island, The bridge, Abingdon on Thames.

My mother who was 95 last year was very proud that he should visit and keep an eye on the build progress of the dinghies.
 
Scotty,

do you think you could get your Mother to record her memories ( not just the Uffa Fox stuff ) on tape or your taking notes ?

I say this as I think it's important, probably most of all to yourself and any siblings.

As an example, a few years ago I was a guide at a Military Aviation Museum, the best thing about it was the lovely people I met and one day I got chatting with a great couple, the wife worked for the Imperial War Museum; on finding my Dad had been a Leading Air Mechanic on Escort Carriers with WWII Seafires and Hellcats she exclaimed " We haven't got one of those ! " so in short order Dad ( Stan Lawson ) was at her recording studio and can now be heard on tape at the IWM - I'm rather proud of that, and I'm sure Scotty your Mum has a good story to tell too...

Andy
 
Seajet said:
significant leisure sailing boats of the 20th - 21st Centuries ?
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Has anyone read the book "Building a Little Ship" (http://www.mclarenbooks.com/building-a-little-ship-johnston/)? It was written in 1935 about a yacht built in about 1932. The boat is still around: now in Pin Mill I believe but until recently in the care of a chap in the Netherlands who did a superb restoration job on her - website here http://albert1906.smugmug.com/Boats/Lillibullero/Lillibullero (she came somewhere in the top 50 Readers' Choice Classic Boat restorations).

The point is that the boat isn't by one of the great designers - it's basically a fishing smack with a cabin instead of a hold to boil shrimp in - but there are three important things about her. Firstly, she embodied all the traditional boat building skills of the time. Secondly, she was built to be a pleasure craft. Thirdly, she was built for someone on a budget: the main point the author makes is that yachting is something anyone can do, not just members of the royal family.

I'm prejudiced I suppose: Lillibullero's builder constructed about a dozen yachts in the 1930s, and I own one of them (happy to hear from anyone owning any of the others). But I do think these boats are significant in the terms of the OP's conditions: these were amongst the earliest boats built to be sailed for fun by ordinary people.
 
Having thought about it a bit more, another nomination: Sopranino, designed by Laurent Giles. I'd argue that she is one of the most important small boat designs ever, because she proved categorically that lightweight boats could be every bit as seaworthy and capable as traditional and heavier designs. Most modern yachts, from the JenBenBavs chugging round the charter circuits in the Aegean to those astonishing little things whizzing across the Atlantic at the moment can trace their heritage back to Sopranino.

Luckily she is still around, though it may take a midnight raid on Cowes Maritime Museum to get hold of her ...
 
Here are mine:
Westerly 22 for being one of the first mass produced GRP boats and the ancestor of all Westerly boats
Buckler Ketch for being a crazy 24 foot GRP galleon
Roger Taylor's Ming Ming for being an example of the classic Newbridge Corribee, and of the junk rig, and of a tiny boat converted to sail oceans.
Blondie Hasler's Jester or Pilmer would be of interest too.
 
Merry Girl said:
Here are mine:
Westerly 22 for being one of the first mass produced GRP boats and the ancestor of all Westerly boats
Buckler Ketch for being a crazy 24 foot GRP galleon
Roger Taylor's Ming Ming for being an example of the classic Newbridge Corribee, and of the junk rig, and of a tiny boat converted to sail oceans.
Blondie Hasler's Jester or Pilmer would be of interest too.
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Good choices
 
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