Westcliff One Design

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andrewbodenham

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I'm buying a boat which is of uncertain age / design, and need help to identify her. My best suggestion so far is that she's a Westcliff One Design. She was built by Cole & Wiggins at Leigh on Sea, date unknown. 18' clinker halfdecker, with centreplate, transom hung rudder and short bowsprit. Gaff rig on wooden spars. Side benches to rear half of cockpit and one cross thwart.
That's about all I know until I take her over and really start poking about. She's called Valkyrie, and has spent the last few years on Windermere.
Come on you experts - suggestions and questions please! What is she, when was she built, and what is her history?
 
Sounds as if she may be a Thames Estuary One Design, which were sailed by Thames Estuary Yacht Club at Westcliff.
There used to be several similiar classes in the Essex area.
I think :~ Essex One Designs, TEODs, Colne One Designs.There is still a class in Burnham Week regatta known as Estuary One Designs which are a GRP version.
If she is a TEOD, great fun but be prepared to get wet and keep the bailing bucket handy!
 
We had lots of TEODs and EODs at Herne Bay when I was a kid - they all eventually died on the beach in onshore gales.
Not conclusive I know but so far as I recall neither class was gaff-rigged, both were Bermudan.
Also dredged from my memory is that I think the GRP Estuary One Design mould was taken from an original EOD.
You're certainly right about getting wet - some of my earliest sailing was as the extra ballast and bailer-man in these boats during club racing.
 
The TEOD was a 18 ft clinker half-decker, beam of 6 ft and draught of 10 inches with centreboard raised, designed in 1912 by Morgan Giles at Teignmouth. The centreboard was 1.5 cwt galvanised iron, bit up to 2 cwt of moveable lead ballast was also allowed. Originally they had a gaff/gunter rig of 210sq ft. When the design was "improved" to create the Essex One Design (EOD - which was carvel) in 1919, bermudian rigs became optional so that the two classes could compete on level terms. Perhaps this is "one that got away" before the racing boys got their hands on her?
 
Thanks for your suggestions, and keep them coming! Does anybody have any plans for the TEOD? I'd be pleased to pay copying and postage to get hold of a copy. You can contact me off forum at andrew.bodenham@biscituk.com.
Expanding the search, does anybody have a list of TEOD names and build dates, and were they actually built at Cole & Wiggins?
 
I owned and raced a TEOD from 1967 to 1973, after which, I bought an Estuary OD for another six years. TEODs were originally raced at the Alexandra YC in Southend, but the class spread to other clubs. In 1919, members of the Essex YC commissioned Morgan Giles to design an 18' boat to beat the TEODs. So, the Essex OD was born.

To begin with, the EOD was unsuccessful, so it developed into a "restricted class" with various sail plans. In course of time, the rig was standardised upon the most successful rig at the time, namely E46 owned by Buzz Mountstephens. It was successful and finally began to beat the TEODs by the mid 1950s. But the classes were already in decline.

There were 57 TEODs built, and 71 EODs. To an onlooker, they look the same. The striking difference is that TEODs have their masts stepped through the deck, whereas EODs have them stepped in the cockpit, ie the decking is greater on the TEOD. EODs have fuller bows and wider sterns, whereas the TEODs have finer ends. Both classes were clinker construction. TEODs were all built of elm. Early EODs were also of elm, but during the 1930s, they became to be built of mahogany. Both classes had cast iron centre plates, but the EOD one was bigger and heavier.

Both boats were designed to carry "swing" jibs, enabling them to be boomed-out whilst sailing on a reach, which is against the RYA rules, unless otherwise specified in the class rules! About 1930, the gunter rigs were superseded by bermudan rigs, and the TEODs adopted spinnakers to replace the swing jibs.

Both classes went into steep decline when the dinghy boom was at its post-war height, and no boats were built after 1957. To arrest this situation, a fibreglass version was introduced which became the Estuary OD in 1966. The lines were drawn between the old lines of TEOD and EOD, but the class never caught on, as was hoped. There are about 30 of them. I never liked the fibreglass version.

SOGGY.
 
Very interesting - thanks! When you say EOD in your post do you mean Estuary or Essex? My mast steps in the cockpit through a cross beam which also houses 4 belaying pins - does this sound familiar? The mast has two shrouds per side secured at hounds about 3' from the mast head, plus running backstays rigged from a band at the masthead. I'm wondering if the bowsprit was a later addition, as the chocks it sits in on the foredeck look more recent than some of the other timber. Of course, it could just be a repair.
Now I'm really confused: Estuary, Essex or Westcliff? Any ideas please?!
 
Hi Bodfish!

EOD stands for Essex One Design. You can discount "Estuary ODs" as these are all fibreglass. Yours is wood! The first thing you might like to do, is to scratch a portion of the hull planking to see the colour of the wood. If its a reddish tinge, then it cannot be a TEOD as all of these were built of elm, which is whitish. Later EODs were built from mahogany. However, early EODs were also made of elm!

The fact that the mast is stepped INSIDE the cockpit indicates that your boat is an EOD. In the early days, both TEODs and EODs had short bowsprits. But these were dispensed with, when both classes converted to bermudan rigs in the 1930s.

Your comments about the rigging puzzles me a bit. Although EOD and TEOD classes finally synchronised the sail plan, (so that they each had the same), the same was not so as regards how the mast was stayed! Nevertheless, there were similarities. Both were rigged "christmas tree" fashion, with three shrouds each side of the mast, (mid, lower and upper), forestay, and running backstays. The middle shrouds went to the hounds. In addition to this array of wiring, the EODs also had a diamond strut from just above deck level to roughly top shroud height. They also had a topmast forestay!

Nearly all EODs are named after musical terms, eg polonaise, nocturn etc. Some were named after semi precious stones eg cornelion, tourmaline etc. Very few were named after girls names. No 40 was Sirroco. Valkyrie is a popular name for a boat, but doesn't really fit the pattern, even though it is the name of a Wagner opera.

Without a photograph, it is difficult to say what your boat is. Does this site permit photo attachments? I would be able to recognise which is which, but possibly the rig has been altered. Does the boat have any old sails? EODs carry the letter "E", whilst TEODs have the letters "TE" plus numbers.

I very much doubt if it is a Westcliff OD. I have never seen one. They were superseded by TEODs in the early days.

With kind regards,

SOGGY!
 
Hello, Soggy,

Thanks for some fascinating details. I've not inspected the planking too carefully, but in a few flakey areas the colour is definitely elmish rather than mahoganyish - this would suggest an early boat yes?
I can't work out how to get pictures attached to a posting, but if you email me off the forum at andrew.bodenham@biscituk.com I'd really like to show you some and get your opinion.
Regards,
Bodfish
 
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