Real Boats!!

[JennyMorgan]

Oulton Broad Regatta has started! Beware those bowsprits.

[ChrisB]

Love the boats in the second and fourth photographs.  Absolutely beautiful.

Great photos Peter.

[JennyMorgan]

5 minutes ago, ChrisB said:

Love the boats in the second and fourth photographs.  Absolutely beautiful.

Great photos Peter.

As a matter of interest there is over a hundred years between when those two boats were built.

[ZimbiIV]

I prefer boats that don't spill the wine.

paul

[Lulu]

It all looks way too close to the water for my liking! 

[Chelsea14Ian]

Lovely boats

[trambo]

Superb images.

Fred

[JennyMorgan]

12 hours ago, ZimbiIV said:

I prefer boats that don't spill the wine.

paul

We have gimbled wine glass & bottle holders onboard, as well as having our glasses in hand! The uncouth ones amongst us swig straight from the bottle which not only lessens spillage but also saves time.

[JennyMorgan]

More from day two. Enjoy image four and thank your lucky stars it wasn't you!

[Lulu]

26 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

More from day two. Enjoy image four and thank your lucky stars it wasn't you!

That is my nightmare just there! 

[JennyMorgan]

From one extreme to the other! Still Oulton Broad Regatta

[Hrimfaxi]

Fantastic photos! 

[marshman]

Nice to see Solace made the trip!

[ChrisB]

What class does the yacht Stella represent?

[marshman]

At a guess that well known Broads class, the River Cruiser Class!

When out on the rivers , I use my Green Book as much as any, if only to see the handicaps of the various sailing boats. Some are seriously quick!

[JennyMorgan]

1 minute ago, ChrisB said:

What class does the yacht Stella represent?

River Cruiser Class despite being an out and out racing machine, as several of the class are but that has long been the way of racing yachts. I was told what she cost, wow, but then she is a state of the art boat!

[Minifer]

Particularly like the shots of Madie JM - great photos

[JennyMorgan]

1 minute ago, marshman said:

At a guess that well known Broads class, the River Cruiser Class!

When out on the rivers , I use my Green Book as much as any, if only to see the handicaps of the various sailing boats. Some are seriously quick!

And some aren't! Our handicap is 18 but then we do have a degree of comfort and we even cook and sleep aboard. 

[Vaughan]

Stella is one of the newly built Cruisers which conforms to the class measurement rules (just) and so can be called a River Cruiser. She is hardly a traditional Broads yacht, however.

In the 70s there was much discussion when it was proposed to build Cruisers with Fibreglass hulls. It was decided that this was probably the only way to take the class into the future and keep it alive. Since then, new materials have been allowed for spars and rigging, as well as some pretty radical designs. So you have a mix of modern racing yachts among traditional preserved classics, which all manage to live and race together! Seeing that the class now has over 300 member yachts, instead of about 70 beforehand, it would seem we made the right decision, back then!

Maidie on the other hand, is the last survivor of the old "A" class Cruisers which raced on the Broads between the Wars. Between races she was kept in the boatshed just beside the Wherry Hotel and Mike Barnes used the same shed when he completely re-built her in the 1980s

[Wussername]

18 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

Stella is one of the newly built Cruisers which conforms to the class measurement rules (just) and so can be called a River Cruiser. She is hardly a traditional Broads yacht, however.

In the 70s there was much discussion when it was proposed to build Cruisers with Fibreglass hulls. It was decided that this was probably the only way to take the class into the future and keep it alive. Since then, new materials have been allowed for spars and rigging, as well as some pretty radical designs. So you have a mix of modern racing yachts among traditional preserved classics, which all manage to live and race together! Seeing that the class now has over 300 member yachts, instead of about 70 beforehand, it would seem we made the right decision, back then!

Maidie on the other hand, is the last survivor of the old "A" class Cruisers which raced on the Broads between the Wars. Between races she was kept in the boatshed just beside the Wherry Hotel and Mike Barnes used the same shed when he completely re-built her in the 1980s

I can remember when Maidie stood on a hardstanding in the centre of Norwich for what seemed several years. In fact some thought she would never race again. I believe she was owned by a Mr Tinkler a motor cycle dealer, but I may be wrong.

Andrew 

[Minifer]

24 minutes ago, Wussername said:

I can remember when Maidie stood on a hardstanding in the centre of Norwich for what seemed several years. In fact some thought she would never race again. I believe she was owned by a Mr Tinkler a motor cycle dealer, but I may be wrong.

Andrew 

I can't remember who owned her prior to Mike, but I'm pretty sure I can remember seeing her sailing on Barton Broad when she was dark green and more banana shaped - I think that would be late seventies or early eighties?  But I may have the wrong boat in my memory there.

[Vaughan]

 She was actually owned by Geoff Priest, who had his motorcycle dealership in a yard beside Fye bridge, on the Wensum. I was working for the Norvic Shoe Co on Colegate at the time, so I walked past her every morning. She was badly hogged and had garboard seams that you could stick your fingers in.

I hope I am allowed to tell this story, after all these years, but there was rather a scandal at the time, in the late 50s. It seems Geoff Priest had become involved in certain indiscretions with the wife of another member at the NBYC on Wroxham Broad and was blackballed from the club. He was by no means the first and I know for certain, that he was not the last! The upshot was that he took Maidie off her moorings there and swore he would never sell her to a member of the NBYC. So she was laid up in Norwich for many years. She was later bought (somehow) by Reg Parsons, who nowadays owns the Nelson Head at Horsey. He and I became great friends and had some wonderful races against each other, and Ladybird, in the early 70s. 

[Polly]

Is Stella the boat that was being finished at Landamore's a couple of years ago?

[Griff500]

45 minutes ago, Vaughan said:

 She was actually owned by Geoff Priest, who had his motorcycle dealership in a yard beside Fye bridge, on the Wensum. I was working for the Norvic Shoe Co on Colegate at the time, so I walked past her every morning. She was badly hogged and had garboard seams that you could stick your fingers in.

I hope I am allowed to tell this story, after all these years, but there was rather a scandal at the time, in the late 50s. It seems Geoff Priest had become involved in certain indiscretions with the wife of another member at the NBYC on Wroxham Broad and was blackballed from the club. He was by no means the first and I know for certain, that he was not the last! The upshot was that he took Maidie off her moorings there and swore he would never sell her to a member of the NBYC. So she was laid up in Norwich for many years. She was later bought (somehow) by Reg Parsons, who nowadays owns the Nelson Head at Horsey. He and I became great friends and had some wonderful races against each other, and Ladybird, in the early 70s. 

Prior to Reg owning her she was owned by Peter MacAllister who kept her in Upton Dyke. He used to sail her with one crew member up to Wroxham Broad to race on Sundays and returned on the same evening!

She did indeed race at two or three Barton regattas at the end of the 70's but was woefully slow due her keel dragging the mud for most of the course.

 

[ChrisB]

4 hours ago, JennyMorgan said:

River Cruiser Class despite being an out and out racing machine, as several of the class are but that has long been the way of racing yachts. I was told what she cost, wow, but then she is a state of the art boat!

 

4 hours ago, Vaughan said:

Stella is one of the newly built Cruisers which conforms to the class measurement rules (just) and so can be called a River Cruiser. She is hardly a traditional Broads yacht, however.

In the 70s there was much discussion when it was proposed to build Cruisers with Fibreglass hulls. It was decided that this was probably the only way to take the class into the future and keep it alive. Since then, new materials have been allowed for spars and rigging, as well as some pretty radical designs. So you have a mix of modern racing yachts among traditional preserved classics, which all manage to live and race together! Seeing that the class now has over 300 member yachts, instead of about 70 beforehand, it would seem we made the right decision, back then!

Maidie on the other hand, is the last survivor of the old "A" class Cruisers which raced on the Broads between the Wars. Between races she was kept in the boatshed just beside the Wherry Hotel and Mike Barnes used the same shed when he completely re-built her in the 1980s

Sounds like with a wad of cash you design and build just within the rules, mop up all the silver in your launch year and then are handicapped out of contention thereafter.

I ended my short love affair with Merlins in similar circumstances. It got to the point that you needed a new hull every year. In four short years my Merlin that actually looked like a boat was up against things that looked like flying saucers and had no chance.