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JennyMorgan

By JennyMorgan
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C.Ricko

C.Ricko

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Polly said:

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

Stellar and Lyra were built in the shed next to south gates lower st Horning, one was at Landemores briefly but not sure why (perhaps paint?) I usually lift Stellar at Horning on/off her trailer 

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JennyMorgan
JennyMorgan

Oulton Broad Regatta has started! Beware those bowsprits.

Vaughan
Vaughan

As we are into a good discussion about racing flappy things, there is something else to notice from this drawing.  Notice that the long bow and the canoe stern stick out a long way fore and aft of the

JennyMorgan
JennyMorgan

This evening at Oulton Broad.    

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Vaughan

Vaughan

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, ChrisB said:

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.

You are absolutely right, although in the Cruiser Class, that is nothing new!

Herbert Woods built Ladybird in 1936 with the idea of winning all the silver, which he did. They then handicapped him out of it, so he re-fitted Ladybird as a hire boat, with a larger cabin and a smaller rig, and built another boat around the original keel. He called her My Lady and she then won all the silver as well. When my parents owned this boat, they re-named her Evening Flight. Sail no 2.

Ladybird was later bought by Mark Dunham in the late 60s and was rebuilt to her original  drawings by Leslie Landamore. Mark wanted her keel back, but we wouldn't let him have it! She can be seen at Oulton this year in Peter's excellent photos, Sail no 113.

I remember back in the early 70s when we were having to make so many decisions about what to allow as new designs for River Cruisers, we used to laugh sometimes, as probably the most famous and typical River Cruiser, Forester, No 7, was actually built in Southampton and if someone had produced a design like Ladybird, in 1976 instead of 1936, she would probably have failed the class rules!

By the way, I believe the class now have a provisional handicap system which helps to prevent what Chris describes above, but I am not sure how it works!

The RCC is a fascinating community of like-minded people and it has always been a major part of the traditional Broads scene.

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C.Ricko

C.Ricko

Posted
Posted

Ladybird sail number 13. 

Viking is 113, she had a canoe stern added to her a year or so ago, 

I thought Tony Knights put her cabin back to original? I think it was also him who had the rig of Crossbow on her. 

 

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

I think you are right Clive, although I believe to be completely correct a chap named Cooke who lived in Switzerland owned her and Tony sailed / raced her. By the end of Oulton weeks hard racing she used to start taking on water at an alarming rate as her huge rig was literally tearing her apart.

Here she is in the early eighties at NBYC. Sorry about the photo lost its colour over the years. It was a huge rig by Broads standards taller than Raisena even. 

img196.jpg

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Vaughan

Vaughan

Posted
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I wondered about that, as I knew that Ladybird's number was 13. I thought maybe someone was superstitious!

It was definitely Mark Dunham who had her re-converted by Landamores, as he and I were good friends in those days. It was indeed Tony Knights who converted her rig by using the mast from Tim Whelpton's world sailing speed record breaker, Crossbow.

This was the first time that a "high aspect ratio" rig of this kind had been attempted on the Broads and it left her grossly over canvassed and only able to race in light airs. Broads River Cruisers are by nature over-canvassed which is one of the reasons why they don't go to sea, but this seemed at the time to be a step way too far. It opened up all the seams in her topsides and nearly pulled the chain plates out of the deck. Owing to the sort of competition that existed in the "fast end" of the class at that time, it was immediately copied by other boats, notably Achievement and, of course, Raisena, whose second version of the big rig was christened "Mendlesham" after the television mast in Suffolk.

There were others, including myself, who preferred to race the boats as they were built and I was always proud that Evening Flight's rig remained totally unchanged since Herbert Wood built her in 1938.

Should this have happened, or should the class have remained strictly traditional? There are different opinions on that one but there is no doubt that the class is in its present very healthy state because new designs and rigs have been admitted over the years.

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted

No: 7 Forester entered by the current owners father in the all comers in sea week was taken out of Lowestoft harbour for a light airs race and demolished the fleet. Topsail aloft she I am guessing 8 or 900 SQ.FT of sail and just walked it without raising a sweat. Broads cruisers are now banned   from all comers at sea week.

img197 (2).jpg

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C.Ricko

C.Ricko

Posted
Posted

I think Pat Simpson owned Evening Flight at one point too.. 

Im sure if Herbert woods was still building river cruisers then they would look like the new boats and if he still owned Ladybird  then she would have a carbon mast.

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