A G Wards boat yard

[jillR]

A G Ward

Thorpe St Andrew

Norwich

http://www.squeakydesign.info/index.php ... &Itemid=48

jill

[Guest]

Thanks for posting that Jill.

Interesting site.

[C.Ricko]

I remember Sea Hawk moored in Thorpe, she was being worked on by a chap called Ian I saw him again when I was looking for my boat and he told me she had gone down, I dont know wether she has been removed..

Sea rover was broken up on the concrete at Richardsons by Belaugh boats, the scrolled name plate was tied to the front of their landrover for years...

[jillR]

hi clive

sea hawk was a lovely boat

sea hawk was livaboard number two for me, around 1986ish for a year, on the Trent and the beeston cut in the midlands.

we restored her and sold her there, we needed a larger boat as bilgefairy (becky) was on the way.

she was brought back to the broads some years later when she was swapped for a traditional broads sailer "reed bunting"

i think.

i have some piccies of sea hawks resto that ill post when ive found and photocopied them

jill

[jillR]

sea hawk 1987 ish

[Guest]

Hi Jill

the cruiser to the left of the shot looks nice.

Jonny

[jillR]

thats sea hawk jonny

in the picture is .........

wards of thorpe sea hawk, beaver tailed launch margaretta (stand by for the coronation) & behind her, bates star craft crystella in trevethicks graving dock dunkirk notts.

jill

[jillR]

the bottle shaped object on the bank on the right is the boiler for the pressurised wood steamer, propper job.

a brilliant yard.

[jillR]

look what i found

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31559373@N ... 2227007880

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31559373@N ... 2102433429

jill

[jillR]

hi peeps

the owner of sea duke contacted me today to ask if i had news of sea earl as he was looking for a picture

of the scrole at the pointy end

so any news would be great

he said he thought sea earl was at brundall bay last time he saw her

jill

[jillR]

found

http://www.flickr.com/photos/supine39/5008505431/

[jillR]

1959 picture of sea prince

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tom-hernon ... olk-broads

jill

[mousetrapmick]

hi i am the proud owner of  the sea duke .i have her moored just outside of york on the river ouse  i bought her in 2010  she had got a ferracrete hull and wood top side which when walked upon you would fall throw. i have over the years now covered it with fiberglass still a work in progress .i have been trying to find information on her as of when she was built  her plate no is Y28

[Vaughan]

Hello @mousetrapmick

Sorry to be late replying but I have only just noticed your post.

 

The Sea Duke that I remember is this one, from Blakes catalogue of 1964.  They were lovely boats, originally with varnished hulls but they certainly weren't made of Ferrocement!

A concrete hulled hire boat on the Broads would have been built by Windboats in Wroxham and called Tradewind. They were operated from Thorpe after Windboats was bought by Jenners in 1966-7, and one may have been based at Wards, although I remember them at Hearts Yard, re-named Knave of Hearts.  I don't remember one called Sea Duke.

They would not have had a Y number as they were built on the Bure at Wroxham, but I have another catalogue photo of the original Sea Prince class, where the number appears to be Y76.

This is one of the very few photos I have found of the Jenners operation at Wards boatyard, from a press cutting when the operation closed down in September 1970. In the foreground is one of the later Wards boats, possibly Sea Ranger, a Jenners Gay Privateer, an Elysian 37 (which must have been brand new), and one of the earlier wooden Windboats, possibly Finewind or Merrywind, but not a Tradewind.

The photo would have been taken mid-week, as on a Saturday you would have seen a long row of boats moored stern to on both sides of the river, going right round the bend to the Town House hotel, with just enough room to drive a boat down the middle between them.

The old Wards sheds can be seen, now demolished and turned into the Old Hall Close housing development.

[DAVIDH]

Tried to lighten the last one Vaughan. Wouldn't colourize though