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JUNE 1993 AOL UK’s TOP SELLER Looking for a Scale Sail = subject – then -an 1860’s ltchen Ferry Latest lifeboat colour schemes ~Y 06 BEST VALUE Afgus | SPECIALIST PUBLICATION 9 7 4 Understanding and Choosing Electric Motors Card No.8 Card No.2 Card No.1 t-card Experience have a collection of 70 or so cards MODEL HISTORY This month, KEITH BRAGG’S postcards concentrate . on model yachting I is my guess that for most of us in this hobby the first model boat we had, was a model yacht. This is correct in my case as my first was a 20 inch long Bermudan rigged yacht which had been in the family many years before I came along; my Grandfather restored and rerigged it from gaff rig. She was sailed by Grandfather and me on the model boating lake on Walney Island (Barrow-in-Furness) and Barrow’s-park lake, where I lived as a child. Little did I then realise how this yacht, a pop-pop boat and the clockwork submarine I had in those days were going to influence my life. My main products now are scale powered vessels but the interest in yachts is still there and hopefully the cards included in this article will show this. These cards have been collected over a few years and I will admit that they are very difficult to come by. I have searched the stock of many dealers for them and currently 22 Card No.14 showing model yachting in progress. They vary from the cards depicting our first model yacht through to scenes of yachts racing and cover the period 1903 to the mid 1950’s. Most towns have a model boating lake, so local post-card producers will probably have had cards of model boating in action as part of their stock. These cards usually depict children playing with model yachts and are more interesting as local social history, but from my mixed collection the more serious ones show several classes of racing yacht. in use; most of which are now obsolete. I must admit. to not being very knowledgeable about the older classes of yacht so I have consulted one or two experts who are even older than me and hopefully those in the cards are accurately described. Some of the old classes look as though they sailed very well and it seems a shame that they have passed into history; one day I hope to find out why. Some classes were undoubtedly locally popular to suit local conditions and one card shows some very large rigs, which indicates light winds (Southampton card). The larger yachts are probably the most interesting and the search has been on for some time to find a card showing a “30 Rater” (see the furthest yacht in the Folkestone card). The “30 Rater” was sailed by the more senior members of the “Royal Model Yacht Club” in Barrow-inFurness and one of these beautiful models has recently been restored sticks are everywhere on the cards and it appears no skipper was worth his salt if he did not have a stick. can carry 4750sq ins of sail and is stabilised by twin keels with a lead bar between them. Unfortunately a Kensington Round Pond. A book could be written with only the Round Pond as its subject; it has always been a favourite place for model sailors and this card, again dating from before 1910, shows our Sea Scouts learning their trade. Growing up somewhat in card 5, by the Quayle brothers of Barrow. She has a height of 10ft 6ins from the tip of the bow-sprit to the stern, ladder is needed to rig her prior to sailing so, although beautiful on the water, she is a light weather boat and a touch awkward to take to regattas. Smaller versions, “20 and 10 Raters” are shown in the cards and these were more manageable, yet. in many cases they were kept at the club boat-house to give the skippers an easier life. Trends to look for in the cards are the gradual change from children with toy yachts to children sailing toy yachts, then to older children sailing scale and class yachts. Also as the cards get progressively more modern there is the steady change from Gaff rig to Bermudan rig. Cards 1 and 2 are from before 1910 and represent those first introductions to model boating. Could card 2 be the Prinz Wilhelm whose Father’s yacht (Prinz Wilhelm) gave our Prince of Wales’s Big-Class yacht (Britannia) such a thrashing at the turn of the century? It’s a superb model he has all the same. Card 3 dates from 1907 and is one of several I have of the Childrens River in Bournemouth. | This strip of water was purely for playing on and many children over the years have done just that. Note the very common long stick being used to rescue the model. These Card 4 is one of many at a sailing match is shown in progres’ at Portsmouth and as can be seen is dated 1903. The club members are grouped together just as we do today and I expect. are arguing over sailing rules. Another early card, from Folkestone, shows general sailing in card 6. The “30 Rater” I mentioned earlier is to be seen in the distance towering over its sailing crew. Yachts sailed near the coast don’t need much sail, so compare the sail area to the length of the yachts in card 7, from Llandudno, with those in cards 9 and 12. My Llandudno cards show a wide variety of yacht types but this one, showinga sailing match in 1904, has a mixture of Gaff and Bermudan rigged vessels. Over the years Sefton Park and Stanley Park, Liverpool have produced several interesting postcards but non more so than cards 8 and 9 which date from 1913 and 1910. They show Tonnage Rule boats in all their glory arid are probably 20 Tonners. The club had a mixed history but was active from the 1860s through to 1939 when it faded away; its boat house can also MODEL BOATS JUNE 1993 Card No.4 S161, MODELYACHT Card No.5 Card No.7 Card No.9 be seen. Queens Park Ponds, Glasgow, seeit in card 10, gives us an interesting insight into yacht types in use just before WW1, with a 20 Rater in the background. Although this card is dated 1915 the photograph was probably taken before the war; note the number of men about and when examined closely there is a large amount of retouching on the left hand side. Card 11 explains itself. It is dated 1935 and Russell Potts advises me that the yachts about to start their race are not easy to classify. They MODEL BOATS JUNE 1993 could be very early Bermudan rigged 10.r or the MYSA’s 18 Footer history and is still very active today class (any one got any comments?). The huge sail area on the yachts in card 12 is typical of model yachts from the Southampton club at the beginning of the century and the high trees around the lake give a clue as to the reason. Several model yachting clubs have become World Famous and cards 13, 14 and 15 depict some of these. Card 13 shows a race starting at Fleetwood in the late 1930s. This club also has a long an enthusiastic crowd. Highgate Club (1854 – circa 1970) activities are seen in card 14 which probably dates from just before but I doubt. if they still attract such WW2 and shows 10 Raters in action with Bermudan rig, which came in during the 1930s. Finally we go to Bournville with card 15 with a card dating from the early 1930s. The Rowheath Recreation Ground was the club’s first pond provided by “Cadbury’s” as part of their firm’s welfare package and club membership was for Cadbury employees only. The yachts are either of 6.m or 10.r class. What an idyllic scene to end on. I hope you have found these cards interesting and I am sure the Editor would be pleased to hear from you if you have any comments. My thanks must go to Russell Potts of the Vintage Model Yacht Group (MYA) and to Jack Quayle of Barrow-in-Furness, for advice on yacht classes and club history and to Derek George for donating card No. 6 to my collection. 23 Card No.10 Ah Giada feperees eee Phau wi GARDENS. Oe cs ruc enter ohUat KENBINGTON THE ROUNDADENSPOND. ABD ALSO THEIR: EL YOU! WHERE RACE TAKING PLACE. & FASCINATING POT te ERE Oe AING, sEAESE Monts. Many & @RIENDLY AND IMPROMPTU aS 703.G. Card No.11 . 5 me Mune Nh ~nBSS ORSON THE POOL, ROWHEATH REGREATION GROUNO—-SOURNVILLE rd No.13 24 Card No.15 MODEL BOATS JUNE 1993
