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AN ARGUS SPECIALIST PUBLICATION MARCH 1990 £1.50 Continuing in Steam Barnett Refit ISSN 0144-2910 770144°291015 | | R10-Rater Series There will be a special series for R-10r boats during 1990. This is not an MYA event but a modestly sponsored competition for which the prizes will be a number of cases of champagne. More details as soon as I have them. Sponsorship More Generally MYA News The MYA’s AGM was held on 2 December and was my last appearance as Secretary. This does not mean that the column will cease, still less that it will no longer carry MYA news. I have plenty of things to write about and I intend to go on writing about them until John or you tell me that you have had enough. The new MYA Secretary is Ian Taylor, whose address appears at the end of the column. Ian has been an active skipper for over twenty years and more recently has been instrumental in providing top quality computerised race organisation and scoring systems for our major events. His commitment to the sport is unquestioned, as is his administrative ability. He even finds time (under the alias of Lord Vulture, publisher of the scurrilous annual magazine Playboat) to provide most of the light relief currently available in model yachting circles. Other changes mean that the Association also has a new Chairman; Chris Dicks replaces Peter Maskell and Graham Bantock returns to Council as Technical Secretary in place of George Clark. We also have two new Vice Presidents. Tim de Buriatte gave many years of sterling service to the MYA as Treasurer before his resignation last year. Hughie Shields is a special case. He is a Scot and one of the last remnants of the once great Greenock club. Not a member of the MYA, never an officer, what had he done to deserve the honour? All he had done was to enter every “A” national championship for over 25 years, usually with a new boat each year, winning the admiration and affection of all who know him for his dogged persistence and the good sportsmanship of his sailing. His persistence was rewarded when he won the Yachting Monthly Cup for the international competition in 1978. Hughie is one of those who did most to keep model yachting alive in Scotland in the lean years and must by now be responsible for more than half the total of Scottish “A” boats ever registered. Money Financially, the Association had a good year. The year end balance has risen to £1,290 as a result of last year’s increase in the subscription levels and to good profits from the new range of clothing introduced during the year. Contrary to the fears expressed at the time of the fee increase, there has been no significant falling off in the number of members of affiliated clubs. As a result of the increased income and closer management of the expenditure, the subscription levels are being held at present levels for 1990. Entry fees for MYA Championships, MARCH 1990 however, are going up. The MYA’s policy is that clubs running Championships should not make a profit from them and any surpluses are clawed back by the Association. There have been precious few surpluses in recent years, despite the increased use of sponsorship to help meet the cost of running major events to the high standards expected. Equally, we don’t wish clubs to lose money by running MYA events. (We won’t get any bidders for them if they do.) The new entry fees are £15 for the vane “A” and RM Nationals and £7.50 for all other national events. League Results The 1989 League results are out; once again they are presented in a massive tabulation and analysis prepared by League Secretary, David Coode. Every club will get a copy, those who want their own copy can have one for £1. The leading scores are given in the panel. Other information extracted from David’s analysis shows that the total entries are slightly down on last year in the radio league and rather more significantly down on the vane side, though the number of competitors has varied within much smaller limits. It has been between 220 and 260 over the last four years in radio and consistently just over 90 in vane. In each style of sailing the average competitor entered between 2.5 and 3.1 league events each year. At the AGM Roger Stollery outlined a proposal he had had from an independent TV production company to make a programme or programmes on radio controlled yacht racing which he would hope to place with one or other of the satellite TV channels. The costs would be high by the standards of model sports and could only be met if the MYA was able to find a sponsor to take the main weight of the production costs. There is no way of knowing at this stage whether there is such a sponsor prepared to put large sums of money into a model sport. Even if there is, the proposition raises a number of difficult problems of control and the effects of introducing well financed competition for a small élite group on the structure of the sport generally. The whole question is to be looked at in depth by a committee. Whether we shall all have to buy satellite dishes to keep up with the month by month positions in the ranking list remains to be seen. Vintage Boats on the Isle of Man Recently I have had correspondence from two separate sources on the Isle of Man about vintage boats there. One of my contacts has a number of boats that have turned up over the years and have been restored. They are a straight stemmed schooner Mona, that must date from the 1880s or even earlier and a pretty twin fin 10-rater Bertha from the turn of the century. As can be seen from the photo of Bertha in her “as found” condition., the twin fin incorporates a small area that might be interpreted as a fixed rudder. Certainly there is no steerable appendage. 1 Metre Class The Class Registrar reported that registrations have now reached 55 boats in 17 clubs and that an extensive programme of racing has been arranged for 1990. Practically all the boats registered have been measured to the IMYRU Rule. The formal recognition of the class by the MYA will be considered at the January Council meeting and seems likely to be a shoo-in. If the class is recognised, it is virtually certain that there will be an MYA championship for the class fitted into next year’s programme somewhere. “A”? Class Owners’ Association The Association now has an international membership of over 100 and hopes to reach 120 after the Australian nationals to be held over the New Year. This is over 50% of all “A” boats registered world wide. The constitution of the Association is with IMYRU for approval and as soon as that is gained the OA will seek the transfer of control of the Rule from the IMYRU Technical Committee. Mona, a Manx built schooner of the 1880s. Photo: Hugh Revill. 11 In the course of restoration, the fins have been replaced by a solid keel of rather smaller depth. The owner now rather regrets this deviation from the original design. Both these boats are known to be Manx built. These and other pre-radio boats are sailed from time to time in competitions organised as part of the Manx Model Boat Club’s activity. They sail on a lake at Port St. Mary and use some trophies that belonged originally to the Port St. Mary MYC in the 1930s. One of their competitions was won by the grandson of the first winner of the trophy when it was presented more than 50 years ago. It is very appropriate that the island should be a home of vintage model sailing as it also has the oldest surviving full size craft known to have been designed as a pleasure yacht; she is the 26ft. schooner Peggy, built in 1791 for George Quayle, a sea captain, merchant and eccentric amateur of Castletown. The boat is in a remarkably good state of preservation in a boathouse in Castletown, under the care of the Manx Nautical Museum. overhangs. She is also clearly intended to be a Braine steered boat, so she is unlikely to be later than 1950. It is possible that she is from just before the war. ® A. Manz M, probably dating from the immediate post war period. Photo: B. King. Isle of Wight Vintage Marblehead Turn of the century 10-rater Bertha, as received. Note the twin fin and fixed rudder, also the very large sail area and the size of the jib. Photo: Hugh Revill. I have mentioned before the important role played by the Ryde club in the introduction of the Marblehead class to Britain in the late 1930s; when I was in the island at the back end of last year I paid a brief visit to the club and was rewarded by a sight of the boat in the photo. She is one of the original 20 boats and is called Betty. At this stage it hasn’t been possible to unearth her number and history but, as can be seen, she has been rather crudely converted to radio and then abandoned to her fate in the back of the boathouse. I hope that she can be returned to her original conditions, which would be a kinder fate than her present neglect. The owner said that he had the original sails somewhere so there is a hope that she will be rescued eventually. Daniels in various sizes Mona (see previous page) as received. The very plain restoration is nicely in character with the style of the boat. Photo: Hugh Revill. I have also been sent copies of press reports and photos of the Douglas MYC on the island in the late 1930s. They sailed on Tromode Dam and from the photos seem to have had a class of 36in. boats, which may, or may not, have been to the MYA’s 36 restricted Rule and a group of larger boats which may have been rather small 6-m or, more probably, a group of early Marbleheads. Unfortunately, the photocopies of press photos are not clear enough to be absolutely sure. There were “A” boats on the island at this period also which, if I recall correctly, were sailed from skiffs in one of the harbours. The club they belonged to was affiliated to the MYA. They threatened to come over to an “A” week on more than one occasion, but seem never to have made the trip. Among the more recent old boats under restoration on Man are a Daniels’s 10-r Lena that was built in Hull before the war. The photo shows that the skeg has been damaged at some stage, but otherwise she is in good condition. The sails shown in the photo are certainly not the originals; not only are they fairly crudely made, the proportions of main and jib are not right for the late thirties design of the boat. Finally, from the island a Marblehead that probably dates from just after the war. The displacement is about 16 or 17 pounds and the profile still has residual 12 Two photos of hulls that look very similar and very Daniels. The smaller one is a boat that is currently being built to the 36in. Restricted design appeared in Daniels & Tucker’s Build Yourself a Model ” Above, Bertha restored. Below, Lena is a 10-rater known to have been designed by Bill Daniels and built in Hull in the late 1930s. No-one now knows how she found her way to the Isle of Man. Photo: Hugh Revill. Beach Yawl I wrote some time ago about the beach yawl prototype and the models of the type that are sailed at Southwold. Soon after that article appeared, I managed to acquire a hull and spars that are clearly of the type, but unlike either the full size boat or the Southwold models derived from it. The hull, as can be seen from the photos, is very similar in concept to the full size beach yawl with the sole addition of a straight false keel and external lead ballast. Above the false keel the hull could be taken for a scale model of the full size style of boat. The exaggerated drag of the keel and the redistribution of volumes found in the Southwold style of model are absent and the whole boat is less An early M; Betty is one of the first 20Ms to be registered and is still at the Ryde club where she started. burdensome and bulky than the Southwold boats. The displacement is about 7.5 pounds on a length of 27inches. She differs also from the Southwold boats in having a weighted swinging rudder that fits on the sternpost. The degree of home made fittings, I think that she is probably an earlier pattern of yaw! model than those currently on view at Southwold, which are all of a similar type which is known to date back at least to the 1920s. Possibly she is one of those that were raced at Lowestoft and elsewhere on the East Anglian coast, in the 1880s. Like the hull, the rig is intended to be much closer to that of the ful size boat. I have fitted her up with an experimental rig that parallels full size practice exactly in having a boomless dipping lug on the main mast and a standing lug on the mizzen. The dipping lug will have to be carried round the mast on each tack and the sheet handed from side to side of the boat. That is why I have introduced a spinnaker hook style of fitting on each gunwhale to speed up the retrimming on each tack. For similar reasons, there are no shrouds to get in the way; the masts step into tubes that run right down to the bottom of the boat. The tack of the lug hooks to one of a pair of eyes either side of the larger eye through which the bowsprit is intended to pass. The standing lug sheets to a long bumkin, just as in the full size. There is provision in the deck fittings for a comparable spar forward to match the bumkin, but so far I have not included a bowsprit and jib in the rig. These were Another shot of Betty. Yacht of 1951. Alongside it is a hull of unknown age and origin that appears to be a blown up version of the design. She is 42in. overall. When they are finished they will make an interesting pair. movement of this rudder can be controlled by a line to an eye in the upper edge. From the style of the boat, the way she > is built and the style of some of the few very seldom used on the full size boats and pose handling problems when combined with a dipping lug. In the full size, the jib had to be dowsed and the bowsprit housed each time the lug was tacked and I think that the same will also be necessary in the model. Only for use on long reaching legs. In any case, my calculations suggest that she will not need any more sail forward to balance. The sails are as big as I could make them using the original masts, which are about scale height, rather than the exaggerated rigs seen at Southwold. Whether I have got it right depends on sailing trials which will have to wait until the hull has had a complete repaint and revarnish. It will be seen from the photos that there was another, more forward, position for the mizzen. It is now impossible to get the mast tube out of the boat, so I have designed the rig to use what was clearly the final position of the mast. The shape of the boat is such that there is probably a wide range of rig positions and proportions that will enable the boat to sail adequately; this is very different from the fine and “twitchy” trimming required for a modern racing model where one position of the Centre of Effort relative to the Centre of Lateral Resistance is right and all others wrong. This doesn’t necessarily mean that there isn’t a relationship for any boat that is superior to any alternative, but that the alternative is not a complete disaster. An 1880s Ten Tonner and the **1730” Tonnage Rule A Daniels & Tucker 36 of current construction and a big sister version probably dating from the early 1950s when the design was published. MARCH 1990 Finally a couple of shots from the Vintage Group’s visit to the Thames Shiplover’s meeting at the Round Pond last summer. They are of a completely original condition, unrestored, Ten Tonner that dates from the 1880s or 90s. She is sailing about as well as can be expected of a boat with so much canvas and no rudder. She is not the most efficient 13 oti | | 5 “4 ‘ oe 3 \2 i 1 —_ 34 : 12s I Fig. 19.—Yermouth Yaw!l. Full size beach yawl; the plan comes from H. Model Sailing Boats 1923, but he copied it 1 one of Dixon Kemp’s collections of the 189( 1886. The rule formula was: 18 — B )? An early style of beach yawl model fitted with a rig similar to that on full size yawls. Note the gunwale hooks for the sheet of the dipping lug, which has to be handed from side to side when the boat tacks and the yard is dipped to be carried round the mast. Tonnage for Rating Sail area was unmeasured and the a of the game was to build the longest hu possible under the rule, because length gives speed potential and to make the resulting hull as stable as possible, so : to carry the biggest sail area. Beam we very heavily taxed but depth was unta and the result was a long, narrow, dee} “plank on edge” form which provided 5 racing and was suitable for the style of cruising of the period. It could be drive hard round the buoys by large professional crews and, sailed in a mor conservative way, was a seaworthy bo: capable of deep water passages in any weather. This rule was widely known as the “1730” rule to distinguish it from the preceding tonnage rule, the “94” rule a was the culmination of a series of atter to use a tonnage rule devised for other purposes as the basis for rating and handicapping yachts. The “94” rule wi originally devised in 1773 as a shortha way of assessing tonnage for customs, harbour dues and other commercial purposes.As yachting developed in the early 19th century, the “tonnage” of bc calculated in this way was used as the basis of time handicapping to give mo) even racing and to prevent the domina of the biggest and most expensive boat When yachts began to be designed primarily for racing the rule was explo to produce “big boats that rated small’ There was a sequence of increasingl: frequent amendments in the 1870s in a sailing machine known to man, but she is wonderfully impressive and is a very good example of the style of model that was used to begin the development of model yachting away from the casual sailing of any old model to the racing of carefully designed and constructed models raced under a Measurement Rule. One of my correspondents, who was not a reader of long standing and had not seen earlier explanations of the Tonnage Rule, has. asked for an explanation of the Rule to which this boat is built. The “1730” Tonnage Rule was a yacht rating Rule that was used by full-size yachts for a very brief period from 1881 to The tack hook arrangements for the dipping lug. The hooks on the gunwale are part of the original fittings and can only be for bowsprit shrouds or jib sheets. 14 MODEL BOA attempt to prevent the exploitation of the rule and the too rapid outclassing of yachts. A major technical breakthrough occurred in 1877 when Hilda was launched on the Clyde, the first yacht with all her ballast cast in one piece and bolted below her keel. Prior to this, the construction of wooden yachts was unable to sustain the wringing stresses caused by large amounts of outside ballast. Models had been built this way at least since the 1850s and probably since as early as the 1820s when “Cooper the gunsmith” was one of a group of artisans who raced models on a reservoir that then existed in the North East corner of the Green Park, where the tube station now is. The “1730” rule was an attempt to control the extremist tendencies of the tonnage concept when combined with the availability of outside ballast, but in practice made it worse and was quickly shown to be no better at controlling rule exploitation and producing “a Wholesome Type of Yacht”’. (It is interesting that at all times and in all places yachtsmen, both in the full size and in models, have a vision of a wholesome type of yacht. This maritime Holy Grail has never been attained, though it is frequently to be found in the type of boat the speaker first sailed or in the designs of men who were not actually trying to produce a winning boat under a particular rule.) The significance of the “1730” rule for model yachting is that it coincided with a rise in interest in the sport, stimulated by and stimulating the first monthly magazine The Model Yachtsman, published in Hull from 1884 to 1894. Many clubs were founded for the first time during this period. Inter club racing was sedulously encouraged by Tom Bruce, the editor of The Model Yachtsman and demanded a standard rule, rather than the wide variety of different club rules then in around the turn of the century, as the full size Rule was being phased out. Though all Tonnage Rule boats have a family resemblance, there was a fairly wide range of approaches to design under the Rule, which I shall perhaps write about at a future date. Contact Addresses Now that I am no longer Secretary of the MYA, enquiries about current MYA matters and “where do I find my nearest club?” should go to Ian Taylor. I will continue to deal with Vintage Model Yacht Group matters and enquiries about older styles of boat. lan Taylor, 115 Mayfield Avenue, London N12 9HY. Tel: 01-446 1625. R. R. Potts, 8 Sherard Road, London SE9 6EP. Tel: 01-850 6805. use. Then, as at some other periods, model yachtsmen persuaded themselves that the way to “seriousness” and respectability was to be as much like their full size brethren as possible and 10 Tonners under the “1730” rule became the standard class for inter club racing. They remained in use as a model class well into the 1890s and were only replaced by the Length and Sail Area Rule that produced the 10-rater . . in action at London’s Round Pond. TEAM CLASSIC THE NEW MAGAZINE FOR LOVERS OF STEAM COVER PRICE: £1.50 PUBLISHED: 2nd FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH FIRST ISSUE ON SALE: 9th MARCH FREE WITH jue ISSUE UNIQUE POSTCARD PRINTS IN FULL COLOUR KATE Restoring an Edwardian Cutter, by Basil Harley ver the past few months I have greatly enjoyed doing my first restoration job on an early sailing cutter. I started virtually from scratch having very little knowledge about sailing craft and in this article I want to say something about the steps I took to do the research rather than discuss the practical work that had to be done. My hope is that I may encourage some of my readers who are in a similar state of ignorance to acquire and bring back to life other early and distressed model yachts. The Traditional Boat Rally on the Thames at Henley is also the occasion of an annual sale of traditional river craft, models and ephemera held by Phillips the auctioneers. In the 1988 sale I was attracted by Lot 15, described in the catalogue as “A model sailing cutter, length 32 inches, beam 8 inches and length over the bowsprit 52 inches; substantially built… gaff rigged carrying three jibs and having a form of self-steering(?); there are two outrigged booms the purpose of which is not clear. All on polished wood stand. Interesting.” And to whet the appetite further, the information that “a pencilled note on the deck reads, ‘Built 1910, rebuilt 1934-1970’.” After a few tense competitive minutes Lot 15 was knocked down to me at well above the high estimate and suddenly I was the slightly apprehensive owner of a type of craft about which I knew next to nothing but which clearly had some merit, some age and a chunky elegance. Being obviously in need of some care and affection I felt that she had come to the right home. I was encouraged to see Russell Potts of the Model Yacht Association Vintage Group at the sale and most grateful for his opinion on the merits of what was now my cutter as well as for a few ideas about her restoration. She just fitted into my car without having to be dismasted. Before doing anything to her I obeyed Top, the boy in the frontispiece of this 1927 Annual is rigging a cutter very similar to Kate. Above, as bought, the un-named cutter still has her sale label on. MARCH 1990 23 ~~ Kate becalmed, ‘as idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean’ on the Windermere Steamboat Museum pool. my own dictum to leave her alone for a time and just keep looking. Actually having another project with a deadline for completion I sent her away for a twomonth holiday at the Gloucester Folk Museum where my other model boats were on display for the summer. In the meantime I read all I could about Edwardian model sailing boats. When she came back I started my detective work in earnest so that she could be restored to her 1910 appearance and function. The unknown rebuilder in 1934 or 1970 hadn’t the ghost of an idea about standing or running rigging. All the cordage was completely muddled up with shrouds, sheets and halyards in the wrong places. She was all woolly string and granny knots. In the hope of finding out something of her history my first approach was to the vendor – via Phillips. He wasn’t much help, thinking she might have come from Norfolk and reluctantly acknowledging that he had re-painted the hull red and white with a blue waterline. Her lines are characterised of many Edwardian models based on the Bristol Pilot cutters and I hoped she might prove to have been commercially made by Bassett-Lowke or one of the model dockyards. However, neither size nor shape corresponded with any of the catalogue listings which I consulted. The same applied to those fittings which were clearly original – the mast step, sheet horse, gammon iron etc. which were all made of brass but to no standard commercial designs. I showed photographs of her to Lance Arkley, another Vintage Group member, who thought she was probably home built —a conclusion I was slowly coming to myself. However, to be able to restore her to her 1910 condition it was desirable to knowa little more about her and cutter yachts in general, particularly whether she had been built to a published design. Inconsistencies Two major inconsistencies with the Determining the centre of lateral resistance with the forefinger on the edge of the garden pool, as recommended in 1927. 24 earlier date were the ordinate length of tl bowsprit and the curious outriggers. The; had been made of unvarnished wood which was different from the mast, boom and gaff. Again with help from Lance, w concluded that someone in 1934 or 1970 had tried to convert her into something like a Portuguese tunny fishing boat. Thi of course, is nothing like the plain workii cutter she started as and the changes the had been made resulted in a dreadful model as well as the ruination of any sailing qualities she might have had. So the outriggers were removed, which reduced top hamper and the ‘self steering strings cut out. The original boat which still lurked beneath was slowly being revealed and I took her with me on one o: my journeys to Birmingham to see how she behaved on the historic Bournville boating pool. Although I had not sailed a yacht for many a day I managed her reasonably well in rather gusty conditions. She seemed very tender in the squalls but she Kate was built in 1910 by one of the ‘better class of working men’ as a catalogue of the time put it. Here she is restored. MODEL BOATS The outriggers which had been added in 1934 or 1970 effectively prevented her from sailing at all. looked attractive on the water and I was much encouraged. It also seemed proper for her to have a name and Kate was adopted as being suitably in period. She was never a class racing yacht but she is typical of the large number of boats made “by clerks and the better sort of working men” in the first decade of the century for sailing for pleasure on the model yacht ponds which were being established in seaside and other towns. Many of these appear on early picture postcards, with fathers and sons busy with model schooners, cutters or nondescript sailing boats while mothers with picture hats look on. Gamages, the London store, showed in their Christmas catalogue for 1913 over 30 such sailing boats all under 36 inches long. The class racing yachts were generally larger and made to order. Kate has a displacement of over 12lb and is awkward to carry. How were yachts of this size and above transported from home to water? Bicycles? Perambulators? A Hansom cab? John Bradley, another Vintage Group member whom I had met in Birmingham at Bournville, sent me a photocopy of an article by O. O. Ashworth published in a 1922 copy of the Boys’ Own Paper on how to rig a cutter model and how to calculate mast heights, spar lengths and sizes. Here was that little bit of luck that all detectives hope for because the dimensions of the MARCH 1990 rigging Ashworth gave as an example matched almost exactly the mast, boom and gaff of Kate. A lot of Boys’ Own Paper material was out of date when published and the immediate post-war lack of new waterline plan of a bread-and-butter hull. designs encouraged the editor to use old which she had been faithfully copied my own experience over the past few years in describing model steamboats shows that many builders make considerable modifications to the published designs to express their own preferences or, perhaps, to make use of available materials or resources. And why not? material. Russell Potts tells me that Ashworth’s first article for the magazine appeared in 1879 and that the information in the 1922 article is nearly identical. What he wrote is typical of the instructions which the builder of Kate would have read. There was also a reference to an earlier article which John had not been able to find in which Ashworth had described how to make the hull. I hoped this might also be useful and set about finding a copy. Although Boys’ Own Paper continued to be published until the 1960s a later succession of mergers and takeovers made the search for the present copyright owners (and hopefully the custodians of bound volumes) a protracted affair. When While the size and lines were not unlike Kate the real help had come from the later article about the spars and sails. Although I had not found a master description from , ~ The message on the deck at the base of the mast. ‘ i i ah ‘ i i) cemrng of leareens assistance A quarter-scale outline of Kate with proposed sail plan cut in thin card. The point of balance is the Centre of Effort which must be made to coincide vertically with the Centre of Lateral Resistance. finally traced they had none in their possession but another line of enquiry had led me to the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford from which I succeeded in getting a photocopy of the first constructional article. In the event, this was not as helpful as I had anticipated – a bit of a pot boiler, in fact and poorly illustrated with tiny drawings of sheer plan, deck plan and After the War there was much repetition of designs which had been popular before, well into the 1920s many of the how-tomake books and journals reflect with some accuracy the sort of boats which were popular in Victorian and Edwardian days. This was just such a case and I felt that the information I had gathered up till now was sufficient to let me make a start on her restoration. I later acquired a first edition of T. E. Biddle’s classic 1879 book on model yacht building – a pioneer work. Though great fun to read it has its limitations and Biddle’s turgid prose does not help to make his building techniques very clear. Meanwhile… During all this paperwork activity I had dismantled everything. The cambered deck was firmly nailed on and could not be removed without doing a lot of damage. WhenI took the rudder out later it became clear that she had been carved from a solid block of pine and that the deck is some *%in. thick. The fittings which were probably original in 1910 included the brass work on mast, gaff and main boom as well as the mast step, gammon iron and sheet horse, all of which were home made and which had been fastened on with iron, not brass, screws and never removed. On the other hand all the chromium plated hooks and eyes had been put on later. The mast rings looked to me like early curtain rings and I took one along to my local oldestablished ironmonger to ask if he could estimate its age. “That’s a portiere ring,” he said, “could be almost any date” – and he showed me a modern one almost the same. I now recognised that the tiller had been part of a similar curtain system. The Oxford English Dictionary revealed that portiere curtains originated in the 1890s and though it could have been fitted in 1910 I was sure that the tiller (and presumably the mast rings) had been put on later as it interfered with the working of the main sheet horse. So I have used the plain rings from the gaff and boom (where their use was not strictly correct) as the mast rings. 25 out a quarter scale version drawn on thin card, I found the Centre of Effort by balancing it on a pin. Se New bowsprit and replacement brass forward sheet horse screwed into the original fixing holes. When the wooden trunnions used to support the outriggers were removed from the deck (brass screws, fortunately, presumably because later) the screw holes and marks were revealed where there had been a second sheet horse for fore sail and jibs in front of the mast. A replacement for this has been made and fitted in the same place. Any sailing inadequacies at Bournville were put down to later modifications and poor sails but of course I did not know if she was satisfactory when first built – the original sails had disappeared. To be able to design suitable replicas it was necessary to find the Centre of Lateral Resistance CLR of the hull and a 1927 copy of Every Boy’s Hobby Annual gave what was evidently a well-known way of doing this. “Take the hull and put it in water that is not in motion. Very carefully put your hand into the water at about the middle of the length of the hull and extending the forefinger, press gently on the hull below the waterline. It will soon be found that there is a spot where you can push the hull bodily through the water. Make a little mark at this point on the hull; this spot is known to naval architects as the Centre of Lateral I was delighted to find that this came just four inches behind the mast. To push it a further inch back to coincide with the Centre of Lateral Resistance required less sail forward. I cut bits off the sail plan from the jib until the card balanced the equivalent of 5 inches behind the mast and found that this gave a bowsprit length of 10 inches – a most pleasing length and just what I had hoped for as well as being a good example of the old engineering maxim that if it looks right it is right. Using the old bowsprit wood I made a new bowsprit end by soft soldering four of the original brass eyes to a turned socket. This was a mistake – strong enough for rigging but not to resist the inevitable collision with a hard pool edge. Silver solder next time! Before making the sails I checked that the diameters of all masts and spars agreed with the helpful list given by Ashworth. The existing ones agreed and I used this list to both check them and make the new bowsprit and topsail yard. Here are his recommendations Top mast 1/48 of length heel to truck Main boom 1/50 of its own length Her new bowsprit end made from original e| Gaff 1/45 of its own length Bowsprit 1/26 of its length outboard Topsail yard 1/60 of its own length Finding suitable sailcloth proved difficult. The striped material that was extensively used on Edwardian boats is no longer avajlable from model yacht suppliers and suitable substitutes for the original Union Silk, plain or striped, are in decidedly short supply. I was determined on stripes (which represent the original cloth lines) and since such material is in extensive use for shirts these days, I thought it would prove no great problem. I was wrong. The high-class and specialist fabric shops had every imaginable combination of stripes except the right one. This is a single blue or brown stripe about ‘!/,, in. wide and some *4in. apart. It is also obviously necessary for this to be woven in, not just printed on one side. After a long search the street market in an obscure country town provided just the thing in a cotton/polyester fabric imported The bowsprit was decorated with rusty bits | chain. from the States and called American Shirting 318. It is exactly the same we as that sold in 1900 by the model dockyards. Sails I had read much about the techniqu sailmaking and the only consistent ac Resistance.” So I pushed with my forefinger and the CLR came some five inches abaft the mast. Starting from scratch, of course, you arrange the mast position so that the Centre of Effort (or centre of gravity) of the sails comes vertically over the CLR. In my case, the position of the mast was fixed, the mainsail shape and size virtually fixed since I have the original mast, boom and gaff. The only variation possible is the length of the bowsprit and the sizes of the foresail and job. O. O. Ashworth’s formula for determining the length of the bowsprit indicated about 13 inches. This still looked too long (the existing one was 20 inches) but I set out a sailplan on Ashworth lines and cutting 26 Jessie, the author’s wife, doing a little work on the mainsail. MODEL BO. taken back to the Bournville pool for trials and display when the Vintage Group held its second meeting there in the Spring. On a very unkind day, with a gusty, turbulent wind she behaved as well as could be expected of so aged a lady. Incidentally, she was the only one there with striped sails. Later in the year, as my photos show, I took her back for a quiet afternoon on her own. She sails well in a steady wind with the main, foresail and jib, as well as when topsail and jib topsail are set, but with everything on she is a bit tender in squalls. She has no automatic steering gear but the rudder, which is not A crude attempt at automatic steering gear. The tiller had been made from a portiere curtain rod. which came out of a century of instruction in the art was to let professionals do it for you! There is much confusion. My methods, distilled from the authorities and tempered by my own lack of skills, were to cut accurate paper patterns with double hemming allowances of *%in. to the designs and sizes indicated by my centre of effort experiments. Then I washed and hence shrunk, the fabric, ironed it and laid it out on a flat table secured by drafting tape. The paper patterns were then arranged as economically as possible bearing in mind the convention that the stripes (or the selvedge in the case of plain cloth) run parallel with the leach of the mainsail and the topsail and the luff of the foresail, the jib and the jib topsail. The patterns were then taped in place and the outlines marked with a chinagraph pencil and a long steel rule. Sharp scissors and a bit of care resulted in embryo sails ready for machine stitching of the hems. This I left to a friend who had the right sewing machine and the skills to use it – anda beautiful job she made of them. Most of the rigging hooks and eyes in the hull were of painted iron, in good condition and having never been removed for nearly 80 years, were obviously left in situ and used again. Also, scattered throughout the old rigging was a sufficient number of brass hooks, wire bowsies, mast rings and pins to enable the rigging and sails to be erected without having to use new fittings and thus spoil the character of the boat. weighted but is more or less friction tight (helped with a little Blu-Tack) can be set to run her on a straight course. Once the skipper has learned how to do it, that is! There is much discussion about the desirability or otherwise of fitting radio control to these antique boats since much of their character could be destroyed by doing so. But the attraction of being able to control a boat to take advantage of changing wind and weather conditions is very persuasive. Perhaps a truly ‘clip-on’ unit to operate rudder only would give some control of steering and not alter either the appearance of the boat when it was removed or her original sailing characteristics. I would not wish to modify an early boat like Kate with a permanent installation but this is an area where opinions can differ widely. Kate was obviously a much-loved possession in the family which created her – nearly a quarter of a century after she was built she was ‘done up’ and more than 30 years after this she was again re-built probably still in the same family. Now, nearly 20 years on she carries another note, this time inside, on the base of her mast, saying “Restored in 1989.” The re-creation of a boat like this is in many ways an exploration of one’s own past – though even I was not born when she first saw the light of day. As you do your research, read about, work on and sail even such a small vessel you become absorbed in a way of life which has all but disappeared. You become increasingly conscious of change – changes in taste, in lifestyle and changes in technology. And what pleasure there is in working with old- Attachment points on the sails were reinforced with small triangles of iron-on fabric interlining on each side before the eyelets were inserted. This is white, stiff and translucent and is barely visible. It is fashioned, real materials like brass and mahogany, oak and pitch pine, natural fibres and shellac. Not a plastic in sight! well, a tiny bit of polyester in the sails but I regard that as a mere adulteration of the cotton. Such materials respond best to the tools the old craftsmen designed.and made and I frequently use some of those my father and grandfather treasured and worked with and which have come down and a fair amount of pressure but some to me after nearly a century. Anyone who seeks such early models in easy to apply with a hot iron (cotton heat) care is needed to put the ‘sticky’ side down on the sail cloth since superficially there is little to show which is the right side. Some of the blocks had been adapted from early runners designed to go on spring curtain rail. I have used one or two of these, notably for the gaff halyards as a remembrance of her ingenious, homemade and humble origins. Altogether, Kate is not modern tidy in her rigging and fittings, she is Edwardian authentic and that is what I have striven for. Trials She was sufficiently complete to be MARCH 1990 Coming home after a sail at Bournville. Model Yacht Building & Sailing, T. E. Biddle Ist Ed. 1879. The Boy’s Modern Playmate, London 1898. Gamage’s 1913 Catalogue, David & Charles Reprint. Bassett-Lowke’s Catalogues, 1915-1939. Steven’s Model Dockyard Catalogue, 1919. Steven’s Model Dockyard Catalogue, 1924, Vetal Press NY. Boys’ Own Paper (magazine), Volume 43, 1922. Every Boy’s Hobby Annual, 1927. Wonderful Models Vol. I & IT, Percival Marshall, 1928. Model Boat Building, F. J. Camm, 1940. Toy & Model Collectors’ Books Les Bateaux, Jac Remise, Pygmalion, 1981. Les Bateaux Jouets, Jacques Milet, Arte, 1967. The Bassett-Lowke Story, New Cavendish Place, 1984. need of similar restoration – or even finds a family one in the attic — will, I feel sure, find great satisfaction in the work; it’s all so absorbing and such a joy to do. Bibliography The restoration of Kate involved a lot of searching and reading. Among the books and articles which I found to be particularly helpful are the following. Since studying pictures of early examples of models in current collections is also useful, I have included some modern publications. Early tools, like this miniature plane, spokeshave and jeweller’s archimedian drill, are often the most appropriate and satisfying to use. Here the new bowsprit is being shaped. 27
