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A photo of the 'Cornwall and the Sea' gallery at the Museum.

The volunteers in the Bartlett Centre manage many different research databases covering a wide variety of subjects.


National Small Boat Register (NSBR)

Stage one of the NSBR redevelopment is now complete and you can now register your boat.

Register boat

Stage two is to develop the searchable database and we hope to have this live as soon as possible.

Yacht Design databases

Over the years yachting magazines have carried reviews of new yacht and boat designs. Some of these have gone on to become classics, others have not. The volunteers in the Bartlett Maritime Research Centre have trawled through eighteen different titles from as far back as 1891, and have extracted over 14,000 articles about individual boat designs. We don’t pretend that this is a comprehensive list because we do not have every copy of every yachting magazine over that period, but we think we have found most of them. If you want to find details of a design then use the search facility below to check if we have what you’re looking for. If we have, you can either access the magazine by visiting the Bartlett Centre in person or alternatively we can send you a copy of the article via email but please note that there may be a charge. To request an article then email us at library@nmmc.co.uk quoting as much information as possible. Please note that copies are provided for personal reference only and normal copyright rules apply.

View the Yacht Design database

We also hold an archive of yacht plans for the designer, Alan Buchanan which is shown here, and an archive of Curtis and Pape plans shown here.

Archives database

Our collection of many of our boats and objects are on display for visitors to see. A less visible collection is our archive of boat plans, documents and photographs relating to the maritime history of Cornwall and the development and use of boats. Some of the archives are small – barely a single photograph – others are very large. This is our fastest growing collection and we are working hard on cataloguing everything. Below is a small sample of our holdings searchable by keyword. This is being regularly updated. You can view the archives by making an appointment with our curator via email to: enquiries@nmmc.co.uk. Copies of documents or photographs for personal research can be supplied, subject to a small fee and normal copyright law.

View the Archives database

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National Maritime Museum
Cornwall Trust
Discovery Quay
Falmouth
Cornwall
TR11 3QY

Tel: +44(0)1326 313388

Email: enquiries@nmmc.co.uk