Boats

Claritie is a 1956-built typical example of the common wooden and later GRP built pram dinghies which were carried aboard yachts as a tender. Designed and constructed by the well known designer Austin “Clarence” Farrar Claritie was an early experiment in cold moulding plywood. This system of manufacture was developed to improve the more traditional…

This single handed sailing dinghy was designed and built by the well known Norfolk boat builders William Starling and Sons of Blakeney in 1929 for Miss Patience Hardcastle of Godalming in Surrey. She had been taught to sail by Mr. Starling whilst on holiday in Norfolk and had initially sailed in the family’s heavy boat,…

The Essex One Design dates from 1919, when it was commissioned as a “one-design” boat for the Essex Yacht club together with the nearby Alexandra Yacht Club, both sailing the tidal waters of Southend on Sea. Another local and not dissimilar design, the Thames Estuary One Design, had originated a few years earlier in 1911,…

Merlin Rockets are a “Development Class” of dinghy, which means a considerable degree of latitude is allowed in design, within certain broad parameters. In the case of the Merlin Rocket these parameters have allowed a particularly wide range of designs. A number of designs, designers, and builders have proved especially successful, while others have fallen…

In 1975 four members of the British Kayak Expedition completed a journey from Bodo to Nordkapp in Northern Norway, Europe’s most northerly point. Their chosen craft for this pioneering expedition was a kayak designed by Frank Goodman – the Nordkapp. The 480 mile journey, which took a month to complete, was undertaken through the worst…

The use of glass reinforced plastic for boatbuilding began in the USA in the early 1940s, with the first GRP dinghy produced in 1942 and reportedly thousands of small GRP boats had been produced by the late 1940s. In Europe, however, despite wartime shortages of other materials, it was still to be some years before…

In the years following the Second World War, as rising living standards and increased leisure time led to an expansion in leisure boating, Fairey Marine was an important player. Employing and developing techniques used in the production of wartime aircraft, Fairey Marine produced a number of widely varied craft, from the Firefly dinghies used in…

This canoe was probably made by Sarazin of the Algonquin Reserve in the Ottawa Valley of Ontario. It is a modern interpretation of the most developed form of birch bark canoe. It was presented to Prince Edward on the occasion of his visit to Canada in 1901 and has been lent to the Museum by…

This strip-plank wooden canoe was one of many imported into this country in the early 1900s from North America by Rowland Ward & Co. and sold through large London stores, in this particular case, Naturalists of Piccadilly. The heavy decoration is not typical of canoes in North America but appealed to the European market. Length…