National Small Boat Collection

Traditional Thames rowing boats, the type of craft described in Jerome K. Jerome’s ‘Three Men in a Boat’, have four distinct styles. The largest boats are the magnificent ceremonial barges still used by some livery companies on grand occasions. The three smaller ones are very similar at first glance. The skiff is often confused with…

Although a distinct design in her own right, in many ways Sea Queen looks like a smaller version of the better known Looe Lugger or Falmouth Working Boat. Mevagissey Toshers (Tossers or Toshers) is a name generically applied to small fishing boats), were built in Mevagissey and nearby Portmellon for use by Cornish fishermen for…

On 4-5 June 1976, Derek Hutchinson (leader), Tom Caskey and Dave Hellawell paddled their kayaks from Felixstowe Ferry, Suffolk to Ostend, Belgium, over 100 miles of open sea in 31 hours. This was to be the first recorded unsupported West-East crossing of the North Sea by kayak. In August 1975, Hutchinson, a school teacher by…

In 1969 two friends, Ian Fraser and Kim Stephens, both successful sailors, formed a company in Restronguet, Falmouth, called Panthercraft. They applied for a licence to build the Tornado catamaran, which in 1966 was chosen for prospective Olympic status. It’s designer, Rodney March, provided Ian with a Tornado as a demonstrator. In those days Tornados…

The Puffin was designed by the famous DIY specialist and TV presenter Barry Bucknell as a collapsible car top dinghy/tender. The GRP hull has a hard chine shape with folding fabric sides and the DIY parentage is reflected in some of the vessel’s simple but effective fittings. It is complete with a Una Bermudian rig…

In 1980 the Flying Dutchman class claimed to be the fastest two man centreboard dinghy in the world and even today it remains a very fast design. It originated at trials by the International Yacht Racing Union in 1954, soon achieved international status and was subsequently used for the Olympic games from the 1960s through…

This is one of several kayaks in the Museum’s collection from the pen of that prolific designer of small boats Percy Blandford. Blandford’s passion was to design small boats for “everyman” that could be constructed at home with a minimum either of tools or expertise. In the years following the Second World War there was…

Reputedly the oldest one-design in the world the Water Wag can trace its history all the way back to the late 19th century. In 1886 Thomas Middleton, a member of The Shankhill Corinthian Sailing Club, Ireland, thought it might be a good idea to have a number of boats made to the same design so…

Built 1866, by John Thornycroft Designer John I Thornycroft, Chiswick, Waterlily is one of the world’s earliest steam launches in existence. Her hull, made from riveted wrought-iron plates is still in working order. Designed and built by John Thornycroft for his father, the famous sculptor Thomas Thornycroft, Waterlily helped set the fashion for wealthy people…