National Small Boat Collection

This canoe comes from the Gilbert Islands, now called Kiribati, a nation of coral atolls scattered over the Micronesian area of the Pacific Ocean. It features an extra log called…

Until the collapse of its cod stocks, the Grand Banks area off Newfoundland was one of the most productive fishing grounds in the world. The region is also renowned for…

The rights of individuals to collect oysters from the waters around Falmouth have been exercised since at least the late 16th century, and boats equipped with similar dredging gear to…

Designed by Jack Holt in 1950, the Heron is still popular today with ownership worldwide now in excess of 10,000. In the immediate post war years people began taking to…

What you are looking at is cutting edge 1930s technology.What we have here is a Hudson Folding Dinghy, an unusual collapsible dinghy designed and made by R J Hudson (Dick)…

  The origins of the International 14 class can be traced back to the early part of the 20th century, when the wealthy owners of steam yachts would race each…

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…

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…

What should a keen racing dinghy sailor do when age begins to take its toll and the ‘fun’ of capsizing and getting very wet begin to pall? Some sailors move…