National Small Boat Collection

‘All the fun of messing about in boats. Build it yourself from the kit. Easiest on the pocket and the easiest job you’ve ever tackled….. The Mirror is a true car-top dinghy. Yours in kit form for just £63.11s cash!’ So ran an advert in the Daily Mirror, the sponsors of the design, in the 1960s.…

This style of boat is typical of those still being built in and around Os, a town situated in southwest Norway, near Bergen. It represents a type used in this part of Norway from Viking times until the present day. The oldest documentation of Norwegian boat building is portrayed in ancient rock carvings dating from…

Designed by Ian Proctor, Wayfarers have been built by professional boatbuilders and DIY enthusiasts in their thousands, and have proved themselves to be very stable and seaworthy boats. The class has been enduringly successful, particularly with sailing schools as a training boat. Wanderer, however, made some remarkable journeys while in the ownership of Frank and…

Small boats tend to be shaped by the lives of those who make and use them. So around the world vessels built for the same purpose differ greatly, due to the availability of materials and tools, traditional techniques and the unique local environments in which the boats are used. This Kuwaiti Tishaala Dhow, Tala, is…

When Ian Proctor designed the Tempest it was clear from the outset that he was aiming at a breakthrough. The initial object, along with his eleven rivals, was to win the trials with the fastest boat which could be produced within the IYRU limits. More than that, he wanted a boat that would be well…

The origins of this image can be traced back to 1811 when the 6th Duke of Bedford commissioned the building of a fishing lodge and romantic gardens on one of the prettiest stretches of the River Tamar. By the late 19th century the estate, Endsleigh, had come into the possession of the 11th Duke and…

This general purpose pram dinghy was the precursor of other DIY dinghies such as the Goblin, Cadet, and the Mirror. Conceived by designer and boat builder Percy Blandford the Gremlin was, in the words of the magazine Light Craft, which marketed the plans, ‘designed primarily for the man who wants a boat but has very…

Small dinghies became fashionable on the River Thames after the First World War. Compared to the traditional gigs and skiffs associated with Edwardian river outings, dinghies were lighter, handier, and easier to build. Also, at a time when there were very few professional boatmen employed, these small boats were more easily maintained by their owners,…

Pip Emma is a small rowing dinghy built by the boat builder/designer F.C. Morgan Giles while he was on leave from the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) in 1916. Its very light construction is due to the lack of materials during wartime, for example the transom is made out of an old mahogany table. The…