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Pay once, get in all year
Adults £18.00
Children (Under 18s) £9.00
Children (Under 5s) Free
Open Daily 10am - 5pm
National Maritime Museum Cornwall Trust Discovery Quay Falmouth Cornwall TR11 3QY
Tel: +44(0)1326 313388
Email: enquiries@nmmc.co.uk
Some designs of dinghy prove longer-lived than others. Although changes in materials, and indeed fashions, can lead to changes in popularity, another key factor can be whether the class rules stipulate the boat as a development class or a one-design. In development classes the scope for experimentation and modification is considerable and in the more…
Simple fishing rafts made from available materials, with designs adapted to local conditions, have been found across the globe: from their use in Polynesia, by Aboriginal Australians, via the Tamil coast of India, to the north east coast of Brazil. When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil in the sixteenth century they encountered very simple square…
In the years leading up to the Second World War, the British war office recognised a need for a small boat that could be used for covert reconnaissance and assault operations. Such a craft needed to be both small and inconspicuous as well as to be readily transportable, in as compact a space as possible.…
The Olympic Monotype, or O-Jolle as it is also known, was designed by Helmut Stauch as the single-handed dinghy for the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, for which the yachting events were held at Kiel. As the host nation, Germany succeeded in persuading the Olympic Committee to adopt their heavier, narrower design of centreboard dinghy, a…
Curraghs are traditional Irish boats, unique to that part of the world. Built around strong wooden frames, their hulls are formed with waterproof canvas or leather. The curragh men, their communities and culture are celebrated in poetry, literature and song. Tradition has it that St Brendan crossed a vast ocean in a hide-skinned curragh in…
Commander John Watkinson, an experienced and accomplished Naval Officer, left the Royal Navy in 1958 and bought a boatyard, Kelly and Hall, to try his hand at a new venture. In 1964 he sold the yard and moved to Drascombe Barton in Devon, where he set about designing a family-friendly sailing boat. In his own…
Witch is a clinker built open boat with a transom stern, approximately 14ft long and was used for catching lobsters and crabs up to six miles out to sea. In his book ‘Working Boats of Britain’, Eric McKee lists her as an example of a typical small working boat from the Isle of Purbeck, similar…
In 1954 a group of dinghy sailors from clubs in the Solent area collaborated with Fairey Marine’s Charles Currey, an Olympic silver medallist in Finns, in an attempt to come up with a boat that would be modern, light and able to cope with the often rough Solent conditions, but suitable for family sailing as…
In 1948 a 14ft sailing dinghy was presented to Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, as a wedding present from the Royal New Zealand Navy. Named Kiwi the boat was built in the workshop of HMNZ Dockyard, Devonport, New Zealand. Based on a standard design for the Royal Naval Sailing Association, she was modified…
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