Skandia Team GBR

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Winter Sails - The Norfolk 14ft. One-Design Dinghy Class


Winter Sails
Originally uploaded by John D F

So, as I was saying:

Proper Sailing, Proper Boats, Proper Course...

 Tillerman wasn't happy fully satisfied with the great picture, not satisfied with a little bit of info about the location of the classic sailors, nope, he wanted the full details, the exact location and chapter and verse of what the boats were... so here you go, as the temperature dips to -4 this evening, here's some solid facts about some classic UK boats to warm the cockles-of-yer-heart...

The location of this photo was on the River Yare, on the eastern outskirts of Norwich in the UK.  

It was taken across the river from a club called the Norwich Frostbite Sailing Club. Situated close to Norwich City on the river Yare at Thorpe St Andrew the Club is accessible and easy to find. The present fleet includes Norfolk One-design, Enterprise, Wayfarer and Albacore dinghies. Other boats of similar size are welcome.

After some digging around (very enjoyable investigation) I've found out some more about the beautiful boats in the picture:

The Norfolk 14ft. One-Design Dinghy Class

Class Flag: U

Length 14ft, Beam 5ft 4½ins. Sail Area 130sq. ft. Centre Plate 68lbs.

Norfolks sail over the summer and winter at a number of Sailing Clubs throughout the Norfolk Broads.

There were 86 Norfolk Dinghies built by Herbert Woods of Potter Heigham, the first in 1931.

The last was built in 1968 and a large proportion of them still sail regularly.

-----------

I hope that is sufficient for you all...?

Downwind Originally uploaded by John D F

 

...OK Tillerman is still not happy, know he wants to know the Church (no idea and I don't care) and the sailors in the B&W photo:

Sail No.70 - Rainbow (1949) Owned by J A & C E L Ellis

Sail No.53 - Twinkle (1947) Owned by J Tyrrell

Sail No.15 - Wee Simby (1932) Owned by Mike Lees 

Now there's some proper "classic" boats! Look at the ages of them, beauties between the age of 58-75 years (just like Tillerman!!)

4 comments:

Tillerman said...

Great job Ant. Thanks very much.

Now who are the skippers of the five boats in the picture and what's the name of that church in the background?

Ant said...

Post has been updated (with the Skippers/Owners) of the boats in the black&white picture...

Sail No.70 - Rainbow (1949) Owned by J A & C E L Ellis

Sail No.53 - Twinkle (1947) Owned by J Tyrrell

Sail No.15 - Wee Simby (1932) Owned by Mike Lees

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. I bet the church is St Andrews.

Anonymous said...

ChrisJ says:
The Norfolk One Design, being 14ft long, was originally able to race competitively against International 14s. Now that they are twin-wired, carbon, wide, modern rigs etc that is no longer the case.

Many of the Norfolks were made before World War II. The story goes that during the war they were all laid up for 5 or 6 years. After the war, as people got back into sailing again, new ones were being built to the same original design. BUT the new ones were slower than the old ones, which had managed to sag into a much faster shape in those 6 years!