Classic Pond Yachts
Classic Pond Yachts
This is a Mr. A W (Bert) Littlejohn designed Kittwake Marblehead, first registered 5 August 1939, (just in time for WWII) at the MYSA in Kensington Gardens, registered name 'Semels' sail number 94. Her original owner was a Mr. R H Hawkes and her builder a Mr. F E Matthews.
This is how I first saw 'Semels' at Beale Park, the Marblehead on the right, she was part of the Richard Howard collection, covered in dirt, but looking very pretty, she had a mast and main boom, but that was all, no sails or paper work. Fortunately she had been restored by Graham Reeves, and sold through Bonhams auction house in London, so there was some history. When Graham sold her through Bonhams she had two suits of cotton sails, and a jib boom, but sadly they have disappeared.
Bonhams auction house press release for the sale of 'Semels'
.png)
Here are some pictures of Semels when I got her home. She has been beautifully restored, like new really. I don't think she has been sailed since her restoration, so my plan was to get Cat Sails to make some sails, convert her to vane steering, and get her sailing at the next VMYG meeting at Hampton Court.
Graham Reeves sent me this picture of 'Joan' just before she went for auction, with her top suit of cotton sails. I am relieved that she was called 'Joan' during Grahams restoration, I love the history of these boats, but Semals is a rubbish name! so from now on, she is called 'Joan' my mothers name!!
Pictures of the inside of Joan, you can see from these pictures the restoration was a complete rebuild.
I really did not have much work to do on Joan, the biggest job was fitting the vane gear, I had to move the backstay and make it come down port and stb, then fitted a stainless wire extension to the Braine quadrant, made up a mount for the wind vane, all nice and free. I am hoping, and have crossed all my fingers that the vintage Marblehead event will go ahead at Fleetwood in May, hence the conversion to windvane.
A stunning new suit of Dacron Cat sails, sails. I had a bit of luck, when I bought the Daniels Onward replica she was cutter rigged, I converted her to the original Daniels Gaff sloop rig, so I had two jib booms left over, one of them was perfect for Joan, ready to go sailing.
Intrepid bunch of sailors about to go into battle against Hampton Courts Iris Weed, the sailing was easy, getting to the boats was not!
Rigged and ready to go sailing for the first time since her restoration? Ready for what turned out to be the last time we could do any vintage sailing, Oct 2020.
Great to see her sailing, she sailed really well, as you would expect with her pedigree, these pictures taken on a breezy run down the lake, she was going really well, and under control. Restive in the back ground, another Bonhams boat from the Richard Howard collection.
But the reeds do make for a soft landing !!
So the next event I hope will be Fleetwood, we have one issue, this time last year vintage model yachts were not even on the horizon, all the boats on this site, plus the ones I have still to put on have happened inside the last year, so the issue, Vintage boats have single panel sails, everyone knows that don't they? so Cat sails making a suit of varnished Terylene, single paneled sails, and a B suit, it is Fleetwood. Watch this space for a full report of the event. By the event I have a list of jobs to sort mostly on the rig.
7 April 21 - Cat sails nave just supplied me a new suit of single paneled sails made out of Varnished Terylene ready for the Vintage/Classic event in Fleetwood late May, We now have to get her sailing and tuned up ready to race!!!
New sails rigged, they look a lot more 'Vintage' than the Dacron sails, and single panel as per the sails made back in the day, to be honest she would have had cotton sails when she was new, but these look great.
A Nice picture showing the single panel sails rigged.
When I first rigged Joan to sail at Hampton Court I had a problem, which I have had with the other models, if you rig the sheet adjusting bowsie along the boom, you don't get enough travel to allow the boom to go all the way out for the run. I am sure there is a way of rigging this to give enough travel, a lot of models have the sheets on deck, but then I would have to fit some fittings to the deck which I felt was not required. So I have rigged the sheets in a different way.
This picture shows the mainsheet rigged in the normal way with a bowsie, the sheet goes from the track, through the eye on the boom, forward through the bowsie and through the eye on the boom forward, then back and the bitter end secured to the bowsie.
Here the Mainsheet has been re rigged using whipcord, which I think looks more like what they would have been using. I have rigged a jack line running between the two eyes on the boom, it has been run through two eyes in the bowsie, then tensioned and tied off. The main sheet comes off the track, through the eye under the boom, it runs forward and through the third eye in the bowsie, and then runs aft and the bitter end is secured to the aft eye. This created a reverse purchase, and effectivly doubles the sheet travel, now more than enough adjustment to allow the boom to reach the shrouds. I have rigged the jib sheet in the same way.
10 April 21 - Went for the first Thursday morning IOM race at Gosport last week, great morning racing, Gosport at it's best really, a little fluky, but a reasonable wind direction down the lake slightly south of West. I took Joan down with me to sail after racing with her new sails. The sails are great, we were worried that the cloth may have been a little to light weight, but they set really well.
One thing we did learn, we will need to change down rigs early, but she went well, very pleased, sails are great!!