Yare Sailing Club – A Broadsman

Privateer – Pt. 2

Starting where we left, July 1963 – the Bown family have taken ownership of ‘Privateer’, https://broadssailing.blog/2020/03/15/privateer-clippers-big-sister/

I mentioned the white painted transom previously as an indication of an older yacht needing TLC… this perhaps was reflected in the price, £450!

The Bown family duly put ‘Privateer’ to use, often sailing as a family. Compare this photograph from the early 1960’s to Privateer in 1936.

Alas this proved to be quite true, as Mr Bown senior undertook a significant amount of work in 1965 on ‘Privateer’. At that time, much of the planking & many of the ribs were replaced.

Paul Bown (Mr B’s son) recounted that there was little evidence of Privateer’s hire-career, aside from a repair to a cabin-side, which was a legacy of the Royal (!) cock up on Breydon in ’48.

Interestingly – Paul also discovered evidence that ‘Privateer’ had been altered throughout her hire career at C&H, there were multiple holes in the hog, indicating that the keel had been moved on at least two occasions (!)

I suspect, that Privateer when built was almost entirely balanced, and that the re-positioning of the keel was an attempt to bring some weather helm into play for safety reasons.

(most Broads hire cruisers had enormous weather helm, which meant if a hirer panicked, they just luffed themselves and stopped)

Unfortunately the 1965 rebuild cost £720 (!), which reflects the nature of the bargain price.

During the 1965 rebuild – ‘Privateer’ underwent a significant change in physical appearance. Many C&H yachts have cockpits which are ‘snug’, ‘Privateer’ being no exception. Hence the tiller linkage during her early years.

To provide useful additional space, Mr Bown senior re cut the coamings, raised the benches & splayed the short coamings ‘outboard’ to give a little extra space, as seen here.

Privateer with new windows & an enlarged cockpit. Moored at NBYC, Wroxham Broad.

The external sliding windows & their frames also disappeared at this point, apparently they could be opened by a jib-sheet – resulting in VERY wet bunks!

The final addition during Mr Bown senior’s ownership was the addition of a bowsprit, added in 1970. Paul Bown can be seen here – attaching the new jib!

Mr Brittain had purchased new sails in 1956, aside from the larger jib for the bowsprit, that suit soldiered on until early 1990’s, another long-lived Jeckells suit. (not quite as long-lived as ‘Corsair’s’)

Privateer was sold in 1979, to Peter Dunham, who kept her in a boatshed at South Walsham (it appears S.Walsham has a ‘draw’ for C&H boats!). He didn’t keep her long however, as in 1983 she changed hands again…

… to Paul Bown! Mr Bown’s son. Evidently despite having sold her 1st time round because she was ‘abit much to handle’ -she was bought again!

Following a similar pattern, after 2 years of family-sailing, Paul took the opportunity to undertake some signficant works to ‘Privateer’ during 1985;

Paul managed to squeeze her into his front garden for this work!

So, in 1985, with a new deck, and a new rudder – Paul was able to enjoy racing ‘Privateer’, predominantly at Wroxham Broad;

Privateer – racing – Paul Bown helming.
S/N 52 ‘Maidie’ & S/N 119 ‘ButterCup’ also photo’d.

In 1990 though, Paul had another project lined up, and ‘Privateer’ soon changed hands again, this time going to Jean Vaughan & Terry Secker.

Jean Vaughan, was in fact Jean Oliver – whose family had regularly hired ‘Privateer’ in the 1950’s, the boat having made such an impact on Jean, she snatched her up given the opportunity!

Jean & Terry kept ‘Privateer’ at Oulton Broad for a further 8 years. During this time, the tan sails disappeared. She lived on a buoy in Oulton’s South Bay.

Their ownership wasn’t without the occasional excitement. One day having rowed out the buoy, the tiller was found lying on the deck… The rudder having detached itself & helpfully sunk!

A diver was summonsed, and with breathtaking luck, he jumped off the stern of ‘Privateer’, and stood straight on the rudder! Given that on a buoy, say about 40ft overall, that’s an 80ft diameter circle it could have been lost on the circumference, so 1st dive to find it is bloody amazing!!

In 1998, Jean & Terry sold ‘Privateer’ to Mr Child, who still owns her today – the longest period of single ownership ‘Privateer’ has had to date. Tim has continued to enhance her, starting with a jackyard topsail rig;

Undoubtedly the addition of a larger jib, and a topsail enhanced ‘Privateer’s’ sailing performance, and kept her a regular figure on the regatta circuit throughout the early 2000’s.

In fact, Tim further pushed for performance by introducing one of the first ‘integral’ topsail rigs to be seen on the Broads, seen here to good effect at another Yare Sailing Club event, Breydon Open Regatta;

Aren’t they both fantastic photos? Really showing the A.L. Braithwaite ‘sleek’ look, with the added bonus of being a sunny day. Fantastic!

Which brings us upto now – Tim still owns ‘Privateer’, he was my next door neighbour for a prolonged period of time, re-enforcing that somehow, C&H boats are bizarrely never too far away from me or my life…

Next time, we go back to ‘Corsair’ – and how she came to be a ‘southern rivers’ boat…

Summer storms & submarines

Phew. Writing this now having had a forced absence from;

A.) writing and
B.) sailing.

Weather in Norfolk hasn’t been the kindest. Last Saturday instead of rowing across to ‘Corsair’, I was forced to walk a mile down the flood-bank on the opposite side of the river, and then wade through the rhond to get to her.

Mind you, I’m not complaining. You walk south from Cold Harbour and the view west is fantastic. The vista includes St. Helen’s church, whose tower juts above the tree line at Ranworth, meanwhile to the right, the remains of St. Benets squat on the marsh, with Horning Hall obscured behind.

The f7 SW had laid the reeds flat, and as we walked, we watched a determined yacht tacking up the Bure. Three reefs and a storm jib – good effort. Even from couple of miles away, you could tell she was striding along. Exhilarating conditions (for the right boat!)

All of this played out under a magnificent, leaden sky-scape. 8/8^th’s cloud cover, and all scuddying along ahead of this incessant near-gale. I tried to absorb it all, that sense of place in me taking over. I’m very lucky to live in this part of the world, my advice is to make sure you see Norfolk in different weathers and in different seasons.

It’s hard to describe, but you’ll capture the different ‘moods’ of the days and seasons if you do. You’ll see what’s a weather bank in a Northerly, or a westerly, where the trees will shelter you, how the wind bends along the reaches – all useful for when you’re sailing and need to find a decent mooring or take in a reef. I don’t pretend

Edward Seago managed to capture the atmosphere of St. Benets under a storm better than me;

Anyway. ‘Corsair’ was O.K. bilges were dry, covers still on. Duty done, we trudged back to the car. Odd isn’t it, boats are such a release in so many ways psychologically, and a constant responsibility physically. I dread to think how many miles I’ve driven to check on her in similar situations.

Back to 2009.

2009 Cruise – Day 2

Cold. Cramped. And hungover once again. Not an unusual set of circumstances for the cruise…. Bleary eyed – I staggered through the cockpit and opened the awning.

Bollocks.

Opening the awning had focused my attention somewhat. What a bloody nuisance! James’ boat – ‘Nulsec’ had capsize itself in the night, quite unnoticed. After confirming with someone less hungover than me that in fact yes, the boat had sunk itself – we set about righting her. After I’d had a good think about what to do…

What a hassle that was!! For a 17ft boat, there was a lot of water to be removed. Sterling bailing efforts by Rob, James & Chris removed most of the water, leaving ‘Nulsec’ mostly afloat.

However, a brief phone call to Julia – the wonderful Hon. Secretary of the Yare Sailing Club produced a large, petrol powers salvage pump, which quickly drained the boat, leaving us with our fleet mostly intact.

Having lost time, we then set about motoring down the New Cut. For those of you not familiar, the New Cut is the result of some fairly aggressive Victorian power-playing. Yarmouth was a successful port – Norwich was not. No matter – Samuel Morton Peto dug a cut – linking Oulton Broad with Norwich, so you wouldn’t have to go through Yarmouth…

Yes. Not quite successful, it does however provide a useful function connecting the Yare with the Waveney – where we were heading. Whilst we motored, a fry up was produced, with the skipper resorting to hair of the dog!!

More amusement was to come though, how do you lower the mast on a 17ft racing dinghy?? With a lot of ‘faff’, bad language and brute force! I was still hungover, and unable to assist.

During this, ‘Dragonfly’ (S/N 6) came swishing past heading for Somerleyton. No doubt amused by the antics – they sensible opted to finding decent moorings.

Moored against a convenient crane barge at Haddiscoe – we set about raising the big white crinkly bits (sails!!)

In the short interval that followed, James attacked a moored pontoon, ran into the reeds on a lee-shore, lured a hire craft into towing him illegally, and generally produced much material (very kindly) for me to record.

The fleet – now mostly assembled at Somerleyton consisted of ‘Seabird’, ‘Dragonfly’, ‘Corsair’ and ‘Nulsec’… Just HB & Herbie the wonder-dinghy and we’d be complete.

To pass the time, we inexplicably found ourselves in the pub – avoiding the rain, playing cards with a pint. Compared to yesterday’s excitement – this is more like it!!

Goodnight.

2009 – relaunch & my first YSC race.

Sorry – the delay in writing has been for the best reasons. I have been out sailing, a very enjoyable 4 day cruise to the head of navigation at Dilham.

I’m always struck by how different the landscape is on the Broads when I go to Dilham, you are in gently undulating North Norfolk country-side, in a genuine canal setting. Very different from the rest of the rivers.

If you are lucky enough to sail on the Broads, do take yourself to the extremities in the navigation. You’ll see tremendous scenery. Moor at Horsey, and you look on at the Dunes of the North Sea, the next day you can be in a canal basin, and the day after on a huge tidal lagoon (as was) faced with a Roman Fort looking down on you.

One day I hope the North Walsham & Dilham canal trust https://www.facebook.com/NWDCT/ achieve their goal of connecting the canal back to the system.

The canal itself, was authorised by parliament in 1812. Unfortunately it was finally abandoned in 1934. Don’t think the canal wasn’t useful though. In 1898 – 6,386 tons was received at wharves on the canal and shipped away. The wherries on the canal carried about 15-20 tons… So that’s nearly 319 wherry loads in a year!!

The last wherry to navigate it was the ‘Ella’. And in tribute, the canal trust have recently launched Ella II – a launch which will take you on the re-watered sections of the canal.

Wherry at Swaffield Bridge – NW & D canal

In its heyday, the canal boasted a small fleet of these very pretty, small wherries. About 2/3 the size of a typical trading wherry, sadly none have survived. If you visit the canal these days, well it’s very eery – dereliction has left pieces of it beautifully stagnant, like the lock chamber at Honing, just waiting.

Anyway. I digress. But it’s worth going to look at the canal, if you ever get the chance. Running alongside it is the trackbed of the Midland & Great Northern Railway, the Stalham – North Walsham section of their network.

Such direct competition no doubt proved to be the undoing of the canal. But again, the old railway has been left in splendid isolation, and is full of hidden relics as you walk the trackbed.

Back in 2009, I was in the final throes of preparing ‘Corsair’ for launching. This would be my first run at it ‘solo’, I was nervous. Throughout the winter I’d done what I thought was best. I’d applied a liberal amount of Dulux gloss on the hull, and one whole tin of Screwfix ‘no nonsense’ yacht varnish on the toerails (! – horrible stuff). I was set!

Barton Turf – January 2009 – ‘Corsair’ is hidden behind S/N242 ‘Freedom’. Luxurious conditions!!

Or so I thought. ‘Corsair’ was launched on the allotted day, and surprisingly the ancient and defunct car battery worked adequately to keep the bilge pump humming and she floated (mostly) after a few hours. Eager to sail this year, I had aimed for an Easter weekend launch.

After work, there I was… Heave-ho, hauling away on the heel rope there was the usual strain as the mast rises the first few feet. Then a shroud snagged (cabin roof corner, the usual spot). I made fast, and then walked aft to un-snag.

CRUNCH.

Bollocks. As I had walked down the sidedeck, the mast had swayed about, not being fully in the tabernacle, it was free to pivot. The snagged shroud was snatching, arresting this oscillation. The crosstrees fell victim to this, and neatly folded themselves either side of the mast, snapped cleanly in half

Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks! I was filled with despair, then anger. I’d worked, I’d slaved! I’d gone hungry, through sodding winter. I’d dug a trench! All for this bloody boat, and now this!! Feeling very dejected, I lowered the mast, removed the detritus and left.

I’d planned a weekend away on the boat, what would I do? After a couple of hours, I realised that I wasn’t going to be bloody beaten by this bloody boat.

I eyed up an unsuspecting refectory-style Oak table…

Once again the conservatory was functioning as a workshop quite late into the night, and my housemate quietly despaired. It could have been noisy desperation in all honesty. I couldn’t hear above the noise of my jig-saw.

By midnight I had crosstrees again. They were rough – but they’d do! I was able to re-rig ‘Corsair’ the following day, and returned to Oby Dyke. Bizarrely, S/N 242 ‘Freedom’ who had acquired my old bowsprit, also picked up the second hand rig off ‘Clipper I’ – which suited her nicely. Whatever echelon of yachting I was in, it definitely was the ‘grass roots’ end of things!! We all loved wooden boats, just necessarily didn’t have the finance to keep them.

S/N242 – ‘Freedom’ at Oby, with Corsair’s bowsprit, and Clipper’s mainsail.

Remnants of the French-Polish stayed on those cross-trees for YEARS afterwards. They survive to this day, and somewhere the remains of that table lurk in the workshop.

Having overcome this difficulty, and starting to realise that wooden boats are tricky things I decided to venture south onto the Waveney in May 2009 – for my first Yare Sailing Club race, the Ray Perryman memorial passage race. This runs from Somerleyton to Beccles each year. It also would be my first navigation through Yarmouth with ‘Corsair’.

I survived Great Yarmouth, which is always tricky to get the tidal gate correct, and even arrived at Somerleyton in time for a few drinks at the Dukes Head before last orders.

The trouble with rushing to the pub of course is that when you come back to the boat, you’re too drunk to raise the cabin roof, or put the awning on. Something which you need to remember at 4am when you get up to pee… That cabin roof is solid, and low!!

The course of the Perryman race takes you upstream from Somerleyton, starting adjacent to the railway bridge. Smart thinking is to get course-side of the bridge before the thing shuts and traps you the wrong side!! Every year the fleet gets split pre-start, to the great amusement of those who are the correct side…

I did provide some amusement pre-start, as my flag of choice is, somewhat oversize!

Big flags. ‘That’ bridge in the background…

The race itself suits me, its a passage race, and presents as a mixed bag. You start in the open marshes with clear air, and a wide river. Soon after Burgh St. Peter and its unique church, you find yourself in a very pretty albeit tree-lined river. That’s when you use the tide, and every last puff of air to your advantage. The last section (2 miles ish) from Aldeby to Boaters Hill is very tricky, you need every bit of momentum to keep going!

‘Corsair’ didn’t set a world record, I believe she placed 7th out of 9th entries. We did start a mere 19 seconds after the gun, which I thought wasn’t too bad. These days if I’m much over 5 seconds off, I chastise myself!

However, we completed the course and nothing was broken. Success! We tussled throughout with a much larger, and heavier yacht S/N 149 ‘Stella Genesta’. I think we finished only 24 seconds apart after an 8 mile race. She is a beauty, and is credited with being sailed to Holland sometime in the pre-war years. A fine craft, but I’m not sure I’d take her across to Flushing!

Line honours that year went to S/N 123 ‘Puck’, an ex Fine Lady from Herbert Woods. Albeit with a much more adventurous rig than her days in hire!

We celebrated the next day by sailing in company to Geldeston – another part of the rivers where you are faced with derelict lock chambers…. I wonder if it’s a condition??

Anyway – I’ll finish with some photographs of that weekend. Halcyon days again, after a somewhat frustrating winter.

The next prominent sailing event of 2009 of course, would be our annual sailing holiday! We’d already done it once on ‘Corsair’, what could go wrong!?