Friday, February 25, 2011

All around hand-rails




One of the problem with Roach is that she does has slick slippy decks. They might look good, but they do get very slippy. Luckily, with the Merriman gear on her working jib, there is hardly ever a reason to go forward. Occasionally one must though, as the Merriman (the American Version of Wickham Martin gear) is only a furler and not a reefer. There are, therefore, occasions when must go forward to change up to a genoa or too a smaller jib. It is here that a hand-hold would be very much appreciated by the crew.

I have seen the toe rail on her sister ship Athena. They are raised on pyramids and they are every effective – so I am unashamedly rippling them off. As I can’t afford teak I am making them from Iroko and they will be varnished ( as I believe that fits in with the rest of the deck). They will also be more substantial – mainly in order to be more proud than the existing toe rail. One will just be able to get a the toe of a boot under one which will add a lot to her safety going forward.

Here is a trail one to check for aesthetic pleasantness. Not as nice as Athena’s, but hey ho.

Bridging a small gap in her history



I thought I would do a little re-cap on Roach’s History as there are a few gaps which have been kindly filled with people that have copies of Lloyds registers.

Firstly, Roach was built in 1953 at Stebbings yard. In 1964 she is registered owned by Blackwater Yacht Charters. Her first engine was a Coventry Victor 2 cyl, 6 BHP, dated 1950. This was then a Stuart Turner 1 cyl, 4 BHP, of 1962. She currently sports a BETA 13.5HP which was fitted in 2007.

She is listed as being in Lloyds of 1959,61,64 and 1966.

In 1966 her owner changed to a Mr. M D Clarke. After that we hit a blank.
There are rumours of her being owned by Mr. Debbage and others, but this has to be confirmed. There was a time that she was called Heron, but she reverted back to her original name at some stage.

The picture above shows her at the farm in the early spring of 1997 after I bought here the year before. Nothing was done that year except stripping out of the old plywood interior. You can see that she was based in Cowes at some stage from the writing on her stern. I bought her in April 1996 from Mr. Kevin Piper of Ipswich. I am not sure how long he was her owner.

If anybody has any old photos or parts of her history I am not aware of, please let me know.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Roach's Birth River

Maybe I will make it with her this summer?

Friday, February 11, 2011

The Burnham Sloop


The Burnham sloop was designed by Dallimore in 1938, but no boat were built until after the war. Recently I have heard of the existence of Roach’s younger sister Truant – she requires restoration was recently sold in the West Country as a project. I trust the new owner can get her in the water soon.

Truant is an interesting yacht as she was built a Prior’s in 1951. She was built to the original 1938 Burnham Sloop design. The windows and dog house you see are not original, but what one can see is that there is clearly no cut-away forefoot as on Roach. This is because Dallimore re-worked the design in 1948 to provide more ballast and a smaller sail plan. He introduced the cut-away forefoot which was a very novel innovation for 1948.

Stebbing's Yard Archive

http://www.stebbings-archive.net/?page_id=66

Roach was built in at Stebbings yard in 1953 – this site is really good as it catalogues every yacht built by them and provides a great history of the yard. Apparently they were very well known for their wooden spars. I have to agree. Roach has her original elipical Douglas Fir spar; the only eliptical wooden mast I have ever seen. If you think about it, it is the best shape for a mast.