Tag Archives: Boats

The Last Wooden Kestrel on the Deben?

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By Ned Jones, Julia Jones and Bertie Wheen

and with acknowledgement to the book Waldringfield: A Suffolk Village beside the River Deben (Golden Duck 2020).

Kestrel Sail Emblem

Box containing the designers name (J Fancis Jones)

The birth of the Kestrel in Waldringfield  (Julia and Bertie)

The Kestrel class of small, wooden cruiser-racer yachts was conceived in Waldringfield in the mid-1950s, then spread across the country during the 1960s and 70s. 150 were built in wood, 250 in GRP. Their story began when local sailor Paul King, who had owned a Waldringfield Dragonfly, wanted a small yacht with similar characteristics. He and Harry Nunn – of Waldringfield Boatyard – built a model to embody their ideas, then took it to Jack Jones at the Old Maltings to finalise the design and provide the necessary technical details.

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Where next for Nirvana of Arklow?

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By Julia Jones, Jamie Clay, Carolyn Gibbins, Samantha Simpson, Russell Read, Hugh Browton, Nancy Clay

Julia Jones – tribute to a soon-to-be centenarian

Nirvana – (courtesy Gill Moon)

The loveliest boat on the Deben – or one of the prettiest yachts ever built anywhere? Nirvana will reach her 100th birthday next year but needs a new home and owner. When I used her as the model for Snow Goose in my ‘Strong Winds’ series of adventure stories, her fictional owner described her as having been designed ‘by the hand of God’. In fact, her lines were drawn in 1915 by the artist Albert Strange (1855-1917). Strange sailed from the Humber, so was comfortable with the idea of mud flats and shallow waters, but Nirvana herself was built in Ireland and cruised extensively on the west coasts of both Ireland and Scotland. Then, for many years she was based in Holyhead, Wales. In her most recent ownership (from 1989) she has also made extensive trips to Scandinavian waters with owners Peter and Nancy Clay and their friends. It’s here, in Suffolk, however, that so many of us, who have never sailed Nirvana, have come to love her and have felt our spirits lift when we have seen her beating easily down river or lying serenely on her mooring.

Since Peter died in 2023, Nirvana has been carefully laid up, looking for a new owner to bring her back to life and activity. Now, on the eve of her 100th year, some of her East Coast friends have produced this tribute.

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Volunteers Running an International Event

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By Alice Thorogood

Credit: Corinne Whitehouse

 

The UK Cadet Class World Championships take place in Plymouth this summer. They are completely volunteer run. Alice Thorogood of Waldringfield Sailing Club explains what’s involved and how you can show your support for these young sailors:

How did we get into this? A personal introduction

My eldest, Gwen, was just eight when she first stepped onboard a Cadet with Waldringfield sailor Hattie Collingridge and disappeared across the Deben. We didn’t plan it, we had never thought about sailing as a hobby for our children; I’m not from a sailing background at all and though it turns out that my husband, Frank, has the water of the Deben in his veins, he too had very little experience of dinghy sailing. That world felt “other” to us, with its strange new language and an elitist image that felt slightly difficult to navigate. However, we were charmed by Hattie and her clear love of the sport, that teamed with the easy welcome of Waldringfield Cadet Squadron and we were as hooked as Gwen clearly seemed to be when she came bouncing up the beach all wide eyed and exuberant from her first taste of Cadet sailing. Continue reading →

Leave Only Ripples

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By Matt Lis

“Leave only footprints. Take only memories” they say of walking in the countryside, for those of us who enjoy hours afloat I suppose that translates to “Leave only ripples” so how do we achieve that?

When Julia asked me to write an article on how boaters can reduce their impact on the Deben I wonder whether she appreciated the enormity of the topic. I will fail to answer all questions for all people but by focusing on just a few topics I can try to summarise those things in just one long article.

‘Evoelectric’ afloat

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Felixstowe Ferry and Flyingboats

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By Phil Boak

Between the years 1913-1962, Felixstowe was a major flyingboat base, with the aircraft operating from the River Orwell on the site now occupied by the Docks. Operating during WW1, flyingboats partook in anti-submarine patrols of the North Sea. In the interwar years, the focus switched to research and development, with the performance of the seaplanes and flyinboats carefully evaluated through tests and trials. On completion of their operational lives, several of the larger flyingboat hulls were taken to the hamlet of Felixstowe Ferry and repurposed as houseboats, providing picturesque, if not cramped accommodation. This short article brings together before-and-after images of six such flyingboats, with a summary about what is currently known about them. Continue reading →

Willow Bland – the ex-Waldringfield Cadet who’s about to race round the world

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By Alice Thorogood

It’s been a BIG summer of sailing. Every year since my three children started in Cadets there has been a BIG summer of sailing. This year we’ve been to Newport in Belgium for the World Championship, a long weekend back home for the Waldringfield Cadet ‘Week’ then a quick wash of everyone’s kit before we headed off to beautiful Abersoch for the National Championship.

Sometimes I find myself asking if all this packing/unpacking and travel is worth it…

Then I see some of the wonderful things our Cadet Alumni are up to, and I know that the work we all put into Cadets – as parents or volunteers as well as sailors — is more than worth it.  We are helping to develop resilient, capable young people who will go on to achieve different successes in the future.

It was a real honour to take a break from the crazy whirlwind of The Nationals and talk to an inspirational ex-Cadet sailor who embodies more that we might have dreamed of.  Willow Bland is about to take part in the Ocean Globe Race as part of the crew of Tracy Edwards’ boat Maiden. Continue reading →

Protecting the Lady

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By Julia Jones and Charles Payton

On August 9th 2023 Historic England put out the following press release:

The iron hulk of the Lady Alice Kenlis, designed by the same shipwright as the Cutty Sark, has been granted protection by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the advice of Historic England. 

The Lady Alice Kenlis was an iron steamship designed by Hercules Linton in 1867. He is the designer of the internationally renowned Cutty Sark, launched two years later in 1869. The Cutty Sark (now at Royal Museums Greenwich) was a state-of-the-art Victorian tea clipper. It was one of the fastest of its time, making the journey from Sydney to London by sail in 73 days.

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Michael Rines, Annie Leech, Stephen Lines

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with thanks for their enduring contributions to the Nancy Blackett Trust, Maritime Woodbridge, the Longshed, River Deben Association & Woodbridge Cruising Club

Micheal Rines (1933–2023)

Mike Rines restoring Nancy Blackett.

Peter Willis writes…

Mike Rines, rescuer and restorer of Nancy Blackett, has died, at the age of 89. He first discovered Arthur Ransome’s boat virtually derelict in Scarborough Harbour in the early 1980s. Initially unaware that she was the inspiration for We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, and the original of the Goblin in that book, he simply saw a boat that, as he said, ‘was too pretty to die’. He eventually persuaded her owner to part with her, and had her transported back to the River Orwell in Suffolk, where the opening of the book is set, and where he himself then lived, as it happened only a few hundred yards from where Ransome had lived when writing the book. Continue reading →

Working Afloat

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By Ben Grundy

Last year Julia asked me to write something for the RDA Journal and I had agreed without much thought what to write about. Then in January the opportunity to become the new Chair of the Kyson Fairway committee came, and then came again an email from Julia asking if I was still interested in doing an article. Yes, I was still interested but the theme didn’t come until late April when I was voted in as the KFC chairman.

Making fast our towing gear in the “Deben” to the “MSC Tessa” on her maiden call to Felixstowe last week – Photo credit Jeff Welch photography

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