Shoal Waters, built from the best hull available and completed in 1963 to my own design with the gear from an old halfdecker bought in 1948. Over 70,000 nautical miles made good from Maldon to date between Whitby, Ostend and the Solent.
Mainsail.- Foot – 10 ft – ht – 9 ft 6ins – gaff – 9 ft -= 105 sq ft.
Topsail – ht 9 ft – 21 sq ft.
Fore triangle – I 14 ft. – J – 9ft 6ins
Jib – 23 sq ft.
Foresail – 23 sq ft.
Storm jib – 11 sq ft
Total sail area with topsail = 170 sq ft.
Also carried – Gaff storm trysail – 45 Sq ft.
Ghoster come old fashioned spinnaker
Length overall – 16 ft 6ins. LWL = 15 ft. Depth of hull = 2ft 6ins from tip of bowsprit to back of rudder = 21ft 4ins
Draft with plate up – 12 ins. – with plate down – 4 ft.
Halyards – Throat – 5m
Peak – 9m
Staysail – 7m
Jib – 8m
Topsail – 8m
Ghoster – ?m
Topping lift – 12m
Materials – Hull 4 x two and a half mm Agba veneer laid diagonally and hot moulded by Fairey Marine at Hamble.
Bought as a floppy eggshell with transom and C.B case fitted
Delivered early in February 1963 – launched May 1963 a week before Whitsun
Total cost to launch (with gear from Zephyr) £200
All 3/8 ins plywood except the cabintop which is ¼ ins
Part of a billiard table being chopped up for firewood.
Top of a baby grand piano.
Part of Lloyds bank counter at Dunmow in Essex.
Old farm binder roller for mast support in cabin.
Gaff was Maldon ironworks haysweep tine
Other quality wood where ever I could find it.
Compass ex W.D. landing craft bought for 3/- a lb = 36/-
Mast including spiderband from old half decker Zephyr.
280 lbs of lead from Zephyr recast into 28lb pigs stowed either side of CB case.
Leather on the gaff jaws once held income tax ready for the bank to collect.
Gunmetal shroud plates and tabernacle,
Bronze horse and gammon iron.
12 volt car battery carried to power navigation lights and cabin light.
5 volt solar panel fitted to cabintop port side of hatch.
Main features of Shoal Waters.
Sits upright on the mud like a fat contented duck
Lowering mast to proceed above bridges
Double topping life acts as lazy jacks – leads aft to cockpit
Slab reefing, each two feet deep.
Bowsprit can be run in.
Whykam Martin furling gear on both headsails.
Cabin sides brought down six inches into the cabin to make small lockers
No engine fitted and no tows accepted
Two paddles and a quant carried.
Sounding by using plate as audible echo sounder/instant draft reducer or with an eight foot cane used as a walking stick
No bilge pump fitted or ever needed
C.B. hoist led aft into the cockpit instantly to hand
Clam cleats for C.B. hoist and headsail sheets.
Singlepart mainsheet from horse on transom along boom to camcleat on bridge deck
Helmsman can see under the sails and over the cabintop
17lb fisherman anchor on 15 fm of 3/16 chain stowed on foredeck with arms over bow and chain in bucket below the foredeck ahead of Sampson post.
Cooking by 6 lb gaz stove with direct burner in port side galley
Two bunks right forward with 4 inch mattresses
Stb cockpit locker is reached from the cabin
Port locker opens into cockpit.
Terelyene lanyards used on shrouds and forestay
Wooden rudder blade hauled down by line under tiller.
Reef penants and tack lashings rove ready for use at all times
8 x 50 Zeiss binoculars carried in rack port side of cabin bukhead.
Radio for weather forecasts and entainment
Two large fenders carried
Curved top for C.B. case is removable when moored with the plate up and replaced by a small table top
A sturdy scissors type boom crutch stows under the port side deck.
Brass anchor light with a plastic battery filler for paraffin.