Memory lane...

an area to discuss dinghy developments
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Michael4
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Memory lane...

Post by Michael4 »

Sailing on the Serpentine (Hyde Park) in the mid to late '60s. Can anyone identify the boat?

ImageScan-130329-0009 by dralowid, on Flickr

Michael
Tideway 206
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Sold the 'Something bigger and plastic', it never got used.
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neil
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by neil »

It's a Tideway, part of the hire fleet. There's a pics of one at http://www.tidewaydinghy.org/index_files/Page6.htm
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Rupert
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by Rupert »

Maybe its the angles, but it doesn't look like a tideway to me - the tiller through a port in the transom, for instance, and the freeboard looks lower. However, I'm no Tideway expert, so can't be sure.
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Michael4
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by Michael4 »

Nope, not a Tideway, I have two of the blighters and it isn't the same (OK so Tideways differ a lot anyway). Rupert's comment pick up some of the main differences, also that mast looks like it is stepping on or through the foredeck which isn't a Tideway feature.

Walker's who built Tideways certainly built rowing boats for the Serpentine but not Tideways.

I had thought Twinkle but as I understand it there were never many of those.

Michael
Tideway 206
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Sold the 'Something bigger and plastic', it never got used.
Rupert
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by Rupert »

There is something almost early N12 about the shape, and a number, 127, on the transom. Mind, I'm not a N12 expert, either, and other bits, especially the rig, look wrong.
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JimC
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by JimC »

Striped sails like the Tideway though. The number on the transom looks like a fleet number to me. [Come in no 127, your time is up]

I found this with a quick search session which may amuse
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/comm ... g-dinghies
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neil
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by neil »

Don't forget there are 3 models of Tideway - Popular, De-luxe and Super.

Also available in 12' and 14'
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Rupert
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by Rupert »

Narrower stripes on the Tideways sails, though, at least in the photos you posted the link to.
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Michael4
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by Michael4 »

I enjoy the sense of humour in Hansard...and nice to see the the sailors indeed have some form of buoyancy.

Tideway versions from memory:
Popular no foredeck
Deluxe foredeck and aft locker
Super foredeck, side deck, aft locker and seats all round

Neil, you should know that the set of red sails you gave me are a great success. Being slightly oversize they got me to the pub sooner on more than one occasion. Unfortunately this is a problem in that the one who gets there first buys the round...

Looks like gunter, but I'm sure not a Tideway.
Tideway 206
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Sold the 'Something bigger and plastic', it never got used.
Bill-Conner
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by Bill-Conner »

The Member of Parliant Reggie Bennet a Criminal Phychiatrist is real life was MP for Gosport and always described himself as the MP for Campers (& Nicholson) and Ratseys (Who has a Gosport sail loft in those days). Reggie was the prime mover of the foundation of that great institution the Imperial Poona Yacht Club, he had also along with Beecher Moore and others been part of Endeavours amateur crew, after her paid crew went on strike they so nearly lifted Americas Cup even the American press carried the headline "Brittania rules the waves, America waives the rules"!

I cannot speak for hire dinghies on the Serpentine but I do know that as a result the permission was given and we had 4 way team racing between the Royal Thames, Ranelagh, Tamesis and London Corinthian on the Serpentine in the autumns of 1964. 5, 6 & 7. THe Royal Thames whos London Club House is just over the road catered royally bringing their silver and white knapkins, I recall mushroom soup and chicken legs especially and a rather lethal "cup" best not drunk untill after racing.

I think this was resurected in the 80's, brieflly in Optimists but times had changed and we had all grown up!

The classes were Internetional 14's, Merlin Rockets, National Twelves, Enterprises and Fireflys, we had special permits to drive across the grass towing the boats to the Serpentine. Great fun and a good end to the season, before The Ranelagh and London Corinthian winter seasons began in ernest. In those days a 40 boat Merlin Rocket start and 30 or so National 12's was not unusual at Ranelagh in the winter.

Life was so much easier in those days!
stuw
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by stuw »

Looks very twelve like to me, not like Tideway at all

Stuart. N3246
LASERTOURIST
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by LASERTOURIST »

That rings a bell...When i went to England, back in 1969 - 70 as a college boy , to improve my english I sailed on one of those , on the Hyde Park lake with my sister...I remember the old wooden clinkerbuilt hulls (with some thousand coats of varnish ...and the gaudy multicoloured sails red and yellow, green and orange...vey much beatlemania style)...

The wind patches , windshifts and flat calm spots were about as complicated those at my usual club on the river Seine...as someone said ..a trip down memory lane...

As i knew very little or nothing about british dinghy classes, for me it was "one of those so british oldies with a clinker built hull , commer rivets and sometimes gaff rig and cotton sails"...so different from the then gleaming, plastic fantastic and quite modern 420's , 445 and 470es
aviateam
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Re: Memory lane...

Post by aviateam »

Michael4, a great nostalgic image. Thank you.

The mast step is indeed wrong for a Tideway 12 which is forward thwart stepped (pic of my Tideway attached)
Tideway web cmp.jpg
The mast step is also wrong for a Twinkle 12, and the forward cockpit shape is wrong. The hull shape seems closer though (pic of my Twinkle 12 attached)
Twinkle 12 web cmp.jpg
The Twinkle 12s big sister, the Family 14, seems right from the mast step point of view, the mast step hole surround, and the hull looks similar. (pic of Family 14 from OSSC attached)
Family 14 web cmp.jpg
(18.28 KiB) Not downloaded yet
I think it is a gunter rigged Wrights of Ipswich Family 14.......the 1969 free concert by the Rolling Stones in Hyde Park shows the Serpentine populated with striped red and white sails, but sadly at a distance.....(16m 18s first shot)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-YCqUM ... freload=10

A colleague who lived in West London until 1968 remembers sailing the striped sailing dinghies on the Serpentine but frustratingly does not recall detail apart from ''how heavy they were''!
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