Lugsail pram....Norfolk connection

[solentgal]

Hi all.......

Not posted for some time as I have been boat-less.....yes,...several months, determined that I was "retired"....and I was down to a handful of bungs, 4 shackles and a sail batten from a one time fleet of 13!

But then.........even though I'm still struggling with this wretched neck injury/arthritis I couldn't resist this interesting little dinghy in the pics below. She is a one off in GRP, but the hull mould was taken from a dinghy found on a Norfolk beach I am told.... a local class maybe?? She measures about 10ft 3ins hull I think from memory (+the little 'sprit), and looks to be taken from a wooden moulded hull......so I'm wondering if the design was a local class or just a general knockabout dinghy/tender?

When I collected her she was afloat, and seems very stable.....but then she's been built like the proverbial brick outhouse, very heavy for her size. I'm told she sails very well......and of course she is so simple to rig, has a high boom (which is the wow factor as far as I'm concerned.....wow meaning WOW! or Women On Water, both applicable) and will take the seagull O/B I just bought (thank you ebay) or row easily........ideal recreation for the older lady methinks A quick make-over in the garage around March to change the (supposedly) unlucky green colour to blue and white, and then she'll be on the Hard in Emsworth .....purely gentle sailing and bird/seal watching as befits her style I think

However, does anyone know if she a lady of "class" ?......or just a lady of leisure, like her owner,

[JimC]

IME the Norfolk area was full of little prams that were made by local builders to tow behind the hire boats on the Norfolk broads. This looks very much like that sort of thing...

[ent228]

This is a nice little boat, good lines.

As there is no gooseneck fitting the boom probably was designed to project forward of the mast by a foot or so and the place on the yard where the halyard attaches probably should have a loop to go around tight around the mast so the whole rig is further forward. This is maybe why it has a bowsprit so the forestay can clear the front of the boom?

[Michael Brigg]

Hi Sami,

Nice little mongrel I would say. If the parentage is a washed up dinghy, the it could be a modified hull (clearly, with a little bowsprit like that, perhaps the builder was thinking of an asymmetric facility.) If that is so then she could be modelled on practically any locally built yard specific scow. They were given out as a package when we hired Yard sailing cruisers and I got my first bit of sailing independence in the mid 1960's in something like one of these, little knowing that my parents were just around the corner in the "mother ship2 watching our sail tops over the top of the reeds.

On a more local level and talking of local designs, she looks like a cross between a Lymington Scow and of interest from your point of view a Porchester Duck. The Duck is the only dinghy scow design of that era that I have seen with a flat bow, and it also has that backward raked transom. They are rare indeed, but they do occasionally come up and there is a local historical society that takes an interest in placing them with owners that will look after them.

Very pretty, seaworthy and quite big, ('12ft) clinker scows. they have a few in Emsworth and Portchester I believe. I think the flat prow with a fair bit of rocker to lift it clear of the water is a practical advantage as you can step onto the stern a moving sailing boat from the bow and it is easier to moor up to a pontoon by the bow without using so much mooring space

The Lymington scow is essentially a smooth, and these days fibreglass moulded version of the Solent scow and has a big, and active fleet, (like the solent / bembridge/Yarmouth divisions ,though these are all clinker.

[solentgal]

Yes, I thought that would be the answer.....a knockabout dinghy I guess then. I did wonder if the rig was meant to dip, as there is no real wear twixt mast and spars, which I would have expected to happen when she is on the"wrong" tack.........I've never had a lugsail before, so wasn't sure of the difference between a fixed and a dipping lug.....but I can't see the need for it really anyway.

The hull shape on my dinghy does look very familiar...but I can't place it at all at present. I did wonder if the donor boat was one of the larger tenders (sailing or otherwise) offered by the likes of Fairey or someone in the 50s/60s...or earlier even. But it could easily be a locally built Broads based tender/knockabout I suppose.... I guess we'll never know for certain though.

The Porchester Duck is a pretty little craft Michael.....think I've seen one or two around over the years..... I do love the older traditional designs, thanks for the pics.