IC Sail nos

[DavidC]

Calling those canoe experts.

I am trying to identify some photos of IC's from the 50's. Anyone know of a sail number list or to be going on with any idea of K31 and K44. I have K41 as Eastwind.

Thanks
David

[stu]

i reckon neil's your man

[neil]

I have a partial list that needs updating but it's more comprehensive than the IC association's list (which now has this info), here's a snippet.

31 WAKE Uffa Fox 1936 Gothenburg Maritime Museum
32 FLYING FISH Uffa Fox 1936 Graham Mackereth
33 IF Uffa Fox 1937??
34
35 STORM PETREL Uffa Fox 1947 Windermere Steamboat museum
36 MEDERKA Uffa Fox 1947 Wordofboats.org
37 RANNOCH Uffa Fox 1947 Neil Witt
38
39
40
41 CONQUEST Jack Holt Ed Bremner
42 EASTWIND Austin Farrar
43
44
45
46 CONTENT Uffa Fox
47 SPINDRIFT Uffa Fox



41 is definitely Conquest though, as owned by Ed Bremner. I don't have a boatname for K44. And as Stu and Ed have my IC history book/CD I can't look anything up!

[DavidC]

Thanks Neil.

That is interesting becuase I have a photo of Austin Farrar sailing Eastwind with sail no K41. It is labeld on the back so I presume it is correct. I think I can see the curved seat. I suppose it could be a borrowed sail. It has a soft sail, where as the pic of 44 has a fully battened rig.

I will have to see if Ed can enlighten further.

Many thanks for your help.
D

[Ed]

Yeah....guess I can help you on that one....

Afraid I can't give too much researched detail as although I have books to hand I don't have time at moment. If you want me to bring to BWSC tomorrow....say the word.

I think I also have seen the photo, it was in the 16Dec1994 edition of Yachts & Yachting, which ran a good article on IC evolution by the man himself - Austin Farrar, up to that time.

K41 is conquest....and the ?blue? canoe in your photo with a self-tacking jib? is Eastwind....even though it is using K41 sails.

Neil's IC history book (although it does not have a list of boats) does hint as to why this might of been, although it will have to be from memory for now:

Conquest and Eastwind were both built for the 1952 Worlds and a selection process was undertaken to decide what boat would go forwards:

****
Late in 1951 a Challenge was received from the American Canoe Association. This was to be held prior to the 1952 summer meet which was to be in Aldeburgh between 16Th and 23rd August. The NYCC rules required that the defence should be on a National basis and the RCC invited a number of leading helmsmen to take part in selection trials. The R.C.C. decided to build two canoes for the selection trials. Jack Holt was asked to design and build a successor to Quest, with Conquest as the result. [ Click here to see the lines of Conquest] She was similar to Quest in that she was a chine design but with slightly less wetted surface area, although she had a greater wetted surface than the conventional carvel canoes. Conquest had a rudder trunk similar to that normally carried by the canoe. During the trials she was sailed by Peter Griffiths. Conquest was very unstable compared to the carvel boats until she started to plane, when she became very stable. The other canoe Eastwind [ Click here to see the lines of Eastwind] was designed by Austin Farrar, and showed three novel design features. Firstly Eastwind had a space frame to carry the rig and seat loads. This allowed Eastwind to be built to minimum weight with an average skin thickness of 1/4 inch. [ Click here to see Austin Farrer sailing Eastwind] The second feature was the seat which was curved. Both she and Conquest carried such seats but they did not include rungs, which came later. Thirdly she carried a self tacking jib. [ Click here to see a photograph showing these two developments] This was designed because the venue for the races was to be Aldeburgh on the Alde which would require a lot of tacking up the shoreline to avoid tides. Eastwind was designed around Graham Goodson and was chosen as the defender, but a few days before the racing was due to take place, Graham Goodson was taken ill. It has been reported that Conquest was a faster canoe but the selection committee felt that she was too difficult to sail and would prove unreliable as the defender. Thus Eastwind was retained as the defending canoe but sailed by Peter Griffiths, the helm of Conquest. He was however unable to come to terms with the self tacking jib in the time available, and was unable to take advantage of short tacking up the shore. Lou Whitman was still sailing with mainsheet cleated and perched on the end of his sliding seat. Uffa Fox laid the blame for loosing the International Trophy on the R.C.C. for not choosing one of his designs. Looking at the available canoes at the time it seems unlikely that the result would have changed, unless Graham Goodson had not been taken ill. It is, most probably, another case of too much time being required to master a new canoe before the races were held. The canoes were transported to Aldeburgh in Covcars’ normally used for transporting motor cars from the Midlands to Southampton. It cost £30 4s 0d to transport 6 canoes from Teddington to Aldeburgh. The Covcars was put into a siding at Kingston station and the canoes moved up on pram wheels. Graham organised a shuttle service at the other end.

"From the RobRoy to the Int10sqm Canoe" - Andrew Eastwood.

In Farrar's article he goes on to say:

"Unfortunately, a few days before the racing was due to start, Graham Goodson went down with pleurisy and although he was soon on his feet again, was unable to go afloat. Peter Griffiths found himself defending helm, with no experience of sailing 'Eastwind' and very little of the river Alde, or of match racng tactics. After a trial in the North Sea, a bad weather forecast meant the racing had to be on the river and early in the morning before the wind got up for the day, Peter Griffiths opted for the soft mainsail."

As money was tight only one set of fully battened sails was made to be used by the winner, which as explained above was 'Eastwind'. Now of course this does not explain exactly why Eastwind would be sailing with Conquests' sails in that photo......but it does suggest that with shared sails....and shared helms....there was going to be a fair amount of mix up of kit between the two boats.

The Y&Y article also shows 'Conquest' and 'Eastwind' in the same photo at Hayling....both with fully battened mains, but unfortuneately you can't see the sail numbers to know what boats they might of been from.

The first IC to use a fully battened main was Wake in 1949:

*****
In 1949 the fleet had expanded, twelve canoes entered for the Knowles Bowl, which was raced for on the Thames. The competition was similar to that for the Challenge Cup in that there were two heats, the winners of which sailed a match race to decide the winner. Ralph Thornton won the first heat in If, from Haze, the 1908 ‘B’ class canoe. The second heat was also won by If, so that no sail off was required. The second race was held in squally conditions. Peter Wells lead over the line, but fouled an obstruction near the bank and dropped to last place, from which he never recovered. Again the race after that was between If and Haze, but If got away during bursts of planning. [ Click here to see Haze sailing in 1949] Wake, which John Aumonier was sailing was rigged with a fully battened mainsail. At the time this didn’t cause a stir, but later when Joy Quaife won races, the rig was taken seriously. It took about 6 years before almost all the canoe fleet had fully battened mains. [ Click here to see a photograph of Wake with her fully battened main] The highlight of the year was the appearance of Quest, the hard chine canoe designed and built by Jack Holt for an R.C.C. syndicate. She cost £150 ex sails and was suitable for amateur construction. She was said by some to be fully the equal of any of the carvel Uffa Fox designs both on the river and the sea, whereas other say she was very slow indeed. In her first season she finished every race which she entered. Quest’s rudder was stern hung, to keep the cost down, and for river sailing the sliding seat could be removed and the deck hatches removed to give a cockpit. Quest gave birth to the Hornet dinghy which Jack Holt designed. It was very much a two man version of the Quest idea, with an increased beam for added stability. The sliding seat which the Hornet used was a copy of the canoe seats of the day. [ Click here to see the lines of Quest]
"From the RobRoy to the Int10sqm Canoe" - Andrew Eastwood.

hope that helps

cheers

eib

[jpa_wfsc]

Fascinating history - thanks for sharing it with us!