The Racing and River Boat Museum

[Rupert]

Went to the official opening of the Racing and River Boat museum at Beale Park yesterday afternoon.

Anddrew Thornhill was there, and we chatted about old boats for a while - he has missed the rise of the cvrda somehow, so he was glad to hear it was going strong, and would love to get some boats out of museum life and along to a meeting or 2. Only a handful of the boats are on display there, and there is much debate going on about what to do with all the rest - there may be some interesting boats available at some point.

Michael, who runs the museum and does most of the restoration work, is hoping they will be able to have boats sailing on Beale Park's lake nearby soon, which could be fun, and Andrew has a fleet of 6 classic Mark 1 Fireflies that he is hoping might be fun for classic team racing. Sounds like something that could be a fun cvrda day out.

All in all, well worth a visit and a chat - be sure to go and look at all the boats under covers too, though! Finn 88 is there and being worked on - does anyone have any history of this boat at all? There is rumour that it was Charles Curry's boat, but they really aren't too sure.

[Chris B]

Interestingly, the Hamble River Yacht Club has a fleet of Fireflys available for hire, at times to non members. Details are on their website.

Regards

Chris Barker
I14 No 378