Posts from — December 2020

Auctioned in 2017 & likely exported to China.

Designed by Uffa Fox in 1953, and still actively sailed across the British Isles, Jollyboats here, now range from the thoroughly original, to one developed twin trapeze example, but the majority are still sailed within the spirit of the ‘one design’, utilising modern fittings.

The Jollyboat is a fast exciting boat designed for cruising or racing. In the British Isles, all the hulls (bar 1 under construction) were moulded by Fairey’s, in batches of 4. The boats were completed by, either Fairey’s themselves, or a variety of other boat builders/individuals. The shape and layout of the top deck was laid out in the rules, however the buoyancy could be either tanks or bags – as illustrated in the photos on the site.

Fairey built over 350 hulls, but the majority were exported, mostly to the USA and Canada. The few records and media we have access to indicate less than 100 boats were completed and sailed in the UK. We are hopeful that at least a quarter have survived. We know the whereabouts of nearly 20, and some of another 10 boats will probably be about. The rest have not be heard of for more than 50 years. All in all, a very good result.

On these pages we have endeavoured to provide basic reference material about Jollyboats, and plenty of photos. A more detailed archive of plans, association paperwork, newsletters and the like is being assembled.

The last organised British Jollyboat Association event (to our knowledge) was the 1971 Nationals, and while the association limped on for a few years after, its not existed formally for a very long time. That said, Jollyboat owners stayed in touch with each other, and with formation of the CVRDA in 1999 an umbrella association that most owners associate with has been there. Jollyboats are regularly sailed at CVRDA events, and other classic events such as the Bosham Classic Boat Revival.

The Classic Boat Museum in Cowes owns J80 ‘Comet’, so we are well served in that respect.

3 boats were owned by EISCA before the well known auction in 2017. 2 returned to private ownership and the water, 1 was lost to export.

We are always trying to expand our knowledge of the boats that survive, so if you have one and we are unaware of you, or lost contact, please make contact. Contact can be made via the main CVRDA website, or if you post on either on the CVRDA forum in the ‘Boat Chat’ section, or the CVRDA facebook page, we’ll see it.