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Windrush - is she Tamesis Club's oldest surviving boat? 

Rupert Fletcher, Tamesis Club's Hon. Secretary, has received the following e-mail and pictures:

We spoke on the phone the other day about the small dinghy which we are restoring here in Falmouth.  She has your club name on the transom and Windrush but no other details are known, apart from a story that she was used to help victims of shellshock during the war.  I am attaching some photos for you; let's hope they can jog someone's memory.  It would be interesting if we could find out some more details of the history associated with this little dinghy.  I am working together with other students of the Falmouth Marine School on this project and we are also involved with the National Maritime Museum here in Falmouth. If you could post this information or include it in a newsletter I would be very grateful.  James Mills (student), c/o Traditional Boatbuilding,  Falmouth Marine School, Killigrew Street, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 3QS.


John Dunkley:  Windrush is typical of some of the boats which have been sailed at Tamesis in the past.  She might have been a Surbiton or Thames gig, or even an early National 14.  The gigs were a Sailing Boat Association class, which included many open boats of 12 to 18 ft.  After the 1914-18 war the Yacht Racing Association (predecessor of the RYA) set up an open 14 ft class that was raced in Devon, Cornwall, the Solent, Lowestoft, and on the Thames and Norfolk Broads.  Uffa Fox designed Avenger in 1927, the first of the planing dinghies, which led to the development of the International 14s in 1930. Both the gigs and early 14s had gunter rigs, and early gigs had lugsails.  The reference to war-time use fits with activities at Tamesis during World War 2, when older members ran a river patrol as well as training RAF crew how to sail in case they had to bail out over the sea. There is a reference to this on the HISTORY page of our website.

Berry Ritchie:  (Author of The History of Tamesis Club)  If she is 14 ft long, it is possible she was built in 1927 by Morgan Giles for Sir John Beale and raced for the first International 14 POW challenge cup off Cowes with the sail number K 99.

James Mills has sent the follow in response to a request for further information:  I will try to find out some more from the Maritime Museum.
Windrush is 12 feet long and 4 feet 6 inches wide and I think the ribs were made with rock elm.

Andrew Thornhill, who has a collection of vintage dinghies and yachts, has sent the following, based on research by his friend Jamie  Campbell:

"There is a class of 12 ft dinghies that were used in the 1920 Olympics.  The class never really happened in the UK but.........at the Royal Loosdrecht YC in the Netherlands ........ there [are] several in very good condition still being sailed from that club.  I think a fleet has also survived in Japan.  There must have been some in the UK as I am sure we must have competed [in the Olympics].  Henley SC had a small fleet of one design 12 ft dinghies built by Angier of Southend in 1899.  I have a 1939 Henley SC handbook which lists eight - none called Windrush.  

A member of Thames SC said the photos James sent  are typical of both the Thames and Surbiton gigs sailed there and at Tamesis in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  He also said that many of the old boats at the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth were transferred there from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, where they had been held in storage for many years.

 Jim Green has acquired a copy of a British Pathe film of the Tamesis Autumn Regatta in 1933 which shows Thames gigs similar to Windrush still racing on the Teddington reach together with A raters and International 14s.  One of the gigs has the number 3 on its lugsail but the boat's name is not known. 

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09.05.07.