N159 Welbor

National 12 Webmaster · 16 Mar 2007, 01:29

The life of N159 Welbor. Design: , designed by: in

Crusader 3244 · 24 Oct 2008, 10:46

A boat bearing the sail number N159 appears in a short sequence of a film by the British Transport Films (BTF) released in 1951 and entitled 'This Year - London'.
BTF was formed in May 1949 and it's purpose was to film and promote the nationalised British transport system of the day and travel in general. The style of the films was early documentory. Essentially they were advertising in the days before mass TV ownership.
'This Year - London' records the fun of a group of workers from a Northampton boot factory on an outing to London. There are sequences of them travelling in by steam train then enjoying the sights. After lunch the works party takes a river cruise from Richmond to Hampton Court, taking tea in the Tilt Yard. It's during the shots of the cruise that a National 12 sails into view and appears for no more than five seconds. The Twelve sails into shot on port tack coming alongside the pleasure cruiser as close as a few feet then tacks away on to starboard crewed by a man and woman without buoyancy aids. The woman appears dressed in a light summer frock. The camera angle is from a vantage point on the cruiser looking down on the tacking Twelve.

Despite the seemingly 'fly-on-the-wall' approach under the production of Edgar Anstey BTF films were notable for inclusion of staged or re-constructed sequences featuring members of the team or even actors; thus raising the question over whether the crew of N159 were opportunists there by chance and keen to appear on film or whether their placement was pre-determined by the Producer.
Released in 1951 'This Year - London' was filmed on a seemingly fine warm day during either late summer 1949 or early in 1950 and so was an early example of BTF films. We might reasonably speculate that N159 was then based at Twickenham SC.
Excerpts from 'This Year - London' were included in a program about the BritishTransport Films production group broadcast on BBC4 on 23rd October 2008. British Transport Films has an entry in Wikipedia and also a dedicated website.