The life of N2911 Cherished Cat. Design: Cheshire Cat, designed by: Michael Jackson in 1973
Previous boat names: Bandobras Took, Animal House.
Database spelling of boat name Cheshired Cat corrected December 2007.
THe first thing to point out is that the name on the Data Base is WRONG. It should be Cherished Cat!
I bought this boat in the autumn of 1988 from Tom Bass of Topsham, Devon. She was a standard Cheshire Cat design, built in 1976 for Kevan Bloor and named "Bandobras Took". As far as the Handbook indicates, her principal claim to fame was being part of the winning Nottingham S.C. in the Yachting World Team Trophy of 1977 and 1978.
As an (animal) cat lover, i was looking to rename her with some sort of cat name, which had not already been taken by any of the 23 other (boat) Cats whose name related to cats, either as puns, fictional cats etc., and so I named her "Cherished Cat".
The boat was in quite good condition and was a nice boat to sail, but had rather tired sails made worse by a soggy Needlestar mast. The mast needed to be replaced before attending to the sails.
Too much expense!
I sold her in May 1991 to a Mr Graham Lewis of Corsham, Wilts, who intended to berth and sail her near an old mill somewhere on a stretch of the river Avon, inthe Evesham area. I never saw nor heard of her again.
Ken Goddard
Here is an image of Cherished Cat
Ken Goddard