Messages

I rather like the vertical listing of Reply No.7 - but take out the word "nosedive", after "nimble"
Ken Goddard, N.2300

I am having difficulty accessing the "For sale" section so I offer here an Aluminium Alloy Centreboard, which would particularly suit an older vintage boat - it was last seen on N.1435. Think of that useful weight-saving when pulling the boat up the slipway, not to mention a lighter boat on the water! Any offers?
Ken Goddard, Tel. (01332 521168) 

Here is an image of Cherished Cat
Ken Goddard

A correction is needed to the previous message. The boat was first purchased by David White of Trent Valley Sailing Club and was named Creekle. I have not heard anything of its whereabouts since the 1960's.
Ken Goddard

This boat was bought in 2007 by Paul Turner of Trent Valley S.C., from somewhere in the West Country, and has been donated to the club for its training fleet. The boat arrived somewhat hacked about - including its thwart being ripped out - and is now under restoration. She will be renamed shortly.
Ken Goddard
Trent Valley S.C.

Here's another piece of information on N.3024. In 1990 she passed to a gentleman in Selsdon, Surrey, who's name is not readable on my copy of the Certificate, and the boat was named then
Belukha.
Ken Goddard

The early history of this GRP boat is unknown to me but sometime in the 1980's (?) it turned up with the Trent College fleet, which sailed at Trent Valley.  The hull was given a Vikings Funeral around 2000.  I bought the mast from where it lay in a garden in Bramcote.  It was a very nice lightweight Proctor Alpha minus, which unfortunately I broke in two at an Open Meeting at Avon SC.

Ken Goddard

N.2810 was a standard Cheshire Cat design built by Impact Boats for Michael Perry of Trent Valley S.C.. She was subsequently bought by Paul Turner. Nothing much is known by me in the ensuing years, but I became aware of its probable demise in 2005 when I answered an advert for a National 12 mast for sale and found this mast amongst a lot of other bits for sale from written-off boats at a farm in Worcestershire. While at this place I was shown the mainsale of N.2810. The mast which I bought and which was in excellent condition was probably from the same boat and I concluded that N.2810 had been written-off.

Ken Goddard

"Wild Oats" was built by David Mathews, a Trent Valley member, to his own Aftermath design, N.2604, which was very succesful. The first owner was Paul Turner and a later owner was John Murrell. By the 1990's the boat had been brought back to Trent Valley by a Long Eaton man, for his son. Unfortunately the son was not interested on sailing and the boat was left lying around and rapidly deteriorated. I bought the boat in 2002(?) noting that although the boat was a write-off, it had a good mast and a lot of useful fittings, which I subsequently sold. The mast was used on N.2300 for a year and is now destined for N.2647. The boat was burnt at a Guy Fawkes night around 2002 within a few weeks of my purchasing her.

Ken Goddard
N.2300

Just a small point on this subject; as Antony observes and also the handbook confirms, 6 years were lost from Burton Week sailing during WWII, 1940 - 45 inclusive. not 5, but that still means that the class has held 66.
Ken Goddard

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  

From Ken Goddard
I bought this boat, then named "Elendil" in March 1991. She was very nicely built by Andrew Turner and in very good condition. To the best of my knowledge she had no earlier record of a win or placing at a major racing event. I did not care for the sails very much; they were too stiff for river sailing and the mainsail had an unattractive purple panel adjacent to the mast.
I renamed the boat "Share Enjoyment" partly because the boat was bought from the proceeds from the sale of inherited shares and partly because it is so much more pleasant to sail with a crew to talk to, than sailing a single hander.
I never really got the boat going very well and found her particularly disapointing in light winds. I sold her at a considerable loss in the autumn of 1993, to a young man in North Staffordshire, near Leek.

I have a note that she was in the market again in September 1999 from a Manchester-area phone number.

Ken Goddard

Duncan,
for your information, the first owner of N.3024, was Richard Holttum, and the second I think was Richard Murrell, who is still sailing Twelves - see Handbook.
Ken Goddard

Duncan,
as a previous owner of N.3024, "Smile" I should say I never had any trouble with the length of the rudder, even on the shallows of the Trent. However, on another boat where I shortened the rudder by about 4inches/10cm I started getting into control trouble down-wind in stronger winds. I advise leaving the rudder as it is, and taking up Tim's suggestion of have a control line so that you can pull the blade up a bit in the shallows. Another alternative which I noticed John Cheetham using, is to have a separate shorter blade which you can substitute before the race when the winds are feeble.
Regards
Ken Goddard

Ken Goddard writes:
I bought this boat new in 1970 from Chippendale (rather than my local boat builder Wyche & Coppock) and named her as "Tackspayer", a pun like many of my other boats. She was built to Ian Proctor's Mk.14 design and my choice of this design was a mistake! The China Doll had been launched a year or two beforhand and I failed to recognise that it was a better design. The Mk.14 seemed to have no particular virtues and I remember the boat more for several occasions when I capsized to windward, although this may be more a result of inadequate sailing skills than a deficiency in design.
One of these occasions was well out to sea when I was sailing in a Royal Dart Y.C. Regatta. A bit scary!

I sold her in around 1973 to a girl at Whitefriars S.C. (Gloucs. or Wiltshire?). She renamed the boat Moody Blue and painted on top of the varnished hull accordingly. After a couple of years I heard no more of the boat.

Ken Goddard
N.2300