N2399 Mr. Jones

[National 12 Webmaster]

The life of N2399 Mr. Jones. Design: Mr. Jones, designed by: Martin Jones in 1967 

 

YW Silver National Points Trophy & Burton Cup winning boat, Falmouth 1968, Hugh Welbourn & Martin Challis.

[THG]

Boat now owned by Gordon Thorpe and should sail at South Cerney SC but never seen it out on water  .

[Richard]

N2399 Now being sailed at Clevedon S.C. and will be sailed at some of The Witchcraft Bailer events.

[johnk]

On Sale eBay end time Jul 19th 23.48

[paul turner]

Mr Jones has been donated by Richard White to the "Turner Collection" of historic/original design vintage N12s (currently including N2020 Starfish and N2359 Shotgun) to be made available for competent helms to enjoy at future vintage meetings.

[martin 1262]

Ahhh I wondered who got it!!   
I was watching with a view it bid at the 11th Hour....The owner did say that he donated to the National 12 fleet to avoid it becoming a Plant pot, which was very generous of him.....
Given my competence at ramming all things Turner, I suspect I might not be able to sail her!!!!!!:P
Martin

[angus]

Glad to see Mr. Jones has gone to a good home. Was tempted to have a wee flutter myself but my inability to sail one boat at a time and the fact that she who does not get her feet wet still hasn't forgiven me for buying Agent Orange I gave it a miss;D
How many boats do you need before you can call your self Admiral of vice, or are you just trying to out do mr. Gatti, do ribbed boats count double?

[Tim Gatti]

Well done Paul - who knows where she might have ended up otherwise - probably under an old tarpaulin on some farm over near Derby!

[paul turner]

The restoration of Mr Jones is progressing, but very slowly - far more work involved than I expected especially as boat was orginally an amateur build with numerous ad hoc subsequent repairs, some of a doubtful nature. I'm doing the basics (eg have just fixed the four major cracks in the planking) and have just turned the yot over; as you will see from the three photos, decks now being stripped and re-glued. Angus Beyts is planning to campaign Mr Jones this year in the 2010 Witchcraft Bailer series so must be ready by Ripon on 16th May! The boat in the background is N2359 Shotgun possibly to be re-launched after 30+ years out of the water,next weekend at TVSC. :K)

[grazz]

Photos courtesy of Paul Turner

[hughw]

well its great - and somewhat surprising -  to see the boat is still around!  If you need any details on how she was originally then get in touch - and I've got some old b&w original build pics around somewhere...wouldn't mind having a sail in her/him for old times sake one of these days - that boat was something a bit special when it was on song.

[paul turner]

From: Hugh Welbourn
Sent: 27 March 2012 15:05
To: Paul Turner
Subject: Re: Mr Jones N2399 

Hi Paul - nice to hear the old bus is still alive and kicking!  Be fun to come up and have a sail on of these days and see what it feels like after all the years... 
Now originally I painted her black, and then for second season went over to full Graphspeed on everything and got that to perfection by the time the Burton came around.  While we there then would roll her over and do the foils and underwater hull with Brasso - and have to say that I reckon that made a difference. Remember Jacko saying something about why bother at the time:))

Had very little string on the boat - cunno and kicker were on vertical cleats by the front of the thwart on the case, bit of string simply around the mast to pull it back, another bit of string to pull it forward and that let me flatten the main out in the really light stuff.  Locks on both halyards. Ratchet blocks were just tied on to the side bars finally and binned the original tracks I had there.  That was it....

We had the Jones at the Boat Show in Earls Court - standing on its transom - and looking as Jack Knights wrote like a sentry box for a very fat sentry!

Other stories...were a  few....but it was one of those magic boats from day 1 and just kept getting better and better. One good one - Whitstable open meeting - light weather and managed to snap off the tiller at the beginning of the race, so sailed around the course with Martin sprawled on the foredeck and me sort of guiding the thing by the rudder head. Won that race too... Happy days! 

Cheers Hugh


At 27/03/2012, Paul wrote:

Hi Hugh  

Sorry for taking so long to follow up your post on the N12 database but I have been pre-occupied acquiring China Doll for the collection!

You are welcome to come and see/borrow and sail Mr Jones any time but please be aware that he/she has taken a battering over the years and some of the repairs have been of a doubtful/not very pretty nature. When I picked the boat up several years ago the side decks were coming off, now re-glued and the topsides stripped and re-varnished. Lots of string has been removed and hundreds of holes filled. The boat is now end mainsheet; the original centre main tackle was long gone.

I lend my boats out to interested/competent helms to promote vintage racing but despite due care and attention several cracks have now appeared in the planking near the port rear tank and amidships both sides. I spent all Sunday with boat and epoxy and another day’s work should see the hull sound enough for a coat of paint.

Speak soon? Kind regards, Paul

[paul turner]

As I wheeled Mr Jones out of the workshop early on Good Friday morning to repair a few more cracks that had appeared in the hull, the Old Dragon, as she walked past (strongly) suggested that I stopped "messing about" and just stripped off all the paint down to the wood, and make a proper job of making the hull sound. So I spent most of the four day holiday on said task and have nearly done one side (after removing - layers from the hull onwards - blue primer, black, graphite, white gunge, red, light blue, orange and black (again)). Don't think Mr Jones will be available for loan this season! Px

[Tim Gatti]

Following his herculean labours on stripping and cleaning up the hull, this weekend I collect Mr Jones from Mr Turner and take her to my workshop for a make-over.

Items on the list include:

- the replacement of some sections of planking especially in the stbd aft quarter which seems to have suffered serious damage in the past and is currently held together with some internal butt-blocks;
- refurbishment and repair of the thwart and centreboard capping which seem to have more holes in them than an Aero bar,
- repairing a split foredeck and generally tidying up and epoxy coating the hull and repainting and varnishing, inside and out.

[Tim Gatti]

More pics: