N2765 Le Shed

National 12 Webmaster · 01 Jun 2008, 01:41

The life of N2765 Le Shed. Design: China Doll, designed by: Phil Morrison in 1967
Original boat name: Kitten

ken goddard · 05 Jul 2008, 10:36

From Ken Goddard - first owner.
First; this boat should not be listed with the name "Le Shed"! Let me give you the full story of her.
I bought the boat as a four- plank kit from Impact Boats (Nick Cox) on Auguat 1972, at a cost of £120.45. I named the boat KITTEN for two reasons, first that I had bought the boat as a kit and secondly because we had a young cat at the time which kept on jumping on to the shell! (Nick Cox tried to persuade me to change the name, because he thought that any boat name connected with cats ought to be reserved for boats of the Cheshire Cat design of which he was just starting production. I ignored his comment.)
The early Twelves from Impact Boats were intended to have their planks secured together with wire stitching, covered by GRP tape, a type of construction which had been launched on the Mirror dinghy. I didn't rate this type of construction very highly and decided that the planks should be glued to longitudinal stringers. This worked out very well and gave a much stiffer boat, but construction took much longer. Kitten was finally launched on 30 March 1974. The sail number 2765 was awarded on 13 February 1974 and the boat was measured on 3 April1974. The entry in the Handbook which shows Kitten as a 1973 boat is WRONG!
I enjoyed sailing Kitten. She was well balanced, comfortable to sail and nothing broke. I never achieved much success with her, probably because I didn't pay enough time and attention to training and tuning.
Kitten was sold on 2 May 1987 to a Mr Neil Fisk of Dovestone S.C., which is situated close to the infamous Saddleworth Moor. In 1996 the boat was noted to be at Olton S.C., Solihull and I heard a rumour that the well-known Ted Hill had helped the new owner there to plane off the keel and Bilge keels. (This could have been a plane-ruining job as I had glued on the keels with a multiplicity of brass screws!)
In 2005 the boat was bought by the Vice-Commodore of Olton S.C., who was going to re-deck the boat. This is when she acquired the name "Le Shed". I didn't see the boat then and my subsequent attempts to contact the new owner all failed.
Ken Goddard (now with N.2300), 5 July 2008

tom white · 14 Oct 2008, 10:17

hi im tom
i am the new owner of le shed
me and my dad steve white have re-decked her and added a new centre board, a carbon tiller and ruder. also a new set of sails.
she is painted in red all over and looks beautiful. At the moment she is winning most races at olton mere SC with stiff compitition from Gordon and Foxi.she is still sails like a dream and perfectly balanced.

tom white · 18 Oct 2008, 09:50

le shed

tom white · 18 Oct 2008, 09:51

3

Chris Troth · 20 Oct 2008, 02:41

Tom decides to have a quick rest during sunday racing....

ken goddard · 09 Feb 2009, 09:23

This is a photo of N.2765 Kitten, under construction from a kit from Impact Boats. K.Goddard (builder)

tom white · 13 Feb 2009, 10:39

still goes fast

lol

tom white · 14 Sep 2009, 04:43

Le shed has now been done up abit

we have now fitted it with a angell carbon boom, brand new P&B sails, carbon tiller extension, tiller/rudder slot, and have put a carbon plate in the nose so we were able to re shape it

the boat is still in red but we have polished it so it is like a mirror

we took it to the trent valley open yesterday (13th/09/09) and olton mere the day before (12/09/09) and it improved every race as we got used to the boat.

at olton we got a 4th, a 3rd, a 2nd and two 1sts. and yesterday we were put into the 4 plank and vintage fleet and we won every race. in the first race we made up the five minutes and over took most of the carbon, double floor and newar ac boats.
so it was well worth the time and effort.

tom white · 07 Dec 2009, 12:33

new shed

tom white · 07 Dec 2009, 12:45

She has just helped me and my crew Maz Gidley become Olton Mere Club champions 2009

tom white · 07 Jun 2010, 02:22

And now has a brand new Angell Mast

Jeremy C · 08 Jun 2010, 05:29

Tom with Le Shed at BW 2010

Tim Gatti · 09 Jun 2010, 10:55

Le Shed heads out on Day 1 of the Burton

ken goddard · 27 Oct 2010, 08:52

Attached below is a picture of N.2765, launched as "Kitten", under construction from the Impact Boat's kit.
The image shows the garboard being clamped and glued to a stringer (the latter being the owners supply,
not an Impact Boat's part).
Ken Goddard