If you’ve ever cruised the Norfolk
and Suffolk Broads, you’ll recognise
this day launch. Now she flies again
STORY AND PHOTOS RICHARD JOHNSTONE-BRYDEN
T
he beautiful flowing lines of the new Mayfly 17
day launch underline a pedigree that stretches
back to the early post-war years when the late
Billy May was asked to build a 14ft (4.26m)
motor launch with a twin cylinder air-cooled Norman
engine. Named Miss Potter, she triggered the founding of
Maycraft in Potter Heigham and became the basis for
nearly 50 mahogany-on-oak, clinker-built day launches
in lengths from 12ft to 18ft (3.65m to 5.5m). The first of
Miss Potter’s derivatives was commissioned a couple of
years later by a customer who wanted a 16ft (14.87m)
version complete with a windscreen and seats. Billy
could see the commercial potential of hiring out one of
the new boats on a self-drive basis to holidaymakers
from Maycraft, so he built a pair side-by-side. He kept
the first one, named in honour of his wife Olive, and
delivered the second boat to the instigator of the project.
Three more Olives were produced for Maycraft’s hire
fleet with the last one being built in 1952 alongside the
first Kathleen which proved to be the yard’s most
popular design. She had been ordered by a Mr HaydenBelow left to
right: Mayfly 17’s
mahogany laid
decks; the retro
steering wheel;
fender detail;
smart Timage
chrome fittingsMAYFLY
OF THE
BROADS
who worked in Great Yarmouth as an optician and
owned one of the riverside bungalows near the boatyard.
Named after Mr Hayden’s wife, the 17ft day launch had
an open-backed cabin, a spacious cockpit and was
powered by a Ford E93A petrol engine. By the early
1970s approximately 25 of these launches had been
built, of which 12 were operated at some point by
Maycraft either from new, or after they had been bought
back from private owners. Miss Potter’s other derivatives
included a 12ft runabout powered by a 4hp Stuart
Turner engine, an open launch fitted with a 40hp Seagull
engine that was rigged up to a steering wheel up
forward and an 18ft version of Olive built for the
Gorleston-based amateur fisherman Claude Peacock.
When Billy retired he handed over Maycraft to his son
Harry who continues to run the business together with
his grandsons Alan and James. The trio specialise in
refurbishing and maintaining wooden boats in addition
to operating the hire fleet. Maycraft’s original wooden
launches have been steadily replaced over the years by
more modern GRP craft to leave just two Kathleens