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In the same year it began to publish the now-famous green registers
containing yacht data and the rules for their classifcation. Today these
records are a remarkable repository of information about vintage yachts
and a primary source of research for anyone into yachting history or
restoration.
Editions in the 1960s include data for some 15,000 yachts (both
motor and sailboats): technical specs, construction materials, builder,
owner, past names, engine, sail number, sail maker, classifcation and
much more.
Other sections of the registers were developed and dedicated to
shipyards, designers, feets, yacht clubs. Colour plates showing national
fags at sea, owners’ distinctive fags and burgees were also added. And
advertisements were introduced.
Te annual compilation of this wealth of material – in a pre-digital
era when information was sent via snail-mail and patiently typeset for
printing – would have been an exhausting task.
Te Yacht Register’s success was also boosted by its ‘social’ signifcance.
Owners of unclassed yachts listed in the registers would see their printed
name next to that of notables such as Sir Tomas Lipton, Lord Dunraven,
the Duke of Cumberland and other peers of the kingdom. In class-
conscious England, this visibility carried serious status.
Te Society became so important that by the end of the 19th century
new London premises were a priority. Land was acquired at the end of
Fenchurch Street and architect Tomas Collcutt commissioned to design
the new building in the Italian Renaissance architectural style. It became
operational in December 1901, soon after the death of Queen Victoria.
In 1903 the Register was replicated in North America – with a blue
cover – but publication ceased in 1979.The statutory Plimsoll mark carried by all ships today
is named after its originator, Samuel Plimsoll (1824-
98), an English politician and social reformer.
Plimsoll sympathised with the struggles of the
poor, and his eforts were directed especially against
what were known as ‘cofn ships’: unseaworthy and
overloaded vessels, often heavily insured, in which
unscrupulous owners risked the lives of their crews.
The five horizontal lines on the ‘gridiron’ indicate
the depth to which a ship may be loaded in varying
conditions. The letters TF mean tropical freshwater; F,
freshwater; T, tropical seawater; S, summer seawater;
W, winter seawater; and WNA, winter North Atlantic.THE PLIMSOLL LINE