SHE’S A
WINNER
BUTTERCUP
Last month, we featured a 1913
photo album of Sayonara on the
Broads. She’s still sailing today
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS RICHARD JOHNSTONE-BRYDEN
B
y a remarkable twist of fate, the Broads
racing yacht Sayonara depicted in Peter
Beckett’s fascinating photo album (CB372)
continues to compete on the Broadland
regatta circuit as Buttercup. Her long career
was instigated by Mr EP Buckworth of Crostwick Old
Hall in 1895 when he commissioned Ernest Collins to
build a new racing yacht. A year later, Collins launched
the 34ft Sayonara which followed the typical Broadland
racing yacht design of her day, with a generous gaff top
sail rig, long flowing overhangs, spoon bow and counter
stern. In 1902 she attracted high praise from Nicholas
Everitt within his renowned book Broadland Sport when
he described Sayonara as, “one of the smartest cruisers
of her day” – a sentiment many would still agree with.
The majority of Sayonara’s competitors were built on
speculation for the sole purpose, aside the pleasure of
sailing them, of wining money. By the turn of the 20th
century, racing had become a serious business on the
Broads with fixtures held every week from May through
to September. During the summer months, an armada of
craft travelled around the regatta circuit bringing a
welcome financial boost to the various riverside towns
and villages. In a bid to attract increasing numbers of
boats, each of the host locations offered prize money
with hundreds of pounds on offer from the whole circuit
every year. These prizes combined with the large wagers
placed between competing owners meant a successful
yacht could recoup its building costs within a season.Therefore, longevity was never an important factor
in the design of these thoroughbreds because ineffective
yachts were often broken up after their first season
while successful yachts were considered past their
prime within five years.
To extract the best performance from his new pride
and joy, which flew a blue and white diagonal racing
flag, Buckworth employed Captain Peters as Sayonara’s
skipper. Like many of Sayonara’s contemporaries, her
full-time skipper was assisted by professional sailors who
were employed for the duration of the season. Viewed
from the perspective of today’s Broadland regatta circuit,
this might seem unthinkable but with so much prize
money at stake it was essential to have an efficient crew
who could exploit the yacht’s full potential - not least
choosing the right sails from the extensive wardrobe to
suit the prevailing conditions. A surviving programme for
a weekend of racing at Cantley under the auspices of the
Norfolk and Suffolk Yacht Club in June 1898 provides
an indication of the prize money on offer for competing
yachts. For the first day of action, the five tonne
Sayonara is listed among the yachts competing within
the handicap race for cruising yachts not exceeding
12 tonnes for which the winner received £6, while the
runner up collected £3 and third place was worth £1 10s.
With the exception of Peter Beckett’s album, the
details of Buttercup’s early history have been lost
to the mists of time for the moment, not least when
EP Buckworth sold her to Peter’s grandfather William