Classic Boat – August 2019

CLASSIC BOAT AUGUST 2019 95

Send your letters (and any replies, please) to:

Classic Boat, Jubilee House, 2 Jubilee Place,

London SW3 3TQ

email: [email protected]

What ever

happend to

Nyria

Thanks to the Association of
Yachting Historians’ scans of all
the Lloyd’s Registers of Yachts
and their annual appendices,
we discover that in 1928 Nyria
was bought by an Italian based
in Genoa. Her name was
changed to Corsara. She
survived in Italy until 1952
when she was broken up.
The Association of Yachting
Historians

They’re brown boats, not white boats!

I am just reading the June edition of Classic Boat and would like

to point out a small inaccuracy on page 52. There is a photograph

of Yare and Bure one designs racing on Wroxam Broad, the

caption states they were also known as Brown Boats I think this

should read White Boats. The Brown Boat was a broads/estuary

boat designed by Linton Hope for the Royal Norfolk and Su”olk

Yacht club. A great magazine keep up the good work.

Phil Clarke, by email

Cutty Sark’s

figurehead

We are writing to provide an

update to the Cutty Sark 150th

anniversary article by Dr Eric

Kentley in your May issue. It is

noted in the article that work

to assess the condition of the

current Nannie figurehead is

underway. This assessment

has found that the figurehead,

which was made in the 1950s,

has deteriorated over time

from weather exposure and

will need to be replaced.

We have now opened a

fundraising campaign to

enable us to raise £50,000

towards the commissioning

and caring of a replacement

Nannie figurehead. To date we

have raised nearly £20,000

and are looking to close the

gap. The new Nannie will be as

close as possible to the

original designs by Hercules

Linton, the ship’s designer. The

figurehead will be designed

and carved using Linton’s

drawing, other early images of

Cutty Sark, and what we know

of the original figurehead carver, Frederick Hellyer’s work, as a

guide. This chance to restore Nannie to the design Linton intended

could not missed, so we hope anyone interested in helping us

achieve our goal will donate generously. donate.rmg.co.uk/appeal/

figurehead-appeal

Dr Kevin Fewster, Director,

Royal Museums Greenwich

Cutty Sark in

light airs?

I read with interest Dr Eric

Kentley’s article on the

building of the Cutty Sark in

your excellent May edition.

While the article was by and

large interesting and

informative I have to take

issue with his statement that

‘Cutty Sark was the only

clipper with a straight stem’. I

don’t think this was the case

at all – there were a number

of clippers with this design.

Indeed, it’s natural for the

stem to be relatively straight.

The di”erence in the Cutty

Sark was that her forefoot

was not rounded o” at all

• unlike other china tea
  clippers. This helped to
  windward but many thought
  it would mean she would be
  more likely to miss stays. This
  did not seem to be the case
  though, so her designer
  clearly knew what he was
  doing.
  That said, I’m always
  irritated by people who state
  Cutty Sark was the fastest clipper of all time, etc. She was extremely
  fast in strong winds but in light airs she was not at her best and,
  given that she was designed for the China trade where light airs are
  prevalent, this seems to be a problem. Her best passage home
  against the SW monsoon of 106 days does not compare favourably
  with the 91 days by Thermopylae or 89 by Sir Lancelot.
  Christopher Edger, Oxford