TOPIC:

Norman. Very many thanks for the info. We bought her at a gravel pit near Reading in 1968, and she was fitted with a heavy metal centreplate and short white fun sails, so the children of the vendor couldn't possibly capsise ! The orange/white sails and proper centerplate were included and rapidly fitted by us. We jettisoned the heavy keel fast.

We sailed her for a few years out of the Hamble River S.C. before trailing her over to Ireland in 1974.

She's still called 'Scimitar'



Tom K.tomkirby2008-05-29 17:06:26

John,

Interesting footage. Very period dress worn by participants as well. 709 isn't there, however. One boat near the end had very broad oblique panels in grey/blue and white. 709's are similar to that, but orange.

Hi Dermod, I hope you are looking after 1717 and I,m sure Norman will reply to your question ( he is the man here with all the info) and if you look up the Albacore Regester on the US site Peter Duncan has recorded most of the history both there and UK

Regards

Crawford

PS don't you fancy bringing her back up to Scotland for the European Championships?

Hi Crawford and thanks for your reply. And yes I am preparing to varnish the decks as unfortunately it looks as if some water got underneath the varnish over the winter. I wasn't too confident about just patching in and in scraping off to see if there was any delamination, I found my self taking all the deck varnish off. More work than I had wanted to understake and I'd rather make a good job, although the proof of that will be in the final job!



So nice new shinny varnish will be applied and if all goes according to plan we intend to come up to Largs, complete with VW camper van and AL1717. What is the situation with campervans?

Dermod

Dermod



I have Nationals results going back years - uninterrupted since 1969 and very recently some of the older ones with the help of Rob Young.



I also have a copy of the RYA register of Albs which Howard Winfield managed to get hold of a couple of years ago.



I have most of the Alive magazines going back again to the late '60's.



There must be in existence lots of old data, yearbooks etc., but we don't have an historian in the class, so I don't believe there to be anything formal about class history.



Did you have anything in particular that you wanted to know about?



Good luck with the boat!

Hello Norman,

This stemmed from a chat with Mike McNamarra and reminiscing about the Albacore class and many of my ex Police colleagues who sailed in the class more years ago than I perhaps care to remember.




Living near to Hamble Point - where it all began and seeing that there is still a shed named 'Albacore Shed' and one called 'Firefly House', got me thinking about the history of the class.




Michael Mac suggested that the Albacore may have emerged from and adaptation to an International 14. This is perfectly possible as new boats often emerge from 'cut and shut' work from old redundant moulds. Indeed the lines of the 14, Albacore and Swordfish dinghy are very similar. I ahve made contact with the Classic 14 and there may well have been things in common.



When I looked at the class site I realised that there is very little about the history and that seems a shame. So hence I have started enquiring and my thoughts are as follows;

• Establish its origins, links to Uffa and other classes.
• Its build and adaptations over the years
• How it got established in other countries - there must be lots of stories about this
• Main events such as Nationals, Worlds
• to take us up to present day
• and perhaps greater 'world agreement' to keep the class not just 'Alive' but flourishing.

This could perhaps be best done by various people contributing pieces of work from various stages in history. This could then be published as a link to the site, in PDF format or in hard cover as Michael Mac said people had thought about this before.



I am pretty sure we can track down most of the history fairlly easliy although some of the early stuff might be a bit more tricky. We might even be able to get MDL who own Hamble Point to come on board and provide some support.



I am open to suggestions from anyone who might want to get involved - suggestions please.

Regards

Dermod

Well well Dermod, looks to me like you have just talked yourself into a job. everyone on the International Committee lend support, this is the link we need to complete. I wonder if there may be some return in tracking down any yard records or indeed anyone who worked there, there may well be some about even now.

Crawford

IAA President

Yes Crawford I do realise what I might be getting into. I suppose my first mistake came when I bought 1717 from you. Apart from always liking Albacores, it was the fact that it was built at Hamble Point which is very local to me.



Since I began this thread I have tracked down many poosible sources of information. I shall begin with tracing the origins from Fairey and then broaden the work out to include other such things as when stern decks went and full side tanks came. Also the emergence of GRP boats and Kingsfield and Woofs. Lots of potential with rigs and sails as well. At this stage I will definitely be looking for support and ideas.



However in the meatime if anyone has any information to add please e mail me at personally or continue with the thread.

Dermod

I don't think we would get much success with yard records as I tried to trace the history of my previous Alb, after taking the back deck off and revealing the mould number which was a lot different to the sail number. When I tried to trace any records I was told that when the Liquidator had finished closing Fairey Marine they burnt all the records - criminal I call it. However I wonder if an advert in the local paper might produce some ex-employees, certainly in my previous job, some years ago, I had to go to Southampton and one of our employees down there had worked on Alb's and Fireflys. I remember him telling me that they were built almost on an assembly line basis, ie if you were on the centreboard case gang, then that was what you did, put centreboard cases in all day.

Paul

Thanks Paul and whilst it would be wonderful to find some records, I fully realise that as very unlikely. I have traced the names of some of the people who worked in the yard around that time. I intend to track them down and interview them - if possible.



I think that it could make some interesting reading for some if we had the views of a cross section of people who were around at the time. The passage of time is obviously against me despite people living longer.

Even hearing what you discovered has some importance.

Dom

Hi Dom



I am seeing Ian Porter next week so if you need any info from the Porter era please let me know,



cheers

Albacore Andy

GBR A7525

Blue Jay

Andy, anything that you can get from Ian regarding the history would be great. In fact even if he just knows what I am thinking about may fire up his enthusiasm. He must have a barrel full of information with his years of experience and I would hope to speak with him some time in the future..

Thanks

Dom

Pity about the loss of the records. We have had AL709 now for forty years, and it would be interesting to know what year she was built. Her original sails are large oblique orange and white panels, very photogenic. I haven't seen that on any other Alb.

tomkirby wrote:

Pity about the loss of the records. We have had AL709 now for forty years, and it would be interesting to know what year she was built. Her original sails are large oblique orange and white panels, very photogenic. I haven't seen that on any other Alb.

A couple of the boats in this video of the 1962 Nationals have stripey sails. Perhaps one of them is 709 ? - The sail numbers are not clear enough to read though.

JohnW2008-05-28 14:10:03

Tom,



According to the RYA listing 709 was first measured on 12th July 1962, and was registered with them on May 10th 1963. at the last registration it was called "Scimitar".