Just Bought a Jollyboat!!

[scott robinson]

Hi Everybody. I just bought Jollyboat j197 over here in Montreal. It's in pretty good condition, but needs new decks, mast top, and general refinishing. It has been out of the water for about four years and is definately a rescue project...a few more Montreal winters outside and it would have been firewood. As I've got two young kids and not a lot of free time the restoration will be a slow process, but since it's an Uffa design it will be a labour of love to get it back on the water. I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions when I get started so I'll thank you all in advance for your knowledge and expertise as I tackle things. Right now it's a pleasure to sit outside on a sunday morning with a cup of coffee and admire the beautiful shape.

Looking forward to a great relationship with both the boat and the loyal Jollyboat owners in this forum.

Scott Robinson
Montreal, Canada

[Trevor C]

Welcome.

[Rupert]

Hi Scott, I think we will have more people on this forum from overseas than from home, soon! Which doesn't say a lot for the UK dinghy market...
Fantastic news about another Jollyboat being brought back to life. I've sailed Ed's with 4 of us on board (with my (then) 5 year old son out on the trapeze and 3 year old daughter playing in the bottom) and she was a lovely boat to sail. Had I a garage long enough, I suspect I would have incurred Kathryn's wrath and bought one by now!
There is plenty of help to be had on here, though many different opinions on the best way of doing things! Just pick and choose from the advice what will suit you best. Most of the ideas have worked for people in the past, even though occasionally they appear to be at complete odds with each other!

[davidh]

Sadly there wasn't room in the Uffa Fox article to say much about the JollyBoat - which is a shame as there are any number of 'stories' to be had there. I guess the biggest one is the emotive subject of the name - why Jollyboat when there was the perfectly serviceable 'Barracuda' (not to mention Fox, Flycatcher, 3f - or even, in those less than politically correct days - the Battle).

What could have been - should have been even.

I seem to recall that when all the Fairey boats were stored/on display at Marchwood, near Southampton, there was a J boat in amongst them - anyone know what happened to it!

D

[Ed]

Hi Scott

Good to hear about J197. There may still be quite a few other Jollyboats out there in Canada and for that matter the USA.

Over here nearly all our boats are either earlier under J80 or so.....or over J250. There are very few between 150 and 250 as a large number of them went abroad.

Please do keep us up to date with the re-build with lots of photos.

I am planning on doing some work on the Jollyboat site shortly, so it would be good to have your details there.

Am I right in saying you have already told Andrew Richardson about J197, because he is keeping the register at the moment.

If not, please do email to jollyboat<at>cvrda.org which will go to the jollyboat mailing list.

cheers

eib

[Ed]

David,

The boats you are talking about, belonged to MDL and were called the 'MDL Fairey Collection' and were originally collected by Andrew Thornhill mainly whilst Rupert was working for him as boatman/restorer.

He sold them onto MDL shortly before the Fairey 50th anniversary regatta.

MDL had them for a while.....but then the story gets rather murky.

MDL 'gave', 'loaned' or 'sold' them to National Maritime Museum Cornwall to be part of their 'National Small Boat Collection'.

But....when I last spoke to Andrew on this, he was adamant that they could not be 'sold' as part of his contract on selling to MDL was that if they should ever come back onto the market, he should be given first refusal.....and he would buy them back if he could.

So, I presume they have been loaned.

But where are they is a good question?

F7 is I think at Falmouth.....but the others....just not sure. I think the last I heard they were still in the containers they had been stored in for years....maybe at Hamble Point???

The jollyboat in the collection was J365 and is the newest Jollyboat that I am aware of. It carries a needlespar and is/was pretty sound. It certainly came out of storage to be chartered by some USA sailors for the Uffa Fox centenary regatta, who kept ahead of me for the whole windless regatta.

I think I heard that it had been on the water recently in the Isle of wight.....and maybe that the centre-board had snapped....but that is just a sort of memory I remember.

It would be good to know what happened to the other boats in the collection. Rupert would remember what was in their.....but for sure it did include a Fairey Gannet, which is the only one I have ever seen or heard of.

cheers

eib

[Bill Sylvester]

Director of the NMM at Falmouth is a friend - do you want me to ask him? If so, a few dates as to when various things may have happened would help.

[davidh]

Bill,

George Hogg is calling in here next week for a meeting so I will gently raise the question then.

Ed - Yes, I always had an interest in the Marchwood collection as Dad was a life long worker for Faireys. This meant that at home life was never dull, the doors always being painted in a notable shade of dark blue and I'm sure that we had the only pair of posts for the washing line that had sailtrackon the trailing edge. Just before the old 'Husbands Shipyard' site was closed down a small and select group - Alan Burnard and Charles Currey amongst them - blasted up there in a Swordsman to take a last look.

Thinking along those lines, Alan Burnard still has an office at Hamble Point so he would probably know where all teh small stuff went. I know the 'pixie' canoe that we played in as kids was there somewhere so I will follow that track for now.

Will let you know what I find out

D

[Bill Sylvester]

Don't know George - my contact is Jonathan Griffin. Hope you get it sorted out.

[Ed]

Jonathan and George would both most probably know.

Jonathan is Director.....but George heads up the library and looks after the National Small Boat collection and the National Small Boat Register.

embarrassing thing is.... I am pretty sure that I have already asked them the question many times.....and been told....just can't remember the answer!!



David - Give George regards and tell him am working on NSBR stuff

cheers

eib

[Ed]

Oh yes....David....

you mentioned a while ago that you had written some history for Fairey Marine......

Would still love to see and read it...if that was possible.

I have a kind of distant interest in Faireys....other than just loving the boats.

Richard Fairey was my great uncle on my mothers side and my mother was a bit of favourite of his - and was sent to finishing school in Switzerland in the 30s at his expense.

lots of interesting family stories around the connection, but nothing really about Fairey Marine.

cheers

eib

[davidh]

Ed,

But of course - the main copy went off to the Fairey Family many moons ago. It covers mainly the days when it was Fairey Aviation...like when the extension to the sea wall was created by using squashed up Spitfires, Fireflys, Barracudas - they were bought into the factory - stripped of any needed parts then just bulldozered into the sea!

Dad wasn't in the best of health when he wrote it but that aside - it would be a pleasure to pass this on.

D

[Rupert]

It must have been about 15 or 16 years ago, I would guess (a bit hazy about the time line of my life in places) when I was living in Pill, near Bristol. The boats involves ranged from a folding canoe and a duckling through to Jollyboat and Falcon. The was certainly a Swordfish involved. The Gannet was picked up in Norfolk (an interesting daytrip in a landrover from Bristol) and was in a very sorry state, but she came with a set of plans which I wish I'd copied. If you imagine a Fairey MK1 14 hull with Firefly decks on it, you get the idea. The rig was smaller than the 14 rig. Lovely boat. I will see what else pops into my head from what was there. F7 has already been mentioned.
I'd love to know where they all are, too. I just hope they are not rotting away.

[davidh]

Rupert,

leave it to me - I'll try the local 'old fairey hands' route as that is well informed. The lady in the same set of warden flats at Netley as my mother is another long term fairey employee -she used to make the yellow buoyancy bags (amongst other things). Ill be back to you with (i hope) some news shortly

D

[Ed]

I am pretty sure F7 is in Falmouth.....but the others I am not so sure about.

But I do know that they are in NMMC care.....just I suspect (although I may be wrong) not in Falmouth.

David, if you ask George - he will certainly know.....as I said, I am sure he told me and I have just forgotten.

cheers

eib