Posted by Jock on August 22, 2005 at 09:28:50 from 217.172.246.144 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Swallow anew? - but which one? posted by Laurence Monkhouse on August 22, 2005 at 07:48:26:
the Morecambe Bay design with deepish keel and no centreboard is very distinctive. It obviously developed because of wide areas of very shallow water, which would not apply in the Lakes, where I fancy that a centreboard would be more normal.
I think the key difference was that the Morecambe Bay boats were working boats. They were owned by fishermen and cheaper to build and easier to keep watertight than boats with a centreboard case. They were designed to be tough and carry a load, and during their working lives, the ability to point to windward another 7 degrees or so that a centreboard would give was just not important. If you wanted to get home quickly and the wind was against you just downed the sail and rowed.
The Coniston and Windmere boats were the playthings of relatively rich people. The additional building and maintenance costs of a centreboard case would have been unimportant. The Crossleys who owned Esperance and a possible Amazon prototype were very rich indeed. (There was an interesting thread years ago [Ian E-N, you couldn't just find room for another unziped shoebox could you?] speculating on where the Blacketts got their money from.)
The design evidence is muddied because of Mavis. When I first saw her I must admit I was surprised. I was expecting to find a boat with the full lines of a Scarab/Cochy recreational dinghy, yet here was a boat with the narrow lines of a working boat that had been built to be rowed first and foremost rather than sailed. In fact above the waterline her lines were similar to those that I would have expected for Swallow. My conclusion (Public Health Warning. Those of a nervous disposition please stop reading NOW.):
Mavis couldn't possibly be Amazon! [Pause for boos and hisses.]
Laurence, have you followed the The Boats of Swallows and Amazons link from Dick's Pocket Book? There is a huge amount of information here that has been compiled by Stuart Weir including an informative letter from the man who bought Swallow from Ransome.