Posted by Jock 2 on August 22, 2005 at 18:57:35 from 217.172.246.144 user Jock.
In Reply to: Re: Swallow anew? - but which one - S1? posted by Laurence Monkhouse on August 22, 2005 at 16:49:13:
That actually does look remarkably like the picture of Swallow in Christina Hardyment's book.
Bingo! I don't have Christina's book here, but I'm glad that the ageing brain, whilst hopelessly dyslexic at spelling, can still get its boats right.
I don't think she (the boat, not Christina) is much over 14 feet.
Agreed.
Is that a hole to step a mast in the forward thwart?
Hmm. Too close to call. On my monitor only the rope looped over the thwart is at all clear. Does it matter? On small working boats a balanced lugsail was like an outboard motor on today's tenders. Some had 'em, some didn't, and if you didn't, but wanted one, it was no big deal to fit one.
Thole pins, not rowlocks, but that sort of gentrification would be easy enough
Agreed. Going back to the pictures of Thames Skiffs in my earlier post. Most of these started out in Edwardian days with delicate flat oak thole pins, but were converted to rowlocks, because the latter were more tolerant of unskilled oarsmen.