Posted by Peter H on April 12, 2008 at 15:00:23 from 86.137.74.215 user Peter_H.
In Reply to: Re: Mavis/Amazon on display in Coniston posted by Rob Boden on April 11, 2008 at 20:22:52:
Thanks for the Mavis details, Rob. I stand corrected about the stepping of Amazon’s mast. I have been back to the transcript of a brief TV interview with Pauline Marshall in 2001 (to the sound track of which, IIRC, Ian kindly provided a link):-
Pauline:- It became rather irritating because I've kept silent for years about all this - it had an extra seat or thwart and the centreboard case goes from one to the other, there's also a difference that the mast is stepped in an iron ring.
The interview then continued, and I will summarise it to avoid copyright issues: The WSM Curator then came in and said that AR was not trying to be specific, and in a ‘tiny drawing like that’ perhaps he felt that more seats would appear cumbersome. The ‘Voice Over’ pointed out that surely Pauline knows her boats – “She is an Amazon, after all!”. The Curator answered that it wasn’t something he could really discuss.
In the course of a subsequent lengthy letter to the Westmorland Gazette, Pauline said: