Posted by Magnus Smith on August 25, 2014 at 05:30:57 user Magnus.
In Reply to: Re: Amazon and Scarab's keels/hull bottoms posted by Roger Wardale on August 25, 2014 at 01:54:23:
Roger, this is a great discussion, and hopefully you understand I am just trying to learn more, and not argue against you! As I said, I do partly agree with your overall viewpoint.
Your mention of Piel Island comes just a few moments after I saw a someone's Lakeland holiday photos on Facebook - one showed Mavis' brass builders plaque. It reads "W. Macilroy. Piel Island".
I have just discovered another source to support the comments about bow design:
Discovering Swallows & Ransomes (Chapter 7, p75-77)
Boat-designer Richard Pierce wrote to John Berry:
Mavis [has no] saving grace!
...The fine forward sections are most unusual and inappropriate for a small sailing boat.
It is shocking to think that Mavis was a dangerous boat. Fancy a family taking their precious children out in her so many times.
This adds an extra weight to the act of donating Swallow to Ransome (when the Altounyans left the Lake District).
If we postulate that they were away of Mavis' failings, then I suppose they would feel they could not give a dodgy boat to a friend.
So they would be forced to keep the danger for themselves?! Or maybe they just didn't know the dangers. We are, after all, talking of a time before personal buoyancy aids or buoyancy compartments in boats, which leads me onto my next question, and another anecdote.
John Berry suspects they were aware, as the children were never allowed to sail if the wind was above a moderate level.
Who was the fatality that Roger mentioned? I can only think of Ted Scott who died sailing Cocky.
This sort of thing must have happened far too often in the days before boats had air tanks, or cars had seat-belts.
It reminds me of an account in John Berry's book (chapter 3, 38-40) where he capsized a borrowed 14ft gunter-rigged dinghy. Only the tip of the mast showed above the water, and John was resussicated by a passing motorboat crew after he trod water for ages and finally slipped under.
The great question Roger asks - "Is it likely that he would 'give' Nancy and Peggy a dinghy based on one that he thought was inferior to Swallow?" - does not have a clear-cut answer for me personally.
The book contains plenty of 'love' for Swallow, and calls her the "best little boat" and so on. She is defended strongly if the Amazons criticise, or if she goes slow.
To me, this indicates that Swallow should be considered vastly superior to Amazon...and thus the link to Mavis ("not a patch on Swallow") does not suffer in my eyes.
Maybe it's all rose-tinted spectacles and being too close to the wood to see the trees?! Roger is doing a great job in making me state proper reasons rather than going on gut feelings.