Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on November 11, 2005 at 15:50:03 from 80.3.128.6 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Re: Well? Re: Arthur Ransome and S&A in Wikipedia posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on November 11, 2005 at 10:26:12:
My impression is that all pre-war dinghies with which I was acquainted had steel centreplates. I don't recall wooden plates coming in until the ply dinghies of the 1950s and these were dreadfully prone to snapping off.
My old SHEMARA had a fairly small steel plate - no tackle needed to hoist it - and yet this apparently was enough to sink her.
But I do remember RNSA 14s - a pre-war clinker design about the same size as AR's boats - having sealed metal canisters fitted as buoyancy and they floated - not very well - when capsized. It is certainly conceivable that AMAZON would have had something of the sort fitted.