Posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on September 08, 2002 at 20:08:31 from 213.210.23.73 user ACB.
In Reply to: Re: Racundra - comments by Adlard Coles posted by Peter H on September 08, 2002 at 19:28:01:
"Heavy" means that she displaced a lot of water - she weighed a lot for her size. Unless she had a very big sail area, which RACUNDRA evidently did not, this would make her slow and boring to sail, but comfy in bad weather.
A "double ender" is simply a boat with a pointed stern, like a ship's lifeboat - common in Scandinavia, and sometimes called a "Scandinavian stern" - as opposed to the transom stern (cut off square above the waterline) which John eulogises in WDMTGTS and which GOBLIN possesses, or the counter stern, running out to a small transom above the waterline, which my own boat has, and which John disapproves of.
It's evident, from Coles' own writings, that he disguised RACUNDRA out of respect for Ransome, who had already written about her.