I saw that article! How can I help? One prototype Noinin. built 1907 and last seen at Upton - never rigged as a Yarmouth.

Six Yarmouths built in all - I suspect all built before WW1 for members of Great Yarmouth YC - which subsequently merged into NBYC. Number 1 burnt during the war, 2,3 & 5 sailing, 4 being slowly killed in the Museum of the Broads. Not a bright way to preserve a boat that could and should be sailing - particularly by an organisation whose raison d'etre is to preserve rather than destroy our history.

The GYYC handbooks all mention plans held by Yarmouth solicitors - the firms have merged several times but their archivist advises they no longer have the plans. Began to whinge about four years of bombing followed by the '53 floods.

Lug rigs fell from popularity as they weren't very efficient - particularly to windward. These things are pretty quick off wind - more sail than a White Boat, a centreplate to lift and the very flat sections at the bow will permit planing. The 'pothunter' rig is massive. The jib tack will also pull to windward for more effective sail area off wind.

If you'd like to do something useful you could go and find Gladys number 6 - the only one unaccounted for. Some stories have her taken to the Fens. Happy hunting.

Sail number was 6 and later H6.

I'm afraid the old GYP&HC registration details won't help much. When the Broads Authority took over the navigation they kindly binned nearly all the GYP&H records. I think there is a single register remaining in Colegate. The County Records Office would at least have provided a home. Hey ho... spilt milk. J

The Medcalf connection was followed through a number of inter-war club handbooks. The boat and owner is included in both Great Yarmouth Yacht Club handbooks and Yare & Bure S.C. handbooks and the subsequent Norfolk Broads Yacht Club handbook when the clubs amalgamated in 1937. There's no guarantee they're 100% totally accurate but usually not far off. The family seem to have had a number of addresses whilst given as owners of Gladys:

1919 (Y&BSC) Major E.F. Medcalfe, Hollowdene, Cooden Drive, Bexhill on sea.
1932 (Y&BSC) Major G.F.Medcalf, St. Annes, Crowborough.
1938 E.F. Medcalf given as owner in NBYC Handbook.
1938 Horning Sailing Club Handbook, Medcalf, Major F.F. 22 Buckingham Gate SW1.

All references to Medcalfs & Gladys just evaporate after WWII.

This doesn't have to be terminal; White boat 2 surfaced at Martham after several decades - in fact no-one knew her proper name.

If you think you've found it, I can verify without resorting to a measurement form. Not quite as close winded as a Y&BOD but the pothunter rig is very considerably larger than the mainsail in your photo. I understand White Damsel had one - at least she did before she went into the Stalham mortuary. J.

Noinin is at Hickling and was racing during Hickling Broad Village Ragatta this year.

Word in the reedbed is that Dick Mace may have acquired Pimpernel and is considering refettling. That's got two out of five sorted. Haven't heard much of Cigarette but doubtless our young friend will return with Gladys - which leaves the major absentee as White Damsel in the damnable museum.

I really do think that treating decent boats in this manner makes voluntary donations to the Museum of the Broads highly questionable.

Who'd want to encourage people to do this? Or perhaps they'd like to publicly try to justify their actions?

Cark, Cark! Old Frank.

I am a "Friend of the Museum of the Broads" and, I hope a friend of Robert Paul's. Until he got moving and set the museum up, there was little being done, beyond private initiatives which themselves deserve praise, to conserve the boating (and other) heritage of Broads artifacts. It is easy to sit back and snipe at the museum's efforts, but they do a sterling job with extremely limited resources and have had some significant achievements.

They have had no success attracting funding from the Broads Authority nor, I believe, from the National Lottery, but they soldier on. Better to turn your guns on those bastions of patronage - or put your hands in your pockets or turn out and help with the practical work. A quick search on the web will give you an address to contact or send your contributions. OF's talent for research and documentation would be extremely useful. Are you up for it?

Gaffer

Not so. Firstly Jennifer Broom (nee Woods - now living in New Zealand) told me herself that the Museum of the Broads advised her that they wouldn't accept White Damsel on loan - she was obliged to donate it to them. Use or lack of use of the museum's own property rests fairly and squarely on their own shoulders.

The whole point, Gaff Rigged is that the museum are not preserving this GYOD - they are destroying the boat. In maritime matters, use it or lose it applies to all but archaeological specimens - such as the portion of Bronze Age boat preserved in Dover Museum or the Mary Rose. Wooden boats are meant to be renewable - although the Museum service generally has trouble with this concept. The best example of this has to be the Cutty Sark. The museum that was meant to be caring for the ship virtually destroyed it. The fire merely provided the opportunity to rectify some of the problems - but she will be little more than a tourist attraction when reopened to the public.

If a Martian dropped down to earth and saw a boat out of the water he might think it an entirely different object to the boats he saw floating. Boats have so much more to offer. In a Museum you can see and you might even be allowed to touch - put a boat on the water, the sails fill, the boat moves, it lives. Boats that are being sailed also have to be maintained or they break. There is a temptation that string halyards and polyfilla planking will suffice for an exhibit.

I remain utterly unconvinced. The Museum of the Broads should either sail White Damsel or dispose of the boat to someone who will undertake to sail and maintain her. Two examples of historical local vessels well maintained by use are Albion and Excelsior. Excelsior is in first class seaworthy order , yet still 'core' listed by the National Maritime Museum as one of the fifty or so most important vessels in the UK.

That's the way to do it. Kindly cease to destroy your exhibits!