MR : A Personal Memory of Early Championships

A Personal Memory of Early Championships

Robert Harris reminisces - Summer 2004

My brother John and I first went sailing on the Norfolk Broads in 1946 with my father and grandfather. We had read about the Broads in Arthur Ransome's wonderful stories about children having great adventures in boats and learned the finer points of boat handling in a lugsail dinghy just like the little boats in Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons'.

1946 was also the year that the 'The Yachting World' introduced the 'Merlin'. I was fascinated by the drawings of 'Merlin', just imagine a beam of 4ft 6in and a 25ft mast with three sets of spreaders! The first Merlin/Rocket I actually saw was at the Festival of Britain in 1951. That was a Chippendale built Proctor design which looked very different to my five year memory of 'Merlin'. She was one of the first fruits of the Merlin/Rocket merger, a year later sister boats were to finish first and second in the Championships. After several years of neglect that boat was eventually bought by Alan Hollidge of Hamble River S.C. She was given sail number 417 and Alan named her 'Abandon'.

In 1947 the 'Yachting World' introduced another innovative design by Jack Holt, the 'Y.W.Cadet'. John and I sailed them on a lake in a Barking public park for 2/6 an hour. In the one regatta that we entered we were thrashed by a redhead called Ray Prouse who subsequently became a top International 14 sailor. In 1951 I crewed for Bristol sailor John Hole in the second Cadet Week and by the beginning of the 1952 season we had completed a Bell kit in the lounge and were sailing with the top Cadet club Minima YC on the Thames at Kingston. We sailed pretty well at Cadet Week and finished 9th despite two retirements. No 720s in those days! Ralph Ellis crewed by his brother Brian won that Cadet Week. Subsequently Brian won two Cadet Weeks as a helmsman and in the 60s he and Ken Ellis won the M/R championships twice.

John took over the Cadet and I started crewing in Merlins and National 12s at Minima and at Ranelagh S.C. in the winter. Brian Appleton asked me to crew him at the Poole M/R Championship in 1952. We were both about 16. Brian was small and I was very inexperienced, I doubt if we weighed more than 16 stone together. His boat was 'Gail' sail number 28, an original Merlin with her heavy mast cut down to 22ft 6ins. The YW Annual described the conditions as 'moderate' but we were blown away on all points of sailing and I don't think we finished a race! Ian Proctor and Cliff Norbury won with Dick Vine and Tony Fox second, both were sailing the smooth planning Proctor Mk Is. Ian Proctor was using the first practical aluminium mast, he derigged and hid it after every race!

In those early days only three races were sailed for the M/R Championships which made for a very relaxed holiday with the spare days being used for picnics, exploring and so on. I think the 1953 Championship at Cowes was the last of these relaxed weeks. I sailed there with my Dad in a boat we borrowed from a boatbuilder who wanted to break into the class. She might have been breakthrough but we were totally outwitted by the strong tides and zephyrs off Cowes and did her no favours. The best thing that week was the picnic sail to Newtown Creek west of Cowes on the last day. Les Brain and Peter Easton won in 'Diabolo' sail no. 214. She was one of the 'Charm' family of Jack Holt boats as was 'Wanda' sail no. 218 which finished third. When I was stationed near Birmingham in the RAF I had the enormous pleasure of meeting Les Brain and sailing his legendary 'Diabolo' at Midland S.C.

In the winter of that year (1953) my Dad had a boat built By Jack Holt. In those days you could go into Jack's yard on the waterfront at Putney and choose the log of timber you wanted your boat to be built from. The boat was sail number 490 'Dizzy', supposedly named after my mother! 'Dizzy' was a throwback to the 'Charm' design mentioned earlier, she was intended purely for river sailing and never went to the Championships. My Dad normally sailed her in Minima club races and John or I took her to local river meetings. I nearly beat the legendary International Fourteen wizard Stewart Morris in 'Dizzy' at a meeting on the Henley Regatta reach open to all fourteen footers. The nearest she got to open water was when my Dad and I won East Coast Week at Burnham-on-Crouch beating Alan Warren's Mum and Dad, Doris and Frank, in their Holt boat.

I'll never forget my 16 year old brother John turning up at a Tamesis Club regatta with 'Dizzy' and his minute Cadet crew Henry. They were so light that both of 'Dizzy's' ends were well out of the water. They created havoc in the large M/R fleet. Today fifty years later John still does much the same in a forty four year old Jack Holt boat derived from the original 'Dizzy'.

National Service and other things got in the way and although I did lots of sailing in the RAF including Firefly week with Brian Appleton I didn't go to the M/R Championships again until Torquay in 1957. John and I sailed Jack Holt's 'Fiddlesticks' number 636. At times the easterly swell was enormous - high enough to hide the boat next to you yet the winds were light. Seasickness was a problem in some boats. John and I argued and did not do very well. The week was probably most memorable for the Mayor's open invitation to a supposedly private party in the Imperial Hotel and for the antics of those who did get in plus the unfortunate police dog which apparently slid the length of the ballroom's highly polished floor! (See John Stokes' interview in the last issue for more about that week!). John Oakley won for the second time with Tony Fox in 'Crew Cut', sail no. 684 a Proctor MK IX. It was believed they spread a rumour that the MK IX was very difficult to sail and it's a fact that only a handful of this great design were built in the next few years. Only one Jack Holt boat was in the first six at Torquay. Although it should have been pretty obvious from the recent results it really didn't occur to me that Jack Holt was unlikely to build any more Championship winning boats.

I had a new hull for my 21st birthday which I finished off in our garage. Up until then nearly every boat I had sailed had been designed by Jack Holt - Cadet, Twelve, M/R. and I asked Jack to build me a boat that I might win with. Others like Brian Saffrey-Cooper, Robin Judah, Mike Astley and the Brian Southcott/Adrian Legg team had seen light and bought Proctor Mk VIs or the versatile new MK XIs. My new Holt boat was 'Genevieve', Sail no. 838. I think that if she'd had a Proctor metal mast instead of the massive wooden stick she carried she might have gone quite well. I finished about 11th at Plymouth with Chris Winall in the 1958 Championship which was the last of John Oakley's three wins in a row. I did about the same again at Whitstable in 1959 with Geoff Tetley when Brian Southcott won his first Championship with Adrian Legg in a Proctor MK XI.

I missed Weymouth in 1960 and Bob Hoare's impressive win in his MK IX Surfboard number 1122. That championship marked the first 'podium' appearance of Alan Warren as a helmsman although he had appeared previously as Brian Saffrey-Cooper's crew. Surely there's nobody in any other dinghy class who has remained a top flight helmsman for as long! That year Alan was sailing an Adur boat, they were beginning to make an impact.

I was the Association committee member responsible for the 1961 Championship at Gorleston. The strong tides off that part of the East Coast worried me greatly but in the end it turned out to be a very enjoyable week with my hero Les Brain running the show on the water. Great Yarmouth and Gorleston S.C. were the most hospitable and generous hosts one could imagine. The best story of that week can be read in the forum - see Gurn's posting of 20/10/03 about Ned Sparrow and scroll down to John Harris's contribution. Brian Southcott and Roger Pratt won that one in a Hoare MK IX Restless IV, sail no. 1222.

In 1961 I had a Proctor MK XI 1047 'Grey Goose' and was crewed by my fianc� Helen. We had sailed moderately well at Gorleston but in 1962 we were married and reckoned we were sailing a lot faster. The first day at Torquay it blew a howler, we ventured out of the harbour and then seriously wondered if we would be able to turn round before we got to Brixham! I know Helen was frightened and I'm pretty sure I was too. The race was cancelled and the next day Colin Stokes crewed me, we were probably leading up the first beat when the jib fell down.

The wind was a bit less the following day, Helen crewed and to our utter amazement we led again, this time as far as the gybe mark where we rolled over right in front of the eventual champions George Slack and Tony Ruffel in their Proctor MK XI Oui Oui'. A bouyancy bag came adrift and my misery was complete when Helen abandoned her bad tempered helmsman for the safety of a rescue boat. One of the most consistent teams at that time were Robin Judah and John Faulkner in their old Proctor MK VI 843 'Diki Diki'. They were 2nd at Torquay and obviously future champions we all thought.

1963 was our best year. After a lot of argument over the legality of the Adur 6 the builders came back with a new version - the Adur 7. We bought the first one, sail number 1502 and called her 'Helgel', my father-in-law's pet name for my wife. 'Helgel' was a goer, before the Championships which, were in June in those days, we sailed over sixty races and won forty of them. She had a 'C' section mast, fixed swept back spreaders and Ratsey sails and she was fast.

The Championship was at Whitstable again. It was very windy at times and a flat calm at others and the tides were strong. In those days we were normally sailing a practice race on the Sunday and five championship races. In 1963 I think we sailed four championship races with the first one not until the Wednesday when we had two races. In the first we were third in a blanket finish. In that race Ned Sparrow in 1631 'Blatter' led at the first mark but Robin Judah and John Faulkner won in their new Proctor MK XV 'Gin Fizz'. There's the new champion we all thought. Alan Warren was second sailing with one of the first centre mainsheets which was attached to a simple post in the middle of the boat.

It was very windy in the second race and Brian Southcott who had wallowed in the morning race took Tony Davis as a heavier crew. We were delighted to finish eighth in the very testing conditions and I can't remember who won but Brian did sufficiently well to be back in the running. On Thursday we finished fifth in a race I can't remember at all. Because of all the capsizes and gear failures on the Wednesday we could not be worse than third overall.

The last race on the Friday was very testing with capricious winds plus rain, hail and poor visibility. On the penultimate leg of a very peculiar race Brian sailed well to leeward un-noticed by most of us in the mist and passed us and Robin to take the lead. It was a risky move in the shifty breeze because if he'd had to tack for the next mark we would all have sailed over him but Brian was the best wind 'snifter' there ever was and he got it right. On the last leg Brian was a hundred yards ahead of Robin who could still tie for first overall if he finished second. I would have been happy to stay behind Robin, our third place overall was assured and unless one or both of our opponents retired we could not improve our position. In drifting conditions 'Helgel's' slim, V shaped hull was simply faster than Robin's chunky heavy weather MK XV. We inexorably drifted past him only a few boat's length to leeward relegating him to second overall behind Brian in Restless IV. Robin never sailed a Merlin/Rocket again, he subsequently raced a Dragon for the UK in the 1968 Olympics. In the 70s I sailed with Robin in several Soling regattas but I don't think we ever talked about that last race at Whitstable.

A notable newcomer at Whitstable in 1963 was our esteemed Chairman Pat who sailed 684 'Crewcut' with his mother Marie, who sadly passed away recently.

Some at Whitstable felt that Brian Southcott should not have been allowed to take a heavier crew for the Wednesday p.m. race. I sailed all the races with a lightweight woman crew which was unusual in those days and we would probably have finished second overall if Brian had not taken Tony. I was so thrilled with our week that I didn't think much about it at the time but I supported a subsequent rule change to prevent it happening again.

We put a lot of preparation into the 1963 season. We had one of the fastest boats and sailed her really well but what we did not do was to prepare ourselves for the possibility that we could win the Championship. Later that year we won Salcombe Week with 'Helgel' at our first attempt. I've always thought we tied with my brother John but the Year Book does not say that.

In 1964 I sailed Helgel at the Poole Championships with Bill Wise. We were one of the favourites but we had to count a result in the thirties and did not make the top six. Conditions were generally light and fluky which suited Brian Ellis and Ken Ellis (not his brother) who won their first Championship in 'Fantastica' sail no. 1344 which was the first and only win by a Proctor MK XII.

The 1965 Championship was a disaster for the race management team which included me as Association chairman. Strong winds prevailed throughout the week. During that and all previous championships the Sailing Instructions stated that if only two races could be sailed one race would be counted. That's exactly what happened. The disaster was that on the second morning a NON-Championship race was sailed for the trophy and prizes for the previous day's cancelled race. John and I won that race but the afternoon's Championship race was cancelled and by the end of the week only two Championship race had been sailed. Alan Warren and Barry Dunning in Nokes designed 'Cotopaxi' sail no.1584 and Ian Brown in a MK IX 'Red Pepper', sail no.1677, tied for first place. The unfortunate David Child in his Truman boat 'Beat Nik' sail no. 1523 had two seconds but had to be content with third place.

I sailed several more Championships after that but never came close to winning again. I had a succession of boats, my favourite was 'Baccarat' sail no. 2614 which originally belonged to my brother John. She was one of a successful group of Rowsell built 'Satisfactions'. Very light and fragile she was past her best for Championship winning but still superb at Salcombe.

In October 1984 I had a trial flight with an instructor in a glider and was hooked. I flew solo before the end of that year. I've remained connected with the class via the annual pilgrimage to Salcombe, the website and the magazine, but I never raced a Merlin/Rocket again.