LOOKING AT …LOOKING DOWN…LOOKING OUT FROM…SLIGHTLY BIGGER BOATS
I suppose it all depends on what you mean by slightly, but if you are hoping for a battleship, destroyers and cruisers, you are going to be disappointed.
Perhaps the largest sailing vessels on the Norfolk Broads are the wherries. Hands up all those who have read their Coot Club by Arthur Ransome – thought so, well you won’t need me to explain what a wherry is and what it does.
For the lesser literate, wherries were first built in the 17th century. As many people will know, the rivers of the Norfolk Broads are relatively shallow; wherries were developed as cargo carrying boats to move goods through these waters from the larger ports, like Great Yarmouth to wherever they were needed.
They also carried locally made goods to places like Norwich, Yarmouth and Lowestoft. I am told that by the nineteenth century there were hundreds of them, but inevitably as other forms of transport flourished, the wherries became outmoded.
Some wherries were adapted into pleasure boats and quite a few of the older ones were deliberately sunk at the beginning of the second world war to deter enemy flying boats from landing on the broads in the event of an invasion.
All very sad really – I think wherries are real treasures of past ages.
There were a few wherry yachts built at the beginning of the 20th century – just for the tourists, but also sail cruisers also came in to fashion.
Cruiser class is now an established sailing group with its own organisation, rules and handicaps. I enjoy photographing (and trying to stay out of the way of cruisers) they are, in their own way majestic and magnificent.
Last week some of the photographs I took of the Punt Club regatta were shot from the bow of a sail cruiser, Catspaw, owned by Brian Wilkins. Photographing a cruiser race is as exciting as Norfolk Punt race, especially when you are at the front end as they head into the fray!
I think that probably winds up the boat bit for this season on the blog. There are many more sailing pictures from the local regatta on the sailing pages of my website. CLICK HERE
Next week though will be a bit different.