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MY82 Sue
I was hoping you can help me identify this yacht "Sue" which I recently inherited from my father. I know that he played with it with his uncle in the 1930s. I in my turn sailed it as a child in the 1960s
It is about 6' from keel to top of the mast, and about 4'6" from bowsprit to stern.It is the only model yacht I have seen with such a split keel.
Reply: This is an old hull with a somewhat more modern rig. The style of the hull, with the twin fin and bar keel, dates from the late 19th century or the early years of the 20th. Boats of this style had ceased to be built anywhere by 1920 and, in serious competition in the more advanced centres of model yachting, were gone by 1906 or very shortly after under the influence of designers like John Odgers and Bill Daniels. The boat is most likely to be a 10-rater to the Length and Sail Area Rule, as described on the Rules pages. A quick calculation will confirm this.
The steering gear also dates the boat as before the Braine gear of 1904. It is a relatively crude sheet to tiller gear with the amount of helm controlled by a pin rack. There is a means of locking the helm central and also, more unusually, options for fixed settings a few degrees off centre.
The Rig is not original to the boat's build, but probably dates from when it was being used in the 1930s. It is typical of the practice of serious model yachtsmen between the wars. The original rig would have been a Solent rig as shown for XPDNC on the Rules page, or rather less likely a low leg of mutton like that on the Paxton boat also on the Rules page.
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