"Daisy"
was a 22 feet over the deck gaff cutter. I never actually managed to discover
her true age with any certainty. But the best theory is that she was built
around 1927 with the name "Wendy". (Wendy was a name invented
by J.M.Barry in his book "Peter Pan".)
Her rather light carvel pine on oak construction seems to indicate that she was built for pleasure and not as a work boat. If we assume that she is also a south coast boot, her shallow draft (2' 6") may indicate that her original home port could have been Poole. It's all guesswork and hearsay, but it's the best I could do.
I got the hull from Belsize Boatyard in Southampton, a wonderful old scrapyard of a place, as long as you could put up with 'Squeaky', sadly it's closed now. It was a bit of a wreck, no rudder, no engine, tatty glass fibre patches on the inside and you could see daylight through the seams.
After a few months this was all sorted. The most enjoyable part was making the mast from a tree that I bought from the Forestry Commission. A gaffers mast is parallel up to the hounds so I cut a 5" diameter hole in plywood, then kept planing until the tree passed through the hole. It was a similar exercise with the gaff and bowsprit. The boom was adapted from a spar from Belsize.
The mainsail was made by Banks, the fore staysail was an old dinghy sail I had, and the flying jib I made from parachute silk.
The end result was; that given the right wind (not too strong) she would charge along.
After some time I moved from Southampton to Dorset, Daisy sat on her new mooring on the Frome at Wareham. Three years later she was sunk by the 1989 hurricane.
Her rather light carvel pine on oak construction seems to indicate that she was built for pleasure and not as a work boat. If we assume that she is also a south coast boot, her shallow draft (2' 6") may indicate that her original home port could have been Poole. It's all guesswork and hearsay, but it's the best I could do.
I got the hull from Belsize Boatyard in Southampton, a wonderful old scrapyard of a place, as long as you could put up with 'Squeaky', sadly it's closed now. It was a bit of a wreck, no rudder, no engine, tatty glass fibre patches on the inside and you could see daylight through the seams.
After a few months this was all sorted. The most enjoyable part was making the mast from a tree that I bought from the Forestry Commission. A gaffers mast is parallel up to the hounds so I cut a 5" diameter hole in plywood, then kept planing until the tree passed through the hole. It was a similar exercise with the gaff and bowsprit. The boom was adapted from a spar from Belsize.
The mainsail was made by Banks, the fore staysail was an old dinghy sail I had, and the flying jib I made from parachute silk.
The end result was; that given the right wind (not too strong) she would charge along.
After some time I moved from Southampton to Dorset, Daisy sat on her new mooring on the Frome at Wareham. Three years later she was sunk by the 1989 hurricane.
I raised her and put her in my garden for repairs. But she was never to see the water again.
The storm was not the last of her problems. For personal reasons, I had to sell her. The chap who bought her transferred her to his garden. Then he had some kind of dispute with his neighbor, who sneaked round and burnt Daisy to the ground. RIP.
Passing beneath the Itchen Bridge
New, longer bowsprit in the making
Replacing deck over the counter stern