Pond yacht by Bedford - scale unknown - RESTORATION - design unknown

[Bedford]

I've been asked to restore a lovely old pond yacht for display in a local yacht club.

It's beautifully made, the hull is carved from a solid piece of mahogany hollowed out and the deck is another piece of mahogany. Perfectly fitted and screwed down around the margins. 

I have no experience with pond yachts so I'm looking for some help with the details.

Specs are:-

• L.O.D.    668mm - 26 1/4"
• Beam    160mm - 6 1/4"
• Mast     843mm - 33 3/16" with lower shroud mast band at 315mm - 12 3/8" high and upper shroud/stay mast band at 618mm - 24 5/16" high
• Boom   493mm - 19 3/8"
• Bowsprit is missing

 

So the questions so far:-

 

The rigging left in the mast suggests she was a fractional sloop but I'm not sure if she would have been gaff or Bermudan rigged. There are still two haly'ds at the top of the mast but it looks like there could have been three.

 

How long should the bowsprit be, its heel, for want of a better word, is 114mm - 4.5" aft of the bow.

 

There are two sheet horses, each running the width of the deck. 1 for the jib and one for the main. Might she have a club footed jib.

 

There is no "comb" for setting the tiller and it has no holes in it or any indication it had things connected to it. How did it steer.

 

I don't need to get her back to true sailing condition but I'd like her to look as close as possible to original and I'm hoping they don't want her stripped back and refinished because she's in gorgeous aged condition.

 

[druxey]

That is a lovely hull you have there - it looks in pretty good condition.

[Bedford]

Mate, it's exquisite. In the second pic you can make out scroll work at the bow, it's duplicated at the stern and it has been suggested it could be 100 years old but I don't know about that as the finish is in beautiful condition.

There appears to be no shrinkage in the deck either as there is absolutely no gap anywhere around the margin. Master craftsman built from excellent quality timber.

It's a real pleasure/honour to be working on it.

[Jim Lad]

What a lovely old yacht!

 

If she originally had gaff rig, I would expect to find some evidence of the gaff fitting on the mast. I think most pond yachts had club footed jibs, so you'd be pretty safe to go with that. Short bowsprits were also common on pond yachts, so maybe just go with something that looks balanced.

 

As for the steering, is the rudder stiff to turn? She may have had a simple friction arrangement.

 

John

[Bedford]

Hi John

Thanks for the input, I'm pretty well convinced she had a Bermudan mains'l due to the height of the mast and the lack of wear or any other indication of a gaff on the mast.

The rudder turns quite freely so that's still a bit of a mystery. I'm not too worried about it as it'll be fine for display purposes as is.

[Bedford]

I'm starting to make progress on the pond yacht,  I've ordered some rigging fittings suitable to the period and created a new cranse iron.

 

[Jim Lad]

Very nice bit of 'blacksmithing', mate.

 

John

[KeithAug]

Lovely project Steve and great work on the cranse. She has hell of a keel so I assume she carried a lot of sail. Given the apparent height of the mast I agree she was probably sloop rigged. I wonder whether she was converted at some time earlier in her career. Presumably we will never know - perhaps carbon dating would help🙂.

Edited November 22 by KeithAug

[Bedford]

Thanks Keith, the existing mast and boom appear to be original and a second boat we've been given of similar age and size confirms that, she was most likely built as a Bermudan sloop.

These are very simply rigged so it won't take much work in that regard but I think I'll need to build a nice display stand for it.

[Bedford]

I've made some good progress on the pond yacht, thanks to Mark Pearse for sending me the rigging cord!

 

I've made two travellers for the sheet horses from hard brass wire, now to try and work out how the sheets were originally set up, I'm trying to make sense of the pre-existing holes in the spars.

 

There is a bloke I know through dinghy sailing that has mylar sail fabric suitable for pond yachts, he's coming through in the next couple of days and will drop it in for me. I think it'll be a whole lot easier than me trying to sew normal fabric nicely.

 

[KeithAug]

11 hours ago, Bedford said:

that has mylar sail fabric suitable for pond yachts,

That's good. In the past I have tried very hard to find something suitable. It would be good to know where he gets it. The yacht is looking very smart Steve.

[Jim Lad]

Your little pond yacht is looking very smart, mate!

 

John

[Bedford]

On 12/4/2024 at 7:05 AM, KeithAug said:

That's good. In the past I have tried very hard to find something suitable. It would be good to know where he gets it. 

Keith, he got it from an RC sailing supplier here in Aus. There will be similar shops in your neck of the woods. It's a hard film kind of like a very thin x-ray film and the stuff he gave me is somewhat translucent, it's more for function than scale appearance but I think it'll do the job.