Boat Register

Additional Build Notes

Current Owner
Andy Turner

Known Owners

.
Initial RYA measurement – 10 June
Hull weight – 162lb
Hull number – 3164

1st owner Goldsmith College, London
Welsh Harp

June 1977 – David Sanders, Tamesis Club

1978 – AB Yuille, Rickmansworth SC
Named “Another Think”

1983 – Susan M Harris, Tamesis Club
Named “Peppita”

July 2009 – bought on ebay from S. McTighe, Wembley SC, by Tony Thresher.

2010 – renovated and sold to Richard Root . Part exchanged back to Tony Thresher May 2013 for work done on Richard Root’s Mark IV conversion of ‘Tit Willow’

Fitted with double skin floor as part of rebuild.

cJune 2014 – Andy Turner, Overy Staith SC

March 2023 – advertised for sale, Norfolk, www.appolloduck

2024 – perhaps now located Dell Quay SC

History

Built May 1967 for Goldsmiths College, hull number 3164 and raced on initially at Welsh Harp.

Later raced at Rickmansworth and Tamesis.

One of three wooden Fireflies granted dispensations by the RYA during the c 1970’s to trial transom ports for self draining after a swamping or capsize; the trials were conducted by the NFA and RYA but were not considered totally successful and the suggested rule change to permit their use did not proceed.

It was found that it was not possible to lash the stern buoyancy bags tightly enough against the floor of the boat to provide sufficient lift, and the rocker shape of the hull lead to much of the water in the hull sloshing forward under the bow, away from the drains, and risking another capsize stern over bow!

But since then, with the introduction of the Mark lV layout, and increasing numbers of hulls fitted with a built-in bow buoyancy tank, instead of an inflated bag, perhaps this idea just might be worth revisiting for the wooden Fireflies?
(January 2014)