One way of identifying the class or make of a sailing yacht
or dinghy is to observe the sail insignia which may give glues as to which type
she is. I was recently asked by Tony Lawlor if I could identify the make of his
trailer sailer. At first I struggled, and I couldn’t find an identical yacht
featured on the Internet. I started my research by looking at similar vessels, with
a view to discovering who had designed them, in the hope they may also have designed
Tony’s yacht.
That proved unfruitful. Then I came up with the brilliant
idea of looking up sail insignias. His had a crown over the letters ‘SK’, but
again, I drew a blank. I remembered seeing a photo on the Internet of a similar
vessel, and somewhere in the back of my mind I knew what she was. Annoyingly I
could not recall it, and I had to admit I did not know what class of boat she
was. Only an hour of so later I casually looked at boats for auction on Ebay,
and there was a similar boat listed as a ‘Seasafe’. A little bit of Googling
revealed that her full trade name was ‘Seasafe Dandy’, and her builders were
Seasafe Boats.
I felt my quest had finally been achieved, but a closer
inspection revealed she was not identical to Tony’s. One thing this search has
revealed is that there are a vast number of different sailing vessels, most of
which can be identified by their sail insignias.
Tony will be sending me more photos of his boat and of the
sail insignia, which I shall publish here in due course. I have a feeling that
the sail may have come from another boat. However, feelings cannot be relied
upon. I thought the letters ‘SK’ could have stood for Sea King, but in fact Sea
Kings were built not far from where I live, and they have their own distinctive
sail insignia.
If you can put a name to the class of yacht shown in the photo,
both Tony and I shall be grateful.
Links
Mainsail Insignia Guide
Sail Marks Guide
Sail Insignias
Seasafe Dandy Pictures and Images
Seasafe Dandy for Sale £995
Seasafe on offer at Ebay
Seasafe Dandy –This boat has been sold, but good photos
Seasafe Dandy – YouTube
A strange looking craft indeed, I can't imagine it would perform too well other than as a motor sailor?
ReplyDeletePaul,
ReplyDeleteOn a different topic: thanks for your input to Gavin at 'In the Boatshed' pointing to a YouTube video showing Smack Racing at West Mersea this year - a super clip that captures the action.
Here is the actual YouTube link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3bkqQFqP-Q#t=173
Cheers,
Bill.