LOCAL HERO: THE SMACK'S BOAT

East Coast boatbuilder Brian Kennell builds a popular family dayboat in GRP which respects her workboat pedigree, writes Marc Fovargue-Davies.

With photographs by Gill Moon

he 1970s were not kind to most wooden boats; the who made what would eventually become the Smack's Boat, boom in home building from kits was petering out, clearly had a better eye than most; he arrived at Cooks Yard Twith GRP the new material of in Maldon in 1918 on a month's choice. But to build fibreglass boats, Above: Master boatbuilder trial, ‘to see how he got on’. Fifty- you needed a mould – and that was the three years later, he was still there, saving of a few small traditional boats Alf Last finishing one of his recognised as the best boatbuilder which would otherwise have been lost wooden smack's boats in the area – but he still hadn’t been forever. The Smack’s Boat was one of at Cook's Yard. told if he’d got the job! His final the lucky ones. boat before retirement in 1971, was While much is known about the built for Gerald Dennis of Taylor's barges and smacks built by the Essex yards, their small boats, Sailmakers, a little further along the Hythe – but not long after often built by eye rather than from plans, are more elusive delivery, Dennis had to move to Ireland and the new boat was – as are the craftsmen who made them. However, Alf Last, left to fend for herself.

14 www.watercraft-magazine.com SMACK'S BOAT SPECIFICATION LOA: 12'3" (3.7m) Beam: 5'0" (1.5m) Draft – plated raised: 6" (150mm) plate lowered: 2'9" (0.84m) Sail area approx: 82 sq.ft (7.6m²) Weight approx: 250 lbs (114 kg)

www.watercraft-magazine.com 15 Above: Using the long oars for a long pull. Right: The simple, practical, easy-to-maintain layout reflects the GRP Smack's Boat's workaday origins.

It might all have ended there; boatbuilding was changing out of all recognition. You need patience and skill to take the lines off a hull and build a new boat but those skills were in ever shorter supply. GRP offered a more straightforward solution, so Ron Hall took the first mould from the original hull. He not only preserved the lines of a 12'3" (3.7m) boat with at least half a century of development behind her but also little details like the bung in its original position by the garboard; we hadn't seen the last of Alf yet. Brian Kennell, builder of the Smack’s Boat since the early 1980s, has continued the process of evolution. The hull shape is hard to improve upon but a choice of buoyancy arrangements and fit out, plus customers’ own ideas, mean that no two boats are alike. There's also a choice of rigs, with the single balanced lug proving more popular than the sloop; it's not known what kind of rig Dennis had but when a sailmaker buys a boat for his own use, you can be fairly sure that she'll perform! They also row so well that many early boats were used purely as tenders by smacks and bawleys. Since Brian has spent much of his life sailing and rebuilding smacks, including his own boat Hyacinth CK 256, the Smack's Boat's other talents soon became obvious. Now, most are used in the way Gerald Dennis had planned to use the original. Jill Sullivan, proud owner of Whisper, the latest Smack's Boat, wanted a boat to enjoy singlehanded, to which the the family's classic Sparkman & Stephens Swan isn't really suited. Having started her sailing career in Ospreys – even being suspected of choosing early boyfriends on the basis of their usefulness on a trapeze – the new boat would clearly need to be fun to sail and since her husband Brendan, who spent much

16 www.watercraft-magazine.com of his time at Cambridge rowing, remains a keen oarsman, she looked immaculate, with the reflections sparkling under her could be no slouch with the 'wooden topsail', either. elegant counter. This was really what we’d come for; what There are, of course, plenty of good sail-and-oar boats does the Smack’s Boat, a GRP version of Alf Last’s last known but throw in the need to cope with life on a drying mooring surviving boat, look like beside an original Essex smack? and the options start to narrow. Balancing competing criteria Transcur and Whisper have much in common. They’re from is what working boats were all about; speed and handiness the same part of Essex, they both have a graceful sheer, with are always useful, while basic economics demanded a boat similar shades of grey on their hulls. Transcur doesn’t have which could also handle local conditions without too much much in the way of brightwork either; the Colne fishermen wear and tear or maintenance. The Smack’s Boat balances were not unfamiliar with it – many spent their summers all those needs very well, which is probably why there’s a crewing racing yachts, after all – it was simply superfluous. growing number in her native Essex, as well as over the border Looking at Whisper streaming astern on her painter, you don’t in Suffolk and beyond. see a GRP dinghy tied up to a wooden smack; you see a pair of Looking down at Whisper on a bright, still morning at boats which look like they belong together. It was no surprise Levington Marina, her workboat credentials are clear. There's to learn that Transcur will soon have her own Smack’s Boat. not much brightwork aside from her thwarts and stern sheets; With the sail down and the ebb taking us back towards the bottom boards are oiled. There's a minimum of fittings, Levington, it was time to try Whisper under oars. She has two the majority galvanised and her light grey hull is protected pairs, one long and superbly leathered by Jill in the traditional by a rope fender. Since comfort was also high on the list, the manner plus a shorter pair. The long oars are at their best with buoyancy tanks on each quarter have been replaced by a single the rig out of the boat but it was impossible to resist trying tank aft; this allows the sternsheets to be lowered, resulting in them anyway. It's often said that an advantage of the lug rig both a good view under the boom and a very civilised backrest, is that the spars all fit in the boat but with any sort of useful courtesy of the curve of her hull. sail area, ‘fitting into the boat’ means tucking one end of the However, stepping aboard – over her foredeck! – then yard and boom under the stern sheets, with the other over the standing up while the oars were passed down, provided a bow to make space to use the oars. This is where the shorter surprise: she’s as steady as a rock. At 250 lbs (114 kg), she’s pair prove their worth – although after a long pull against a a little heavier than many modern boats of her size and she stiff breeze or a bit of tide, you'll have earned your pint by does have a steel centreplate. Even taking these things into day's end. account, her stability is impressive; it’s easy to see why so It's easy to see why the Smack’s Boat is so popular; she many owners take children and dogs out – and equally easy looks the part, sails and rows well and asks for little in return. to imagine her ferrying some heavy gear or fishing for cockles. Without GRP, she could not have been saved by a mould taken We left the marina and headed up the Orwell towards Pin from a decaying original and would have been lost forever. You Mill, in search of spritsail barges and hopefully, a smack or could add more brightwork and posh fittings but somehow, two. Preparing to hoist the 82 square foot (7.6m²) balanced that wouldn't feel right; those Essex working boats have a lugsail soon revealed that taking such things as a traveller certain style and no need of bling. Handing Whisper back, with a hook to attach the yard for granted is a clear symptom after a memorable day, one thing is clear; she’s not just called of excessive 'yachtiness'; a plain halyard end and a simple a Smack’s Boat, she really is a smack’s boat. black mark on the yard, soon dispelled any nonsense of that sort! Having scoured the memory and come up with a rolling CONTACT hitch – Jill later pointed out that a more appropriate choice Brian Kennell Boatbuilders, Whitehouse Cottage, Layer Breton, would have been a Gaff Topsail Halyard bend – up went the Colchester CO2 OPT Tel: +44 (0)1206 331212 sail. The halyard is led back to the helm and made off to a cleat on the thwart – perfect for sailing single-handed. While her helmsman noted the Turk's Head knot around the tiller and made a mental note to be a bit more ‘Black Welly’ in future, Whisper got on with the job in hand, quietly picking up speed. The sail, by Steven Hall at North Sea Sails, was not only effective but with its narrow vertical panels, loose foot and traditional detailing, really looked the part as well. The Smack’s Boat is quite generously canvassed but while some boats need a reef early, Whisper feels like she'd hang on to full sail rather longer than most, the result of both her impressive stability and the fact that majority of the power is quite low down in her sail. Today though, there was more temptation to whistle than there was to shorten sail. We passed the sailing barge Hydrogen coming down from Ipswich and at her mooring off Pin Mill was the smack Transcur CK 365. Built in 1889 by Aldous & Son of Brightlingsea as an oyster dredger and then rebuilt at the end of the 1990s, she www.watercraft-magazine.com 17