New Information about Gadfly II History

[jstarboat]

Thanks to Classic Boat Mag, I now have some new information about my Yachr Gadfly II. It would appear that the boat was build in Kent. In the 1930's in Whitstable for a local builder and that it was the second of three boats he had commissioned at the time. I have got information about its first few years from the 1930's to 1949 and that she was in Kent during that time. Then I have got some information about its whereabouts in the early 1960's then the trail goes cold from 1964 until early 2000's when the last owner purchased it. If anyone as any information the boaT'S WHEREABOUTS IN THE MISSING YEARS could people let me know.

Regards

Simon Papendick

[Jan Harber]

In Lloyds Register of Yachts 1967 there is a Gadfly listed as a 6 tons TM, 26ft 6in loa, gaff cutter designed by Dr Harrison Butler and built by Anderson Rigden and Perkins at Whitstable in 1937. Sail No 17Y. Owner Jack Merricks BEM. Home port Rye. Oil engine 1Cy 6BHP Penta '61.

Sounds as if she could be your boat.

Incidentally, in the early 1960s Anderson Rigden and Perkins built us a Merlin Rocket, a Superstition design, which we sailed at Ranelagh on the Thames at Putney.

[jstarboat]

Hi Jan,
I have been contacted by Alan Staley in Faversham and he as the build ledgers for the Anderson Rigden and Perkins Boatyard at Whitstable, which he believes build my Gadfly and two other boats called Gadfly which were build for a local builder to Whitstable. from his reasearch the local builder owned my boat from when it was build to until 1949 when it was sold.
I was then contacted another person who remembers his parents owning a boat like Gadfly II in the early 1960's and this was in the Solent by then. From the research I have been able to do she is not a Harrison Butler as she as the wrong underwater shape and from information gained from Alan Staley my boat was build in the early 1930's not the end of the decade as the one in Lloyds would have you believe, also the measurements in the Lloyds Registar do not try up with my boat. My boat as no tonnage registation on any of the structure of the boat, so it is unlikely she was ever on the Lloyds registar when she was build. Gadfly however as a hull shape a lot like a Hillyard 3 ton and 3 ton Blackwater sloop.
so my voyage continues to find out more about the boat I own.

Regards

Simon

www. jstarboatservices.co.uk

[ianc1200]

Quoting from Alan Staley's book on Anderson Rigden & Perkins; "The other yacht launched from the Whitstable yard in 1937 was the aux gaff cutter Gadfly. She had been started on spec, and was seen in frame by Mr Harold Doughty, the proprietor of a building company in Thanet, who liked what he saw and bought her. He sailed her until the outbreak of the 2nd World War, when he moved her up the river Stour to Grove Ferry where she was laid up for the duration . During the course of hostilities, a German bomb severly damaged the bow. She was subsequently repaired and sold. In 2003 she was sold in the West Country. Mr Doughty was to have two more yachts built by ARP in the years after the war.

A friend got Alan Staley's book because he is researching another Whitstable yard, R J Perkins and Sons (which doesn't seem to have anything to do with ARP. Any information on RJ Perkins would be gratefully received. In their last years ARP were known for their small GRP sailing boat the Anderson 22 (which is my interest as I've got one).

regards

IanC

[jstarboat]

Hi Ian,
Thanks for the information about Gadfly. It would be good to find out why Gadfly was built on spec and when it was originally started. Who was the designer of the boat, if it was one of the yards designs or one of the East Coast designers of the period. From the hull shape she is not a Dr Harrison Butler as it as the wrong underwater profile, It is more like a Hillyard or a Blackwater with a few dirrerences. From the engine beds that are in the boat she had a Stuart Turner 4/5 hp engine in at sometime. Looking at the transom and the sternpost this was fitted later as the sternpost was altered to fit this. This can be seen on the sternpost and rudder as one of the rudder fittings was moved to fit the propeller and a cut ouit was put in the rudder. It is unlikely that she had an engine in her when she first build.

Regards