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13 August 2001
HUFF OF ARKLOW (Flying Thirty)
Huff will be the only Uffa designed yacht competing in the America's Cup Jubilee Regatta. Watch her progress.
28 July 2001
LIVELY WINS MORSTON
REGATTA CUP
"Lively",
the 63 year old Uffa designed North Norfolk sixteen foot, reclaimed the Morston
Regatta Cup for fast handicap boats in the 2001 regatta in Blakeney Harbour,
North Norfolk. She was third over the line, just missing the Morston
Parish Cup for the overall winner - which she also won back in 1999 when
Lively was first overall.
A pursuit race, Morston Regatta confusingly starts in Blakeney, the next village along the coast. For the bank start, competitors line up much as the racing car drivers of old. At the starting signal sailors leap aboard and head for Blakeney Point at the far end of the harbour, hoping they are not blanketed by others and swept backwards up the Cut by the fierce incoming current. Although these bank starts are not universally enjoyed by competitors who have to wade along the bank to the starting post as their turn comes, spectators can generally derive prurient pleasure from entangled boats and frayed tempers.
The fleet of
more than 70 boats this year headed for a mark underneath the Point with its
seals and diving terns and returned across the Pit, the only deep part of the
Harbour dodging the fishing boat fleet sheltering in one of the few free
harbours in Britain, to finish in Morston Creek.
Like the other NN16s which were variously designed by Morgan Giles, Uffa
and finally Jack Holt, Lively was built with a short centreboard and rudder to
race in these shallow waters. Her name, with those of Restless and
Dainty, the two other Fox designs, appears in the list of winners engraved on
trophies going back beyond the last war. These three boats were
always reckoned to be the fastest in the class according to those who raced in
the 1950s and 1960, and it is a tribute to the craftsmanship which went into
them that Lively and Restless are still active to this day. Sadly Dainty
some say the fastest of all, lies in a Norfolk barn neither sailed nor forsale.
The handicapping system has been devised over many years with particular boats
attracting individual handicaps. On winning the Morston Regatta Cup in
1999, the North Norfolk Sixteen class handicap was altered from PY 1060 to
1030, although the most recently built boat, the Jack Holt designed Spritely,
remains strangely at 1060. Thus it has become more of a struggle for
Lively to retain her winning ways the older she gets and possibly the better
she performs. This year Lively gave 17 minutes to the overall winner, Ibex, a
14' Sprite immaculately sailed and maintained by R.H.C. Tyler, a cousin of the
Oram family which had Lively built in Cowes in 1938.
The second
boat to finish, in the Force three north easterly sea breeze, was a Wanderer
sailed by Peter Reid to whom Lively gave six minutes. The race usually
lasts about an hour although this year any chance of Lively catching the two
fronts boats evaporated when the course was shortened. Nevertheless the old
lady still showed a clean stern to a couple of Albacores, a Jollyboat
with four up, a Javelin, Phantoms, Seaflys, an RS 400 and two Darts inter alia.
Photos of
Lively at Blakeney courtesy of Hilary
10 November 2000
Airborne Lifeboat Restoration
The Classic Boat Museum at Newport has acquired an Airborne Lifeboat which they hope to restore to original condition. The Uffa Fox plan archive has been scoured to establish the exact model of the boat and it is now confirmed as a Mark 1. Several items of interest have been loaned to the museum including an original survival handbook.
26 August 2000
The Flying Fifty - Uffa's largest design is well and under new ownership.
Dear Mike, We
have recently sold the "Flying Fifty". The new owner has all
intentions of bringing her back to her original appearance. I suspect he will
be contacting you for information to assist him to that end. The "Flying
Fifty" has generated more inquiries than any other vessel we represent.
Should you be aware of others available, please contact me.
Best Regards, Phil Austin, FCM Yachts, Florida.
(The advert) 72' UFFA FOX KETCH/PILOTHOUSE Single 160hp MANN-DIESEL 6 CYL. 4 Staterooms, 3 heads, 2 showers and tub. Ketch rigged for cruising w/Roller Furling on head sail, main and mizzen. Wood main and mizzen masts were replaced in 1989 w/aluminum Roller Furling masts. This is a classic motorsailer with 8' headroom in the main salon and unique afterdeck that provides comfortable lounging and recreation area for diving and fishing.
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