Working smack leading converted smack at West Mersea Regatta about 1937. [DW]
A Mersea smack and a gaff cutter yacht, possibly converted from a smack, reaching along off West Mersea. The bow and quarter waves suggest that the craft are approaching maximum speed in this smooth water, urged on by bellying, loose-footed mainsails. The dredger sports a big jib.
The value of the counter stern in prolonging the waterline into the quarter wave, compared with the transom stern, is clearly shown in this photograph, which also emphasises the attractive type of craft the smack-builders evolved as a stable platform for the fishermen to work from in the shallow-hulled river and estuary dredgers. [JL]
Plate.72 in SWW.
Used in The Sailor's Coast page 29.
Date: c1937