The smack DAISY 6CK in light weather with what appear to be yacht's boats in tow. She sets the typical working cutter rig of the Essex smack: mainsail, foresail, jib and a 'jib headed' topsail. One reef is tucked in the mainsail and she has the white painted quarter boards shipped on the bulwarks, indicating that it is autumn or winter. During the winter, these were fitted to raise the bulwark height in way of the helmsman, to protect him from going overboard in bad weather on a heeled and streaming deck, particularly at night.
The DAISY's tucked up counter was not a typical shape, though there was variation in style. She may be towing some yacht's pulling boats back to Tollesbury after competing in a regatta in the Colne, as the low Mersea Island shore is distant in weak sunshine. [JL]
P108 [DW]
Douglas Went photograph, Used in The Sailor's Coast, page 49.
Plate.130 in SWW.