Over the summer of 2019, this classy clinker-built sailing dinghy celebrated 70 years of racing on the Deben.
First launched in May ’49 the Dragonfly had been two years in gestation. Addressing the WSC committee in 1947, Mr Earnest Nunn’s introduction of the notion of ‘one-design racing’ was enthusiastically received. It was agreed that the boat should be a Bermudan-rigged 14-footer, matching the speed of the popular National 12 and sufficient beam to ‘take grandma sailing on Sundays’.
A design for a new ‘Fuss-type’ dinghy from the drawing board of Irish designer, O’Brian Kennedy was proposed by Ken Nicholls-Palmer and readily adopted. So what to call it?
In September of ’48 interested members met in an ( almost certainly) smoke-filled committee room
to respectfully argue their cases for a whimsical selection of names: The Deben Jollyboat, Sandpipers, Peewits, Chameleons, Rainbows and Fusspots. At the vote, Mrs Heather Parker’s proposal, seconded by Dr Palmer, that the new class should be The Dragonfly was carried unanimously.
No fewer than 20 members had pledged a sum approximately equivalent to one and a half times the current working man’s wage to purchase one of the new Dragonflies – £152:10s.to include sails, rowlocks, royalties and measuring fee. Two local boatyards – Nunn Bros and Robertson’s were commissioned to build ten apiece.
Later that winter the partly-built skeleton of a Dragonfly was transported to Ipswich and hoisted up to the first-floor ballroom of the Great White Horse Hotel to be star exhibit at the club’s annual dinner and dance. A bare four months later, with numbers carved into 18 new transoms, a draw was held to allocate the new boats to their excited owners.
On June 11, 1949, the Dragonfly fleet – all four of them- came to the WSC line for their first race. By the end of that season, 16 Dragonflies had competed, Dr Palmer had won the newly donated Regatta Shield and one-design racing had come to Waldringfield. By 1963 there were 43 boats numbering up to 45 (8 and 13 were never built) and 24 clear varnished hulls graced the Anchorage with a line of gold swinging prettily on their mooring trots. A fleet of 18 came to the line for the Deben Week Regatta of 1978 as the class approached its 30th anniversary.
Great characters emerged from the early post-war river rivalries. A driving force in dinghy racing, Cyril Stollery – commodore of the “Democratic Sailing Club of Waldringfield” for 21 years, gained notoriety as ‘someone who was always tinkering with his boat in pursuit of a bit more speed….to no great effect…’
Rules were always there to be stretched by some…Mr R Garnham mooring his boat at the top of the tide line in an attempt to get around the ’48 hours afloat before competing’ regulation; irascible dentist, Ted Sudell filing a bit too much off his stern planking….
But the guaranteed way to get among the trophies was to put local boy, George Turner on the tiller of your Dragonfly. Brought up on the Deben and generally acknowledged to the know the river better than anyone, George took the prestigious Regatta Shield a record ten times in the first 20 years. As a young apprentice George reputedly took more in prize money – helming his employer’s boat in Deben Week – than he took home from a week at work.
Maturer WSC members in 2019 would remember Dragonfly stalwart and renowned squeezebox player, Charlie Taylor. Charlie’s Dragonfly days came to a dramatic end in the North Sea at Felixstowe when he was plucked from foaming froth of the Deben Bar. Sadly Dragonfly No. 2 could not be saved.
It had never of course been all about the racing. As a family club, members had resolved from the outset that they wanted a craft that would double as a ‘comfortable day boat’. The enduring appeal of this 1940s classic is that it remains a splendid boat for just messing about on the river.
The class has had its less buoyant time – boats have disappeared from the area, others decaying to a state beyond repair and numbers on the moorings dropping to a handful in the 1990s. But hitting 70 the Dragonfly took flight again due largely to the efforts of two members of a family which goes right back to the beginnings. James Palmer, grandson of founding member Ken Nicholls-Palmer (D18 & D42) gave the class the best possible shot in the arm in 2016 with the production of the brand new traditionally-constructed Dragonfly 46 Phoenix.
Meanwhile, John Palmer, dad of James, son of Ken, devoted countless hours in a workshop bringing three Dragonflies ‘back from the dead’ as well as helping and advising on the restoration of others.
The class has made a few concessions to modernity – spinnakers and metal spars are allowed – but the dozen or so lovingly-varnished hulls swinging elegantly on their moorings reflect not just the summer evening sun but a justly treasured piece of living Deben heritage.
Steve Cooney
Dragonfly Plan – who owns copyright?
Dragonfly Class Sculpture erected Summer 2019 WHG – To be deleted as in WSC – is this better Alyson
First launch
