The following notes refer to the coble advertised in Bulletin 98

I found the boat at Southend. She reproduced faithfully the shape of a Yorkshire coble (I gather Yorkshire men say “cobble”, and who am I to argue?). Following a crash course at the library on cobles and further enquiries, we bought her. The hull was bought probably in the mid ’70’s, and very basically fitted out for pleasure fishing. In 1979 my vendor bought it and starting virtually from scratch, fitted it out as an attractive and traditional sailing boat. The woodwork was done professionally but as a welder he made all the fittings himself in stainless steel. The traditional lugsail (standing, not balanced) was used with a roller reefing jib. The coble has no keel, only two small skegs, or side keels, which have been deepened to 11”. To counteract leeway they have a very deep forefoot and (though not on mine, in view of the Essex shoals) a long daggerboard-like rudder, which seem to do the trick. The hull gets shallower towards the rear, as it was intended to beach cobles stern first onto the shingle beaches of the north-east. The stern tapers, too, with a Drascombe-style hole for an outboard, and the sides have a pronounced tumblehome. She is 17’ 6” long without her bowsprit, and as there is no centreplate has plenty of floor space for ‘camping’. There is an erectable canvas cuddy over the first third of the cockpit, in addition to an over-the-boom camping cover. Well, what of Cobler’s first season with us? Very encouraging. She sails well, especially off the wind, though perhaps a little tender. I feel this is entirely due to the lack of ballast which I will remedy: some metal under the floor plus a couple of canvas bags of gravel as they used to have in real cobles, changing them from side to side on each tack, and emptying them overboard when ballasted by their fish catch. Plenty more on the seashore! The mainsheet runner is on the aft of the two thwarts and I would like to try a stern runner — perhaps a wire one first, and if that is more convenient I will get a metal one made, to pass over the tiller. Also I have now acquired a cranze iron, or runner, to go round the mast. The mainsail halliard fixes to an eye on that and the yard has a strop which goes over a hook on the runner. This means that when the sail is hoisted the head and yard stay close to the mast. I found, especially when hoisting the sail that it blew away from the mast and got slightly mixed up with the shrouds. This will cure it, once I’ve covered the iron in leather to prevent chafing, providing I don’t forgot to slip it on before re-stepping the mast! This apart I find the lugsail easy to handle and the roller jib is extremely useful. So let’s get the varnishing done and make an early start next season.

FINAL WORD: In view of the foregoing you might be surprised to find Cobler advertised in the ‘For Sale’ column. This came about rather unexpectedly. My wife had always stated her firm intention not to go dinghy camping, preferring a cabin boat, and in the winter issue of the Old Gaffers Association newsletter there was a very attractive 22’ centreboard yacht for sale on the Crouch. “Let’s just have a look,” and… well, you can guess the rest! It was built in 1937 and is a gaff cutter, with bags of character and we fell for her. So sorry Cobler — the bank manager says we can’t keep you both.