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1951 .... continued

15th August (Wednesday) HEH, AKH, AKMH, JLEH plus Maureen Townsend, picked up Mr & Mrs Townsend at Yarmouth. Sailed across Breydon towing Elnora. Elnora hit and stove in by “Pirate” of Banhams. Towed her to Beccles where she was returned to Herbert Woods for repair. (The whole of starboard side was replaced from waterline to gunwale)

18th August (Saturday) Arrived Oulton Broad to wait for space on Overy’s slip.

30th August (Thursday) To Lake Lothing handed her over to yard. Family returned home.

6th September (Thursday) Dragon returned to Oulton Broad by yard  Family plus Derek Townsend on board.

8th September (Saturday) To St Olaves

9th September (Sunday) Left St Olaves 7am, arr. Barton Staithe 7pm, sailed Yarmouth to Ant mouth.

17th September All left for home at the end of holiday.

5th October  HEH, AKMH, AKH, JLEH + Miss Gledhill and Michael Horsman to Ranworth Broad. AKMH and Michael sailed Elnora from Wroxham to Ranworth.

7th October (Sunday) Returned to Barton Staithe to lay-up, Freckles to Sutton Staithe Boat Yard , Xit to Stalham.

8th October (Monday) Returned to London. Anne and Michael stayed on and sailed Elnora.

12th – 13th October Loading Percy Wiltons Lorry with Dragons gear and furnishings. Returned home

Work done during winter at Home: All blocks and tiller scraped and varnished. Plus repairs to loo, and galley doors.

Work done by Cox’s boatyard: Gaff scraped and varnished.

1952

10th April HEH, AKH, JLEH at Barton (stayed Townsends Cottage “Claypits”) uncovering Dragon, cleaning bilges, painting inside to starboard cabin(flat white) varnishing outside upperworks, new shelves in saloon, painting food locker (gloss white).

Bilge had made no water except small amount of rain water through decks throughout the winter. Engine started easily.

19th April Percy Wilton collected all the gear from home (Cheam).

20th April HEH, AKH, JLEH and AKMH (from N & N Hospital where she was training as a Nurse)

20th April To Stalham for water.

21st April HEH , AKH return to London. AKMH, JLEH + various nurses spent a week on board.

2nd May HEH + Liam Hudson arrived.

3rd May To Horning under motor. Rove new main

31st August (Sunday)       Wherry Race Breydon

HEH, AKH, JLEH, and Peter Maddock on board. Moved from St Olaves to Burgh Castle am partly under sail, arrived 11.10am and moored on west bank with Albion and Hathor. Dr Eddy and Dr Richard Ashby joined us at noon. Meeting to discuss race details with officers of Yarmouth and Gorleston Sailing Club aboard Hathor at 12.30pm. Race started 2.15pm from Burgh Castle. Wherries moored in line ahead on west bank. Handicap - Albion scratch, Hathor 1min start, Dragon 3min start. All gear on deck ,commence to hoist at gun signals. Mooring slipped. Wind westerly, very fresh. Peter Maddock and Richard Ashby on the winch, Dr Eddy and AKH on the moorings, AKH gaff line, JLEH timekeeper, George Cates Pilot, HEH Skipper.

Got away to good start (60 seconds to hoist sail) reaching. As we swung into Breydon we freed our wind until we were on a dead run and then a gybe. The mark boat (to be left to port) was about 3 1/2 miles from the starting line ,and so placed that we had to gybe round it. The first attempt produced a Chinese gybe which was soon righted.

We had been sailing down Breydon at high speed. ( The leedeck was awash and the bow wave was up to the face. There are no close  pictures of this as there were no motor boats about in those days that could do over 10 knots) We rounded the mark very, very close, at that time Hathor was 2nd just behind us, as we turned she tried to overtake and struck us on the rudder with her port bow. We both ran aground level with the mark facing up Breydon. (The mark was a small dingy with a man sat in it, at this point he had had enough and rowed for home) While we were aground Albion passed us! Dragon got away in 2 to 3 minutes and Hathor in a further 2 to 3 minutes, having put a member of her crew in the water with a rope tied around his waist to push her off. Hathor rapidly overtook us in the first mile of tacking. Shortly after this Dragon took the ground again and remained on for some time.

To the crew of Dragon the race was a thrilling experience although the 2nd grounding was a disappointment. We could probably have made a successful protest against Hathor about the foul near the mark but it was not that sort of race and it is unlikely that the foul gave Hathor any unfair advantage. Albion’s dis-masting was not entirely unexpected as there was a known weakness at the point of breaking. The wind was so fresh other boats could not stand without a reef. Lady Mayhew presented the prizes. Two days later we passed Hathor at her mooring at How Hill and heard from her skipper, Albert Grimes, that she had got stuck under Vauxhall Bridge Yarmouth on a rising tide and had split both sides of her Tabernacle, a grave misfortune.

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After taking in 4 gallons of petrol at Ludham Bridge JohnLEH dropped half a water lollipop into the petrol tank! (I thought I was very unfairly treated over this incident, I did not realise at the time how difficult it was to get petrol)

At this point in the log there are no more entries until:

14th September (Sunday) Packing up, rain and squalls. HEH, AKH, JLEH left for home 5.00pm after a very enjoyable summer.

27th September (Saturday)  HEH arrived alone about 10.00am, left Barton towing Freckles and Xit, arrived at Sutton for lunch and left Freckles with Bert Richardson. Fine morning. Left Sutton after Lunch in pouring rain with two visitors and a dog.

John Hopthrow 2007

To be continued !!

9th August (Thursday) By car to Overy’s yard on Lake Lothing to arrange the slipping of Dragon.

10th August (Friday) AKH, HEH left by road to London for John Tourney’s Wedding. AKMH, JLEH plus Maureen Townsend left on board.

11th August (Saturday) AKH, HEH Returned to Dragon.

12th August (Sunday) Left Barton for Beccles

News then reached us that Albion had been dis-masted and had retired, and that Hathor was disqualified because she had not properly rounded the mark (we heard no more of the latter) so we relaxed our efforts to re-float and waited for the tide to re-float us. We then tacked to Upper Dickey Works, eased our sheets and crossed the line at Burgh Castle 156 minutes, 23secs after the start. Other times were  Hathor 104 minutes, 7 secs (50 seconds to raise sail), Albion retired (30 seconds to raise sail). Hathor received the 1st prize £5, Dragon 2nd £3.

Written by Brig H E Hopthrow, Owner

Transcribed by his son John

Extracts from Dragon’s Log

1950 – 1958