Three women and their wooden boats

Julia Jones looks at the lives of Peter Gerard, Clare Allcard and Rozelle Raynes, notable 20th century sailors and boat owners

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When I was a child, reading on board Peter Duck, I became obsessed with Ten Small Yachts, Maurice Griffiths's second book, published in 1933 following the success of Magic of the Swatchways.

I was both fascinated and appalled by the frequency with which he changed his boats: Iduna, Vahan, Albatross, Wild Lone, Swan, Storm, Puffin II, Afrin, Wilful, Afrina, Nightfall. Griffiths' evocative writing encouraged me to lose my heart to every one of the vessels on his list, however cumbersome, leaky, tender or unhandy she might be. I felt their personalities and couldn't comprehend the callous way with which he sent each one on her way at the end of every season. I wholeheartedly endorsed the alternative approach of his then wife, Dulcie Kennard (who wrote under the name of Peter Gerard), who found her own Juanita and remained faithful until her life's end.

For a young married couple to diversify into separate craft caused some gossip. Peter resented this. 'No one is surprised if a modern wife flies her own light aeroplane, rides her own horse or has a separate car, yet because a boat with a lid on it acquires some of the characteristics of a shore residence, they regard it with the same concern that might be shown on hearing that a happily married pair lived in separate flats,' she wrote.

They'd been living on board the ex-pilot cutter, Afrin, and sailing her keenly at weekends. Peter worked hard to make Afrin a snug home, but knew it would not be long before Griffiths would be on the lookout for something new. with a critical mind and have therefore always been ready to note the failings as well as the virtues of these lovable little craft. Whether consciously or unconsciously, in these early years he was developing himself as a designer, 'the more boats one owns, the more ideas one cultivates'.