The Question Of Authenticity

How far to go in the quest for a boat ‘as she was’? Modern know-how and seamanlike fit-out must be balanced with many other considerations.

- Tom Cunliffe

When I first went to sea back in the 1960s, the gaffrigged craft still operational were there simply because they happened to have survived. There was no particular interest in them, and there was no talk of building any more.

Against this background, the materials with which the vast majority were fitted out depended on nothing more sophisticated than the depth of their owners’ pockets. If you were dealing with one that had limped through since before the Second World War, always on a shoestring budget, you were probably going to be faced with an ancient suit of cotton sails.

Very likely some of her halyards would be of hemp or manila, while her blocks were all of the wooden-cheeked variety. On the other hand, the fortunate vessel whose owners had spent money on her, would certainly have had sails of polyester (Terylene in the UK, or Dacron) cloth. All her cordage would be of man-made fibre, and she probably sported a number of tufnol blocks.