Wooden Drascombes
John Watkinson
Drascombe Lugger
At this stage of his life, John Watkinson set about designing a boat for his own and his family's personal use, purely as a one off design with no commercial aspect to consider. It was to be a boat that could be easily trailed and sailed, could stand up to quite heavy seas and a good blow, could be sailed single handed, could carry a full family or crew, could allow the crew to step ashore without getting wet, had a decent sailing/motoring performance and of course, looked good as well as being family-friendly.
John drew on his many years of experience and once again his innovative mind delivered the goods. The result was a ground breaking design, the "Drascombe Lugger", so called because she was built in the old stone barn at Drascombe Barton and the original sailplan was a dipping lug main with a Bermudan mizzen and bumkin.
This rig was experimented with over a period of time until John, who was an excellent sailor, ended up with the now well known gunter yawl rig, but the name "Lugger" stuck, just another quirk of the design. The first of the Drascombe line was appropriately named "Katharine Mary" in honour of Kate, his wife.
"Katharine
Mary"
Last updated: 6 September, 2007
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