N2772 Joker

[National 12 Webmaster]

The life of N2772 Joker. Design: China Doll, designed by: Phil Morrison in 1967
China Doll design modified by P G Jones

[Steve Crook]

Joker was a modified China Doll. She was my second National 12. I bought her at Pevensey Bay S.C. and sailed her in the handicap class at the RAF sailing club at Burghfield. Subsequently I moved abroad and Joker suffered neglect until I eventually sold her to a young lad from Southampton for a token sum.

[tobyb]

I believe that I was that boy!

The poor boat was in a sorry state. The hull near the transom was rotten and the day before I went to look at her the trailer had damaged and seriously weakend the hull on the port side. This meant that landing her was always a scarey prospect because if she came onto the trailer wrong I'd have holed and sunk her.

I was young and didn't know much about woodwork but I treated the transom and glued and screwed (I cringe now thinking about it) the hull and sailed it with my friends in the Solent for a couple of years.

She was beautiful and planed nicely but her age and condition meant things kept going wrong. There was the memorable sail when I capsized and the rudder clip snapped off and I ended up rudderless. Then there was the time when the fitting holding the front shroud to the bow broke to the extent that it only had two screws holding it in. My mate and I managed to let off the tension and fortunately, due to an onshore wind, managed to get her ashore without the mast coming down.

One winter I did my best for her and stripped the decks down and revarnished them (actually did a pretty good job), put non-slip paint in the cockpit so the crew wouldn't slide around so much, re-roped her, and painted the hull a dark red and put a gold strip along her. I put a logo on the transom too with airfix paints which looked pretty good to my teenage eyes.

I don't hold out much hope that she's still afloat unless someone put an awful lot of work into her and knew what they were doing.

I sold her on to a couple who must have been in their twenties.

She was definitely the best looking boat I owned.

[Steve Crook]

In fact I sold Joker in about 1979 and it seems that there were a couple of other owners before Toby owned her.................

[Stuartt]

I came across Joker in 2001. I had been looking to buy a old dinghy that needed some work on it for a while. A friend told me about this dinghy lying at the back of a general house clearance auctioneers. After some haggling I bought it, with my nephew, for £50. This included a road trailer, no tyres, and a launching trailer -of sorts! I was a bit of a novice and did not even know the Class!
It needed loads of renovating/rebuilding. 5 of the hull planks needed significant repair - the front decking was completely replaced and a complete repaint. The hull was red with the gold stripe -it is now dark blue.
It has been used for the last 5 years on the Thames at Thames Ditton [BMYC] for general cruising and non serious club races - it still gets much interest and comments.