N33 Two Horses

[National 12 Webmaster]

The life of N33 Two Horses.  Design: Uffa King, designed by: Uffa Fox in 1936

[JohnMurrell]

Two Horses is alive and kicking in Salcombe. The attached photo's were taken on the first day of the 2011 Salcombe Festival Classic Boat Regatta being sailed by her owner John Wylie.

[JohnMurrell]

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[JohnMurrell]

yes she is racing against 22 Meters, old Dragons, Salcombe Yalws and a Hereshoff of some description!

[Interested Party]

Lovely boat. 
I have just acquired Planet (672).  Hope to be sailing her this weekend for the first time - If my son lets me!
Cheers
Steve

[edwillett]

Some history of N33 as recorded on the Salcombe Festival website by John Wylie.
Two Horses is one of the earliest National 12s, built in 1936 by Richard Wade of Twickenham to the original Uffa King design by Uffa Fox. Wade was principally a builder of rowing skiffs and built few sailing dinghies. Two Horses was built in traditional clinker style with closely-spaced ash ribs, eleven strakes per side and, rather unusually, was completely undecked. Her curious name is thought to have referred to the physiques of her first joint owners! At some stage, thought to have been during the Second World War, the boat was transferred to the Midlands by rail, suffering considerable damage to the transom caused by  the original heavy steel centreplate which had been removed for transit sliding aft. From 1949-1954 she raced at Midland SC at Edgbaston Reservoir in the middle of Birmingham [see 1953 picture] and then in the early 1960s, following considerable refurbishment including terylene sails, a new boom and centreplate raced at Bala, Earlswood Lakes and Salcombe [several SYC Regattas], admittedly without conspicuous success. Later she lay neglected for a number of years until renovated for the Centenary Regatta of Midland SC in 1994. It was considered impractical to use traditional methods to restore the boat so modern epoxy resins were used extensively and a new centreboard-case installed. She completed the regatta without incident and attracted a good deal of interest. Since then she has been stored under cover and, while this has preserved the structure, stresses have been set up between the original and modern materials which have led to weaknesses. It is rare to see a racing dinghy of this age still in sailable condition, even if not exactly as she would have been in 1936 and I hope she contributes to the Festival. John Wylie