My father was given Restless when he was a boy, but because she was bought for him in a second-hand shop he never knew who the builder and designer were. From about 1929 my father owned the first of a succession of full-size yachts and from then until just before his death years ago Restless lay in his coal cellar. That environment must have suited her. She emerged filthy but with her 1920s varnish still in perfect condition under the coal dust. Her seams have since opened up somewhat under the baneful influence of central heating, but otherwise nothing needs to be done to the hull and spars.

Without knowing much about model or toy yachts I would imagine that she might be quite easy to identify. There is no builder's nameplate but the high standard of construction and finish suggests a well-established builder, and there are plenty of distinctive features like the keel profile and the details of the gunwale. Since my father was born in 1909 she probably came into his ownership in the early 1920s and would thus have been built sometime prior to that. The hull form, if she were a full-size yacht, would suggest a date after 1895 but how much after is hard to say. The lines are very fair with full, rounded sections especially forward, as if she were designed to the metacentric system, but that was not used in full-size yacht design until nearly 1930.

Dimensions are as follows:
LOA of hull 29 1/2"
Beam 6 1/2"
Draught 8" approx.
Spar lengths: Mast 37 1/2", deck stepped 11" from bow. Main boom 19 1/2". Bowsprit 7 3/4" of which 1 1/2" is outboard. Gaff 15 3/4", tip to inside of jaws.

The hull is planked from, I think, Honduras mahogany. Cedar can darken to almost the same colour but it is softer than the planking seems to be. The keel and centreline are of the same timber. I have not had the deck off to see the construction from inside but from the position of the fastenings, the frames are spaced at about 3" centres. The deck is 3/16", possibly of yellow pine as is the counter timber. The rudder is fabricated from brass plate and all fittings are brass. There is no sign of a plug hole so the builder must have been completely confident of the watertightness of the hull. The lead ballast is in two halves fastened through the fin with iron screws. I am not sure what wood the spars are made from. It has darkened rather a lot for spruce and is possibly Oregon pine. The bowsprit is of a different timber that I cannot identify at all.

Her original rig a puzzle. I remember her sitting in our cellar rigged as a bermudian sloop, although the headsail and its boom have since been lost. The mainsail survives, made I think by my father's elder sister who was a seamstress. It is of beautiful creamy Egyptian cotton but ill-fitting and badly cut. My father told me that the rig had been altered and the boat had never sailed well since, carrying excessive weather helm. Certainly the mast has been moved aft by nearly 1". My impression is that this was done by the previous owner but my father may have made further alterations, trying to get her to balance.

I used to assume that she had always been bermudian rigged, supposing that she therefore must have been built around 1920 or later (bermudian or Marconi rig was first introduced into the large racing classes on Nyria in 1922, although perhaps things happened earlier in models) However to my surprise, when clearing out my father's house I found a gaff for a model yacht of this size, and I can only assume that it belongs to Restless. This deepens the mystery, because there is no sign of any wear from the gaff jaws on the after side of the mast. Also, the way the gaff jaws are shaped suggests that the gaff was set fairly flat, and if so it looks too long for the present length of the main boom. The length of the gaff would be about right if it were well peaked up, but then the jaws would lie awkwardly against the mast. Has the boom been shortened, and perhaps the bowsprit too? If so it has been done so neatly that it is hard to detect, but both boom and bowsprit taper less at the ends than the mast and gaff.

Any enlightenment would be very welcome! If you need more information let me know. I could probably take off the lines if necessary, having done that for big boats. My sons have been urging me to restore her to sailing condition, but I don't know what is the target. If she were originally gaff, I should like to take her back to that. But only if I could use the original boom and bowsprit, which would not be possible if these have been cropped in length. Also I have no idea how the standing and running rigging would be arranged in a model of this vintage. The stays visible in the photographs are just to hold the mast up for display. In the 1920s a full-size yacht, gaff or bermudian, would have had a single set of spreaders curved slightly to fit around the fore side of the mast, and the lower shrouds might be led well aft to avoid the need for running backstays.

I will be delighted if you can give me any information on Restless's origins and original rig. It would be good to have her sailing again after nearly 80 years. She is emphatically not for sale.

vmyg comment:

I wish it was as easy to identify boats to named designs and named designers as you suggest. The number of published designs from the turn of the 20th century, which is when I date you boat to, is not large, as nearly all are for boats to specific model racing classes, all of which were a deal bigger than your boat.

That said, she looks to be a well built and well designed model built by someone who was aware of the best practice among serious model yachtsmen of the period. The steering gear is a simple reverse tiller with pin stops, but the way it is engineered suggests a date in the 1890s. Thus the rig would certainly have been a gaff, though the flat set to the gaff is a bit unusual. I would have expected the gaff to be peaked up so that there wasn't space for a topsail. Not a gunter, but like many of the Solent small raters of the period. See the sail plan for XPDNC in the 'what we sail' pages. If the boat was converted to Bermuda rig at some time, shortening the main boom and bowsprit would be a sensible thing to do.

As to rigging, on a boat this size you hardly need anything at all, so keep it as simple as possible. No Xtrees. one shroud a side, forestay and jib in a loop. Standing backstay if the boom is short enough, otherwise a shrouds led aft a bit as you suggest. A gaff sail without a kicking strap and without the weight of a full size boom need only to let the boom out 45 degrees for the gaff to be at 90.

Come back if you want more ideas. Russell Potts