Sugg

 

These boats were quite widely sold in the early part of the 20th century and a number have survived. They were produced by the Frank Sugg company of Liverpool and sold by Gamages, Stevens's Model Dockyard and no doubt by other outlets as well. They came in various sizes and are typically spoon bowed and cutter rigged and all painted the same way, with black topsides and salmon below the waterline. No documentary evidence of the company has been found, but one example was found with a deck transfer which read 'Sugg. Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and London'. I had thought it very unlikely that the company itself operated in all these places, but have been corrected.

An approach from a descendant has revealed rather more about Sugg than we had previously known. He was born in 1862 and died in 1933. He made a successful career as a professional footballer, playing for Derby County in 1884-5, Burnley, 1884-88, and Everton from 1888. He played cricket for Yorkshire, Derbyshire and ultimately Lancashire. While there, he played in two Test Matches in 1888. While still a player, he opened a sports goods company, Sugg Sports, probably in 1898. This sold a wide range of cricket, golf, tennis and fishing equipment, most of which was apparently made by the company itself. The company owned its own stand of willow trees from which its cricket bats were made, so it must have been a pretty large business. His products still fetch good prices from collectors of golf memorabilia, and the catalogues that he published also fetch good money.

Unfortunately, the catalogues are sectional and the only one I have to which I have found reference covers only fishing tackle. I have not been able to find anything that might look like a catalogue of his model production and toy production. The fishing catalogue, dating from 1915, was published in Sheffield, which suggests that they had an establishment there and (probably) that my recollection of the four locations was in error. His granddaughter tells me that the company did indeed have four separate establishments including one in London, and continued in business until 2002, though no longer in family ownership. A Web search shows a company based in Yorkshire and trading as "HHB Sugg (Sugg Sports)" as one of a number of UK stockists of a range of toys and sporting goods made by an Italian manufacturer, but they do not have an independent Web presence

These boats came in various sizes and are typically spoon bowed and cutter rigged and all painted the same way, with black topsides and salmon below the waterline. No documentary evidence of the company has been found, but one example was found with a deck transfer which read 'Sugg. Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds and London'. I think it very unlikely that the company itself operated in all these places. At most, it may have meant that it had selling agents in each city. The two engravings are taken from the huge catalogue published as Gamages' Toy Bazaar, 1913 and show two styles then available from the department store. In the absence of any orther documentation, it is not possible to say whether the 'non-standard' hulls are earlier, or whether they overlapped woth the more familiar styles. Notice that the larger models have a topsail, with jackyards to extend it slightly further than the mast and gaff would carry it. The model would have been able to use this only in very light weather which would explain why most surviving examples have lost theirs.

 

There are a number of characteristics by which they may be identified. The original rig had double headsails and these were arranged as on a full size cutter, loose footed and overlapping, with twin sheets. This meant that the boat would not self tack and had to be adjusted each time she went about. It also meant that if she was headed, the boat would effectively lie to in the middle of the pond instead of sailing away on the opposite tack.

The deck eyes are typically made from fine black 'bug pins', hammered in and bent over to form a loop. The deck, which in the standard hull has a carved-in camber, is set into the hull to give a toe rail effect from the bow to the point where the set in deck ends at the beginning of the counter; from this point the toe rail tapers away to nothing.

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All have the same form of steering a brass wire tiller in a wooden rudder post, which extends forward and is sprung against the underside of a short brass horse with three small nicks in it giving a centre, left and right position for the helm.

All were originally painted the same way, with black topsides and a salmon under body. Nearly all have a very fine salmon cove line which I think must have been produced by gluing a length of thread to the salmon undercoat before the topsides were painted. On all except the smallest sizes the decks were lined out before being varnished. Some of the larger examples, particularly those with 'non standard' hull shapes have a light moulding pinned on to act as cove line and rubbing strake.

 

As with other 'salmon' paints in the era of natural finishes, the colour was not fast. More importantly, the varnish that covered the whole boat goes brown with age and the underbody can be any shade from a brownish pink, through shades of gold to something quite dark. (The 'chocolate and salmon' coach livery of the London and Southwestern Railway was another example which usually ended up looking like two shades of brown) See the range of shades in the fleet photo below.

Though the great majority of examples are to the common pattern, the photo below shows a fleet that contains some rarities, schooner and yawl rigged models as well a cutter; these are undoubtedly in their original condition and this was their factory fit. Also of interest is the straight stemmed hull which, despite some cutting about and the painting of a name on the bow seems almost certain to be a Sugg boat. The style of painting is identical to all the others I have seen. This is the only example I know which has a straight stem and I wonder whether it was an earlier style which was discontinued when the more familiar hull form was introduced some time in the early years of the century.

Sailing
The standard form Sugg boats will sail well to windward with the rudder central, provided the wind is reasonably steady in direction. If they are headed they don't rescue themselves. Off wind is more of a problem and it will need practice to get the right sail trim. It might be worth trying the 19th century technique of keeping the headsails fairly tight even on off wind courses to give a weathercock effect to help keep the head off the wind.