Felixtowe Ferry One Design

The HSC has existed for over fifty years. In the early years the club did not own any boats and relied on members own boats. This was before the days of relatively low maintanance fibreglass sailing dinghies and the boat shown here is typical of the timber built sailing dinghies used in this era. This boat is a Felixtowe Ferry One Design owned by an HSC member. Each river had its own style of boat, the Felixtowe Ferry OD originating from the R. Deben in Sufolk and being built by the boatyard at Felixtowe Ferry, at the mouth of that river. There was also an Aldeborough OD, Burnham OD, Royal Burnham OD, Coln OD, Essex OD, Thames Estuary OD etc. 'One Design' means that all the boats of that type are identical, or nearly so, and hence can race against each other without needing a handicapping system. The Wayfarer is a more modern example of a one design, although I suppose it is not all that modern now, it was designed about thirty years ago.