Hi All,
I have been sent some papers this week that include a price list from Moore's, dated December 1977. This is two years earlier than I had previously understood that Moore's had taken over production of our boat, so prepare for some serious re-working of part of the site!
Also amongst the papers were a December 1984 Price list and a list of Moore's "Special Offers". Judging by the specifications and prices quoted for the three boats available as a result of an "export cancellation", this paper dates from between from between 1977 and 1984. It would be good if others could see if they have further paperwork that would help tie down these dates.
The final paper in the batch is a sheet headed "Instructions for Rigging your SeaHawk" and was issued by "Reedcraft International Ltd" This is undated, but appears to have been supplied with SeaHawk #85 believed to have been bought new in 1972.
Incidentally, it was only within the last month or so that I have come to believe that the earliest Moore's boats were built with cockpit lockers of the type that I had believed were only fitted to Reedcraft boats. It was the owner of
Trafs (#343) that drew my attention to this possibility.
Trafs was boat that I had photographed on the River Cam in June 2007, but had never used on the site as I knew little about it. Once I had discovered its sail number, I then looked at photos of Wintin (#344) and realised they had the same features - Moore's-style jib winches and Reedcraft-style cockpit lockers.
It leaves me with a puzzle. I don't have enough details of sail numbers of boats of around this period and some boats may have acquired sails with numbers that should not be theirs. For example,
Skylark (#312) shows some of the "crossover features" (Reedcraft lockers and Moore's winches but lacks others - jam cleats in the right position), while
Beagle (#376) appears to be pure Reedcraft and
Angela (#393) is believed, by her owner, to have been built much earlier than her sail number suggests.
As you can imagine, if you have a boat with a sail number in the range #325-#375 I would like to hear from you confirming whether your boat has "Reedcraft cockpit lockers" and traces of either having originally been fitted with jib cleat blocks mounted either side of the cabin door or winches with jamb cleats on the cockpit combing.
I'll update the main site soon, with whatever information I have to hand.
Locked
