SPLENDID SPORT
The RCOD’s first fifty years
by Anne Winder
‘Altogether splendid sport can be looked forward to by the owners of the boats of this Class’
(E.W. Mildred, RCOD Class Captain 1935. Vol.1 No.1 RCYC Journal)
The first Class Captain was right, the Royal Corinthian One Designs have proved to be ‘splendid sport’ for the last ninety years. After their first fifty years I interviewed people who had been there at the start and those moving with the times to keep them going for the next half century.
THE IDEA
In 1931 F.G. ‘Tiny’ Mitchell became Commodore in time for the completion of the new Clubhouse and realised other Clubs on the river had their own One Design fleets. By the time Willie Hornby Steer (Coram No.5) joined the Club in 1934 it was with the aim of sharing one of the proposed new fleet of Royal Corinthian One Designs, and he remembered the impetus coming from the larger than life character, ‘Tiny’ Mitchell.
BUILDING THE BOATS
Harry Smith, the owner of the Burnham Yacht Building Company was chosen to design the boat, and the design was completed and signed in July 1934. From there things moved fast. His firm built the majority of the boats, with another four made by Kings Yard in Burnham, and two by Stone of Brightlingsea. Harry Smith’s yard also made two in teak. The creation of a whole new class of yachts gave a boost to the boatbuilding industry in Burnham, indeed, this was the great merit of the Class to local Club members like Percy Sabel (Corsair No.8), who supported the RCODs to help the yards to survive during the Depression. After the Burnham Yacht Building Company had finished the RCODs, five of the six men who had worked on them had to leave the town.
The Burnham Yacht Building Company was in the shed behind King and Hines, the family ironmonger in the High Street, and the whole of the Maltings Yard, later part of Priors. Herbert Larter who worked on the boats, and went on building boats then half models, remembered they did everything from starting with digging a hole in the ground and lining it with timber to pack it round with black sand and cast the keels. They had an old copper standing on bricks with a bonfire underneath for melting the lead. ‘When it was all nice and hot and runny we just turned on the tap to let the lead run into the mould.’ They made all the masts in one go out of spruce.
The hulls were built upside down on moulds in the top part of the shed. It saved the boatbuilders from lying underneath the boats and it made the planking easier, particularly in the ‘tuck’. Anyone who has varnished the inside of an RCOD will be familiar with the section of planks in the tuck just ahead of the rudder. Herbert Larter thought this might be a weak point because there is a great depth of keel at that point and when the boat is sailing hard it puts a lot of leverage around that area. That is also the part of an RCOD which might tell you where the boat was built because it seems that the Brightlingsea builders did not bother to round the planks inside so they are a series of flats.
Once the hulls were planked they were lowered out of the top floor shed, still upside down, and turned the right way up to be bolted to the keel. There was little bought in for the yachts; the fittings like cleats and blocks were made by the yard. The boats also had Smiths Patent Hanks – these were slides with a piece that spun round so that when the mainsail was rolled round the boom to reef it would fold neatly down the mast track.
One day two of the men realised they had finished an RCOD and it was just a little long. Harry Smith was very careful to make sure that all the boats were One Design but, when he came to measure this one, they had to let the end of the tape slip a bit as Mr. Smith reached the bow.
GETTING AFLOAT
The yachts cost about £140.00 new, and there was a fleet of fourteen ready to race by the beginning of 1935, which shows how quickly the project moved. Number 1, Coral Nymph, was probably on the water at the end of 1934. Her owner, Mrs. Ogilvie, lent her to members to try, and after an early trial the RCYC Journal reports ‘a slight alteration from the fore to the after end of the lead keel. The keels of the other boats will be cast accordingly.’
The new fleet, when it took to the water, had roller jibs with booms so that the jib could be pulled round square on for running or part of the way round for reaching. They did not have spinnakers in 1935.
RACING IN THE 1930s
It was a stormy spring in 1935, but for the second race of the season some dozen RCODs started and had an ‘extraordinarily close race’ which was won by Corella (No.3).
Appropriately enough one of the first actions of the RCOD owners recorded in Yachting Monthly early in 1935 was to hold a Class Dinner. ‘Quite a crowd’ attended, and the Commodore ‘Tiny’ Mitchell talked to the Class members about elementary racing tactics. In their first season the RCODs and the Sharpies were the largest fleets in the Club – each had sixteen boats racing. And there was a heartening variety of winners in the first two months with Corella, Coryphee (No.6) Corsair, Coral Nymph, Cormorant (No.12) and Corydon (No.13) each getting a gun.
There was great enthusiasm for the new Class. Yachtsmen came to see the boats from the Royal Natal Club and the two made in teak were sent to Kenya. Corinthia (No.2), at that time painted white, was entered as a British exhibit to an international exhibition in Paris. At its first meeting the Class made rules which anticipated the growth and spread of their new yachts. These laid down the colours of the sail insignia – red in Great Britain, black in Kenya, orange in South Africa, and blue in France. And all the yachts based in Burnham were to have names beginning with COR.
In the first year of racing the Season’s Points Cup was won by Coryphee (W.J. Mason) and Burnham Week by Corsair (Percy Sabel). Number 17 had been ordered and would be built during the winter. ‘Who’, the Class Captain asked ‘will make it eighteen?’ No one did. But in November 1935 Yachting Monthly’s correspondent in Burnham wrote that orders had been placed for boats in South Africa, Australia and also for a fleet on the Broads. There is no trace of any of these but one of the two sent to Kenya was spotted by Ray Dowlen (Cork) in the 1970s.
THE WAR YEARS
It is poignant to read the September 1939 edition of Yachting Monthly where the Burnham column says ‘By the time these notes appear Burnham Week will be upon us once again and the end of another season. Fifteen classes are again catered for and I hear the entries are very satisfactory.’ Burnham Week was cancelled the day before War was declared. The White Harte had laid in its stock for the Week and these kept the town afloat during hostilities.
In April 1940 there were, at first, no restrictions on sailing on the Rivers Crouch, Roach and Blackwater. Some members from the various Clubs launched One Designs and went sailing. Later on the boats were used by the Training Ship which was based in the RCYC at the beginning of the War. One member, Mrs. Joyce Leith (Cork) who lived on the Quay recalled with fury how they could see their boats sailing but were not, by then, allowed on the river themselves. Eventually all yachts were laid up.
Mr. Vic Chiddicks worked at Petticrows throughout the War. He described how they used to fill the boats with water to stop them drying out with the Marines taking their turn on the hoses and then fighting with them. But the greatest danger to the yachts came from the exercises round the Clubhouse and boat sheds rather than from enemy action. Vic Chiddicks told of one mock battle when a bullet went straight through an ECOD, then another boat and stopped in the topsides of a yacht full of Marines.
In spite of their efforts with the hoses you could see daylight through the topsides at the end of the War, and they had to be filled with water as quickly as possible to take up. The rigging was not stainless steel and it was all rusted and the ropes had rotted. Mrs. Chiddicks had also worked in the War, like many women in Burnham, as a wire splicer, and she was kept on by Petticrows to renew the One Designs’ rigging. In 1946 the fleet was back in the water and racing.
DEVELOPMENTS
After the War the Class started to think about keeping up with the times; there were many Class meetings and long discussions about how to ensure good, competitive and economical racing.
The sail plan was amended by Norman Dallimore (designer of many successful cruising boats and, in 1932, the RBODs). The new plan replaced the old roller jib with a spinnaker – although two boats retained the old system, Corpo Santo (No.l6) which was raced by the Otters and Cork (No.11) to stay original. With new owners they eventually fell into line.
The spinnakers put new strains on the mast, and shipwright at Petticrows, Harry Stebbings, carried out the ‘operation’, providing new oak floors, stronger mast steps, new hanging knees and a tie rod from a beam to the mast step.
Sail cloth was first discussed in 1936 when owners looked into better cloth and positioning of battens – the cloth was always cotton. In 1957 the sailmakers Cranfield and Carter answered a query from the RCOD Class Captain Peter Gimble (sic) owner of Corella about the use of terylene. Lots more discussion and a vote before four brave owners – Willie Hornby Steer (Coram), John Odle (Corvette No. 4), Marsh Gaffney (Coryphee) and John Campbell (Corsair) – led the way on terylene and got a discount for bulk ordering and cash. The last committee on sails, in the 1970s, tightened up the rules and clarified the measurements, the cut and materials to be used.
Spars also came up for discussion in the 1970s when the class decided, with some trepidation, to look into the possibility of metal spars. I was one of the Class Captains at this time, following Allan Munro and Tony Cash, and handing over to Alan Marsh and John Heathfield. A lot of change happened and I remember well some lengthy discussions but there were strong reasons to look into the spars. Our masts were showing their age, there had been quite a few breakages and when new wooden masts were made they often broke too. The owner of Coriander (No.14) was a joiner and expert carpenter, he loved wood, but when he looked into the supply of wood he said that it was mostly of poor quality and unseasoned. The class should try metal.
Two masts were supplied by Holts and put on trial by John Heathfield (Cordon Bleu No.10) and Nick Hartshorn (Cordial No.15). They were rigged as near as possible the same as the wooden masts. After racing with them for a season, and a few tweaks, the spreaders were moved down the mast to make it work and this design with a metal book and slab reefing was adopted by the Class.
Antifouling was another permanent, hot topic. The Class rules were strict – launch at Easter, one scrub (all in the same week) at end of May and another scrub the week before Burnham Week. All had to use the same brand of antifouling; the class was designed to be economical; the racing should be about skill not money. But the fouling was getting worse by the year, and boats on the same trot were fouling differently. In 1953 the Chief Scientist of International Paints attended the first scrub. On his suggestion the boats were painted not just with the same type of paint but from the same batch – they still fouled at different rates.
By the 1970s owners had heard of a new type of antifouling – was it time to change brand? Two former RCOD crew with a cruiser volunteered to paint the existing antifouling on one side of their boat and the suggested, new, miracle stuff on the other side. The class committee inspected both sides – they seemed to have fouled at just the same rate. Vote – no change.
Another subject was kicking around at this time – various other traditional One Design fleets made plugs of their yachts and continued making boats in fibreglass. I am sorry we did not try this, but it was a stage too far.
The Fleet: Of the 17 boats originally built for Burnham 15 were sailing in 1985. Coral Nymph (No.1) had been sold out of the fleet as a dayboat on the Blackwater and has since been recovered. The original No.10 (Cornichon) sank without trace during a race early in the season in 1953. It happened in the mouth of the Roach on a blustery day. John Barker, crewing for Peter Gimpel in Corella, saw a gust hit the front of the fleet. Cornichon heeled, filled and sank. Two of the crew stayed with the boat and were picked up by Corella sailing between the mast and hull of the sunken yacht. The two other crew had been swept away on the ebb. They were rescued, although one of them had to be pumped out. Cornichon disappeared apparently without trace until Burnham Week when a fisherman came into the RCYC bar carrying a tiller he had found on the Buxey Sands which, he thought, belonged to a One Design. It was Cornichon’s. Nothing else was ever recovered.
There was a tragic sinking in 1962 when No.13 (then called Corncrake) with five people on board was holed before the start. The crew stuffed a sailbag in the hole but the boat eventually went down forwards and a young woman, who had been on a sailing course in Burnham the week before, was drowned. This appalling event made the RCOD fleet think about safety. Allen Munro calculated the amount of buoyancy needed to counteract the boats’ heavy keels and sank an RCOD outside the Club to test his sums. The Fleet also introduced the rule that everyone should wear a lifejacket when the red flag is flying from the Clubhouse – this had not been the norm.
Several RCODs have sunk since the introduction of buoyancy and it has worked with the boats staying awash to make their way to the shore and bail out. A recovered No.13 took the number of the disappeared No.10 and was renamed Cordon Bleu.
Results: Over the years various boats have been the ‘hot’ boat to own – the sides of the Cups tell the story with every boat having a share of the silverware. But Cork reigned in the 1960s with Alan Bartram then the Dowlen twins, the end of the 1960s into the 1970s saw Corpo Santo owned by Gerry Salmon and Booth Maxwell seeming untouchable until George Winder, who bought Coram from original owner Willie Hornby Steer, and Cordial (Nick Hartshorn) fought it out in the 70s/80s.
It all comes down to the team on the boat!
Team Racing: This had not been a strong point in the fleet. Derek Caudle presented the Caudle Cup to bring the traditional One Designs, RB and RC, closer together. The RCODs did not often win, but this changed when Allan Munro became Class Captain. He was used to organising the London Scottish Rugby Team and had us all lined up on the Club balcony on Sunday mornings for training. We were divided into teams to practice team racing with feedback and marks given later. Brutal stuff! No such extreme measures were needed this year when a revived RCOD fleet took the honours.
1985–2025
The imminent end of the RCOD Class was first predicted in the mid-1960s when the Ajax N23 was introduced. In 1967 yachting correspondent of the Sunday Times, Hugh Somerville, in his Burnham Week article, referred to the Ajax as a ‘replacement for some of the crumbling local keel boat classes….’ Could the ‘c’ in RCOD possibly stand for ‘crumbling’? Many seemed to think it did. Two years later Hugh Somerville visited Burnham again and was taken to task about this article in the nicest possible way – he was invited for a sail with Tony Cash in Coryphee (No.6). It was a windy day, Coryphee heeled, filled and stayed awash. Hugh Somerville was most impressed by the seamanlike way he was picked up by Derek Caudle in Cormorant, and to be offered Derek’s spare pair of dry trousers. He finished his article: ‘Who said “crumbling classes” anyway?’
The boatbuilders I talked to said the RCODs should be safe from crumbling because they were planked in mahogany while others, like the ECODs, were planked in soft wood. Stan King who built four of the RCODs liked them because the keels were made of lead which does not deteriorate. We could not in 1985 have foreseen the devastating hurricane in 1987 which sank so many boats and the heroic, successful, efforts to revive the Fleet led, notably, by John Heathfield and Hugh Davies, continued by Barry Lewis and John Waples, plus many well-wishers over the years.
Now is a good time to celebrate a very smart fleet and a healthy influx of new owners and crew, ranging in age from under 10 to over 70. Boats are enjoyed by families and groups of friends. And for the regatta this July celebrating 90 years, there were 10 RCODs on the start line with new names – Buckley, Hill, Page and Class Captain, Martin Makey. Also a variety of familiar fleet names – Munro, Barr and Shapiro (Corsair), Tim Howard (Coriander), and in her dad’s old boat (Coralie, No. 9), Sue Law (nėe Shapiro).
Truly, a fleet that still offers ‘Splendid Sport’.
Copyright: Anne Winder 1985 and updated 2025
Corinna (No. 7)
RCOD Sailing... 1930's style
R . C . O . D. O W N E R S
No. Boat 1935 1984
1 CORAL NYMPH Mrs M. Ogilvie Out of Class
G.O. Thompson
2 CORINTHIA H. Budd Michael Kleber
3 CORELLA E.W. Mildred Ian MacDougall
Capt. A. Thompson Victor Maller
4 CORVETTE E.A. Salverson Hugh and Sylvia
- Mason Davies
5 CORAM W.R Hornby Steer George Winder
W.A. Young Don Evans
6 CORYPHEE W.J. Mason Tony Cash
7 CORINNA F.A. Pitel Gordon Bennee
8 CORSAIR P.P. Sabel Allan and Kay
H.S. Hopcraft Munro
9 CORALIE A.H. Doherty Michael Tompkins
John Wilson
10 CORDON BLEU Mrs. V.J. Burton John Heathfield
Ken Heathfield
11 CORK Eng-Cdr. F. Newhouse Pip Barr
Tony Smyth-Tyrrell
12 CORMORANT L.L. Robinson Synd. Derek Caudle
13 CORYDON D.M.C. Curtis Synd.
14 CORIANDER F.J. Reeve Mrs Chris Williams
Chris Edwards
Anthony Henville
15 CORDIAL J. Mould The Hartshorns
16 CORPO SANTO C.F. Mason Mrs Shirley Howard
17 CORINDELLE Alan Marsh
Gerry Salmon
JOHN HEATHFIELD’S LIST OF R.C.O.D.s and OWNERS in 1973
No. Boat Owner/s
1 Coral Nymph Tom Caswell
Geoff Stock
2 Corinthia Bill Myers
3 Corella Victor Maller
4 Corvette Ole Rorso
5 Coram Willie Hornby Steer
6 Coryphee Tony Cash
Geoffrey Posner
7 Corinna Anne Winder
8 Corsair Allan and Kay Munro
9 Coralie Alec Shapiro
10 Cordon Bleu Ellis and Clive Horwood
John Heathfield
11 Cork Chris Edwards
David Edis
12 Cormorant Derek Caudle
Richard Hawkins
14 Coriander Charles and Chris Williams
15 Cordial Nick Hartshorn
16 Corpo Santo Booth Maxwell
Gerry Salmon
17 Corindelle Alan Marsh
Eric Heuch
R.C.O.D.s and OWNERS 2025
3 Corella Nick and Becky Bacon
5 Coram RCOD Fleet
6 Coryphee The Buckley family
7 Corinna Martin Makey
8 Corsair Stuart Munro
David Shapiro
Fi Bell
Andy Barr
9 Coralie Sue Law (nee Shapiro)
12 Cormorant Justin Waples
14 Coriander Mick Hill
Alex (Hilly) Hill
Tim Howard
Richard Lewis
16 Corpo Santo Clive Page
17 Corindelle Barry Lewis
R. C.O. D. M E M O R I E S
by
J O H N H E A T H F I E L D
I met a friend Clive Horwood in the Kings Head pub in Chigwell on a summer Sunday for a drink. We chatted and he mentioned he had a boat for sale. I had sailed at school and was at the time doing quite well working for an oil company, so enquired further and ended up buying Cordon Bleu. It seemed a good idea at the time.
Charles Williams helped me rig her and put on all the strings and I raced her very unsuccessfully. I was very keen and tried hard and learned. I managed to break the wooden mast three times in one season and was the first to have a metal mast fitted.
The 1970s were busy and eventually school fees took precedence so I stropped the expense of running my own boat but crewed offshore races for Brian Foulger on Ailish. We entered the 1977 Fastnet which turned out to be the Slownet from which we retired after making no progress for hours. In 1979 we entered the Fastnet race again which turned out to be a tragedy when many people lost their lives in extreme winds above storm force Ten. We were rolled over (knocked down) by a 60ft wave that broke over us while I was on deck.
I became RCOD Class Captain in 1984 in time for the fleet’s anniversary celebration of 50 years.
There were tragic gales across the East Coast in 1987 where whole coastal forests were flattened by hurricane force winds. The RCOD fleet was seriously depleted, the lucky boats sank on their moorings and others broke away from moorings and were battered on shore. The aftermath of the 1987 gales hit the RCOD fleet hard and there were fewer boats on the water regularly sailing.
I was encouraged to join Rohan Robinson and Michael Kleber in Corinthia for a few seasons 89 to 92 and we were by then winning a few races. Soon after a business failure (Shipyard) stopped me sailing again.
I held a birthday party at home in Suffolk in July 1998 when John Waterhouse asked me if I would be doing Burnham Week in a few weeks’ time. I replied that I had no boat nor anywhere to stay and he replied, why would I let little things like that stop me? So I borrowed Corpo Santo and rented a house and did OK by the end of the week.
Hugh Davies kept the fleet together acting as nightwatchman Class Captain from about 1997 and he started a class website.
In the year 2000 after a divorce I met and moved in with Tricia my now wife in Oxfordshire in 2001. Then in 2002 I bought Corpo Santo and was ready to take on the declining RCOD Fleet as Class Captain again as I knew I could resurrect it. There were now about three or four boats in the fleet with active owners.
With a new positivity, confidence and optimism in the Class the boats were slowly taken up. Victor Maller was Class Treasurer and while I am happy creating he was very good at keeping tabs on my activities. Gordon Maclean was Class Secretary and came up with the idea of an East Coast Regatta. Victor Maller started a Class newsletter, which brought awareness and interest back to the Class and broadcast our activities.
I recovered several boats that had been taken from Burnham. Coral Nymph was at Maldon and fitted with a cuddy. Corvette was stored by Martin Smith who was getting the Royal Burnham One Design Fleet back up and running. Cormorant was in Thaxted.
My intention was to return the whole Fleet to the water and racing again with just the little challenge of raising sufficient money to achieve that goal. I did ask the RCYC committee if they could assist but was assured that no funds were available.
Class members, spouses and crew were encouraged to join a fund raising committee which was great fun and created a community spirit. Between us we all came up with ideas and it brought us all together. No fund raising was too small. Calendars with advertising were printed, run by Gerry Blake. Ladies handbags from old sails were made and sold by Sarah Buckley. A 100 club was started. Valerie Harrison took on the Annual Barbeque party at Rice and Coles Shed. I started a Beer Festival and an Annual Winter Dinner at the Naval Club in Mayfair. Auctions of promises were held every other year.
Bobby Melville who retired from Dragons took on the finishing of the restoration of Corinna. Ken Bushell took on the completion of Cormorant. Will Wallis had taken on Coram. Wendy Eagling organised a visit by Princess Anne, the Princess Royal on my birthday in 2005 to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of the RCOD Fleet. Martin Makey, at that time a Dragon sailor, was then Commodore of the Club. Gary Harrison took on Cormorant after retiring from Dragons. Funds were coming in now so we could take on the serious restoration of Coralie (damaged in the 87 gales) which was fully rebuilt at the Boat Building Training College at Lowestoft. Ant Law bought it for Sue for her birthday as it was her Dad’s boat. Coral Nymph was sent to Dorset to be rebuilt by a couple of boat builders and was partly completely before money ran low.
I had a stroke in March 2011 and was out of action for many months before passing on the baton to Barry Lewis. Mary Makey as Commodore made me an honorary member of the RCYC in 2023 for my commitment to the RCOD fleet.
John Heathfield. June 2025
