Continued...
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The yachts were handicapped when they raced according to a Rating formula, which generally took account of the sail area and water line length of a yacht, these being the principle factors governing its speed. Club officials struggled to maintain fair competition and often modified the formula, whilst the builders & designers tried to outwit them with each new boat they produced! Frequently the result was a yacht built to an extreme design in an effort to outwit the handicapper, exhibiting huge sail areas on a short waterline with very long overhangs. The shape of the boat was thus heavily influenced by mathematical formulae, no surprise then that Frank Harding Chambers was in reality a mathematics master rather than a boat builder. Chambers understood how to manipulate the facets of yacht design, to enhance speed without attracting a heavy penalty from the rating formula and he employed the best tradesmen to transform his designs into the real thing. Consequently of course his boats won many races, they earned their owners money and his company flourished as a direct result of these successes on the water. To this day, most Broads yachts tend to carry more sail than usual and many still show majestic overhangs fore & aft.
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What happened next?
The Norfolk Broads Yachting Co continued to flourish, buying and operating several yards; simultaneously at Brundal, Potter Heigham and Wroxham until Chambers died in 1912. The firm was then taken over by his foreman Alfred Pegg who confined operations to Wroxham principally for yacht hire until he sold out just after the First World War. When the war came in 1914 it had an immediate effect on yacht racing as it was, because the boats relied so much on paid hands who of course were all called up. Racing took a long while to recover after the war and it was never the same again, as it became a strictly amateur sport where the boats tended to be identical "One Design" types so that the owners could sail against each other on equal terms. The hire fleets grew to even greater numbers though, both between the wars and again in the fifties when a new generation of yard owners had influence and more motor cruisers were introduced. The Norfolk Broads Yachting Co went through several changes in ownership and varying fortunes until it last changed hands in 1990, and once more specialised in Broads Yachts. Many old yachts were salvaged, restored and re-introduced into hire along with yachts newly built to the old designs, for the most discerning of all customers; the ones that have been coming for the last 30 years or more! Today the Norfolk Broads Yachting Co operates the largest fleet of traditional Broads yachts available for hire from Zoë, at 103 the oldest boat in hire, to White Moth, at 23 tons the largest offered for hire.
Enjoy our website, and I hope we have the pleasure of seeing you soon.
Mike Barnes
Managing Director
Norfolk Broads Yachting Co.