246 BROADLAND SPORT 



ranged from eighteen feet to fifty-six feet, whilst the mizzen- 

 mast was rigged with another lateen sail or a large gaff- 

 mizzen equal to the mainsail of any similar-sized boat. 



In the fifties the lateeners were divided into three classes, 

 fourteen feet, sixteen feet and nineteen feet on ram from 

 outside stem to sternpost but later in the sixties Mr W. S. 

 Everitt built a lateener twenty- one feet in length, rigged with 

 a foreyard of sixty-three feet, six and a half inches diameter 

 at the sling. So long was this yard that a sliding gunter had 

 to be fitted to it for reefing purposes. Lateeners were wonders 

 to sail near the wind, and were very handy in the narrow, 

 tortuous waterways, although their sails were cumbersome to 

 hoist, to cover up and to reef. In running before the wind 

 it was not unusual to meet with mishap, as in the narrow rivers 

 it was almost impossible to ease the sails in a squall, and 

 occasionally a boat would run down head foremost. Apart 

 from this a lateen foresail was an ideal sail to back a craft off 

 the mud with. 



During this decade three prominent boats put in an ap- 

 pearance Mr Green's Enchantress (nineteen feet) ; Mr 

 Crow's Elizabeth (sixteen feet), of Horning, and Mr Blake 

 Humphrey's Miranda (nineteen feet) of Wroxham. 



Even in those days (the early forties) there were cranks as 

 well as smart craft, and the former will perhaps be sufficiently 

 dealt with if two of them are mentioned. 



Lieutenant Kisby, R.N., introduced the first, a boat called 

 the Bermuda. She was a craft with little freeboard, plenty of 

 sheer, and a long single mast raking aft which carried a three- 

 cornered sail running up her mast on hoops, and an ordinary jib 

 for'ard. She was fairly fast although she did not do what 

 was expected of her by her owner, and eventually sank into 

 oblivion. 



The second was introduced by Captain Preston of 

 Lowestoft, and appropriately named the Experiment, a 

 follower of his former boat, the Novelty. She had no timbers 

 at all but was built by moulding a hull of very thin planking, 

 which was plastered over with canvas and tar; when dry 



