2QO 



BROADLAND SPORT 



afforded to them which they would otherwise have to go 

 without. The fixtures of the club are very well attended 

 and the prizes offered compare favourably with other clubs, 

 whilst the roll of membership goes on increasing yearly at 

 the time of writing it numbers over 200. 



The Unit is a sixteen-foot half -decked open boat, and be- 

 longs to a class especially made by the Waveney Sailing Club. 

 Perhaps this boat redounds more credit to her designer, 

 builder and owner, than any other craft that has ever 

 floated upon Broadland waters. This is not said unadvisedly, 

 as Mr W. S. Parker of Oulton Broad, her owner, is a working 

 man, who for many years was employed upon one of the 

 G. E. R. Company's dredgers in Lowestoft harbour, to which 

 employment he was tied from six in the morning to six at 

 night, yet when the Waveney Sailing Club was inaugurated in 

 1896, and this particular class was defined, he at once designed 

 the Unity and built her entirely himself during his spare hours, 

 which must have been few, as Mr Parker is a Sabbatarian. The 

 only parts of the boat that were not moulded and fashioned with 



his own hands were the 

 iron centre-plate, ropes and 

 necessary ironwork. In her 

 first season she started forty- 

 three times, securing thirty- 

 three firsts, eight seconds and 

 two thirds, forty- three prizes 

 in all (besides specials and 

 challenge cups) out of forty- 

 eight entries. Every year 

 since her sporting owner has 

 entered her in every race , 

 possible, and at the time of 

 writing she is still " Cock of 

 the Walk " at Oulton Broad. 

 The rules of the various clubs it is not necessary to go 

 into, but it may be interesting to give the different classes as 

 they are divided. 



THE UNIT. 



