THE NITA IRON BOAT
“The extent of original material is remarkable and any restoration would mean replacement of much of it”
Her draught and waterline length are conjecture, but we estimate her draught at about 4ft 6in, giving the LWL about 38ft 4in. Being iron, she had distorted very little, and the lines plan is directly from the offsets with no fairing. The design convinces me that she was designed by someone knowledgeable and competent. Her hull lines are typical of the period, with a plumb stem, slightly rockered keel and short counter stern. Her hollow entry is evident but by no means extreme. The hull sections are easy if rather slack, a reflection of their material to some extent. Even with her relatively strong rise of floor she doesn’t look to have been a powerful boat on the wind. Off the breeze though she might have gone pretty reasonably, and given her size she was unlikely to have given her owners too many frights on the lough. With the excellent profile portrait of her from 1876, we estimate a mainsail of about 750sqft (70m2 triangle of about 725sqft (67m2
), a fore- and a topsail of about 150 sqft (14m2
) with jib and staysail, ). The lower mast
cap appears to have been perhaps 33 or 34ft (10m) off the deck, and the topmast another 20ft (6.1m) above that, and the bowsprit some 15 or 16ft (4.7m) beyond the stem. The rig appears rather primitive in comparison to the hull, both in the photo and in terms of the proportions. There is nothing radical or unusual about her construction; she is transversely framed and (very neatly) flush riveted. The hull plates, 5/16in thick except for the 3/8in garboards, are about 2ft 6in wide at the most and about 8ft long. The very neat riveting is all flush externally. There is little left of the floor structure due to corrosion, but she evidently had plate floors.
TO HER NEW HOME
Enter the Englishman. On 17 September 2006 I found myself inside The Nita, with Iain, clearing out a few years worth of accumulated weeds, mud and farm debris, in preparation for moving her to a new home, with (the other, boatbuilder) Michael Kennedy. I was slightly doubtful about the effect on the structure of the necessary crane lift with external strops; there are no intact deck beams for nearly the whole length of the vessel and I was concerned she might fold
up under the compression load of the straps, so we also constructed a series of timber braces inside the hull. Our truck driver, Frank Whitten, took one look at our efforts and expressed his contempt. The hull, he declared, was more than strong enough to be lifted perfectly safely, and our shores and braces were a waste of time. He was probably right, but nevertheless I was reassured by their presence as the lift commenced and she stayed intact. Frank demonstrated his confidence in her strength by applying several heavy duty ratchet straps, racking them up at what looked to me to be extremely high tension, ignored all my helpful suggestions and drove off down the lane. It goes without saying that she arrived several hours later at her destination absolutely unharmed. Truck drivers one, naval architects nil. After arrival in Dunmore East she was moved under cover in a farm building about 50 yards from where Ayrshire Lass was restored.
It cannot be described as a rescue because she wasn’t exactly at risk before, but she is better off empty and under cover. The future is stable if unexciting. A restoration is unlikely; in theory it might be possible, but it would probably be prohibitively extravagant. The extent of original material is remarkable and any restoration would mean replacement of much of it. The result could be a highly authentic and unique
Victorian cutter, but the sailing experience and the loss of original material is not felt likely to justify the outlay. The Nita survived because she was nicely built in a resilient material, spent almost all her life in fresh water rather than salt, and because she found herself stranded in a quiet corner of a lough in a quiet corner of Ireland away from determined scrap dealers.
She never won any races, or conveyed anyone of real importance, or witnessed any great moments in history, but she did manage to survive; she has passed her 142nd birthday, and is one of a small handful of yachts of the period still in existence. She is important now as a particularly fine and early example of iron yacht building in general and Irish yacht building in particular, and for her association with a now largely forgotten mid-19th- century industrial heritage.
Far Left: Michael Kennedy and Theo Rye making notes Left: The Nita at John Conlon’s yard
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CLASSIC BOAT MARCH 2012
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