WINNIE CK98

Built by Charles Kidby of Brightingsea for Frank Elgar Mussett (master), West Mersea in 1922.

Frank Mussett had a daughter Winifred Joan Mussett born 1922. Frank’s sister was Dora Winifred Mussett (b.1888), so we can only surmise that WINNIE and his daughter were named after a sister he was very fond of !

2/10/1967 WINNIE was sold to Jane Mary Benham (master), West Mersea. Jane was the daughter Vernon Benham, the local author and newspaper editor. 22/9/1971 Jane sold WINNIE to Gordon Swift of Maldon for his son Gerard Swift. Gordon re-registered her as MN71. Gerard was to return her to CK98 when he took on the ownership. His father was the owner of Cook’s Yard, Maldon at the time so WINNIE was frequently seen moored on the beach at Maldon at that time. In 1976, Gerard had one of the shipwrights oversee the rebuild of her. Gerard moved to Mersea in 1988 and WINNIE once again was back in Mersea.

WINNIE features many times on the cups of the regattas of the area. She was a pioneer in the modern rig configurations we see today in the MFOB fleet of Mersea. Gerard was never scared to play around with spar lengths, sails, foils and rigging to get these tubby old workboats to reach their optimum speeds.

Gerard sold WINNIE to Chris Conway in 1997. Chris was often seen in the annual native oyster dredging match with WINNIE Sold to Simon Jacklin who enjoyed much success racing in the MFOB fleet.To be continued..