Twinkling stars shining through the hatchway gave me just enough light to savour my surroundings, as I snuffed out the gimballed brass oil lamp on the mast post and closed an old hardback copy of Maurice Griffiths’ Magic of the Swatchways. The plush deep burgundy bunk cushions, the mahogany slats on the cabin sides, the knees and frames and tongue-and-groove cabin top filled me with wonder at the artisans who’d made Snipe of Maldon back in 1953.
, my 23ft 6in, called these estuary cruisers that opened up a world of adventure, not exactly to the working man, but to a new generation of middle-class weekend sailors who were not baronets and earls and millionaire ‘grocers’ like Sir Thomas Lipton.
