Our featured boats for December are Winkle Brigs. East Coast Gaffers Francis, ‘Tab Nab’ and Yvonne ‘Philomena’ have provided material for two or possible three articles so we’re publishing the first one a bit early. We’ve also found a video by ‘Sea Jade’ from 2022 . . . and one of the Winkle Brigs may be on the market soon!
History of the Winkle Brig design
The original Winkle Brig was developed on the East coast of England to fish for winkles and oysters. This type of vessel evolved to be immensely capable in her home waters around Mersea Island although many were built and fished over a wider area. A typical vessel would have been 15ft by 5ft by 10 inches/3 feet. She would have been an open boat, clinker built with an iron centreplate and was propelled by both sail and oar. In many cases she was rigged as a gaff sloop although in other cases as a lugger.From this East Coast beginning we now move to Lancashire where the late Eric Bergqvist designed and built the GRP Winkle Brig. They were built between 1986 and 2002 and approximately 122 were produced. They have a displacement of 650 KG (of which 150 KG is ballast). Although minor alterations were made over time they were all 16 feet LOH (with a four foot bowsprit), 15 feet LWL with a beam of 6ft 4inches and a draft of 1 ft 2 ins with the twin bilge boards raised and 2 ft 6 ins with them lowered.
These bilge boards are one of the greatest benefits of this design for they allow for an uncluttered cabin sole (the bilge boards slide up into the sides of the bunks which makes the cabin huge given the dimensions of the hull). Further, when up, the bilge boards still protrude below the hull making small but effective bilge keels which allow her with her long keel to dry out level. The bilge plates on the early boats are GRP encapsulated steel, weighing 25 kg each, and are raised and lowered by a simple lanyard led to the top of the bridge deck within easy reach of the cockpit. All these Winkle Brigs were rigged as gaff sloops with topsails apart from the last ones which were rigged with a high peaked main and no topsail (which brought the centre of effort forward). On the standard gaff sloop the mainsail was 104 square feet, jib 42 square feet and topsail 26 square feet. The high peaked main was 135 square feet and all spars on both versions were of Colombian pine/Douglas fir.
Francis Douglas & Yvonne Mitchell
Back in 2022, three Winkle Brigs joined the August Cruise. Watch ‘Drifter’ and ‘Philomena’ join ‘Sea Jade’, “mixing it up with the bigger boats”. Watch out for more posts about Winkle Brigs in December . . .