Witch of Worbarrow

Current boat name

Witch of Worbarrow

Boat class

7631

Function

Fishing and Hunting

Type

Length (m / ft)

4.34 / 14ft 3in

Beam (m / ft)

1.65 / 5ft 5in

Leeward

Keel

Propulsion

Sail

Designer

Traditional

Date of build

1902/5

Place of build

Weymouth

Present use

Museum/NMMC

WITCH OF WORBARROW is a clinker built open boat with a transom stern, 14ft 3ins long and was used for catching lobsters and crabs up to 6 miles out to sea. She is a typical fishing boat from the Isle of Purbeck and was built in Weymouth in 1902. She worked out of Worbarrow Bay, 16 miles East of Weymouth. On the day she was completed her first owners, Jack and Tom Miller, rowed her the 16 miles to Worbarrow on the tide. She was kept on a mooring in the open bay facing the SW gales and was rowed or sailed to the lobster grounds anything up to 5 or 6 miles out to sea. It had to be timed carefully because the pot lines only surfaced for a short time on either side of slack water. The original rig of the boat was sprit on both main and mizzen mast. The main mast, long sprit and sail, were stowed while pot hauling, while the mizzen was often sheeted in to keep the vessel head to wind and steady. The oars or sweeps were long and heavy, being balanced by copses which fitted over the thole pins and could be abandoned for catching pot lines without losing them. WITCH OF WORBARROW was fitted with an engine offline to prevent the stern tube cutting the stern post in half and a false keel at some time during her life, but her original design enabled her to be kept either on a mooring or hauled up a beach when necessary. NRJ Oct 2011